J.A. Matteson
HEBREWS 6:4-12
Does this passage teach that Christians can loose their salvation?
Are Christians secure in their salvation, or is it possible for them to become apostate and suffer eternal damnation? What does the Scripture mean when it states that salvation is by grace through faith? Who does what in salvation—what is God’s role and what is the sinner’s role? These types of questions are of utmost seriousness because how we answer the questions will inform our ministry in how we communicate and live out our Gospel calling.
Upon close examination of Hebrews 6:4-12 it is evident that the author is responding in classical rhetorical fashion to a question posed by the Hebrew Christians who, as with Christians today, were grappling with seeking to understand how it was that some in their midst were forsaking the apostolic Gospel of grace and returning to a Jewish system of Law and works. These confessors of the faith had heard the Gospel of grace and even exhibited outward faith for a while by participating in the life of the church, only sometime latter to deny what they earlier had confessed when persecution arose against the church.
The author responds to their question by setting up a rhetorical situation for the purpose of demonstrating the impossibility of their concern—can true born again believers loose their salvation? The key to rightly interpreting this passage is to: 1) exegete it in the context of the entire book of Hebrews and, 2) endeavoring to inform the Hebrews passage in light of the balance of the New Testament teaching on the topic salvation.
Hebrews 6:4-12 NAS
"For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5. and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6. and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8. but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. 9. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 10. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so 12. that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Reading the passage in isolation (out of its context) it may suggest a dire warning to the born again, that their salvation may hang in the balance day-by-day and is ultimately dependent upon their actions. But is that what is really being communicated in the passage? No. A fundamental interpretive practice of Bible study is referred to as the “analogy of faith” which underscores two key truths regarding Scripture: it is inspired by God thus inerrant. One attribute of God is His omniscience (He is all-knowing). Therefore, God cannot contradict Himself in Scripture because what is written was given in the form of divine revelation by the One who possesses perfect knowledge of all things. The analogy of faith recognizes Scripture as the inspired and inerrant Word of God free from actual contradictions and errors of redemptive truth. What this means practically is that as we read the Bible if there are two passages that appear to be in contradiction, both conclusions cannot be correct (law of non-contradiction), our interpretation of one of the passages then must be in error. The analogy of faith instructs the interpreter to understand vague or foggy passages of Scripture in light other passages which are quite clear on the topic under study. It is for this reason that the interpreter of this passage must take into account the remainder of the book of Hebrews and the other books of the New Testament in order to arrive at a correct application of the passage.
The book to the Hebrews was written to believers who were Jewish converts to the faith. One theme in the book is salvation by grace through faith in contrast to works (attempting to perfectly keep the Mosaic Law).
Greek Text
6:4 αδυνατον γαρ τους απαξ φωτισθεντας γευσαμενους τε της δωρεας της επουρανιου και μετοχους γενηθεντας πνευματος αγιου
The author refers to the apostate as “those” (τους). It is curious that these people are not directly identified as believers, those who are saved, or as believers.
The author classifies “those” (τους) as having once been “enlightened” (φωτισθεντας). To be enlightened is to be exposed to the saving knowledge of the gospel, to have been instructed as to its truth, to be informed, to have been taught in order to gain understanding. The word “enlightened” may also be rendered to give light or make known. We see this same word used of believers in other passages but not specifically pertaining to the event of being born again.
In the above passage the apostle uses the term in reference the believer gaining a deeper understanding of spiritual truth. To taste (γεύομαι) of the heavenly Gift is to experience His presence. Those referenced in the chapter 6 passage are described as “partakers” (μετοχους) in the Holy Spirit. The rendering is an individual who is a companion with or comrade with or one who shares with the Spirit. The word used for gift is δωρεας which simply means without cost, without cause or for no reason.
Examples:
Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift (δωρεαν) of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 NAS
The source of the gift referenced is heaven (επουρανιου) which is suggestive of the Spirit.
6:5 και καλον γευσαμενους θεου ρημα δυναμεις τε μελλοντος αιωνος
The author describes those who have become apostate as those who have tasted (γευσαμενους) or experienced first hand the Word of God and witnessed supernatural deeds of the Spirit having participated in the fellowship of the church.
6:6 και παραπεσοντας παλιν ανακαινιζειν εις μετανοιαν ανασταυρουντας εαυτοις τον υιον του θεου και παραδειγματιζοντας
To fall away (παραπεσοντας) is to denounce by word and/or actions what was earlier confessed to be true. It is the Spirit who renews (ανασταυρουντας) the dead and blind soul, who brings forth life form death, who mercifully bestows the gift of repentance to the soul previously at enmity against God.
"He (Christ) is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts 5:31 NAS
"When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, 'Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.'” Acts 11:18 NAS
"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" Romans 2:4 NAS
"For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." 2 Corinthians 7:10 NAS
"…with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth…" 2 Timothy 2:25 NAS
Apart from the initiative of God upon the lifeless soul no sinners would ever come to repentance on their own. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." John 6:63
If in fact an unregenerate person (one “in the flesh”) were able to come to Christ with repentance and faith apart from the work of the Spirit and therefore become born again, the following passage would be false. "…and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Romans 8:8 For if it was possible to come to Christ in an unregenerate state that would be quite pleasing to God! But such is not the case.
6:7 γη γαρ η πιουσα τον επ αυτης πολλακις ερχομενον υετον και τικτουσα βοτανην ευθετον εκεινοις δι ους και γεωργειται μεταλαμβανει ευλογιας απο του θεου
6:8 εκφερουσα δε ακανθας και τριβολους αδοκιμος και καταρας εγγυς ης το τελος εις καυσιν
6:9 πεπεισμεθα δε περι υμων αγαπητοι τα κρειττονα και εχομενα σωτηριας ει και ουτως λαλουμεν
6:10 ου γαρ αδικος ο θεος επιλαθεσθαι του εργου υμων και του κοπου της αγαπης ης ενδειξασθε εις το ονομα αυτου διακονησαντες τοις αγιοις και διακονουντες
6:11 επιθυμουμεν δε εκαστον υμων την αυτην ενδεικνυσθαι σπουδην προς την πληροφοριαν της ελπιδος αχρι τελους
6:12 ινα μη νωθροι γενησθε μιμηται δε των δια πιστεως και μακροθυμιας κληρονομουντων τας επαγγελιας
"For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end…" Hebrews 3:13 NAS
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (φωτισθεντας), so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…” Ephesians 1:18 NAS
"But remember the former days, when , after being enlightened (φωτισθεντες), you endured a great conflict of sufferings….” Hebrews 10:32 NAS
The remainder of chapter 10 outlines how the authors born again readers were in fact enlightened by the Gospel (Romans 10:17) to the extent of being radically transformed to the point of enduring great suffering from an unbelieving world, emphasizing that we are not those who shrink back to destruction of soul ending in damnation (“we” meaning the redeemed, in contrast to “those” meaning the reprobate).
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8).
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Spirit and Prophetic Utterances in Worship
J.A. Matteson
Common in charismatic circles today is the appeal to this passage from the Apostle Paul as support for the free expression in public worship gatherings of spontaneous ecstatic utterances and new revelation from God, beyond the scripture, in the form of words of knowledge, tongues, and prophecy in the apostolic sense. A close examination of the passage when applying the hermeneutic of the grammatical-historic approach, however, brings the expositor to an entirely different conclusion as to the original intent of the Apostle Paul.
“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18-20
18. “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
This specific exhortation is intended to direct the church to the providential goodness of God. The Christian is to be ever mindful of His mercies and grace. This is a repeated theme throughout Scripture and certainly of the Apostle’s writings, “First, I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8); “always give thanks for all thins in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father” (Eph. 5:20); “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Col. 3:17). An attitude of gratitude is to characterize a Christian’s testimony. A joyful demeanor is an evidence that the grace of God resides within (Gal. 5:22-23).
19. “Do not quench the Spirit.”
Grammatically the statement stands alone. To quench means “to extinguish” or “go out.” Spiritual gifts are given by God and intended by Him to be exercised for the benefit of others (1 Cor. 12:7). Failure to employ that which God has given by grace can result in a diminishing of the gift over time; conversely diligent exercise of a spiritual gift can increase its influence to the benefit of man and the glory of God. Similarly the church is not to hinder the free exercise of spiritual gifts by those so endowed by the Spirit, for to do so is to diminish the Spirit’s activity either within the covenant community of the church or the world. Jesus in His parable of the talents illustrates this point, “Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents” (Matt. 25:28). The Apostle Paul in like fashion instructs Timothy to work diligently to exercise that which God had given him, “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6). The exhortation to Timothy simply means to “stir into flame” or “rekindle”. This word is used by Matthew in reference to Christ as prophesied by Isaiah to illustrate that His ministry would be one of a demonstration of the Spirit unrestrained or without measure, “A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out” (Matt. 12:20; Isa. 42:1). Similarly, Paul uses this same word in connection with fire, but this time not with that of the Spirit, but in the context of spiritual warfare, “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16).
The efficacy of the Spirit in Scripture is often likened to fire as an indication of His purifying influence upon the heart. Paul reminds his young protégé not be negligent in taking personal responsibility for his development in grace, first as an individual, but also as a pastor. This call to diligently pursue maturity in Christ, through means of the Scripture (2 Tim. 3:15) is a repeated theme in the whole Bible, the Pauline writings included, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12); “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4:14). In conclusion, it is evident by the context of the passage, along with its grammar and syntax, that Paul has in view the statement standing alone; viz., every Christian is responsible for developing and exercising the spiritual gift(s) the Lord has graciously given to them for the benefit of others to the glory of God, and the church is not to hinder the free exercise of those gifts which are intended for their edification.
20. “Do not despise prophetic utterances.”
Grammatically the exhortation stands alone and is not a conjunctive statement with the preceding exhortation (v. 19). The literal rendering of the Greek is “prophecies not despise.” The word “prophecies” being plural is from the root meaning to “proclaim God’s message, preach, speak God’s message intelligibly.” The sense is that Paul is instructing the church not to despise the preaching or proclamation of God’s message or word, and therefore, rejecting the delegated authority of a person preaching the gospel. Proclaiming the oracles of God is a prophetic act (forth-telling) and the Apostle is exhorting the church to not shun His message of correction or rebuke which may offend or challenge their understanding of the kingdom of God, but rather, to be teachable, respecting those who diligently work to proclaim God’s word to them which may reveal inner sin (Heb. 4:12). This plea to receive the preaching of God’s message is common throughout the Old and New Testament and repeated instances are given in both Old and New Testaments of the rejection of God’s word, often by those who claim to know and love Him. The sinful nature of man is such that the heart is darkened, and rebellion to the ordinances of God, even among the regenerate, is a natural by-product of the Adamic nature which must be daily mortified. Paul’s exhortation is a summary statement to earlier statements in his letter not to despise those God has appointed to preach His word to the church, “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4); “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13); “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another” (1 Thess. 5:12f). Here the Apostle instructs the church to respect those within their midst who preach God’s word to them, just as they would the Apostle himself, and not to despise their instruction. In the text Paul uses the word “despise”). It is a compound word from “authority” and means to “reject and hold in contempt.” Apparently Paul was speaking to some in the church who had rejected local leadership, especially those who preached the word to them which he referred to earlier in his letter (5:12). In his letter to the churches of Galatia Paul praises them for receiving him and God’s message which he was called to preach, “and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself” (Gal. 4:14). In conclusion, this is Paul’s request of those in Thessalonica, that they receive and accept those appointed by God to preach the gospel to them, not rejecting or despising their delegated authority by Christ, so that they might all “live in peace with each other” (v. 13). To suggest, as some within the charismatic movement may be inclined, that this passage speaks to ecstatic unintelligible tongues and/or new revelatory messages from God is foreign to the text, and can only be asserted by means of an eisegesis[i] of the text, resulting in a gross distortion of the word of God. To this end did the Apostle Peter speak, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:14ff).
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries (”…the word of our God stands forever.” Isa. 40:8).
[i] Eisegesis; “The opposite approach to Scripture is eisegesis, which is the interpretation of a passage based on a subjective, non-analytical reading. The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.” www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html
Common in charismatic circles today is the appeal to this passage from the Apostle Paul as support for the free expression in public worship gatherings of spontaneous ecstatic utterances and new revelation from God, beyond the scripture, in the form of words of knowledge, tongues, and prophecy in the apostolic sense. A close examination of the passage when applying the hermeneutic of the grammatical-historic approach, however, brings the expositor to an entirely different conclusion as to the original intent of the Apostle Paul.
“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18-20
18. “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
This specific exhortation is intended to direct the church to the providential goodness of God. The Christian is to be ever mindful of His mercies and grace. This is a repeated theme throughout Scripture and certainly of the Apostle’s writings, “First, I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8); “always give thanks for all thins in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father” (Eph. 5:20); “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Col. 3:17). An attitude of gratitude is to characterize a Christian’s testimony. A joyful demeanor is an evidence that the grace of God resides within (Gal. 5:22-23).
19. “Do not quench the Spirit.”
