Sound of Grace, Issue 210, September 2014

8/11/2019 Sound of Grace, Issue 210, September 2014

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Notice ve things from these verses. To answer our

opening question, our aim in all of life should be to

have Christ highly honored. The Apostle/slave of Christ

writes, My eager expectation and hope is that I will not

be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with

all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body,

whether by life or by death. His aim is to make much ofJesus. He wants Jesus to be shown to be great. Magnied.

Exalted.

The rst thing to notice about this aim is that we should

eagerly expect and hope to make much of Jesus. Paul ex-

pects and hopes. He can expect because he plans, by Gods

help, to live that way. He hopes because he knows he needs

Gods help.

Second, we should not be ashamed in making much

of Jesus but should

This is the rst in a series of studies in the Book of Hebrews. These stud-

ies are technically not a commentary, that is, I am not writing a verse by verse

exposition of the whole epistle to the Hebrews. It is an exposition of the major

theological sections that deal specically with the New Covenant. We will spend

a lot of time on some sections and will skip other sections altogether. Our goal is

to show how impossible it is to understand the Book of Hebrews without having

a working knowledge of New Covenant Theology (here after called NCT). It is

acknowledged by everyone who writes or preaches on this book that it has some

very difcult verses. Who has not struggled with Hebrews chapters 6 and 10?

We will begin by listing some things where there is nearly universal agreement.

Most agree that Hebrews sets forth a series of contrasts and comparisons. However, there is not an agreement as to

what is being contrasted and compared. In most cases the contrasts and comparisons are fairly clear unless the writer or

preacher allows his theology to obscure the obvious meaning. Let me give one illustration. All agree that it is essential

that we understand the primary purpose for which a given book was written. This

Issue 210 September 2014

It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9

Theology of HebrewsPart 1

John G. Reisinger

What is the over-arching purpose of your life? The

Holy Spirit through the Apostle helps us nd the God-giv-

en answer to that question in Philippians 1:20-26:

My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be

ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with

all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body,

whether by life or by death. For me, living is Christ and

dying is gain. Now if I live on in the esh, this means

fruitful work for me; and I dont know which one I

should choose. I am pressured by both. I have the desire

to depart and be with Christwhich is far betterbut

to remain in the esh is more necessary for you. Since

I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and

continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the

faith, so that, because of me, your condence may grow

in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

Making Much of Jesus: Philippians 1:20-26

A. Blake White

ReisingerContinued on page 2

WhiteContinued on page 10

In This Issue

Theology of HebrewsPart 1

John G. Reisinger

1

Making Much of Jesus:Philippians 1:20-26

A. Blake White

1

Apologetics and Reformed

Theology: Approach #2

Steve West

3

Psalm 19: 7-11The Soul Satisfying Word

John Thorhauer

5

Hypothetical Statements

John G. Reisinge7


2/20

Page 2 September 2014 Issue 210Sound of Graceis a publication of Sovereign

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ReisingerContinued from page 1


will also entail understanding who

the specic person or persons are to

whom a given book is written. He-

brews is clear as to whom it is written.

All agree that the theme of Hebrews is

that Jesus Christ is better than any-

thing and everybody. In this epistle,contrast and comparison is the con-

stant message. Everything presented

is presented as better: a better hope, a

better priest, a better covenant, a better

promise, and a better sacrice.

If we are paying attention, we will

see the writer of Hebrews is giving a

master key to unlocking his epistle.

He consciously does not mention the

Gentiles in the epistle since they have

nothing to do with the writers pur-pose. One of the most tragic mistakes

you can make in trying to understand

the theology of Hebrews is to think

the writer is contrasting weak Chris-

tians with spiritual Christians. MacAr-

thurs comments on 5:11 are excellent.

There are, of course, many ex-

hortations for immature Christians to

grow up. Throughout the history of

the church there has been need of such

counsel, but I do not think that is what

is given here. He is saying to hesi-

tant Jews still hanging onto Judaism,

Come unto completion, to maturity,

in the New Covenant. This interpreta-

tion is not the most traditional, but I

think it is consistent with the whole

book and is defensible. The warning

and the appeal, as before, are evange-

listic. The maturity being called for

is not that of a Christians growing in

the faith, but of an unbelievers com-

ing into the faithinto the full-grown,

mature truths and blessings of the New

Covenant. It is the same maturity or

perfection (from teleioo) as in 10:1

and 14, which can only refer to salva-

tion, not to Christian growth.1

I cannot too highly recommend

MacArthurs commentary on He-

brews. If you can only afford to buy

1 John MacArthur, The MacArthur New

Testament Commentary-Hebrews

(Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL,

1983) 129.

one commentary on Hebrews, there is

no contest, buy MacArthurs. In the

following quotation he gives the best

summary of the message of the Book

of Hebrews I have ever read.

Throughout the book of Hebrews,

the many comparisons and contrasts

are basically between Christianity andJudaism. This truth is essential to a

proper interpretation of the epistle.

The central theme and message of

the book of Hebrews is the superiority

of the New Covenant to the Old, that

is, of Christianity to Judaism. Within

this theme are the sub themes of the

superiority of the new priesthood to

the old, the new sacrice to the old

ones, the new Mediator to the old one,

and so on. This is the key that unlocks

every section of Hebrews, and to useany other key is, I believe, to make

forced entry.

In the book of Hebrews the Holy

Spirit is not contrasting two kinds

of Christianity. He is not contrasting

immature Christians and mature ones.

He is contrasting Judaism and Christi-

anity, the unsaved Jew in Judaism and

the redeemed Jew in Christianity. He

is contrasting the substance and the

shadow, the pattern and the reality, the

visible and the invisible, the facsimileand the real thing, the type and the

anti-type, the picture and the actual.

The Old Testament essentially is

Gods revelation of pictures and types,

which are fullled in Christ in the

New Testament. The book of Hebrews,

therefore, compares and contrasts the

two parts of Gods revelation that our

division of the Bible reects.2

Look carefully at the better

things mentioned in Hebrews and

you will see that the writer cannotpossibly be contrasting Gentiles with

either converted or lost Jews. A Jew

who had trusted Christ as his Mes-

siah had a better hope than the most

spiritual believing Jew had while liv-

ing under the old covenant. The writer

is not saying that the Jews to whom he

was writing had a better hope than the

2 Ibid,p.127


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Issue 210 September 2014 Page 3

WestContinued on page 15

Apologetics and Reformed Theology: Approach #2

Steve West

In many ways,Reformed epis-

temology is both extremely simpleand extremely complicated. Episte-

mology is the branch of philosophy

that is concerned with knowledge. It

investigates the nature of knowledge,

the procedures by which knowledge

can be attained, and the limitations

of what humans can know. It should

go without saying that this is a highly

specialized eld. For apologetics,

Reformed epistemology is an attempt

to understand epistemology from a

Reformed perspective, and Reformedthinking from a perspective that is

informed about epistemology. To sim-

plify, some of the questions Reformed

epistemologists are asking include,

how do we know that God exists and

the gospel is true? and what episte-

mological position allows Christian

belief to be accepted as intellectually

justiable and responsible? Their de-

sire is to ensure that believing in God

does not fall outside of the boundariesof proper epistemology. This is a con-

cern shared by presuppositionalists,

although the proposed solutions differ.

