Total Depravity: horrible words that describe humankind’s falleness

Posted on April 4, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

No words can adequately describe the result of humankind’s fall into sin, the words total depravity have been used and are frequently misunderstood by those who do not hold to a Reformed Theology. When we say that men are totally depraved we are not saying that all men are as evil as possible, what we are saying is that sin has affected the totality of a person’s being. The fall into sin has affected our minds, our emotions, our will, and our bodies. Some people try to exempt some part of our being such as the intellect or the will but this is not tenable in light of the biblical revelation. In this article, we will see the radical results that sin has brought upon humankind as we look at the Biblical text.

In Genesis 3 we have the well-known account of the fall into sin by Adam and Eve, by believing the lies of the serpent they find themselves separated from God and expelled from the Garden of Eden. In the garden, God spelt out the results of his curse upon humankind and the creation The following chapters are not a pretty picture as they describe how sin spread, we read of Cain murdering Abel and it goes on until in chapter 6 we read,

5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

The New International Version. (2011). (Ge 6:5–8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

God’s righteous judgement is shown here against the backcloth of the sin of humanity. The writer describes the state of humans in their thinking as “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” This description shows how God views fallen humanity. We will see that even though Noah was a righteous man, sin still pervaded the earth and still does.

Jeremiah 17, shows us something more of the sinfulness of man,

The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it
The New International Version. (2011). (Je 17:9). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The heart is the seat of the mind, will, and emotions in Hebrew thought and therefore, this is a very radical statement indeed, humankind is in a desperate state and only God can bring salvation to him.

Throughout both the Old and New Testaments we find humankind’s plight described in a radical way sin has has corrupted every part of humankind’s being, this can be seen in the writings of the apostles and I want to to look particularly at the letters of Paul. I want to start with the Book of Romans. in the first 5 Chapters, we find Paul dealing with the topic of sin in some depth. I will just touch upon a few key points from this letter and then note some other key passages in his writings. In Romans 1 Paul says,

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 1:18–25). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Here Paul shows that human beings have sinned against their creator and have believed the lies of satan and ignored the evidence of His being, humankind exchanges the truth of God for a lie. In chapter 2 he develops his argument about sin even more but he shows clearly the dreadful plight we are in, in chapter 3,

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 3:9–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Paul shows the extent of sin by this group of quotations from the Old Testament and the verdict is not very complimentary, we are totally in bondage to sin and its corrupting influence. All are under the sentence of death because of their transgressions. Paul goes further in Romans 5,

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
The New International Version. (2011). (Ro 5:12–15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Sin has become part of fallen human nature (see also Psalm 51) and has polluted us, even before the giving of the law death reigned because men and women have sinned against a holy God.

Ephesians 2 shows the plight of man before the grace of God comes into his life,

2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

The New International Version. (2011). (Eph 2:1–3). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

We are dead in our sins, this shows how radically sin affects us, it is not until the grace of God works in our lives that we are truly alive. We have all followed the false pathways of sin until we were called into the light by the grace of God.

Paul encouraging Titus to witness to the gospel reminds him of the plight of man in these words,

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another

The New International Version. (2011). (Tt 3:3). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Paul uses strong language to describe the plight and power of sin but he is confident that the power of the gospel exceeds every sin.

I could list many other verses but I will close this post with a helpful quote from the Pentecostal Theologian, Bruce R Marino, he says,

Corruption. Because human nature was so damaged by the Fall no person is capable of doing spiritual good without God’s gracious assistance. It does not mean that people can do no apparent good, but only that they can do nothing to merit salvation. Nor is this teaching exclusivelely Calvinistic. even arminius (although not all his followers) described the “Free Will of man towards the true good” as “imprisoned, destroyed andlost …it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine Grace” Arminius intent, like Wesley after him, was not to retain human freedom in spite of othe Fall, but to maintain divine grace as greater than even the destruction of the Fall”

(Bruce R  Marino in Systematic Theology edited by Stanley Horton pages 261-262, Logion Press 1995  Springfield, Missouri.)

Here we see a remarkable unity amongst Calvinists and Arminians on the doctrine of sin.

