John Calvin and the Puritan Founders of New England

Article By: Bill Potter, Posted On: 2009-04-29

Historians of generations past and journalists and government school ma’ams today, tend to dismiss the seventeenth century American Puritans as somber cranks and kill-joys who, thankfully, evolved into practical and realistic Unitarian Yankees (“people who believe in one god, at most”). Dressed in black, the Puddleglum snoops peered in their neighbors’ windows to ensure compliance with the rigid and ridiculous ethical pruderies of the Calvinist theology imposed on them by their inquisitional, witchcraft-obsessed ministers. The obdurate cynic H.L. Mencken described Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”[1]

The single phrase above that is accurate concerning the Puritans themselves is that they were believers in Calvinist theology. David Hall in The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence in the Modern World rightly stated that “citizens on both sides of the Atlantic believed that the intellectual descendents of Calvin were the founders of colonial America.”[2] Historian John T. McNeill wrote more than fifty years ago, “when Calvinism in early America is mentioned, thought turns naturally to the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Different as they were, both were definitely Calvinist.”[3] Because of the explosion in Puritan studies over the last thirty years, quotes could be multiplied many times regarding the influence of Calvin on the Puritans. Before explaining what the influence of Calvin actually means, it’s helpful to understand some background concerning the origins of those folk known as the Puritans.

John Calvin, the great Reformed scholar from France, became the pastor of the church in Geneva, Switzerland in 1536. He had established an international reputation as a scholar and biblical exegete through the publication of his best-known theological treatise The Institutes of the Christian Religion. His pastoral skills were less known, but his loving and skillful pastoral ministry soon brought exiled Protestants from many countries to Geneva for training.

Among the English-speaking students was John Knox who took the principles of worship and biblical theology back to Scotland and England. His own powerful preaching and teaching dramatically affected the churchs, especially in Scotland. Reform impulses had percolated below the formal ecclesiastical surfaces in England for many years. The Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe, carried the Gospel around England and probably Scotland before the Reformation; they brought a renewed interest in reading and studying the Holy Scriptures. With King Henry VIII’s break from the pope and the systematic destruction of the monastic institutions accountable only to the pontiff, Roman Catholic influences receded long enough to establish Protestants in positions of influence in church and state. Reformed literature flooded into the country, even though it was still much opposed and circumscribed by the monarch.

Martin Luther’s writings, and, eventually, John Calvin’s predominated and found powerful advocates in the universities, especially Cambridge. After the death of Henry VIII his son Edward VI a few years later, the English Protestants who pursued continued reformation and purification of the Anglican Church were derisively called Puritans. The name stuck. Queen Elizabeth called a halt to continued change in the church and cleverly kept up a successful balancing act between the Anglican conservatives and the Puritan “party.” Puritan pastors in England were profoundly influenced by the writings and ministry of Calvin, and any mention of the beliefs of the Puritans must include the importance of the sovereignty of God in salvation, the ordering of one’s life by biblical precept and the need for the church to worship God only as He had commanded in Scripture — all primary concerns of the Genevan reformer.

Calvinistic influence affected Englishmen at every social level. Among intellectuals, a “spiritual brotherhood” evolved among pastors zealous for continued reformation of church and society. In East Anglia, influential pastors maintained continuity of solid, Reformed preaching over several generations. It would take the Synod of Dordt in the Netherlands in 1619 and the Westminster Assembly in London in 1649 to codify and systematize many of the doctrines best articulated by John Calvin, but the underlying truths were well known from his Institutes and Commentaries. William Haller has put it this way: “The Puritans were Calvinists . . . Calvinism supplied a current formulation of historic doctrine in lucid, trenchant terms, strikingly supported by the success of the state which Calvin’s genius has called into being in Geneva.”[4]

At the heart of Puritanism was their fountain of knowledge, the Geneva Bible, which “became the Bible of the Elizabethan populace, of the Scottish Reformation, and of the New England Puritans.”[5] Once it was translated into English, every family of Puritan convictions tried to obtain a copy. In the Stour Valley, from where the great New England Puritan governor John Winthrop would come, the church warden, William Winthrop sold the old organs of the church “and used the proceeds to order copies of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and a copy of Calvin’s Institutes to be kept in the church.”[6] He also purchased eight Geneva Books (Psalters) to begin the singing of the Psalms (also a practice of Calvin).

With the rising tide of the anti-Calvinist Arminian theology in the Anglican Church and the accession of proto-Catholic William Laud to Archbishop of Canterbury, many Puritan congregations considered the option of immigration to the New World. Some of the Puritan financial backers of the joint-stock Virginia Company also saw further possibilities of financing further English settlement, though the Jamestown Colony of 1607 faced terrible problems and almost failed several times. It brought little profit and plenty of heartache yet it did survive and was secure by 1620. A decade later a massive immigration effort was launched.

The 1630s was the decade of “The Great Migration” of English Puritans to North America. In that decade, some 20,000 Puritans came to American, most of them to New England. Charles I had inherited the throne of England in 1625 and, in a pique of anger, dissolved Parliament. He and his archbishops threatened to do to the Puritans what James I had so famously declared some years earlier: to “harry them out of the land.” Further reformation in England seemed at a standstill. With their keen desire to extend the kingdom of God to all people and with opportunity to establish a godly commonwealth a real possibility, entire congregations took ship and planted the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Winthrop reminded the people that they must become as a “city set on a hill” for the rest of the world to see.[7]

There would be no more fighting over priestly vestments, gaudy cathedrals, or compromising bishops. The regulative principle of worship would no longer be a battleground doctrine, but the commonly accepted rule. The economic hard times left behind in England could be remedied with honest hard work, the political structure placed entirely in the hands of the godly, and the liberty ensured by common law, biblical law, and representative local governments would all contribute to a reformed Zion unobtainable in England. While still loyal to the Crown, the Puritans would find that 2,500 miles of separation would prove a barrier to intrusive controls from the royal busybodies, yet also keep them mollified with profitable trade and raw materials.

The Puritans migrated in families, unlike every other large immigration of the times. Many were prosperous merchants, tradesmen, or farmers. Few were unskilled labor or “masterless men.” David Hackett Fisher has observed that “revisionist historians notwithstanding, these people were staunch Calvinists. Their spiritual leader John Cotton declared ‘I have read the fathers and the schoolmen, and Calvin too; but I find that he that has Calvin has them all.”[8]

The New England Calvinist settlers, which included the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Plantation, and many of the settlers in Connecticut as well as the Presbyterians and Baptists outside the Congregationalist establishment, did not call themselves Calvinists. Historian Perry Miller made an interesting observation on the Puritan hermeneutics, however, in Errand into the Wilderness: “The New Englanders were correct in claiming that they were not followers of John Calvin, because they honestly believed that they were reading the Bible with their own eyes. Yet in the historical perspective, their way of interpreting the Bible must be called Calvinist.”[9]

They settled in towns, with the church building as the central gathering place. They established local governments which, though having independent jurisdiction, cooperated with the ministers and faced criticism from the pulpits if they strayed from biblical principle. The people themselves were a colorful lot and recent research has uncovered the records of a vibrant and prosperous society seeking to accomplish the will of God through the concept of “calling”. They also understood the depravity of man and the effects of sin, as well as the applications of biblical law to maintain social order. (Massachusetts had ten capital crimes, in keeping with Deuteronomy, at a time when England had over a hundred violations which could get you dangling from the hemp.)

In Albion’s Seed, David Hackett Fischer says the Calvinist beliefs that became so important to the culture can be summarized in five words: depravity, covenant [perhaps taken more from the reformer Henry Bullinger than John Calvin], election, grace, and love.[10] Contrary to some stereotypes that the Puritan New Englanders , with their gloomy introspection and ironclad theological system, created an undesirable and limiting life for the inhabitants, the Calvinism of the Puritans “was not a rigid and static system . . . they did not hesitate to seek with Calvin, the truth wherever it led.”[11] It was a dynamic society without illusions concerning man’s sinfulness but happy in the grace of God and their duty to love one another.

Within a century, the vital godliness and zeal of that first generation of Puritan immigrants had virtually disappeared as the colony grew in population, much of it non-Puritan, and became an economic powerhouse in fishing, trade, and colonial manufacturing. Theological compromise became commonplace, although the great spiritual awakening of the 1740s, associated with the ministry of Jonathan Edwards (who was not afraid to call himself a Calvinist) and others, revived the orthodoxy and spiritual vitality of their fathers for a few years.

