TABLE TALKVol. 25 No. 3

Official Publication of the LMS-USA...these words... shall be upon your heart; you shallteach them... and talk of them... Deut. 6:6,7

August 2018

Biblical Faith and The Importance ofTeaching and Knowledge

"And these words that I commandyou today shall be on your heart. Youshall teach them diligently to yourchildren, and shall talk of them whenyou sit in your house, and when youwalk by the way, and when you liedown, and when you rise. You shallbind them as a sign on your hand,and they shall be as frontlets betweenyour eyes. You shall write them onthe doorposts of your house and onyour gates." Deuteronomy 6:6-8

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth hasbeen given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach-ing them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am withyou always, to the end of the age.'" Matthew 28:18-20

"...devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, toteaching." 1 Timothy 4:13

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and JesusChrist whom you have sent." John 17:3

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."2 Peter 3:18 [All Scripure quotes are from the ESV © 2001 Crossway]

The Bible makes clear that sincethe Fall, the teaching and knowledgeof God and what God has revealedas to His will and ways, and espe-cially of the salvation He would, andnow has, made possible for sinfulhumankind, is something God com-

mands. The importance of knowingin connection with all of this is seenin our Lord's own words. It is intrin-sically tied to one's possession ofeternal life (Jn. 17:3). We are tostart this teaching with young chil-

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The Place of Teaching in the Kingdom of Heaven . . . . page 2Handling the Word of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6 Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 6 The Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 7 The Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 9 The Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 10The Value Of Godly Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 11

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dren (Deut. 6:7), we are to teach inthe public assembly (1 Tim. 4:3), weare as individuals to continue towork to grow in such knowledge (2Pet. 3:18). Our teaching text is to beall of Scripture [All Scripture isbreathed out by God and profitablefor teaching, for reproof, for correc-tion, and for training in righteous-ness, that the man of God may becomplete, equipped for every goodwork. (2 Tim. 3:16)], and the teach-ing is to be of the whole counsel/

plan/purpose/will of God (see Acts20:27). Specific to this knowledgeand the teaching of it in the NewTestament era, is that of the personand work of Jesus Christ [God soloved the world, that he gave hisonly Son, that whoever believes inhim should not perish but have life(Jn. 3:16)]. And Jesus stated this ne-cessity in these words, I am the wayand the truth, and the life. No onecomes to the Father except throughme (John 14:6; See also Acts 4:12). Ω

The Place of Teaching in the Kingdom of HeavenBy Jacob Tanner, A.M., S.T.D.

The Kingdom of Heaven is God'srule in the hearts of men throughJesus Christ. It is therefore a kingdomto be found in the hearts of men. Scope and aim. The scope andaim of the Kingdom are pregnantwith the most far-reaching effects. Torule in the hearts of men means to ruleover their motives and innermost feel-ings, thoughts, plans, dreams and vi-sions, energy and acts, words andwork. It will control not only theinner life of a man, but all the activi-ties in which he becomes engaged. There is a still wider aim. Throughthe control of the heart-life of theindividual, God will control the indi-viduals, the homes, the communities,and every part of the life of the coun-try. All the activities that individualsjointly undertake, they will under-take as Christians ruled and guidedby the Spirit of God. Christians cannot participate in anything jointlywhich they could not do, if every onestood alone. The Kingdom, however, reachesstill further. Through control of thethe individuals, the Kingdom willcontrol the nation and every activityof the nation. By controlling the na-tions, God would then control theinternational relations. Christ Jesus

would be not only the most potentfactor in the life of individuals, butalso in the life of the nations and ininternational relations. This is a superhuman task. Theobstacles caused by human selfish-ness and all other forms of sin aresufficient to discourage the most cou-rageous. Different temperaments heri-tage, tradition, education, even meansof livelihood and climate add to thedifficulties. Nevertheless, Christ commandedto make all nations disciples, and Hemeant it. His vision was world-wide.His Kingdom was to be a kingdomembracing the whole earth. Means. By what means can suchan undertaking be brought to a suc-cessful completion? God’s answer issurprisingly simple. It is given inGod’s word about Abraham when Hesays: "I have known him, to the endthat he command his children and hishousehold after him, that they maykeep the way of Jehovah, to do righ-teousness and justice; to the end thatJehovah may bring upon Abrahamthat which he hath spoken of him."(Gen. 18:19.) This is further devel-oped in Deut. 6:4-9. In the New Testament Christ laysdown the general principle for the

