Agonizomai

Heb 2:10-13 - Christ - Suffered Willingly and Deliberately

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:01:00 PST

Heb 2:10-13 - Christ - Suffered Willingly and Deliberately

Heb 2:10-13 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." 13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me."

For it was fitting... This is by way of an explanation of the condescension of Christ described in the preceding verses. "It was fitting" is the introduction of the readers to the idea of Christ’s total identification with those he came to save. He took on Himself humanity. He became a man, though He was fully God. He never gave up His godhood even though He put aside, for a time, His glory and (in a sense) His power in order to live completely as a man lives, yet without sin. He came in both active and passive obedience as representative man - just as Adam was representative man - in order to both expiate our guilt by suffering God’s eternal wrath in our stead, and forge a faith by which His righteousness could be counted as our very own.

In view of God’s eternal purposes, in view of His desire to glorify His Name, in view of the love with which He loved his own from eternity and purposed the redemption to be the means by which His glory would be magnified in the eyes of all creation - with these things in view, it was fitting, appropriate, apt, suitable, meet, the right thing, that Christ should not only take on human flesh, but that he should do so for the purpose of suffering.

Though he deserved not to suffer, and though there was none that could cause him to do so (for there is none greater than God that he might be compelled) yet nevertheless he so identified with his people that he condescended to make his Own suffering the means by which he would forge the salvation of those who deserved to suffer eternally. What love is this?! How this God is to be feared that he could devise, and would implement such a means of salvation! If he spared not his own Son how we ought to tremble before such wisdom, such wrath, such love and such absolute authority!

This is not something to be passed over lightly, this concept of Christ’s condescension and his identifying with the objects of his salvific love. It is a union. It is an eternal union forged upon the cross at the junction between God’s eternal love settled upon undeserving creatures of his own choice, and his eternal wrath upon their sin. If Christ were not fully human - if he was not the federal representative of elect humanity - if he did not live his entire life as a human being, by faith, in hope in the faithfulness and promises of God - then no one could possibly be saved. A man had to satisfy God. A true human being had to live a life totally honouring to the Father. Yet the value of that human life was infinite because of the nature of the Person who lived it. The Person who lived that fully human life was no less than God the Son.

It is in the Son, in Christ that salvation was wrought and is found. Don’t minimize the prepositions. "In" is not some ethereal or quirky way of expressing arcane mystical truth. It is actual union. Christ in us and we in him. It is indissoluble intimacy by the Spirit. Human union in marriage, even before the fall, stopped at emotional and physical oneness. It was, in the best sense of the word, something fleshly - Adamic. It was always, to some degree, experienced externally. This is certainly the case with fallen human relationships. Yet, even so, they do approximate or stand as analogies of what is to be enjoyed with God in the Spirit.

The same principles exist in both - principles of unity without loss of identity - of a union in which distinction is never lost. But union in and with Christ is vastly more than we could ever imagine in the here and now. Christ draws not only Himself and, with him, the Father, into this union - but also all the saints. There is community in which exists a unity by the spirit (God’s Spirit) composed of great diversity and infinite wonder and complexity.

All of this community, diversity, unity and intimacy was purposed by God and forged upon the cross in Christ, where it was made a reality and a certainty in the world of men, in the historical sense. Eternal things happened at Calvary and in the Incarnation in general. Unalterable and unutterable things. All things were being reconciled there in Christ - only some of which we now grasp but faintly.

But ... the one origin of which the writer speaks is not Adam. The writer is speaking of the common origin in the Spirit of the Christ and those who are in Him. Christ was born into this world of the Spirit of God and we are born into heaven, the kingdom, eternal life, by the same Spirit. Christ proceeded from heaven at the behest of the Father and we proceed to heaven at the behest of the same Father. Our common source with Christ, our common origin, is God. We are born of God. All other human beings are born of Adam alone. We are heavenly seed, just as Christ is the seed of Abraham promised by heaven. Christ was given to us by the Father and we are given to Christ by the Father. God is all in all.

Now do we begin to get an inkling of what God was doing in Christ? Do we see something of the exchange that took place for we who believe? Righteousness for sin, life for death, union for separation, unity for fragmentation and selfishness. Do we see the fitness of God’s methodology? Do we stand in awe and bow the knee in wonder? Do we snatch a glimpse of the infinite condescension of the Eternal Son? Do we get some concept of why He was universally believed by the true church to be both fully human and fully divine, and why only this reality could possibly save us?

It is because of this heavenly connection - in the Spirit - the fact that we are born of God that the Son of God is not ashamed to call us brothers. He sanctifies us (makes us holy by setting us apart) and we are the ones who have received that sanctification. It is all in Him. Holiness is of the Lord and from no one and nowhere else. If we are holy it is because God has declared us holy on account of Christ. If we are being experientially sanctified it is because he is sanctifying us according to his eternal power and purpose in Christ.

The writer goes directly to what is, perhaps the most lucid and direct prophecy of the cross work of Jesus Christ, which is Psalm22. "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." {Ps 22:22} But it is the preceding verse of the psalm that tells why this rejoicing in praise bursts forth from the Saviour’s lips.

The first half of Psalm 22 describes the suffering of the cross, but right in the middle comes a prayer from Christ to the Father (vv 19-21), followed by the thunderous joy of "You have answered me!" It is the ordained end of the cross - the "It is finished" signifying that the work that the Father gave to the Son was accomplished in history and would bear fruit for eternity.

And the writer goes on to quote from Isaiah - from a passage that is also prophetic, speaking in the immediate fore-context of the Lord being a sanctuary to the prophet, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both houses of Israel. {Isa 8:13-15} Undoubtedly we see in this passage a double application, for this was spoken to and through Isaiah initially, yet is a clear picture of the coming Christ. So we come to the words, "Here I am and the children God has given me," {Isa 8:17-18} given in the midst of an injunction to bind up the testimony and to seal the law (v16) and a warning that those who do not speak according to the law and the testimony have no light in them (v 20).

Isaiah may well have been taken in his time to be speaking of himself and those faithful ones gathered around him at the time of writing, but the writer of Hebrews sees Christ as the One who was given children by the God the Father, presenting them to Him as the fruit of His promised labours - made acceptable in Him.

And we also see once more some evidence that the writer was quoting the Septuagint, in which verse 17 is rendered "I will put my trust in Him." I say this because the Hebrews were scattered by one, or perhaps two, Diasporas throughout the known world of the time - and that the language of that world was Greek. This is why a number (supposedly 72) of scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek some 1-300 years before the birth of Christ; it was the common language of all Hebrews born into the world throughout the world. It therefore behoved the writer of this general letter to the race to use the translation most familiar to the universal audience, and there is evidence that this is what happened. Scholars readily acknowledge that the Septuagint was also frequently cited by the Apostles and early Church Fathers.

Sermon of the WeekAnd Christ Was Amazed

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:01:00 PST

Here's Doug Vandermeulen who is one of my favorite preachers. He's gentle in tone, but extremely pointed about the Truth. Doug is the preaching pastor at Community Baptist Church in Fargo, ND. Three unexpected things grabbed me in this sermon.

Firstly, Pastor Vandermeulen brought up a saying that I think is from Francis of Assisi, and which goes something like this - "Preach the gospel at all times - use words if necessary." I have used this one myself in the distant past. It is catchy and it sounds very pious. It fits well into the liberal and emergent emphasis of doing over being. Doug demolishes this sloganesque phrase as a deceptive falsehood. Listen for it.

Secondly, he picks out a phrase I have often seen misused by others concerning the nature of faith. "And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief." I have never fallen into the trap of thinking that the lack of faith in the people hamstrung Christ from doing miracles - which is how some interpret this. My own take was always that Christ, seeing what the Father was doing, perceived when the Father granted faith and acted in perfect accord with it. But Doug has another light on the subject - what might be a better one. Look for it.

Thirdly, he draws an inference I had never noticed before about the disciples being sent out without second tunics or purses. I won't spoil it for you. Just give him a listen...

And Christ Was Amazed - Doug Vandermeulen

The Text:

Mark 6:1-13 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff––no bread, no bag, no money in their belts –– 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Mission Accomplished

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:01:01 PST

Here is an excerpt from something by Shai Linne. I've posted stuff from him in the past (Dec, 2008) but I'm recovered enough now to post something else. My traditionalized white Anglo Saxon brain wants to dislike this but can't. O wretched man that I am! This man is preaching truth to a part of the culture I barely know exists. Isn't God wonderful!

If you have trouble with the link in the applet you can listen to the full song here. I hate rap and I still recommend it, if only for the words.

Heb 2:5-9 - Christ - The Federal Head of the Redeemed

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:21:04 PST

Heb 2:5-9 - Christ - The Federal Head of the Redeemed

Heb 2:5-9 Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 you made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Christians are not engaged in the present world so much as in the world to come. This present life is, for the time being, the means by which the world to come is revealed to us and in us and through us, in the spirit. Our concerns and our hearts are set on things above. This idea probably gives certain liberals palpitations, if not outright heart failure. But we are not speaking of being so heavenly that we are no earthly use. On the contrary we are speaking of being so heavenly that all things are wrought in Christ and, yes - in a sense only Christians understand - that all things are wrought by Christ in us. This is impossible without the heavenly view - without faith as the Bible speaks of faith, which is a belief and trust in God to effect his purposes and promises.

It is by looking to heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of power, having completed all things - and by trusting in this truth - that we live our lives in the here and now. Getting the order reversed - that is living in the here and now in order to see, attain, or just plain hope in the heavenly reality - inevitably produces at best dryness and at worst a false hope in personal attainment to a righteousness that we should understand is already ours.

All the cults and all the heresies are at some place along this false road. Roman Catholicism does this by adding works to grace. They deny the sufficiency of grace while maintaining its necessity. Arminianism does this by making faith (or at least, the will to exercise it) a work rather than a gift. The Pelagian elements in the modern church do this by denying original sin and making man the deciding element in salvation through moral acts of the will. All these look away from heaven and towards man as the source of all, or of some part of the life we now live.

Of course, all Christians fall into error in this regard, but not all dwell in it. Our flesh wars against the spirit and deceit is all around and within us. We need to be continually reminded of this finished work of Christ and look to Him as both the Author and Perfecter of our faith. And we need to eschew all tendencies to look inwards and sideways, except insofar as we are looking to and for Christ above in all things.

So the writer to the Hebrews is focusing on the world to come, and on how he understands the Person of Christ in this regard. He starts with man as a race. Generic man. Man as God originally made him - righteous but mutable. The original imprint of Adam as God’s representative in the world of creation has never been utterly defaced. Man, it is true, is fallen and rebellious and dead in trespasses and sins - but God has not failed in his grace. Even fallen and spiritually dead men retain the imprint of their supremacy over the created order. They misuse that supremacy; they misunderstand it; they use it for their own glory instead of vicariously, for the glory of God who is above all.

