THE VERSE
SNATCHERS
Miles
J. Stanford
Introduction
There is much in this Tri-S-XVII material
[published 198x],
including the title, that will prove to be negative--a necessity, since it is
dealing with error. But I trust there will be enough compensating truth
included to make up for it all.
The intent of this Paper is to establish the
fact that those who fail to maintain the dispensational distinctions of
Scripture become victims of Covenant legalism on the one hand, or Charismatic
chaos on the other. [In the early 21st century, victims of:
Purpose-Driven, Emergent, and Contemplative spirituality,
as well. Editor] There are many leaders today who hold to the inerrancy of
the Bible, but in not “rightly dividing the Word of truth” they have
fostered devastating error.
Inerrancy, Original And
Present
By inerrancy of the Scriptures we mean that
the original God-breathed autographs, which are no longer extant, were
perfect in every respect. Dr. Kenneth Wuest, in his Word Studies in the Greek
New Testament, Vol. 3, p. 21, explains what is meant by the inerrancy of our
present-day New Testament Greek text.
In recent times, the Chester Beatty
manuscripts have been discovered, which are dated between A.D. 200-300. The
original manuscripts of the N.T. were still in existence A.D. 200, according
to Tertullian, one of the Church Fathers. But we can go still further back and
forge an unbroken chain to the original documents which left the pens of the
Bible writers, in the Writings of the Apostolic and Church Fathers, which were
commentaries based upon the N.T. manuscripts, and which contain the entire N.T.
in quotations, with the exception of John 8:1–11 which was stricken out of
some early texts because of a mistaken fear that its contents would encourage
adultery.
Thus, we have an unbroken link between our
present Greek printed texts and the original hand-written manuscripts. The
errors which crept in during 1,500 years of copying by hand have all been
eliminated and a correct text formed, so that scholars tell us that 999 words
out of every thousand in our present Greek text are the same as those of the
original autographs, and that the thousandth word concerning which there may
be some difference of opinion is of so little consequence, that it does not
affect any historical fact or doctrine. These textual experts had a vast
amount of material with which to work: 4,000 Greek manuscripts, 8,000 copies
of the Latin Vulgate, and 2,000 copies of the N.T. in other languages--14,
000 available sources from which to reconstruct a correct text.
Dr. Harold Lindsell
Dr. Lindsell’s faithful and respected
academic career has spanned nearly fifty years, and he has always been known
to stand firmly for the inerrancy of the Word of God. He has taught the Bible
at Columbia Bible College, Northern Baptist Seminary, and Fuller Theological
Seminary. He ultimately resigned from Fuller due to the school’s
questionable inerrancy position. He then served as editor of Christianity
Today for some years.
In 1976, while editor of Christianity
Today,
Dr. Lindsell wrote the bestseller, The Battle For the Bible (Zondervan).
The
book proved to be a forthright and scriptural statement of the inerrancy of
the Word of God. It is also a knowledgeable and fearless exposé of
evangelical leaders, schools, and organizations that are weak concerning, or
outright against, the inerrancy of Scripture.
This book, with its sequel two years later,
The Bible In Balance, have proven to be a tremendous help to Christians
everywhere, and they continue to be so to this day. There is no question but
that Dr. Lindsell maintains this same stand concerning the inerrancy of the
Scriptures at present.
With this impressive background and sterling
record, it is especially tragic to have to say that in spite of it all, Dr.
Lindsell has lost the benefit of his inerrant Bible. If so, you ask, how could
such a thing be? Very simple, and no differently than the way the late Dr.
Merrill Unger and many other evangelical leaders have lost the benefit of
their inerrant Bibles. (See Tri-S-II, pp. 19-28).
How?
Dr. Harold Lindsell has succumbed to the
charismatic errors! He has been duped into believing the shopworn stories of
healings, miracles, signs and wonders that have plagued the church ever since
the beginning of Pentecostalism in this country, in 1900. But the deception
and dishonesty of this movement are no excuse for one’s gullibility and
blindness. Paul wrote that we are to “henceforth be no more children, tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of
men, and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph.
4:14).
Soon after his advent into the charismatic
realm, Lindsell wrote a book entitled The Holy Spirit in the Latter Days
(Nelson, 1983). He now insists that all the sign gifts--tongues, healing,
miracles, signs and wonders--are for today, and that evangelicals should
come in and join hands with the charismatics and share the blessings.
Why?
Yes, why should a man of this spiritual and
intellectual caliber stray into this strange territory? First of all, Dr.
Lindsell is not unacquainted with the Bible, having taught it as an
evangelical on the college and seminary level for nearly half a century.
And
he was not hoodwinked due to unintelligence. His academic record speaks for
itself, to say nothing of the fact that he is listed in Who’s Who in
America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Religion, and in the
Directory of American Scholars.
The answer regarding this charismatic crime is
that Dr. Lindsell does not hold the proper dispensational doctrine to protect
him from improper teaching and stories. The reason he has fallen prey to
Pentecostalism is that he has not rightly divided the Word of truth.
By this
we mean he has rejected the heart of dispensationalism, i.e., the clear-cut
distinction between God’s earthly program for Israel, and His heavenly
program for the Church. [To the unbiased mind, the Canon of Scripture
reveals that "God has one purpose--to glorify Himself in Christ.
The involves glory in two spheres, the earthly and the heavenly."]
We refer to scriptural dispensationalism which
shows the Church beginning at Acts 2, not the moderate ultradispensationalism
of Acts 9 (C.E. Baker), or Acts 13 (C.R. Stam), or the extreme
ultradispensationalism of Acts 28 (E.W. Bullinger).
Non-dispensational teachers have endeavored
to bring over the many promises of physical and material aspects of Kingdom
salvation into the present dispensation, giving hope of material prosperity
and physical health, as well as political peace. Failure to realize these
promised goals has caused many to lose faith and to become bitter toward God
Himself. The failure, of course, is not of God, but of teachers who have
refused to rightly divide the Word of truth.
The Big Lie
It is not that the charismatics wrongly divide
the Word, as do the ultradispensationalists, but that they fail to divide it
at all. They say, “It’s in the Bible, isn’t it? And besides,
'Jesus is
the same yesterday, and today, and forever.'" Hence they lay claim to, and
seek to duplicate, the healings, tongues, miracles, signs and wonders having
to do with Israel in the Old Testament, the synoptic Gospels, the transitional
period of Acts, and Israel’s coming millennial kingdom. Wrong dispensations,
wrong people!