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Glory of God manifested at Sinai and the Ressurrection

Posted on March 24, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

The Biblical revelation tells us of a God who reveals himself in space and time. A  God who shows great love towards his people and yet a God who is Holy. This Holy God can not bear the sight of si…

Source: The Glory of God manifested at Sinai and the Ressurrection

Posted in Theology | Leave a comment

The Glory of God manifested at Sinai and the Ressurrection

Posted on March 24, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

The Biblical revelation tells us of a God who reveals himself in space and time. A  God who shows great love towards his people and yet a God who is Holy. This Holy God can not bear the sight of sin and, therefore, he must deal with it so that his holy justice is vindicated. We see this throughout scripture but I want to share something of the parallels between God’s revelation at the Exodus  and also at the resurrection. In both cases,  the Lord only appears to his people but there are contrasts as well as continuities, at Sinai we see a great manifestation of glory but at the Resurrection we see a gentle, humble revelation of the glory of God. What is important to emphasize is that this is the God of the covenant who reveals himself.

In Exodus 34 We see the story of the reinstatement of God’s covenant with his people, this follows their act of idolatry worshipping the golden calf. God is justly angry at his people’s unfaithfulness but Moses pleads for them in response to this God is gracious to his people. It is in this context that he reveals himself to Moses in all his glory. I will look at the first ten verses of Exodus 34 and then I will reflect on the accounts of the resurrection.

34 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
10 Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.
The New International Version. (2011). (Ex 34:1–10). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Here we see that Moses is to chisel out two more stones for the LORD to write his gracious commandments on. The God who was justly angry reveals himself to be a gracious God. When the Lord came down he was still veiled in the cloud no one could withstand the awesome glory of God and live but Moses is privileged to have a great personal revelation of the Lord. although the Lord emphasizes his love and compassion we must not miss the fact that at the same time he reveals his holiness. Sometimes today we get an emphasis on holiness without love or the opposite love without holiness, the Bible always speaks of the two together. Notice too that the Lord only punishes sin to the third and fourth generation of those who disobey him but blesses to the thousandth generation of those who love him. This issue of punishment to the following generations can be perplexing but in the light of the whole of the biblical revelation, we must understand this to only apply to those who continue to sin.

God promises that with his covenant he will perform wonders that no one has seen before, people will see how awesome the true and living God is. God does not act in a secret way but rather reveal himself in all his greatness and glory not only to Israel but to the watching nations.

The Resurrection: when we turn to the story of the resurrection we find accounts of divine revelation and the promise of divine power but we also find a new commandment.

Luke 24 is full of accounts of divine revelation, whether it is through the angel speaking to the women or Jesus speaking to his disciples. The well-known story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus illustrates this, even when they did not know that it was Jesus speaking to them their hearts were touched, it is only after Jesus had prayed and disappeared that they realize what has happened to them. On returning to Jerusalem these disciples recount their story and as they do so Jesus appears again and proves that it is him by the marks in his hands and feet. The next few verses record how Jesus revealed more of himself and his purposes to them.

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

The New International Version. (2011). (Lk 24:45–50). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

By opening their minds to understand the Scriptures he is revealing more of himself and indeed the God who is gracious and compassionate. He does not open their minds so that are excellent scholars but so that they should be excellent witnesses. His plan is to send these humble people into the world with the gospel of God’s grace. Linked to this is the promise of power, which we see fulfilled in the book of Acts. They will not be able to carry out their ministry until they receive this great power. If we read the Book of Acts carefully we will see how this promise of power is fulfilled on many occasions.

This is not just a matter of history but rather the great commission still exists and in Matthews version of it, we see how Jesus assures the disciples of all ages of his power and his presence.

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 28:18–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

We too are called to be disciple makers who go in the power and authority of the risen Lord, knowing his presence. Theirs is a huge task to be fulfilled and looking at the task can be overwhelming but when we look to the Lord who has called us to the task we see that he has given us the authority that we need, the promise of his presence and his power and that should make us realise with Him all things are possible. If we look at the task we may get discouraged but if we look at the Lord we will be encouraged and strengthened.

In the above words, we have seen a little of how God reveals his glory to us, it can be with the mighty spectacle of Sinai or it can be the gentle revelation of the Resurrection accounts but the important thing to grasp is that it is the same wonderful Lord.