But the imprint or the shadow of the image remains. I think of it as being like the shadow of that poor human being in Hiroshima fused into stone steps after the bomb detonated. The shadow is no longer a functional human being as some knew him, but is a reminder of the glory and vitality that once was a living person. The spiritual death of mankind in Adam is an analogous event.

God is faithful even though we are not, and his mercies are over all His works. As a consequence, man still has authority and power over the world that surrounds him. On account of sin this results in much corruption and suffering, but the original gift of God was indeed both a crown and a glory. This was defaced in the fall but not utterly obliterated. But what remains of that glory and its fruit in the world is a testimony to God’s grace and forbearance, and not to man’s virtue and ingenuity. In order to arrive at right conclusions, real theology takes the real fall really seriously {per Vandermeulen}.

And what God purposed originally has not failed. When the Bible speaks of man having everything in subjection under his feet and of being crowned with glory and honour (as Adam once was, and we in him) this is indeed re-established in Christ, the God/man. He is the federal head of redeemed humanity, and all those who are in Him are - on account of Him alone - partake of his glory and honour and rulership. We, the saints, do this once more not as equals of our Creator God (which God Christ also is) but as subject to His headship. His glory and honour and leadership is reflected in and through us. It is not ours and never will be. But it is graced to us in Christ, in order that we cast it all once more at his feet.

Where are angels in all of this? What has this to do with mere messengers? Mankind in Adam was made a little lower than them but, through redemption in Christ, man has been raised way, way above the angels in Him. God has done a wonderful and fearful thing. He has made man more by his grace than man ever could have been apart from it. Those who are in Christ are not being made lower than the angels, for no holy angel was ever graced by being raised by adoption into intimate eternal fellowship with God, as the saints have been. And no fallen angel has even the hope of grace.

The writer is quoting again from the Psalms. {Ps 8:4-6} His apparent vagueness is not carelessness. It is a confidence in the fact that his hearers know the scriptures. The Psalm was originally a paean of praise regarding God’s handiwork and his grace towards men. Until Christ came, it would be hard to imagine this being regarded as a prophetic writing. But with the aid of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is revealed in all the writings and in places heretofore unseen. Thus, the writer adds the editorial comment in verse 9 deliberately applying the psalm to Jesus himself.

The reference to man and the son of man is taken to mean both men in Adam and the Christ who came to redeem his Own. Mankind in general is seen in the original reading, and Christ is seen as Son of Man in the enlightened interpretation. Christ perfects where Adam failed. Christ redeems what Adam lost. But he redeems it in a totally overarching and transforming and glorious way.

Man fell and the world groaned. The world of creation became a struggle to him. Thorns and briers sprang up, and the sweat of his brow were needed to eke out a living, whereas, before, the world was subject to him because his will was in perfect harmony with the Creator and Sustainer of these things. So when we read the Psalm and we look at the world there is an apparent non sequitur. We do a double take when we come to the "subjection" part. The world is clearly not in subjection to man. But man believes that it is – or that he can make it so of himself. He believes that by more effort, more science, more technology, more understanding - he will make the world a better place.

But the problem at the root of it all is ignored. The root problem is sin. In sin we develop technologies, sciences, moralities, ethics, causes and movements and they are all flawed in concept or in application by their inventors and purveyors and believers. Man cannot redeem the world. Man himself needs to be redeemed. This is why Christ came. He redeemed mankind (that is to say, humanity - not all human beings, but some members of the race).

So God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He did it through a man - through the man Jesus Christ - so that, as by man alienation came to the world and a curse came upon the whole of creation, so also by a man the race is preserved in a remnant, for which is reserved a new heaven and a new earth.

Note how the heresies are rebutted upon a careful reading of the text. Jesus was not created a little lower than the angels - but was "for a little while" made (to be) lower than the angels. This implies that he was at one time higher, became lower in some sense, and then became higher again. The passage in Philippians {Php 2:5-11} gives an excellent sense of this emptying, this infinite humiliation, this descent, this condescension - like diving into the inky black depths of the ocean, and resurfacing in a blinding blaze of light, carrying denizens of the deep from the sunless abyss.

We see that it was "by the grace of God." It was not on account of anything in his creatures, real or foreseen that He came, but for the demonstration of mercy and grace that had otherwise been forever unseen by creation, but which was now made manifest in Christ. Indeed it was in love that God acted, but it was not that sort of love which looked to its object in order to be moved; it was that eternal love which proceeds from God for his own pleasure and glory, and out of His will alone. Salvation is by grace alone. It is by grace that the wrath of God is appeased for all those who come to him, trusting in him alone.

What can it mean that Christ tasted death for everyone? Learned scholars have differing opinions. The Greek language says that he tasted death ὑπὲρ παντὸς (uper pantos), which translates literally as "in behalf (or stead) of "all" or "every" or "the whole." But it does not specifically say every what. Is it every believer? Is it for the whole church? Is it, in some sense, for every person who ever lived? These are not insignificant questions, and how they are answered has an effect on how we understand the gospel. Good men have differed over what the meaning is.

Gill, a high (some say hyper) Calvinist, thinks it means simply "all the elect". Poole, a Puritan thinks it means that Christ died in order to "render sin remissible to all persons, and them salvable". Others think that Christ paid the penalty of sin for every single human being at the cross.

As I said, these are not easy matters. But a good hermeneutic must not allow that Christ died for people who are ultimately lost. That would mean that their sin was punished twice - once in Christ, and once in themselves for eternity - and that would defy justice. Of course, it could be claimed that it was only for their unbelief that they were punished - but that leads to a messy and irresolvable theology of what happens to infidels who never hear the gospel at all. Why, we would have to introduce a concept like - O I don’t know - purgatory in order to make room for their "chance" at salvation to be appropriated.

Still again, some believe that Christ’s death secured the general or common grace that God shows to all men, but saving grace only for the elect.

The wisdom of the Reformers summarized what it was believed had been the understanding of the Apostles and the church fathers like Augustine and Anselm. They said that all that believed were indeed saved, but that faith itself was a gift of God’s grace, along with repentance. So their understanding was that there is both a general call of the gospel and an effectual call. Those who believe do so solely because God first regenerates them. Those who reject the gospel do so because of their sinful predisposition to enmity with God. They are as we all would be if God did not effectually call some.

This raises the question of whether the general call is a genuine one. Is there a real offer of salvation to all men - and, if so, on what basis are they offered forgiveness if Christ died only for the elect? And wisdom has answered that Christ’s death is sufficient for all men (if they would but believe), but is efficient only for those to whom God grants repentance and faith. And so it goes.

My own understanding of this passage is governed by the context, which is all about the supremacy and superiority of Christ as the message and messenger of God. It includes the idea of Him saving His church because, in verse 10 it speaks of Him bringing many sons to glory through His sufferings. Verse 16 also speaks of Him "giving aid to the seed of Abraham," which means to all who are in Christ - to spiritual Israel.

Some, supposing it to be necessary, wish to ensure the integrity of the gospel by ensuring that the "offer" is both free and real to all men. Some see the gospel as proclamation which is only meant for, and only heard by, those who have ears to hear. Some try to fit both these views into their theology. In any event these three things are absolutely certain:

1) that whoever hears and believes the gospel will be saved. {John 3:16,Ro 10:17}

2) that all the Father gives to the Son will come to him and those who come to Christ will never be cast out {John 6:37}

3) that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. {Acts 4:12}

We must add to this that the gospel is to be preached to all men without favour or distinction. {Mr 16:15} The results are now, and always were and will be in God’s hands. The rest, as they say, is for the theologians - so long as we understand that all Christians are called to be theologians (the study of God).

The Need for Theology

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:01:01 PST

Here is Dr. Wayne Grudem speaking at the Advance 09 Conference about the need for theology to be taught in our churches.

This is particularly appropriate to our Hebrews study precisely because the writer of the Homily to the Hebrews makes exactly the same points to them. He even chastises them for failing to press on to the meat of the gospel which is what will equip them for living harmlessly and wisely in this hostile world. It's a short 5 minute clip - enjoy...

Heb 2:1-4 - Christ - IS the Message

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:26:19 PST

Heb 2:1-4 - Christ - IS the Message

Heb 2:1-4 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Therefore - for all the reasons and in light of all the proofs provided as to the infinite superiority of Christ to angels and other messengers of God - because Christ is the message, the ultimate message of whom all other messengers spoke - then we who profess faith in Him ought to closely guard and heed our doctrine.

Inattention to what we have been taught by Christ and His Apostles will cause us to apostatize. It is not enough to have believed the truth if we then neglect that truth. We must constantly be reminded and we must continually abide in that truth or we shall drift by degrees into something other than the truth, and we may find out that we are reprobates after all. When the saints sing, "Tell me the old, old story," they are not being nostalgic, but prescriptive. We need to be told over and over because our flesh wars against the truth and is susceptible to being deceived.

The "we" I am referring to in these notes was originally the community of Jewish believers. But we are all adopted Jews, and there is great application for all the saints contained in the warnings of Hebrews.

The writer of the homily hearkens back to Israel’s past by reminding them not only that angels and other messengers declared a message (note the choice of verb - the word was declared, not suggested) but that what they said proved to be utterly true and reliable. And both the kindness and severity of God, the Sender, was revealed according to the way Israel responded. Every disobedience was punished. But not only was it punished - it was justly punished. Israel lived under the covenant of works - under law, which required complete compliance, on pain of incurring God’s just retribution.

God has the right to demand compliance from His creatures, and more especially still from His chosen people. Israel was chosen as the recipient of the law and the testimony - as the guardian of the truth and as a light to the world. God condescended to show Himself to the nation and to be their personal God. Yet Israel utterly failed.

And this is the writer’s point - that the communication of God Almighty to His people in times past came by intermediaries and yet was still reliable, and all rejection of it (which is a lack of faith) came with a price. Now that God has spoken "in Son" - the ultimate self-revelation in an intensely personal way, not through an intermediary but directly - then rejection of this ultimate message can only lead to something unimaginably terrible. And that will be a just end.

How can we contrast the message through intermediaries with the personal incarnation of the Message Sender - once for all doing away with all other intermediation? It is like the land owner, having sent servants to inquire of his tenants about the harvest and getting no response, he finally sends his son, whom they kill, thinking that in murdering the heir they shall themselves keep the land. {Mr 12:1-9} God came into history, to His very Own chosen people and was Himself the message. "I AM the way, the truth and the life," He declared, "No one comes to the Father except through Me." {John 14:6}

Jesus is not an example of how to live. He was not a teacher showing us the ten principles of fulfilled living. He is the life. He is the way. He is the truth. The life cannot be known or manifested apart from union with Him. We live, but nevertheless not we, but Christ lives in us. {Ga 2:20} We don’t imitate Christ. He lives in us and we abide in Him. This is what is encompassed in the idea of God speaking to us "in Son." It is an entirely different order of communication. It is infinitely superior to all the other means of communication of God to us, even though these other means were completely true and reliable.