Still prosperous and retaining much of the independent and rebellious streak that brought their ancestors to those rocky shores in the 1630s, the generation of the 1770s triggered the movement that resulted in American independence from Britain. Much of what the Puritans rooted in their Calvinist beliefs and applied in their lives and churches, and reflected in their local and colonial government structures with their unwavering love of liberty, laid the intellectual groundwork that culminated in their great grandchildren’s creation of the United States — a matter beyond the scope of this article, yet well worth further study by the reader.

1. As noted in: The Oxford Book of Quotations, eds., Elizabeth Knowles, Angela Partington (New York: Oxford University Press US, 1999), p. 504.

2. David Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence in the Modern World (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), p. 111.

3. John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism (New York: Oxford University Press US, 1954), p. 335.

4. William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972), p. 8.

5. Ibid.

6. Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father (New York: Oxford University Press US, 2003), p. 34.

7. John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630 sermon.

8. David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press US, 1989) p.22.

9. Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1956), p. 49.

10. Fischer, p. 23.

11. McNeill, p. 338.

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Descendents

Article By: Bill Potter, Posted On: 2008-12-12

Descendents

Last weekend I read about two women who have made history. One was on the front page of the newspaper and is of the “I am woman hear me roar” school. She is known and admired by many for her intelligence and aggressive pursuit of power. She is tough and politically savvy.  She will be entering an international arena to help project the policies of the new Presidential administration. No doubt she will eventually get a sentence or two mention in the history books of the 21st century.

The other woman was referred to in a brief paragraph in the obituary section, stating only the time of the family gathering at the funeral home in a tiny village in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania. The little lady in the casket was my wife’s mother, who died quietly in her sleep at the age of ninety-four on Thanksgiving Day. She was a warm-hearted and kindly person known for her sense of humor, sturdy work ethic, faithful attendance at the church and love for and dependence upon God. She will not be mentioned in any history books outside of a family genealogy.

My wife’s mother, Irene Cromwell Leapline, was the oldest child in her family and she took the prominent role in raising her five siblings after her father died at the age of 29. In due course, she married a coal miner (yes, I married a coal miner’s daughter), and had ten children. The Depression era was a very difficult time to be raising a large family in a poor rural valley but their faith and hard work sustained them. When she died last week, Grandma Leapline could count not only her ten faithful children (two deceased), but forty-eight grandchildren, seventy -three great-grandchildren, and nine great-great-grandchildren.

Among that number and their spouses are missionaries, preachers, mechanics, schoolteachers, railroad men, computer programmers, soldiers, factory workers, and a host of home-makers. She and her husband Lester who died in 1971, instilled in their children a love for God and the importance of family. They saw themselves as a link in a chain that extends into the future and they instilled Christian values that would withstand the trials and tribulations of life and would be just as sure and true to the generations yet unborn.

It’s hard not to notice the contrast. One is a public figure who grasps at power and prestige like a drowning man to a life preserver, who is admired because she can shoulder her way in a world once deemed to belong only to men. She seeks dominance, perhaps for its own sake. And then there is a modest country woman whose success can be measured in the productive lives of her many descendents and the remembrance by hundreds of her steady and consistent virtue passed on to generations. They were both in the same newspaper. Which one has the real power?

Bill Potter

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Post-Election Anti-Depression Recipe

Article By: Becky Morecraft, Posted On: 2008-11-10

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
to the last syllable of recorded time;
and all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death.
Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more:
it is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing...
-- Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.v.
(photo of Bothwell Castle, Scotland)

One week ago today, we anticipated election day. Maybe 'anticipated' is the wrong word. When I use that word, I'm normally thinking of something enjoyable like a birthday party, vacation or Christmas. Now Election Day, 2008 has passed. The much anticipated day has come and gone as indeed all things mortal and finite do. They pass away, become history or are simply forgotten.

Thou dost turn man back into dust, and dost say, 'Return, O children of men.' For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night. Thou has swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew...
(photo of wildflowers growing in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland)

In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades and withers away...For all our days have declined in Thy fury; we have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away...So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom. --Psalm 91:3-6,10-12

O Lord, what is man that Thou dost take knowledge of him? Or the son of man that Thou dost think of him? Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow. --Psalm 144:3,4

(Becky, dreaming as the shadows fall in St. Andrews Cathedral ruins, Scotland, June, 2008)

Minutes and seconds slide into hours and days which quickly mount up on wings like eagles and glide into weeks and months, insistently flying over the horizon into years, heedless of our attempts to call them back. The years drift on, like silent snow, piling up against our windows as we dream, unaware that decades have suddenly written themselves without our cognizance while we busily bustled about, unsuspecting, like children who fall asleep in the car and awaken, snug in bed.

Like sand pouring through the proverbial hour-glass, years crowd into centuries; and, before you can turn around twice, one millenia nudges its way against the second. They push together, surging into the third, then, at break-neck speed, the fourth one skids into line...time is relentless in its onward march. No space left to catch a deep breath...[my photo of ancient monoliths erected in a field in Kilmartin Valley, perhaps earlier than the 9th century, in Scotland]


(painting of The Venerable Bede translating the book of John, by J. D. Penrose, 1902, source, Wikipedia)

The Venerable Bede (A.D. 673-735) wrote to his Anglo-Saxon king:
The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant."
--[from Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 A.D.) II.xiii.]

Thanks be to God, we know without the least shadow of doubt from whence we have come and where we are going. How unnecessary for the Christian to live in such despair--we are not as sparrows flitting through a warm room into a shroud of blackness. If this picture of life is valid, should we not live for today, warming ourselves as long as we can by the fire, draining the cup of pleasure to the dregs? The non-Christian world lives by this standard. As blood-bought children of God, ransomed from the world, we have been given a different perspective.

We choose to live opposed to the base standards and God-less philosophies of our polluted world. We choose the perception of eternity in our souls that elevates our existence to noble, joyful heights. So many around us agree with John Gay, an early 19th century British playwright, who wrote this epitaph for himself: "Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it." We must realize at the onset that our enemies are not at all as fierce as they seem. In fact, the Bible informs us that their lives are built on shifting sand and will be swept away by the first real storm that falls. Devise a plan to defeat your tendency to fear these straw men and to throttle your tendency towards fear and anxiety.

We must oppose the straw men of our day by, first, refusing to be shaped by current events and the media. Rather, become a serious student of the Bible, its teachings and history and the history of the world, ancient and modern. Immerse yourself, as much as possible, in learning good theology and REAL history. Not edited, revised and supplemented fables fabricated for public school textbooks, much of the history and discovery channel offerings and most ivy league colleges and universities. Go to original sources or those who used them to write their books -- grasp the macro-concepts of each period of history and then put flesh on the bare bones by reading the biographies and autobiographies of each era. Develop a clear and deep understanding of God's Word as well as a solid, bedrock perspective about history and the people and events that make it and you will find yourself better able to correctly interpret current events.

Second, know where you fit into the picture in your moment in history. Our very existence is defined, not by what someone else says about it but by the knowledge that God had a reason for your birth. He knows everything about you and me because He planned for each of us to be here--at this specific point in time and space, and He fills each life with a dynamic sense of meaning as we find our meaning in Him. Macbeth*[see quote above] was wrong. A Christian should never feel that he is "a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage...full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." You are significant because God wants you here to find your rest in Him and to do all His holy will from a grateful heart. Once you've discovered your raison d'etre, passionately devote yourself to living it, every day, with every fiber of your being and every moment of time you are given. Calvin said that truly knowing yourself and God are the necessary ingredients for living a satisfying life. (Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, I,i.ii.)

Third, (or perhaps first in order of importance), believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and you will never die--you will continue to live beyond the grave. Our bodies will grow weary and sick, although some are taken even before the aging process begins to show; but YOU, your resurrected body and soul, will never, ever, ever die! I find that truth more than comforting. Purpose infuses my days, months and years as I realize that I was created on purpose by the Sovereign God of the universe, the One Who alone keeps the planets from crashing into the sun, Who sustains all that He has created until its appointed time to die, Who has never failed in one promise He ever made, Who has revealed Himself and His holy will in His law/word in the Scriptures and through His only Son, Who daily prays for me and empowers me, by the Holy Spirit Who indwells me, to live and move and have my being in Him.

Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah!
Oh, my soul, Jehovah praise.
I will sing the glorious praises
of my God through all my days.
Put no confidence in princes,
nor for help on man depend.
He shall die, to dust returning,
and his purposes shall end.