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Call of Moses and the Character of God

Posted on February 26, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

The account of Moses being called by God to leadership is one that reveals much about the character of God. It is the account that reveals something of the majesty of God and yet shows his faithfulness to his covenant purpose. We often think of Moses being the central character in Exodus chapters 3 and 4 but the truth of the matter is that the central figure is Almighty God. But this God is not remote but rather is aware of the needs of his people. Here we also see the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The Lord is one who keeps his covenant promises and this is very evident in this whole narrative. These chapters are an important key to understanding the God of the Bible. Now we need to look at these chapters a little more thoroughly.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
The New International Version. (2011). (Ex 3:1–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Notice that Moses is going about his daily tasks when he meets with God, he was not in a worship gathering or even spending time in prayer, God just sovereignly acts and reveals himself to Moses in a way that will change the history of the world. Yet he is responding to the cry of his enslaved people, God’s concern and love for his people are clearly shown here. Once again we have encountered the mystery of how God answers prayer in his own sovereign way, surely the people of Israel cried out to their God they did not expect him to call a shepherd who was not even living in Egypt  as their leader and under God the one who  would deliver them from bondage But this is just what happened.

God has an amazing way of Getting Moses attention, Moses sees a bush that is on fire and yet it is not consumed by the fire, if we were to see such a sight we would do what Moses did and have a look at what was going on. But the whole situation gets even more unusual when a voice addresses him from the burning bush, this person addressing him knows him by name. This is a very personal encounter that will have far-reaching results, Moses call is to serve his people but this very personal encounter is with a Holy God and Moses needs to respond to that Holy Presence. Moses when he is addressed, he responds as one who is willing to listen to what God has to say.

12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.

16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”(Ex 3:12–4:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Here we come to the revelation of the name of God, this is one of the most important statements about who God is in the whole of Scripture. This revelation of who God is governs all that is to follow on the pages of Holy Scripture. There is something about this passage that demonstrates both the otherness and the immediacy of God, He is present as the Holy One who is high and lifted up and yet he dwells with and cares for his people. God is the one who IS, he exists not in some greek notion of the God who experiences everything in the eternal now but a God who interacts with his people in time and space. The very name is dynamic I am who I Am can be translated many ways legitimately, it is a phrase which shows that God is dynamically present. This is echoed in the way John picks up on how Jesus uses the phrase “I am” which is immediately seen by the Jewish leaders as blasphemy. Jesus claims to be the bread of life and the way the truth and the life, his use of I am soon reminded those around him that he was making a great claim about himself. As we see in Jesus himself, majestic greatness and the willingness to be present in a special way with his people do not contradict themselves, when we look at Jesu we see the character of not only  Jesus but of the Father and the Holy Spirit as well.

Even in the light of God’s revelation of himself, Moses continues to try and make excuses for himself basically he does not want to accept the call to leadership. He makes every excuse conceivable and then he comes out with the honest request please send someone else. He sees at once the huge responsibility that leadership, power and authority bring with it. Moses was not an arrogant power grabbing man like Donald Trump but rather a man of humility, but at times his humility got in his way and this was one such time. It is possible to know that God is calling us to some task and realising our own weakness, we begin to make excuses, however, the Sovereign Lord will have his way, he leads us into ways of seeing things differently and then we accept his commission.  The Lord has a way of breaking down our resistance and making us willing to follow his calling with joy in our hearts. When the Lord first called me to preach I thought it was the most miserable thing to do but now people often say to me “you enjoy preaching don’t you” to which I always answer yes. The Lord is patient with us as he was with Moses but we can not expect to test that patience indefinitely without provoking the Lord’s discipline. Moses found that out the hard way and so will we but we will always find that walking in the will of God is best, he is a great and glorious God, he is Holy and Gracious, High and lifted up, yet present with his people. The God who reveals himself in Exodus as the covenant-keeping God, the almighty God, the all-knowing God is the same God as Jesus reveals and the Holy Spirit testifies to. This is the God we are called to worship, to serve and to love with all our being.