One of the salient features of

Reformed epistemology is that it

has rejected the type of epistemol-

ogy on which the classical approach

to apologetics was based. Reformed

epistemologists have argued that,

since the Enlightenment, many West-

ern philosophers have accepted a view

of knowledge that makes it virtually

(if not actually) impossible to justify

belief in God. But belief in God is not

irrational. If God exists, it would seem

to follow that he could reveal himself

to people in a way which satises the

criteria that govern the formation of

beliefs in a proper epistemology. A

consequence of this is that if any view

of epistemology ruled out the possibil-

ity of actually knowing that the gospel

is true, that view of epistemology

itselfwould have to be false.A dominant view of epistemol-

ogy since the Enlightenment has

conceived of human knowledge as

a building. Not every belief that we

hold is of equal importance in our

intellectual structure. I might believe

that I ate dinner at a friends house last

Tuesday, only to be reminded that it

was really last Wednesday. My belief

that connected eating dinner with my

friend on Tuesday is quickly replacedwith the belief that the dinner actually

took place on Wednesday. This has

hardly caused a massive realignment

amongst all my intellectual beliefs!

There are other beliefs, however, that

are far more important. If my belief

about the day I ate dinner with my

friend can be compared to a dab of

paint on a house, other beliefs are

more like bricks in the wall. They are

far more integral to the structure than

the paint. Still, bricks can be replaced:it is more work, and there are more

implications, but it is still possible to

replace bricks without knocking the

entire house down.

At a deeper level of importance,

however, there are beliefs that func-

tion in our mental buildings like

a foundation functions in a house.

Not only are these beliefs extremely

important, and not only would replac-

ing them require a large-scale mentalrenovation project, our other beliefs

are actually dependent on them. If we

were to logically trace out what justi-

es us in holding a window-level

belief, we would nd that it ultimately

rests on one or more of our founda-

tional beliefs. Beliefs, like walls, can-

not hang in thin air.

This might seem fairly abstract,

but its not really that complex: we

just dont normally take the time to

think about what our beliefs are actu-

ally resting on. Take, for example, my

changed belief about the day I had

dinner at my friends house. Holding

the belief in the rst place assumes the

law of non-contradiction, because I

cant be both at my friends house and

not at my friends house at the same

time and in the same way. It assumes

that my senses work, because it was

presumablymy senses that carried

certain stimuli to my brain, which

were then interpreted as being myfriend, his house, food, the time of day

(supper, not breakfast), etc. It likewise

assumes that the universe is not per-

fectly random, that people maintain

their identities through time, that my

memory works, and a whole lot more.

In this epistemological model, the big

question is not whether some beliefs

are foundational, but which ones are

foundational. What kinds of beliefs

are so basic that they simply cannot bebuilt on any others?

In the traditional model, there

were three types of beliefs that were

considered foundational. The rst type

consisted of beliefs that are true by

denition. For example, the belief that

all bachelors are unmarried cannot be

false, because being unmarried is part

of the very denition of a bachelor.

The same is true of simple analytical

truths, like 1 + 1 = 2.

The second category of founda-

tional beliefs involved things that are

evident to our senses. At the present

moment, my senses are telling me that

Im looking at a computer screen. I

cannot be wrong that to me it seems

like Im looking at a computer screen.

Now this belief might be false be-

cause Im hallucinating, or my crafty


4/20

Page 4 September 2014 Issue 210

Gentiles. The Gentiles did not have

any hope at all!They had no hope

because they had no covenant nor did

they have any promise. The Gentles

were not looking for a Messiah. They

were promised nothing but wrath. To

say that the Book of Hebrews is inany way teaching that Gentiles have a

better covenant, a better promise and a

better hope than the Jews is to ignore

what Hebrews and similar passages

clearly state. The word that describes

the state of the Gentiles is without. If

the writer of Hebrews wanted to con-

trast the state of the Jews in contrast

to the Gentles, he would have said the

same thing as Paul said in Ephesians.

The Gentiles did not need a better

hope, they needed a promise that gave

hope, period. Paul specically says the

Gentiles werewithout hope.He does

not say the Gentiles received a better

covenant,they had no covenant at all

until Christ came.

Wherefore remember, that ye

being in time past Gentiles in the

esh, who are called Uncircumci-

sion by that which is called the

Circumcision in the esh made by

hands;

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. (Eph.

2:11, 12).

MacArthur is not alone in his view

of Hebrews. A.W. Pink, like MacAr-

thur, openly admits that the classicalReformed view of Hebrews is differ-

ent than his.

The interpretation which we shall

give is not at all in accord with that

advanced by the older writers. It

differs considerably from that found

in the commentaries of Drs. Calvin,

Owen and Gouge, and more recently,

those of A. Saphir, and Dr. J. Brown.

Much as we respect their works, and

deeply as we are indebted to not a little

that is helpful in them, yet we dare

not follow them blindly. To prove

all things (1 Thess. 5:21) is ever our

bounden duty.3

No one had more respect for and

love of the Puritans than Pink, but

he did not hesitate to disagree with

them when he felt their theology waswrong. He basically says the same

thing as MacArthur on Hebrews 6:1-

3.

The writers mentioned above

understood the expression the prin-

ciples of the doctrine of Christ, or

as the margin of the Revised Version

more accurately renders the word of

the beginning of Christ, to refer to

the elementary truths of

Christianity, a summary

of which is given in thesix items that follow in

the second half of verse

1 and the whole of verse

2; while the Let us go

on unto perfection,

they regarded as a call

unto the deeper and

higher things of the Chris-

tian revelation. But for reasons which

to us seem conclusive, such a view of

our passage is altogether untenable. It

fails to take into account the central

theme of this Epistle, and the purposefor which it was written. It does not do

justice at all to the immediate con-

text. It completely breaks down when

tested in its details.4

Our English Bibles says, The

Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the He-

brews. I am sure most of our readers

are aware that the titles found at the

head of the different books of the Bi-

ble are not divinely inspired. In some

instances such tiles are helpful and inother cases they are grossly erroneous.

As an example of the latter, the last

book in the Bible has the title The

Revelation of St. John the Divine,

but the opening sentence of the book

itself designates it The Revelation of

3 A. W. Pink,An Exposition of Hebrews

(Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,

Michigan, MI, year ?) 272

4 Ibid, 27

Jesus Christ!

In almost all of the Epistles there

is a Divinely-named addressee in the

opening verses. However, the contents

of each Epistle are not to be restricted

to those immediately and locally

addressed. The Epistle of James is ad-

dressed to the Twelve Tribes, whichare scattered abroad. But the truth of

this book is applicability for all saints.

Epistles like Philippians and Colos-

sians are clearly addressed to the

church in local cities but it is obvious

that they were not meant to apply only

to those local churches. The truth is

that what Christ said to the apostles in

Mark 13:37What I say untoyou, I

say unto all may well

be applied to the wholeof the Bible.All Scripture

is needed by us (2 Tim.

3:16, 17), and all Scrip-

ture is Gods word to us.

Note carefully that while

at the beginning of his

Epistle to Titus Paul only

addresses Titus himself (Ti-

tus 1:4), yet at the close of this letter

he expressly says, Grace be with you

all! (Titus 3:15)

Although we are at once struck

by the absence of any Divinely-given

title in the opening verses of Hebrews,

the rst sentence enables us to identify

at once those to whom the Epistle was

originally sent: see Hebrews 1:1, 2.

God spake through the prophets to the

children of Israel in the Old Covenant.

It was also unto them He had spoken

through His Son. However, it was not

the Jewish nation at large which was

addressed, but the holy brethren, par-

takers of the heavenly calling among

them.

The Epistle itself contains further

details which serve to identify the

addressees. That it was written to

saints who were by no means young

in the faith is clear from Hebrews

5:12. That it was sent to those who

had suffered severe persecutions



All Scripture is

needed by us (2 Tim.