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building of the Kingdom. He said:"Go ye therefore and make disciplesof all the nations, baptizing them intothe name of the Father, and of theSon, and of the Holy Spirit, teachingthem to observe all things whatso-ever I commanded you." (Matt. 28:19-20.) It must, therefore, be clear thatteaching is fundamental in the workto build the Kingdom of Heaven. Infact, it must be said that according tothe Word of God, the coming of theKingdom and the future of the Churchdepend upon teaching the children tobelieve in and to obey Jesus Christ.This is true educational evangelism,and it should be the first and mainconcern of the local congregation. A Specific Knowledge. It is a spe-cific knowledge that is needed in thisbuilding work. Not any kind of knowl-edge is suitable, not even any kind ofreligious knowledge. There are toomany people who believe that if alittle religious sentiment is mixed intothe instruction, they are teaching thechildren what they need to know inorder to occupy a place and be abuilding force in the Kingdom ofHeaven. It is Christ that has established theKingdom. It is His Kingdom and Hetells us what kind of knowledge isnecessary. "Teaching them to observeall things whatsoever I commandedyou." It is knowledge of Christ, Hisperson, life, work, and command-ments, that is needed. This is an im-portant truth to be remembered. Astrue knowledge of Christ will buildthe Kingdom of Heaven in andthrough the children, so false knowl-edge will lead them astray and buildup the kingdom of Satan. Baptize and Instruct. When westudy the pedagogical plan for thebuilding of the Kingdom as set forthby Christ, we find that it consists oftwo steps. The first is to make thechildren members of the Kingdomthrough baptism, and the second togive them Christian instruction. Even

in the Old Testament we find thesame plan. Through circumcision theywere made members of the covenant,and as members they were to be in-structed. Baptism has a fundamental placein the work of building the Kingdom.This is evident from Christ's ownwords when He instituted baptism. Itis proper here to call attention to awell known fact. The translation ofMatt. 28:19-20 in the the authorizedversion of the English Bible is wrong.It reads: "Go ye therefore and teachall nations baptizing them .... teach-ing them . . . ."The Greek text uses three words. Thefirst is matheteuein, which means tomake one a disciple. The second isbaptizem, which means to baptize.The third word is didaskein, whichmeans to teach, to instruct. It is theword matheteuein that is used first inthis command of Jesus and must betranslated: to make disciples. It isthus translated in the revised versionand in all modern translations. Christfirst gives the general command tomake all nations disciples, and thenHe tells how it is to be done - bybaptizing and teaching them to keepwhat Christ has commanded. When Christ places baptism be-fore teaching the only possible expla-nation is that the ordinary procedurein making a nation disciples shouldbe to bring the individuals into theKingdom through baptism before theyare old enough to be instructed. The first converts in a nation are,of course, adults, as was the case inthe apostolic Church. It was, there-fore, inevitable that the first to bebaptized were adults. However, assoon as the parents were convertedand thus Christian homes establishedand Christian nurture made possible,the children were also baptized. Asthe Christian homes multiplied, in-fant baptism also multiplied and be-came the prevailing rule. Christian Nurture. In our Churchwe instruct mainly baptized children.

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Our instruction must therefore havethe character of Christian nurture.Christian nurture is to furnish thenourishment needed for the spiritualwelfare and development of the child.This nurture must affect the wholelife of the child. It must develop aChristian consciousness and con-science, a willing obedience, a spiri-tual outlook upon life, a purpose inharmony with God's plan for our life,in short — a Christian faith. Through baptism a new spirituallife is created in the child. The HolySpirit creates in the soul a faith thatdid not exist before. At first this faithis undeveloped. But it is implanted asa new life principle which throughnourishment is to grow and unfold allthat which lies even in the uncon-scious beginning of the Christian faith.The Christian instruction must fur-nish the nourishment needed for thisdevelopment. A healthy spiritual atmosphere isa part of Christian nature. By this ismeant that those who deal with thechildren must be Christ-like in theirattitude and life. Such spiritual atmo-sphere is an important part of teach-ing the children to know, believe in,and love Jesus Christ. To teach the children about JesusChrist is therefore not only an intel-lectual work demanding intellectualqualifications, but a spiritual work aswell, demanding spiritual qualifica-tions and preparation. Christian Instruction and Mor-als. Attention must also be called toanother important side of the teach-ing of Christianity to children. Thereis the closest relation between Chris-tianity and Christian morals. The im-portance of Christian morals shouldbe self-evident. Without a sense ofresponsibility, obedience to law, hon-esty, purity, respect for life. and prop-erty, there can be no civilized, letalone happy, society. It seems, how-ever, not so self- evident to many thatwithout Christian faith, there will inthe long run be no Christian morals.