Truth in the inerrant Word of God, snatched
from Israel and claimed for the Church, becomes outright error. Since the Holy
Spirit does not minister error, it requires high-handed falsification to
maintain such pilfering. Surely you have found yourself on the computerized
“personal” mailing list of a “Christian” con man or woman. The dunning
letters (and pressure ‘phone calls--now email) are all the same--some just more so
than others. And the same type comes from some of those outside the
charismatic camp--but all seeking to finance and maintain their schools,
missions, and ego-empires.
Elite Erratum
As David Wilkerson admitted recently in one of
his letters, concerning the dream-and-scheme builder, “To do it, he needs
money - lots of it. His need for money becomes the focus of his ministry.
He
ends up telling lies to God’s people to get it. Then he further pollutes it
all by claiming, 'God told me.'"
And poor Richard Roberts said on a recent
telecast, “Now I’m not just making this up; this story is true!”
On a
similar charismatic telecast Hal Lindsay remarked, “As far as I am
concerned, the charismatics are the only ones getting anything accomplished in
the world today.” The accomplishment of chaos! But consider the adverse
effect of Billy Graham and his team sitting with the Bakker’s dozen on their
telecast and saying, “We love y'all, and whole-heartedly approve of the
wonderful work y'all are doing.”
Dr. C. Peter Wagner
It is evident that Dr. Wagner and his
co-worker, John Wimber, exerted the greatest influence in luring Dr. Lindsell
(as well as many others) into their “Third Wave” movement. (See chapter 11
of Lindsell’s The Holy Spirit in the Latter Days.)
Dr. Wagner spent 16 years as a missionary in
Bolivia, serving under two different IFMA missions. He was a dispensationalist
and used the Scofield Reference Bible. “I could construct all the
dispensational charts from memory.” During his later years on the field he
discarded dispensationalism and entered the charismatic error through the
influence of Dr. E. Stanley Jones, and a group of Chilean Pentecostal leaders.
In 1971 he joined the faculty of Fuller
Theological Seminary, and is presently Professor of Church Growth, and was the
first to hold the Donald A. McGavran Chair of Church Growth there. He is also
on the faculty of Fuller’s World School of Missions. He and the charismatic
John Wimber taught the MC510 Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth class at Fuller
for the past several years; the class is presently under suspension. Dr.
Wagner is also senior field consultant with the Charles E. Fuller Institute of
Evangelism and Church Growth.
This is a listing of high credentials and
responsibilities for one who has also lost the benefit of his inerrant Bible.
From these positions he avidly teaches and promotes those things which belong
neither to the Church nor to this dispensation: healing, tongues, signs and
wonders, miracles, raising the dead, and demonism.
“The Third Wave”
For several years now Dr. Wagner and Dr.
Robert Walker have been collaborating in a concerted effort to generate what
they refer to as “The Third Wave.” In their terms it is “a description
of the current move of the Holy Spirit among evangelicals. The first wave
resulted in the Pentecostal Movement; the second in the Charismatic Movement.”
As an old strikeout
artist, I can assure you that it is the third strike!
The Green-eyed Monster
Dr. Robert Walker has opened his charismatic
magazine, Christian Life, to Dr. Wagner’s ever ready and facile pen,
strongly promoting all the signs and wonders stories he has to tell. The
following are excerpts from Dr. Wagner’s “Third Wave” monthly page.
By personal experience which God has allowed,
I know that the power of evil spirits is real and can have direct influence in
the life of a Christian. I could cite a growing number of personal experiences
to verify this, but I will choose only the most dramatic. Once a month my
Sunday School class [Congregational Church], the 120 Fellowship, comes to our
house for a night of intercession. One of those nights two people who have the
gift of discernment of spirits sensed something wrong in the house, especially
in our bedroom. So they went upstairs and prayed against the evil they felt
was there.
Not long afterward, in the middle of one night
when I was away, my wife, Doris, woke up with a terrible fear. Her heart was
pounding. She opened her eyes to see a luminous green outline of some being in
the corner of the room. She could see a pair of eyes, also luminous green.
She
recognized at once that it was a demon and rebuked it in the name of Jesus,
commanding it to leave the house. It moved a few feet to the right, then back
again, then disappeared. Doris went back to bed and slept soundly the rest of
the night in complete peace.
The next episode occurred after two members of
my Sunday School class, who have a powerful ministry of healing and
deliverance, were talking to Doris. She mentioned the green spirit.
They
immediately suggested that they go to our house and check it out. Because my
wife and I were both at work, they got the house key from her and went to our
home.
They got out of their car and opened the gate
to a small courtyard in front of the house, but they could not go any farther.
Some powerful force was resisting them. So instead of going to the front door,
they entered the garage. They reported later that on a scale of 1–10 the
evil power in the garage was about 9. There was such a tremendous energy that
they could actually smell the evil. (They had smelled something similar
before, so it was not a new experience). They found the smelly demon and cast
it out.
More Of The Same
In another Christian Life page Dr. Wagner
relates a story told to him by one of his Indonesian students at Fuller.
[Shades of Mel Tari!] One of the student’s friends, an Indonesian evangelist
by the name of Pak A, entered a certain village to share the Gospel and found
him self face to face with a powerful witch doctor, who was determined to stop
the spread of the Gospel on the spot. With the village folk looking on, he
pointed his finger at a calendar which was hanging on a wall about ten feet
away.
Then the witch doctor challenged Pak A. “Watch
the power of my gods,” he cried, “then show me what your God can do!”
With that the calendar was instantly torn apart. Pak A was shocked.
But
fortunately he had risen to what I called, in last month’s column, the “fourth
level of faith.” He was tuned in to the miraculous power of God in signs and
wonders. He opened his heart to the Holy Spirit, and received instructions
directly from God. He spoke gently but firmly to the witch doctor and those
gathered around. “The evil spirits tear things apart and destroy them,” he
declared, “but the good God came to correct them and help us.” With that
he pointed his finger at the torn calendar and a miracle happened. I nstantly
the calendar was put back the original way it was!
Dr. Wagner recounts another story, typical of
the charismatic healing circuit, concerning an Argentinean evangelist friend
of his, one Omar Cabrera.
After Omar had started his sermon, he stopped,
pointed to a woman in her 50’s with a bandage on her left leg, and said, “Stand
up.” She did. “What’s wrong with your leg?” he asked.
[How is it he
didn’t know?] “A bleeding tropical ulcer,” she replied. “Come up here
and take off the bandage. God has healed you!” She obeyed and the sore was
completely closed and dry!