3:16, 17), and all

Scripture is Gods

word to us.


5/20


ThorhauerContinued on page 16

Introduction:

What do these men all have in

common: Christopher Columbus,

Amerigo Vespucci, Ponce de Leon,

Ferdinand Magellan, Hernando Cor-

tez, Francisco Pizarro, and Hernando

de Soto?

They were Spanish explorers. They

were all part of one countrys effort

to gain essentially one thing, gold.

Spain was at the forefront of exploring

the new worlds because they hopedfor riches in gold. There were other

reasons mixed in with the end goal

of riches, but it is a sure thing that

riches are what drove the men to sail,

and riches are what drove the rul-

ers to support these explorers. Gold

was valuable 500 years ago and gold

is still valuable today. The countries

that led the exploration of the new

world poured much of their resources

into nding gold in the new world.

Five-hundred years later things havechanged very little in this regard.

I recently watched the show Gold

Rushon the Discovery Channel. It is

the story of modern day gold miners

in Alaska. These men spend millions

of dollars and work from dawn till

dusk for days on end for what seems

like a tiny amount of gold. This small

bit of gold is worth a lot of money;

it is precious and it is valuable. For

centuries people have been known topour their lifes resources into attain-

ing it. The men of Gold Rushleave

their families behind, mortgage their

houses, and even risk their health if

necessary in order to get this gold.

And then they create a TV show so we

can watch as they pursue their endeav-

or! And yet, almost every one of you

has something in your possession that

has qualities which make it even more

desirable than gold!

Lets read about it now.

Psalms 19:7-11

7The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is

sure,

making wise the simple;

8the precepts of the Lord are

right,

rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord

is pure,

enlightening the eyes;

9the fear of the Lord is clean,

enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord are true,

and righteous altogether.

10More to be desired are they

than gold,

even much ne gold;

sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb.

11Moreover, by them is your

servant warned;

in keeping them there is great

reward. (ESV)

These verses show a typical

example of Hebrew poetry in which

we see six parallel statements about

the Word of God. Each one tells us

a critical detail about the nature and

function of the Word. In this article,

we will approach this passage by rst

looking at the nature of Gods Word

in each verse. After understanding

the nature of the Word we will then

look to understand the function of this

Word for our lives. So rst the nature,

then the function, or to put in very

simple terms we will look at what the

Word isand what the Word does.

I. The Word is:

Lets focus rst on what the Word

is. There are a couple of reasons for

this. First, this is what David did. No-

tice in each verse we rst see a state-

ment of what the Word is, that is, we

see a description of an attribute of the

Word: perfect, sure, right, and so on.

Then from that we see a function that

follows: revives, endures, makes one

wise. Since this is Davids approach,so it will be ours as well. But there

is also a practical aspect to this. We

need to know the characteristics of the

Word before we can truly appreciate

how the Word is to function. In short,

we must understand what it is so that

we can then understand what it does.

Perfect - v7a The law of the

LORD isperfect, reviving the soul;

David tells us that the law of the

Lord is perfect. The word law here hasthe sense of the revealed will of God.

It is the very will of God made plain

to us in the pages of Scripture. We are

told that this book is perfect. When

David says it is perfect he means that

it is not lacking in any way. It is com-

plete; it is beautiful; it is practical.

It is complete in its content as the

revealed will of God. That is, it does

not lack content. It is beautiful in its

expression of God and his will. It ispractical; it is very real in its descrip-

tion of the world and of man, which

makes it very useful.

Now, what does the world do with

things that are in a sense perfect?

There are things we can hold and see

in this world every day that might be

described as complete, beautiful, and

real. What does the world do with

Psalm 19:7-11

The Soul Satisfying Word

John Thorhauer


6/20



was written, of those in Israel who had

believed on the Lord Jesus. Unlike

the Gentiles, who, for long centuries

past, had lost all knowledge of the true

God, and, in consequence, worshipped

idols, the Jews had a Divine religion,

and a Divinely-appointed place of

worship. To be called upon toforsake

these, which had been venerated bytheir fathers for over a thousand years,

was to make a big demand upon them.

It was natural that even those among

them who had savingly believed on

Christ should want to retain the forms

and ceremonies amid which they had

been brought up; the more so, seeing

that the Temple still stood and the

Levitical priesthood still functioned.

An endeavor had been made to link

Christianity on to Judaism, and as

Acts 21:20 tells us there were many

thousands of the early Jewish Chris-

tians who were zealous of the law

as the next verses clearly show, the

ceremonial law.6

Basically, the early Jewish believ-

ers wanted to Judaize Christianity

and Christianize Judaism. However,

in order to accomplish that

they had to deny the

clear teaching of the New

Covenant. They literally

had to give up the reli-gion they had practiced

all their life and embrace

the Gospel as the fulll-

ment of what was prom-

ised in the Old Covenant and

fullled in Christ.

It was a small thing that their

goods had been conscated; but they

had also been banished from the holy

places. Hitherto they had enjoyed

the privileges of devout Israelites:

they could take part in the beautifuland God-appointed services of the

sanctuary; but now they were treated

as unclean and apostates. Unless they

gave up faith in Jesus, and forsook the

assembling of themselves together,

they were not allowed to enter the

Temple, they were banished from the

altar, the sacrice, the high priest, the

house of Jehovah.

6 Ibid, 11

(cf. Acts 8:1) is plain from what we

read in Hebrews 10:32. That it was

addressed to a Christian community

of considerable size is evident from

Hebrews 13:24. From this last refer-

ence we are inclined to conclude that

this Epistle was rst delivered to the

church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:22), orto the churches in Judea (Acts 9:31),

copies of which would be made and

forwarded to Jewish Christians in

foreign lands. Thus, our Epistle was

rst addressed to those descendants of

Abraham who, by grace, had believed

on their Savior-Messiah.5

The purpose for writing Hebrews

is clear. It was to instruct Jewish

believers that Judaism had been su-

perseded by Christianity. We must re-

member that most of the earliest con-

verts to Christ were Jews by natural

birth. They really struggled with leav-

ing their former religion behind. They

were not free from most of the Jewish

prejudices especially when it came to

accepting the saved Gentiles as true

children of God. On several

occasions we have noted

that two things happened

on the Day of Pentecost

that Jewish believers had

difculty accepting. One

was not just accepting

Gentiles as true children

of God but realizing that

the saved Gentile was raisedto total equality in every way to a saved

Jew. The second thing was that the Jews

who rejected Christ were lowered to

an equal status with the pagan Gen-

tiles. The Jew/Gentile designation

was 100% dropped and there was a

total equality of Jew and Gentile bothin and outside of Christ. In his early

Epistles the apostle Paul wrote several

times on this point, and sought to

wean them from an attachment to the

Mosaic institutions. But only in this

Epistle does the writer deal fully and

systematically with the subject.

It is difcult for us to appreciate

the position, at the time this Epistle

5 Ibid, 12

By clinging to the Messiah they

were to be severed from Messiahs

people. This was, indeed, a great and

perplexing trial; that for the hope

of Israels glory they were banished

from the place which God had chosen,

and where the divine Presence was

revealed, and the symbols and ordi-

nances had been the joy and strengthof their fathers; that they were to be

no longer children of the covenant and

of the house, but worse than Gentiles,

excluded from the outer court, cut off

from the commonwealth of Israel.

