This Week

The Prince of Peace

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Christmas

The Hurt of War amidst the Hope for Peace

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. —Isaiah 9:6, KJV

One of my favorite Christmas carols, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, contains the same line in all five stanzas; that being the sweet refrain, “peace on earth, good-will to men.” [1] Yet lurking ominously in the midst of this song lies this reckoning which contradicts the hoped for reality:

And in despair I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth,” I said, “For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men.” [2]

With the exception of a few decades, the history of the world is the history of war.

Even now by announcing its move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the United States government has taken a step towards its eventual recognition of Jerusalem not as an international city as currently endorsed by the world’s nations, but as the capitol of the nation of Israel. The announcement has been greeted by demonstrations and protests, both organized and spontaneous, with masked masses burning both Israeli and U.S. flags, shouting defamatory and inflammatory protests and raising clenched fists in the air as they call for war.

Then too, civilization remains under similar attack with so-called anti-fascists contradictorily employing violent means to seek a peace that is not there, with North Korea threateningly firing missiles over the Pacific Ocean towards the U.S. mainland, with Russia threatening by military conflict to seize eastern Ukraine, with ISIS and Al Qaeda, Boko Haran and other terrorist groups operating in the world, with massive movements of immigrant populations from one country to another the world over, all of this and more contradicts any romantic notion that there will be peace on earth and good will toward man any time soon. Perish the thought . . . but a devastating World War III may be just around the corner.

Throughout the world, terrorists have successfully interrupted the normal flow of civic life, especially where western interests are at stake. From Bali to New York, bombs have exploded and planes have been flown into tall buildings. The possible detonation of a dirty bomb by terrorists in a public place gravely concerns urban security and city officials. Dirty bombs not only do extensive damage in the vicinity of the explosion, but they will also emit low levels of radiation throughout an extended area several miles in diameter from the center of the blast. Just how severe a health hazard the radioactive materials pose over a long period of time is unknown. There may not be enough hospitals to treat the sick. Then too, if detonated in the stratosphere over earth, EMPs (electro magnetic pulse bombs) could send the world into chaos by destroying the electronic grid our utilities and communication systems (TVs, cell phones, Internet, etc.) absolutely depend on. Welcome to the new “dark ages.”
Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

It’s Christmas! Harry Potter Visits The Shack

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Short Takes

Idolatry in the Wizarding World of Myth Making

Looks like the concept of “god” in the book and movie The Shack is spreading. [1] Fiction and fantasy have merged. J.K. Rowling, author of the occult Harry Potter series of books, popular reading among even many Christians, has announced that like The Shack, she believes “God is a Black Woman.” [2] (Rowling’s declaration, as well as The Shack‘s fiction, reminds me of The Black Madonna.) [3] Both Rowling and Wm. Paul Young write from a worldview where almost anything or anyone, even God, can be imagined to be whatever mythmakers want or need her/him/them to be; kind of like Christmas, upon a whim, when we wish upon a star, Christ can become Claus. From Disneyworld to Star Wars, magic creates myths.

But deliverance from a magical worldview where minds whimsically make a fantasy out of any reality—believe to conceive—can only come from reading the Scriptures. Now I can hear the protest, well didn’t Moses and Jesus work magic, do miracles? No because both, as well as other prophets and the apostles, performed miracles of God to expose the fraudulent marvels perpetrated by fake spiritualists. The biblical and revelatory miracles, culminating with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, testified against those the magicians worked; Moses against Pharaoh’s (Exodus 7:1-9:35), Daniel against Babylon’s (Daniel 2:37-39), Jesus against the Jew’s (Matthew 12:22-29; 9:34; Acts 19:13), Peter against a Sorcerer’s (Acts 8:8-14-24), and Paul against the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-20). By miraculous workings through Jesus and the other Prophets and Apostles, God introduced miracles from the unseen world above (heaven) to refute and rebuke the miracles being performed by magicians in phenomenal world below (earth). (See John 8:21-24.) Upon Jesus’ healing of the paralytic, the crowd exclaimed, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:12). Any presumption that we inhabit a Disneyland-like world raises “real” contradictions with the Christian faith. So the question arises: Who are we going to allow to define God, Jesus or Young and Rowling?