Happy is the man that chooses
Israel's God to be his aid.
He is blessed whose hope of blessing
on the Lord his God is stayed.
Heav'n and earth the Lord created,
seas and all that they contain.
He delivers from oppression,
righteousness He will maintain.
--Psalm 146, 1912 Psalter

One week has passed since election day, 2008. Four (or more years) of formidable socialistic, pluralistic, anti-Christian, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-'everything I'm opposed to' politics seems probable from this vantage point. I cannot change the election results. I tried as best I could to influence anyone who would listen prior to the election. So what now? I could easily choose depression, anxiety and fear as the motivating factors for my attitude and decisions in the days ahead, but to do so would demonstrate a pitiable lack of faith in God's promises.

My reaction as a Christian may only be informed by God's Word. Despite alarming headlines, I must remind myself daily to remember what I know is true: God is still on His throne, therefore, nothing essential has changed in God's universe! I need not live as a sparrow flitting through a warm room to the unknown darkness beyond it. I know something neither the sparrow nor unregenerate man can know--God reigns! Therefore, I will continue to walk down the path the Lord has clearly marked for my life until He welcomes me home, knowing without a doubt that, though trials may lie ahead, "God casues all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose," Romans 8:28. While I remain here, I will endeavor to trust Him, the all-wise Sovereign and Lord of my heart Who is the God of history. My confidence will not rest in princes nor will I fear what they can do to me. My hope rests in the knowledge of His providential care Who does all things well.

This is my recipe for post-election depression: By His grace and in His strength alone, I will nourish my hungry heart on His delicious and satisfying word; I will pray on my face before Him, begging for mercy and cleansing for myself, my dear ones, His bride the church and our poor, deceived nation. I will exercise my faith by working with all my heart in my callings "as unto the Lord." I will worship on His holy hill each Lord's day, drawing comfort and strength as I commune with Him around His table and in fellowship with His people. Finding His mercies new and fresh every morning, I will sing His praises so loudly that the din and confusion of the world will simply fade away to a dull, boring roar, like the droning of a wasp caught in a jar and fear and depression will slink away into the darkness where they belong.

I believe that God is stronger than any double-minded politician. I believe that Good will triumph over evil. I believe that Truth will win over falsehood. The world will be changed in my life-time and in the years to come as it has been in years past, not through the machinations of men and political activists, but through the blessings and curses of a mighty Warrior Who strides over His defeated enemies, the sword of His Word prevailing now as it always has throughout the centuries. Enlist in His army and know that, regardless of election results, sin and even death, the victory has already been won. Praise be to God!

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For Thou alone, O LORD, dost make me to dwell in safety." --Psalm 4:8

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Election Day Sermon 2008, The Future of Politicians Who Give Bad Advice

Article By: Dr. Joe Morecraft, III, Posted On: 2008-10-31

ELECTION DAY SERMON 2008

THE FUTURE OF POLITICIANS WHO GIVE BAD ADVICE

Ezekiel 11:1-25

By Joe Morecraft, III

You can also listen to this sermon at  http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1130897544

 

INTRODUCTION

 

THE HISTORY OF ELECTION DAY SERMONS

 

Election Day Sermons have been preached in America from our very beginning. “As early as 1633 in Massachusetts and 1674 in Connecticut the practice of preaching election sermons arose. These were delivered before the governor and assembly, (and in meetinghouses in local towns), year by year. Frequently these sermons were printed at government expense and distributed among the town, and the themes discussed were rediscussed in the pulpits throughout New England.”- William W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America, pg. 177.

 

THE PURPOSE OF ELECTION DAY SERMONS

 

The purpose of these Election Day Sermons can be stated in terms of Deuteronomy 26:19---”...that He (God) shall set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God....” It was the earnest prayer of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century preachers of the gospel that through the preaching and teaching of the Holy Bible God would create, preserve and perfect a genuinely Christian and thoroughly Biblical social, moral and political order in America for the glory of God and as a model--”a city set on a hill”--for the rest of the world.

 

Nowhere is the purpose of election sermons more clearly and more intensely illustrated than in a book by David Gregg entitled Makers of the American Republic written in 1896.

 

“As patriotic Christians there is only one cry in our souls, and that is, ‘America for Christ! Christ for America!’ I mean to push this motto; I push it on three grounds: for America’s sake, for the world’s sake, for Christ’s sake.

 

1.      We demand America for Christ for America’s sake. --Divorce your nation from Christ and you ring its death-knell.... Marry your nation to Christ and you open for it a door into a new future and secure for it a place among the nations of the world.... Tell me how the American Republic will treat Christ and I will tell you the future of the American Republic. --America needs Christ---the rule of Christ, the truth of Christ, the spirit of Christ, the gospel of Christ, and the men of Christ.

2.      We demand America for Christ for the world’s sake. --...America taken for Christ means the nations of the world far and near taken for Christ; America a Christian nation means a mighty witness for God among all lands of the earth.... -- In the Christianizing of our nation the Republic has its life at stake, society its order, labor its reward, home its happiness, and the world its future.”

 

THE NEED FOR ELECTION DAY SERMONS

 

The pulpit has always been the most influential political, social and moral force in America. In the early days it was a powerful force for good, because it was generally faithful to the Word of God. Today it is a mighty force for evil, because it has generally abandoned the Word of God. Now more than ever, we need ministers of the gospel who will preach only the Word of God and all of the Word of God with boldness, humility, wisdom, forcefulness and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. We must earnestly pray that our present famine of faithful preaching would come to an end; that God would raise up an army of fearless preachers of “the whole counsel of God”; and that God would use that preaching, on Election Days, and every Sunday, to turn the hearts of Americans away from their apostasy and to the Living God revealed in Jesus Christ.

 

THE CONTEXT OF EZEKIEL 11:1-25

 

Our Election Day Sermon this year (2008) is an exposition and application of Ezekiel 11:1-25. Little is known about the man, Ezekiel. The two most important facts we know about him are that:

 

1.      He was a prophet of God who prophesied with divine authority; and

 

2.      He lived during the Babylonian Captivity of Israel.

 

He wrote his book to impress upon the Israelite exiles that their captivity, and the destruction of Jerusalem, was Jehovah’s righteous judgment on their hardened apostasy. He also impresses his readers with the faithfulness, patience and mercy of Jehovah, who freely and sincerely offers forgiveness and restoration to all who return to Him in faith and repentance. One day God’s people will be fully restored to their Lord. They will return to the true worship of God. And the name of their redeemed and restored covenant community will be “Jehovah Shammah,” i.e., “The Lord is there.”

 

The Book of Ezekiel can be divided into three parts:

 

a.       (1:1-24:27) Prophecies given before the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

 

b.      (25:1-32:32) Prophecies of judgment given against foreign nations.

 

c.       (33:1-48:35) Prophecies of the restoration of Israel given after the Babylonians had captured Jerusalem (586, B.C.).

 

Our text, 11:1-25, is the conclusion of a prophecy concerning the punishment of Jerusalem (8:1-11:25). The Glory of the Lord appeared to Ezekiel and “transported him in spirit” to the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, (8:1-4), where God caused him to see the blatant idolatry of Israel, (8:5-18); and His judgment on the people, His burning of the city, and His abandonment of the Temple, (9:1-10:22). Then, after exposing and denouncing the apostasy of the political leaders of Jerusalem, (11:1-13), Ezekiel prophesies of a future salvation and restoration of God’s covenant people in Christ, (11:14-25).

Now to the text before us....

 

EXPOSITION

 

I.       (11:1-13) THE FUTURE OF POLITICIANS WHO GIVE BAD ADVICE

 

The purpose of Ezekiel 11:1-13 is to teach the people that PERVERSE POLITICIANS CAUSE NATIONAL DESTRUCTION. As the N.T. says, if the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch, Mat. 15:14; Lk. 6:39. When political leaders defect from God and His Law, spiritual and moral defection will spread among the citizens. Therefore, a nation cannot escape God’s judgment, if it is corrupted by its politicians. In fact, this corruption of the leaders is the cause of its destruction, since the people are too easily led astray by perverse examples.

 

A.    THE IDENTITY OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POLITICIANS AT THE TEMPLE ENTRANCE

 

THE POINT OF 11:1-13. Ezekiel, enlightened and made bold by the Holy Spirit of God, confronts the political leaders of his day with their sin and with their accountability before God for their actions and policies. He addresses twenty-five of these “leaders of the people,” and calls two by name, Jaazaniah ben-Azzur and Pelatiah ben-Benaiah. These “princes” represented the civil government of Israel in the capital, Jerusalem. Their number is probably comprised of twelve princes from each of the tribes and the twelve military commanders and the king, I Chron. 27.