But Dr. Wagner’s stories would not be
complete without one that you have no doubt heard at least once, one that has
been going the Pentecostal rounds for over thirty years that I know of. He
tells of another Argentinean evangelist friend of his, by the name of Carlos
Annacondia.
Carlos reports that two particular
manifestations of the Holy Spirit seem to impress unbelievers more than
anything else in his crusades: slaying in the Spirit, and filling teeth.
On a
fairly regular basis, decayed teeth are filled and new teeth grow where there
were none before. [Many charismatic charlatans claim both silver and gold
fillings in their meetings].
In his most recent reports, Dr. Wagner is
telling of those who claim to be raising people from the dead.
One missionary (in a foreign country) said he
would tell me of a case of a dead person being raised if I promised I would
not let his supporting constituency know about it. Why does God raise some
people on certain occasions? I believe it is to open doors to what happened
when Peter raised Dorcas: “It became known throughout all Joppa, and they
believed the Lord” (Acts 9:24).
Dr. Wagner maintains that there are ten other
professors on the faculty of Fuller’s School of World Missions who believe
as he does concerning signs and wonders being a tool of missions work. Fuller
Theological Seminary does not hold to an inerrant Bible, and it is anti-dispensational as well.
Thirty percent of Fuller’s enrollment is
charismatic, and probably a similar percentage of the faculty.
Kismet
Fuller, of course, is a neo-evangelical
institution. As the schools go, so goes the movement. Edward Gross wrote in
his 1984 article, “The Changing Face of Neo-Evangelicalism”:
There are changing emphases that have been
occurring among neo-evangelicals in recent years, changes that are moving them
farther away from their fundamentalist heritage and their founding fathers (Ockenga.
et al). One change is the embracing of the validity and occurrence of the
miraculous sign gifts of Pentecostalism and the charismatics. A second is the
endorsement of social commitment and social action as an end in itself and no
longer as a means to the end of evangelism. A third recent shift is a new
approach to biblical interpretation based on the concept that “all language
is culturally determined” [postmodernism]. This demands that in translating the Scriptures
or proclaiming the Bible one must “look at the basic teaching, not the
words, and make a dynamic equivalent of that teaching in the new culture.”
Revelation 21:8
You have all probably been subjected to many
of the charismatic stories, from Oral’s 900-foot-tall Jesus right across the
sordid spectrum. Now the question one ought to seriously consider is, are the
people who tell these stories while looking you in the eye, or the lens (and
the charismatics subsist on giving such “testimonies”), just plain liars,
or are they mentally unbalanced? At least if they are caught in such psychotic
lies, they can always plead insanity!
Emille Caillet put his finger on it all by
saying, “Either a life is in line with the Word of God or one’s
spirituality is likely to dwindle to little more than a confusing pan-psychic
experience” (Journey Into Light, p. 3 - Zondervan). And what of Paul’s
warning? “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but,
after their own lusts, shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4).
Dr. Stuart Briscoe
The Briscoes also have a column in Dr. Walker’s
magazine. In my questioning the advisability of such an association, for the
sake of the Body in general, he replied that they were doing it “in the
interest of Christian fellowship and. ministry.” Paul, on the contrary, says
to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but, rather,
reprove them” (Eph. 5:11). Certainly the above-quoted material from the
magazine does not represent fruitful works of light.
The Fulness Faction
Fulness magazine is chiefly composed of
promotional material for the ministries of a number of so-called “deeper
life” leaders, mainly Southern Baptists--a non-dispensational
denomination. Ras Robinson is the editor, and two of the main literary
contributors to the magazine are Dudley Hall, president of “Successful
Christian Living Ministries,” and Jim Hylton, pastor of a large Southern
Baptist church.
All of the leaders associated with this
magazine have taken on the identification truths, and their main avenue of
ministry is within the Southern Baptist Convention of some 16 million souls.
But the wonderful growth truths do not fit in with all-inclusive non-dispensational teaching, which in this case includes healing, tongues, memory
healing, and casting out “demons.”
Many of these leaders try to include the
growth truths along with their cherished errors which they refuse to repudiate--law, tongues, healing, etc.
As Josh McDowell said, “I was crucified with
Christ at the moment of salvation, and now I am free to keep the law.”
Awhile back a Southern Baptist pastor, in the
process of learning the growth truths, as well as some other important things,
wrote to me.
We have just had Dr. Jerry Brock for a weekend
of “deeper life” meetings. He was purely after money, it seemed.
I did not
know what I was getting into. He is tied in with the Fulness group--mainly
Jim Hylton.
There is so much deceit that it nearly breaks
one’s heart. One night Dr. Jerry, while waiting to preach, sat in the pew
reading a magazine on how to make money and be successful. He claimed that
Jack Taylor, Manley Beazley, and Jim Hylton led him into the Spirit-filled
life. He came to our church in a Lincoln Mark IV Continental.
About that time another Southern Baptist
correspondent wrote concerning the same subject.
My membership is in a Southern Baptist church
of some 3,000 members. We have a pastor now of a different type than we have
previously had in the 15-year history of the church. He is a running mate of
the Fulness crowd that I am sure you know of, including Jack Taylor, Ras
Robinson, C.R. Solomon, James Draper, Peter Lord, Manley Beazley, and many
others.
These men all teach and preach positional
truths, but there is a strong element of charismatic thought along with body
life among them. Some of them talk of charismatic gifts, Corinthian Way, and
of late, demonism. But when finished preaching one can hardly tell what they
believe or just what they have actually said.
More Charismatic Stories
But there is no difficulty in telling what
they say in the Fulness magazine. Ras Robinson, the present editor, writes in
a recent issue (Jan-Feb. ‘86):
A pastor from a neighboring town came to our
church on a Sunday evening, after his services were over. He went forward late
in the invitation and asked our pastor if we prayed for healing. He said he
had been a victim of polio. The muscles of his right leg were atrophied and
the joint did not work properly. His right leg was at least an inch shorter
than the left. He asked us to pray for him. Our pastor called me forward,
knowing that God had used me to pray for legs in several instances where legs
were miraculously lengthened.
We had this pastor sit down in a chair while
we held his feet in our hands and commanded the right leg to grow. There, with
several people [no doctors?] looking on and the man’s eyes closed, we saw a
miracle take place as the leg literally grew in my hand and became the same
length as the other. I will never forget the look on this Baptist pastor’s
face as he looked down and saw that indeed God had, through His power, done a
miraculous thing. He walked out of the building a happy man that night for God
had touched him.
