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Archive for the ‘Judgment’ Category

D20M, Similar?

Posted in Blessing, Consequences, God's Law, God's Word, Judgment, Piety, Psalm 1, Sanctification, tagged , , , , , on January 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

How are the righteous and wicked similar? Both are created by and accountable to their Creator (1). Being made in their Creator’s image with a spirit, they will exist for eternity (2). Both of them have fallen, sin natures, and are therefore under God’s wrath (3). They can hear the Word of God and are responsible for what they hear (4). They both have knowledge of God’s existence, nature, and power through what is created (5). Both have sinned and deserve hell (6). The sun and rain fall on both (5), an indication of common grace.

  1. Ephesians 3:9, Romans 3:19
  2. Genesis 1:26-27, Matthew 25:46
  3. Ephesians 2:3
  4. Romans 10:18
  5. Romans 1:20
  6. Romans 3:23, 6:23
  7. Mathew 5:45

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D14M, “Path”

Posted in General, Judgment, tagged , , on January 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Nor stand in the path of sinners” (Psalm 1:1)

The path or way of a man speaks of more than habit, procedure, lifestyle, or perspective. It is the very course of his life. Therefore, it will perish with him. The righteous, declared so by God, are under the blood of Christ, a strong umbrella shielding them from the wrath of God. The wicked are out in the open, unprotected from God’s judgment. God cares and He wants us to care, too: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, oh hold them back.” (Proverbs 24:11)

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D13E, “Not Stand”

Posted in Consequences, God's Law, Judgment, tagged , , on January 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“The wicked will not stand in the judgment.” (Psalm 1:5)

“Not stand” is a metaphor perishing, being destroyed, or falling when The Judgment comes. And if you are not in the assembly of the righteous, then you are delegated to the assembly of the wicked with the devil and his angels in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10-15).

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D8M, “Nor sinners”

Posted in God's Law, God's Word, Judgment, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” (Psalm 1:4)

Presently many unsaved sinners do than in the assembly of the righteous and sometime lead. “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.” (Matthew 13:26) But that is not how it will end: “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.” (Matthew 13:40)

The phrase being considered is a parallel thought to “wicked will not stand in the judgment.” (v.4) Because they have no hope in the judgment, then there is no hope of them being among the righteous. The consequence for them will be dire, eternal separation from God. The consequence for those of us who believe is that they will not be among us any longer inciting us to evil, deceiving us with falsehood, or leading us astray.

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A Call to Praise

Posted in General, Glory, God Thoughts, God's Word, Judgment, Praise, tagged , , , on December 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Many of the Psalms are calls to praise. I reflected recently on how Psalm 96 calls us to praise God when I was asked to read it as the call to worship at the beginning of the worship service.

Though a short psalm, it is big in scope and extent of worship that should be offered unto God. I observed first of all that the psalm may be divided into three types of praise: 1) Sing and say (v. 1-6), 2) Ascribe (v. 7-10), and 3) Nature resound (v.11-13).

After reading it several times to myself I mused on the question, what do we praise God for? First and foremost, we praise Him for His person as described in His attributes. Who He is, is totally sufficient for our praise to Him. Secondly, we praise Him for His works. There are many categories of His works that help us to focus our praise: His works in creation, the peoples of the earth, His own, in heaven eternally as well as preparing us a place, His sovereignty in the universe, and on it could go. Thirdly, we should praise Him for His name which represents in concept and use His glory and power. Fourthly, we should praise Him for His holiness. You may react that this is just separating out one of His attributes for focus. But holiness, that separateness from His creation, His otherness, speaks of the perfections of His attributes. By this I mean that I think that holiness is an attribute of His attributes. Is He good? Infinitely so, utterly holy in His goodness. Is He strong? Beyond imagination, a holy power in His person. Each of these reasons to praise Him could be expanded in sermons and books, and of course have been. Psalm 96 praises God directly in all of these ways (1).