 

Here we see the prophetic responsibility the church and the pulpit have toward the state--to call it to repentance boldly, forcefully, and specifically, warning it of God’s judgment if it refuses, and naming names if necessary. The ministry is being unfaithful to God if it is silent regarding political, social and moral issues. This is so: (1). because God has called the church and pulpit to address apostasy in any form; and (2). because the Bible is authoritative on everything about which it speaks, and it speaks about everything.

 

B.     THE SPEECHES & POLICIES OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POLITICIANS

 

The charge God brought against these politicians through His prophet was that they are “men who devise iniquity and give evil advice in this city,” vs. 2. In their speeches, policies, counsel, consent, and adjudications, as well as by their own attitude and behavior, they were encouraging the people and the nation to rebel against God and His Law, and to live according to man’s sinful impulses, man’s own subjective standards, man’s goals, man’s priorities, and man’s will. These leaders were no longer governing the nation or their own lives in terms of the revealed will and pleasure of God. Therefore, as a result all their policies would only accomplish “iniquity” and all their counsel would encourage “evil” in the lives of the citizens.

 

When politicians turn from God as the source of salvation, life and sovereignty, and legislate, adjudicate and execute their laws and policies, they will always: (1). call evil good and good evil; (2). encourage evil and lawlessness in society; (3). bring down the judgment of God on their nation, which will dry up prosperity, blessing, health and security. Therefore, the policies such people impose are evil, and the answers they offer to the political, economic, social, agricultural, industrial, commercial, educational, and international crises of a nation are non-answers. There are no solutions for a nation in critical decline outside of Christ and the Word of God. Without faith, repentance, and a return to God in submission to His Laws in politicians and people, neither appealing “charismatic” politicians nor referendums by the people have any substance.

 

C.     THE CONTEMPT FOR THE WORD OF GOD OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POLITICIANS

 

The evil counsel of these perverse politicians in Ezekiel’s day was: “Is not the time near to build houses? This city is the pot and we are the flesh,” vs. 3. The worst thing about these politicians is that they held the Word of God in contempt, and were always seeking ways to avoid its claims and to negate its warnings by mind-games, ridicule and mockery.

 

Here Ezekiel, to use Calvin’s words, “strips off their masks” and “cuts away their pretenses.” He condemns these politicians because, by their evil policies and example, “they have hardened the people in obstinate wickedness and encouraged apathy and lethargy, so that the prophet’s threats were unheeded.” They not only “stupefied the people by their enticements and took away all sense of repentance, they also set aside all fear of God’s anger which had been denounced against them.”-Calvin

 

What was the significance of the statement of the politicians regarding the prophet’s warning—“Is not the time near to build houses? This city is the pot and we are the flesh”? To understand their point we must understand that they were trying to elude the force of the prophecy of Jeremiah, who threatened them with God’s anger, when he wrote: “And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Out of the north the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land.’“-Jeremiah 1:13-14.

 

Jeremiah warned that Jerusalem was like a pot and the fire which would cause her to boil in judgment would come from the north, i.e., the Babylonians would come like a fire to devour Jerusalem, which would be like a stewpot, filled with water and meat, placed on a raging fire, which soon dries up the water and scorches the meat. The politicians, who had read Jeremiah’s prophecy, now mock the prophecy and by mind- and word-games, try to circumvent its true meaning and “outwit” its author, (who by the way is not Jeremiah, but the Living God, who put the words in Jeremiah’s mouth, Jer. 1:9!).

 

They interpret it in a way that is directly opposed to its true meaning. Jeremiah told them they would be scorched with raging fire if they did not repent; but they said, “We may boil to death in this pot, but it hasn’t happened yet and it won’t happen for a while to come. Moreover, the temperature will rise gradually degree by degree, so it won’t happen soon, and when it happens it won’t be that bad. After all, a watched pot never boils. Therefore, let’s build our houses, enjoy life and stay on our present course, because we are safe for many years, and by then we will be too old to enjoy life anyway.”

 

Or to put their blasphemy another way. They were trying to evade the meaning of God’s words by saying that as the pot protects the meat in it from burning, so the city of Jerusalem would protect them from destruction. This attitude not only manifests their false confidence in the power of political institutions and social structures, it manifests scorn and contempt for the prophetic word of the Living God.

 

How evil was their audacity! They tried to make God look ridiculous as they tried to elude the force of His prophetic word. “For a laughing-stock they said that they could rest safely within the city, because they were not yet cooked but raw, so that if that prophecy is true, said they, we shall not so quickly depart from the city. For God foretold that we should be the flesh which was about to be cooked: if this city is a caldron, we ought to remain here till we are cooked: but this has not happened. Hence what Jeremiah pronounces is vain.”--John Calvin

 

Their audacity and deceit were so blatant and so blasphemous that God raises up another prophet to preach against them, vs. 4, because nothing is more intolerable than that men should audaciously ridicule and challenge the anger of Almighty God. “For if the mountains melt before Him, Isa. 64:3, if angels themselves tremble, Job 4:18, how comes it that the vessel of clay dares to conflict (challenge) it’s Maker, Isa. 45:9?”-John Calvin

 

D.    THE HORRIFYING FUTURE OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POLITICIANS

 

God’s Word is inescapable! God’s judgment is escapable only through genuine repentance and faith. All attempts to manipulate or distort God’s Word so as to evade its threats and warnings are doomed to mortal failure.

 

The Lord told Ezekiel that the arguments of the apostate politicians did not impress or intimidate Him at all, because He knows what they are thinking, vs. 5. God does not read their lips, He reads their minds! “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” Heb. 4:12-13.

 

The Hebrew in verse five of Ezekiel says literally, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” The politicians were actors trying to impress and persuade men that they were sincere and honest- thinking men, but before the court of Heaven, God is their only Judge. And when our thoughts and intentions are known to God, it is sheer stupidity to think we can get away with hypocrisy and play-acting, “because God will not admit our subterfuges, nor will He allow Himself to be deluded by our smartness and cunning.”-Calvin.  In fact, God will make the corrupt politicians laughing-stocks.

 

The prophet does not waste the time or the trouble to reason with the blabbering of the evil politicians trying to evade God. He goes straight for the jugular.

 

God turns the words of the politicians against themselves, and makes them shoot their arrows into their own chests, because, as God said, “He who sins against Me injures himself; all those who hate Me love death,” Prov. 8:36. God always makes foolish the wisdom of the world, I Cor. 1:20. Ezekiel in proclaiming the Lord’s Word is obeying that Word which says, “Answer a fool as his folly deserves, lest he be wise in his own eyes,” Prov. 26:5.

 

1.      THE INDICTMENT OF THE POLITICIANS FOR “MULTIPLYING YOUR SLAIN IN THIS CITY, FILLING ITS STREETS WITH THEM,” vs. 6-7.

 

God accuses the politicians of filling the streets of Jerusalem with the bodies of the people they had slain. These words not only imply that for the politicians human life was cheap, they also signify “all forms of injustice; for we know that God esteems those homicides who oppress miserable men, overturn their fortunes, and suck innocent blood. Since, then, God esteems all violence as slaughter, he properly says, ‘that the city was filled with the slain.’”-Calvin. These politicians of Ezekiel’s day sound like American politicians of our day, for whom life is cheap, as is evident by the legalization of abortion, and who overturn working people’s fortunes and suck their blood by deficit spending, bureaucratic controls, an inflationary monetary system, massive taxation, unjust judges, federal regulations, tens of thousands of unjust laws and a welfare system which penalizes the hard-working citizens, rewards the shiftless, and encourages immorality, violence and lawlessness as Walter Williams’ book, The State Against Blacks, shows.

 

2.      THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF MORE SEVERE JUDGMENT ON THE POLITICIANS, vs. 7-11.

 

Now God turns to sarcasm and to dark humor to refute the audacious interpretation of His word by the politicians and to pronounce imminent condemnation upon them in no uncertain terms.

 

The politicians argued that, although God would bring judgment upon the city, it would be a long time in coming, since they were the raw stew-meat in the boiling pot, and it would not be so bad when it came, since it would come gradually. The pot and the water would protect them from the flames, or so they thought. That meant that they could continue their life “as is”, since they would be old men when the judgment would finally come.

 

God “treats them wittily, and plays off jests in answer to them; meanwhile he strikes a deadly wound, when He shows that they joked so petulantly to their own destruction....”-Calvin. God argues: “You politicians by your policies and actions have filled the pot with meat, i.e., those whom you have slain, so that there is no longer any room in the pot for you! Therefore, I will throw out the rotten meat, i.e. the politicians. I will throw you directly and immediately into the fire where you will be burned to a crisp! I will boil the people, but I will roast the politicians in the fire of the Babylonians according to Jeremiah 1:13. Because you joked and laughed at My prophetic Word, greater vengeance from Me awaits you. You never stop provoking My anger.”