This was indeed a sore and mysteri-

ous trial. Cleaving to the promises

made unto their fathers, cherishing

the hope in constant prayer that their

nation would yet accept the Messiah,

it was the severest test to which their

faith could be put, when their loyalty

to Jesus involved separation from all

the sacred rights and privileges of

Jerusalem.7

It is obvious that the stakes were

high when a Jew embraced the Gos-

pel. If ever it was essential to be sure

you understood the God ordained re-

lationship of the Old Covenant to the

New Covenant, it was in those early

days of the church. The Jews went

from a religion that was based on vis-

ible ceremonies that were all withoutquestion ordained of God to a religion

based on things unseen. They had a

better priest than Aaron but he was in

heaven and totally unseen. A verbal

promise had replaced Aaron and his

beautiful robes and the ritual of the

Day of Atonement.

The theme of Hebrews is the

super-abounding excellence of Chris-

tianity over Judaism. The sum and

substance, the center and circumfer-

ence, the light and life of Christian-ity, is Christ. Therefore, the method

followed by the Holy Spirit in this

Epistle, in developing its dominant

theme, is to show the immeasurable

superiority of Christ over all that had

gone before. One by one the various

objects in which the Jews boasted are

taken up, and in the presence of the su-

7 Ibid, 12


Basically, the early

Jewish believers want-

ed to Judaize Christi-anity and Christianize

Judaism.


7/20


Jesus answered, If I glorify

myself, my glory is nothing. It is

my Father who glories me, ofwhom you say, He is our God.

But you have not known him. I

know him. If I were to say that I

do not know him, I would be a liar

like you, but I do know him and

I keep his word (John 8:54-56

ESV).

The New Testament sometimes

uses hypothetical statements. We

must recognize such statements as

hypothetical and not use them tooverthrow clear doctrines. Some of

the most well-known of these hypo-

thetical statements are in the Book of

Hebrews:

For it is impossible to restore

again to repentance those who

have once been enlightened, who

have tasted the heavenly gift, and

have shared in the Holy Spirit,

and have tasted the goodness of

the word of God and the powers

of the age to come, if they then fall

away, since they are crucifying

once again the Son of God to their

own harm and holding him up to

contempt (Heb. 6:4-7 ESV)

For if we go on sinning delib-

erately after receiving the knowl-

edge of the truth, there no longer

remains a sacrice for sins, but a

fearful expectation of judgment,

and a fury of re that will consume

the adversaries. Anyone who has

set aside the law of Moses dieswithout mercy on the evidence

of two or three witnesses. How

much worse punishment, do you

think, will be deserved by the one

who has spurned the Son of God,

and has profaned the blood of the

covenant by which he was sancti-

ed, and has outraged the Spirit of

grace? (Heb. 10:26-29 ESV).

These texts certainly, on the

surface, appear to contradict the truthof the believers absolute security in

Christ. They seem to teach you can be

saved and then be lost.

1. Do these texts prove a true

Christian can lose his or her salvation?

No!

2. Do these texts teach that IF you

renounce your faith in Christ you will

be lost? Yes!

3. Does the assurance that a Chris-

tian cannot be lost do away with the

absolute necessity of his or her perse-

verance in faith unto the end? No!

Isnt this a contradiction? No!

One of the texts that helped me

with the Hebrew texts mentioned is

John 8:54, 55, quoted above.

1. Could Jesus lie? No!

2. If Christ would have said, I do

not know Him, would he have been

lying? Yes!

3. Because Jesus could not lie,does that mean He did not have to tell

the truth? No!

4. Is this a contradiction? No!

The problem is confusing the fact

that a true believer is secure in Christ

and can never be lost with labeling, in

an absolute sense, a given individual

as saved.

1. Can I tell a specic individual

who professes to be a Christian thatIF he forsakes Christ he will be lost?

Yes!

2. Can I tell him that if he is a true

Christian he is secure in Christ? Yes!

3. Can I give any specic person

absolute assurance that they are a true

Christian and can never perish? No!

4. Isnt that a contradiction? No!

5. Can I proclaim, You are saved

as long as you believe? Yes!

6. Can you quit believing and still

be saved? No!

7. Does being eternal secure in

Christ do away with the necessity of

perseverance in faith? No!

8. Will every true Christian keep

on believing to the end? Yes!

Hypothetical Statements

John G. Reisinger

Consider your state. You are a pardoned sinner, not under the law but under grace, freely, fully saved from the

guilt of all your sins. There is none to condemn, God having justied you. He sees you in his Son, washed you

in his blood, clothed you in his righteousness, and he embraces him and you, the head and the members, with the

same affection.

William Romaine

Treatises on the Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith, 1830, p. 305.


8/20

Page 8 September 2014 Issue 210ReisingerContinued from page 6

perlative glory of the Son of God they

pale into utter insignicance. We are

shown First, His superiority over the

prophets, Hebrews 1:1-3. Second, His

superiority over angels in Hebrews 1:4

to Hebrews 2:18. Third, His superior-

ity over Moses in Hebrews 3:1-19.

Fourth, His superiority over Joshua,Hebrews 4:1-13. Fifth, His superiority

over Aaron in Hebrews 5:14 to 7:18.

Sixth, His superiority over the whole

ritual of Judaism, which is developed

by showing the surpassing excellency

of the new covenant over the old,

in Hebrews 7:19 to Hebrews 10:39.

Seventh, His superiority over each

and all of the Old Testament saints,

in Hebrews 11:1 to Hebrews 12:3. In

the Lord Jesus, Christians have the

substance and reality, of which Juda-

ism contained but the shadows and

gures.8

Hebrews divides itself into two

parts, the rst from 1:1 to 10:18 is

doctrinal, and the second, from 10:19

to the end is practice. In some obvious

respects Hebrews differs from all the

other Epistles of the New Testament.

The name of the writer is omitted,

there is no opening salutation, the

people to whom it was rst specical-

ly and locally sent are not mentioned.On the positive side we may note, that

the typical teachings of the Old Testa-

ment are expounded here at greater

length than elsewhere; the priesthood

of Christ is opened up, fully, only in

this Epistle.

The rst time that Christ is re-

ferred to in this Epistle it is as seated

at the right hand of the Majesty

on high (Heb. 1:3), for it is with a

heavenly Christ that Christianity hasto do: note the other reference in this

Epistle to the same factHebrews

1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2. In perfect ac-

cord with Hebrews 1:3, which strikes

the keynote of the Epistle, in addition

to the heavenly Christ, reference is

made to the heavenly calling (Heb.

3:1), to the heavenly gift (Heb. 6:4),

to heavenly things (Heb. 8:5), to

8 Ibid, 13

the heavenly Country (Heb. 11:16),

to the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb.

12:22), and to the church of the

First-born, whose names are written in

Heaven (Heb. 12:23). This emphasis

is easily understood when we remem-

ber that our Epistle is addressed to

those whose inheritance, religiousrelationships, and hopes, had been all

earthly.

The doctrinal importance of this

book is exceeded by none, not even by

the Roman Epistle. Where its teach-

ings are believed, understood, and

embodied in the life, ritualism and

legalism (the two chief enemies of

Christianity) receive their death blow.

In no other book of Scripture are the

sophistries and deceptions of Roman-

ism so clearly and systematically ex-posed. So fully and pointedly are the

errors of Popery refuted, it might well

have been writtensince that satanic

system became established? Well did

one of the Puritans say, God foresee-

ing what poisonous heresies would

be hatched by the Papacy, prepared

this antidote against

them.9

There is no

agreement about

the author ofHebrews. Most

recent writers

doubt that Paul

wrote Hebrews.