At my first several readings of Psalm 96, three terms jumped out at me. The first one was “ascribe” (2) in verses 7 and 8. A few other English translations use “give”, but ascribe seems the better and stronger word, because it denotes the acknowledgement of the Source of all glory and strength in the world spoken of in the verses.

The term in verse 9 is “holy attire”, a much more problematic translation. It seems that the Hebrew is vague on the antecedent of the holy attire (3). Does the Hebrew word, hadarah which means “adornment, glory” (4) refer to God’s covering or the worshippers or even the site of worship, the temple? Many translations choose God and translate it “splendor of holiness” (NIV, ESV, HCSB) or “beauty of holiness” (KJV). Two older versions chose “glorious sancturary” (1599 Geneva) or “holy hall” (Wycliffe). Other than the NASB, its older precursor translates it “holy array” (American Standard Version). I would be remiss not to mention a certain conservative bias (5) in the following discussion due to a nearly life-long use of the NASB. I think that the immediate context of “holy attire” supports the strong possibility that it is the intention of the writer. The worshipper is commanded to ascribe glory and strength to God and glory to His name (v.7-8). As a part of this worship the worshipper is urged to “bring an offering and come into His courts.” (v.8b) It follows then that the worshipper should have an attitude of reverence in all respects for this God of glory and power including how he dresses. And furthermore, the actual presenter of the offering was required to wear “the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.” (Exodus 39:41) They did not wear these garments apart from ministering, as Ezekiel 42:14 says, “When the priests enter, then they shall not go out into the outer court from the sanctuary without laying there their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they shall approach that which is for the people.”

The third term that arrested my attention was “equity” in verse 10. It is a word very near fairness in our modern thinking. Other translations render it “righteously” (KJV) or “fairly” (HCSB). The word means “evenness, uprightness, equity” (6). Any accusation that God is not fair in His judgments of men’s sins is wholly false. He always has done and will do rightly. It is a parallel idea in the moral realm to “He reigns” and the “world is firmly established” in the verse.

The overflow of praise in this psalm ends with Creation praising Him in the future when He comes again to judge the earth. Why would the Creation praise Him for this act done to people? I think that we can glean the answer from Romans 8:19-22 where it says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Creation will rejoice at His coming, so should we. Our great God will return for His own and set all things right in “righteousness” and “faithfulness”. (v.13)

Let us not be silent in our praise for our great and good God.

  1. Verse 8a does enjoin the worshipper to ascribe glory to His name. Furthermore, there is implied praise for His name by the singular use of LORD, YHWH the covenant keeping God revealed to Moses, eleven times in the thirteen verses and six of those times in two triplets (v.1 and 7-8). For more direct praise of His name, see Psalms 7, 66, and 68 to name but a few.
  2. I study and memorize from the NASB.
  3. I am told that the Hebrew language is notoriously vague. My first strong realization of this fact came in the writing of a song I composed whose chorus comes from Psalm 90:12. My chorus says, “Help us count our days so we give to You a heart of wisdom.” When I sang it for a former pastor, he admonished me that the verse said, “that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (NIV). In the NASB from which I wrote the song it says, “that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Do we give or gain? The Hebrew is ambiguous. Could it be both? Could it have been intended to be both? Or do we not have native language context to discern which one it is?
  4. “New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, p.1510, entry 1927a.
  5. or preference bias if you are considering science rather than psychology.
  6. “New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, p.1548, entry 4339.

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Hard Words

Posted in America, Consequences, Cultural commentary, Day of the Lord, General, God's Word, Judgment, Metaphor, tagged , , , , on November 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Why did God include Obadiah in the Scriptures? Afterall, the judgements cited are repeated in Jeremiah 49, though who is repeating whom is not known since the date of Obadiah’s writing is uncertain. The book is very short, fewer verses than Jude, though a few dozen more words. Its purpose at the very least is to introduce or reiterate and confirm the judgements determined for Edom and clearly delineate why.