Grammatically the statement stands alone. To quench means “to extinguish” or “go out.” Spiritual gifts are given by God and intended by Him to be exercised for the benefit of others (1 Cor. 12:7). Failure to employ that which God has given by grace can result in a diminishing of the gift over time; conversely diligent exercise of a spiritual gift can increase its influence to the benefit of man and the glory of God. Similarly the church is not to hinder the free exercise of spiritual gifts by those so endowed by the Spirit, for to do so is to diminish the Spirit’s activity either within the covenant community of the church or the world. Jesus in His parable of the talents illustrates this point, “Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents” (Matt. 25:28). The Apostle Paul in like fashion instructs Timothy to work diligently to exercise that which God had given him, “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6). The exhortation to Timothy simply means to “stir into flame” or “rekindle”. This word is used by Matthew in reference to Christ as prophesied by Isaiah to illustrate that His ministry would be one of a demonstration of the Spirit unrestrained or without measure, “A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out” (Matt. 12:20; Isa. 42:1). Similarly, Paul uses this same word in connection with fire, but this time not with that of the Spirit, but in the context of spiritual warfare, “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16).
The efficacy of the Spirit in Scripture is often likened to fire as an indication of His purifying influence upon the heart. Paul reminds his young protégé not be negligent in taking personal responsibility for his development in grace, first as an individual, but also as a pastor. This call to diligently pursue maturity in Christ, through means of the Scripture (2 Tim. 3:15) is a repeated theme in the whole Bible, the Pauline writings included, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12); “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4:14). In conclusion, it is evident by the context of the passage, along with its grammar and syntax, that Paul has in view the statement standing alone; viz., every Christian is responsible for developing and exercising the spiritual gift(s) the Lord has graciously given to them for the benefit of others to the glory of God, and the church is not to hinder the free exercise of those gifts which are intended for their edification.
20. “Do not despise prophetic utterances.”
Grammatically the exhortation stands alone and is not a conjunctive statement with the preceding exhortation (v. 19). The literal rendering of the Greek is “prophecies not despise.” The word “prophecies” being plural is from the root meaning to “proclaim God’s message, preach, speak God’s message intelligibly.” The sense is that Paul is instructing the church not to despise the preaching or proclamation of God’s message or word, and therefore, rejecting the delegated authority of a person preaching the gospel. Proclaiming the oracles of God is a prophetic act (forth-telling) and the Apostle is exhorting the church to not shun His message of correction or rebuke which may offend or challenge their understanding of the kingdom of God, but rather, to be teachable, respecting those who diligently work to proclaim God’s word to them which may reveal inner sin (Heb. 4:12). This plea to receive the preaching of God’s message is common throughout the Old and New Testament and repeated instances are given in both Old and New Testaments of the rejection of God’s word, often by those who claim to know and love Him. The sinful nature of man is such that the heart is darkened, and rebellion to the ordinances of God, even among the regenerate, is a natural by-product of the Adamic nature which must be daily mortified. Paul’s exhortation is a summary statement to earlier statements in his letter not to despise those God has appointed to preach His word to the church, “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4); “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13); “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another” (1 Thess. 5:12f). Here the Apostle instructs the church to respect those within their midst who preach God’s word to them, just as they would the Apostle himself, and not to despise their instruction. In the text Paul uses the word “despise”). It is a compound word from “authority” and means to “reject and hold in contempt.” Apparently Paul was speaking to some in the church who had rejected local leadership, especially those who preached the word to them which he referred to earlier in his letter (5:12). In his letter to the churches of Galatia Paul praises them for receiving him and God’s message which he was called to preach, “and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself” (Gal. 4:14). In conclusion, this is Paul’s request of those in Thessalonica, that they receive and accept those appointed by God to preach the gospel to them, not rejecting or despising their delegated authority by Christ, so that they might all “live in peace with each other” (v. 13). To suggest, as some within the charismatic movement may be inclined, that this passage speaks to ecstatic unintelligible tongues and/or new revelatory messages from God is foreign to the text, and can only be asserted by means of an eisegesis[i] of the text, resulting in a gross distortion of the word of God. To this end did the Apostle Peter speak, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:14ff).
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries (”…the word of our God stands forever.” Isa. 40:8).
[i] Eisegesis; “The opposite approach to Scripture is eisegesis, which is the interpretation of a passage based on a subjective, non-analytical reading. The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.” www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html
Monday, March 15, 2010
Regarding the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
02-17-09
J.A. Matteson
At the outset we affirm that Scripture interprets Scripture (God does not contradict Himself) and that to arrive at a proper understanding of an issue the whole council of God's word must be consulted in context. This is emphasized because we live in an age of "proof-texting" where some who may be sincere tend to isolate a verse or two, attempting to establish a "doctrine" out of them, and this they do to their own peril and also to those who follow their teaching.
With regard to the baptism of the Holy Spirit the phenomenon is tied to the New Covenant promised in the Old Covenant to wayward Israel which failed to obey the Lord from the heart, whereby all those now born again (from above) by the Spirit are baptized (spiritually immersed, changed--2 Cor. 5:17) at regeneration/conversion, and placed into the body of Christ, whereby the Law of God is written on their hearts unto obedience to the Glory of God, Who through sanctification slowly conforms them, by His indwelling Spirit, into the image of His blessed Son, Who is the second Adam, without sin, and Who fulfilled the Law of God perfectly to the delight of the Father ("This is My Son in whom I am well pleased").
The sign of the old covenant between the Lord and Abraham was outward (circumcision in the flesh), and it was a foreshadow of the inward circumcision (spiritual) of the heart which would define the new covenant in Christ by faith. This inauguration of the arrival of the new covenant was manifested and established by the out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Church (the ekklesia or “called out of God”), corresponding to the day of Pentecost as prophesied by Joel (2:28-32), and all future generations who are of the real seed of Abraham (i.e., children of promise in the likeness of Issac [supernatural initiative by God for regeneration/conversion] and who, like Abraham, are justified by faith, and not works in vain attempts to keep the Law perfectly, although striving always for obedience in all things). These terms, “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and “circumcision of the heart”, point to the same spiritual initiative and work by the Lord in fulfillment of the old covenant promise; viz., regeneration/conversion which places the believer into the body of Christ as an adopted child with the Law of God written on the heart (OT: Jer. 24:7, 31:33; Isa. 54:13; NT: Rom. 2:28-29, Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:13; 2 Cor. 3:2-3; Gal. 3:27, 6:15; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:10-11; Heb. 8:10, 10:16, 36; 1 Pet. 3:20-22).
Now with regard to spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit bestows gifts to each one as He pleases for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7) and these become operative at conversion (baptism of the Spirit/circumcision of the heart). Those specific spiritual gifts commonly known as “sign gifts” were employed by the Church for a testimony (attesting validation) to the progressive revelation of God that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ/Messiah (evangelism, 1 Cor. 14:25) and the building up of the body of Christ in faith and good works (edification, 1 Cor. 14:12, 26), until such time as the complete testimony of God's revelation (which in times past came by various means, Heb. 1:1) would be written down and preserved for future generations in order to prevent the perversion of His revelation by unstable men (Deut. 4:2, 12:32; Ps. 19:7-9; Prov. 22:19-21; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 4:6; 2 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 22;18). And the twelve Apostles were in like manor recipients of these gifts as a testimony that the kingdom of God was at hand.
The gift of tongues in the New Testament were known human languages, exercised for the purpose of carrying out the Great Commission (evangelism). In fulfillment of the Lord's promise to Abraham that through his seed he would be a blessing to all peoples the supernatural gift of speaking and understanding foreign languages, which had never been learned, was essential to fulfilling the Great Commission at that time, but as Paul noted there would come a time when tongues would no longer be necessary and would cease (1 Cor. 13:8-10, being temporary), and that corresponded with the passing of the apostolic age and the completion of the written revelation of God.
In the Acts of the Apostles Luke records several distinct one-time Pentecost type out-pouring’s of the Spirit to different people groups in fulfillment of the Lord's promise to Abraham. The first was to the Jews (Acts 2); the second was to the Samaritans (Acts 8:14:17); third was to the Gentiles (Acts 10:34-47 ); the last was to the Old Covenant saints/disciples who only knew of the baptism of John (Acts 19:1-6 ), The subsequent three occurrence to the Samaritans, Gentiles, and OT disciples of John were all identical to that of the Jews in Acts 2, the Apostle Peter stating as such (Acts 11:16-18); the "gift" mentioned by Peter is the Holy Spirit. Taken in context there is no scriptural basis for a teaching of a "second blessing" or a subsequent "baptism of the Holy Spirit", these would seem to be doctrines of men.
How then do we account for the "experience" which some Christians have today of a second blessing or subsequent "baptism of the Holy Spirit"? With it not being biblical it is either the flesh via an emotional response through the power of suggestion, or demonic. While some reports of tongues as a known human language surface from time to time, for the most part the tongues practiced today in no way resemble the tongues we read about in the New Testament (known human languages), and that alone ought to be the first cause for warning. Rather the ecstatic utterances of today have been linked by respected linguists to resemble almost identically tongues used by primitive pagan tribal sects around the globe who employ witchcraft and divination.
For those within charismatic and Pentecostal circles the dawning of this reality is often sobering and tough to accept at first, for no one enjoys the self-discovery of realizing they have been led astray by false teaching. And yet over time coming to the knowledge of the truth is liberating and truly empowering. A key contributor to this theological error in pneumatology is the nearly wholesale abandonment of expository teaching and preaching in many congregations today. And when the church is not edified it becomes vulnerable to false teaching in response to a lessening of spiritual discernment.
Certainly the Apostle Peter spoke to this danger and his words continue to serve as a powerful warning to the church today not to engage in sloppy exegesis of God's Word, "...and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness...." (2 Pet.3:15-17).
Finally, it may be noted that in our day many of these false teachings come by way of books, conferences, TV and radio programs and the like by people who may be sincere in their own minds, yet are sincerely deceived. Therefore, beloved, be all all the more diligent to adhere to Sola Scripture for faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:16).
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8).
J.A. Matteson
At the outset we affirm that Scripture interprets Scripture (God does not contradict Himself) and that to arrive at a proper understanding of an issue the whole council of God's word must be consulted in context. This is emphasized because we live in an age of "proof-texting" where some who may be sincere tend to isolate a verse or two, attempting to establish a "doctrine" out of them, and this they do to their own peril and also to those who follow their teaching.
With regard to the baptism of the Holy Spirit the phenomenon is tied to the New Covenant promised in the Old Covenant to wayward Israel which failed to obey the Lord from the heart, whereby all those now born again (from above) by the Spirit are baptized (spiritually immersed, changed--2 Cor. 5:17) at regeneration/conversion, and placed into the body of Christ, whereby the Law of God is written on their hearts unto obedience to the Glory of God, Who through sanctification slowly conforms them, by His indwelling Spirit, into the image of His blessed Son, Who is the second Adam, without sin, and Who fulfilled the Law of God perfectly to the delight of the Father ("This is My Son in whom I am well pleased").
The sign of the old covenant between the Lord and Abraham was outward (circumcision in the flesh), and it was a foreshadow of the inward circumcision (spiritual) of the heart which would define the new covenant in Christ by faith. This inauguration of the arrival of the new covenant was manifested and established by the out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Church (the ekklesia or “called out of God”), corresponding to the day of Pentecost as prophesied by Joel (2:28-32), and all future generations who are of the real seed of Abraham (i.e., children of promise in the likeness of Issac [supernatural initiative by God for regeneration/conversion] and who, like Abraham, are justified by faith, and not works in vain attempts to keep the Law perfectly, although striving always for obedience in all things). These terms, “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and “circumcision of the heart”, point to the same spiritual initiative and work by the Lord in fulfillment of the old covenant promise; viz., regeneration/conversion which places the believer into the body of Christ as an adopted child with the Law of God written on the heart (OT: Jer. 24:7, 31:33; Isa. 54:13; NT: Rom. 2:28-29, Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:13; 2 Cor. 3:2-3; Gal. 3:27, 6:15; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:10-11; Heb. 8:10, 10:16, 36; 1 Pet. 3:20-22).
Now with regard to spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit bestows gifts to each one as He pleases for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7) and these become operative at conversion (baptism of the Spirit/circumcision of the heart). Those specific spiritual gifts commonly known as “sign gifts” were employed by the Church for a testimony (attesting validation) to the progressive revelation of God that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ/Messiah (evangelism, 1 Cor. 14:25) and the building up of the body of Christ in faith and good works (edification, 1 Cor. 14:12, 26), until such time as the complete testimony of God's revelation (which in times past came by various means, Heb. 1:1) would be written down and preserved for future generations in order to prevent the perversion of His revelation by unstable men (Deut. 4:2, 12:32; Ps. 19:7-9; Prov. 22:19-21; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 4:6; 2 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 22;18). And the twelve Apostles were in like manor recipients of these gifts as a testimony that the kingdom of God was at hand.
The gift of tongues in the New Testament were known human languages, exercised for the purpose of carrying out the Great Commission (evangelism). In fulfillment of the Lord's promise to Abraham that through his seed he would be a blessing to all peoples the supernatural gift of speaking and understanding foreign languages, which had never been learned, was essential to fulfilling the Great Commission at that time, but as Paul noted there would come a time when tongues would no longer be necessary and would cease (1 Cor. 13:8-10, being temporary), and that corresponded with the passing of the apostolic age and the completion of the written revelation of God.