He who does not love God above allthings, can not love his neighbor ashimself. A person without a workingsense of responsibility to God, willnot have a working responsibility toman. It is at all times necessary to buildup Christian morals in the cominggeneration. The future rests upon thesuccess of this work. The ordinarystrain upon the morals from the Devil,the world and the flesh, is severeenough. A complicated civilizationadds to this strain. Modern conve-niences of all kinds have producednew complications, new problems,and placed before our young peopletemptations in new forms. It is there-fore doubly necessary to build up themorals of the growing generation. In the religions of the ancientworld, religion and morals were notunited. The religion of Israel was theonly exception. In all other religionsa man might be very religious and atthe same time break all recognizedmoral standards. In fact, the worshipof the gods consisted often in acts ofunbelievable immorality. Christ,building on the foundation laid in theOld Testament, united religion andmorals inseparably. Love of Godshould manifest itself in love of man.And He always emphasized that thelife spring of right morals was inHim. "Without me ye can do noth-ing." Christian Motive. Christ also in-troduced an adequate motive forChristian conduct. This motive isChrist Himself. When the Apostlesaid that "it is no longer I that live, butChrist liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20), hestated the inner secret of a Christianlife. Christ expressed the same truthwhen He said: "If ye love me, ye willkeep my commandments." (John14:16.) The love to Christ kindled inthe heart of one who is saved by God'slove in Christ Jesus becomes thesource of his whole life. He lives inand for Christ. Out of this Christ-centered life Christian morals flow.

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It is therefore necessary throughthe teaching of the Word of God toinstill in the children a love of Christthat will become a motive powerstrong enough to make them live aChristian life. We know, of course,that it is the Holy Spirit who createslove of God in our hearts. But, ac-cording to the Word of God we alsoknow that by teaching the childrenGod's Word, we furnish the knowl-edge which the Holy Spirit uses tocreate and sustain this love. Use Psychological Knowledge. Ifwe shall succeed in teaching the chil-dren the Word of God in such a waythat the result will be faith in Christand living for Christ, we must under-stand and make use of the laws of thesoul. The soul functions according tocertain laws, called the psychologicallaws. These laws are created by Godand as it is necessary for us to knowthe laws of nature in order to succeedin our work to produce food, heat, andother necessities, and as it is neces-sary to know the laws of health inorder to maintain our efficiency, so itis also necessary to know the laws ofthe soul in order to succeed whenteaching the way of salvation. A Destructive Psychology. Mod-ern psychology has greatly increasedthe general understanding of children.However, much of this psychology ispurely speculative, based on a mate-rialistic philosophy and built up ac-cording to the theory of materialisticevolution.* The mental process ac-cording to this psychology may bestated as follows: A stimulus comesin over the sensory nerves to the sen-sory center. A path, created by heri-tage and the past experiences of theindividual, leads over to the motorcenter. This bridge is called the"bond." From the motor center thestimuli go out over the motor nervesto produce the action. In other words,the stimuli follow through the wholecourse the line of least resistance andoperate with mechanical necessity.This psychology eliminates choice,

and it also eliminates moral responsi-bility. Not all psychologists of thistype would state the process in such acrass materialistic way. However, thepsychologists who accept the mecha-nistic principles as governing humanconduct, have no place in their sys-tem either for free choice or moralresponsibility. This psychology is antagonistic toChristian faith on every point. Themotive for man's action is found inwhat is pleasant or painful. The sourceof altruistic conduct is in our socialrelationship. There is no such thing aseternal truth. Truth is subject to anever changing process of develop-ment. A man's religious experience isa self-deception. There is no place forGod or grace. All Christian moralvalues are destroyed. It is necessary to call attention tothis type of psychology, because ithas been gaining ground in educa-tion. At the present it is at work tomould the religious instruction of theSunday schools of the country. This psychology is contrary to theteachings of Christ. He saw in everyman a spiritual "I," a conscious centeror personality who is not governedsolely by physical influence. To Himthe motive for our acts should be thatlove of God and man which has itssource in God's love of us. The sourceof right conduct is not in social rela-tionship, but in God. Christ speaks ofreligious experiences as the highestreality, and so they appear in His ownlife. And truth, according to Christ, iseternal. Ω

*Note: For a further study of this phaseof modern psychology see “The Peda-gogy of Jesus in the Twilight of To-day," by Walter A. Squires, pp. 171-296. This summary is partly drawnfrom Squire's book.