Verses 15-17 are key to the book:

“For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealings will return on your own head. Because just as you drank on My holy mountain,
all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow and become as if they had never existed. But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.” Obadiah 15-17

God is making use of Edom as an example of how He deals with any and all nations that tamper with His Chosen People. Edom and Israel are closely related by blood, history, proximity, and interaction, but Edom is treated identically to any unbelieving nation that harms Israel and will receive the same treatment at the hand of God. At this level it seems straightforward.

The understanding of God’s determination turns on the metaphor of drinking. Jeremiah 49:12-13 says, “For thus says the Lord, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.” From the context it is obvious that the cup that Bozrah, the capitol city of Edom, will be forced to drink is not pleasant. It is a cup of judgement. The Lord more clearly defines the nature of this cup in Jeremiah 25:15-16: “For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” The cup is for Babylon, but verses seventeen and following tell of the many other nations who will have to drink it.

The tenses of the verb in the Obadiah verses cited above arrested my attention. In order they are “drank”, “will drink”, and “will drink”. Understanding that Edom will drink of God’s judgement and that all nations will likewise partake, is, as I said, straightforward. But what is it that Edom “drank”. Is God from His eternal, non-time bound perspective speaking of Edom’s future judgement as though it has already happened? I think that the detail of the passage says otherwise.

“As you have done, it will be done to you.” (v.15) In the metaphor of “drink”, I believe that the passage is saying that as you, Edom, did harm to My People, I, God, will do harm to you. How had Edom drunk? Verse 10 says, “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever.” Then the prophet lists the things that they should not do which they later did when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. The cup that is drunk is one of wrath. Edom got their fill of scoffing, looting, enslaving, and cutting down escaping Israelites. They would receive the same punishment and more from God since they would “become as if they never existed” (v.16), like the nations.

The application to the United States as one of the nations is obvious. God will not ignore the many evil things that America has done and is doing to many peoples including their own. To name but a few, recall our proxy wars, setting up tribes (Taliban for instance) and turning around to destroy them, broken treaties, the many ways we poison our food, water, air, and soil for profit, sex trafficking, and abortion. Persecution of God’s People, the Church and the remnant of Israel, by America has begun and will intensify. God will not turn a blind eye concerning all of this evil. We will be judged like all the other nations who have not acknowledged Him and have hurt His People.

The judgements listed in Obadiah for Edom and the nations are further tied to the day of the Lord which includes God’s blessing of Israel. It is hard to sort out what parts of what verses refer to Edom and Jerusalem in the past and which are reserved for the future but based on the immediate and wider context of eschatological Scriptures, God is not done with Israel or the nations. And it is abundantly clear when the last verse of Obadiah says, “The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.” (Obadiah 21) Take note of similar statements at the end of Joel 3, Amos 9, Zephaniah 3, and all of Zechariah 14, not to mention numerous times among the “major” prophets. The day of the Lord is a time of setting things right by fulfilling promises for judgement of sin and completing all of the blessings God has promised but not yet fulfilled. God be praised for His infinite knowledge, righteousness, and power. He has made known what His plans are for mankind.

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Honor for His Godly Ones

Posted in Assurance, Blessing, Day of the Lord, General, Glorification, Glory, Judgment, Person of Jesus, Praise, Work of Jesus, tagged , , , , on December 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

The Word of God is one whole story written by an Infinite Author. Therefore, it should not surprise us when we study it, it yields ever more connections and truths about anything and everything. So, great is the Lord, His name, and His works. As it says in Psalm 111:2:

“Great are the works of the Lord; they are studied by all who delight in them.”

I was reading Psalm 149. It calls loudly for the praise of God. It has a secondary theme as to why “His godly ones” should praise Him: “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people.” (v.4) Is “His people” all Israel, godly Israel, or all His people for all time? It certainly is not all Israel for He says through Isaiah the prophet,

“Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.” (Isaiah 9:17)

I don’t believe that He is speaking of merely godly Israel either. Here is the reason. Because He “takes pleasure in His people” the psalm reports two results: 1) “He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” (v.4b), and 2) “This is an honor for all His godly ones” (v.9).