In the Acts of the Apostles Luke records several distinct one-time Pentecost type out-pouring’s of the Spirit to different people groups in fulfillment of the Lord's promise to Abraham. The first was to the Jews (Acts 2); the second was to the Samaritans (Acts 8:14:17); third was to the Gentiles (Acts 10:34-47 ); the last was to the Old Covenant saints/disciples who only knew of the baptism of John (Acts 19:1-6 ), The subsequent three occurrence to the Samaritans, Gentiles, and OT disciples of John were all identical to that of the Jews in Acts 2, the Apostle Peter stating as such (Acts 11:16-18); the "gift" mentioned by Peter is the Holy Spirit. Taken in context there is no scriptural basis for a teaching of a "second blessing" or a subsequent "baptism of the Holy Spirit", these would seem to be doctrines of men.
How then do we account for the "experience" which some Christians have today of a second blessing or subsequent "baptism of the Holy Spirit"? With it not being biblical it is either the flesh via an emotional response through the power of suggestion, or demonic. While some reports of tongues as a known human language surface from time to time, for the most part the tongues practiced today in no way resemble the tongues we read about in the New Testament (known human languages), and that alone ought to be the first cause for warning. Rather the ecstatic utterances of today have been linked by respected linguists to resemble almost identically tongues used by primitive pagan tribal sects around the globe who employ witchcraft and divination.
For those within charismatic and Pentecostal circles the dawning of this reality is often sobering and tough to accept at first, for no one enjoys the self-discovery of realizing they have been led astray by false teaching. And yet over time coming to the knowledge of the truth is liberating and truly empowering. A key contributor to this theological error in pneumatology is the nearly wholesale abandonment of expository teaching and preaching in many congregations today. And when the church is not edified it becomes vulnerable to false teaching in response to a lessening of spiritual discernment.
Certainly the Apostle Peter spoke to this danger and his words continue to serve as a powerful warning to the church today not to engage in sloppy exegesis of God's Word, "...and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness...." (2 Pet.3:15-17).
Finally, it may be noted that in our day many of these false teachings come by way of books, conferences, TV and radio programs and the like by people who may be sincere in their own minds, yet are sincerely deceived. Therefore, beloved, be all all the more diligent to adhere to Sola Scripture for faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:16).
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8).
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Sinners In The Hands Of An Angery God
by Jonathan Edwards; preached on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut.
"Their foot shall slide in due time." Deuteronomy 32:35.
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were God's visible people, and lived under means of grace; and that, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works that he had wrought towards that people, yet remained, as is expressed, v. Deuteronomy 32:28, "void of counsel," having no understanding in them; and that, under all the cultivations of heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text.
The expression that I have chosen for my text, "Their foot shall slide in due time," seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction that these wicked Israelites were exposed to.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction, as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction's coming upon them, being represented by their foot's sliding. The same is expressed, Psalms 73:18, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction."
2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall; he can't foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once, without warning. Which is also expressed in that, Psalms 73:18-19, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another. As he that stands or walks on slippery ground, needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and don't fall now, is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, "their foot shall slide." Then they shall be left to fall as they are inclined by their own weight. God won't hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands in such slippery declining ground on the edge of a pit that he can't stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this:
There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.
By "the mere pleasure of God," I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment.
The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.
I. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands can't be strong when God rises up: the strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.
He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, that has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces: they are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so 'tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by; thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
II. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down; why cumbreth it the ground" (Luke 13:7). The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and 'tis nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
III. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They don't only justly deserve to be cast down thither; but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18, "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is. John 8:23, "Ye are from beneath." And thither he is bound; 'tis the place that justice, and God's Word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assigns to him.
IV. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they don't go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation don't slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth under them.
V. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as his "goods" (Luke 11:21). The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
VI. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men a foundation for the torments of hell: there are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, and exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments in 'em as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in Scripture compared to the troubled sea (Isaiah 57:20). For the present God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further" [Job 38:11]; but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all afore it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is a thing that is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whenas if it were let loose it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so, if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
VII. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. 'Tis no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he don't see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows that this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step won't be into another world. The unseen, unthought of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they won't bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight can't discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it don't depend at all less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
VIII. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, don't secure 'em a moment. This divine providence and universal experience does also bear testimony to. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death: that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death; but how is it in fact? Ecclesiastes 2:16, "How dieth the wise man? as the fool."
IX. All wicked men's pains and contrivance they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, don't secure 'em from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do; everyone lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes won't fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done: he don't intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The bigger part of those that heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell: and it was not because they were not as wise as those that are now alive; it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If it were so, that we could come to speak with them, and could inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of that misery, we doubtless should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here; I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself; I thought my scheme good; I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief; death outwitted me; God's wrath was too quick for me; O my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter, and when I was saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction came upon me" [1 Thessalonians 5:3].
X. God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace that are not the children of the covenant, and that don't believe in any of the promises of the covenant, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, 'tis plain and manifest that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold 'em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
Application.
The Use may be of Awakening to unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of everyone of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but don't see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not that so is the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun don't willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth don't willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air don't willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and don't willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God for the present stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. 'Tis true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are continually rising and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward; if God should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and Justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.
Thus are all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life (however you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, and may be strict in it), you are thus in the hands of an angry God; 'tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.
However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them, when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, "Peace and safety": now they see, that those things that they depended on for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; 'tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up; there is no other reason to be given why you han't gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: 'tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell; you hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.
And consider here more particularly several things concerning that wrath that you are in such danger of.
First. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, that have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Proverbs 20:2, "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments, that human art can invent or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates, in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth: it is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth before God are as grasshoppers, they are nothing and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings is as much more terrible than their's, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4-05, "And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him."
Second. 'Tis the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah 59:18, "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah 66:15, "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire." And so in many other places. So we read of God's fierceness. Revelation 19:15, there we read of "the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible: if it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful; but 'tis not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of God": the fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power, in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then what will be consequence! What will become of the poor worm that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? and whose heart endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk, who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity: when God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed and sinks down, as it were into an infinite gloom, he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much, in any other sense than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires: nothing shall be withheld, because it's so hard for you to bear. Ezekiel 8:18, "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy: but when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God as to any regard to your welfare; God will have no other use to put you to but only to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel but only to be filled full of wrath: God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that 'tis said he will only laugh and mock (Proverbs 1:25-32).
How awful are those words, Isaiah 63:3, which are the words of the great God, "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." 'Tis perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that he'll only tread you under foot: and though he will know that you can't bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he won't regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he'll crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt; no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet, to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
Third. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that provoke 'em. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath, when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave order that the burning fiery furnace should be het seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it: but the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Romans 9:22, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, to show how terrible the unmixed, unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass, that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner; and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty, and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isaiah 33:12-14, "And the people shall be as the burning of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments: you shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is, and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isaiah 66:23-24, "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
Fourth. 'Tis everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble faint representation of it; 'tis inexpressible and inconceivable: for "who knows the power of God's anger?" [Psalms 90:11].
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath, and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation, that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old. There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have: it may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder if some that are now present, should not be in hell in a very short time, before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some person that now sits here in some seat of this meeting house in health, and quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest, will be there in a little time! your damnation don't slumber; it will come swiftly, and in all probability very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder, that you are not already in hell. 'Tis doubtless the case of some that heretofore you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you: their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living, and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned, hopeless souls give for one day's such opportunity as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now an happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him that has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield,7 where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?
Are there not many here that have lived long in the world, that are not to this day born again, and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh sirs, your case in an especial manner is extremely dangerous; your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Don't you see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and wake thoroughly out of sleep; you cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.
And you that are young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season that you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as it is with those persons that spent away all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.
And you children that are unconverted, don't you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God that is now angry with you every day, and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?
And let everyone that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's Word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, that is a day of such great favor to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls: and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart, and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the bigger part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on that great outpouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days, the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit; and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the ax is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree that brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over great part of this congregation: let everyone fly out of Sodom. Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed [Genesis 19:17].
"Their foot shall slide in due time." Deuteronomy 32:35.
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were God's visible people, and lived under means of grace; and that, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works that he had wrought towards that people, yet remained, as is expressed, v. Deuteronomy 32:28, "void of counsel," having no understanding in them; and that, under all the cultivations of heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text.
The expression that I have chosen for my text, "Their foot shall slide in due time," seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction that these wicked Israelites were exposed to.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction, as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction's coming upon them, being represented by their foot's sliding. The same is expressed, Psalms 73:18, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction."
2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall; he can't foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once, without warning. Which is also expressed in that, Psalms 73:18-19, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another. As he that stands or walks on slippery ground, needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and don't fall now, is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, "their foot shall slide." Then they shall be left to fall as they are inclined by their own weight. God won't hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands in such slippery declining ground on the edge of a pit that he can't stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this:
There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.
By "the mere pleasure of God," I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment.
The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.
I. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands can't be strong when God rises up: the strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.
He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, that has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces: they are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so 'tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by; thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
II. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down; why cumbreth it the ground" (Luke 13:7). The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and 'tis nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
III. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They don't only justly deserve to be cast down thither; but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18, "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is. John 8:23, "Ye are from beneath." And thither he is bound; 'tis the place that justice, and God's Word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assigns to him.
IV. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they don't go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation don't slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth under them.
V. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as his "goods" (Luke 11:21). The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
VI. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men a foundation for the torments of hell: there are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, and exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments in 'em as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in Scripture compared to the troubled sea (Isaiah 57:20). For the present God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further" [Job 38:11]; but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all afore it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is a thing that is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whenas if it were let loose it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so, if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
VII. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. 'Tis no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he don't see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows that this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step won't be into another world. The unseen, unthought of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they won't bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight can't discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it don't depend at all less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
VIII. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, don't secure 'em a moment. This divine providence and universal experience does also bear testimony to. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death: that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death; but how is it in fact? Ecclesiastes 2:16, "How dieth the wise man? as the fool."
IX. All wicked men's pains and contrivance they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, don't secure 'em from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do; everyone lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes won't fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done: he don't intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The bigger part of those that heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell: and it was not because they were not as wise as those that are now alive; it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If it were so, that we could come to speak with them, and could inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of that misery, we doubtless should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here; I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself; I thought my scheme good; I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief; death outwitted me; God's wrath was too quick for me; O my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter, and when I was saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction came upon me" [1 Thessalonians 5:3].
X. God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace that are not the children of the covenant, and that don't believe in any of the promises of the covenant, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, 'tis plain and manifest that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold 'em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
Application.
The Use may be of Awakening to unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of everyone of you that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but don't see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not that so is the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun don't willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth don't willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air don't willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and don't willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God for the present stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. 'Tis true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are continually rising and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward; if God should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and Justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.
Thus are all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life (however you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, and may be strict in it), you are thus in the hands of an angry God; 'tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.
However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them, when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, "Peace and safety": now they see, that those things that they depended on for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; 'tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up; there is no other reason to be given why you han't gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: 'tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell; you hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.
And consider here more particularly several things concerning that wrath that you are in such danger of.
First. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, that have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Proverbs 20:2, "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments, that human art can invent or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates, in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth: it is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth before God are as grasshoppers, they are nothing and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings is as much more terrible than their's, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4-05, "And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him."
Second. 'Tis the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah 59:18, "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah 66:15, "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire." And so in many other places. So we read of God's fierceness. Revelation 19:15, there we read of "the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible: if it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful; but 'tis not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of God": the fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power, in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then what will be consequence! What will become of the poor worm that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? and whose heart endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk, who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity: when God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed and sinks down, as it were into an infinite gloom, he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much, in any other sense than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires: nothing shall be withheld, because it's so hard for you to bear. Ezekiel 8:18, "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy: but when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God as to any regard to your welfare; God will have no other use to put you to but only to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel but only to be filled full of wrath: God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that 'tis said he will only laugh and mock (Proverbs 1:25-32).
How awful are those words, Isaiah 63:3, which are the words of the great God, "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." 'Tis perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that he'll only tread you under foot: and though he will know that you can't bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he won't regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he'll crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt; no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet, to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
Third. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that provoke 'em. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath, when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave order that the burning fiery furnace should be het seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it: but the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Romans 9:22, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, to show how terrible the unmixed, unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass, that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner; and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty, and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isaiah 33:12-14, "And the people shall be as the burning of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments: you shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is, and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isaiah 66:23-24, "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
Fourth. 'Tis everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble faint representation of it; 'tis inexpressible and inconceivable: for "who knows the power of God's anger?" [Psalms 90:11].
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath, and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation, that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old. There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have: it may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder if some that are now present, should not be in hell in a very short time, before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some person that now sits here in some seat of this meeting house in health, and quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest, will be there in a little time! your damnation don't slumber; it will come swiftly, and in all probability very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder, that you are not already in hell. 'Tis doubtless the case of some that heretofore you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you: their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living, and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned, hopeless souls give for one day's such opportunity as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now an happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him that has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield,7 where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?
Are there not many here that have lived long in the world, that are not to this day born again, and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh sirs, your case in an especial manner is extremely dangerous; your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Don't you see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and wake thoroughly out of sleep; you cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.