In the same article Dr. Robinson wrote:
Dr. C. Peter Wagner, a professor at Fuller
Theological Seminary in California, told recently of a time when he was
invited to Europe [these incidents usually occur far, far away] to minister
among some Christian leaders. They heard of a terrible hurricane in the
Atlantic which was about to hit the Eastern seaboard of our nation. Great
devastation was predicted.
As these top spiritual leaders gathered, they
asked Dr. Wagner to stand and pray, rebuking the storm. He prayed that prayer.
Later, through telephone calls, he heard that apparently the hurricane
reversed its course in the same hour he prayed and headed obediently back out
to sea where it dissipated. At the same time Dr. Pat Robertson, president of
Christian Broadcasting Network, stood in Virginia rebuking the same storm.
Dr. Pat Robertson is a possible candidate for
the presidency of the United States of America. Think of it! He, along with
his two co-workers, plies the same lucrative trade as depicted above, via his
700 Club telecast.
Finally, Ras Robinson writes,
Beyond the power and authority over the enemy
and the power and authority to reign and rule in life, we have also been
granted the power and authority to “do the stuff” as so often is said by
our friend and wonderful teacher, John Wimber. We have the power and authority
to heal the sick, speak in tongues, cast out demons, raise the dead, and to do
all the works of Jesus.
If these poor charismatic people would but
submit to the glorified Lord Jesus’ teaching through Paul, they would
thereby learn to distinguish the things of the Word that differ and not be the
victims of all this sick thinking and teaching. In their book The Other Side
of the Mind, Stone and Browning wrote:
In the same category and closely allied to
autonography is something the psychologists call verbal automation and the
psychic experts call glossolalia--a word coined to denote the phenomenon of
“speaking in many tongues,” as purportedly done in a mediumistic trance,
or sometimes in hysterical persons.
Uncontrollable verbal automatism is a common
phenomenon among psychotics. In fact, the borderline between so-called
psychotic phenomena and phenomena associated with psychotics appears at times
to be disconcertingly thin.
Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
Although without formal theological training,
there is no question but that the late Dr. Lloyd-Jones had an impressive
preaching career. After a pastorate in Wales, he became assistant to Dr. G.
Campbell Morgan at Westminster Chapel in London, from 1938 to 1943. Upon Dr.
Morgan’s retirement he was the pastor until his own retirement in 1968.
There are those who say that Dr. Lloyd-Jones
was the greatest preacher of the English-speaking world in this generation.
Others have compared him to Charles Spurgeon. He certainly was comparable to
Spurgeon in his dogged and outspoken stand for the divine authority and
inerrancy of the Word of God.
But while Dr. Lloyd-Jones was admirably strong
in his position for the Word, he was at the same time tragically weak in his failure to rightly divide that Word.
He was a Covenant-Calvinist, and his
ministry was law-oriented as a result. He was also an eradicationist, teaching
that the believer has but one nature--followed by others advocating the same
error, such as Dr. John MacArthur, Jr. , Dr. Charles Solomon, and Dr. David
Needham, to mention but a few.
Indubitable Denouement
Dr. Lloyd-Jones, being anti-dispensational,
failed to scripturally differentiate between Israel and the Church, law and
grace. Hence he sought to apply to believers truth that belongs exclusively to
Israel--and misapplied truth results in error. When one traffics in error, he
becomes vulnerable to accelerating deviation. The crash-course curve.
And the inevitable caught up with him in the
final years of his illustrious ministry. Dr. Russell Hitt shared the following
in the March '86 issue of Eternity magazine.
There is another factor to Lloyd-Jones’s
ministry besides the almost stern Puritanism of his preaching. In the latter
years of his life particularly, he began to emphasize the need for a
heaven-sent revival. (When all else fails...) He eschewed the
methodology of
American mass evangelism and even refused to identify with Billy Graham’s
several British crusades. No doubt he was conditioned by being reared in the
atmosphere of the Welsh Revival of 1904–05.
Christians, he began to teach, should
experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. His teaching on “the baptism”
was similar to that advocated by Dr. R.A. Torrey, and Dr. A.J. Gordon, who
also departed from the mainstream of evangelical teaching on the subject.
Lloyd-Jones also opposed the standard-brand Reformed teaching that the gifts
of the Spirit have in large measure ceased after the apostolic age. He was
quite blunt about it, saying, “The Scriptures never anywhere say that these
things were only temporary--never! All the gifts are under the sovereignty of
the Spirit. He decides when and how and where.”
Yes, the Holy Spirit decided. The sign gifts,
all of them, were for Israel in the past dispensation, and will be to some
extent renewed for the coming millennial kingdom dispensation. But not for the
present Church dispensation--the dispensation of faith [as opposed to
"signs and wonders"].
It is sad to note that this slippage from
faith to feelings developed in the latter part of his ministry, just as in
that of other non-dispensational leaders such as Dr. Harold Lindsell, and Dr.
C. Peter Wagner. No matter how firm one is concerning the inerrancy of the
Bible--and all of the other basic truths, for that matter--if that Word is
not rightly divided, it will result in errant teaching, and ultimate shame.
As
Paul admonishes, “Study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2 Tim.
2:15).
It is difficult to imagine how Dr. Martin
Lloyd-Jones could ever contribute to the charismatic error. I am sure that he
had no intention of doing such a thing, nor did he ever realize that he did in
any way whatsoever. But when you follow and advocate the erroneous teachings
of Dr. Torrey and Dr. Gordon concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you
are doing just that. The well-known evangelist, the late Dr. George T.B. Davis
wrote:
Dr. R.A. Torrey is cited by Pentecostals with
particular frequency and is of unusual significance to Pentecostalism in
connection with the Spirit’s baptism. Through a world-wide evangelistic tour
with Charles Alexander in 1904 Torrey, then president of the evangelically
influential Moody Bible Institute, spread among believers in many places the
message of the Spirit’s subsequent baptism, and hence served as a kind of
John the Baptist figure for later international Pentecostalism. Judging from
the movement’s literature, Dr. Torrey was, after John Wesley and Charles
Finney, the most influential figure in the pre-history of Pentecostalism.
Pentecostalism found in Torrey’s theology of
the Spirit a special affinity. Dr. Donald Gee, one of Pentecostalism’s
foremost theologians, says that “it was, perhaps, Dr. R.A. Torrey who first
gave the teaching of the baptism of the Holy Ghost a new, and certainly more
scriptural and doctrinally correct, emphasis on the line of ‘power from on
high,’ especially for service and witness.” (See pp. 16-18, Tri-S-II)
As for Dr. A.J. Gordon, in his book The
Ministry of the Holy Spirit (Foreword by Dr. F.B. Meyer), he wrote,
It seems clear from the Scriptures that it is
still the duty and privilege of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a
conscious, definite act of appropriating faith, just as we receive Jesus
Christ.