God’s exact words are these:

 

“Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city are the flesh, and this city is the pot; but I shall bring you out of it.” (11:7)

 

“You have feared a sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” the Lord God declares.” (11:8)

 

“And I shall bring you out of the midst of the city, and I shall deliver you into the hands of strangers and execute judgments against you.” (11:9)

 

“You will fall by the sword. I shall judge you to the border of Israel; so you shall know that I am the Lord.” (11:10)

 

“This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be flesh in the midst of it, but I shall judge you to the border of Israel.” (11:11)

 

The city with its institutions and traditions, and the policies and regulations of the politicians will be of no protection to them when God begins His certain judgment of them for giving evil advice to and for imposing unjust laws on the people. “This city will not be a pot for you....”

 

God is informing the politicians that they will be forced from their refuge in the city and brought to the frontier of Israel where they will be brutally cut down and wiped out. This threat was literally fulfilled in the bloody scenes at Riblah described in Jeremiah 52:24-27. Because they perverted the Word of God, mocking it and refusing to obey and enforce it, they would find no protection in Jerusalem or in the land of Israel. Their punishment would be soon, intense, humiliating and horrifying. The king of Israel would see his own sons murdered, then he himself would be painfully blinded and dragged into slavery in Babylon, and all his princes would be killed, II Kings 25; Jeremiah 39.

 

The sudden death of one of the princes of the people, Pelatiah, while Ezekiel was preaching, was intended to assure the people and the politicians of the certain, inescapable fulfillment of the word of God. The death of Pelatiah was a “prelude” of the slaughter that was at hand, 11:13.

 

E.     THE REASON FOR THE HORRIBLE FUTURE OF THE TWENTY-FIVE POLITICIANS

 

1.      THE VINDICATION OF THE GLORY OF GOD, vs. 12a.

 

God brings this terrible judgment upon the evil politicians “SO YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD. -- THUS YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD...,” 11:10, 12. In pain, suffering and gruesome death these apostate politicians will know that the Lord whom they mocked is really the God He has revealed Himself to be in the Bible. Apostate politicians “are said to know God when, being struck by His hand, they unwillingly acknowledge His power: because whether they will or not they feel Him to be their judge. But this knowledge does not profit them; nay it even increases their destruction.”-Calvin

 

To say that these leaders will “know that I am the Lord,” when He begins judging them, is not to say that the ignorance of Him by which they sinned against Him is justifiable or excusable. Calvin explains:

 

“Doubtless Ezekiel reproves the sloth which was the cause of such great defiance; for they had never dared to contend so perseveringly with God, unless their minds had been stupefied; for were we to reflect that we are striving with God, horror would immediately seize upon us; for who labors under such madness as to dare to contend with God his Maker? This dullness, therefore, Ezekiel now obliquely reproves, when he says that the Jews would know too late that they were dealing with God. Although therefore they sinned through ignorance, it does not follow that they were without excuse, for whence arose their ignorance except from being inattentive to God? It sprang first from carelessness: then that carelessness and security produced contempt, and contempt sprang from their depraved lust of sinning. Since therefore they determined to give themselves up to all manner of sinning, they put away as far as possible all teaching: nay they willingly endeavored to stupefy their own consciences, and thus we see that depraved desire impelled them to contempt, and contempt begat in them security, in which at length this ignorance plunged them.”

 

2.      THE FAILURE OF THE POLITICIANS TO OBEY AND ENFORCE BIBLICAL LAW, vs. 12b.

 

God was not being too harsh, nor was He demanding too much, nor was His judgment on them too heavy. His judgment was severe, because it was perfectly just. He was giving the politicians what they deserved, nothing more. He had given them His Law in the Bible by which they were to govern; and yet they rejected it, choosing instead to imitate the pagan nations around them and govern according to the standards of man, rather than by the Standards of God. As Calvin wrote, this was to prefer Satan to God Himself with full deliberation. It was to follow the lie of the tempter again, that man has the right and ability to determine what is good and evil for himself without any reference to God and His Word, Genesis 3.

 

“Thus you will know that I am the Lord; for you have not WALKED in My statutes nor have you EXECUTED My ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.” (11:12)

 

The politicians were punished severely by God because they did not live by the Law of God for the sake of Christ in their own personal lives, nor did they obey and enforce Biblical Law in submission to Christ the King, in their political positions. Politicians and nations that seek to be religiously and ethically neutral, who pride themselves on their pretended religious pluralism, are in direct, audacious and inexcusable rebellion against God. Their speeches, laws and policies are repugnant to God because they reveal: (1). deep ingratitude to Him for His goodness to them; (2). audacious contempt for His Word so clearly revealed; (3). irrational belief that man has the right and ability to determine good and evil for himself; (4). reckless disregard for the divine command that God alone is God and He alone is to be worshiped and served; (5). trust in politics and human ingenuity; (6). and because those evil politicians will corrupt the people, who will try to imitate them.

 

Therefore, in the light of this verse, what is the responsibility of a person in a position of political authority? He personally is to “walk” according to God’s revealed will in the Bible, and he is to “execute” that revealed will in his use of political authority. In this sense, the civil magistrate is to be “a minister of God,” Romans 13:4, who influences the people to do good and who does good for the people by administering justice by enforcing Biblical Law for the sake of Christ. Without the absolute standard of God’s revealed Law in the Bible, the civil magistrate has no way of distinguishing “good behavior” from “evil behavior;” hence, he will use the sword to be an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices good, and he will reward and protect the one who practices evil. The politician who obeys and enforces Biblical Law is the protector of good people; but the politician--whether he is a political liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican-- who seeks to impose and enforce a law-order other than God’s Law found in the Bible is a “Beast,” Rev. 13, a deadly threat to the good people, families, communities, businesses and churches in the land. Such politicians are a curse, and must be exposed, resisted and opposed. Use the qualifications for a politician found in Deuteronomy 16:18-22 and 17:14-20 to be your standard in evaluating candidates. And if a candidate will not “walk” by and “execute” Biblical Law as the basis of liberty and justice for all, he is your enemy, the enemy of your family, and the enemy of God, whom God will certainly, swiftly and severely destroy.

 

    II.            (11:14-25) THE FUTURE OF VOTERS WHO TAKE GOOD ADVICE

 

The future does not belong to evil politicians. It belongs to the faithful people of God in Christ. Even in Ezekiel’s day, with its perverse politicians corrupting most of the people, God preserved His faithful church and kept her from corruption. To the generations of the faithful people of God, God has promised a glorious future, regardless of what the evil politicians might try to do to them, or regardless of how heavy God’s judgment may fall upon those politicians and the people who believe them and are influenced by them.

 

Some of the most wonderful promises of God in the Bible are to be found in Ezekiel 11:14-25. It is in those promises we are to trust, and it is to the One who gave those promises that we are to look for security, growth, victory, national healing, and the future of our generations.

 

A.    THE PROMISE OF A SANCTUARY, vs. 16

 

“Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Though I had removed them far away among the nations, and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I WAS A SANCTUARY FOR THEM a little while in the countries where they had gone.”

 

Even in times of severe national judgment, God knows how to protect, encourage and support His faithful people. However far they may be scattered by persecution or judgment, God Himself is their sanctuary, their secure home, their hiding place, their shelter in a time of storm. Even in this life God is present with His people. Even here he wipes tears from our eyes, comforts us in our mourning, crying and pain; shelters us from the scorching winds of judgment on the apostate and reprobate; shields us from the fiery missiles Satan hurls at us.

 

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My Refuge and my Fortress, my God in whom I trust.’ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His wings, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon, a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my Refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place.” (Psalm 91)

 

B.     THE PROMISE OF A LAND, vs. 17

 

“Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, ‘I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Israel.”

 

The church of God will not always be in a “scattered” and humbled position, suffering under the oppression of evil men. God uses such times to test her, to purify her, to bring her to repentance, renewed faith, obedience, and restored health and prosperity, Deuteronomy 8 and 28. Notice in our text that God will be a “sanctuary” for His people in exile in Babylon for “a little while,” vs. 16. His purpose is to bring them out of judgment and oppression into a new era of greatness, freedom, faithfulness, peace and prosperity. He promises to bring them into their own Land of Promise with a rebuilt Sanctuary in Jerusalem, where they can worship and serve the Lord with exuberance.