This article is chapter one in the book, TenStudies In Religous Pedagogy, by JacobTanner. Augsburg Publishing House, Min-neapolis, MN, 1930. Used with Permission

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Handling the Word of Truth As individuals, as teachers, andpreachers, we are not free to dealwith the Word of God as we please.The apostle Paul gave young pastorTimothy this admonition, "Do yourbest to present yourself to God asone approved, a worker who has noneed to be ashamed, rightly [cor-rectly/accurately/properly] handlingthe word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). These are skills that must belearned, and if they are to be learnedthey must, in one way or another, betaught. This instruction should beginin the home (see introductory ar-ticle), but as has also been made noteof, it is to be the function of thechurch, and as the Lutheran Churchis structured, it should be central toConfirmation instruction. "Train up achild in the way he should go; evenwhen he is old he will not departfrom it." And should we not sup-pose that one of the most importantaspects of this training ought to bethe 'right handling' of God's Word? As a demonstration of what mightbe accomplished in the instruction ofyoung people in the home and in thechurch, and more specifically in theConfirmation instruction of ouryouth, the program at Christ Luth-eran, Chetek, WI is here outlined. The time of formal Confirmationinstruction is two years. The twoyears includes instruction both in theSunday School (with a lay teacher)and in weekly midweek classes(with the pastor). There is instruc-tion in Luther's Small Catechism

Jesus - by student 'a'

"Jesus said... 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.'" John 14:6

Who is Jesus? To some, He wasa good person. To others, like thePharisees, He was a false teacherand a blasphemer. But to us, He ismuch more. He is the light thatgives us hope in a world that is

filled with darkness. In John 8:12Jesus says, "....I am the light of theworld. Whoever follows me will notwalk in darkness but will have thelight of life." This verse says that ifwe follow Christ, we will have the

(memory work required) and besidesthis, the pastor and students worktheir way through C. S. Lewis',Mere Christianity; a study ofChurch History, using the volume,Church History, by B. K. Kuiper;Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing; andalso a study of Hermeneutics, incor-porating the volume, Hermeneutics,Principles, and Processes of Bibli-cal Interpretation, by Henry A.Vinkler; Baker Books Publishing. All this has not always been in-corporated into the course of study,but through the years, and taking se-rious note of what our young peopleneed if they are going to beequipped to live as Christians in thisworld as well as being equipped towitness to the faith, this is the courseof study that, up to this point intime, has evolved. Students are alsoencouraged to participate in ourcongregation's Midweek BibleStudy. Also, students are not automati-cally confirmed at the conclusion oftheir study. Rather, when they, theirparents, and the pastor feel they un-derstand, and are ready, to take theconfirmation vow, they will then beconfirmed. As part of the confirmation rite,the following presentations weregiven by this year's confirmands.The assignment was to compose,then share with the congregation,one aspect of John 14:6. Three ofthese students are 14 years of age,one is 16. Ω

page 7light of life. But, how do we knowHim? Why is knowledge of Himimportant? How does knowledge ofGod's word impact our personal re-lationship with the Lord? We know Jesus through theBible where He reveals Himself tous through the Word. We see Himthrough His followers, who try to doas He did. We can also see Christthrough His creation as outlined inRomans 1: 20 where it says, "Forhis invisible attributes, namely, hiseternal power and divine nature,have been clearly perceived, eversince the creation of the world, inthe things that have been made. Sothey are without excuse." All ofthese examples show us how we canknow Jesus better. We can learnabout Him through His Word, wecan see some of His attributes in Hisfollowers, and we can see a glimpseof His beauty through His creation. Knowledge of God's Word is im-portant to guide our lives. It keepsus close to the Lord in a world thatpushes us to go away from Him.Knowledge is also important whensharing our faith with others, as wellas defending it when it is chal-lenged. 1 Peter 3:15 states, "But inyour hearts honor Christ the Lord asholy, always being prepared tomake a defense to anyone who asksyou for a reason for the hope that isin you; yet do it with gentleness andrespect." Our knowledge of God'sword impacts our relationship with