Dispensationally Weak
Being non- or anti-dispensational is not the
only path to theological error and personal ruin. There are many churches and
schools today that boast a strong written dispensational constitution, but
their practical ministry is dispensationally weak--and weakness in this
crucial area spawns error.
Kingdom Living Here And Now
The book of this title by Dr. John MacArthur,
Jr., was published by Moody Press in 1980. There is bound to be error and
spiritual devastation when truth that belongs to Israel is foisted upon the
Church.
In this respect F.W. Grant wrote: “To take
from Israel what is hers is only to diminish her and not enrich ourselves;
nay, what has been called in this way the "spiritualizing of the promises" has
led most surely and emphatically to the 'carnalizing' of the Church.” (The
Numerical Bible - Matthew, p. 70)
Dr. L.S. Chafer put his foot down just as
emphatically regarding rightly dividing the Word. “It will be found that the
teachings of the kingdom presented in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) are
in exact accord with the Old Testament predictions regarding the kingdom, and
are almost wholly in disagreement with the teachings of grace.” (Systematic
Theology - Vol. IV, p. 214)
REPREHENSIBLE RESULT
The following statements from this book
illustrate the fallacy of Dr. MacArthur’s applying earthly kingdom truth to
the heavenly Body.
The Bible never points to the past. It always
bases real proof of salvation on your life now. To prove yourself, let the
Spirit of God compare your salvation to the facts of the Sermon on the Mount.
If you are a child of the King, the characteristics of your life will be
righteousness. (p. 9)
Citizens of the Kingdom are merciful, pure in
heart, peacemakers, persecuted, reviled. You may have made a decision years
ago that was not true salvation if it did not involve these things. Years
later maybe you came back to the Lord broken over sin. That’s the moment it
became real; that’s the moment you entered the Kingdom. (p. 12)
Our Lord said that another thing that will
characterize a child of the Kingdom is obedience. We will long for the law of
God (Matt. 5:17–19). In fact, my sense of security is dependent on my
commitment to obey. (p. 13)
“My Kingdom is inside.” Jesus here is
cracking open the door of the New Covenant, of which Jeremiah had said that
God would write His law on their inward parts (Jer. 31:33). (p. 32)
If you want to be happy, if you want to be
filled with the Spirit ... just master the Sermon on the Mount and put it into
practice. (p. 34)
I believe this message is for all of us.
Historically some evangelicals have objected to the Sermon on the Mount on the
ground that it is too hard. For instance, when Christ says in Matthew 5:48,
“You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” they say that’s
too hard and pass it off to the Millennium. They say the Sermon is principles
for Kingdom life. But frankly, there are many problems with this view.
First, the text does not say this is for the
Millennium. Second, Jesus preached it to people who were not living in the
Millennium. Third, it becomes confusing if you push it into the Millennium
because it says you are blessed when you are persecuted for righteousness’
sake and when men revile and persecute you and say evil things against you
falsely. Who is going to get away with that in the Kingdom? (pp. 39,40)
In his Greatness of the Kingdom of God (p.
291, BMH Books), Dr. Alva J. McClain wrote correctly:
It has sometimes been objected that certain
features of Christ’s teaching seem intended to ameliorate social conditions
which will not exist in the future Millennial Kingdom. Is it possible, they
argue, that in that glad day the righteous will be persecuted and slandered
wrongfully? (Matt. 5:10, 11). In reply, we may say that when the Kingdom
breaks into human history from above, it must begin with things as they
are. For the Kingdom will come to set things right that are wrong.
And even the Beatitudes carry the savor of
eschatological judgment. Furthermore, under the rule of the coming Kingdom
there will still be present upon earth a humanity with a sinful nature out of
which all wrong actions spring. And the essential moral difference between our
present age and the coming age of the Kingdom must be found chiefly in the
immediate character of divine justice. Whereas at present unrighteous conduct
and its social consequences are not adjudicated at once, in the Kingdom there
will be no time lag; both the offence and its consequences will be dealt with
without delay [Now back to MacArthur.]
Happy is the man who is a beggar in his
spirit. He’s the one who possesses the Kingdom. It means to be spiritually
bankrupt and know it. The result is that you become a possessor of the
Kingdom, here and now and forever. How do you become poor in spirit?
Look at
God. Starve your flesh. And ask. Beg. He doesn’t mind a bit.
You will be
weaned from yourself. One who is poor in spirit loses a sense of self.
It is
gone! (pp. 51,52)
Carrying on my back the standards of God and
the commandments of Christ, while supported by the Spirit, is an easy burden
compared to the weight of my sinfulness carried alone. Eliminate the
hindrances of your realized sin. Eliminate the things that make your heart
hard. (p. 67)
“The meek shall inherit the earth.” What
Christ means here is that when you enter the Kingdom, you come into the
original inheritance of dominion over the earth that God gave Adam. It’s
paradise regained. (p. 82)
When we have poverty of spirit and we realize
that we are nothing but beggars, we will be willing to give to another beggar,
so we will be merciful When we mourn over our sin, we wash our hearts pure
with the tears of repentance, and we will be pure in heart. (p. 150)
Jesus said the real happy person is not
self-sufficient but cowering like a beggar, realizing he has no resources in
himself. He is meek rather than proud. He is not at all positive about himself
but is rather mournful over his sinfulness and isolation from a holy God.
He
is not confident in his own ability, but he is aware of his inability and
reaches out in meekness. (p. 151)
If we don’t have any persecution in our
lives, we’d better examine our claim to be Christians. If I’m not cause
for flak in the world, if I’m not making waves, if I’m not generating some
sort of conflict, then maybe something’s seriously wrong. (p. 154)
Don’t bail out. Don’t retreat.
Don’t
pack up your tent and steal away in the night. Don’t hide away studying your
Bible until the Rapture. Get out there and be a “martyr” I (p. 172)
Dr. MacArthur drew almost exclusively from
Covenant, law-oriented sources: Wm. Barclay (pp. 156,162); Thomas Watson (pp.
52,100,116,131,153); John Bunyan (p. 131); Martin Lloyd-Jones (pp. 95,104);
Puritans (p. 115); Donald Barnhouse (p. 115); and Arthur Pink (p. 161).