The contrast in the writer’s conception is not so much about the message (for there is consistency between all the messages) as it is about the messenger. Jesus always was the message. He was the message in creation, which witnesses to Him. He was the message in the promises given to the fathers. He was the giver of the law which was itself a message about Him in typology and symbols (in the Levitical, civil and ceremonial laws), as well as in moral content (in the Ten Commandments). He was both the sender and message of the prophets. It was a message that spoke of both holiness and grace - judgement and mercy, punishment and love.

So Jesus’ coming is the ultimate self-revelation of God. It is naked. It is unequivocal. It is unveiled. It is in the open for all to see. And those who claim to have seen, and yet display the same behaviour as the historical record shows of the nation of Israel as a whole by disobedience, are displaying that lack of faith that belies their confession. The writer will go on to describe in more detail the parallel between the profession and the fate of Israel and the profession and fate of those who draw back from Christ.

No mistake should be made here; to reject Christ is a far greater and graver iniquity than to reject His messengers. Both are causes for retribution, but greater knowledge brings greater responsibility and, as a result, greater culpability and punishment.

What was it that the message of Christ and the Apostles attested to? What was it that was declared? It was salvation. But it was not such a salvation as could be separated from Christ Himself. Christ preached Himself as God’s only means of salvation, to be apprehended by faith. All that this includes was fleshed out by Christ, and then the Apostles in every God-breathed word of the gospels and other inspired texts. The message is “God is our salvation” {Ps 62:1-2, 68:19, Luke 2:29-32} and "Salvation (deliverance) is of the LORD." {Jon 2:9}. In other words, salvation is in a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ.

The properly represented teaching of both Christ and the Apostles makes this clear, which is why close attention (see v1) must be paid to what we have heard from Christ and the Apostles and to keep on checking to see if what we have believed corresponds exactly to what they have said.

Real Authority

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:01:01 PST

Those are but suspicious Christians, who will take in all that believers do, upon the authority of believers. The comment must be followed no further than while it agrees with the text.

William Secker

Heb 1:13-14 Christ - Whose Servants Are Angels

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:08:01 PST

Heb 1:13-14 Christ - Whose Servants Are Angels

Heb 1:13-14 And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Finally, in making his case about the infinite superiority of Christ from their own scriptures, the writer turns to another psalm {Ps 110:1} This is the very psalm that the Lord Himself used to prove His identity to unbelieving leaders - though they refused to hear. The Pharisees knew perfectly well that this psalm was a prophetic one, too. They understood in their heart of hearts that it spoke of Messiah.

But Jesus quoted this not in answer to their testing; rather it was added after their condescending remarks to Him in Luke 20 (though all the synoptics have this). They had tested him about the afterlife with a ridiculous hypothetical story about a woman who, under the Levirate law, was married to seven brothers, each of whom died. The Lord’s answer was a rebuke to show their ignorance of the scriptures, when he said there would be no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven, but that men and women would be as the angels.

It was only after they complimented Him on the wisdom of His answer that Jesus rejoindered with psalm 110. His point was to let them know that it was not earthly wisdom - not just quick thinking, juggling on the fly, having sharp wits - that He had shown them; it was that He himself was wisdom incarnate. “I am no mere man” was the implication. He was a man, but He was more than a man. He was the Theanthropos - the God/man. He wasn’t there to bandy wits with His detractors, but to declare, preach and manifest the will of the Father.

Wherefore, He took them to psalm 110 and asked them a simple question, "(if) David thus calls him ‘Lord’, so how is he his son?" {Luke 20:44}. They, of course did not answer, and Jesus warned the onlookers to beware of such men.

Now, none of this is directly spoken of here in Hebrews - but the citation the Lord used was the one directly next to this one. In our Bibles, it is in the very same verse. The same Jesus who rebuked the Pharisees for their clever flattery and cunningly intellectual and legalistic nit-picking for the sake of religious argument (but without a real care for meaning) was making a point about His divine Sonship as part of the sentence now brought to bear. Surely this could not escape the notice of the Hebrews who, by now, had the gospels.

Jesus knew Who He was. The Pharisees and other leaders refused to see it. Jesus was the Lord of David and is the Lord of the universe. Not only that, but the incarnate and resurrected Son is now at the most privileged post that there is. He sits at the right hand of God - the power and honour position. Angels - the holy angels - cover their faces and their feet with their wings in the presence of God but the Son sits at the right hand of power and authority and favour and honour. Unveiled. Untrembling. Unafraid. He is Holy, holy, holy - the Lord God Almighty - thinking it not robbery to be equal with God and having laid aside His glory to redeem a people for Himself (a people given to Him by name by the Father) He has finished His journey through the heavens and taken up His glory again, having revealed even greater glory to all creation than was able previously to be apprehended by any of His creatures.

The writer seems to be saying, "Jesus - an angel? Give me a break!" While Jesus sits at the right hand of power and majesty on high, mere angels are sent to minister and serve in the unveiling, the revelation, the unfurling in history of the redemptive plan that Jesus secured. So far from Jesus being an angel, angels themselves are ministers to the (human) saints for Christ’s sake. They are not nearly so glorious as redeemed mankind, for redeemed men experience and enjoy something that angels themselves long to look into. Redeemed men are to be glorified not for themselves, but on account of what Christ Himself did in their behalf. Jesus an angel? Not on your life!

Lecture of the WeekHistory of Christianity -1500-1700 AD

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:01:03 PDT

The following lecture comes to us from Michael Haykin. This is his second week in the last three on the blog. It is indeed unusual here at Agonizomai to post two "Sermon of the Week" audio files by the same speaker in such close proximity, but it is the occasion of Reformation Day that causes us to look for something instructive and reliable relating to Reformation times. Since Dr. Haykin is Adjunct Professor of Church History and Spirituality at Toronto Baptist Seminary, he seemed a very suitable source for our purpose.

This lecture concentrates mostly on Martin Luther and events surrounding and following his great personal epiphany concerning the grace of God. There are many interesting epithets and tid-bits in this, but they mainly serve to frame the whole thing in human terms and to remind us of the common humanity that we share with people in past ages. Haykin is quite ready to present our predecessors "warts and all", which lends great credibility to his observations. Enjoy this one as you celebrate around Reformation Day.

No Other Foundation (1500-1700) Michael Haykin

[Dr. Haykin maintains some other interesting church history audio files and sermons here and here]

The Diet of Worms

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:01:01 PDT

Today is Reformation Day. In light of this I am posting a reprise of a little devotional I wrote years ago. In celebration I have re-recorded the audio in a higher quality. Enjoy...

_______________

The Diet of Worms

Earthworms have a very exclusive diet. They eat dirt. That’s it. They extract from common soil all that is needed for the nourishment of their darkened little lives below ground. Light is anathema to them and, should one of them be caught in the glare of a flashlight when visiting the surface at night, he will dart for the cover of dirt as fast as his follicles can carry him.

If, from the title of this piece, you were expecting a scholarly work on the life of Martin Luther or the beginnings of the Reformation I apologize for misleading you. We may get around to the Reformation later, but by a circuitous route. For now, let us go back to considering worms.

I am struck by the similarities between these blind, light-phobic, dirt-eating little creatures and the Biblical picture of fallen mankind. Do worms eat dirt? Consider how fallen mankind diets delightedly and determinedly upon the unclean vanities of an existence in rebellion against God. Do worms flee from the light? Hear how fallen men prefer the pitch of darkness and will not come into the light at all. Are worms blind? Consider that the Word of God that uses metaphor to portray the nature of fallen man as blind.

Of course, it is forbidden in this day and age to associate worms with the condition of mankind. It is no longer considered acceptable in a post-modern church, where self-image, self-respect and just about self-everything-else has come to the fore. We are far too enlightened to allow that sort of “dehumanizing” description to distort the new picture of men as lovable, but wrong-headed little scamps who need to have their mistakes fixed up. Consider, for example that great hymn of Isaac Watts from 1707 entitled “At The Cross”. The first verse originally read as follows:

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Since then, the old-fashioned “excesses” of diminishing the status of man and of exalting the Name of God have gradually been all but eradicated. Until we have now arrived at the place where we can regard the words of Watts as that sort of over-the-top hyperbole or false humility which was so typical of less enlightened times. God forbid that people today should be offended with such imagery and be encouraged to see themselves as worms!

Yet, when the Bible speaks of men as “worms”, it could just as easily be understood to be comparing them to maggots, which is an even less sympathetic symbol. Job’s friend, Bildad the Shuhite, covered the entire spectrum when he said, “Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clean in his sight; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

But let us delve a little deeper. That great prophetic Psalm 22 which foretells the agonies and shame of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, upon the cross puts the very word into our Lord’s own mouth when He says in verses 6-7, “But I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads…”

Yet it was your shame and mine that He was bearing. It was on our behalf that he was regarded as a “worm” in the place of we, the true worms. The Son of Man became a “worm” for the sons of man who are worms. Of course, this is all figurative. But, in using the term “worm” the Lord, the Psalmist, and the Spirit who inspired him actually meant to portray us as utterly corrupt, rather than simply as “naughty children” in need of a good spanking.

In reality, there is a far too inadequate view of mankind’s depravity pervading much of Christian consciousness in the modern age. And shepherds are doing neither sheep nor comers any favours if they fail to present the picture of their condition properly. Through fear of offending congregants or concern that the unsaved will be turned away if we tell them what God says about them in His Word, we have actually sown the seeds of our own downfall.

By our euphemisms we attract not penitents but patients. And we build not disciples but dependents. We are found not demarcating holiness but diluting it. For there is a godly order that must be followed by all who would strive to enter in at the narrow gate. They may not be brought immediately to the denial of all self, but they must be pointed to it from the very first. They must know the cost and count it. They must be shown what they truly are so that they will flee from it into the everlasting arms of their Saviour, and from there keep leaning upon Him. They must be set upon the road that leads to the utter loss of their own life so that Christ may live His life in them.

God will accomplish all that He purposes in those who are truly His. But woe to those who make their journey slower, who retard their sanctification by withholding and misrepresenting the truth and who, thereby, actually put stumbling blocks before them. In the name of false kindness and sensitivity they actually hinder the production of fruit. We must preach the truth in love, but only if we preach the whole truth is it truly love.

Early in the 16th Century, when Tetzel was making a mockery of salvation and holiness by selling indulgences on behalf of the Roman Church, he was doing no differently than when we, the modern church give people a watered-down gospel that circumvents the cross. We do this by failing to tell, in complete detail and unflinching honesty, what God’s Word says about how our own vile corruption makes the cross necessary.