Pink says it was

Paul. Dr. S. Lewis

Johnson said if

you read Hebrews in an English

translation, you would think Paul

wrote it, but if you read it in the

original Greek, you would believe

Paul could not possibly have writ-

ten it. I will leave that subject for

those more capable than I am. It is

enough for me to believe the Holy

Spirit is the real author regardless

of what human pen he was pleased

to use.

The opening verses of Hebrews

immediately show the writers inten-

9 Ibid, 14

tion.

In the past God spoke to our

ancestors through the prophets at

many times and in various ways,

but in these last days he has spo-

ken to us by his Son (Heb. 1:1-2).

The rst thing to note is that Godreveals himself to his people. He does

not play hide and seek. He sometimes

speaks verbally and directly, he some-

times speaks through prophets and

he uses various other ways. Gods

speaks his full and nal message in

his son and the message God seeks

to convey is complete in Christ. The

Bible is Gods word revelation and

is divided up into two sections, the 39

books of the Old Testament written

before Christ came, and the 27 booksof the New Testament written after

Christ came. The subject is the same

in both sections. The 39 books written

before Christ reveal the promise that

Christ the Messiah is coming. The 27

books written after Christ came teach

that the promise has

been fullled.

God cannot be

known in a saving

sense unless he isplease to reveal him-

self and he reveals

himself in saving

grace only by his

Holy Spirit using his

Holy Word. Creation

reveals enough about

God to justly condemn all men but it

does not reveal enough to save any

man. Paul is quite emphatic concern-

ing an unregenerate mans totally in-

ability to understand spiritual things.

In I Corinthians Paul sums up the

various ways we gain knowledge.

But as it is written, Eye hath

not seen, nor ear heard, neither

have entered into the heart of

man, the things which God hath

prepared for them that love him (1

Cor. 2:9 KJV).

There is thescientic method-eye

God cannot be known

in a saving sense unless

he is please to reveal himself

and he reveals himself in

saving grace only by his Holy

Spirit using his Holy Word.

Creation reveals enough about

God to justly condemn all men

but it does not reveal enough

to save any man.


9/20

Issue 210 September 2014 Page 9hath not seen we learn by observ-

ing facts and forming laws seeking to

describe reality. However, no scien-

tists eye will ever see God in either

a microscope or telescope. Unsaved

man can see Gods footprints but can

only see God himself in the atoning

work of Christ. Science at its best can-not nd God unless God is pleased to

open any persons eyes.

There is the historical method-ear

hath not heard. We learn by listening

to the great historians and philoso-

phers. Again, we come up empty if we

want to know what God is like. We

may examine every history book ever

written and digest every philosophical

treatise propounded and our ears will

never hear God speak words of savinggrace.

There is the artistic method-

neither entered into the heart of

man.The artist, whether he uses

paint and brush or music notes and

instruments is supposed to be able to

feel and express reality. However, no

artist of any kind can create a true pic-

ture of God. The artist is supposed to

have a deeper sense of realty than we

ordinary folks do but all of his depic-

tions of God are often among the most

ridiculous. How simple and satisfying

are the words of God. A ten year

old on his knees who understands the

catechism can see more spiritual truth

that a philosopher does on his tiptoes.

The writer of Hebrews sees Christ

as the full and nal revelation of God.

All we need to know about God is

found in the life and work of Christand the New Testament is the full and

nal revelation of that life and work.

Every heresy will involve either add-

ing something to the Word of God

or denying something written in the

Word of God. The Apostles alone are

inspired by the Holy Spirit to give the

Church holy inspired Scripture.

One other important thing should

be noted in the introduction. It is often

said that we must learn to separate thegood from the better and the bet-

ter from the best. This is certainly

true when we study the Book of He-

brews. There is a list of specic things

mentioned as being done away and

replaced by something better. Not a

single one of those things those things

are done away because they are bad

in any sense whatever. They are done

away only because they had served

the purpose for which God originallyestablished them. When we insist the

Aaronic priesthood has been totally

done away and replaced by Christ,

we are in no sense saying or inferring

that Aaron was anything less than a

godly man who faithful served God

his whole life. His ministry was done

away and replaced by a better ministry

that could accomplish what Aarons

ministry could never accomplish.

We must never think that compar-

ingtwo things and determining one

is better than the other is the same

saying one of the two things being

compared is wrong.It is quite clear

that the Law, as covenant terms, is

done away in Christ, but it is just

as clear that the Law is still just as

holy, just and good (Romans 7:12)

as it was when God wrote it with his

nger at Mount Sinai. The law, asthe words of the covenant (Exodus

34:28), is done away in Christ because

its propose has been accomplished.

The tables of the covenant (Deut.

9:9-11) were holy, just and good

but the New Covenant terms of Christ

are better (Hebrews 8:6). In all of the

contrasts in Hebrews, we are not deal-

ing with bad things compared with

good things. We are dealing withgood

thingsbeing compared with better

things.

The School of Pain

J. R. Miller, "Life's Byways and Waysides"

Everyone has sorrow. Being a Christian does not exempt anyone from grief. But faith in Christ brings a transfor-

mation of sorrow. Not only are we taught to endure the sorrows that come to us patiently and submissivelybut we

are assured that there is a blessing in them for us, if we accept them with love and trust.

One of the deepest truths taught in the Bible

is that earthly sorrow has a mission in the sanctifying of life. "Nodiscipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and

peace for those who have been trained by it. God disciplines us for our goodthat we may share in His holiness."

Hebrews 12:10-11

We dread pain! And yet the person who has not experienced painhas not yet touched the deepest and most pre-

cious meanings of life. There are things we never can learnexcept in the school of pain! There are heights of life

we never can attainexcept in the bitterness of sorrow. There are joys we never can haveuntil we have walked in

the dark ways of sorrow. Not to have sorrow, in some form, is to miss one of life's holiest opportunities. We get our

best thingsout of afiction! "I have rened you in the furnace of suffering!" Isaiah 48:10

Courtesy of Grace Gems: www.GraceGems.org


10/20


WhiteContinued from page 1 faith in the Son of God, who loved

me and gave Himself for me. Now,

your number one priority is no longer

you but Christ. According to 2 Cor-

inthians 5:15, part of the reason Jesus

came was to rescue us from living for

ourselves: And He died for all so that

those who live should no longer livefor themselves, but for the One who

died for them and was raised.

Life is for Christ and is for Christ-

centered ministry.2Philippians 1:22

reads, Now if I live on in the esh,

this means fruitful work for me; and

I dont know which one I should

choose. Then he writes, Since I am

persuaded of this, I know that I will

remain and continue with all of you

for your progress and joy in the faith,so that, because of me, your con-

dence may grow in Christ Jesus when

I come to you again. (Phil 1:25-26).

Paul gives his life for the strengthen-

ing and encouragement of the body of

Christ. He loved Christ and therefore

loved the body of Christ. The purpose

of this Christ-centered ministry is so

that your condence may grow. As

he said in Philippians 1:14:

Most of the brothers

in the Lord have gainedcondence from my

imprisonment and dare

even more to speak the

message fearlessly. God

wants us as believers to

grow in our condence

to speak the word of Christ

without fear, to be unashamed in

representing Him, and to progress and

increase in joy in the faith. This is

what our life is for!

As far as Pauls own personal

interests are concerned, it is better for

him to die and be with Jesus, but it is

better for the Philippians if he re-

mains. As we have seen and will see,

this principle of love, of dying to self

2 Stephen E. Fowl,Philippians (Grand

Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 33; D.A.