 

Posted in almighty God, faith, God, God's love, grace, Greatness of god, holiness, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, sovereignty of God, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The God of Love Who Sometimes Speaks through Dreams

Posted on February 14, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

In Genesis chapters 40 and 41, we find God speaking to unbelieving people about  what will happen and he uses the strange medium of dreams. Joseph is used to bring the interpretation but the emphasis is on God speaking, this is important here as God is absolutely central to the story of Joseph, if we centre on Joseph we are mistaken and miss the thrust of the Bible’s own emphasis. Joseph quite clearly gives the glory to God and he acknowledges that it is impossible to interpret dreams without God’s revelation. Sometimes today in Church circles dream interpretation is turned into a technique with certain colours meaning something and numbers meaning something, Joseph would have been horrified at such a thing and we should be too. When we reduce dream interpretation to a technique we dishonour God and loose sight of the fact that we need him to reveal the interpretation.

Joseph was sensitive to the needs and moods of his fellow prisoners and, therefore, was able to communicate with them sensitively but at the same time time, he was sensitive to the Lord. This combination of sensitivity to both the Lord and man made him able to serve his fellow prisoners. He interprets their dreams accurately, The chief cup bearer is restored to his position but the baker is hanged. Perhaps we are puzzled about the baker why did he need to know that he was going to be hung in a few short days, perhaps it was so so he could repent of his sins and be at peace with God, the biblical narrative as a whole shows God reaching out to sinners in his great love and, therefore, this is not far fetched. It seems on the other hand that the Chief cup bearer is only interested in his own future, he forgets Joseph as soon as he is in a place of comfort and it is only when Pharoah and his court are faced with great perplexity that he remembers Joseph.

Joseph before Pharoah: once again Joseph stresses that the interpretation of dreams come from God alone, especially when confronted with such strange dreams as Pharoah had, the court magicians were nonplussed, they just hadn’t a clue. On the other hand, when Joseph is summoned because he has already interpreted some strange dreams with pinpoint accuracy, he then reminds everyone that God can and will reveal his purposes. He shows that the meaning of the dreams is the foretelling of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, he also shows that this is fixed and cannot be changed. God is sovereign and is in control of history when God speaks in this way we can know that this is certain. Most of what Joseph had to say was frightening, countries in that part of the world knew what famine was like, so he is not predicting easy times ahead.

One thing we must stress is that to Joseph the fact that God had decreed this event did not mean one just sat back and accept it but rather he saw it as the basis for radical action. Joseph’s advice ios based on the fact that God has revealed what he has decreed. The fact that God has revealed it means that God wants the people of Egypt to take action. God’s decree in Joseph’s viewpoint is the basis for activity, not complacency. Hyper-Calvinists teach a type of fatalism which is incompatible with the Biblical revelation, the fact that God is the sovereign Lord implies the responsibility of Man.

When we have dreams today  which we believe are significant we should test them against the teaching of Scripture and if it is in accordance with the Word of God, we then need to pray over the meaning of it. We must remember that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God and we may need to seek godly counsel to what the dream means. We may also have to wait a long time before the dream is fulfilled, Joseph had to wait over seven years  before he  saw the evidence that the dream was coming true. We must notice that in scripture in dreams are often used to warn  people of danger, we often want dreams to be pleasant but they often are not. Even if they are not warning dreams they are often warned of difficulty in the accomplishment of the dream. We are not meant to seek dreams but rather to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit in line with the teaching of the word of God. On the other hand, we must be people who are open to God speaking to us in many ways including dreams, and prophecy, therefore we must not despise any way that God reveals his will to us. However, we will remember that God never contradicts himself and therefore, we will always hold to the supreme authority of the Word of God  for doctrine and practice. If we subject everything to the authority of Scripture we will not go wrong.

 

Posted in almighty God, DIFFICULT TIMES, faith, Faithfulness, God, God's love, holiness, Reformed Theology, sovereignty of God, Spiritual gifts, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Image of God in Humankind:some thoughts

Posted on January 7, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

The whole concept of the Divine Image in humankind is central to understanding who humankind is according to the Bible. In our days when humankind is reduced to just a collection of atoms in the thoughts of many in secular society, we need to grasp afresh what the Bible says about the dignity of humankind.  There are many aspects to this doctrine which cannot all be covered here but I want to highlight some important points which have a practical application to our daily lives.