Oh, what a privilege and joy to be beautified with salvation. I am afflicted and needy and unworthy and sinful, and yet He has lavished His grace upon me, and all those who submit to His rule and trust in Him, by beautifying me, us, with His salvation. Praise God!

But then comes the deep and glorious connection to future events. What is this “honor for all His godly ones”? This phrase is the conclusion of verses 5-9:

“The high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron,
To execute on them the judgment written;” (v.6-9a)

God is going to lead them in judgements. I see here some detail filled in for a verse in Revelation 19:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11-16)

Obviously, the emphasis is and should be on Jesus, but verse 14 includes us: “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.” I believe that Psalm 149: 6-9 is telling us what we shall be doing as we follow “Him on white horses”. Even as Christ has had us, “the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions,” so He will have us fill up His judgements at the end. And it will be an “honor for all of His godly ones.” We follow Him through thick and thin for He is worthy.

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Exclusive Claim

Posted in Faith, General, God Thoughts, Gospel, Judgment, Person of Jesus, Resurrection, Salvation, Truth, tagged , , , on November 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I process my greatest joys and deepest trials and conflicts by writing. I don’t always communicate those on my blog, but here goes.

I was reading as the young couple entered the doctor’s office. Both tall and slender, dressed in black and gray, he walked with a bit of a swagger. I glanced up from my reading and offered for one of them to take a seat as I cleared my personal effects from the chair beside me, mumbling an apology for all my stuff. She bade him to sit down, which he did and turned to me and said, “Hi brother, my name is …”, extending his hand. I returned in kind and we began talking about his first visit to the office. I made a comment about his girlfriend’s (as it turned out) accent, to which he rejoined that she is a citizen of Kazakhstan, later showing me her passport with the Cyrillic lettering. We discussed her native Russian language, homeland, Tartar heritage, and travels.

In the course of the conversation I offered for him to read the first sentence of the book I was reading, published in 1833 but written in 1562, with the warning that the one sentence goes on for a page and a half. Seeing that the sentence was an introduction and authorization by counselors of Queen Elizabeth I under her authority to read the following sermons in the churches in the absence of a proper sermon, it precipitated a spiritual conversation. He commented that he took his girlfriend to church recently, seeming to imply that she had not been before as she thought it was curious. I asked him if he was a believer in Jesus to which he replied yes, and continued by describing his church attendance and regular reading of God’s Word. Now his girlfriend got involved in the conversation. As that progressed she ascertained me that she has a relationship with God. Pressed as to what kind, it quickly became evident that she thought herself god and communed with God and that any sincere belief in God was a path to God. I quoted John 14:6, which says, “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me.'” She rebutted that it was a very exclusive claim. “Yes, it is,” I replied. There were many more rejoinders, so I am giving the essence, most intense parts, and highlights only. “So, then you are saying that a Muslim (remember that she is from Kazakhstan) who has never heard of Jesus is doomed to hell.” I replied that many churches are springing up in Muslim and tribal and isolated places all over the world. “You are saying that I am going to hell.” I explained that is what the Bible is saying, for anyone who does not trust Jesus. Jesus is claiming to be the only way to God. “That is a very arrogant statement,” she said, looking me straight in the face. I replied, “I would agree with you if it were just me saying it, but that is what Jesus is saying. I am only the messenger.” She continued with the skeptic’s angle, saying that anyone could know that their way was right, and that there were many ways to God. I rejoined with evidence of the resurrection. “People don’t just rise from the dead.” The boyfriend ended the conversation by interjecting a possible way out, that Jesus was only referring to His immediate audience. I tried to reply with Scripture, but they both lost interest and the moment was ended. He and I trailed off into polite conversation about our mutual love of nature and exchanged contact information for a possible hike together in the future.