 

As we have learned on many other occasions from the Bible, the Land of Promise is not limited geographically to the land of Palestine. The Bible universalizes it to include the entire earth as the inheritance of the covenant people of God. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” In Romans 4 Abraham is called “the heir of the world.” The promise, then, is this: in the future, under the blessing of God, the covenant people of God in Christ will inherit the earth, enjoying its pleasures and using its resources to construct just and free societies and godly civilizations according to the word of God, in submission to Christ the King, in the power of the Spirit, to the glory of the triune God. Oppressors will be destroyed or converted. “They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war,” Isa. 2:4. “And they shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build, and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat.... My chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord, and their descendants with them,” Isa. 66:22.

 

The O.T. promise of a rebuilt Temple, (“Sanctuary”), in Jerusalem, was historically and partially fulfilled, after the release of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, when they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple. But the promise was not exhaustively fulfilled at that point in time. Its ultimate fulfillment is in Christ and in the bringing of the Gentile world into the Christian Church, which is the Temple of God, Eph. 2:21, and the Holy City of God, Heb. 12:22. In Acts 15 the presbytery in Jerusalem is concerned with the conversion of so many non-Jews to Christ. James announces that it is to be expected, since the conversion of the non-Jewish world to Christ, (along with the conversion of the Jews to Christ), is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Amos 9:11. James quotes the O.T. promise: “After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the Tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who makes these things known from of old,” Acts 15:16-18.

 

C.     THE PROMISE OF A MORALLY SOUND SOCIETY PURGED OF EVIL POLITICIANS, vs. 18 and 21

 

“When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.”

“But as for those whose hearts go after their detestable things and abominations, I shall bring their conduct down on their heads, declares the Lord.”

 

God’s people do not always have to expect to be vexed in societies dominated by perversion and apostasy, ravaged by judgment. In future history, when God brings His church to full restoration globally, those societies that are Christian will enjoy extensive freedom from the tyranny of the detestable and the abominable. Crimes will greatly decrease, evil will be greatly pushed into the back allies, detestable and abominable politicians who do not obey and enforce Biblical Law will be put out of office, along with their ilk in the media, pulpit, courtroom, classroom, executive office, etc. To the “city” who returns to God, God says, “I will turn My hand against you, and will smelt away your dross as with lye, and will remove all your alloy. Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; after that you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city. Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her repentant ones with righteousness. But transgressors and sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall come to an end,” Isaiah 1:25f. There is coming a time in Christian societies when any politician or voter who allows his heart to go after detestable, abominable things, God will cause his sins to be found out, and will bring the consequences of his perverted and rebellious thinking and behavior crashing down on his head.

 

D.    THE PROMISE OF A NEW HEART, vs. 19-20

 

“And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people and I shall be their God.”

 

Here we have the heart-promise of the New Covenant in Christ, Ezekiel 36:26f; Jeremiah 31:31f; Hebrews 8:6-13. God promises His covenant people in Christ that He will renovate the entirety of their inner lives that they might live in daily obedience to God’s revealed will and enjoy daily, and eternal, union and communion with Him in Christ. This regeneration of the heart and spirit is made manifest in the believer’s obedient behavior and is blessed with intimate and eternal fellowship with the Living God day by day, and perfectly in eternity.

 

1.      THE ONE HEART

 

To be given “one heart” is to be given a heart that is not divided, that is not distracted by evil and error. It is a heart that “wholeheartedly” lives on God’s Word, subjecting itself to that Word, content with the God of that Word, and addicted to true holiness of life. The hearts of evil men are divided, distracted and dominated by evil.

 

2.      THE NEW SPIRIT

 

God works a complete transformation of the inner life of His chosen ones, of their affections, their imagination, their intellect, their will, their disposition, their entire “spirit.” No one can forsake his sins and turn to God until his spirit has been renewed, unless it has been born again by the Spirit of God, John 3:3. His spirit must be washed clean of sin’s depravity, set free from sin’s dominion, and reformed by the Word of God. In giving us a “new spirit” “God takes away that depravity by which we are bound down.”-Calvin.

 

3.      THE REMOVAL OF THE HEART OF STONE

 

A heart of stone is a heart which is not inclined toward God, but which is inclined against Him toward evil. A heart of stone is a heart that will not and cannot make any proper responses to the overtures and commands of God, because it is dead in sin, Eph. 2:1f. “The heart of stone has no susceptibility to the impressions of the word of God and the drawing of divine grace.”- Keil. “The word of God, the external leadings of God, pass by and leave no trace behind. The latter may crush it, and yet not break it. Even the fragments continue hard; yea, the hardness goes on increasing.”-Hengstenberg. This is the heart of all fallen human beings untouched by the saving grace of God. But, God has promised us that in Christ, He would remove that depraved, hardened heart, so that we will no longer be helplessly and hopelessly willing slaves to our inclination to evil. In Christ we are liberated from the death and tyranny of sin. In Him we die to the power of sin and arise to newness of life, Rom. 6.

 

4.      THE IMPLANTING OF THE HEART OF FLESH

 

After removing the heart of stone, God implants within us a heart of flesh, i.e., a tender heart, a heart susceptible to the drawing of divine grace, a heart responsive and yielded to the Word and Spirit of God, a heart full of love for the triune God, His people, His world, His Word, and for mankind, a heart that longs to live for the pleasure and glory of God, a heart full of faith in Jesus Christ, a heart held captive by the Word of Christ.

 

5.      THE NEW WALK

 

The fruit and effect of the renewal of the heart is behavior from the heart and in the daily life that is obedient to the revealed will of God in the Bible. Obedience is proof of faith. Faith without obedience to God is dead. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” John 3:36. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” Eph. 2:8-10. In other words, God promises His people that in Christ, He not only will save them from the punishment of sin, He will save them from the tyranny of sin, so that they will die more and more to sin and live more and more unto righteousness, I Pet. 2:24. God told Joseph and Mary to name Mary’s child “Jesus, for He will save His people from their SINS,” Mat. 1:21.

 

6.      THE NEW FELLOWSHIP

 

Once the image of God is renewed and restored in God’s covenant people in Christ in the power of the Spirit with the Word, God will bring that believer into the deepest, most profound, most intimate, mystical, vital and eternal union and communion with Himself possible for human beings to experience. To these chosen, redeemed, regenerated and sanctified people God will be their God and they will be His people. “Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance,” Psa. 33:12. “Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; in Thy right hand there are pleasures forever,” Psa. 16:11. Jesus prayed: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.... Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory...,” John 17:20f.  Therefore, would you rather have the rich promises of the faithful God or the empty promises of bad politicians?

 

CONCLUSION

 

1.      What is the future of all politicians who refuse to obey and enforce the Word of God in submission to Jesus Christ? Answer: God will severely punish them.

2.      What is the future of all those voters who vote for, believe, and are willingly influenced by these evil politicians so that their desires and behavior are not governed by the Word of God but by the word of man? Answer: God will punish them.

 

3.      What is the future of the USA if we continue to elect men and women to public office who will not obey and enforce Biblical Law for Jesus’ sake? Answer: God will destroy us.

 

4.      Multiple choice: Which of the following candidates for presidency will obey and enforce Biblical Law for Jesus’ sake if elected to office: John McCain; Barak Obama; None of the above.

 

 

5.      As Gary North has written: “When civil justice departs, Presidential campaigns don’t make much difference.”

 

6.      What do Christians want in a political candidate? In 1694

 

Samuel Willard answered that question in his sermon, “The Character of a Good Ruler”: “He that ‘rules in the fear of God’ is one who acknowledges God to be his Sovereign, and carries in his heart an awful fear of Him; who owns his commission to be from Him, and expects ere long to be called to give in an account of his managing of it; which makes him to be diligent in all things to please God, and to be afraid of doing anything that will provoke Him.

 

“And accordingly he is a student in the Law of God, and ‘meditates in it day and night,’ making it the rule into which he ultimately resolves all that he does in his place. We find that in the old law, the king was to write a copy of it with his own hand, and to make use of it at all times; Dt. 17:18,19.

 

“If he has anything to do in the making of laws, he will consult a good conscience and what may be pleasing to God, and will be far from ‘framing mischief by a law.’ And if he be to execute any laws of men, he will not dare to give a judgment for such an one as directly crosses the command of God, but counts it ipso facto void, and his conscience acquitted of his oath. ---

 

“In a word, he is one that will take care to promote piety, as well as honesty, among men; and do his utmost that the true religion (of Christianity) may be countenanced and established and that all ungodliness, as well as unrighteousness, may have a due testimony borne against it at all times.”