Firstly we must notice that in Biblical teaching the image of God in humankind is not some abstract idea but rather a matter of relationship to God, one another and creation, I will explore these aspects in turn. Before that, however, it would be good to have the most important passage of Scripture on this topic in front of us.

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day
The New International Version. (2011). (Ge 1:27–31). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Humankind’s relationship to God: We are created to relate to God in a personal way, before the fall that fellowship of  God and humans was uncorrupted. Since the fall, all humans have a fallen nature and we can only know restoration to the full image of God through the gracious act of salvation in Christ. Even after salvation has been received that restoration is only partial until we see the Lord in glory. But that does not take away from the fact that the primary purpose of our creation is to worship God. Worshipping God is not confined to singing a few praise songs but rather is the attitude of heart towards God, this can be expressed in our work life, in the way we relate to others, it is a matter of putting God and his ways as our first priority. This means that we need to relate to God through seeking his will in all things. Prayer then becomes a very important part of our relationship with God, prayer expresses our dependence upon God because prayer is not just about asking God for things but rather seeking his will for our entire life. Another way we express our dependence upon God is by reading his word and submitting to its teaching, this is vital if we are to grow more in our likeness of God. The reason this is so is that it is grounded in the relationship of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, we are to reflect in some poor way the fellowship of the three persons of the Godhead.

Humankind’s relationship to each other. We are told that humankind bears the image as it is both male and female, at once we see that if the image is to be reflected in this way we see that relationship between humans is important. Of course, first of all, that relationship applies to marriage but it is far wider than marriage, in fact, it applies to all our relationships. This why all our relationships should be one of respect and love, fallenness brings about hatred and violence, our life in Christ should bring about a reversal of this if we are seeking to be a reflection of who God is our relationships will be transformed.

This means that the Christian must reject all individualistic philosophies because they do not and cannot do adequate justice to the fact that by creation we are called to be in a relationship with one another. Individualism always tends to self-interest rather than seeking the interest of others. so much of Western thinking is individualistic and permeates our society, it is our emphasis on our rights that sometimes illustrates this, we talk about our rights and forget our obligations to one another.

The Christian will also reject all collectivist philosophies, such as Marxism with its emphasis on society and absolute equality, this leads to the repression of all that is individual and truly creative, we have seen this wherever Marxism has been tried.

In opposition to both of the philosophies the Christian view sees that because Humankind is made in the image of God there is a need to honour both the social and individual aspects of humankind, therefore we need to need to have a philosophy which sees that humans are individual-communal creatures. with this perspective, we can look at many issues affecting our societies with fresh eyes. It is not the place here to spell out all the implications of this here but let me just say that it would create a society in which justice and mercy are honoured.

Humankind’s relationship to Creation:The command to subdue the earth and have dominion over it has widely been misunderstood, this in no way gives permission to plunder the planet but rather it must be seen in its context as a command given before the fall. The context makes all the difference because unfallen man would have understood this as a command to care for God’s good creation. This whole concept of what is known as the cultural mandate shows that we have a responsibility for planet earth under the Lordship of Christ. This is not just a broad ecological statement but applies to our small part that we can play in creation care. We are to care for and nurture creation so that it can develop in a way that glorifies God. Our call is always in accordance with the principles of the Kingdom of God. Whether our cultural task is directly nurturing plants or animals or whether our calling is mainly to serve other human beings we can do all to the glory of God. The cultural mandate extends to making things, composing music, being a teacher or whatever other calling you can think of. In other words the whole of life is placed under the Lordship of Christ.

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2015 in review

Posted on January 7, 2016 by pneumaandlogos

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,800 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Posted in Theology | Leave a comment

What does it mean to be Pro-life?

Posted on December 8, 2015 by pneumaandlogos

pneumaandlogos's avatarPneuma and Logos

To be pro-life is to value human life from conception to death and to safeguard that life from any potential attackers. Some times we have narrowed our definition so that it only deals with Abortion and Euthanasia but surely to be pro-life is much bigger than this, if we use this narrow definition we are likely to miss all the ways God intends us to be pro-life.