Had not several of the workers in the office been close by to hear most of the conversation, it might have ended with that. But I had seen the receptionist glare at me several times during the conversation and leave quite quickly as the conversation died down. In a few minutes the doctor called me aside, instructing me to not ever talk about religion or politics in his office again. What amazed me most was his previous claim that he is a Christian.* The conversation had not been loud, and though we vehemently disagreed, it did not end in ugly words. Had the doctor asked me to be careful about overheard conversations or to take care in how I talk to the people I meet in his office, I could have understood, but for him, claiming to be a Christian, to require me to not talk about God because it would upset some people who were there for healing was shocking to me. Have we become Christians in name only, fearing and revolting at the possibility of confronting people with the truth? He was trying to be forceful to get me to agree to not talk about these subjects. I was just replying “OK”, intending only to acknowledge his words. I may need to go back and clarify that I can not agree to not sharing Christ if the subject should come up. I wish that at that moment I had remembered the reply Peter and John had given to the rulers and elders: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

Several hours later I was assisting my wife and saw the young woman sitting in a nearby therapy chair. She smiled at me and gave what appeared to be a bit of a wave. I smiled back. After I had helped my wife, I went over and spoke to her, both of us agreeing that we enjoyed meeting each other. She gave no sign of awkwardness or disapproval. Given her total rejection of our discussion about salvation earlier, at least outwardly, I wondered who the conversation had been for: her, her boyfriend, the receptionist, the nurse, the patient assistant, or all of the above.

*I had a friend read this article before I published it, asking if I was out of line or missed something. He cautioned that I needed to see the situation from the doctor’s point of view. Perhaps he had a bad day, or maybe he just wanted to calm his employee who had just complained to him. I then realized that he had gotten the conversation secondhand and not accurately at that.

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What Matters More

Posted in America, Civil Debate, Cultural commentary, Freedom, General, God's Law, Government, Judgment, Problems, Repentance, Strife, tagged , , , , , on November 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I frequently hear in election cycles these days a repeated phrase that sounds something like the following: “This is the most important election of our life-time.” I think the purpose of the statement in its various forms is to stir certain emotions and resolves toward rushing to the polling place and casting a vote to stop this madness. But like the 100th artillery shell to fall near your trench, you become numb to the effects of these dire predictions. Either the effects of this election will end life as you know it, or it won’t, and there is little to be done about it. We are “election shell-shocked”. That does not mean that there is less danger because we are insensitive to the falling declarations of disaster, but only that we can no longer respond to it as such. But the situation is grave for the continuance of our free society and it causes me to think about the first verse of a hymn:

“Once to every man and nation,
comes the moment to decide,
in the strife of truth with falsehood,
for the good or evil side;
some great cause, some great decision,
offering each the bloom or blight,
and the choice goes by forever,
‘twixt that darkness and that light.” (1)

“One salient point of this hymn is the burden that it places, not only upon the individual man, but upon nations as well to obey God and to honor His Law. If decisions to obey God are made in the hearts of the people of a nation, that nation will also follow in like obedience to that Law. If we find that our beloved nation today has gone from following God to following after the world, it is because our ministers and churches have failed to call her citizens to repentance. When we begin to see national laws that forbid sin to be repealed, and those laws converted to the side of evil, then we shall know the extreme danger of our national condition. There is only one great decision – to follow God!” (2)

Take note about the conclusion to this quote about the hymn. It does not say panic and run off doing some Herculean task. It says “follow God”. That is a daily, in the trenches, persistent, long-term repentance. It matters not what shells of destruction fall around you. You continue about your duties to your ruler. Live a life different from the world that pushes and pulls others, even a society toward God.