Only the Scriptures, God’s revelation and disclosure about Himself, can move people, especially Christians, from a world of magic below into the majestic world of God on high (Isaiah 2:10; Psalm 93:1). Only by reading the Bible and believing the words of Jesus can the Christian become separated from the world of make-believe and introduced into the reality of who God is. Only God is qualified to tell humanity about who He is.

The Apostle John wrote of Jesus that, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Emphasis added, John 1:18). Interestingly the verb “declared” (Greek, exegeomai) is “used in Greek writing of the interpretation of things sacred and divine, oracles, dreams, etc.” [4] So this verse teaches that God’s One Son interprets who the One Living God is. As regards the divine being, we must allow Jesus to define God. If we don’t, we indicate we are against Him, and that is to be against Christ, to be anti-Christ (1 John 4:1-3).

To the Samaritan woman Jesus declared that, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:26). “Spirit” is colorless, neither white nor black. Jesus Himself, it can be inferenced, was neither white or black but likely a brown-skinned middle eastern Jew. Though in His divine essence God is “raceless” He is not “genderless.”

In the Gospels Jesus constantly referred to or addressed God as Father (John 8:16; 14:2; 17:6; etc.). Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father . . .,” not “our mother” who is in heaven (Matthew 6:9). Unlike the world of the mythmakers, that’s the way God is and He does not change (Malachi 3:6; Romans 1:21). Incidentally, Jesus is “the only begotten Son,” not daughter of God (Isaiah 9:6; John 3:16). Christmas celebrates the birth of God’s Son, not daughter (Luke 2:1-20). Sure we can deny this, but this is Christianity, and anybody can either take it or leave it, accept it or reject it.

To conclude, I think that Jesus knows more about God than either Wm. Paul Young or J.K. Rowling. Why? It’s because Jesus is One with the Father (John 10:30). He is God and who is more qualified to tell us about God than God? Though they may think otherwise, Young and Rowley are not “gods” and therefore are not positioned to define God. They may think they are, but they aren’t.

In defining who God is, I choose to believe Jesus. He is The Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22). He speaks for God who is His Father and His Father for Jesus His Son (John 5:37; 8:18). Peter confessed, a confession (not Peter) that serves as the bedrock of the church for over two-thousand years, that Jesus is, “the Christ (one Christ), the Son (one Son) of the Living God (one God)” (Matthew 16:16). So who will you believe? In this decision about who you believe God is, give heed to the Apostle John’s last words of his first letter: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

____________________
Endnotes
[1] In describing the god Papa, Young twice notes him/her to be a “large black woman” . . . a “big black woman.” Wm. Paul Young, The Shack (Los Angeles, CA: Windblown Media, 2007): 84, 86.
[2] Lucas Nolan, “J.K. Rowling: God Is a Black Woman,” December 13, 2017, Breitbart (http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/12/13/j-k-rowling-god-is-black-woman/).
[3] When in Warsaw, Poland, in the Spring of 1990, I personally saw a Black Madonna inside a Roman Catholic Church I visited.
[4] James Strong,The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Electronic Ed. (Ontario, Canada: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996).

No Comments

Meditation: What it is . . .

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Spiritual Life

Website note: In light of the contemplative spiritual movement’s influence over evangelicalism among its publishers, educational institutions, churches and pastors, this writing by Dr. Griffith-Thomas is reproduced. From Scripture he informs seekers about what meditation is. In discussion about contemplative spirituality many of us have warned, and justifiably so, about the dangers of meditation and what contemplation is not. Yet in this chapter titled “Mediation” written a century ago, Thomas in his book Grace and Power reminds seeking readers about what Godly meditation is. Read this and be blessed!

IX
MEDITATION [1]
By W.H. Griffith-Thomas [2]

The spiritual life which becomes ours, and is constantly realized by means of Justification, Sanctification and Consecration, must be maintained and sustained if it is to grow and increase in vigor, power, and blessing. Spiritual life in the true sense of the term is far more than spiritual existence; it implies strength, vigor, progress, joy, and satisfaction. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). [3] This abundant life is the only life that will really influence others and fully realize the will of God.