In those times, it took a Luther, raised by God at just the right moment, to sow the seeds that would reset the course – a course that finally arrived at its own Diet of Worms. And what did this Luther say about our fallen abilities?

“If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learned Jesus Christ aright.”

When will we once more wake up to the truth of the gospel that makes man a helpless, unlovely, sinful, dreadful, disgraceful, perverse, stiff-necked, rebellious, profligate evildoer who is entirely dependent upon the grace of God to even know that he needs salvation, let alone be able to find it or live it? A proper understanding of this truth will serve to magnify the love and the Name of Christ. Continuing in failure to preach it will result in the further exaltation of God’s creatures, instead of the God in whom we all live and move and have our being.

Reformation Day's Eve

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:18:33 PDT

No regular post today. Instead, here's a little reminder that tomorrow is Reformation Day. That beats "All Hallow's Eve".

For the words and an explanation of terms, follow this link

New Perspectives on Paul[Cultural and Textual Contextualization]

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:01:01 PDT

If you are anything like me you will get a theological nosebleed from listening to this one from Dr. Thomas Holland, speaking at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. It goes on for well over an hour (including question time) and a lot of it is way over my head, so I wouldn't blame anybody who reads my blog if they just gave it a pass.

Ostensibly the lecture deals with some fine points about what is known as "The New Perspective on Paul", and contains elements of seminarian and theological dispute that people like me are just not that familiar with, and not really equipped to fully understand. I didn't pick this one so much for the theological debate as for the observations it contains about how culture and presuppositions regarding the cultural milieu of certain writings can be used to misrepresent facts and draw wrong conclusions.

Just one example is the misconception by certain Higher Biblical Critics in the last century about the nature of the Greek language that is found in the early New Testament Biblical texts. It was thought that the language was Classical Greek and they inferred thereby that certain words had meaning exactly corresponding to the classical meanings. But it turned out that the ancient authors were using the meaning of the Greek as employed by the Septuagint translators, which had been "Judaised" during the itertestamental period to make certain classical words fit Jewish concepts. So it was dangerous and wrong to proceed to pontificate about nascent Christianity without making such distinctions. Yet a whole generation of theological academia had plowed into this error willy-nilly.

Anyway, if you have the intestinal fortitude, here is something that speaks again to the need not only for textual context, but cultural context as well, in studying what people in the past believed and why they acted the way that they did. Enjoy...(if you can)...

New Perspectives on Paul - Dr. Thomas Holland

Heb 1:10-12 - Christ - The Beginning and the End

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:01:02 PDT

Heb 1:10-12 Christ - The Beginning and the End

Heb 1:10-12 And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end."

This is from another of the psalms {Ps 102:25-27}. Psalm 102 is mainly a supplicatory psalm in which the psalmist laments his condition and the opposition of his enemies. It looks forward to the promised Messiah through expressing hope in God as deliverer of His people. In referring to Psalm 104 earlier the writer to the Hebrews made the point that Jesus was greater than the angels, from a psalm in which His godhood is clearly seen.

But here he is more direct in selecting a psalm which speaks of both the creative/sustaining and the judgmental powers of Israel’s deliverer. The inference is now to Christ’s position as the Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the end. He not only laid the foundation of the earth (creation), but He will roll up the heavens like a cloth at the end of the age.

This is the Christ in Whom the Hebrews have professed belief. God Almighty, Creator and Destroyer of the universe; eternal and unchanging God. This is the God Who has spoken "in Son" to Israel, having already spoken in many and various ways through the prophets - the very prophets whom the writer is now quoting to them. Again, this is preparatory argument which will lead to dire warnings about apostasy. He clearly lays out what they themselves claim to have known and believed and thereby removes any excuse for them to entertain lesser views of Christ.

Orthodox Orthodoxy

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

Anything can become our idol. Even our theology, if we are not careful, can be the thing we bow down to in place of the Son of God Who died for us. That is because we can value even orthodox belief above God Himself. This is not endorsing postmodern relativism, but is, rather, a reminder that God alone IS completely orthodox - or, as the word implies "correct in doctrine" or "right in belief". All others err, usually in matters they themselves are blind to. I am a heretic in some areas, just like everyone else, and I need faithful people to tell me when I am.

Gleanings 16.108

Heb 1:7-9 - Christ - The Subject of ALL Scripture

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:09:48 PDT

Heb 1:7-9 Christ - The Subject of ALL Scripture

Heb 1:7-9 Of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire." 8 But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

More proofs from the Hebrews own sacred texts are given to reinforce to the Hebrew audience the unique and utterly "other" Person of Christ. This is preaching as it is supposed to be, which is why I called this letter a homily. All preaching takes the word of God and opens up Christ to the hearers from it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of whom? The Word, which is Christ. The written word testifies to the Living Word. The letter of the word, made alive to the hearer by the Spirit, is made the food and drink that is the Living Word to the children of God.

So the writer gleans Christ from the scriptures and makes Him visible to those who have eyes and audible to those who have ears. Note that he preaches Christ exclusively from the OT. He doesn’t yet have the complete canon of the NT. His scriptures are those that were the scriptures of Christ Himself. All that he preaches to them is Christ, yet it is Christ revealed out of the OT. How much do today’s preachers mine the very words that Christ Himself, in human form, learned in order to see Himself as Who He was? How much OT preaching is there today? And when there is such preaching, how much of it discovers Christ to the hearers?

Would you believe that there are actually Christians today who think that the OT is obsolete? That it has been superseded? That it is no longer needed or relevant now that we have the NT? What appalling ignorance there is in our churches - even amongst our ministers! What neglect of such treasures! Two thirds of the entire Bible - fully two thirds of all that God has to say to humankind - is contained in the OT. Two thirds of His revelation of Jesus Christ is found there. Without this treasure much of the NT is just hanging out there without a foundation. How can we neglect these riches and, in doing so, cleave to a shallow and incomplete knowledge of our Lord?

But here, the writer hones in on the One who is the subject not only of his homily, but of all true sermons, then and since. Would we know God? Then we must know Christ. Would we know Christ? Then He must be revealed to us through the word by the Spirit sent from the Father and the Son.

Christ is in Psalm 104 not as man, but as Creator, through whom the world was made. Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise to the glories of God’s handiwork. And in it is contained the phrase referred to by the writer, that He, the Lord, says of His angels (the work of His hands) "He makes (them) winds, and His ministers a flame of fire." {Ps 104:4} Again, the Septuagint translation is in view to the writer, for in Psalm 104, the Lord is rendered "kurion" and not "Yahweh" or "Jehovah". Undoubtedly, the translators were loath to transmit the unutterable tetrgrammaton into a pronounceable Greek form - and thus came up with "Lord" (kurion) where the Masoretic text unquestionably gives us "YHWH", which always refers to Jehovah God, and which is rendered in capital letters as "LORD" in the AV.

But what are we to learn from this? Only that to see Christ is to see the Father. They are indivisibly God. The Jehovah of Genesis and of the exodus is the Christ of the cross. We cannot, on the one hand, so distinguish the members of the Godhead that they become separate, independent beings - nor can we, on the other hand, so mix them together that they lose their personality or their functional differentiation. God said to Moses, "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one." {De 6:4} Jesus the Christ is Author, Creator and Redeemer. So seeing Him in a paean of praise and adoration such as Psalm 104 is not strange. Jesus is God.

He is God incarnate and He is God the eternal Son. Even so, He is not the Father, nor yet the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, as God He is due all praise and worship - exactly as the psalmist does in Psalm 45 where he makes the Christ to be the Son of God - not by earthly generation, but by eternal generation.

Psalm 45 is the source of the author’s second citation here - as it says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." {Ps 45:8-9}

Ostensibly beginning as a song of praise to the king of the time, it quickly becomes clear that Psalm 45 is a prophetic psalm from start to finish. In verse 2 we see that this King is "fairer than the sons of men" (v.2), and is a "Mighty One" personifying truth, humility and righteousness (vv4-5). So, when the psalmist comes to verses 6-7 it is clear that this is not an earthly king of whom he speaks. It was not a great secret that the Christ was to be Son of God. It was believed and professed by the church that Jesus was this Christ. So this prophetic psalm which the religious Jews of the day would have understood to be speaking of Messiah is perfect ammunition for the writer to the Hebrews in his desire to set Jesus Christ apart from, and above, all of His creation - including angels.

In prophecy He is clearly described as God, yet as being God to whom God speaks, and of Whom God recognizes an achievement involving the love of righteousness and the hatred of evil. This may have been somewhat cloudy to Jews in the time of the captivity, when they looked ahead towards a more complete revelation - but it ought not to be cloudy to the church. The One of Whom this speaks has come and fulfilled all righteousness. To see and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to profess having seen and understood His work, and the benefits of that work.

Those Hebrew professors who were in danger of retreating to the old time religion (in whole or in part) were being reminded that the profession they had made was grounded in the reality of this Jesus, Who is God incarnate. If this is true, there can be nothing but dire warnings and eternal consequences for any that draw back, as we shall see in chapters 6, 10 and 12.

Sermon of the WeekThe Great White Throne Judgment

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

This sermon was delivered by Steve Lawson at the Resolved 2008 Conference. Steve is the pastor at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, Mobile, AL and the pricipal of New Reformation Ministries

This one deals with a very tough subject that has often been avoided by liberal and postmodern preachers. But such things are avoided only at the peril of both preacher and congregation. And though the subject matter here is dreadful and sobering, Dr. Lawson does not fail to hold forth the gospel of the hope that is in Christ alone. You will want to find a comfortable place to sit and maybe get the beverage of choice ready before starting this one, because it runs to just over an hour.

The Great White Throne Judgment - Steve Lawson

No Salvation Apart from Knowledge - Hargrave

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:01:02 PDT

Here's Dr. R.A. Hargrave again. I don't want to overdo him at the expense of others (I posted something of his only a week or so ago) but this is relevant to a personal experience I had very recently.

I was at a men's retreat a while ago for a couple of days. There was a lot of good stuff there under the general topic of "Counting the Cost". But I met an old fellow congregant of mine and got embroiled in some heavy conversation about the Word and the Spirit and how they work in both believers and unbelievers.

Part of that conversation was his belief that the Spirit can work quite apart from the Word in unbelievers. He cited Watchman Nee and how he supposedly ran across some people who didn't have Bibles but who were believers anyway. Apparently the Spirit had shown them Jesus without the Word.

A lot of us have heard similar stories - such as the tribe that had no contact with the civilized world, but when a missionary finally arrived the tribesmen announced that they knew the truth about God providing a Savior and had been waiting for someone to arrive and tell them His name.

Is such a thing possible for God? I suppose so, for nothing is impossible with Him. But is it the way we are told that He works? Is that the witness of the Old and New Testaments? Or did God make Himself known by the word preached? Was knowledge necessary for the apprehension of Christ? Knowledge such as Who He was, what He did and why? And does the Spirit work in any way other than to reveal Jesus Christ through the proclamation of His person and work?