Furthermore, though the hymn verse is grave, the situation is not yet so grave as the hymn talks about. Later verses speak of “by the light of burning martyrs” (3) and “Tho’ her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong”. So, I think that in reality there are many choices on the road to hell, not just one great decision. There comes a time certainly when God says enough is enough. When the Israelites turned away from entering the Promised Land (Numbers 13 and 14) and God made them wonder in the wilderness for 38 more years until “your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness”, (Numbers 14:32) there was a “Once to every man and nation.” But this judgment had been building, for God says in His first response after Moses pleads that God not immediately destroy them, that “none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.” (Numbers 14:22-23) Did you see it? Not once but ten times they spurned God. As He says in Hebrews 3:16-19: “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” It was not merely a single act of rebellion but a condition of unbelief revealed through continued rebellion over time.

So, where are we as a nation? At the time of this writing, purposefully so, this is prior to the election. I do not know the outcome or the ramifications of that outcome. Regardless of the outcome, repentance, trust in God, and perseverance in right living are far more important than what the result of this election will be. God may again be gracious to us and prolong our prosperity, or He may gives us what we deserve, and our demise will be swift, but we must turn to God for the good of our nation, our neighbors, our family, our posterity, and our world.

What is the hope for a nation over whom destruction has been declared? In the case of Israel, it was God’s mercy for the children, for He says, “But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.” (14:31-32) God may yet be entreated by a repentant people, just as He was by Nineveh (Jonah 3:10).

May God give us “a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” (Deuteronomy 29:4 says He had not yet done so for Israel.)

1. Hymn: “Once to Every Man and Nation” by James Russell Lowell in 1845

2. http://www.faithfulcenturion.org/AOCBlog/Hymns/Hymn%20519%20-%20Once%20to%20Every%20Man%20and%20Nation.pdf#:~:text=%E2%80%9COnce%20to%20every%20man%20and%20nation%2C%20comes%20the,by%20forever%2C%20%27twixt%20that%20darkness%20and%20that%20light.

3. Surely this is a reference to Nero using Christians as torches in his garden, though many others were burnt at the stake over the centuries.

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Voting

Posted in America, Civil Debate, Cultural commentary, Freedom, General, Government, Judgment, Liberty, Mercy, tagged , , , , on October 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Here is a recent scene from early voting in my small town:

When I first came to this area 27 years ago, our voting place was a one room school house no longer used for anything but voting. It gave the feel of voting from times a century and more before. All who voted there were neighbors of long standing and we were the new ones, welcomed and smiled upon for voting in the long held tradition.

This year all tradition seems gone. Many would contradict, saying the voting has prevailed, but we wonder if it will be a free and fair election. Neighbors are distanced by disease and rhetoric and the persistent electronics. Somehow, I don’t feel like I am in the same nation I grew up in, the one that taught its young the regional songs and tales of the frontiersmen and miners and canal workers and farmers. We had connections to our past and stability in our present. Now we have neither. Rather than gain these things for those who lacked them as newcomers or oppressed people, we further divide ourselves from each other in order to scrap anything good about our nation for a future of slavery to the ruling class. (1)

The voting does not look and feel different because of polemical pandemic and politics. We have had division in the past. We have had disease and drought and war and depression and social unrest. It is different because we are giving up our freedoms for slavery of mind and one day body.

John Basil Barnhill, in a meeting in 1914, said, “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” (2) At present, the people are in fear of the government while simultaneously not respecting its institutions or personnel. This is a formula for disaster.

On the subject of the cruelty of slavery, Thomas Jefferson said, “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever…” (3) We have long since righted the wrong of the institution of slavery, though many have not changed there attitudes about it on either side. Now we threaten the liberty of us all by giving it up to control by government, to the continuance of slaughter or the unborn, and outright denial anything moral according to God’s law.