And you that are young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season that you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as it is with those persons that spent away all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.
And you children that are unconverted, don't you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God that is now angry with you every day, and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?
And let everyone that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's Word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, that is a day of such great favor to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls: and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart, and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the bigger part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on that great outpouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days, the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit; and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the ax is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree that brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over great part of this congregation: let everyone fly out of Sodom. Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed [Genesis 19:17].
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
His Providential Care
03.02.10
J.A. Matteson
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34
Self-determination constitutes the foundational bitter fruit of the Adamic nature and left unbridled it is the ruin of men. Here in the Lord’s injunction lies the central issue by which all men are held responsible before their Creator;’ viz., the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken, will I trust in Him and believe that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, or will I call Him a liar by shrinking back through disobedience?
Certainly as the First cause the Lord has decreed from eternity past the outcome of all things and He often employs Secondary causes, human action or inaction, to bring them about. While certain aspects and workings of Providence have been make known to man, such as His moral Law found in the Ten Commandments, some of His eternal decrees remain cloaked according to the wise counsel of His own will. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that the decree of His Father for Him was the cross, and that the Father would utilize secondary causes—the evil within fallen men—to bring about that which He had decreed from eternity, and that He would do this in such a way that men were responsible for their evil acts, God in no way be author to them, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).
The omniscient glorified Lord Jesus Christ spoke to apostle Peter after His resurrection and shared with him God’s decree regarding the future manner of his death by crucifixion, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go” (John 21:18).
The old hymn “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go” aptly describes the mindset pleasing to the Lord where pilgrims obediently follow their Lord trusting that whatever comes to pass is ultimately for their good and the glory of God. A failure to understand this results in a disobedience which may incur divine correction, “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). It is not the pilgrims business to attempt to direct the Lord’s decree regarding his service on earth. Rather, faithful servants of the Lord seek the mind of Christ with a view toward complete obedience, leaving the outcome to their loving Lord who causes all things to work together for their good; delayed obedience is immediate disobedience and partial obedience is complete disobedience.
For the Lord Jesus Christ the endurance of the cross encompassed far more that physical pain and death, are horrible as they were; it also brought public shame and humiliation to the Servant of the Lord of Hosts. The sons of Adam are opposed to the message of the cross, it is foolishness and a stumbling block, and as the Chief Shepherd was ridiculed for proclaiming the kingdom of God and repentance, how much more are His servants who bear His name and likeness?
Beloved, to deny yourself is to obey the Lord Jesus Christ to the best of your ability and release the outcome of your faithfulness to His providential care, even if the path leads to shame and death. Indeed, faithful servants die daily and many are publically ridiculed. If you believe that all things work together for your good then you will obey completely, if not you will rebel, and if that is the case then repentance of your sin is in order.
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever...." Isa. 40:8).
J.A. Matteson
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34
Self-determination constitutes the foundational bitter fruit of the Adamic nature and left unbridled it is the ruin of men. Here in the Lord’s injunction lies the central issue by which all men are held responsible before their Creator;’ viz., the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken, will I trust in Him and believe that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, or will I call Him a liar by shrinking back through disobedience?
Certainly as the First cause the Lord has decreed from eternity past the outcome of all things and He often employs Secondary causes, human action or inaction, to bring them about. While certain aspects and workings of Providence have been make known to man, such as His moral Law found in the Ten Commandments, some of His eternal decrees remain cloaked according to the wise counsel of His own will. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that the decree of His Father for Him was the cross, and that the Father would utilize secondary causes—the evil within fallen men—to bring about that which He had decreed from eternity, and that He would do this in such a way that men were responsible for their evil acts, God in no way be author to them, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23).
The omniscient glorified Lord Jesus Christ spoke to apostle Peter after His resurrection and shared with him God’s decree regarding the future manner of his death by crucifixion, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go” (John 21:18).
The old hymn “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go” aptly describes the mindset pleasing to the Lord where pilgrims obediently follow their Lord trusting that whatever comes to pass is ultimately for their good and the glory of God. A failure to understand this results in a disobedience which may incur divine correction, “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). It is not the pilgrims business to attempt to direct the Lord’s decree regarding his service on earth. Rather, faithful servants of the Lord seek the mind of Christ with a view toward complete obedience, leaving the outcome to their loving Lord who causes all things to work together for their good; delayed obedience is immediate disobedience and partial obedience is complete disobedience.
For the Lord Jesus Christ the endurance of the cross encompassed far more that physical pain and death, are horrible as they were; it also brought public shame and humiliation to the Servant of the Lord of Hosts. The sons of Adam are opposed to the message of the cross, it is foolishness and a stumbling block, and as the Chief Shepherd was ridiculed for proclaiming the kingdom of God and repentance, how much more are His servants who bear His name and likeness?
Beloved, to deny yourself is to obey the Lord Jesus Christ to the best of your ability and release the outcome of your faithfulness to His providential care, even if the path leads to shame and death. Indeed, faithful servants die daily and many are publically ridiculed. If you believe that all things work together for your good then you will obey completely, if not you will rebel, and if that is the case then repentance of your sin is in order.
Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever...." Isa. 40:8).
Monday, March 1, 2010
Landmark Baptists: An Analysis of the Doctrinal Errors of Landmarkism
Landmarkism is a term representing a number of convictions maintained by some Baptists, mostly in the southern United States. They are known as Landmarkers or Baptist Bride brethren. Sometimes they choose to call themselves Historic Baptists. These believers share similarities with other groups such as the Church of Christ by claiming an exclusivity which can only be achieved by distorting the simple and clear interpretation of Scripture taken in context.
Landmark Baptists hold that the NT model for the church is only the local and visible congregation and that it violates NT principles to speak of a universal, spiritual church. They also believe that Communion should be restricted to members of the local assembly and that baptism is valid only when administered in a properly constituted local Baptist congregation. They also believe that a historic "Baptist succession" may be traced from John the Baptist to modern Baptist churches in which believer's baptism and Landmark principles have prevailed.
The Landmark emphasis was propounded by James R. Graves (1820-93), influential editor of the Tennessee Baptist. He formulated his doctrines just prior to the Civil War and because his periodical was widely read his ideas caught the imagination of many Baptists of that day. The term "Landmarkism" takes its name from a pamphlet written by a friend of Graves, James M. Pendleton. It was entitled An Old Landmark Re-Set (Old Landmarks Revisited) (1856), based on Proverbs 22:28: "Remove not the old landmark." The Landmark position is the position of the million-member American Baptist Association (not to be confused with the American Baptist Convention), of the much smaller United Baptists, and of some independent Baptist churches.
Graves explains how the term "Landmarkers" originated in the following two paragraphs:
The name of Old Landmarkers came in this way. In 1854 J. M. Pendleton, of Kentucky, wrote an essay upon this question at my special request, viz "Ought Baptists to recognize Pedobaptist preachers [preachers who believe in child or infant baptism] as gospel ministers?" which I brought out in tract form, and gave it the title, "An Old Landmark Reset." This calm discussion, which had an immense circulation in the South, was reviewed by many of the leading writers, North and South, and they, by way of reproach, called all Baptists "Old Landmarkers" who accepted his conclusions, and the impression was sought to be made that Brother Pendleton and myself were aiming at dividing the denomination and starting a new sect.
"From this brief history it will be seen that we, who only deem ourselves 'strict Baptists,' are not responsible for the name, but our opposers. But that we have no reason to be ashamed of it will be seen by every one who will read this little book. Why should we object to the name "Old Landmarkers," when those ancient Anabaptists, whom we alone represent in this age, were content to be called Cathari and Puritans, which terms mean the same thing as Old Landmarkers? --The "little book" Old Landmarkism What Is It? originally written by Graves in 1880."
From this quote we see that Graves considered himself and others who held to his views to be the modern day representatives of the ancient Anabaptists. He is to be greatly commended for this because the Anabaptists were, in general, men and women who were valiant for the truth upon the earth. They were zealous in evangelistic efforts and they endeavored to believe and teach only what was found in the Scriptures. They were opposed to infant baptism and rightly so. They also suffered greatly for the cause of Christ, being persecuted by the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Calvinists and by the Zwinglians.
Landmarkers believe that their church originated long before the time of James Graves. They believe that Landmarkism existed in colonial days in North America, even though the term "Landmark" had not yet been coined. Curtis Pugh, for example writes the following:
The Welsh Churches, from which these Colonial Baptist Churches immediately succeeded, had practiced Landmarkism in their Churches in that island nation prior to the coming of the Welsh Baptists to North America. And those who know Welsh Baptist history will be aware of the fact that these Welsh Baptist Churches must have learned these practices from the apostle to Wales, for they have a valid claim to having been planted by no less personage than Paul himself when he made his visit to Britain in connection with Claudia and Pudens (mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21). Thus Landmarkism may with historical evidence logically be seen to be the Scriptural practice of early Welsh Churches planted by Paul and we dare suggest that these Churches must have imbibed Landmark principles from that apostle who first taught them the Word of God [from Pugh's paper, Colonial Landmarkism, p. 1].
Thus these Baptists claim a heritage that traces its origin all the way back to the Apostle Paul, though not all would agree with their interpretation of Church history.
Landmark Baptists, have many distinctive doctrines, which need to be examined in the light of the Word of God (Acts 17:11; 1 Thess. 5:21). As already mentioned, one such doctrine is their strong denial of the universal church. Many Baptist groups share this conviction, even though they do not hold to all of the extreme teachings of the Landmark Baptists. For example, I wrote to a faculty member of the Baptist Bible Graduate School of Theology in Springfield, Missouri. He indicated that over the past few centuries Baptists have not agreed as to whether there is a universal church and that fundamental Baptists are still very divided over this issue. Churches and pastors in the Baptist Bible Fellowship (BBF) are all fully independent and are not in agreement on this matter. This faculty member's guess was that about 2/3 of the BBF pastors deny the universal church and 1/3 affirm it.
There are different doctrinal variations among Landmark Baptists and not all of the points made in the following pages may hold true for all of them. If you consider yourself to be a Landmark Baptist and if any of the following "errors" do not apply to you, then you are to be commended.
Note: I am indebted to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A. Elwell, Editor, for much of the information found in this introduction.
1) The Error of Making the "One Baptism" of Ephesians 4:5 a Reference to Water Baptism.
In Ephesians 4:3 believers are told to endeavor (make every effort) to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Paul then beautifully and concisely describes the UNITY or ONENESS which all believers in Christ share in verses 4-6 (the seven "ones"). Each of these seven "ones" is setting forth something that every believer has in common. If it were not something shared in common, then this would contradict Paul's argument about the UNITY of the Spirit and the ONENESS that all believers share. Thus, whatever the "one baptism" means, it must be a baptism that is shared by every believer. It must be something that is true of every genuine believer in Christ. That is, if you have not had this baptism, then you are not a true believer and you are not saved.
Consider, for example, the expression "one Spirit" in verse 4. The indwelling Spirit is something that I share in common with every believer throughout the world. Indeed, if anyone does not have the Spirit, then he does not belong to Christ (Romans 8:9)! It is impossible to belong to God's saved company of this age apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of God dwells within every saint, and this is the basis of our UNITY. I can approach any saved person, regardless of what country he lives in or what local church he attends, and I can say, "The same Holy Spirit who lives in you is the same Holy Spirit who lives in me. We share this in common."
Water baptism is not something that all saved persons share in common. It ought to be the experience of every born again person, but in some cases it is not. There are some true believers who have not been baptized in water. Perhaps the person has been recently saved and the baptismal service has not yet taken place. In some cases new believers are not given needed instruction as to the importance of water baptism. It is the experience of every saved person to be saved for a period of time prior to being baptized in water. Hopefully it is but for a brief time. But the fact remains that water baptism is not an experience shared by every true believer.
There is a baptism, however, which is shared by every saved person. This baptism is mentioned, among other places, in Galatians 3:26-27, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ." Notice that there is no mention of water in these verses. It is a baptism "INTO CHRIST." It is not a baptism INTO WATER. According to these verses it is the experience of every child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. If a person has not had this baptism, then the person is not saved. If a person has had this baptism, then the person is saved and has put on Christ, whether or not he has been baptized in water. This "baptism into Christ" which is a reality for every child of God is also mentioned in Romans chapter 6, verses 3-5.
This baptism is a work of God. It took place the moment the person believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. At that moment the person was baptized or immersed into Jesus Christ (placed into Jesus Christ) with the result that the person is now "IN CHRIST" (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:1; etc.). God has positioned us in His Son. Not only is He in us (the INDWELLING) but we are in Him (the BAPTISM). The Lord Jesus predicted this great relationship in John 14:20--"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and YE IN ME, and I IN YOU." This is a baptism shared by every born again person, and is the basis of our UNITY in the Son of God. It is not just the Landmark Baptists who have been placed or baptized into Jesus Christ, but it is every blood-bought child of God. Such a relationship is ours, not by virtue of some relationship to a particular sect, but by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).