Carson,Basics for Believers (Grand

Rapids: Baker, 1996), 29.

for the good of others is vital to true

Christianity.3In chapter two he will

call it the Jesus mindset:

Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit,

but in humility consider others as more

important than yourselves. Everyone

should look out not only for his own

interests, but also for the interests ofothers. Make your own attitude that of

Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form

of God, did not consider equality with

God as something to be used for His own

advantage. Instead He emptied Himself

by assuming the form of a slave, taking

on the likeness of men. And when He had

come as a man in His external form, He

humbled Himself by becoming obedient

to the point of deatheven to death on a

cross(Phil. 2:3-8).

Living is for Christ and Christ-centered ministry.

Fifth, we should make it our aim to

make much of Jesus by death whether

by life or by death. Why? Because

death is gain. For me, living is Christ

and dying is gain. Putting it together,

we should make much of Jesus in life

because living is Christ and we should

make much of Jesus in our death

because death is gain. Paul desires to

depart and be with Jesus. I have thedesire to depart and be with Christ -

which is far better (Phil. 1:23). It is

literally much more better to go and

be with our King.

To die is gain? He desires to

depart? In other words, he desires to

die? This is the opposite of the way

the world views death. People try to

deal with the fear of death by denying

it. Just look at the cosmetic surgery

industry. We refuse to admit we are

outwardly wasting away. Look at the

millions of dollars spent during the

last weeks of life. Every gray hair (or

lost hair) and wrinkle is an indict-

ment. The wages of sin is death. Do

you ever notice how our culture is

fascinated with youth? How often

do you see elderly people holding

microphones? We have a youth fetish.

3 Fowl,Philippians,52.

do so with all boldness. In Ephesians

6:19-20, Paul writes, Pray also for

me, that the message may be given to

me when I open my mouth to make

known with boldness the mystery of

the gospel. For this I am an ambas-

sador in chains. Pray that I might bebold enough in Him to speak as I

should. We shouldnt cower at the

thought of ridicule but should repre-

sent the King with condence because

He is the King.

Third, we should make it our aim

to make much of Jesus all the time.

My eager expectation and hope is

that I will not be ashamed about any-

thing, but that now as always, with all

boldness, Christ will be highly hon-ored in my body, whether by life or by

death. Now and always. All the time.

Are we this Christ-obsessed? Is he

central in our hearts and lives? Every

moment in life presents us with an op-

portunity to be ashamed of Christ or

to make much of Christ. Annie Dillard

once said, How we spend our days is,

of course, how we spend our

lives. Lives spent exalt-

ing Christ consist of days

spent exalting Christ, anddays spent exalting Christ

consist of a hundred

small, everyday moments

in which we seek to live

for King Jesus.

Fourth, we should seek

to make much of Jesus by our life.

Paul says whether by life or by

death. Then he gives us the reason:

because (gar)living is Christ. For

me, living is Christ and dying isgain. To live is Christ. Our life is no

longer our own. Our life is now hid

with Christ. The nest commentary

on this verse is Galatians 2:20: I no

longer live, but Christ lives in me. The

life I now live in the body,1I live by

1 Body here simply means bodily

life. Karl Barth,Epistle to the Philip-

pians (Louisville: Westminster John

Knox, 2002), 35.

. . . this principle oflove, of dying to self

for the good of others

is vital to true Christi-

anity.


11/20


WhiteContinued on page 12

Sadly, Evangelical churches have

largely followed our culture. Our

culture nds elderly people disturbing

and annoying. This is because age and

deterioration is a reminder to them

that death is coming.

You will die. Woody Allen said

that he didnt fear death, just didntwant to be there when it happens.

Louis XV even demanded that those

around him not even use the word

death! Guess what? He died anyway.

Try to deny as they might, graveyards

continue to ll up. Death is the judg-

ment of God on sin. God warned our

rst parents that if they did not obey

him they would die. Praise God that

he has loved us in this way: He sent

his one and only Son so that if we willtrust in him, we will not die but will

live with him forever.

Christian, do you view death as

gain? It is okay to dread death (see

Phil. 2:27), but that is not the same as

fearing it. Christians have no reason to

fear death. Why would we? Hebrews

2:14-15 says that Jesus shared in our

humanity so that through His death

He might destroy the one holding the

power of deaththat is, the Devil -and free those who were held in slav-

ery all their lives by the fear of death.

For those in Christ what or better,

whom - is on the other side of death

is gain. Ligon Duncan writes, On

the one hand, death is the last enemy.

Believers, too, are sinners, and so un-

less the Lord comes soon, we will all

taste death. The Christian views death

as an enemy; it is not a natural part of

life. Death is actually the way things

were never intended to be. Death is ajudgment of God against sin. Death is

the most unnatural thing in this world.

But on the other hand, death has be-

come for the believer an entrance into

glory.4For those in Christ, death has

lost its sting. Death has been defeated

through the death of Jesus. Through

death, Jesus destroyed death. We need

4 Ligon Duncan,Fear Not!(Scotland:

Christian Focus, 2001), 17.

not fear it. How freeing? The evan-

gelist D.L. Moody once remarked,

Some day you will read in the papers

that D.L. Moody, of East Northeld,

is dead. Dont you believe a word of

it! At that moment I shall be more

alive than I am now.5

Paul uses this same word gain(kerdos) in the next chapter. What

was gain to him is now loss because

of Jesus. But everything that was a

gain to me, I have considered to be

a loss because of Christ (Phil. 3:7).

So death is gain because we have

already counted all but Christ as loss.

In death, we gain Christ in a fresh

way. If the thought of being with your

Lord does not excite you, I am not

sure why you are a Christian?There are better hobbies.

Our desire should be to be

with the Lord. Incidentally,

our main desire for heaven

should not be to reunite

with family. I recall attend-

ing a youth evangelistic

event called Heavens

Gates, Hells Flames. True

to its Finneyistic theology, the method

is to manipulate the emotions and lit-

erally scare the hell out of kids. Onescene portrays the death of a young

girl in a car accident. Her parents had

died years before. As the little girl

was running to the gate of heaven,

Jesus is treated as a door man! He

opens the gate and the little girl runs

right past Jesus into the arms of her

parents. You want to see your family

again after death, dont you? Pray this

prayer. Sign this card. Youre good.

Obviously this is a distortion of real-

ity. Yes, in Gods kindness, we will

see dead family members who are in

Christ, but our primary desire ought to

be to be with Jesus.

Here in these verses we learn a bit

5 William R. Moody, The Life of Dwight

L. Moody(Grand Rapids: Revell,

1900), iii quoted in Matt Chandler, To

Live is Christ To Die is Gain (Colora-

do Springs: David C. Cook, 2013), 38.

about what happens when we die be-

fore Christ returns (what is commonly

called the intermediate state). When

a Christian dies, they are ushered into

the presence of the Lord. I have the

desire to depart and be with Christ

(Phil. 1:23; cf. 2 Cor. 5:8). Jesus as-

sured the thief on the cross that hewould be with Jesus in paradise that

very day (Luke 23:43). This going to

be with the Lord is what we mean by

heaven. I hasten to add there is not a

syllable in Scripture to undergird the

doctrine of purgatory. Rather, my sin,

not in part but the whole, has been

nailed to the cross.

So heaven will be glorious. It will

be much more better, but heaven is

not our nal destination.N.T. Wright writes,

The ultimate destina-

tion is (once more) not

going to heaven when

you die but being bodi-

ly raised into the trans-

formed, glorious like-

ness of Jesus Christ.6

I own a great little book

called,Heaven Its Not the End of

the World.7Our nal destination is the

resurrection of the body and the reno-

vation of the earth. We see this toward

the end of this very letter. Philippians

3:21 reads, He will transform the

body of our humble condition into

the likeness of His glorious body, by

the power that enables Him to subject

everything to Himself (cf. 3:11). This

is why the Bible calls death sleep,

which means an awakening will occur

(1 Cor.15:51-52, 1 Thess. 4:14). We

go to be with the Lord, soul ripped

asunder from body, but when Christ

returns they will be reunited as they

were meant to in resurrection life.