Why are we doing this evil to ourselves? We have turned away from God. Even many in the church do not know Him and the culture as a whole does not acknowledge Him. Many have argued that we have no need of acknowledging God as a nation since ‘we are not a Christian nation’, but God warns otherwise. “Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.” (Psalm 2:10-11) “Nations are obligated to worship the true God,” said John MacArthur in a recent sermon. (4)

You may be asking what this turning away from God has to do with voting. I can think of several ways, all of which involve God’s judgement on our forsaking Him and running to wickedness:

1. We will lose our incredible freedom to have substantive say our government.

2. God judges individuals and institutions.

3. The righteous in general are delivered over with the wicked in times of judgement.

4. Voting may no longer be neighborly and civil.

It is on this last point that I want to dwell upon for just a short moment. I have friends who have been missionaries with AIM/Air in Nairobi, Kenya, for many years. As a mechanic, the man is head of maintenance to the many planes that fly out to villages for the many ways they help people. The woman has taught in a local seminary. In their newsletters over the year by paper and then email, they would periodically ask for prayer about national elections. This is frequently a time of violence in the streets and at the polling places and upon the candidates. This nation is not the only one plagued with this problem, but one that has dealt with it more or less since their independence. With the level of division, selfishness, and God hating present in our nation, it will come here if we do not repent.

Intentionally pray for your repentance and mine and our neighbors and our nation. Pray that God will yet again be merciful and patient to give us a time of renewal and turning to Him. Vote for righteousness and the rule of law. Pray for civility throughout this election process.

  1. Read ‘anarchy, socialism, communism’.
  2. https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/when-government-fears-people-there-liberty-spurious-quotation
  3. https://www.bradford-delong.com/2020/07/jefferson-1781-indeed-i-tremble-for-my-country-an-exchange-of-situation-is-possiblenoted.html
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5vAA_QpNh8 This is well worth the listen since he lays out the scriptural requirement for nations in detail.

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Why our laws are not nor will be just.

Posted in America, Change, Civil Debate, Cultural commentary, Freedom, General, God's Law, Government, Judgment, Repentance, tagged , , , , , , , on June 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »

If you are reading this blog entry and have not read the prequel (“Basis of Civil Debate“), it will seem to lack context and may be confusing. Please read the previous blog entry first so that I may be truly heard in this one.

The debate itself was about the following subject:

Mr. L stated that he hated child labor laws because they represented an abrogation of family jurisdiction. The state does not have the right to tell the family how to function even if the family structure is severely compromised or clearly in the wrong. I pointed out that the reason such laws exist was because of Dickens’ writing about conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Those conditions were not right and needed to be stopped. At least two times, and I think more, I agreed in principle with Mr. L’s statement and Mr. F’s restatement of their point.

In part I may have not been heard because of my initial statement about Dickens. Why you may ask? It was immediately thrown back at me that poor conditions are no reason to lay aside the law of God. Again I agreed, but I was not allowed to state my case. The more I tried the louder the counter repetitions of the first point became.

What then was my point? I agree that it is wrong to lay aside the God-given jurisdiction of the family in favor of a mis-placed jurisdiction of government. However, I do not believe that, for instance, child labor laws are the problem or that eliminating them will solve the problem. In fact, I do not believe that under the present form of government, ruled mostly by emotion rather than law, that child labor laws, or many other family jurisdiction abrogating laws, will be rescinded until the real problem is solved. Why do I believe that? I believe that people will not allow abuse of women and children to continue even if the means of attempting to stop it is wrong and a failure* in practice.

So, what is the real problem and what is the solution? We the people, by and large have turned away from God and His Law. Until and unless we repent and turn back to His way we will not rescind these laws because we think we know better than God. And maybe we should not even try to change the laws and we definitely won’t, because there is too much travesty and hurt in a society where God’s rule is debased and ignored. Does that mean we can never go back to being a godly nation**? No, it does not, but there will need to be some deep repentance on the part of parents and employers and government officials, both bureaucratic and elected, and most notably those who claim to know God. The order of retracing our steps to godliness is more likely repentance, revival, renewal, then reformation of life and law. That does not mean that to have just, God honoring laws we must be a perfect nation, but we must first have a majority of the people acknowledging God and God’s Law.  When the travesties of child abuse in the home and the society at large are rarities rather than regular fare, then we will be more likely to correct our laws to reflect God’s Law.