MORE MACARTHUR MISCUES
When questioned concerning his one-nature
teaching, Dr. MacArthur almost invariably counters by claiming that it is “just
a matter of semantics.” The following are some of his semantics on the
subject.
You aren’t an old man anymore and you don’t
have an old man anymore. The moment we believed in Christ, by a divine miracle
our old life died.
As Christians, our old life has been
condemned, crucified, and done away with. The old life is gone. In fact, in
Romans 6:6, it says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin (which is synonymous with the old man) might be
destroyed.” In other words, the old man is dead, destroyed, removed ... it
isn’t around. (Tape GC 2147)
We often think that Jesus bore our sins only
when He died on the Cross. But He suffered pain and torture even before He was
nailed to the Cross. He was bearing sin even when He was alive on the Cross.
When He was scourged, He was bearing sin. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that He was
wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He was bearing
the punishment for sin even then. (Can A Man Live Again? p. 61) [This borders
on heresy.]
Since you are a new man, and since you are a
member of a new humanity which is alive to God--act like it! Leave the old
habits and the old selfishness that belonged to the old man (the old Adamic
nature) and take on the new habits of selflessness which belong to the new
man.
Do Christians still have an old man? People
say to me so often, “Don’t you believe that a Christian has a new man and
an old man?” No! The old man that was corrupt has been crucified.
It is dead
and you are a new man. The old man is the unregenerate man and has been
replaced by the regenerated man. If you have both a new man and an old man,
then you have both a regenerated part and an unregenerated part.
In other words, you are half saved and half
lost. Now that doesn’t make sense, does it? We’re not half regenerated and
half unregenerated --we’re new creatures. Granted, there is a war going on,
but it isn’t between an old man and a new man. We can’t be regenerated and
unregenerated at the same time. (Tape GC 2146)
When we become Christians we are not
remodeled, nor are we added to--we are transformed. Our old nature dies, and
we become new with a new nature. I don’t believe that a Christian
simultaneously has two natures--an old and a new. A Christian has one new
nature. So, Christians are new creations, but sin is still a problem because
of the old coat of humanness. Ephesians 4:24 tells us to “put on the new
man. ‘I The “new man” is a new kind of human behaviour, a new humanness
which we must put on to accomodate and fit our new nature. We must put off our
old patterns and practices--all the things of our old life that hang on us--and put on the clothes of the new man.
(Tape GC 1928)
MISNOMER: JEWISH CHRISTIANS
Jewish converts today, for the most part, are
backing into Christianity. “I don’t care where I’m going, I just want to
see where I’ve been.” They remain facing Judaism, and their hearts are
centered in Jesus, Israel’s Messiah. Like so many others, they are thinking
Kingdom, while in the Church dispensation. It is a futile attempt to put new
wine into old wineskins (Lu. 5:37, 38). They are similar to some converted
Catholics, mainly charismatic, who remain in and are true to the Church of
Rome.
It is a built-in factor for a Jew to be
zealous and jealous for his Jewish heritage; that is understandable. Hence,
when converted, he seeks to center in that heritage, while adding some of
Christianity to it. (Like Christianity, which takes on some Judaism.) But he
insists on being considered a converted Jew, a “completed Jew” by
believing in the Jew’s Messiah. This sends him back to Moses’ Old
Testament, instead of forward to Paul’s Epistles.
Much of this sad state of affairs can be
charged to Covenant Calvinism. “Calvin attempted by discipline of Church and
State to make everyone live like a Christian--as did the Puritans, as a
result (to say nothing of present-day Theonomy). This effort resulted in the
need to use the Old Testament rather than the New as an ethical guide.
Moishe Rosen, founder and head of the
charismatic Jews For Jesus mission, says it for the average Jewish convert of
today.
I get annoyed when people call me a converted
Jew! It reflects poorly on my Jewish heritage. You see, I have not stopped
being Jewish. The Hebrew word for conversion is teshuvah, which means
repentance, or a turning away in order to return to the original point.
I have
never repented of being Jewish because being Jewish was never a sin. I did,
however, repent of sin.
My particular sin included not doing those
things that God commanded in His Law, not being what He, wanted me to be.
But
now I’m in Christ, and He is in me; and I have fulfilled the Law’s demands
by His righteousness. You can call me a converted sinner, but not a converted
Jew. I am now a completed Jew because I have been made complete in Christ as
to those matters touching upon the Law. (Newsletter, 6:5742, p. 1)
The extreme of this wrong-way religion is
centered in a steadily growing movement consisting of Jewish converts who
insist upon referring to themselves as “Messianic Jews.” Rev. Dan Juster,
one of the leaders of this movement, wrote in Christianity Today (July 13,
1984):
The problem (between Messianic Judaism and the
rest of the Church) is not our unity in the Messiah, but to see a form of
worship and practice develop for the benefit of all which reflect the Old
Testament and the Hebraic background of the New Testament. To which form of
the church is the Jew expected to conform? Episcopal ritual? Baptist
revivalism? Presbyterian? The church is already diverse in form.
What is
sorely lacking is a valid Hebraic form!
Juster, 37, is spiritual leader of Beth
Messiah Congregation of Rockville, Maryland, and is considered by many to be
one of the chief architects of modern Messianic Judaism. He is author of a
number of magazine articles and books on the movement; he received a B.A. in
philosophy from Wheaton College and an M.Div. from McCormick Seminary. He
pursued graduate work in the philosophy of religion at Trinity College and
spent three years taking Jewish studies at Spertus College of Judaica.
Juster was ordained a pastor by the United
Presbyterian Church in 1974 and has been the spiritual leader of Beth Messiah
Congregation since 1978. He says:
We desire to be a New Testament community in
the midst of the Jewish community, which will positively reflect the Jewish
background of our people. Creating such a large and significant
self-supporting faith in Jesus will enable us someday to gain a level of
credibility--if not acceptance---from other Jews.
Even sound Bible churches contribute to this
tragedy. Their message to both unsaved Jew and Gentile, to say nothing of the
Christians within their doors, is part Jewish. Its basic ministry is centered
in Jesus in His humiliation, the Messiah to the Jews. How many ministries are
positioned in the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Life?
THEONOMY
Theonomy? you ask. That’s all right; this
page will help you. The following is by Dr. Robert P. Lightner, from his fine
article, “Theonomy and Dispensationalism” (Bibliotheca Sacra -
January-March 1986)
Theonomy means Law of God. It is not a system
of theology. It is rather a contemporary emphasis on the relationship of the
Law to the present age, stemming from Covenant Theology and associated with
the current expression of Postmillennialism.