Thomas Boston wrote, All men

6 N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope(New

York: HarperOne, 2008), 168.

7 David Lawrence,Heaven Its Not the

End of the World (London: Scripture

Union, 1995).

For those in Christ

what or better,

whom - is on the other

side of death is gain.


12/20


must die, but as mens lives are very

different, so their account in death is,

also. To an ungodly man, death is loss,

the greatest loss; but to a believer, it

is gain, the greatest gain.8Our hope

is not in the here and now but in the

there and then.9

So again we see that all of life is

about worship. Honoring King Jesus

must be on our minds all the time,

not just Sundays. We must seek to

make much of Jesus now and always,

not being ashamed but bold in repre-

senting our Lord, whether by life or

by death. Paul was sold out for the

8 Quoted in Duncan,Fear Not!, 27.

9 Michael E. Wittmer, The Last Enemy(Grand Rapids: Discovery House,

2012), 107.

WhiteContinued from page 12 Lord in this way. For him, life meant

ministry, death was gain, and suffering

made him like Jesus and advanced the

gospel. What can the world or Satan

do to a man or woman of God who

sees life as Christ and death as gain

because they will be with Christ?10

John Chrysostom, the famous monkturned priest who was born in 349,

writes, If the empress wishes to ban-

ish me, let her do so; the earth is the

Lords. If she wants to have me sawn

asunder, I will have Isaiah for an ex-

ample. If she wants me to be drowned

in the ocean, I think of Jonah. If I

am to be thrown in the re, the three

men in the furnace suffered the same.

If cast before wild beasts, I remem-

ber Daniel in the lions den. If she

wants me to be stoned, I have before

10 Chandler, To Live is Christ,24-25.

me Stephen, the rst martyr. If she

demands my head, let her do so; John

the Baptist shines before me. Naked I

came from my mothers womb, naked

shall I leave this world. Paul reminds

me, If I still pleased men, I would not

be the servant of Christ.11

This is why you were created. This

is why you are here. To make him

look great! The over-arching purpose

of your life should be to see Christ

made much of. All the time. With all

boldness. Whether in life or death.

11 Saint Chrysostom, Saint Chrysostom

on the Priesthood Ascetic Treatises,

Select Homilies and Letters and Homi-

lies on the Statutes,ed. Philip Schaff

(Whitesh, Mont.: Kessinger Publish-ing, 2004), 14 quoted in Chandler, To

Live is Christ, 24-25.

Rethinking the Lawby Eric LaneIs the Law of Moses (the Sinai code beginning with the Ten Commandments) the rule of life

for the Christian, as it was for the Israelite in Old Testament times?

This question concerns many Christians, as it did the author of this book, and in fact it was the

main motive for writing it. This question cannot be answered without a thorough examination ofthe whole subject of the Law in both testaments. The author is convinced that he has made this

examination and in so doing has answered the question about the Christians rule of life. He offers

his ndings to other Christians in the hope that this will deepen their understanding of the whole

subject and of Scripture generally.

Eric Lane was born and raised in London. He served in the Royal Air Force and is a graduate of Cambridge Uni-

versity with degrees in English and Theology. Eric served for nine years in the Anglican ministry in Carlisle and Lon-

don, UK. After that he ministered in independent evangelical churches in various parts of the UK. He is now retired

and living in Yateley, Hampshire.

226 pages, paperback with scripture index, see pages 13 & 14 for price and ordering information.

The New Covenant ChurchEkklesiaof ChristJohn G. Reisinger, with his familiar clarity and respect for the Scriptures, investigates the nature of

the new covenant church. Should it be understood primarily as an organization structured with of-

cers and by-laws? Or is the church rst and foremost those called to faith in Christ, by the Holy Spirit,

through the Word of God proclaimed? The true and accurate translation of the word ekklesiademon-

strates, namely, that the ekklesiaof Christ is they, meaning people, and not it, meaning an organization.

If you cannot speak of the ekklesiaas they but constantly think and speak in terms of it you have not

totally come out of Romanism!

John G. Reisinger has served the body of Christ for over sixty years. This is his twenty-fourth title in

print. He is well known and loved for his gift of making seemingly difcult topics easily understandable

to the edication of The New Covenant Church Ekklesiaof Christ.

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15/20

Issue 210 September 2014 Page 15WestContinued from page 3

colleague replaced my monitor with a

holographic image, or my senses are

just always mistaken about the exter-

nal world. So the claim that I seem to

be seeing a computer screen is not a

claim that there really is a computer

screen in the external world: it is themuch less important claim that it

seems to me there is one, and I cannot

be wrong about how things seem to

me in my internal world.

The third type of foundational

beliefs is classied as incorrigible.

These are beliefs that cannot be bro-

ken down and disavowed; they cannot

be corrected (French etymology). A

common example of an incorrigible

belief would be the belief that I am ina state of pain (when I actually am in

a state of pain). There might not be

any organic cause for my pain, or it

might be generated in a psychosomat-

ic way, but nevertheless if I am in a

state of pain, I cannot be wrong about

how Im feeling and the state that Im

experiencing.

What these three types of belief

all share is the fact that they do not

depend on other beliefs for their

plausibility. They rest on themselves,

by virtue of the fact that they cannot

be wrong. The goal for knowledge in

this traditional foundationalist model

was to build all other beliefs on top of

these. If other beliefs did not rest logi-

cally on these foundational beliefs,

then they were rejected. Furthermore,

other beliefs were held probabilisti-

cally, because one could not be 100%

sure that they were true. If this was

rigorously applied, rampant skepti-cism could result. It could also make

ethical and religious beliefs highly

suspect, or even positively irrational,

since they didnt t very well on the

type of beliefs that were admitted into

the foundation.

Often in the post-Enlightenment

world, Christian apologists tried to

defend the faith by showing how

Christian belief could be justied on

the standard laid down by the foun-

dationalists. The Reformed episte-

mologists have denied that this is

necessary. In fact, they have argued

that Christians have no need whatso-

ever to meet the challenge posed by

such a strong foundationalist point of

view. One of the reasons they have forrejecting foundationalism is that the

whole paradigm is incoherent. We do

not have time to follow their critique,

but part of the rationale is that the

foundational system fails its own test.

The acceptance of foundationalism as

an epistemological model is not itself

a belief that is foundational, nor does

it logically connect to the categories

of foundational belief that the model

posits. As a result, the foundational

paradigm fails to be properly justiedon the basis of its own standards.

Anotherand more important

reason for their rejection of the foun-

dationalist challenge is that Christians

simply do not come to believe in God

on the basis of long chains of reason-

ing from premises to conclusions. On

the contrary, Christians nd belief in

God simply rising up inside of them.

They might stand under a starry sky,

and the absolute awe and grandeurcan spontaneously convince them

that there is a God. They might hear

a sermon on the cross of Christ and

nd themselves profoundly convinced

that the gospel is true. This reality of

belief-formation allows illiterate be-

lievers and young children to be justi-

ed in their intellectual acceptance of

Christian truth. Part of the problem

with classical proofs for the existence

of God is that very few people have

the specialized training to even follow

the drift of the arguments, let alone

evaluate their strength. If believing

in God could only be justied on the

basis of a long philosophical defense,

hardly any Christians would be intel-

lectually justied in their faith.