For the maintenance of spiritual life certain conditions are necessary. As with physical life, so with spiritual life, we have to use means and fulfill requirements, and this, not intermittently, but as the habit of our life. It is with the chief means or methods that we shall be concerned in this and the remaining chapters. Taking an illustration from the body, let us bear in mind that for the maintenance and furtherance of spiritual life we require good food, pure air, and regular exercise. To the first of these we now turn our attention, when we speak of meditation. The “good food” is, of course, the food of the Word of God, for as food builds up the tissues of the body, repairs waste, and preserves us in health, so the Word of God is the complete food of the soul. It is noteworthy that we have it brought before us in the Bible as milk for babes (I Pet. 2:2; I Cor. 3:2), as strong meat for adults (Heb. 5:14), affording us the necessary constituents of spiritual nutrition, and as honey (Ps. 19:10) suggesting the pleasure and enjoyment of dessert in addition to the food actually necessary for life and work (Jer. 15:16).

Coming now more closely to the details of this important element of spiritual life, we notice:
Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 13

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Discernment, False Teaching

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Thirteenth in a series.)

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” [139]
—Emphasis added, The Apostle Peter, 2 Peter 1:16-21, KJV

 

Conclusion: Part 3

UNIVERSALISM
The Emerging Evangelical Metanarrative

Metanarrative: An overarching account or interpretation of events and circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s beliefs and gives meaning to their experiences. The Big picture! [140]

Born of pantheism emerges an inebriating belief called universalism, that because we’re all part of God now we shall all be part of God forever. God can’t live without us, even though it seems the Trinity did quite well without us in eternity before creation. This is the evangelical metanarrative emerging out of pantheism . . . UNIVERSALISM! But before there can be a new narrative explaining our reality, the old narrative must be dismissed and a new metanarrative introduced. [141] In other words, a new story must replace the old, and The Shack is just such a new story.

The Old Narrative: The Scriptures
Man needs personal communications from God, in this instance a hand written note from God to Mack. So God wrote to Mack, The Shack’s lead character. “Mackenzie,” Papa goddess tells Mack, “It’s been awhile. I’ve missed you. I’ll be back at the shack next weekend if you want to get together.” Signed “Papa” About receiving this note (perhaps meant by Young to mimic his conversations with God which he wrote down on pads of yellow legal paper), Young creates this thinking which went on in Mack’s mind:

Try as he might, Mack could not escape the desperate possibility that the note just might be from God after all, even if the thought of God passing notes did not fit well with his theological training. In seminary [Young graduated from Bible college, ed.] he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course [expository preaching, ed.]. God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects [i.e., theologians, ed.]. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized . . . Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was it guilt edges? (Emphasis added, The Shack, 65-66)


Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 12

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Discernment, False Teaching

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
 book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Twelfth in a series.)

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world [i.e., naturalism, ed.], and not after Christ.”
—The Apostle Paul, Colossians 2:8, KJV

Conclusion: Part 2

NATURALISM
Undercurrent in Evangelicalism

Naturalism’s influence upon evangelicalism has earlier been traced in the movement’s history, observing the initial effect of the philosophy upon American Christianity evidenced with the rise of liberalism and its rejection of supernaturalism, then naturalism’s influence upon Neo-evangelicalism with that movement’s accommodation of evolutionary theory, then the Charismatic movement’s protest against naturalism by working of supernatural “signs and wonders,” then by the mega-church’s employment of humanistic means to produce “results” of church growth, and now the emergent church’s reinterpretation of the biblical mandate to fit a this-worldly vision of reality by adjusting the church’s message to fit the ecological, social, economical, political and spiritual needs of life on this planet. (By saying this I do not suggest man has the right to abuse this planet and its life. God has given humans the right of beneficial dominion over, not destruction of His world, Genesis 1:26. And the Bible also gives instructions, even commands, about how we are to treat others, Galatians 6:10.)