Well in this short video Hargrave makes the point that "There is no salvation apart from knowledge." I happen to agree with him. And I think it's very dangerous to go down the road of believing that God saves people absent the means He has appointed to the task.

Hargrave's main thrust isn't exactly the same as mine. He is juxtaposing emotionalism and knowledge, whereas I'm juxtaposing numinous infusion and knowledge. But we're close enough.

Heb 1:5-6 - Christ - Is More Than An Angel

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:07:46 PDT

Heb 1:5-6 Christ - Is More Than An Angel

Heb 1:5-6 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you?" Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son?" 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God’s angels worship him."

Now the writer brings out of the very writings that the Hebrews always held sacred those passages that speak of the incarnate Son. This is because what was known as "Moses and the Prophets" (but which included the whole of our OT Canon) was unquestionably authoritative to them. He eschewed quoting Paul or Peter or Luke - though these inspired writings were probably around at the time.

He starts with {Ps 2:7} and adds {2Sa 7:14}. The first citation was, on the face of it, simply a familiar attestation of Israel (the Son), declaring that it would be victorious over its enemies because, in opposing them, the nations were opposing the Omnipotent God Who was with them. The second is ostensibly a prophecy about Solomon, given to David through Nathan on the occasion when David expressed a desire to build a permanent home for the ark in Jerusalem.

These passages can be and were read by all manner of men in Israel precisely in the ways indicated - and they still speak that way to those who read them apart from the illumination of the Spirit of God. But Jesus, upon Whom the Spirit dwelt without measure, undoubtedly saw Himself everywhere spoken of in the writings - for He had put Himself there by writing history, and by inspiring the authors to record what He put into their hearts and minds concerning Himself. This is the nature of the mystery that was hidden from the ages waiting to be (fully) revealed when Christ came.

I’m not saying that just because Christ came and lived and died then all men can now see what God had hidden in plain sight. I’m saying that for those who are in Christ Jesus, the same Spirit that embedded these treasures in the record also reveals the spiritual relevance of them to the heart of faith in this present age. The Spirit has been given to the church in a unique way and with the full ammunition and context of the actual, historical life of He of Whom it speaks.

Yet we cannot, nor would we wish to, deny that there is a very real contemporary context for these OT passages. In Psalm 2 Israelites of the 9th century BC would have no trouble seeing Israel and Jerusalem and their present earthly king in all the references contained there. And in 2 Samuel Chapter 7 it is quite clear to contemporaries of that time that Solomon and the earthly line of David is spoken of. In fact, there is specific mention within the prophecy of what God will do "if he (the seed) commits iniquity".

This sort of duality is ever present in OT prophecies. Not only are there parallels between Christ and Israel, but between Israel and the church and between Israel and the individual believer. There is virtually no end to the latent imagery, metaphor and typology on both spiritual and economic levels. Christ Himself is everywhere prefigured in the writings, as Jesus Himself showed the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. {Luke 24:27}

So it is hardly surprising that the writers of the New Testament looked for Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures and saw Him all over the place. These two passages are cases in point. In retrospect, and with the aid of the illuminating Spirit, it is not difficult to see Psalm 2 as being all about Jesus Christ; it is a prophetic Psalm. On the other hand, the 2 Samuel passage contains elements that are solely applicable to Solomon and his descendants (the mention of sin, for example), and elements that apply both to Solomon and to Christ.

The Hebrews writer, desiring to distinguish the Lord of Glory from a mere angel, or even from all other prophets, has begun to argue his case. The angels are in fact spoken of as the "sons of God" {Job 1:6,2:1,38:4-7, Ps 29:1,89:6} in the OT. But none is spoken of as the begotten son of God. All these others were creatures - they were created and called sons in that sense, because their existence derived from Him, through that means. But the Eternal Son was never created. He is without beginning or end. He is Alpha and Omega. He is of the same substance as God - is, in fact, of one substance with Him.

So the Son of God is related by eternal generation, meaning that "this day" is the eternal day - the unchanging “nowness” of eternity. It can also be taken to refer to the incarnation of the Son in time into human form. Along this latter line, the second citation from 2 Samuel does not imply that the incarnate Christ will become a son to God - either by being born in the flesh, or by adoption as we saints are - but that He will conduct Himself as only a true son could, being the perfect image of His Father in thought, word and deed. To quote the various translators of the writer to the Hebrews, the incarnate Christ is "the exact representation, the express image, bearing the very stamp of His nature, the very image of His (God’s) substance."

The reference in verse 6 is from Ps 97:6-7, which is taken by the writer of the homily to be a prophetic psalm of the revelation of God in His Messiah, and is why the command to worship follows the pronouncement that "all the peoples see His glory." We ought not to be confused by some translations that say "Let all the gods worship Him." The original Hebrew word is "elohiym," which is indeed the plural for god, but which is also used of angels. In fact, the translation of the OT known as the Septuagint expressly uses the Greek word "aggeloi" (angels) in this psalm to render the original Hebrew "elohiym".

Whatever the details hold, the overall thought of the writer is that Jesus Christ is Messiah and that he is "God with us" - not man alone, not incarnate angel, either before or after His resurrection. He is eternal Son come from the bosom of the Father and returned thereto, more gloriously revealed than before, co-deity and fully worthy to be adored and worshiped.

Sweet Grace - Roxylee

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

My good friend and sister in Christ, Roxylee, has come up with another beautiful work - this time based upon Romans 8. What a treasure she is. Please visit her site here and let her know if this song has blessed you.

Sweet Grace - Roxylee

Exceedingly sweet and gracious
Is the gospel of our Lord
He causes me to trust in Him,
Eternal, glorious Word

Who chose to call me to his side
Before all time began
The riches of his mercy
Who can understand?

Sweet grace, irresistible grace
God frees me and keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

His covenant is lasting
And every promise true
You will receive salvation by faith
If He is calling you

Your heart will leap with joy to see
When He unveils your eyes
The Word will come alive so real,
You can’t deny

Sweet grace, incredible grace
God frees me and keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

Jesus, our good shepherd
Leads His people in the way
We will assemble joyfully
Before His throne one day

Living in the realm of grace
Redeemed and Spirit sealed
Hearing, by the Word
Incarnate truth revealed

Sweet grace, astonishing grace
God frees me, then keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

Exceedingly sweet and gracious
Is the gospel of our Lord

Heb 1:3-4 - Christ - Is How God Magnifies His Name

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:05:12 PDT

Heb 1:3-4 Christ - Is How God Magnifies His Name

3-4 he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Speaking of Jesus, the writer makes sure that his readers hear who Christ is. He is not an angel. He is not just a man. He is the very Creator of all things Who at this moment, and even when He walked the earth, upheld all things by the word of His power. This phrase, "word of his power" is loaded with meaning. The power of the logos is the means by which God effectuates both existence and events. God speaks and it is so, as we find repeatedly in Genesis. Unmistakably, then - and especially to a Jewish audience - the writer is identifying the Son as God. He is simply using a Hebraism, stating the first part of the verse in a new way in the second part. Hebrew writers did this all the time. "God is good; His mercies endure forever." "Jesus the incarnate Son is the exact representation of the Almighty God; when he speaks it comes to pass, as in the upholding of the universe." And nobody could dispute the fact that the universe was certainly holding together.

But it was this same Almighty God, manifested in Son, who was himself the One that suffered and died as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was the perfect, the true, the only effectual sacrifice for sin. The purification, the catharsis, the expunging, the cleansing of this pestilence to which all men are enslaved - namely sin, which is rebellion and lawlessness arising from disbelief in the Name of God - was made by Him in His life and death. This was accomplished in history. Note that purification was made - it does not say that purification was made possible. This has implications for what we believe, but this is not the place to expand upon that.

Now in what sense did this Eternal Son Who created the worlds and Who was Himself God become superior to angels, who are themselves created beings? Was he ever actually inferior to them? If so, in what sense? We must wait for the next chapter before this becomes clear. {see Heb 2:9-10} For now, the writer is embarking upon a long argument, supported from the Hebrew Scriptures, proving that Jesus was not an angel - a created being. Obviously, for him to spend time here establishing this fact ought to draw our attention to its importance for the Jews of the first century.

Not only is the natural man resistant to the idea of God becoming a man, but the Jews were particularly vulnerable to being scandalized by the idea of their long awaited Messiah becoming a lowly peasant, who was rejected by all the leaders of the nation, ultimately dying a shameful death as a criminal. Alongside this tendency there were the nascent seeds of Gnosticism, which would fit well into the mindset of the Kabbalah. Gnosticism spoke of secret and hidden knowledge available only to the initiated, which would reveal complex hierarchies of angelic beings called demiurges. This sort of heresy threatened the early church and grew in influence well into the second century. Much of the New Testament’s teaching is devoted to refuting this growing heresy, which affected not only the Jewish brothers, but also the Gentile believers.

Jesus was not an angel. He was not a creature. He was not a man who became an angel because he "earned" it through some sort of life of merit. He wasn’t graduating on the eternal evolutionary spectrum to a higher form of life, like the Father and the Son of Mormon theology. Something did happen - something unique, and something about which the powers of darkness never cease to invent twists and corruptions that will mislead people. The aim is to prevent belief. But a close second priority is to induce wrong belief, leading to ineffectual witness.

What is going to be explained here is the incredible passage of the Son from heaven to earth to heaven again - and all that was accomplished by this unendingly glorious series of events that unfolded out of the eternal purposes of God. The Hebrews needed to be reminded of this because, like all the saints, their faith was constantly under attack. The liar and murderer will never rest from tormenting the saints until he is put away forever. All saints need to be reminded of the gospel constantly. The gospel is not to be preached solely to unbelievers. It is also for those who believe. It is, in fact the power of God for salvation to everyone that believes (literally "is believing") {Ro 1:16}. I speak here of the fullness of the gospel, the deeper and more mature aspects, which include a growing understanding of this very "journey" of Christ, and its ramifications from eternity to eternity for all of God’s creatures, men and angels included. The deeper the understanding of what has been revealed, the richer the potential for living it out.

We spoke briefly in the commentary on the previous verses about inheritance. In that context it was about how our inheritance is indissolubly linked to Christ. Apart from him we have no inheritance. In him we inherit all things because all things are His and He is ours. {So 2:16-17} Some commentators link that reference to the one in verse 4, making them one and the same. I tend to agree that they are aspects of the same thing but the previous reference is to "all things" and this is specifically in reference to "His Name". It is a Name that no one can read but Himself, {Re 19:12} yet it is the Name written on the white stone of victory that no one can know, except the one who receives it. {Re 2:17} It is a Name that is more excellent (surpassingly, infinitely more so) than mere "messenger" or "angel." It is a Name that belongs only to the Son of God, Who laid aside His glory in order to take it up again, having wrought salvation for lost men through His blood.