For a more detailed consideration of the "one baptism" or "Spirit baptism" the reader is referred to Merrill F. Unger's book entitled The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The discerning student of Scripture needs to make a difference between REAL BAPTISM (the "one baptism" mentioned in Galatians 3:27; Romans 3-4; etc.) and RITUAL BAPTISM (water baptism which is symbolic). Water baptism is meant to picture and depict and symbolize real baptism. When a person is baptized in water he is saying, "I want to present a picture of what happened to me the moment I was saved. When I was saved God baptized me into Jesus Christ. God placed me into His dear Son. I am a new creature in Christ and in Him I have a new life!" Water baptism is an outward portrayal of the inward spiritual reality.
The "one baptism" which every true believer has experienced is also set forth in 1 Corinthians 12:13, the passage which we shall now consider.
2) The Error of Understanding 1 Corinthians 12:13 as a Reference to Water Baptism.
"For by [in] one Spirit are [were] we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13).
First we should notice that this baptism is the experience of every believer: WE WERE ALL baptized into one body. Have you had this baptism? If you are a born again believer in Christ, then indeed you have! It is something true of every child of God and it happened the moment a person is saved. This baptism is a reality for every believer, even for those who have not yet been baptized in water and even for those who are not "Historic Baptists." The issue is HAVE YOU BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST?, not HAVE YOU JOINED A PARTICULAR LOCAL CHURCH?
We should also notice that there is no mention of water in this verse. It is not a baptism into water, but a baptism into ONE BODY. The ONE BODY is the church of Jesus Christ over which He is the Head (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18). How does a person become a member of the ONE BODY? How does a person become a part of the true church? Is it by joining a Historic Baptist church? No, it is by being baptized by the Spirit into one body.
Spirit baptism is the supernatural work of God whereby a believer in Christ is immersed or placed into the body of Christ, which is HIS CHURCH. This happens the moment a person is saved, not at the point of water baptism. Every saved person is in this ONE BODY; every unsaved person is WITHOUT (outside of Christ and outside of His body--compare Col. 4:5). A person can join a local church, including a Landmark Baptist church, and not really be saved. This does not put him in the ONE BODY. Only God can do that, and God only does that for true believers of this present age.
Water baptism does not place a person into the ONE BODY. Only God can do that. Only God can BUILD HIS CHURCH (Matthew 16:18) and only God can ADD TO HIS CHURCH daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47).
Spirit baptism was predicted by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:11) and by the Lord Jesus (Acts 1:5). It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the "one body" was first formed (Acts 11:16) and takes place today the moment a person is saved (1 Corinthians 12:13). All four of these passages are talking about the same baptism, and the Greek construction in all four passages is closely equivalent, as the following literal rendering reveals:
Passage Greek Construction
Matt. 3:11 He (Christ) shall baptize you in Holy Spirit
Acts 1:5 You shall be baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in Holy Spirit
Acts 11:16 You shall be baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in Holy Spirit
1 Cor. 12:13 We were baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in one Spirit into one body
The order of the words in 1 Corinthians 12:13 has been altered in order to show that the same Greek construction is used. It is the proper understanding of these passages which clearly pinpoints WHEN the church (the ONE BODY) began. This brings us to our next doctrinal issue.
3) The Error of Beginning the Church before Pentecost and before the Cross.
We have seen from 1 Corinthians 12:13 that Spirit Baptism is that supernatural work of God whereby the believing sinner is placed or immersed into the ONE BODY of Christ. In Ephesians 1:22-23 and Colossians 1:18 we learn that the BODY OF CHRIST is identified as the CHURCH. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus referred to it as "MY CHURCH."
The key question is this: When did God first begin placing believers into Christ's body, the Church? To re-phrase the question: When did Spirit baptism first take place? If we can determine when God first began placing believers into the ONE BODY, then we will know when the church began.
The Scripture is very clear about this matter. The beginning of the church is carefully pinpointed in God's Word.
First of all, in Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, "I WILL build My Church." The future tense of the verb indicates that the building of the church had not yet begun when Jesus said these words. He did not say, "I have built My church." He did not say, "I am building My church." No, the building project had not yet begun and thus the Church was yet future. At the time Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 16:18 the church had not yet begun.
Today Christ is building His church. He is adding to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47). But the question is, when did this building program first begin?
In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist predicted that Spirit baptism would take place some time in the future. It had not taken place when John spoke these words. We have already noted that the Greek construction of Matthew 3:11 is parallel to the construction of 1 Corinthians 12:13. John was predicting the same baptism that Paul was talking about. The baptism Paul was talking about involved placing believers into the body of Christ. When did this first take place?
In Acts 1:5 the Lord Jesus predicted that Spirit baptism was still future. It had not happened yet. No one had yet been immersed into the body of Christ. Thus, the church could not have begun prior to Acts 1:5. When Jesus spoke the words of Acts 1:5 His death and His resurrection had already taken place, and yet Spirit baptism had not yet taken place and the church had not yet been formed. But the announcement of Acts 1:5 was very significant because Jesus said that Spirit baptism would take place "not many days hence" (not many days from now). This means that it would happen soon, in a matter of days. Indeed, as we shall learn, it happened just 10 days later on the day of Pentecost.
The Day of Pentecost and the unique events that took place on that day are described in Acts chapter 2. In this chapter Spirit baptism is not specifically mentioned. It is not until Acts chapter 11 that we are specifically told that Spirit baptism took place on the day of Pentecost: "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning [on the Day of Pentecost]. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 11:15-16). Based on the clear statement of this passage we know that Spirit baptism first took place on the Day of Pentecost. It was then that believers were first placed into the body of Christ. It was then that the church began.
For a very helpful discussion of when the church began, see Renald E. Shower's book, There Really Is a Difference--A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology, Chapter 15 (published by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry).
There are serious problems involved with beginning the church prior to the cross in the days of the Lord and His disciples. Here are some of them:
1. The Lord Jesus had not yet died. The Scripture says that "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25). This statement can only be true after the death of Christ is an accomplished fact. The church, which is based upon the finished work of Christ, could not exist until that work had been accomplished.
2. The Lord Jesus had not yet ascended, nor had He been glorified. "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). There can not be a CHURCH until the Lord Jesus is ascended, exalted and glorified. It is only the exalted Christ seated in heavenly places who has been made HEAD over the church (Eph. 1:20-22). If He is not exalted in the heavenlies as Head, then there can be no church.
3. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given. You can't have the CHURCH apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 2:22 and 1 Corinthians 3:16 we learn that the Holy Spirit inhabits the church in a unique way. How can you have the church existing apart from this unique indwelling?
4. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). "THAT DAY" refers to the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was sent and given. Apart from Pentecost the "YE IN ME and I IN YOU" relationship would be impossible (compare John 14:17--"shall be IN YOU"). Apart from the "YE IN ME and I IN YOU" relationship, there can be no church.
In John chapters 14-17 everything is pointing to that day when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come. The Lord placed great significance upon that day. It was then that the church began. The building project commenced at that time, to be completed only when the "fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25).
4) The Error of Denying the Universal Church
We have already established the fact that there is "one baptism" which places every true believer (not just certain Baptist believers) into the "one body." This one body is not the local Landmark Baptist church, but it is the body of Christ, the church. We also learned that every true believer has been placed into this ONE BODY by a supernatural work of God the moment he or she is saved. We also learned that God first began placing believers into His body on the day of Pentecost which was when the church began.
It is very true that the term "church" or "assembly" (Greek-ekklesia) is often used of local churches. "Unto the CHURCH of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2). "The CHURCHES of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2). The word is commonly used to refer to local assemblies of believers.
We must not deny the local church nor the importance of it. We also must not deny the universal church and its importance.
If we say that the term CHURCH only refers to local churches, and if we also teach that the only legitimate local church recognized by God are the "Historic Baptist" (Landmark) churches, then this creates enormous problems for any serious student of the Bible.
1. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be THE HEAD over all things to the CHURCH, Which is HIS BODY, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). If Christ is the Head over all things to the church, and if the church is composed only of local Landmark Baptist churches, then does this mean that true believers who are not part of Landmark congregations HAVE NO HEAD? How can a true believer be without Christ as Head?
2. "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:21-22). Are only the Landmark churches indwelt by the Spirit? Have all other assemblies of believers been abandoned by the Spirit?
3. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:10). Is God demonstrating and pointing out His wisdom only through the Landmark Baptist churches? Does God say to the angels: "If you want to learn of My manifold wisdom, consider only the Landmark Baptists, but don't consider all of the other born again believers whom I have saved by My grace"? What a strange message to give to the angels who are so intently interested in what God is doing in this present age.
4. "There is one body" (Eph. 4:4). Are only the Landmark Baptists included in the one body? Are all other godly saints in the world therefore excluded from this body? How can such a teaching be used to promote CHRISTIAN UNITY?
5. "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body" (Eph. 5:23). Is Christ the Head only of the Landmark Baptists? Is Christ the Saviour only of the Landmark Baptists? What about true believers who are not associated with Landmark churches? How can they be saved if they have no Saviour?
6. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph. 5:25). Did the Lord Jesus give Himself on the cross only for the Landmark Baptists? Are they the only "church" that Christ loved and gave Himself for? Are we so narrow as to limit God's love and Christ's death to a certain sect?
7. "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). Is it only the "Baptist bride" that is going to be presented to Christ faultless and spotless? Is not this the certain hope and expectancy of every child of God? Compare Jude 24-25.
8. "Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). When people get saved does God add them only to Landmark churches? Why are there so many true, genuine believers who are in no way associated with Landmark assemblies? Has God failed to add them to His true church?
9. "I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). Was this a promise to build Landmark Baptist assemblies? Does this mean that only Landmark Baptists escape the gates of Hades? [Note: It is interesting that the gates of Hades will not prevail against any church-age believer. Not one church age believer will ever enter through the gates of Hades. Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah and even John the Baptist all entered through the gates of Hades upon death, but when church age believers die they immediately go into the presence of Christ in the third heaven--2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 2:21,23.]
10. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God" (1 Cor. 10:32). Does this mean that we are to be careful not to be a stumblingblock to unsaved Gentiles, unsaved Jews and Landmark Baptists? Does this mean that it does not matter whether we are a stumblingblock to non-Landmark brethren who are truly saved? This verse is obviously dividing all of humanity into three groups: unsaved Jews, unsaved Gentiles, and the church (saved Jews and Gentiles of this present age). In spite of what the Landmark Baptists teach, every truly saved person is considered part of the CHURCH, and for this to be true there must be a universal church composed of all saved people of this present age.
These ten passages illustrate the absurdity of equating the church with local Baptists assemblies and denying that every true child of God is part of the church.
We should note that the word CHURCH is often used in the singular, and this does not exactly fit the Landmark concept of ecclesiology. For example, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Why did not He say, "I will build my churches"? When Paul had local churches in mind he used the plural: "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God" (1 Cor. 11:16). "And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2).
If Paul used this term to ALWAYS REFER TO LOCAL CHURCHES then why was not Paul consistent with his use of the plural? Why didn't he say the following:
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the churches" (compare Eph. 1:22).
"might be known by the churches the manifold wisdom of God" (compare Eph. 3:10).
"Unto Him be glory in the churches" (compare Eph. 3:21).
"There are many bodies" (compare Eph. 4:4).
"Christ is the Head of the churches" (compare Eph. 5:23).
"Christ loved the churches and gave Himself for them" (compare Eph. 5:25).
"Give none offence to....the churches of God" (compare 1 Cor. 10:32).
etc.
If local churches were intended, it would seem that the plural would better convey the intended meaning.
The hymn writer had a much better concept of the church: "Elect from every nation yet one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth; One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses with every grace endued" (Samuel J. Stone).
For a saved person not to be a part of Christ's body is Biblically impossible. Believers are united to Jesus Christ. They are not excluded from Him. To become a member of the church you do not have to go through the Landmark Baptists. You have to go through the cross! We fully admit that every born again Landmark Baptist is saved and a member of Christ's body, the church. But why do they deny this as being true concerning those who are not a part of their particular fellowship?
5) The Error which Insists that the True Churches are Linked to John the Baptist (the Successionist Theory).
John the Baptist was part of the old order, not the new order. He lived under the dispensation of law, not under the dispensation of grace. To trace the origin of the churches to John the Baptist is to mix law and grace resulting in total dispensational confusion.
If John the Baptist is so important to the churches, then why is he never mentioned in the great CHURCH EPISTLES which set forth church truth (such as Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, etc.). If our church family tree goes back to John the Baptist, then why are the epistles silent about this?
Apollos traced his roots back to John the Baptist and he was quickly corrected by Aquila and Priscilla and taught the true doctrine (Acts 18:24-28). In Acts 19:1-7 there were about 12 men who, like Apollos, knew only of John's baptism but who had never been SPIRIT BAPTIZED and placed into the body of Christ. It is interesting that these men were re-baptized. John's baptism was not sufficient for the new dispensation. They had to be baptized in the name of Christ. Thus, instead of a succession from John the Baptist, there needs to be a distinct break. There is a distinct difference between Christian baptism and John's baptism. John's baptism has no place in the present dispensation.
"Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11). This passage makes it clear that John the Baptist belonged to a former dispensation. Those in the kingdom of heaven have a position and standing that far exceeds that of John the Baptist. Those belonging to the church have a high, heavenly, holy position in God's exalted Son which John the Baptist never knew.
"Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit....And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:4,5,9). The great NT mysteries involve precious truths relating to the church which had been locked up in the loving heart of God and hidden from God's people until it was God's time for these truths to be revealed. God primarily used the Apostle Paul to make known these great truths which had previously been unrevealed. Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah knew nothing of these mysteries. These truths were never revealed to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was totally ignorant of the church truths set forth by the Apostle Paul in the epistles. How could the church be linked in succession to a man who was so ignorant of church truth?
No, the founder of the Church was Jesus Christ, not John the Baptist. Christ is the Foundation of the Church (1 Cor. 3:11), the Chief Cornerstone of the church (Eph. 2:20), the Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22; 5:23), the Builder of the church (Matthew 16:18), and the Rock of the Church (Matthew 16:18). John the Baptist is none of these things. John wanted to DECREASE (John 3:30) but the "Historic Baptists" want him to INCREASE. What we should really desire is that Christ might have FIRST PLACE and preeminence in all things (Col. 1:18).
6) The Error of Believer's Baptism Not being Recognized as Legitimate unless it is Performed by one of their Men in one of their Churches.
The attitude which seems to be conveyed is this: "If you don't do it our way, in our church, according to our system, then it is not legitimate." May God keep us from such a narrow-minded sectarian spirit.
Water baptism is for true believers, based upon their confession of faith. The Bible makes it very simple: "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:36-37). What made this baptism in water legitimate? The man simply believed in Christ with all his heart. He was a true believer. He was baptized. Water baptism is a one time act of obedience which takes place soon after one is saved. It is not to be repeated. It pictures REAL BAPTISM (Spirit baptism--Galatians 3:27) which was a one time act of God, never to be repeated. God placed us into Jesus Christ and this was done once for all, never to be repeated. It is done and finished forever.
If a person were baptized and later realized that he was not really saved, then certainly a re-baptism would be in order. His first baptism was not legitimate because it was not a believer's baptism. But how wrong it is to say that the baptism of a sincere believer is not legitimate because it was not performed in a certain baptist church. This is tantamount to saying, "Our church is right and all other churches are wrong. Even acts of obedience and faith are not legitimate unless they are carried out in our way, in our local church."
Paul labeled such thinking as carnal and divisive (1 Cor. 1:10-17; 3:1-4). It is the wrong attitude and it is utterly condemned by God. It is divisive: "I am of Paul!" "I am of Apollos!" "I am of John the Baptist!" "I am of the Historic Baptists and because of this I am legitimate before God but other blood-bought believers are not!" All of this stinks of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
7) The Error of "Closed Communion" which Involves not Allowing True, Genuine, Obedient Believers to Partake of Communion merely because they are not Members of a Landmark Assembly.
The Lord Jesus said, "This do...in remembrance of Me" (1 Cor. 11:25). If the Lord said, "This do" then why do the Landmark Baptist say, "This thou shalt not do!" If the Lord Jesus invites sincere believers to His table, then why do the Landmark Baptists forbid them to come? Why do they close what God has opened? Why do they forbid what God has allowed?
Is the Landmark position in harmony with Paul's exhortation in Romans 15:7--"Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." How thankful we should be that Christ has received poor, rebellious sinners such as us. If God were to act as the Landmark Baptists act, would any of us be saved?
If a person is a blood-bought believer who is seeking to live for Christ and obey His Word and glorify God in all that he does, then what right do we have to bar such an one from the Lord's Table? What right do we have to exclude a dear brother or sister from remembering the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Certainly if it is known that a certain brother is disobedient to the Scriptures and living in sin, then there is just cause for a local assembly to refuse to serve communion to such a person. But this is because of an obvious problem in a believer's life, not because the believer attends an assembly that is not recognized as legitimate.
Instead of closing our Communion we should open our hearts towards all of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter where they be from. We may not agree on every matter, but the important thing is that we know Christ as our Saviour and Lord and that we recognize His great finished work on the cross with the result that we are resting all our weight on WHO HE IS, WHAT HE HAS DONE and WHAT HE HAS SAID. If a person is resting on this rock solid foundation, how can we forbid them to do what Christ told them to do: "This do...in remembrance of Me."
8) The Error which Identifies the Bride of Christ as being composed only of Landmark Baptists, excluding all other true believers.
The bride of Christ is composed of those who will someday fall before the Lamb and sing a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9). The great marriage supper of the Lamb is described in this way: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" (Rev. 19:7-8). What a day of rejoicing that will be!
Some of the Landmark brethren go so far as to teach and preach that the Bride of Christ is only comprised of their Baptist groups and that all other believers would be servants at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Anyone who is a genuine believer but who is not part of one of their churches would be in the "family of God," but would not actually be part of the Bride of Christ.
In John 14:2-3 we learn that at the time of the rapture Christ will come to receive His Bride unto Himself to take her to be with Him in heaven. Does this mean that He will receive only the "Historic Baptists" (thus resulting in some kind of partial rapture)?
This error stems from the error that the church consists only of Landmark Baptist congregations. Thus Ephesians 5:22-33 is seen through this erroneous assumption. Once it is understood that the church is made up of all true believers of this age, then it is a very simple thing to recognize that the bride of Christ will likewise be made up of all true believers of this age. To correct this error of eschatology, it is first necessary to correct the error of ecclesiology. If they understand the true nature of the church, then they will understand who the bride really is.
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James R. Graves, according to an article by Harold S. Smith [Baptist Theologians, Broadman, 1990, pages 223-248], held the following erroneous doctrinal positions: 1) He denied the eternal Sonship of Christ, saying that the idea of an Eternal Son is "inadmissible" and that the phrase "Eternal Son of God" is of "human coinage." He taught that Christ "became the Son" in time; 2) He denied that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all men, teaching a limited atonement. He taught that Christ did not die for the one who refuses to believe.
Grave’s error regarding the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ is documented below:
J.R. Graves, "The Work of Christ in the Covenant of Redemption; Developed in Seven Dispensations". Baptist Sunday School Committee, 1928 (Originally Published in 1883).
The heading of Chapter 4 (pages 61-65) reads: "Definition of Creation--Time--In the Beginning, etc.--The Relations of the Father and Son not Eternal, therefore no 'Eternal Father,' nor 'Eternal Son,'--The Covenant of Works and Consequences of its Violation considered."
On pages 61-62, he clearly denies the eternal Sonship of Christ:
"Therefore, before the birth of creation there could have been no relationship existing as that of the Father and Son, for these are terms relationship, and imply order of being, and consequently demand time. If this be so, then evidently the phrases 'Eternal Father,' and 'Eternal Son,' are not admissible, since they involve a manifest contradiction. As certainly as the Creator must exist before the thing created, the begetter must exist before the begotten--Father before Son. And it is no less contradictious to say that Father and Son eternally existed in these relations; we may as consistently affirm that the creature and its Creator co-eternally existed. One must existed before the other, else creation is as eternal as the Godhead,--never had a beginning. Every effect must exist in its cause. The phrases '"Eternal Son of God,' 'the Eternal Father,' are manifestly of human coinage,--not the selection of the revealing Spirit. . . . The relationship, expressed by the terms Father and Son, originated with the conception of the Covenant of Redemption and Work of Christ, and when that work is consummated, the relationship and its inferiority will cease ."
Concerning Graves’ understanding of the atonement, I have found evidence that he taught that there was a sense in which Christ died even for who were not among the elect, even for all those who will ultimately perish. At this point I have not found convincing evidence that he taught a limited atonement.
The following literature addresses these last two mentioned doctrinal issues: 1) The Eternal Sonship of Christ by George Zeller and Renald Showers ($6.00); 2) For Whom Did Christ Die (50¢). Each of these literature items may be ordered from the Middletown Bible Church.
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This very troublesome sectarianism known as Landmarkism would do well to learn from our Lord's words in Luke 9:49-50, "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."
J.C.Ryle's comments on this passage are very fitting:
Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a warning against a bigoted and illiberal spirit. Who this man was and why he did not consort with the disciples, we do not know. But we do know that he was doing a good work in casting out demons, and that he was doing what he did in the name of Christ. And yet John says, "we forbade him." Very striking is the reply which the Lord at once gave him: "Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."
Thousands, in every period of Church history, have spent their lives in copying John's mistake. They have labored to stop every man who will not work for Christ in their way, from working for Christ at all. They have imagined, in their petty self-conceit, that no man can be a soldier of Christ, unless he wears their uniform, and fights in their regiment. They have been ready to say of every Christian who does not see everything with their eyes, "Forbid him! Forbid him! for he followeth not with us."
The plain truth is, that we are all too ready to say, "We are the men, and wisdom shall die with us" (Job 12:2). We forget that no Church on earth has an absolute monopoly of all wisdom, and that people may be right in the main, without agreeing with us. We must learn to be thankful if sin is opposed, and the Gospel preached, and the devil's kingdom pulled down, though the work may not be done exactly in the way we like. We must try to believe that men may be true-hearted followers of Jesus Christ, and yet for some reason may be kept back from seeing all things in religion just as we do. Above all, we must praise God if souls are converted, and Christ is magnified,—no matter who the preacher may be, and to what Church he may belong. Happy are those who can say with Paul, "If Christ be preached, I rejoice, yea and will rejoice," (Phil. 1:18) and with Moses, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that all did prophesy." (Numbers 11:29)
The Middletown Bible Church
349 East Street
Middletown, CT 06457
www.middletownbiblechurch.org/lochurch/landmark.htm
Landmark Baptists hold that the NT model for the church is only the local and visible congregation and that it violates NT principles to speak of a universal, spiritual church. They also believe that Communion should be restricted to members of the local assembly and that baptism is valid only when administered in a properly constituted local Baptist congregation. They also believe that a historic "Baptist succession" may be traced from John the Baptist to modern Baptist churches in which believer's baptism and Landmark principles have prevailed.
The Landmark emphasis was propounded by James R. Graves (1820-93), influential editor of the Tennessee Baptist. He formulated his doctrines just prior to the Civil War and because his periodical was widely read his ideas caught the imagination of many Baptists of that day. The term "Landmarkism" takes its name from a pamphlet written by a friend of Graves, James M. Pendleton. It was entitled An Old Landmark Re-Set (Old Landmarks Revisited) (1856), based on Proverbs 22:28: "Remove not the old landmark." The Landmark position is the position of the million-member American Baptist Association (not to be confused with the American Baptist Convention), of the much smaller United Baptists, and of some independent Baptist churches.
Graves explains how the term "Landmarkers" originated in the following two paragraphs:
The name of Old Landmarkers came in this way. In 1854 J. M. Pendleton, of Kentucky, wrote an essay upon this question at my special request, viz "Ought Baptists to recognize Pedobaptist preachers [preachers who believe in child or infant baptism] as gospel ministers?" which I brought out in tract form, and gave it the title, "An Old Landmark Reset." This calm discussion, which had an immense circulation in the South, was reviewed by many of the leading writers, North and South, and they, by way of reproach, called all Baptists "Old Landmarkers" who accepted his conclusions, and the impression was sought to be made that Brother Pendleton and myself were aiming at dividing the denomination and starting a new sect.
"From this brief history it will be seen that we, who only deem ourselves 'strict Baptists,' are not responsible for the name, but our opposers. But that we have no reason to be ashamed of it will be seen by every one who will read this little book. Why should we object to the name "Old Landmarkers," when those ancient Anabaptists, whom we alone represent in this age, were content to be called Cathari and Puritans, which terms mean the same thing as Old Landmarkers? --The "little book" Old Landmarkism What Is It? originally written by Graves in 1880."
From this quote we see that Graves considered himself and others who held to his views to be the modern day representatives of the ancient Anabaptists. He is to be greatly commended for this because the Anabaptists were, in general, men and women who were valiant for the truth upon the earth. They were zealous in evangelistic efforts and they endeavored to believe and teach only what was found in the Scriptures. They were opposed to infant baptism and rightly so. They also suffered greatly for the cause of Christ, being persecuted by the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Calvinists and by the Zwinglians.
Landmarkers believe that their church originated long before the time of James Graves. They believe that Landmarkism existed in colonial days in North America, even though the term "Landmark" had not yet been coined. Curtis Pugh, for example writes the following:
The Welsh Churches, from which these Colonial Baptist Churches immediately succeeded, had practiced Landmarkism in their Churches in that island nation prior to the coming of the Welsh Baptists to North America. And those who know Welsh Baptist history will be aware of the fact that these Welsh Baptist Churches must have learned these practices from the apostle to Wales, for they have a valid claim to having been planted by no less personage than Paul himself when he made his visit to Britain in connection with Claudia and Pudens (mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21). Thus Landmarkism may with historical evidence logically be seen to be the Scriptural practice of early Welsh Churches planted by Paul and we dare suggest that these Churches must have imbibed Landmark principles from that apostle who first taught them the Word of God [from Pugh's paper, Colonial Landmarkism, p. 1].
Thus these Baptists claim a heritage that traces its origin all the way back to the Apostle Paul, though not all would agree with their interpretation of Church history.