As ideas have consequences, there is however a sequence of “isms” inherent within a naturalistic philosophy of life. We begin with the source, the philosophy of naturalism which at core is anti-Christ because Scripture presents the Lord Jesus as the supernatural creator and sustainer of the universe (Colossians 1:16-17); and that after His Second Coming, the whole cosmos will consummate in Him  “so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). The Lord Jesus Christ is the Omega point toward the universe is headed (Revelation 1:8, 11; 21:6; 22:13).

Naturalism
Naturalism, especially in this modern world in which scientific and technological advantages reduce the insecurities and harshness of life, negatively influences people to be less dependent upon God because the philosophy asserts that nature is king. Nature is viewed as the essence of being. Ah, life is good! that is, until we come to the end of it. Is this all there is? Death has a way of exposing humans to the insecurity within nature. Death brings our vulnerability up close and personal (Romans 5:12). But despite the prognosis of death, naturalism seeks to explain life, even the mystery of it, through knowing “the methods characteristic of the natural sciences.” [123]

Naturalism favors a monistic worldview (that everything which exists is one natural reality) as opposed to a dualistic worldview (that everything which exists is constituted of two realities, one natural (below) and one supernatural (above). (See John 8:21-30.) Respectively, these realities are the cosmos and its Creator, the universe and God. Though supernaturalism holds that God has and can miraculously interrupt the cosmos whenever and however He wills (i.e., creation, the Exodus, the incarnation of Jesus, His resurrection from the dead, His promised personal return, etc.), philosophical naturalism rejects “the supernatural, or world of god and invisible agencies.” [124]


Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 11

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Discernment, False Teaching

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
 book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Eleventh in a series.)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, “The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’”; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”
—Emphasis added, Jeremiah 23:16-17, NKJV

Conclusion: Part 1

EVANGELICALISM
Anarchy & Chaos

Wm. Paul Young admits The Shack is a story, but that it’s wrapped in theology. Readers are thus challenged to discover the theology behind The Shack, and this has been the purpose of interacting with Young’s book Lies We Believe About God. “Strictly, theology is that which is thought and said concerning God.” [111] So what does Young think and communicate about God? What is his underlying theology?

God’s Word, it has been demonstrated, is not core to Young’s beliefs. The assumption of Young’s story which contradicts Scripture is that God is reconciled to everybody and everybody’s reconciled to God—that from time immemorial all people either had, now have or will develop a loving relationship with God. That The Shack has sold upwards of twenty-two million copies and the movie has attained star status indicates the “feel good” message of universalism has become popular among evangelical Christians. So what’s going on here? It begins with authority because theology must be based on authority, on God’s Word, the Bible.

Pan-Evangelicalism
As they look at the development of American pan-evangelicalism over the last decades, conservative Christians try to understand and explain the phenomena of both the book (2007) and movie The Shack (2017). Beliefs that were subtly implied and peddled by author Wm. Paul Young in The Shack are now openly declared in his non-fictional work Lies We Believe About God, in which he claims to expose lies commonly accepted as truths among evangelicals. To expose the twenty-eight lies he believes plague evangelicalism’s psyche, the author cleverly frames arguments around his life experiences, impressions, conversations, questions, convictions and understanding of the Bible. In his “conversation” with his readers, he intends for his core beliefs to influence theirs and bring them to along with him reject lies he claims to reveal about God. After all, if what Young exposes are really lies, shouldn’t his readers embrace his truths?

So as he wrote The Shack to explain to his children what he grew to believe about God, ten years later he’s written a theology, well sort of, Lies We Believe About God to make credible to his followers what he believes about God. Many pastors and Christian leaders have spoken out and written against The Shack, and their criticism has not been well received by those who love the book and movie.
Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

“Relationships of Spiritual Man” by Ruth Paxson

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Discernment

Bio:
Ruth Paxson (1889-1949) was Bible teacher, missionary, and author. Born in Manchester, Iowa in 1889, and accepted Christ as her personal Savior when a child. She graduated from the State University of Iowa, and afterward spent one year at Moody Bible Institute. She served as YWCA secretary for Iowa and eventually traveled as secretary for the Student Volunteer Movement. Sponsored by the YWCA, in 1911, Ruth sailed for the mission field in China. Later she left that work to devote herself to evangelism and summer Bible teaching among missionaries in China. In that country her Bible lessons to pastors, evangelists, and teachers during the 1920s were well received. In response to requests from both Chinese and missionary friends, the lessons were expanded and originally published in three volumes, now combined in a one-volume edition of Life On the Highest Plane.