To simplify this idea, let me summarize by saying the following: You don’t legislate morality; morality determines just law. Mr. L stated the first half of my statement at one point in his argument, and I believe he could agree with the second half of the statement if he had truly heard me. That might have involved me having a better handle on how to present it to him and Mr. F.

The Founding Fathers, by in large, got it right. They based our laws on God’s law. Even as we, they had influences that drew them away from the knowledge of God and His law. Therefore, unlike the Scriptures, the Constitution is a human document, which cannot be perfect. It is very likely the best document of its kind produced by humans, because it so largely reflects God’s law. And I agree with Washington when he said to Henry Lee, “Let the reins of government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the constitution be reprehended. If defective, let it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence.” (letter 10/31/1786) It has been and is being trampled upon because the basis for this document, God’s law, is trampled.

*Yes, child-labor laws stopped children from working in dangerous conditions, but it did not stop the abuse of children.

**I do not equate us with Israel, nor do I say that we have no heinous sins for which God will judge us. However, we have a system that is based on God’s laws with many past examples of godly people and building of God’s kingdom around the world.

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The Day of the Lord in Zephaniah

Posted in Day of the Lord, Faith, General, God Thoughts, God's Word, Grace, Judgment, Mercy, Repentance, Sermon, tagged , , , , , on July 16, 2019| 2 Comments »

Some of my friends have already seen this or were there, but others might benefit from what this video has to say. I had the privilege of preaching at my church this past Sunday. I felt led and carried along, so that I believe it is a message that God gave me. I give Him the glory for anything of profit therein. It is a message for the church of America. I hope that you will take the time to listen to it:

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5F’s of Failure

Posted in General, Judgment, Mercy, Repentance, tagged , , , on May 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The book of Jeremiah describes dark and somber scenes because God’s judgments are determined for a people who simply will not repent. We in America and the American church seem to think sin is not a problem, either because we think that we haven’t committed anything worthy of death, we have a free pass to sin, or God doesn’t exist or isn’t paying attention or is powerless to respond or has a character which is some version of twisted love that does not include justice.

As my Sunday School Class looked at the 2nd and 4th chapters of Jeremiah yesterday morning, I was struck by the ongoing recalcitrant refusal on the part of Judah to repent. God extended warning and offers of mercy numerous times before and during Jeremiah’s ministry, but the people and the leaders refused. For example, consider the last minute offer of mercy that God extends to Zedekiah when the Babylonians are outside the wall besieging the city: “Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, “If you will indeed go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will survive. But if you will not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hand.”‘” (Jeremiah 38:17-18) He did not surrender.

And it wasn’t as if God hadn’t proven that He could and would punish Judah. Jeremiah’s ministry extended from approximately 650 BC until the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, well after the Assyrians destroyed Samaria in 722 BC and resettled Israel’s inhabitants for years afterwards as God had warned through His prophets.

How had these people gotten into such a state of failure to repent. I saw from the early chapters of Jeremiah that Judah had many failures to repent though no lack of opportunity from a merciful God.

Judah had

   1) Forgotten God’s mercy and grace   (“I brought”, “forgotten Me” 2:6-7,32)

   2) Failed to call on God in their difficulties .  (“They did not say” 2:6,8)

   3) Forsaken God and His Law   (“did not know Me”, “transgressed against Me”, “changed their glory” 2:8,11)

   4) Forged their own way .  (“hew for themselves cisterns”, “drink the waters of the Nile…Euphrates” 2:13,18)

   5) Fallen from God’s favor .  (“you will not prosper”  2:37)

If these warnings were just historical notes, then we might not need to pay close attention. But judgments are certainly determined for U.S. as well, if we do not repent. And the longer we resist God’s offers of mercy in the Gospel which is preached, taught, and lived out before us in this country, the less God will listen: “…I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.” (Jeremiah 11:14)

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