What is that name? Every believer knows it. Do you? It is the name that encompasses all the glories that God purposed, displayed and accomplished in the Incarnate Son. Grace, redemption, mercy, love. It is also a Name by which all will be judged - by which the reprobate will be confirmed as condemned and damned eternally, to the glory of God. It says Author, Creator, Redeemer, Friend, Emmanuel, Almighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Judge of all the World. It is an infinite and eternal Name to which is attached all the meaning and glory that these things convey. Thus it is known only to He who is infinite and eternal - yet is made known to those who are in Him, and He in them. And it will be made known in increasing revelation to His finite saints forever and ever.

So how was this inherited? It was inherited by Jesus, the God-man where much of what it represented had formerly belonged to the Eternal Son. But by his actions in redemptive history through his taking unto himself a human nature forever, unspeakable glories, untold and ravishing glories have been revealed for all of creation to witness. Had God not come, he would still have been loving and merciful and gracious - just not visibly, to undeserving human sinners. (Remember, there is no redemption for fallen angels.) These virtues existed eternally in God, but by exercising them in his creation in the Person of Christ they are inherited visibly by the God-man. Something more of God is manifested in Christ than was apparent to his creatures beforehand. So, as Son of God incarnate, He emptied himself of his glory - but when His work was finished, He inherited and took up a greater glory in the eyes of His whole creation because of what He had accomplished. Thus, the incarnation and the redemption were manifested firstly for the glory of God, and to that end and purpose for the benefit and enjoyment of men.

{As a footnote for the sake of right theology, God never changes. He cannot be increased or added to. He doesn’t learn new things. He doesn’t grow in any respect. He is infinite, complete and perfect as he ever was and will be. But He desires that His name be glorified and that He be enjoyed by His creatures, and the incarnation-redemption-atonement increases for His creatures the visible extent of that glory, that they may appreciate, adore, worship and enjoy Him the more.}

Archaeologists Find Joseph-era Coins in Egypt

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:36:04 PDT

Here's an article from "The Jerusalem Post" which is self explanatory. You can listen by selecting the link at bottom or read by selecting this link. The audio is read by a computer generated voice, but it is listenable.

What attracted me to the post was my knowledge that, in the past, the great scientistic and secular archaeological machine has variously declared that:

There WAS no Joseph
He was never in Egypt
He could not have been a ruler there
Egypt had no coinage

Well, if this find proves to be true then they'll have to sweep this one under the rug and conveniently forget prior erroneous claims without actually retracting them. That's just about par for the course with scientism.

Archaeologists Find Joseph-era Coins in Egypt

If the flash player does not work for this file click this link and it will open in your native mp3 player.

Heb 1:1-2 - Christ - Eternal Son Incarnate

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:50:07 PDT

Heb 1:1-2 - Christ - Eternal Son Incarnate

Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The testimony that this is written to the Jews is found in the reference to the historical record of God’s dealings with Israel, which they so carefully preserved and revered. God chose their nation from among all the nations of the earth not because they were mighty or strong or large, but because of their insignificance. As Paul says in 2Corinthians, "we have this treasure in jars of clay that to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." {2Co 4:7} The same principle applied to the chosen nation as applies to the chosen church.

The sheer constancy and the dazzling diversity of God’s communication to Israel in the past is nothing short of stunning. Having chosen Israel, He delivered them out of Egypt with a mighty arm and an outstretched hand, in mercy. Note the mercy. They were never to think that any of their deliverances or victories, nor the vanquishing or destruction of their enemies was due to themselves. Israel was the recipient of grace and the agent of His will, and its citizens were supposed to think of themselves in that way.

And what better preparation could there be for the acceptance of the Deliverer Himself? If Israel had not largely trodden upon every vestige of God’s blessings and ignored His repeated admonishments, corrections and chastenings then they would have been found humbly waiting in eager expectation for their Messiah. But only a remnant was so found. And it is to this remnant in his present age that the writer to the Hebrews addresses himself with a letter that continues to admonish, correct and chastise.

The treatise begins with a recapitulation of the gospel, putting Christ firmly at the centre not only of church history, but of all history, including and especially that of the Jews. The writer holds forth Jesus, the Eternal Son, through whom the world was made and to whom all things belong forevermore. This "Jesus," this Son proceeded forth from the Father, in whose bosom He is. He is the utterance of Godness in a form intelligible to humanity, because He is fully human. This is the Living Word of God, mystically and eternally linked to the recorded Word that preceded and followed Him in time. He is the Word of which the Word testifies.

All of the history given to the Jews and which the writer now invokes to their memory was written by God, through the inspiration of the Spirit and about the Eternal Son. The written Word’s purpose is to point to Jesus. For the Jews of history it pointed forward in time, and for the church it points backward in time - but whichever way it points it is all about Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, given for the atonement of the sins of His people, and to be their righteousness through faith.

And the Author and personification of the written Word stepped onto the stage of history in what the readers of this letter understood as “the last days”. And so they are. This age, heralded by the death and resurrection of the Christ, is the last age before His coming in judgment, and to restore all things.

We indeed have both the luxury and the difficulty of seeing all of this in the perspective of transpired history, and with the clarity of a completed canon of scripture. But what we gain in perspective in one way, we lose in perspective by not understanding the Jewishness of the church. Everyone who was ever in the church is and has always been a Jew; some by birth and some by adoption. Salvation is of the Lord, yes - but it is of the Lord through the Jews and to them.

Spiritual Israel existed in the history of the Jews and it exists in the church. All those who believe in the Christ and receive Him are spiritual Israel. They are the remnant - a principle found in the world, the nation of Israel and even the professing church - a stub, a leftover, a reserve kept by God; a testimony to His saving and keeping power, and not to the piety, holiness and efforts of those He is saving.

So God has, in these last days spoken to Israel literally, "in Son" (ἐν υἱῷ). This phrase means more than that God spoke "through" His Son (though He did that, too) - but that God spoke in the whole incarnation and life of Christ, including His every word and deed. It was all communication. It was all declaration. It was all representation. It was everything that God had been, was and would say to man about Himself on this side of the judgement. The New Testament writers applied and interpreted the gospel, but never added to what God spoke in the Person of Christ.

But what does it mean that this Christ was appointed heir of all things? Why heir, if He was creator? Why did He need to inherit what was already His Own? What changed? And the stunning response is that the incarnation happened. This creator, this Eternal Son, set aside his heavenly glory and came and lived a completely human life upon the earth, starting with conception and birth. He never ceased to be fully God, but He added to His Person the full nature of our humanity. He became the second Adam, so that he could perfectly represent those He came to save.

And all those He saves are eternally and indissolubly joined to Him. He is in them and they are in Him. To man, He represents God and to God He represents redeemed humanity (made up of His church). But having lived as a man and utterly fulfilled the Father’s will, He has inherited as the head of redeemed humanity, by His obedience unto death (even death on a cross) all that is God’s. Do you see the difference? All things are ours (who belong to Christ) and we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

There is no change as to His eternal ownership of all things as God, but added to that is now the co-Heirship forged by Him as man on our behalf. We are His inheritance. And He is ours. He is both Son of God and Son of Man.

Sermon of the WeekThe Word Did Everything

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

The following sermon was presented at a Reformation Festival Service - November 9, 2008 by Michael Haykin. Dr. Haykin is Adjunct Professor of Church History and Spirituality at Toronto Baptist Seminary. He maintains some very interesting church history audio files and sermons here and here.

It sort of fits in with the Hebrews theme because it is all about the accomplishment of the Word, mainly in the book of Acts. What He addresses is the Word preached - the gospel disseminated - the truth proclaimed. My comments in Hebrews are more about the Living Word who proceeded forth from the Father - like an utterance. But Messiah was such an utterance as never happened before or since. It was God uttering the Eternal Son (and In Him proclaiming Himself) into creation for the purpose of the recreation of a people by redeeming them from the wrath of God.

But the Written Word testifies to the Living Word, and so we find comfortable parallels and commonalities. I leave the reader/listener to figure out what they are.

The Word Did Everything - Michael Haykin

Decisional Regeneration

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:01:02 PDT

Know your church history. Know the old stuff and the more recent. Knowing the old stuff from the First Century puts the gospel and epistles in context and helps to correct some things we hold onto that are mere traditions. Knowing medieval and Reformation history will help to understand what can happen to the faith if it is not grounded upon the Word. Understanding 18th and 19th Century history will help to see how we have come to where we are in much of North American Christianity, following the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and the rise of Cartesian philosophy.

This brief bit from Mark Keilar (found on Lane Chaplin's YouTube channel) gives a hint as to how Finneyism made the end of the Second Great Revival into a damp squib, and corrupted the methods of gospel presentation down to the present day.

Hebrews - An Introduction

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:52:17 PDT

Hebrews - An Introduction

Who Wrote it?

This letter was written by an educated believer with an intimate knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was written to Jews by a Jew. There are arguments for attributing this letter to Paul, Barnabas, Apollos and even Priscilla - but in the final analysis, the second century church was obliged to conclude that "God knows who wrote it" and to leave it at that.

This letter, acknowledged by Clement, as stated below, was eventually "lost" to the Roman church until about the third century, when the church admitted her mistake and received the text from the Eastern brothers, who had preserved it all along. (This was obviously before the doctrine of the infallibility of the church and the Pope took hold. Popes did not become infallible when speaking ex-cathedra until much later)

When Was It Written?

Since this epistle was referred to by Clement of Rome around the turn of the first century it can confidently be dated no later than about 90 AD. However, since it deals with matters near and dear to the heart of Judaism, and no mention is made of the destruction of the temple (which took place around 70 AD) many have made the case that it was probably written in the 60sAD at the latest.

Why Was it Written?

The occasion of its writing was probably due to a number of factors, including:

1) the first flush of conversion and the excitement of the radical spiritual experiences surrounding the initial coming of the gospel were waning.

2) the anticipated return of Jesus seemed to be delayed and some were disappointed by this.

3) though a sect of Judaism, and therefore accepted as a licit religion by the secular authority of Rome, Christianity was becoming more and more distinguished from Judaism and, as such, was in the cross hairs of persecutors who regarded it as different and illegitimate, due to its crossing of social barriers and outspoken rejection of all other gods, including the Emperor.

4) Christianity demonstrated itself to be so radical a departure from the Judaisitic form of observance that some Jewish converts were taken aback, and others were somewhat nostalgic for all the ritual observances that their unconverted friends and relatives still "enjoyed".

Stay tuned - the new study begins in earnest on Monday Oct 19th

Tomorrow - Hebrews. Be There, Be Square...

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

Tomorrow we'll be easing into Hebrews with a short introduction. Then, on Monday, if the Lord tarries, we'll be off and running on a journey that will take us through to next May. That's a whole 'nother decade, gentle readers and listeners.