Leaving China for health reasons, Miss Paxson went to Switzerland; then followed a period of Bible teaching on the European continent and at the Keswick Bible Conference in England. For fifteen years prior to World War II, Miss Paxson, with her friend and companion of 34 years, Miss Edith Davis, also a gifted Bible teacher, ministered the Word of God in various countries, including Holland. In Amsterdam alone there were forty-five Bible classes taught by people to whom these two Bible teachers had ministered previously.

In 1947, Miss Paxson, with a traveling companion, flew across the Atlantic to minister the Word of God in Europe and at Keswick, England. The impact of the testimony and Bible teaching ministry of Miss Paxson has been felt around the world because of the circulation of her books. Miss Paxson was called Home to be with the Lord, October 1, 1949. This selection is taken from the third volume contained in her one volume book, Life On the Highest Plane. [1] In this selection she writes that one “relationship” to which the Spirit calls all Christians is discernment (See 1 John 2:18-27.).

Note: To this point, we can contrast Wm. Paul Young’s emphasis upon “relationship” in The Shack (“We are a circle of relationship . . . Submission . . . is all about relationships of love and respect.” (The Shack, 122, 145) Centuries ago Paxson wrote about relationships, but not the kind of relationships Young would stand for; that in days of “deepening apostasy” God calls every spiritual Christian “to three things; discernment, devotion and division.” Nine decades ago Ruth Paxson wrote this encouraging word to Christians who engage in their relationship with God and His Word through discernment [2]:

_______________________

Prophecy of Apostasy
Under the inspiration of the divine Spirit Paul foretold the apostasy that would sweep the entire professing Church and would eat at its very vitals. Into a veritable whirlpool of doubt, disbelief and disloyalty multitudes would be drawn.

1 TIM. 4:1-2, R. V., “But the Spirit saith expressly, that in the later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron.”

2 TIM. 4:3-4, R. V., “For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; . . . And will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.”


Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 10

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for False Teaching, Spiritual Discernment

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
 book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Tenth in a series.)

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
—Jesus, Matthew 7:21, Emphasis added.

A Review of the Book’s Chapters (concluded)

“A Final Word from Dietrich Bonhoeffer” and “Acknowledgments”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Paul Young concludes his book by drawing upon the emotional memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) who has achieved iconic status among evangelicals. Bonhoeffer is to be admired for opposing the evil of the Reich and paying the ultimate sacrifice for his resistance. But as Young’s quotations from Bonhoeffer’s book Ethics indicate, he apparently believed in universal salvation. [105] (LWBAG, 249-250) As William Macleod assessed:

Bonhoeffer was a universalist, believing in the eventual salvation of all. He wrote that there is no part of the world, no matter how godless, which is not accepted by God and reconciled with God in Jesus Christ. Whoever looks on the body of Jesus Christ in faith can no longer speak of the world as if it were lost, as if it were separated from Christ. Every individual will eventually be saved in Christ. [106]

The soteriology (teaching about salvation) articulated by Wm. Paul Young and C. Baxter Kruger (that Jesus’ incarnation revealed His primordial identification with humanity, that all people were positioned in Him before creation, LWBAG, 9-10, 119) bears similarity to that of Bonhoeffer’s; that people are saved not because Jesus atoned for their sins on the cross, but rather that from before time they shared being in union with Christ. Thus Jesus’ incarnation becomes a cosmic announcement of His identification with humanity and their salvation for reason of their being in Him. Ignoring the fall, the entrance of sin into the world and the curse upon creation (Genesis 3:1-7, 17-19; Romans 5:18-21), universalists believe the incarnation was the event which shows that from eternity all humanity was, is and forever will be united with Jesus inside the Trinity. Jesus’ incarnation and suffering highlighted His identification with humanity and that corporately, they shared in Jesus’ suffering, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. The incarnation was the event in which God wrapped His arms around humans to remind them that they’re not alone in a suffering universe, but that they really do live, move and have their being inside Jesus and the loving Trinity (Acts 17:28). Hugs all around! To quote Macleod again,

Indeed Bonhoeffer [ed., as Young and Kruger] would argue that we are saved by the incarnation—Christ taking our nature—rather than by His atoning death. He taught that in the body of Jesus Christ, God is united with humanity, all of humanity is accepted by God, and the world is reconciled with God. [107]


Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 9

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for False Teaching, Spiritual Discernment

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
 book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Ninth in a series.)