 

7.      What is the hope of America? The sovereign God of the Bible, who has mercy on whom He will have mercy, who has compassion on whom He will have compassion, and who hardens whom He will. Our only hope as a nation is that He would regenerate and restore His people; that He would give the American people one heart and a new spirit; that He would take away our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh that we may walk in His statutes and keep His ordinances. Then we will be His people, and God will return to us and be our God. Outside of America’s wholehearted return to Christ by her politicians and people, neither party offers any solutions to the deadly crises we face. Until that day both parties will be comprised generally of evil politicians who will lead us down the road farther from God and who deserve to be roasted like rotten meat over a raging fire.

 

Therefore, earnestly and constantly pray for God to revive the churches of our land by His Spirit and reform them by His Word, that they might rise up with one voice crying out to our land: “Behold your God!” Perseveringly and compassionately work to win the hearts and minds of Americans with the gospel of Christ. Don’t stop until you see the world’s nations become Christ’s disciples.

8.      Whether America has a future as a nation is yet to be seen. Will she go the way of the extinct cultures of the past? Will she be restored to greatness and national glory? Only God knows. But, one thing we know for certain, the faithful Church of Christ in America has a glorious future in her coming generations. God bless and defend that church.

 

9.      Now to end on a sad note, because that is the way our text in Ezekiel ends. Notice verses 22-23---“Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. And the glory of the God of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.”

 

How tragic! The Glory of God departs from Jerusalem! Israel will not listen. The church will not repent! So, God abandons them to their evil politicians. Election Day 2008, will reveal again whether God has abandoned America to evil politicians and to judgment. Repent, America! Repent and turn to Christ!  God bless America….with repentance!

 

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

JCMIII

 

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The Relation of Church Courts to Civil Courts

Article By: Dr. Joe Morecraft, III, Posted On: 2008-10-29

The Relation of Church Courts to Civil Courts

The church, under Christ her King, is an independent domain, even as the state is.  The church is a separate institution with its own powers, functions and jurisdiction.  The state has its own domain.  Each institution may exercise authority only within the jurisdiction given it by Christ.  Ecclesiastical constitutions have no authority in civil government; and civil constitutions have no authority in ecclesiastical government. To reject this limitation is political, cultural and ecclesiastical suicide.  The courts of the church are not under the jurisdiction of the courts of the state and vice versa.  The church, therefore, is not a tax-exempt organization; it is, rather,  non-taxable by the state, because as an organization, the church is not under the state’s jurisdiction.  Its government is in the hands of the officers of the church and is distinct from the civil magistrate.

After having said this, it must be reiterated emphatically that this institutional separation of church and state does not imply any antithesis between God and state, Christianity and state, Biblical morality and state, or Bible and state.   Religious neutrality in politics is a myth the humanists try to impose on Christians, while they themselves are never neutral.  Christians may never even attempt to be religiously neutral, for Jesus said that we are either for Him or against Him. Between these two poles there is no neutral ground.

In Deuteronomy 16:18-17:20, God instituted civil courts.  The origin of their authority and jurisdiction is God Himself, v. 18.  The function of courts is defined by God alone:  to administer justice in terms of God’s revealed Law, v. 18-20.  The judge is not to be an impartial referee, but a champion of God’s Law, actively concerned with bringing God’s justice to bear on every situation, II Chronicles 6:23.  As Rushdoony wrote:  “If the judge does not represent God’s Law order, he is ultimately a political hack and hatchet man whose job it is to keep the people in line, protect the establishment, and, in the process, to feather his own nest.  Ungodly judges are to be feared and hated:  they represent a particularly fearful and ugly form of evil, and their abuse of office is a deadly cancer to any society.”- INSTITUTES OF BIBLICAL LAW, p. 613.

The standard of judgment in civil courts is to be the Lord’s revealed Law, Deuteronomy 16:21-17:1.  As Samuel Rutherford has taught us in his classic, LEX REX, as only God can define and distinguish good and evil, so only God can justly define criminal behavior and the nature of civil punishments for that behavior.  When man is the source of law, who determines what crimes are and how they are to be punished, good is called evil, evil is called good, justice is perverted and penalties become arbitrary and cruel.

“The more a power departs from God’s Law, the more impotent it becomes in coping with real offenses, and the more severe it becomes with trifling offenses or with meaningless infractions of empty statutes which seek to govern without moral authority and with reason.- Rushdoony, INSTITUTES, p. 620

In 17:2-7, we are taught that the procedure of the court must be just, orderly, solemn and public.  Cases can be appealed to higher courts, I Kings 3:5-15.  Trials should be swift and just, Ezra 7:26.  And corroboration among witnesses is absolutely essential, Deuteronomy 17:1-7; Exodus 22:10f.  This means that perjury is a heinous civil and criminal, as well as religious, offense.  Perjury is a destructive blow at the foundation of justice.  Therefore the penalty of perjury is in terms of lex talionis, i.e., “eye for eye, life for life” justice.  This means that the heinousness of the crime determines the severity of the civil punishment, or more simply, the punishment must fit the crime.

When a judge renders a righteous decision, according to the Bible, it is the judgment of God Himself, 17:10-12.  Although imprisonment is not a Biblical form of civil punishment, three kinds of civil sanctions are presented in the Bible, depending on the nature of the crime.  The first is restitution in matters concerning money, property and injury.  For instance, in cases of damages, the person who injures or wrongs another shall be liable to pay damages, Lev. 24:19, and medical expenses, Exod. 21:19, and for time lost from work.  In regard to stealing property, double restoration and more in some cases is required, Exod. 22:1-14; Lev. 6:1-7. Second, whipping is also required for some offenses, Deuteronomy 22:18.  Third, capital punishment is required without mercy for those convicted of capital crimes as defined by God, Exodus 21:12-14; 21:16; Deut. 22:23-27.  Romans 13 tells us that the civil government still bears the power of the sword to punish evil-doers.

What is the relation of the Christian to civil courts of law today?  As we have just shown, civil courts were instituted by God to be used by God’s people for protection from criminals, for the maintenance of liberty and justice for all, and for the preservation of God’s moral and social order.  The apostle Paul used the established judicial system of his day in Acts 25.  The leaders of the Jewish church had brought unjust and untrue charges against Paul before the civil official, Festus.  In his court, Paul spoke in his own defense testifying that he had committed no crime.  Because Festus was prejudiced toward his Jewish accusers—wishing to do the Jews a favor, v. 9, Paul knew that he could not receive a fair hearing.  Therefore, in formal legal language, Paul appealed to a higher civil court—I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried.  I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.  If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them.  I appeal to Caesar, v. 10-11.  In making this appeal, he was “taking to court” his fellow-members of the Jewish church.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:33-42, Jesus condemned the abuse and perversion of issues that pertained only to the court with its administration of justice.  He forbade his disciples to use vows and oaths in their everyday conversations with each other, because they were too solemn to be used casually in ordinary interpersonal relations.  Oaths and vows may be imposed by those with the authority to do so, i.e., heads of families, elders in churches and civil magistrates.  He is not outlawing oaths and vows absolutely, for to do so would require Him to contradict what God had revealed elsewhere in His Law.  In Matthew 5:38-42, he also made clear that the principle of lex talionis, so essential to the administration of justice in civil courts, is not to be used in ordinary, everyday interpersonal relationships.  Those relationships are to be governed by love, mercy and kindness.  Courts are to administer justice, not show mercy, Deuteronomy 13:8.  In this text, Jesus is not concerned with the relationship of the Christian to the state, but the response of the Christian to things done to him personally.  He is to be concerned for law and order, while not always pushing for his own rights, and being prepared to suffer insult for believing in law and order.

The apostle Paul dealt with the relation of the Christian to courts of law, both civil and ecclesiastical, in I Corinthians 6:1-8.

[1]Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?  [2]Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?  [3]Do you not know that we shall judge angels?  How much more, matters of this life?  [4]If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?  [5]I say this to your shame.  Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, [6]but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?  [7]Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be defrauded?  [8]On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.