Postmillennial Theonomy is championed in the
“Journal of Reconstruction,” the Chalcedon Ministries, Christianity and
Civilization, Christian Liberty Academy, and the Geneva Divinity School Press
of Tyler, Texas. Some of the contributors to the movement are Greg L. Bahnsen,
Paul Lindstrom, James B. Jordan, Gary North, Rousas John Rushdooney, and
Norman Shepherd.
Actually, Theonomy is Calvinist Covenant
theology gone to seed, and poison seed at that. It is an extreme example of
what can happen in law-orientation outside the realm of dispensational truth.
The following are five points from Lightner’s article.
- Theonomy is founded on Covenant Theology.
But Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology represent different systems of
theology.
- Theonomy insists that no distinction exists
between God’s program with Israel and His program for the Church. But this
distinction is the sine qua non of Dispensationalism.
- Theonomy believes that the Old Testament
Law of God--in brief, the entire Mosaic economy--is still in force today.
But
Dispensationalism believes that the Law of Moses as a rule of life was
terminated for this age at Calvary. [Besides, the believer is dead to the
Law].
- Theonomy believes it is the duty of the
Church to bring civil powers into subjection to God’s Law, both its precepts
and its penalties. But Dispensationalism does not believe this for a moment.
- Theonomy does not believe in a future for
Israel as a nation. But Dispensationa1ism most assuredly does!
THE ENFORCERS
The current textbook for the theonomist
movement is Greg L. Bahnsen’s Theonomy in Christian Ethics (Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Co.). A few thoughts from this book will provide a
chilling picture of the anti-dispensational theonomic thrust.
Although we must insist upon a proper
separation of Church and State, we must insist that both be subject to God’s
holy and authoritative Law; both Church and State, as well as the home, should
be under the sovereign dominion of God. Civil government must enforce God’s
Law, the whole Law, and rest its authority thereupon. Christ said that every
stroke of the Older (sic) Testament Law remains in force for the New Testament
era; that includes the stipulations having social and penal relevance.
The civil ruler who does his proper duty must
have authoritative direction from God in order that he deter those activities
which are actually unrighteous and promote those which are truly godly. That
direction is found in God’s revealed Law. Therefore, the biblical Christian
must hold to the theonomic responsibility of the civil magistrate! (p. 472)
Governments are good or bad according as they
approximate or diverge from the pattern shown on the Mount. Whether one looks
to Mount Sinai or to the Sermon on the Mount, the criterion of good government
is the same: obedience to, and enforcement of, the Law of God. But what is
this Law of which “political authority” is a part and which it is called
upon to enforce? It is the Law which the Jews received in the Ten Commandments
and which God has written in the hearts of all men. (p. 472)
All men are held responsible by God to obey
all of His Law in every area of their lives. The magistrate’s duty as
uniformly taught in both Testaments is to enact and enforce the Law of God as
it pertains to social affairs; his duty also extends to God’s penal demands,
even that of capital punishment. All rulers of the earth are subject to the
Law of God, for Christ is the King over kings. Scripture indicates that rulers
will be liable to God’s sure judgment if they do not justly rule according
to the perfect Law of God. (p. 493)
The attitude of the Puritans in founding this
new land was governed by the model set by Calvin in Geneva. They were
convinced of the dire need for godly politics and determined to let God’s
infallible word guide their endeavors. The renewed emphasis we see in this day
(Theonomy) on the application of Christianity to every area of life and human
activity is the heritage of Reformed Theology; much can be learned from the
New England Puritans in this regard.
Their goal was to see the Kingdom of Jesus
Christ come to expression in society as well as the private, inner heart of
man. Due to their zeal for a righteous political structure they “preferred a
wilderness government by Puritans to a civilized land governed by Charles I.”
The New England Puritans agreed on a great deal. They wanted a government that
would take seriously its obligation to enforce God’s Commandments upon all.
Chilton states that “Matthew 5:13–16 is
nothing less than a mandate for the complete social transformation of the
entire world. The center of Christian Reconstruction is the Church.
The River
of Life does not flow from the doors of the chambers of Congresses and
Parliaments. It flows from the restored Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church
of Jesus Christ. Our goal is world dominion under Christ’s Lordship, a ‘world
takeover’ if you will; but our strategy begins with reformation,
reconstruction of the Church. From that will flow social and political
reconstruction, indeed a flowering of Christian civilization.”
This is the theory of Postmillennialism.
The
Kingdom must be established all through the world, and the time is now. The
thing that distinguishes the biblical postmillennialist from amillennialism
and premillennialism is his belief that Scripture teaches the success of the
Great Commission in this age of the Church. The postmillennial theonomists
have an optimistic confidence that the nations of the world will become
disciples of Christ, and that the Church will grow to fill the earth, and that
Christianity will become the dominant principle. The Gospel shall convert the
vast majority of the world to Christ and bring widespread obedience to His
Kingdom rule. (p. 29)
Note the attitude of the theonomist in his
erroneous intention of enforcing the Law upon all in order to “rule the
world”:
If the Christian does not urge the full
keeping of God’s commandments he becomes a consenter to the crimes of
others. The believer must have hot indignation and loathing for those who
break God’s Law (Ps. 119:53); the unjust man must be abominable in the sight
of the righteous (Prov. 29:27). Psalm 139:21 gives us the example of David’s
proper attitude of hating those wicked men who hate his Lord and God; Psalm
97:10 commands those who love the Lord to hate evil. Then they will not be
ashamed, as the Psalmist was not, to promote God’s Law publicly (Ps.
119:13). (p. 477)
A theonomist leader, Dr. Paul Lindstrom, is
head of the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Lindstrom’s church and school have an extensive satellite school system for
home education with an enrollment of over 22,000 children. The strong support
of Bill Gothard has generated many of the participants in this Academy school
program.
PAUL OR PAUCITY
J.B. Stoney saw this theonomistic cataclysm
coming one hundred years ago. “The failure of the Church was giving up Paul.
‘All ... in Asia’ did not give up evangelical truth but they gave up Paul;
anything popular you may have, but not Paul. Why? Because Paul is heavenly.”
William Kelly wrote at about the same time,
“The Law, even if kept, could never make a man what a Christian is expected
to be [let alone the unsaved! ]. Can we wonder then that those who look no
higher than the Law, regarding it as the proper rule of life for the believer,
walk on low ground? Need we be surprised that such are involved with the
world, to the harm of their souls and the loss of their Christian testimony?”