“Therefore, beloved . . . regard the patience of our Lord as salvation . . . just as also our beloved brother Paul . . . wrote to you, as also in all his letters . . . which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
—The Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:14-16, NASB)

A Review of the Book’s Chapters (continued) 

A Catena (My Commentary on Young’s Catena: Part 4)

The “Whole, Every, Cosmos and Other” Passages (29-34)

The “Whole” Passage

29. 1 John 2:2 (Berean Study Bible, emphasis Young’s): “He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.”

Prevalent in the ancient world was the belief that the gods were offended, and that the sacrificial rite would “atone” for the offense. In short, sacrifices to the gods were the way ancient people sought to appease their gods so that they would become kindly disposed toward them. Leon Morris wrote that, “In the ancient world the universal religious rite was sacrifice.  All over that world people offered animals on their altars, trusting that their gods would accept their sacrifices and that their sins would be forgiven.” [91] In her national life in that ancient pagan world, Yahweh ordered Israel to annually observe the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16-17). The idea of “atonement” is rooted not only in the sacrificial systems of the Gentile peoples, but also by the Law God gave to Israel. But does John’s use of the word “atonement” (Greek hilasmos) in this verse to describe Jesus’ death—that He died not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world—communicate that all humanity is therefore saved? Again the answer again is, “No!”

Though Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, the whole world is not of consequence saved. John’s Gospel clearly communicated that the benefit of Jesus’ atonement applies only to those who, as Jesus stated, exercise acceptance by faith; that “whosoever believeth should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In his last testimony about Jesus, John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus as follows: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). So what does it mean that Jesus’ death was the atonement for the sins of the whole world?

Disregarding the debate as to whether the atonement’s scope is limited (Calvinism—Jesus died only for God’s elect) or unlimited (Arminianism—Jesus died for everybody), I believe that there’s another sense in which “the atonement for the sins of the whole world” can be understood (1 John 2:2); and this against the backdrop of all the sacrificial systems prevalent in the ancient world, including Israel’s. It is this: Jesus’ “once-for-all” atonement is the only sacrifice by which people may find atoning forgiveness for their sins from God! No more sacrifices, animal or human, need be to offered by any people anywhere to obtain forgiveness. Completed in the Son, God accepts no other atonement for sin other than Jesus’. Exclusively, His atonement is for the whole world. As Jesus is “the only way” to come to the Father, so Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross is “the only basis” upon which people can find forgiveness for their sins from the Father. So this atonement statement (See also 1 John 4:10) not only forbids any continuance of sacrifices, but also sends a message that both syncretism (an ecumenical system that tries to combine—synthesize—all religions into one) and pluralism (there are many—plural—paths leading to God) are wrong, both of which Wm. Paul Young espouses (The Shack, 182). As Dick Lucas insightfully wrote:

Christians have always confessed that there is but one God; they have also found themselves in loyalty bound to confess that there is but one way to that God, the God-man Christ Jesus. He alone is the God-given mediator. God has made him the agent of reconciliation for all just because there is no other mediator capable of reconciling any. [92]


Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments

Truths We Believe about God 8

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for False Teaching, Spiritual Discernment

A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
 book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Eighth in a series.)