the Lord because it is foundationalto our belief in Him. Without thisknowledge, we would be 'up thecreek without a paddle' so to speak.Without God's word, we wouldhave no truth, and thus have noth-ing to base our beliefs on. This iswhy the Word is so important. In our culture today, we largelyreject the Lord which results indarkness, emptiness, broken fami-lies and no guidance for life, toname a few examples. With Christ,we have guidance for life! Gala-tians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit ofthe Spirit is love, joy, peace, pa-tience, kindness, goodness, faithful-ness, gentleness, self-control...."with Christ, this is what we have.When we believe in Christ, thisfruit will be evident in how we liveour lives, and others will see Christin us. Jesus' actions are shown to usthroughout Scripture, and weshould follow His actions as we liveour lives. The more we do this, wewill affect our culture in a positiveway as we share Jesus' love. This isour challenge: to fulfill the greatcommission in Matthew 28:19where Jesus says, "Go therefore andmake disciples of all nations, bap-tizing them in the name of the Fa-ther and of the Son and of the HolySpirit." By knowing who Jesus isand having knowledge of HisWord, we can fulfill this com-mand. Ω

The Way - by student 'b'

The first question we need to askourselves is, "What is the way?"Thomas once asked Jesus this veryquestion. In John14:6, Jesus said tohim, "I am the way, the truth, and thelife. No one comes to the Father ex-cept though me." Note the definite article "TheWay." It states that Jesus is the one

way. Same thing for "the truth," and"The Life." Jesus tells us no onecomes to the Father except throughMe. We need to follow Him to thebest of our ability. The way we dothat is by following His examples,teachings and keeping His com-mandments.

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There is no way we can earn ourway into heaven. If that were pos-sible we would not need Jesus.

The second question is, "How isJesus' way different from others?" Jesus is righteous He exists He is non-contradictional Jesus is patience Jesus is merciful Jesus' word and works are evi-dential. Jesus paid the price for meJohn 3:16, "For God so loved theworld that he gave his only Son thatwhoever believes in him should notperish but have eternal life." Manyreligions teach that it's your goodworks that will save you. But like inIslam even if you had good worksand Allah is having a bad day youcan still be thrown into hell. The third Question is, "Why isfollowing 'The Way' important? John14:6 "...no one comes to the Fatherexcept through me." If we do not fol-low Jesus' Way, we can't come to theFather. And we all want to go toheaven. If you wanted to take your familyon a vacation, and a friend said, "Iknow the perfect spot, let me giveyou a map," you would load up thecar and start following the directionsthat your friend gave you. How important will it be to driveon the roads that he laid out? Veryimportant. If you leave the map andtake little side streets and see thenext little town, it will not be longbefore it will be hard to rememberthe way back. Plus that would meanbacktracking a long way and thatwould be inconvenient and no onewants to admit that they are wrongand abruptly turn the car around.And as the gas tank gets lower andthe day starts to fade, the inescapableconclusion is that you have lost yourway and will not make it to the per-fect spot that your friend told youabout.

In life we have been given a roadmap "The Way." Just like the mapfor the vacation spot, if we don't stayon 'The Way,' all those turns andside streets will try to ensnare us andkeep us from returning to HeavenlyFather. On to the fourth question. "Whydoes the world challenge the idea of'the' Way? These are but a very fewof the reasons.

1) You will be accountable foryour actions. If accountable, thento whom? To God.

2) It will mean that God was realand that they would have to besubject to His laws and would onthe last day have to give an ac-count of their actions.

3) It's work to stay on "The Way." "Enter by the narrow gate. For

the gate is wide and the way iseasy that leads to destruction, andthose who enter by it are many"Matt 7:13. The key word here iseasy. The world today is largelypeople trying to make their liveseasier. We have automated ev-erything now days, right down toAlexis who will tell us what tothink because it's easer thanthinking.

4) It means putting things andpeople before self. "Love yourneighbor as yourself. Pray forthose who persecute you. Turnthe other cheek. Honor your fa-ther and mother. Have no othergods before me." In essence itmeans that God and not the mir-ror is the highest priority.