(Bible Treasury, Vol. N-1, p. 331)
As Dr. Francis L. Patton put it long ago, “The
only hope of Christianity is the rehabilitating of the Pauline theology.”
May I add unto you a gentle reminder? Pauline
theology is the personal ministry of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ which He
shares exclusively with the members of His Body, which far supersedes His
earthly ministry that was primarily to Israel during the time of His
humiliation here.... “But I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel
which was preached by me is not after man. For I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:12).
Finally, once and for all, the Theonomist
Movement cannot possibly be of the Holy Spirit, simply because Paul wrote, “If
ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18).
Nothing can be more sure than the steps of one
guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and yet nothing more
difficult than to have to walk in separation from all that exists around. It
is indeed difficult to have to wind one’s way through things so perplexing
as the religious systems of our own day.
We have to avoid on the one hand systems
formed in imitation of things past [Israel] , and on the other systems more
characterized by anticipation of things future [Kingdom]. We have to allow
that such things were once given by God, and that they will yet again be
introduced by Him, while invariably contending that they are positively
opposed to. His present working by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. --J.L.
Harris (Bible Treasury, Vol. X VII, p. 61)
Negative To Positive
At the outset we promised you there would be
truth included to compensate for all the error set forth-- and I trust there
will be more than just compensation.
The Heart Of The Matter
The heart of Dispensationalism, i.e., the
differentiation between Israel and the Church, between law and grace, is the
one doctrinal position of safety from Covenant Calvinism’s legality on the
right, and Charismatic madness on the left.
That is pretty much where our dispensational
churches, Bible schools and seminaries are--clear of the charismatic element,
and relatively free of the ever-lurking Galatian error. All hold to the
inerrancy of the Scriptures, the Word of God is faithfully preached, souls are
saved, and believers support their churches and love the Lord. All safe and
sound!
However
A leader among the Bible churches recently
asked me the following question: “Why is it that most of the preachers and
leaders I have known and worked with during my many years of ministry are not
really spiritual men? They love the Lord, they are faithful to the inerrant
Word, they are dispensational and doctrinally sound, and they win souls and
minister to the saints. They are well trained and know the Bible throughout,
and yet for the most part their ministry is shallow and they are all too often
quite carnal.”
Dispensationalism Plus
There is no question but that it is essential
for the believer to know and rightly divide his Bible-- a life-long study. But
it is all-essential for the believer to know which parts of the Scriptures are
meant exclusively for him--for his spiritual growth and maturity.
Remember now, we are talking here about
spiritual growth. Knowing the entire Bible, the whole counsel of God, will
cause a believer to be knowledgeable and steadfast, but it will not
necessarily cause him to be spiritually mature and fruitful. While all areas
of the Word can be helpful to him, the entire Old Testament will not produce
spiritual growth in him, the Lord Jesus’ ministry on earth to the Jews will
not do it for him--nor was it meant to (not even a red-letter edition of the
N.T.). Matthew cannot do it for him, nor can Mark, Luke, John, Peter, or
James! John may have brought the believer to birth, but only Paul can bring
him to maturity.
“All the apostles (except Paul) accompanied
the Lord Jesus and followed Him to the cloud (Acts 1:11) . Paul sees Him on
the other side of the cloud, and it is this which characterizes his entire
ministry.” --J.N. Darby
The glorified Lord Jesus Christ ministers
spiritual growth truth for members of His Body almost exclusively through
Paul. It is in that realm of the Word (Paul’s Epistles) that believers will
come to know who and where they are: in the One who is their Christian life--
and only there. Once they become established in Him where He is, then they can
take advantage of the rest of the Word without falling prey to Covenant or
Charismatic error.
The Ground Of Growth
William Kelly knew the place and significance
of Paul’s ministry, and he never failed to stand upon it and for it.
The doctrine of the Church was never confided
directly to Peter-- he never did write of it. He was not the apostle to the
uncircumcision, but of the circumcision (Galatians 2); full of power for the
work among the Jews, he left that among the Gentiles entirely in the hands of
Paul. Peter does not write of the Body of Christ, and the instrument whom the
ascended Lord Jesus commissioned to establish the Church among the Gentiles
was Paul.
God Himself founded the Church on the day of
Pentecost by the gift of the Holy Spirit, but, as human builder, Paul was
exclusively selected to establish the Church, and unfold what it was. The
other apostles never speak of the Body of Christ, nor of the presence of the
Holy Spirit on the earth.
The early ministry of the Lord Jesus was to
Israel (Rom. 15:8). That of John the Baptist was purely so. It was the Gospel
of the Kingdom that was proclaimed then (Mk. 1:15); not the Gospel of the
grace of God that we proclaim now (Acts 20:34; 1 Cor. 15:1–4).
The Twelve and the Seventy were given a
restricted ministry to the Jews, which will be resumed by and by (Matt. 10,
and 24:14), but is not for us now in this Church dispensation. Peter preached
the Kingdom, the Lordship and Messiahship of Christ (Acts 2 and 3) but not
Christ as Head of the Body, the Church, and this is the truth that was
revealed exclusively to Paul, and through his Epistles is made known to
us--especially Ephesians and Colossians. (Bible Treasury,. Vol. XI, p. 237)
Because the thing is in the Bible does not
warrant the conclusion that it is God's will and intention for the
Christian. We must seek rightly to divide the Word of truth [i.e.,
acknowledge the obvious divisions based on a normal, grammatical-historical
method of interpretation]. What was formerly right for the Jews is for
us nothing but the elements of the world (Col. 2:20-23). These forms
pointed to a reality that is now come; the Body is of Christ. The
blessed portion of a Christian is, that he has died even to the best things of
the world, and is alive to the highest things in the presence of the Father;
for the Lord Jesus Christ glorified is his Life. (Bible Treasury,
Vol. VII, p. 143.)
THE POSITION PAPERS
The following Position
Papers (450 of them to date have thus far been compiled) will set forth in
some measure not only how important it is to rightly divide the Word of truth,
but also how necessary it is to concentrate upon that portion of the Word that
is meant for the believer's spiritual growth and maturity.
-
It's Paul For Me!
- Heavenly Church
- The Price of Law
- Heavenly and Earthly
- Why the Law?
- Present Presence
- Which World, Christian?
- Incompatibility
- The Glory of Grace
Webmaster Note: The nine Position
Papers listed above have not been included with this online article. The
entire 750 Position Papers were published in May of 1994 as a three-volume set
of books. This priceless "Spiritual Anthology" is available
under "Order Books" link below.