“Therefore, beloved . . . regard the patience of our Lord as salvation . . . just as also our beloved brother Paul . . . wrote to you, as also in all his letters . . . which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
—The Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:14-16, NASB)

A Review of the Book’s Chapters (continued) 

A Catena (My Commentary on Young’s Catena: Part 3)

The “World” and “Everyone” Passages (23-28)

The “World” Passages

23. John 1:29 (NASB, emphasis Young’s): “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

John the Baptist’s recognition of Jesus occurs at the beginning of His public ministry.  “Behold the Lamb (amnos) of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John proclaims. Though Jesus was born after John, the prophet testified to Jesus’ preexistence by stating He “existed before me” (John 1:30). In John’s statement about Jesus the repetition of the definite article is evident: “the” Lamb (ho amnos), “the” sin (ten harmartian) and “the” world (tou kosmou). That Jesus was “the Lamb” indicates He was/is the only Lamb from God (Greek tou theo, is a genitive of source meaning from). God would require no further sacrifice than He provided (Genesis 22:1-14). With the Cross all sacrificial systems end. The focus for the Lamb’s coming was to die for the sin (singular) which constitutes humanity and the world’s system. The sins (plural) which people commit are not the focus of John’s statement though Jesus’ sacrifice provides also for their forgiveness (1 John 1:8-10). Jesus died for the sin of the world (cosmos). Fulfilling the anticipation inspired by the one-thousand and four-hundred year old sacrificial system demanded by God’s Law, John declared the scope of the Lamb’s coming could/would not only be the final sacrifice for the sin of the Jews in particular but also for all humankind in general, “Samaritans” and “other sheep” (John 4:42; 10:16).

In contrast to the Day of Atonement which required the sacrifice of goats on a yearly basis (Leviticus 16:1 ff.), John identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” This designation associates His sacrifice with the slaying of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:1-13), as well as the Suffering Servant the prophet Isaiah portrayed (Isaiah 53:13-53). While other Jews, as regarded the Levitical sacrifices, were so parochially minded that they were no “worldly” good, John the Baptist understood the worldwide mission of Jesus from the beginning. But “In all of this, John the Baptist’s testimony is clear:” comments Pate, “Jesus is the Messiah, not him.” [86] The Apostle Paul too associated Jesus’ self-sacrifice with the Passover Lamb, “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed,” he wrote (1 Corinthians 5:7b).

Now we turn to the issue raised by Young’s quotation of John’s statement about Jesus: Does John the Baptist’s mention of “the world” imply universalism, that all will be saved? If understood, the Apostle John’s concept of the world answers “No!” W. Robert Cook offered the following definition of “world”: “It is a way of life ordered apart from and contrary to God, ruled by Satan, and encompassing all mankind who are not in the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” [87] The antagonism of the world toward God is such that though Jesus prayed to the Father for Himself, His Apostle-disciples and the church, He did not pray for the world (“I do not ask on behalf of the world,” John 17:9). Though Jesus loves all people, He viewed the world’s system to be both deceptive to and destructive of the very people He, His Father and Spirit love. That Satanic system—“the lust of the flesh” (the love of Pleasure), “the lust of the eyes” (the love of Possessions) and “the boastful pride of life” (the love of Position/Power)—utterly hates the Father, His Son and those who believe on the Lamb (1 John 2:16; John 15:18). The world is a satanic and unloving system which blinds people to the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). So if people love the world, love for [objective genitive, ed.] the Father is not in them (1 John 2:15). Might it be said that in God’s eyes and taken in this sense, the world is a “lost cause”? So Jesus neither prayed nor sacrificed Himself for the system called the world and those who love to live in it. Such people demonstrate they do not love the Father. That many people love the world indicates that these “worldlings” are not saved because love for God has not been poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

The lesson: unbelievers whose life purpose is to bask in the adulation of society, to indulge their fleshly wants and desires and to accumulate wealth unto themselves indicate they do not love God. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15b). In the end, these systematic worldlings are not “fond” of the Father, and neither is the Father “fond” of them.

That Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world indicates that forgiveness can only be obtained through faith in the only begotten Son of God (John 1:14). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, KJV; See Hebrews 9:27-28; 1 Peter 3:18). We should not look to anybody or anything else for salvation—to the church, priests, rituals, prayers or good works—but only to Jesus. “Behold the Lamb from God!” Lord Jesus, we praise you! Your sacrifice alone is the only basis whereby our sin and sins can be taken away.
Read the rest of this entry
»

No Comments