! We will fight for the preservation of life in the womb, we are not anti-abortionists although we oppose abortion. We see human life as God-given from the very beginning and we therefore want to nurture that life and seek to protect it from all who would want to kill it. We will seek to promote the health of the mother so that the life of the child is preserved and nourished in the womb.

2 When the child has been born we…

View original post 465 more words

Posted in Theology | Leave a comment

Advent: A Time of Anticipation

Posted on December 6, 2015 by pneumaandlogos

It is very easy to think of Advent as a time when we have Advent calendars and light Advent candles these traditions are good in themselves if they help us to remember the true meaning of Advent but so often they are just empty traditions. If one turns to the readings set for Advent one can be a bit surprised because this is not what we expect because as well as salvation they talk about judgement, repentance, the second coming of Christ as well as the Saviour. The readings bring to the forefront themes that we would rather forget or at least play down. So let’s look at some of those passages briefly.

1st Sunday in Advent

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 A day of the LORD is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the LORD—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

This passage reminds us that the Christian hope embrace’s not only the coming of the incarnate Son of God  as the messiah to earth  but the also the Second coming of the Messiah, the chosen one, uniquely anointed by God to accomplish his purposes. The end of this passage reminds us of that beautiful passage in Rev.22 where John is describing the New Jerusalem. But before all of that we are reminded that he is coming as the King who will bring god’s Holy judgement to earth.  The second coming of Christ is a day of rejoicing for the believer but a day of sadness and eternal ruin for the unbeliever. This emphasises the urgency of the mission of God’s Church.

2nd Sunday in Advent
Luke 3:1-3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The second passage introduces us to the ministry of John the baptist, John like Jesus when he preached the good news always  preached repentance, turning from sin to a life submitted to God. We simply need to say sorry to God for those things which we have done wrong. repentance seems to be toned down these days but we need to repent of our sins both at the beginning of our Christian lives and whenever we fall into sin. In these days where hyper-grace is stressed, we must combat that with the teaching of the scriptures which throughout call God’s people to repentance. Repentance is the pathway to cleansing, but we find that our forgiveness is always the free gift of God in his graciousness.

3rd Sunday in Advent
Zephaniah 3:14-20

14 Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem!
15 The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
16 On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
18 “I will remove from you
all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,
which is a burden and reproach for you.
19 At that time I will deal
with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame;
I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they have suffered shame.
20 At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,”
says the LORD.

This passage shows the greatness of our salvation in song form, but it is packed fulled of God’s truth about the lavishness and the wonder of the salvation that we have received in Christ. This passage emphasises the fact that it is God that saves. He is the one who solves every problem and removes every obstacle to our salvation and our walk with God. He is the mighty warrior who cannot be defeated and thus we can be sure of our salvation.

Fourth Sunday in Advent
Micah 5:2-4 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”
3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
will reach to the ends of the earth.

Now we seem to be on more familiar territory here is a prophecy that our Lord Jesus would be born in Bethlehem but notice how he is described as ”  one whose origins are from of old from ancient times” the Israelites were not to expect someone from a normal background to be their Saviour. yet because he is the one whose origins are ancient, he will be able to shepherd his sheep he will do in the strength of the LORD and his people will be able to rest in security and the Lord’s greatness will reach the ends of the earth.

As we spend this time of Advent in anticipation of celebrating our Saviours birth, we also will be looking ahead to his second coming, how should this affect our lives?

Do we stress enough in our teaching and more importantly in our living the importance of repentance?

And can we because of God’s grace join Zephaniah in his song of praise to our great Saviour?

Lastly do we know and trust in the Saviour who came to Bethlehem so that he could be the good Shepherd?

A Prayer.

Heavenly Father we come before you acknowledging that you  are the Holy one who is   the judge of the whole earth. We thank you that as repentant sinners we have received your gracious gift of salvation in Jesus. We thank you that we can rejoice in your salvation. We thank you that we can live in the security of knowing that Jesus the good shepherd is watching over us and guiding us. Amen

Posted in Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Weapons of our Warfare

Posted on September 1, 2015 by pneumaandlogos

Source: The Weapons of our Warfare

Posted in Theology | 1 Comment