I know that God is faithful andone of the verses that I love is He-brews 10:23, "Let us hold fast theconfession of our hope without wa-vering, for he who promised is faith-ful." So let us hold on to our faith inJesus and use the road map thatChrist has given us, so we might notbecome lost. Ω

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The Truth - by student 'c'

I will be answering questionslike, what is truth? How can we tellwhat is true? Is truth relative? Andfinally what impact do these ques-tions have on society?

What is truth?

I would like to share with you aquote by Dr Ravi Zacharias who saidthis "Truth is that which affirmspropositionally the nature of realityas it is." I would like to repeat thatfor the sake of emphasis "Truth isthat which affirms propositionallythe nature of reality as it is." Truth isnot what we want it to be, but quitesimply, what is regardless of how wefeel about it. For example, if I read a mathbook regardless of my personal feel-ings when it comes to 2+2=4... 2+2it will still equal 4. This is why youcannot tell the author what he or shewrote. And you cannot tell gravitythat you "identify as superman." Youstill can't fly. Truth is what is. Jesus said, "I am the way theTRUTH and the life. No one comesto the father except through me"John 14:6. What does the Biblemean when it says that Jesus is thetruth? It means that 1) He holds thetruth, 2) that the truth is in Him, and3) what He says is true. In John18:37 Jesus also said, "For this rea-son I was born and for this reason Icame into the world to testify of thetruth. And in John 8:32 we read thatthe "truth shall set you free." Thistells us Jesus came into the world totestify of the truth to set us free. This is why truth is so important,so crucial to our faith. Because byTRUTH, Jesus sets us free. Truthmust be our ultimate goal in any reli-gious debate or study. Truth is moreimportant than our personal feelingsor emotions. Truth must also super-sede our presuppositions, meaningthat truth must be put above our ownpersonal bias or doctrinal stance.

Acts 28:27: "For this people's hearthas grown dull, and with their earsthey can barely hear, and their eyesthey have closed; lest they shouldsee with their eyes and hear withtheir ears and understand with theirheart and turn, and I would healthem." Where in your life and in mylife is the truth standing in front ofus, and we only close our eyes andplug our ears? If you only get one thing from mytalk I hope you will put the truthabove your feelings. Because truthand reality DO NOT end where yourfeelings begin. Feelings are impor-tant but they do not supersede oroverrule truth.

This said, how do we tellwhat is true?

There are two main categories indetermining what is true. One is co-herence, And the other correspon-dence. When we look to see if anidea is true, we need to be lookingfirst for coherence in all of theclaims that the idea makes. And sec-ondly, we need to look and see if theidea corresponds to reality. Now let's use this theory to see ifthere is any truth in the statement,"Truth is relative." If we investigate the statement'truth is relative' we find it to be selfdefeating, because the statement it-self must either be relative, or objec-tive. If the statement is relative,meaning subjective to our opinions,then it is not always true. If, on theother hand, the assertion truth is rela-tive is objective, meaning that it is anabsolute truth, then the statement isdenying the existence of absoluteswith an absolute. In either case the statement truthis relative, has neither coherence inits clam, nor correspondence to real-ity. Therefore, truth cannot be rela-tive. What is true must always betrue. Truth must be objective.

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So why does our culture seekrelative truth? Because if truth isrelative, and Jesus said "I am theway the truth and the life," than inmaking truth relative, the world istrying to relativize the very Son ofGod thereby relativizing God Him-self. Relativism is yet another attemptto destroy personal and cultural ac-countability. If there are no abso-lutes, there is no absolute law, and ifthere isn't an absolute law, thenthere is no law at all. If everything isrelative to our opinions, then whatyou think is wrong, I think is good.And if there is no law, there is nosin. Relativism also destroys Jesusand his word. Jesus said in John14:6 that He is the way the truth andthe life, no one comes to the Fatherexcept through Him. If truth is rela-tive and Jesus said that He is truth,

then in making truth relative, Christand His authority must also be rela-tive. Again what is truth must be ab-solutely true. So what is truth? As Ravi said,truth is that which affirms proposi-tionally the nature of reality as it is. How do we tell what is true? Bylooking for coherence and corre-spondence to reality Can truth be relative? No, be-cause the statement "Truth is rela-tive" is self-defeating. Why does our culture long forrelativism? Because if truth is rela-tive than God is also relative. I would like to close with a quoteby C S Lewis who said, "Humanhistory: the long terrible story ofman trying to find something otherthan God which will make himhappy." Relativism is only the next thing. Ω