Landmark Baptists, have many distinctive doctrines, which need to be examined in the light of the Word of God (Acts 17:11; 1 Thess. 5:21). As already mentioned, one such doctrine is their strong denial of the universal church. Many Baptist groups share this conviction, even though they do not hold to all of the extreme teachings of the Landmark Baptists. For example, I wrote to a faculty member of the Baptist Bible Graduate School of Theology in Springfield, Missouri. He indicated that over the past few centuries Baptists have not agreed as to whether there is a universal church and that fundamental Baptists are still very divided over this issue. Churches and pastors in the Baptist Bible Fellowship (BBF) are all fully independent and are not in agreement on this matter. This faculty member's guess was that about 2/3 of the BBF pastors deny the universal church and 1/3 affirm it.
There are different doctrinal variations among Landmark Baptists and not all of the points made in the following pages may hold true for all of them. If you consider yourself to be a Landmark Baptist and if any of the following "errors" do not apply to you, then you are to be commended.
Note: I am indebted to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A. Elwell, Editor, for much of the information found in this introduction.
1) The Error of Making the "One Baptism" of Ephesians 4:5 a Reference to Water Baptism.
In Ephesians 4:3 believers are told to endeavor (make every effort) to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Paul then beautifully and concisely describes the UNITY or ONENESS which all believers in Christ share in verses 4-6 (the seven "ones"). Each of these seven "ones" is setting forth something that every believer has in common. If it were not something shared in common, then this would contradict Paul's argument about the UNITY of the Spirit and the ONENESS that all believers share. Thus, whatever the "one baptism" means, it must be a baptism that is shared by every believer. It must be something that is true of every genuine believer in Christ. That is, if you have not had this baptism, then you are not a true believer and you are not saved.
Consider, for example, the expression "one Spirit" in verse 4. The indwelling Spirit is something that I share in common with every believer throughout the world. Indeed, if anyone does not have the Spirit, then he does not belong to Christ (Romans 8:9)! It is impossible to belong to God's saved company of this age apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of God dwells within every saint, and this is the basis of our UNITY. I can approach any saved person, regardless of what country he lives in or what local church he attends, and I can say, "The same Holy Spirit who lives in you is the same Holy Spirit who lives in me. We share this in common."
Water baptism is not something that all saved persons share in common. It ought to be the experience of every born again person, but in some cases it is not. There are some true believers who have not been baptized in water. Perhaps the person has been recently saved and the baptismal service has not yet taken place. In some cases new believers are not given needed instruction as to the importance of water baptism. It is the experience of every saved person to be saved for a period of time prior to being baptized in water. Hopefully it is but for a brief time. But the fact remains that water baptism is not an experience shared by every true believer.
There is a baptism, however, which is shared by every saved person. This baptism is mentioned, among other places, in Galatians 3:26-27, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ." Notice that there is no mention of water in these verses. It is a baptism "INTO CHRIST." It is not a baptism INTO WATER. According to these verses it is the experience of every child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. If a person has not had this baptism, then the person is not saved. If a person has had this baptism, then the person is saved and has put on Christ, whether or not he has been baptized in water. This "baptism into Christ" which is a reality for every child of God is also mentioned in Romans chapter 6, verses 3-5.
This baptism is a work of God. It took place the moment the person believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. At that moment the person was baptized or immersed into Jesus Christ (placed into Jesus Christ) with the result that the person is now "IN CHRIST" (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:1; etc.). God has positioned us in His Son. Not only is He in us (the INDWELLING) but we are in Him (the BAPTISM). The Lord Jesus predicted this great relationship in John 14:20--"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and YE IN ME, and I IN YOU." This is a baptism shared by every born again person, and is the basis of our UNITY in the Son of God. It is not just the Landmark Baptists who have been placed or baptized into Jesus Christ, but it is every blood-bought child of God. Such a relationship is ours, not by virtue of some relationship to a particular sect, but by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).
For a more detailed consideration of the "one baptism" or "Spirit baptism" the reader is referred to Merrill F. Unger's book entitled The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The discerning student of Scripture needs to make a difference between REAL BAPTISM (the "one baptism" mentioned in Galatians 3:27; Romans 3-4; etc.) and RITUAL BAPTISM (water baptism which is symbolic). Water baptism is meant to picture and depict and symbolize real baptism. When a person is baptized in water he is saying, "I want to present a picture of what happened to me the moment I was saved. When I was saved God baptized me into Jesus Christ. God placed me into His dear Son. I am a new creature in Christ and in Him I have a new life!" Water baptism is an outward portrayal of the inward spiritual reality.
The "one baptism" which every true believer has experienced is also set forth in 1 Corinthians 12:13, the passage which we shall now consider.
2) The Error of Understanding 1 Corinthians 12:13 as a Reference to Water Baptism.
"For by [in] one Spirit are [were] we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13).
First we should notice that this baptism is the experience of every believer: WE WERE ALL baptized into one body. Have you had this baptism? If you are a born again believer in Christ, then indeed you have! It is something true of every child of God and it happened the moment a person is saved. This baptism is a reality for every believer, even for those who have not yet been baptized in water and even for those who are not "Historic Baptists." The issue is HAVE YOU BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST?, not HAVE YOU JOINED A PARTICULAR LOCAL CHURCH?
We should also notice that there is no mention of water in this verse. It is not a baptism into water, but a baptism into ONE BODY. The ONE BODY is the church of Jesus Christ over which He is the Head (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18). How does a person become a member of the ONE BODY? How does a person become a part of the true church? Is it by joining a Historic Baptist church? No, it is by being baptized by the Spirit into one body.
Spirit baptism is the supernatural work of God whereby a believer in Christ is immersed or placed into the body of Christ, which is HIS CHURCH. This happens the moment a person is saved, not at the point of water baptism. Every saved person is in this ONE BODY; every unsaved person is WITHOUT (outside of Christ and outside of His body--compare Col. 4:5). A person can join a local church, including a Landmark Baptist church, and not really be saved. This does not put him in the ONE BODY. Only God can do that, and God only does that for true believers of this present age.
Water baptism does not place a person into the ONE BODY. Only God can do that. Only God can BUILD HIS CHURCH (Matthew 16:18) and only God can ADD TO HIS CHURCH daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47).
Spirit baptism was predicted by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:11) and by the Lord Jesus (Acts 1:5). It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the "one body" was first formed (Acts 11:16) and takes place today the moment a person is saved (1 Corinthians 12:13). All four of these passages are talking about the same baptism, and the Greek construction in all four passages is closely equivalent, as the following literal rendering reveals:
Passage Greek Construction
Matt. 3:11 He (Christ) shall baptize you in Holy Spirit
Acts 1:5 You shall be baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in Holy Spirit
Acts 11:16 You shall be baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in Holy Spirit
1 Cor. 12:13 We were baptized (by Christ-Matt. 3:11) in one Spirit into one body
The order of the words in 1 Corinthians 12:13 has been altered in order to show that the same Greek construction is used. It is the proper understanding of these passages which clearly pinpoints WHEN the church (the ONE BODY) began. This brings us to our next doctrinal issue.
3) The Error of Beginning the Church before Pentecost and before the Cross.
We have seen from 1 Corinthians 12:13 that Spirit Baptism is that supernatural work of God whereby the believing sinner is placed or immersed into the ONE BODY of Christ. In Ephesians 1:22-23 and Colossians 1:18 we learn that the BODY OF CHRIST is identified as the CHURCH. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus referred to it as "MY CHURCH."
The key question is this: When did God first begin placing believers into Christ's body, the Church? To re-phrase the question: When did Spirit baptism first take place? If we can determine when God first began placing believers into the ONE BODY, then we will know when the church began.
The Scripture is very clear about this matter. The beginning of the church is carefully pinpointed in God's Word.
First of all, in Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, "I WILL build My Church." The future tense of the verb indicates that the building of the church had not yet begun when Jesus said these words. He did not say, "I have built My church." He did not say, "I am building My church." No, the building project had not yet begun and thus the Church was yet future. At the time Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 16:18 the church had not yet begun.
Today Christ is building His church. He is adding to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47). But the question is, when did this building program first begin?
In Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist predicted that Spirit baptism would take place some time in the future. It had not taken place when John spoke these words. We have already noted that the Greek construction of Matthew 3:11 is parallel to the construction of 1 Corinthians 12:13. John was predicting the same baptism that Paul was talking about. The baptism Paul was talking about involved placing believers into the body of Christ. When did this first take place?
In Acts 1:5 the Lord Jesus predicted that Spirit baptism was still future. It had not happened yet. No one had yet been immersed into the body of Christ. Thus, the church could not have begun prior to Acts 1:5. When Jesus spoke the words of Acts 1:5 His death and His resurrection had already taken place, and yet Spirit baptism had not yet taken place and the church had not yet been formed. But the announcement of Acts 1:5 was very significant because Jesus said that Spirit baptism would take place "not many days hence" (not many days from now). This means that it would happen soon, in a matter of days. Indeed, as we shall learn, it happened just 10 days later on the day of Pentecost.
The Day of Pentecost and the unique events that took place on that day are described in Acts chapter 2. In this chapter Spirit baptism is not specifically mentioned. It is not until Acts chapter 11 that we are specifically told that Spirit baptism took place on the day of Pentecost: "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning [on the Day of Pentecost]. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 11:15-16). Based on the clear statement of this passage we know that Spirit baptism first took place on the Day of Pentecost. It was then that believers were first placed into the body of Christ. It was then that the church began.
For a very helpful discussion of when the church began, see Renald E. Shower's book, There Really Is a Difference--A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology, Chapter 15 (published by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry).
There are serious problems involved with beginning the church prior to the cross in the days of the Lord and His disciples. Here are some of them:
1. The Lord Jesus had not yet died. The Scripture says that "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25). This statement can only be true after the death of Christ is an accomplished fact. The church, which is based upon the finished work of Christ, could not exist until that work had been accomplished.
2. The Lord Jesus had not yet ascended, nor had He been glorified. "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). There can not be a CHURCH until the Lord Jesus is ascended, exalted and glorified. It is only the exalted Christ seated in heavenly places who has been made HEAD over the church (Eph. 1:20-22). If He is not exalted in the heavenlies as Head, then there can be no church.
3. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given. You can't have the CHURCH apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 2:22 and 1 Corinthians 3:16 we learn that the Holy Spirit inhabits the church in a unique way. How can you have the church existing apart from this unique indwelling?
4. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). "THAT DAY" refers to the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was sent and given. Apart from Pentecost the "YE IN ME and I IN YOU" relationship would be impossible (compare John 14:17--"shall be IN YOU"). Apart from the "YE IN ME and I IN YOU" relationship, there can be no church.
In John chapters 14-17 everything is pointing to that day when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come. The Lord placed great significance upon that day. It was then that the church began. The building project commenced at that time, to be completed only when the "fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25).
4) The Error of Denying the Universal Church
We have already established the fact that there is "one baptism" which places every true believer (not just certain Baptist believers) into the "one body." This one body is not the local Landmark Baptist church, but it is the body of Christ, the church. We also learned that every true believer has been placed into this ONE BODY by a supernatural work of God the moment he or she is saved. We also learned that God first began placing believers into His body on the day of Pentecost which was when the church began.
It is very true that the term "church" or "assembly" (Greek-ekklesia) is often used of local churches. "Unto the CHURCH of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2). "The CHURCHES of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2). The word is commonly used to refer to local assemblies of believers.
We must not deny the local church nor the importance of it. We also must not deny the universal church and its importance.
If we say that the term CHURCH only refers to local churches, and if we also teach that the only legitimate local church recognized by God are the "Historic Baptist" (Landmark) churches, then this creates enormous problems for any serious student of the Bible.
1. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be THE HEAD over all things to the CHURCH, Which is HIS BODY, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). If Christ is the Head over all things to the church, and if the church is composed only of local Landmark Baptist churches, then does this mean that true believers who are not part of Landmark congregations HAVE NO HEAD? How can a true believer be without Christ as Head?
2. "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:21-22). Are only the Landmark churches indwelt by the Spirit? Have all other assemblies of believers been abandoned by the Spirit?
3. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:10). Is God demonstrating and pointing out His wisdom only through the Landmark Baptist churches? Does God say to the angels: "If you want to learn of My manifold wisdom, consider only the Landmark Baptists, but don't consider all of the other born again believers whom I have saved by My grace"? What a strange message to give to the angels who are so intently interested in what God is doing in this present age.
4. "There is one body" (Eph. 4:4). Are only the Landmark Baptists included in the one body? Are all other godly saints in the world therefore excluded from this body? How can such a teaching be used to promote CHRISTIAN UNITY?
5. "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body" (Eph. 5:23). Is Christ the Head only of the Landmark Baptists? Is Christ the Saviour only of the Landmark Baptists? What about true believers who are not associated with Landmark churches? How can they be saved if they have no Saviour?
6. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph. 5:25). Did the Lord Jesus give Himself on the cross only for the Landmark Baptists? Are they the only "church" that Christ loved and gave Himself for? Are we so narrow as to limit God's love and Christ's death to a certain sect?
7. "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). Is it only the "Baptist bride" that is going to be presented to Christ faultless and spotless? Is not this the certain hope and expectancy of every child of God? Compare Jude 24-25.
8. "Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). When people get saved does God add them only to Landmark churches? Why are there so many true, genuine believers who are in no way associated with Landmark assemblies? Has God failed to add them to His true church?