The format will be the same as always: Mon, Wed, Fri - posts on the current series; Tue, Thu and Sat - something interesting which may or may not be germane to the current study; Sun - "Sermon/Lecture of the Week" or a "Blast from the Past".

So fasten your seat belts and hang on for the ride...vroooom, vroooom!

Celebrating Our 1,000th Post

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:24:50 PDT

Yes this is Agonizomai's 1,000th post (give or take one or two) since the blog first started. We're celebrating with the fireworks display. If you pay careful attention you can hear some of my Japanese listeners celebrating in the background. [/wink]

How Deep the Father's Love

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:01:01 PDT

I am a bit of an old curmudgeon and have a predilection for my traditions, yet I do find this Stuart Townsend song to be one of the few modern songs that utterly buckles my knees and moves my heart towards Christ. I cry every time I play it.

The doctrine within it is solid and the thoughts are so near to my own that I am ministered to with every hearing. It's a song I WANT to sing along with no matter how I feel at the moment. Townsend rightly includes Christ's death AND resurrection and firmly asserts the substitutionary atonement in simple words that are pure Biblical truth.

This is what the writer to the Hebrews is trying to remind them of - God's surpassing love in Jesus Christ and the supreme, finished and everlasting sacrifice that He came in order to be.

Blasts from the PastFaith - The Sole Saving Act - William G.T. Shedd

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:01:00 PDT

Two of my favourite verses from the gospel are Mark 10:18 and John 2:29. Both of these verses are relevant in one way or another to the upcoming series on Hebrews. Here they are from the ESV:

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said to him (the rich young ruler), “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." It looks like a pretty simple statement of the face of it, but considering the context there is far more to it than first appears. Irony, hidden truth, poignancy and multi-level meaning are all there.

John 6:29 Jesus answered them (the people following after him who had asked what they should do to be doing the works of God), “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” For years I passed over this one without actually taking it in. Then I got it.

But I won't steal William G.T.Shedd's thunder in the sermon that follows.

Faith - The Sole Saving Act - William G.T. Shedd

There's Going to Be a Great Day

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:05:39 PDT

As Monty Python would say - "And now for something completely different." Here is a 1943 recording of the charming Dinah Shore singing "There's Going to Be Be Great Day". This is posted as part of the pre-Hebrews theme of reminding us that people in prior times had motivators and pressures that we can't always fully appreciate. And if we have trouble with something this close to our own era, we will need to be even more careful with stuff that goes back 2,000 years.

This was produced during World War II before fortress Europe was breached by the Allies, and the year my Mom and Dad were married. It's hard to conceive of the state of mind of people in those days. Certainly North Americans were more disposed to Christianity back then, and the pressures of war inclined many to think more of their mortality and of God, their Maker than they may otherwise have done. And the topic of this song is about final judgment and justification by faith. But I have no idea whether it was entertainment or preaching - whether it reached out to a pious and faithful populace or was itself merely sentimentality produced by the extraordinary stresses of the time.

What were the stresses in the time that Hebrews was written? What was the state of the society? What pressures were bearing upon the Jews, the Christian Jews and the church as a whole? We may not be able to know infallibly, but we ought at least to bear the questions in mind as we study.

I'm not saying this "modern era" song is a hymn, or that it is doctrinally sound - nor even that the artists were necessarily genuine Christians. I'm not saying that they were glorifying God, and there is certainly no mention of Jesus Christ. But if I had been a Christian alive at the time, I would have taken what I could from this, thanked God, and moved on with more hope.

There's Going to Be Be Great Day - Dinah Shore (1943)

Calvinism - A Theology of Thanksgiving

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:05:05 PDT

This is an excerpt from a post made by the redoubtable Steve Hays over at Triablogue. I regularly read the stuff from the team over there, but I don't interact with them because they are way above my pay grade. But this particular post struck me as something needing to get out to people in the lower reaches of the atmosphere of Reformed Blogdom, so I took this extract and recorded it for the podcast. I hope Hays doesn't mind because, if he does, then I'm dead meat.

_________________

Calvinism - A Theology of Thanksgiving - Steve Hays

"Before I delve into the specifics, I want to make a general point. What is Calvinism? Calvinism is a theology of thanksgiving. It’s also a theology of hope.

God wrote the whole story of the world. Brought all his wisdom and goodness to bear in writing the story.

God didn’t outsource the story of the world to hack writers and script doctors. God doesn’t rely on an essay mill for his material.

I don’t trust the devil to write any part of the story. We don’t trust sinners to write any part of the story.

Do you really want Genghis Khan to have a hand in writing part of the story? What if you’re one of his victims? Do you want to be the victim of his authorship? Do you want to be a character in his twisted narrative, where he decides your fate? Where his values dictate the shape of the narrative?

However you cut it, we live in a fallen world. A world with evil men and evil events. Whose values do you want shaping that story?

A Calvinist thanks God even for the villains because we trust God to know what he’s doing. Either way we have evil. It’s not as if the world of the Arminian or open theist or universalist is a painless world.

Now, it’s easy to thank God for the nice things, the pleasant things. It takes an act of faith to thank God for the hard providences.

Still, Calvinism cultivates a spirit of thanksgiving. It fosters an expectation in which we seek, and hope to find, in this life or the next, the good in whatever God has purposed. Sometimes his wisdom is evident, at other times–inevident.

His wisdom is inevident to the degree that you can’t fully appreciate a story until you know the end of the story. And we haven’t read the ending yet. You and I are not at that point in the story. We don’t know how it all comes out.

We know that God wins. And we know that his people win. His win is their win. We know the bad guys lose.

But why any particular thing happens the way it does can only be seen with the benefit of hindsight. The emerging pattern can only be perceived in retrospect.

Like reading a good book. You don’t know, as you read the story, where it’s going. The story raises many questions. It’s only when the novelist ties up all the loose ends that you can look back and appreciate all the preceding events.

So we live in hope. For a theology of thanksgiving is also a theology of hope. They’re two different perspectives on our position in time. Hope looks forward while thanksgiving looks backward.

The alternative to a theology of hope and thanksgiving is a theology of suspicions and recrimination. Someone who’s consistent with this outlook views God the way a juvenile delinquent views his old man. On the one hand, he wants dad to get off his back. Stop meddling in his life. Itches for the freedom to do his own thing.

On the other hand, he likes having dad around just in case he gets in trouble with the law and lands in the paddy wagon. Dad is generally a nuisance, but you should keep him on speed-dial just in case you need him to drive down to the pokey and bail you out.

The delinquent doesn’t love his father. Rather, he loves his freedom. But he loves to have his father available in a pinch."

____________

The above is a partial quote from this post by Steve Hays at Triablogue.

Sermon of the WeekJohn 3:16 Set Free

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:16:10 PDT

I've spoken before in passing about how certain scriptures are tortured and misused. For example, I have mentioned 2Peter 3:9 and Rev 3:20 elsewhere. Here's another much abused text.

It's hard to blame sheep for the latter-day "tradition" that attaches to this verse. But it is not hard to blame those who claim to be shepherds, and who maintain the error by reinforcing it from their pulpits.

In this short sermon Joseph Losardo of the Bread of Life Fellowship takes aim directly at what modern Christian mythology has done to this verse. Be warned - the exegesis is technical and the word "Greek" (O horrors!!!) appears numerous times. So do Greek words and references to Greek grammar. To those who are all but convinced that God wrote the Bible in English, that most favored language, and that the matter is forever settled in the heavens by that fact, there is no help for you. Except that God should open your eyes.

But for those who understand that not only was the New Testament written in an ancient language called Koine Greek, to people who lived in a particular situation, and with a certain world view - then hopefully the flexibility of mind exists to be free of the bondage of mere tradition and open to hear what the text actually says. It takes work to understand what the text is saying. It takes work to hold that text against the background of its authors and original hearers. But the reward of work is wealth, my friends - the sort of wealth that the world cannot give. Enjoy Joseph Losardo speaking to this very well known text.

John 3:16 - Set Free - Joseph Losardo

The Text:

John3:16 οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them...

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:05:05 PDT

Albert Einstein was a Jew. He was a Jew who knew both the Old and the New Testaments. At various times he seems to have been an atheist, a theist, a deist, an agnostic, a panentheist and, perhaps, even a Perls-Jungian Gestaltist. Whatever his view of creation, it does not seem that he ever embraced Jesus Christ as His Savior - so he was never a Christian, as far as we know. But that doesn't mean that he did not have insight into the heavier questions of life, including the philosophical and theological ones.

In the following representation of what is purported to be a true incident from Einstein's schooldays we see the truth about the nature of God being attacked by the teacher (who was undoubtedly an acolyte of the spirit of his age) and being defended by a small boy who understands the nature of purity and the impossibility of a good God being the proximate cause of evil, even though we live in a world where evil plainly does exist.

I won't go on to argue the case in more detail. I think this little scene necessarily falls short and leaves stuff out. But the nature of God as to His goodness was known to the Jews back in the first century and before, just as it was to this Jewish boy in the late 19th century. It was because of their heritage - because they had the writings and were linked to the history of which the writings spoke - and the Jews knew that God was good and merciful and faithful - and that God hated the evil which men did, even though He permitted it.

The first century problem in the Jewish sectors of the church wasn't about the goodness of God - ALL agreed on that, Jew and Gentile alike. The problem was to do with the "goodness" of man. The problem wasn't even about the love of God in providing a sacrifice - it was about the SUFFICIENCY of that love in the form of it's sacrifice, once and for all. The upcoming Hebrews study comes to grips with this problem.

It Meant the World to Them

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:29:25 PDT

Understanding the Jewish roots of the Christian faith helps to put the New Testament concept of "the world" into a proper context.

So often in this day and age, when we hear reference to "the world" in the gospel or the epistles our modern understanding takes over and we automatically think of the total envelope of humanity, including every individual human being. But the word is often employed by the original Jewish writers (John, Peter, Paul) to convey not the global totality of individual humankind, but the Gentiles over and against the Jews, or the inclusion of both Gentiles and Jews.

When a Jew referred to the good news as being for "the world", the underlying thought was often that it was not solely for the Jews, but also for those unclean dogs who had not been born Israelites - a heretofore unthinkable proposition for orthodox Judaism.

This seems like a subtle distinction to some people today. But many draw from the use of the word "world" that these writers are always referring to all men without exception as individuals, rather than simply making a point about different classes of humanity (Jews and non-Jews). And getting this emphasis wrong can have a devastating effect on your doctrine.

I won't pull out verses and point to the ones commonly misrepresented in the way described. Anybody with a concordance, an open mind and a willingness to investigate can find verses containing the phrase "the world" and prayerfully check their own assumptions and conclusions. In fact it's better if it happens that way because you will own whatever results from such testing.