Reformed epistemologists do not

reject foundationalism entirely; they

simply recognize that the traditional

model is unsustainable. Foundational-

ism can be maintained, but only in a

modied form. The foundation needs

to be made wider, and more beliefs

need to be included. Beliefs that are

foundational are called basic beliefs.

These are beliefs that are not mediated

by other beliefs, or beliefs that are ac-cepted as the conclusion of chains of

reasoning and logical deduction. The

great distinctive of Reformed episte-

mology is that it maintains that belief

in God is a properly basic belief.

Believing in God can be a founda-

tional belief. As a result, you do not

need long philosophical arguments

to justify your belief in God: on the

contrary, given certain circumstances,

you cant help but believe in God!

Reformed epistemologists ar-

gue that God has designed us with a

faculty (or a noetic process) called the

sensus divinitatis (i.e., the sense of

deity, or the sense of the divine). This

faculty can produce belief in God.

According to Reformed epistemol-

ogy, the person who stands under the

starry sky and nds a belief in God

spontaneously arising within him

is experiencing the workings of the

sensus divinitatis. This belief is notpredicated on other beliefs: it is self-

generating and self-supporting.

But there is certainly more to

Christianity than a belief in theism.

Christian belief requires faith in Jesus

Christ and acceptance of his atoning

death on the cross as well as his resur-

rection to eternal life. For Reformed

epistemology, accepting these be-

liefs does not take place through the

work of thesensus divinitatis. Theseparticular beliefs are produced by the

internal work of the Holy Spirit inside

the believers heart and mind. The

cardinal truths of Christianity (what

the Reformed epistemologists refer to

as the great things of the gospel) are

conrmed in our hearts by the Spirit.

In this model, then, belief in God

WestContinued on page 18


16/20


them? They tend to order their lives

around such things. It might be an

electronic gadget such as an iPhone

that seems to fulll its function almost

perfectly without sacricing a beauti-

ful design. It might be a movie that

tends to grip us because it powerfullydepicts the reality of life in a beautiful

way.

These are just a couple of ex-

amples. What does the culture do with

these things that are seen as perfect

in their sphere? The culture seeks

out these things, seeks to be associ-

ated with these things, and seeks to

tell others about these things. What

do you do with the one thing that has

been given to you that truly isper-fect and lacks nothing? The Word is

perfect. Do you seek it? Do you tell

others about it? Are you attached to it

as something of value in your life?

Sure - v7b the testimony of the

LORD is sure, making wise the

simple;

Next David tells us that the testi-

mony of the Lord is sure. The Word of

God is a testimony or a witness to the

truth. This witness is a sure witness.

I had to spend a day in court

recently to testify on someone elses

behalf. I was a witness to events sur-

rounding a very serious assault. These

events occurred about nine months

ago. I found myself trying and failing

to remember with surety some of the

details of what I saw. That was a very

unsettling feeling. I was worried that

the outcome of this hearing might turn

on my recollection (accurate or other-

wise) of specic details and events. As

it turns out, I did not have to testify.

The world is full of inaccurate and

incomplete testimony to what is true

about us and the world we live in.

These testimonies come to us in en-

tertainment, in news, in education, in

politics. All of these claim to give us

a sure testimony but they fail. Gods

word does not fail. It is sure.

Right - v8a the precepts of the

LORD are right,rejoicing the heart;

The Word of God is also right. The

sense here is not simply that the Word

of God is not wrong. It is not just

correct but much more than that. It is

right in a way that produces satisfac-

tion in it. It is right in the same sensethat a cornerstone for a building must

be right and true. It must be per-

fectly square and straight. A piece of

stone like this has a beauty to it. It is

admirable. Gods Word is right in this

sense. It has accuracy and precision

that is amazing and beautiful.

Pure v8b-9a the commandment

of the LORD ispure,enlightening

the eyes; the fear of the LORD is

clean, enduring forever;

There is no distortion or con-

tamination in the Word of God. The

commandments of God are not tainted

by sin. This means when we open this

Book we read declarations of truth

and commands to live by which have

never been compromised in the least

by sinful pride, jealousy, ignorance,

lust, and the list goes on. Gods Word

is pure.

Where in this world will you look

and nd any such revelation? Is sci-

ence, in all its ndings, free from the

any sense of ignorance? Is your favor-

ite talk show host free of any sense of

pride that might cloud their thinking?

The Word of God is perfect in these

things. Search it out and you will see.

True 9b the rules of the LORD

are true, and righteous altogether.

The Word of God is reliable. It hasintegrity. You can rely on it. It is this

quality of honesty and a sense of in-

corruptibility that makes these words

worthy of our trust. It comes from a

source that is beyond questioning and

is communicated to us in the exact

manner that God intended for it to be.

This Word is worthy of our trust.

So we have seen that the revelation

of Gods will, which we refer to as

the Word of God, the Bible, is true, is

pure, is right, is sure, and is perfect. If

this is the case then this Book contains

words that, by Gods Spirit, have great

power. This Word is not just a set of

propositions or idle statements. This

Word is the very power of God to act

in this world. It is, as the writer ofHebrews puts it:

living and active, sharper

than any two-edged sword, pierc-

ing to the division of soul and of

spirit, of joints and of marrow, and

discerning the thoughts and inten-

tions of the heart. (Heb 4:12).

This Word acts upon us. It is not

just a bunch of inanimate pixels on

a page. It is the very breath of God

breathed out to give us life. This truthhas great implications for how we live

the Christian life.

When the power goes out a funny

thing happens. If the power is out for

long enough, we do some silly things,

dont we? How many of you have

had the experience of losing power

in your home and then walking into a

room and icking on the light switch

only to nd there is no light? Why

does that happen? Why do we all dothat? Because we have gotten so used

to ipping that switch and having the

light come on.

We have absolutely no thought of

what is going on behind that wall to

make the switch and light work. We

have become conveniently unaware

of our daily need for electricity to

be owing through the wires. Our

brains think ip switch > light on.

But that is not really what is go-

ing on in there, is it? There is built

into that system a need for power, a

need for something that we do not

provide. You can stand there and ip

that switch all day but it is not going

to do anything unless there is electric-

ity running through the wires. But we

dont do that, do we? As soon as we

ip the switch once we are reminded.

Oh yes, the electricity is off.

ThorhauerContinued from page 5


17/20

Issue 210 September 2014 Page 17But what do we do with our lives,

with our souls? We are often standing

there ipping the switch on/off/on/

off and wondering why the light does

not come on. We have forgotten that

there is more to it than just ipping

the switch. If we are not seeking the

power source which God has designedfor us to seek then we are merely ip-

ping a switch with no power behind

it. God has given us his Word. It is the

active ingredient in powering the soul

in so many ways. Lets look at those

ways now.

We have considered what the

Word isnow we will go back through

verses 7-11 and consider what the

Word does.

II. The Word:

Revives v7a The law of the

LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;

Going back to verse 7 we see that

this quality of perfection means that

this Word is capable of and indeed ac-

tually does revive the soul. We are all

sinners in need of reviving, in need of

restoration. In and of ourselves we are

bent on sin and evil acts. We are dead

in our trespasses and sin. We need to

be revived. Thankfully, God gives us

his perfect word. It lacks nothing and

in its perfection it is also complete in

its ability to bring life to a dead soul

and to restore a so

Sound of Grace, Issue 210, September 2014

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Transcript of Sound of Grace, Issue 210, September 2014