9. "I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). Was this a promise to build Landmark Baptist assemblies? Does this mean that only Landmark Baptists escape the gates of Hades? [Note: It is interesting that the gates of Hades will not prevail against any church-age believer. Not one church age believer will ever enter through the gates of Hades. Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah and even John the Baptist all entered through the gates of Hades upon death, but when church age believers die they immediately go into the presence of Christ in the third heaven--2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 2:21,23.]
10. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God" (1 Cor. 10:32). Does this mean that we are to be careful not to be a stumblingblock to unsaved Gentiles, unsaved Jews and Landmark Baptists? Does this mean that it does not matter whether we are a stumblingblock to non-Landmark brethren who are truly saved? This verse is obviously dividing all of humanity into three groups: unsaved Jews, unsaved Gentiles, and the church (saved Jews and Gentiles of this present age). In spite of what the Landmark Baptists teach, every truly saved person is considered part of the CHURCH, and for this to be true there must be a universal church composed of all saved people of this present age.
These ten passages illustrate the absurdity of equating the church with local Baptists assemblies and denying that every true child of God is part of the church.
We should note that the word CHURCH is often used in the singular, and this does not exactly fit the Landmark concept of ecclesiology. For example, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Why did not He say, "I will build my churches"? When Paul had local churches in mind he used the plural: "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God" (1 Cor. 11:16). "And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2).
If Paul used this term to ALWAYS REFER TO LOCAL CHURCHES then why was not Paul consistent with his use of the plural? Why didn't he say the following:
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the churches" (compare Eph. 1:22).
"might be known by the churches the manifold wisdom of God" (compare Eph. 3:10).
"Unto Him be glory in the churches" (compare Eph. 3:21).
"There are many bodies" (compare Eph. 4:4).
"Christ is the Head of the churches" (compare Eph. 5:23).
"Christ loved the churches and gave Himself for them" (compare Eph. 5:25).
"Give none offence to....the churches of God" (compare 1 Cor. 10:32).
etc.
If local churches were intended, it would seem that the plural would better convey the intended meaning.
The hymn writer had a much better concept of the church: "Elect from every nation yet one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth; One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses with every grace endued" (Samuel J. Stone).
For a saved person not to be a part of Christ's body is Biblically impossible. Believers are united to Jesus Christ. They are not excluded from Him. To become a member of the church you do not have to go through the Landmark Baptists. You have to go through the cross! We fully admit that every born again Landmark Baptist is saved and a member of Christ's body, the church. But why do they deny this as being true concerning those who are not a part of their particular fellowship?
5) The Error which Insists that the True Churches are Linked to John the Baptist (the Successionist Theory).
John the Baptist was part of the old order, not the new order. He lived under the dispensation of law, not under the dispensation of grace. To trace the origin of the churches to John the Baptist is to mix law and grace resulting in total dispensational confusion.
If John the Baptist is so important to the churches, then why is he never mentioned in the great CHURCH EPISTLES which set forth church truth (such as Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, etc.). If our church family tree goes back to John the Baptist, then why are the epistles silent about this?
Apollos traced his roots back to John the Baptist and he was quickly corrected by Aquila and Priscilla and taught the true doctrine (Acts 18:24-28). In Acts 19:1-7 there were about 12 men who, like Apollos, knew only of John's baptism but who had never been SPIRIT BAPTIZED and placed into the body of Christ. It is interesting that these men were re-baptized. John's baptism was not sufficient for the new dispensation. They had to be baptized in the name of Christ. Thus, instead of a succession from John the Baptist, there needs to be a distinct break. There is a distinct difference between Christian baptism and John's baptism. John's baptism has no place in the present dispensation.
"Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11). This passage makes it clear that John the Baptist belonged to a former dispensation. Those in the kingdom of heaven have a position and standing that far exceeds that of John the Baptist. Those belonging to the church have a high, heavenly, holy position in God's exalted Son which John the Baptist never knew.
"Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit....And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:4,5,9). The great NT mysteries involve precious truths relating to the church which had been locked up in the loving heart of God and hidden from God's people until it was God's time for these truths to be revealed. God primarily used the Apostle Paul to make known these great truths which had previously been unrevealed. Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah knew nothing of these mysteries. These truths were never revealed to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was totally ignorant of the church truths set forth by the Apostle Paul in the epistles. How could the church be linked in succession to a man who was so ignorant of church truth?
No, the founder of the Church was Jesus Christ, not John the Baptist. Christ is the Foundation of the Church (1 Cor. 3:11), the Chief Cornerstone of the church (Eph. 2:20), the Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22; 5:23), the Builder of the church (Matthew 16:18), and the Rock of the Church (Matthew 16:18). John the Baptist is none of these things. John wanted to DECREASE (John 3:30) but the "Historic Baptists" want him to INCREASE. What we should really desire is that Christ might have FIRST PLACE and preeminence in all things (Col. 1:18).
6) The Error of Believer's Baptism Not being Recognized as Legitimate unless it is Performed by one of their Men in one of their Churches.
The attitude which seems to be conveyed is this: "If you don't do it our way, in our church, according to our system, then it is not legitimate." May God keep us from such a narrow-minded sectarian spirit.
Water baptism is for true believers, based upon their confession of faith. The Bible makes it very simple: "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:36-37). What made this baptism in water legitimate? The man simply believed in Christ with all his heart. He was a true believer. He was baptized. Water baptism is a one time act of obedience which takes place soon after one is saved. It is not to be repeated. It pictures REAL BAPTISM (Spirit baptism--Galatians 3:27) which was a one time act of God, never to be repeated. God placed us into Jesus Christ and this was done once for all, never to be repeated. It is done and finished forever.
If a person were baptized and later realized that he was not really saved, then certainly a re-baptism would be in order. His first baptism was not legitimate because it was not a believer's baptism. But how wrong it is to say that the baptism of a sincere believer is not legitimate because it was not performed in a certain baptist church. This is tantamount to saying, "Our church is right and all other churches are wrong. Even acts of obedience and faith are not legitimate unless they are carried out in our way, in our local church."
Paul labeled such thinking as carnal and divisive (1 Cor. 1:10-17; 3:1-4). It is the wrong attitude and it is utterly condemned by God. It is divisive: "I am of Paul!" "I am of Apollos!" "I am of John the Baptist!" "I am of the Historic Baptists and because of this I am legitimate before God but other blood-bought believers are not!" All of this stinks of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
7) The Error of "Closed Communion" which Involves not Allowing True, Genuine, Obedient Believers to Partake of Communion merely because they are not Members of a Landmark Assembly.
The Lord Jesus said, "This do...in remembrance of Me" (1 Cor. 11:25). If the Lord said, "This do" then why do the Landmark Baptist say, "This thou shalt not do!" If the Lord Jesus invites sincere believers to His table, then why do the Landmark Baptists forbid them to come? Why do they close what God has opened? Why do they forbid what God has allowed?
Is the Landmark position in harmony with Paul's exhortation in Romans 15:7--"Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." How thankful we should be that Christ has received poor, rebellious sinners such as us. If God were to act as the Landmark Baptists act, would any of us be saved?
If a person is a blood-bought believer who is seeking to live for Christ and obey His Word and glorify God in all that he does, then what right do we have to bar such an one from the Lord's Table? What right do we have to exclude a dear brother or sister from remembering the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Certainly if it is known that a certain brother is disobedient to the Scriptures and living in sin, then there is just cause for a local assembly to refuse to serve communion to such a person. But this is because of an obvious problem in a believer's life, not because the believer attends an assembly that is not recognized as legitimate.
Instead of closing our Communion we should open our hearts towards all of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter where they be from. We may not agree on every matter, but the important thing is that we know Christ as our Saviour and Lord and that we recognize His great finished work on the cross with the result that we are resting all our weight on WHO HE IS, WHAT HE HAS DONE and WHAT HE HAS SAID. If a person is resting on this rock solid foundation, how can we forbid them to do what Christ told them to do: "This do...in remembrance of Me."
8) The Error which Identifies the Bride of Christ as being composed only of Landmark Baptists, excluding all other true believers.
The bride of Christ is composed of those who will someday fall before the Lamb and sing a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9). The great marriage supper of the Lamb is described in this way: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" (Rev. 19:7-8). What a day of rejoicing that will be!
Some of the Landmark brethren go so far as to teach and preach that the Bride of Christ is only comprised of their Baptist groups and that all other believers would be servants at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Anyone who is a genuine believer but who is not part of one of their churches would be in the "family of God," but would not actually be part of the Bride of Christ.
In John 14:2-3 we learn that at the time of the rapture Christ will come to receive His Bride unto Himself to take her to be with Him in heaven. Does this mean that He will receive only the "Historic Baptists" (thus resulting in some kind of partial rapture)?
This error stems from the error that the church consists only of Landmark Baptist congregations. Thus Ephesians 5:22-33 is seen through this erroneous assumption. Once it is understood that the church is made up of all true believers of this age, then it is a very simple thing to recognize that the bride of Christ will likewise be made up of all true believers of this age. To correct this error of eschatology, it is first necessary to correct the error of ecclesiology. If they understand the true nature of the church, then they will understand who the bride really is.
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James R. Graves, according to an article by Harold S. Smith [Baptist Theologians, Broadman, 1990, pages 223-248], held the following erroneous doctrinal positions: 1) He denied the eternal Sonship of Christ, saying that the idea of an Eternal Son is "inadmissible" and that the phrase "Eternal Son of God" is of "human coinage." He taught that Christ "became the Son" in time; 2) He denied that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all men, teaching a limited atonement. He taught that Christ did not die for the one who refuses to believe.
Grave’s error regarding the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ is documented below:
J.R. Graves, "The Work of Christ in the Covenant of Redemption; Developed in Seven Dispensations". Baptist Sunday School Committee, 1928 (Originally Published in 1883).
The heading of Chapter 4 (pages 61-65) reads: "Definition of Creation--Time--In the Beginning, etc.--The Relations of the Father and Son not Eternal, therefore no 'Eternal Father,' nor 'Eternal Son,'--The Covenant of Works and Consequences of its Violation considered."
On pages 61-62, he clearly denies the eternal Sonship of Christ:
"Therefore, before the birth of creation there could have been no relationship existing as that of the Father and Son, for these are terms relationship, and imply order of being, and consequently demand time. If this be so, then evidently the phrases 'Eternal Father,' and 'Eternal Son,' are not admissible, since they involve a manifest contradiction. As certainly as the Creator must exist before the thing created, the begetter must exist before the begotten--Father before Son. And it is no less contradictious to say that Father and Son eternally existed in these relations; we may as consistently affirm that the creature and its Creator co-eternally existed. One must existed before the other, else creation is as eternal as the Godhead,--never had a beginning. Every effect must exist in its cause. The phrases '"Eternal Son of God,' 'the Eternal Father,' are manifestly of human coinage,--not the selection of the revealing Spirit. . . . The relationship, expressed by the terms Father and Son, originated with the conception of the Covenant of Redemption and Work of Christ, and when that work is consummated, the relationship and its inferiority will cease ."
Concerning Graves’ understanding of the atonement, I have found evidence that he taught that there was a sense in which Christ died even for who were not among the elect, even for all those who will ultimately perish. At this point I have not found convincing evidence that he taught a limited atonement.
The following literature addresses these last two mentioned doctrinal issues: 1) The Eternal Sonship of Christ by George Zeller and Renald Showers ($6.00); 2) For Whom Did Christ Die (50¢). Each of these literature items may be ordered from the Middletown Bible Church.
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This very troublesome sectarianism known as Landmarkism would do well to learn from our Lord's words in Luke 9:49-50, "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."
J.C.Ryle's comments on this passage are very fitting:
Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a warning against a bigoted and illiberal spirit. Who this man was and why he did not consort with the disciples, we do not know. But we do know that he was doing a good work in casting out demons, and that he was doing what he did in the name of Christ. And yet John says, "we forbade him." Very striking is the reply which the Lord at once gave him: "Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."
Thousands, in every period of Church history, have spent their lives in copying John's mistake. They have labored to stop every man who will not work for Christ in their way, from working for Christ at all. They have imagined, in their petty self-conceit, that no man can be a soldier of Christ, unless he wears their uniform, and fights in their regiment. They have been ready to say of every Christian who does not see everything with their eyes, "Forbid him! Forbid him! for he followeth not with us."
The plain truth is, that we are all too ready to say, "We are the men, and wisdom shall die with us" (Job 12:2). We forget that no Church on earth has an absolute monopoly of all wisdom, and that people may be right in the main, without agreeing with us. We must learn to be thankful if sin is opposed, and the Gospel preached, and the devil's kingdom pulled down, though the work may not be done exactly in the way we like. We must try to believe that men may be true-hearted followers of Jesus Christ, and yet for some reason may be kept back from seeing all things in religion just as we do. Above all, we must praise God if souls are converted, and Christ is magnified,—no matter who the preacher may be, and to what Church he may belong. Happy are those who can say with Paul, "If Christ be preached, I rejoice, yea and will rejoice," (Phil. 1:18) and with Moses, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that all did prophesy." (Numbers 11:29)
The Middletown Bible Church
349 East Street
Middletown, CT 06457
www.middletownbiblechurch.org/lochurch/landmark.htm
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