But for myself I have found it has helped to understand something about the culture, the ethos and the mindset of the Jews who wrote the scriptures (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit). And making right distinctions about phrases and words based on these factors has removed not a few barriers to me accepting God's way of dealing with mankind.

The Hebrews are Coming...

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:01:20 PDT

As a reminder, our often myopic Western viewpoint sometimes makes us forget that Christianity has its roots in real Judaism. Originally, Christianity appeared to be a mere sect of Judaism. The very early church was almost completely comprised of Jews, and believing Jews remained a numerically significant part of the church well into the 2nd Century.

We so often forget the milieu in which the New Testament books were written. The Homily to the Hebrews reminds us of this. It reminds us we have spiritual roots in a history that goes back way beyond Luther or Calvin or the Wesleys - all the way back to Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, Who was acknowledged by many Jews but rejected by most, and about Whom all the ancient oracles of the Hebrews testified.

In the first century the question of Jewish tradition was a powerful cultural and theological tool in the hands of the opponents of Christianity - both demonic and human. And it was these forces that the writer to the Hebrews saw at work and against whom He preached.

At issue are the questions of atonement (Yom Kippur) and judgement (Rosh Hashana). In this beautiful and reverent video, ask yourself how repentance, prayer and righteousness factor in averting the severe decree of God. It is true that they do. But HOW they do, and Whose righteousness is involved, is at the heart of the New Covenant, and is what eventually proved to be at the root of the warning to the professing Jews in the early church, to whom the Homily to the Hebrews was written.

Keep tuned into this space for the Hebrews study, which is coming in a week or so.

(Not a) Sermon of the WeekThe Servetus Canard

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:04:39 PDT

Canard is a French word for a duck, and is often used in English to refer to a deliberately false story, originating from an abbreviated form of an old French idiom, "vendre un canard à moitié," meaning "to half-sell a duck."

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If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a canard. And the old "Servetus was burned at the stake by the big, bad John Calvin" canard is alive and well, despite being only half a duck. In this excerpt from one of his Dividing Line programs, Dr. James White examines the unlearned assertions on this matter of celebrity atheist and apostate Dan Barker, made during a debate with Doug Wilson.

Until about 6 years ago I myself was sublimely unaware of the name "Miguel Servetus" (or Michael Servetus). I knew about Calvin, of course and had even read an abridged version of the "Institutes" - a lot of which sailed over my head, and some of which troubled me. Be that as it may - my ignorance on the matter of Servetus was interrupted by the emotional reaction of a fellow congregant upon learning of my Calvinism.

Now, to be a Calvinist is not to be a worshiper of Calvin (which I certainly am not) but neither does it exclude the appreciation of the power of his mind, his great exegetical skills and, yes, his courage in a difficult time. Honor to whom honor is due - though, IMHO, he got baptism and ecclesiology wrong. [/half smile]

So I looked into the matter because I wanted to satisfy myself first, and secondly to have an answer for my fellow pilgrim. I learned the facts when I found the answers amid the cloud of misinformation on the topic but, alas, my corespondent was impervious to anything but the prejudice that had infiltrated his mind.

Moving along, the damage done to Calvin's reputation and the twisted impression inculcated in the faithful by half-baked, ahistorical information and sloughed off on the public by men like Dan Barker (and a host of others) is something they will one day answer for. Not the least because of how their lame and lazy research and careless distortion of truth has had on some of the children of God. Because of such people, my fellow traveler mentioned above has been debarred from gaining anything from the considerable gifts and graces of our Lord Jesus Christ that were manifested in the world through John Calvin. Give it a listen and see for yourself...

Calvin and Servetus - Dr. James White

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:11:52 PDT

Here is a hymn that, for me, echoes time spent in the assembly at Grammar School when I was just a callow youth. I was ignorant of the import of the words then, even as I still struggle to comprehend them now. It seems that the deeper I think I go, the more there is yet to be understood.

But the thoughts expressed in this simple worship song are the thing to which Malachi is pointing - in fact, they are the thing to which all of the Old Testament points, and about which all of the New Testament testifies. "Tis mystery all" - but it is that sort of mystery which glows with the Truth of the ages; the purpose of creation and the end of all things are found in Jesus Christ.

Malachi 4:6 - Union in Christ

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:01:00 PDT

Malachi 4:6 - Union in Christ

Malachi 4:6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

Who are these "fathers" and "children" spoken of here? Is it the fathers of the nation, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses? Or is does it speak of something simpler and more imminent? Are we meant to think of the largely apostate rump of Israel turning back to the sort of faith demonstrated in those whom God initially called to be the founders of the nation? But then how would the fathers, long since dead - be turned to the children, if this is what is contemplated?

The most likely and the most accepted explanation is that John the Baptist would be God’s means of causing the hearts of the fathers and the children (the co-existent generations) to unite in obedience to God. Divisions both political and religious - were common in Israel at the time of John the Baptist. There were both zealots and pacifists. There were both Pharisees and Sadducees. There had been Hellenization not only of language, but of social customs, which were accepted more by some than by others. Palestine was a seething hotbed of unrest, rebellion, poverty and distress as it languished under the iron fist of Rome.

God foreknew (in fact, ordained) all these conditions. And He sent John to begin the process of pointing to the One in Whom all unity is found, through His Lordship. When there is only One Who is Master - when there is only one General - and all the rest are servants or soldiers - then there is unity. Messiah was expected to bring unity, as it was promised that He would. But the unity He would bring would be in the Spirit - from the heart - and not by the external, carnal, coercive application of force or politics, or even religious compulsion. The unity that would come in Christ was an unbreakable union of God with His people by which their very hearts were turned towards Him and His will. Great and terrible indeed was the means by which God alone would accomplish this.

But for those who would not hear and were not true Israel there was the promise of utter destruction of the land - meaning the land of Israel. And since Israel rejected their Messiah, but for a few who were saved, God did indeed shatter the nation, obliterate it and scatter the people in AD 70 under Vespasian and his son, Titus - as well as a short time later under Adrian.

It is important to see that God did not do this in a corner, nor without (this) admonition, nor until after millennia of increasingly stern warnings. The Israel addressed in Malachi is a remnant nation just returned from the Babylonian captivity - so they ought to have known that God is deadly serious about the consequences of rejecting Him. And even though the God Who knows the end from the beginning, because He is both, also knows the path that Israel will take - see that the warning is still given. The fact that men refuse to hear does not cause God not to speak. He gives every possible opportunity to Israel. To speak humanly of God for a moment, He exhausts His considerable patience upon them.

But lest we in the church age begin to look down our noses at Israel’s constant and increasing apostasy, maybe we should all read very carefully both what Revelation has to say about the Laodicean church - and what the Holy Spirit said through Paul about the need for self-examination {2Co 13:5}

[This brings the Malachi study to an end. The plan is to begin a study in Hebrews in a few weeks time. Keep on checking with this site for further announcements.]

Total Depravity

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:29:25 PDT

Finally! The preaching of Roy Hargrave is available in new ways to the world at large! Not for the faint of heart, these sermons and teachings strike right at the heart of sin and depravity and preach the free grace of God in Jesus Christ. They are Calvinistic to the core and evangelistic at heart. They will curl your hair and humble your heart. They will buckle your knees and stop your mouth. Seat belts are definitely required if you're going to listen to R.A. Hargrave preaching.

Short clips like this one are now available on YouTube here, and the existing site for Hargrave's material, called GraceWorx, contains links that will permit the playing and downloading of material and, with a bit of imagination, the embedding of sermons into blog and web sites.

As with all preachers, and I know Hargrave himself would tell you this, test everything against the Word of God. But I don't think you'll find too much from him that is out of whack.

Malachi 4:5 - A Terrible Day

zebulundove@hotmail.com (Tony Hayling) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:01:02 PDT

Malachi 4:5 - A Terrible Day

Malachi 4:5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes."

Not literally the person of Elijah, but someone with the same power and spirit as he. When the Lord Himself stated at its fulfillment, when asked, that Elijah had come and that they did to him as they pleased He was referring to John the Baptist. John, like Elijah, was a wild and fiery wilderness dweller - a fearless prophet who confronted the culture and its apostasy regardless of the rank or power of his hearers.

But what is the "great and awesome day of the Lord"? It is not necessarily the final judgement, because it is linked to John the Baptist and the incarnation of Christ. Does it refer to the moment the incarnation started? Does it refer to the moment of the Lord’s death? His resurrection? What?

Well, it probably refers to the moment the incarnation of Christ began, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived. I suppose it could refer to the Lord’s birth or even to the beginning of His public ministry, because John naturally preceded the Lord in all of these things, since John was conceived, born and began preaching about 6 months before Jesus.

The point is that the coming of Messiah is such an important event that it requires introduction by a prophet assigned specifically to the task. And not just any prophet, but one of the power and spirit of Elijah, and greater than whom is none that has been born of woman. This is part of what makes the "day" both great and terrible. Great events require great announcements. The greatest event in history requires a nonpareil prophet of outstanding qualities - the ne plus ultra of messengers.

But the incarnation is great and terrible (or awesome, or better awe-full, or dreadful or fearful) in more ways than this. Most people think of the cute little manger scene and of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, born in a stable and laid in a lowly feeding trough. It is endearing. It is poignant. It is comfortable because the great and infinite and Almighty God that made the universe is sort of bound up - not in, but by the perceived helplessness of His estate.

O, what a profane and uninformed picture that is! Can we not see that the day is terrible precisely because the infinite and Almighty God in the Person of His Son, has laid aside all the glories of heaven without becoming less than God and constrained Himself to live a human life by faith. And He has not done this as if it were the greatest risk anybody could ever take because of the uncertainty of the result. He came in order to die upon a cross and in order to save His people from their sins. It was His express purpose. Not to make possible the salvation of His people, but to actually and effectually save them.

This means that there is a sense in which He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It was ordained. It was purposed by an Almighty God and it could not be stopped by all the demons of hell, nor the will of man. The Lord did indeed have to walk in what God had ordained, but the end was written from eternity. He would accomplish all the purpose for which He came.

What makes the day of the incarnation, birth and commencement of ministry (whichever you regard as that day) terrible is precisely what makes it so poignant. God is doing something that transcends mere human understanding; He is forging eternal sons; He is stopping all the mouths of his creatures; He is answering the accusations about permitting evil; He is showing the immeasurable meekness and lowliness of His heart; He is displaying His wisdom; He is setting at naught the works of the devil; He is reconciling the world to Himself; He is demonstrating grace; He is epitomizing agape love; He is judging the world as it rejects the light; He is gathering His elect into His barn; He is glorifying His Name before the principalities and powers - both holy and fallen. He is working all things for and through Jesus Christ that in all things He might have the preeminence. We can barely see a snow flake on the tip of the iceberg that lies in the ocean of God’s purposes in Christ Jesus - but His coming into history is a day that is both great and terrible for all of these reasons.