The Life - by student 'd'

In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am theway, and the truth, and the life."What did He mean by "the life"?Jesus' definition of life differs sig-nificantly from modern society'sview. Because of these differences,we as Christians have a commissionto model His way of living for afallen world. So, how do we do this? When we don't have life in Jesus,we have nothing. Without a reasonto live and a purpose to strive for, wedon't even know why we are here.Only Jesus can give us that reason.I'm so glad that He did not leave uslifeless! He sacrificed Himself sothat we can become His children andlive for Him. We'll still stumble andhave trials, but now the hopelessnessis gone. One of my favorite Bibleverses is Jeremiah 29:11, whichsays, "For I know the plans I havefor you, declares the Lord, plans forwelfare and not for evil, to give youa future and a hope." Only in Christ

do we have "a future and a hope."Jesus is the only one who will evergive us lasting joy. Only when we letHim live in our hearts and surrenderto His will are we truly alive! With-out His light in our lives we are alldead inside. Ever since the beginning of cre-ation, people have refused this won-derful gift of life. They purposelymake themselves blind to goodthings, things that would help themso much if they just asked. Every-where we look, we see so much bro-kenness around us. Envy, rivalry, de-ceit, and anger have existed since theFall and are no different today. Hu-mankind is willingly falling into thesame trap, over and over again. Thisbrokenness is the result of spirituallydead people, people who are so lostthat they won't ask to be found. Thisis a sad problem, but it is one that weas Christians are called to battle.Jesus' words in Matthew 28:19-20

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are true: "Go therefore and makedisciples of all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father andof the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that Ihave commanded you. And behold,I am with you always, to the end ofthe age." If we answer the call ofthe Great Commission, the Lordwill be with us as we follow Hiswill. As we think about "the life" to-

day, remember that Jesus, God'sSon, is our only source of eternallife. It is our duty to use this perfectgift of life as God wants us to byliving as He did. By following Hisexample, we can transform thedarkness of our broken world intoGod's amazing light. As Christians,what will you do with your gift oflife? Will you leave it wrapped, orwill you use it to impact the worldas Jesus calls you to do? Ω

The Value Of Godly Knowledge The Apostle Peter in his SecondEpistle (II Peter 1:2,3) writes of howgrace and peace can be ours in abun-dance through the knowledge ofGod and of Jesus our Lord. We canexpect, if we have a true knowledgeof God and of His Son, that graceand peace will be conferred to us inabundance. Grace... the grace thatpardons and sanctifies; and peace...peace of conscience, reconciliationwith God, and calmness in the trialsof life (see Barns on 2 Peter 1:2).And what a difference these giftswill make in the life of the be-liever... he or her heart need not betroubled or afraid (Jn. 14:27). One of the things that concernedPeter in connection with the firstgenerations of believers amongwhom he ministered, was their slow-ness, and in not so few cases theirlack, of growth in their faith andlives. The church was made upmainly of new believers and far toomany were remaining babes in thefaith which left them vulnerable totheir own questions, doubts, falseteachings, and of course also to theenemy of their souls, i.e., Satan. We gain Godly Knowledge fromthe Word of God. Way back inDeut. 30:11,14, Moses explained tothe Israelites that what he was com-manding them was not that difficultfor them or beyond their understand-

ing... "The Word is very near you; itis in your mouth and in your heart,so that you may obey it." The many truths that are revealedto us in Scripture - - the truth aboutourselves... the truths concerningGod [His person; His triune nature;His many attributes; the many ex-amples of His working in, with, andamong His people; His faithfulnessto His people; His patience withthem]... the salvation God has madepossible... the many promises con-tained in Scripture... the hope ofheaven... what we were without Godin our lives... what through Christwe have been become (see II Cor.5:17)... what more we may becomeas we live our lives in faithfulness toHim, and await the blessed hope ofhis coming - - all these things andmore enable us to live as people ofGod, and with the assurance that weare truly His now, and forever. Blessed Lord, You have causedall Holy Scripture to be written forour learning. Grant that we may sohear them, read, mark, learn, andtake them to heart that, by the pa-tience and comfort of Your holyWord, we may embrace and everhold fast the blessed hope of ever-lasting life; through Jesus Christ,Your Son, our Lord, who lives andreigns with You and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and forever. Amen. Ω

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