The point of this important text has been narrowed by some today to say merely that members of the church of Christ should never sue their fellow-members in a civil court of law.  Such a narrow view fails to understand our text in the light of its Biblical and historical context.  First, such a view disregards the fact that God Himself instituted civil courts for the benefit of all citizens, including those who are members of churches, Deuteronomy 16:18-17:1.  And, it should not be forgotten, that, since these courts were instituted in ancient Israel, all of those participating in lawsuits would be members of the covenant community, i.e., they would be fellow members of the Old Testament church.  Second, Paul, who is issuing these apostolic injunctions to the Corinthian church, initiated a lawsuit-appeal, not only against fellow church members, but also against the leaders in the Jewish church of his day in his appeal to Caesar recorded in Acts 25.  As Charles Hodge has written:  “…under the circumstances in which the Corinthians were placed, it was wrong to go to law, even to protect themselves from injury.  That this is not to be regarded as a general rule of Christian conduct is plain, because…God appointed judges for the administration of justice; and because Paul himself did not hesitate to appeal to Caesar to protect himself from the injustice of his countrymen.”- I CORINTHIANS, p. 97.

Furthermore, what Paul is condemning in I Corinthians 6:1-7 is, to quote John Calvin, “an excessive fondness for litigation, which took its rise from avarice.”  Calvin, then, clarifies the point of the text:  “Paul does not here condemn those who from necessity have a cause before unbelieving judges, as when a person is summoned to a court; but those who of their own accord, bring their brethren into this situation, and harass them, as it were, through means of unbelievers, while it is in their power to employ another method.  --  Let us therefore bear in mind, that Paul does not condemn lawsuits on the ground of its being a wrong thing in itself to maintain a good cause by having recourse to a magistrate, but because it is almost invariably accompanied with corrupt dispositions, as, for example, violence, desire of revenge, enmities, obstinacy, and the like.”- COMMENTARIES, Vol. XX, pp. 198-199, 205.

The points Paul is making in our text are practical ones:  (1). Christians dare not do anything that tends to bring reproach on the name of Christ, the church of Christ, or their Christian profession of faith, James 2:7.  (2). Christians should never engage in lawsuits until all other remedies have been tried and have failed.  (3). Christians must put aside completely a spirit of revenge and retaliation.  We may go to court to maintain law, order and justice, but never to get even.  (4). Christians must learn to suffer injuries quietly.  (5). In Corinth, an improper lust for possessions had them in such a grip that they could not refrain from hurting one another.  (6). The Christian, and especially the elder, has the responsibility to know Biblical law to the point that he can apply it correctly to situations as they arise without being too loose or too strict.

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Samuel Davies

Article By: George Grant, Posted On: 2008-10-25

Saturday, September 16

Samuel Davies

Though he lived only 37 years, Samuel Davies helped to shape American life and culture like few other men had even done before or since. Born in Newcastle County, Delaware, 1723, he was descended from sturdy Welsh stock on both sides of his family. His parents were both devout, but his mother especially exhibited an ardent piety. Indeed, years later Davies would say, “I am a son of prayer, like my namesake, Samuel the prophet, and my mother called me Samuel, because, she said, I have asked him of the Lord.” When the Rev Samuel Blair opened his famous school at Fagg's Manor, Pennsylvania, Samuel Davies was put under him and there completed his formal education--both classical and theological. The slender frame of the young man was very weak when he completed his studies; however, he was licensed to preach by Newcastle Presbytery in 1746. The same year he married, and the following year was ordained an evangelist for the purpose of visiting vacant congregations in Virginia. Due to his inexperience, feeble health, and a fear he would dishonor the ministry, Davies was reluctant to go--but in obedience to Presbytery he set out. Alas, shortly afterward, on this day in 1747, his wife and son died in a sudden and afflicting manner. The brief notice in his own Bible beside the wife's name says, “September 16, 1747, separated by death, and bereaved of an abortive son.” Grief broke his already weakened constitution, and his physical condition gave his friends great concern. In such a condition Davies was unwilling to receive a call to any congregation, but traveled from one vacant pulpit to another; his ministrations always being well received so that he received a number of earnest calls for his pastoral services. Among them was one from Hanover County, Virginia, signed by heads of about 150 families and delivered personally by one of their elders. After many entreaties he finally accepted their call and sudden blessing was poured out upon the region. He had a remarkable vision for church planting--and he set out immediately to implement it as far and as wide as he could. At first there were five meeting houses in which he preached, and then seven in six counties, and later as many as fourteen separate meeting places over which Davies had charge. Some of these were more than 30 miles from one another. Like Whitefield and Wesley, he read while riding on horseback from one charge to another, being all alone in that vast wilderness. The meeting house closest to where Davies lived, was a plain wooden building in Hanover County capable of holding 500 people. Amazingly, the building was too small for the multitudes that assembled--including large numbers of African-American slaves and freedmen. So great and steady was the progress of the church in that region that under his leadership the first presbytery in Virginia was organized in 1755 with five ministers, all younger disciples of Davies. Hanover became the mother Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the South--and became the seedbed of fervor for independence in the coming conflict with Britain. As Patrick Henry, a congregant in one of the churches established by Davies, later said, “Were it not for him, America freedom would have been still-born. In the Gospel he preached, the energy he displayed, and the courage he lived day by day, he modeled the true American temper.”

posted by George Grant

1 Comments:

 Richard G. Williams, Jr. said...

Brother George – thanks for the post on Reverend Davies; one of my heroes! The Reverend Samuel Davies was also known as “the Apostle of Virginia.” Just south of my home here in the Shenandoah Valley, the Lexington Presbytery inherited a rich heritage from Hanover and Davies—that of teaching African-Americans to read so they could be evangelized and converted to Christ. According to one scholar, “No white person in colonial America was as successful as Davies in stimulating literacy among slaves in the South.” Davies’s purpose in teaching blacks to read was more than utilitarian. “Davies as a Presbyterian believed that the attainment of true religion by anyone, bond or free, black or white, required extensive knowledge that came from not only hearing the word of God but also reading it.” Davies’s work among blacks “was the first sustained and successful program by a white clergyman in the South to stimulate large numbers of Africans and African Americans to read in English.” Davies, unlike many of his colonial contemporaries believed in the “full humanity of the African people.” In a 1757 sermon to slave owners, he proclaimed: “His immortality gives him a kind of infinite value. Let him be white or black, bond or free, a native or a foreigner, it is of no moment in this view: he is to live forever!” Davies laid the responsibility for the slaves’ condition squarely at the feet of their masters: “Your Negroes may be ignorant and stupid as to divine things not for want of capacity, but for want of instruction; not through perverseness, but through your negligence. . . . They are generally as capable of instruction, as the white people.” Davies’s comments regarding slaves being “capable of instruction as the white people” put him at odds with many whites, particularly Northern slave traders and Southern slave holders. So successful were his efforts that James Davenport noted them in a letter to Jonathan Edwards, telling “of a remarkable work of conviction and conversion among whites and negroes, at Hanover in Virginia, under the ministry of Mr. Davies.” One hundred years later, Davies’s mantle of success among blacks would pass to a little known college professor and Presbyterian deacon—Thomas J. Jackson—the future “Stonewall.” Richard G. Williams, Jr., Author, Stonewall Jackson ~ The Black Man’s Friend Cumberland House, 2006. (For a thorough treatment of Davies’s efforts, see Jeffrey H. Richards, “Samuel Davies and the Transatlantic Campaign for Slave Literacy in Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 111, no. 4, 2003).

September 16, 2006  

 

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The Authority of Christ\'s Church

Article By: Dr. Joe Morecraft, III, Posted On: 2008-10-17

I.    The Nature and Extent of Church Authority  (The Jurisdiction of Church Courts)

Having identified the officers of the church, we must now consider the nature and extent of church authority, or the jurisdiction of church courts.

A.   The Source of Church Authority  and Jurisdiction

First, what is the source of church authority and jurisdiction?  According to some political theories of influence in the USA, the authority of the civil government is derived from the voluntary consent and appointment of the people, who surrender a measure of their own authority by social compact to those selected to govern.  We are told that political power originates with the people, the true sovereigns of the land; and that a nation should be a nation “of the people, by the people and for the people.”  As far as the Bible is concerned, this is not true in either church or state.  The political powers that be are ordained by God, and therefore are accountable to Him, and should recognize Him as the source of their authority, Romans 13:1f.  This is also true of the church.  The authority of the church comes directly from God, “being exercised and enforced, not only or chiefly because of the permission or consent of its members, but because it is a positive Divine institution, apart altogether from that consent.  --  In other words, the source of church power is not in the members, but in Christ, Matthew 28:18.”- James Bannerman, THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, Vol. I, pp. 190-192.

The elders are the organs through whom the church acts.  Christ has endowed His church with the authority of rule and government, but that authority is exercised by the elders called by Christ, elected by the congregation and ordained by presbytery.  All lawful, i.e., Biblical, acts of lawful presbyteries are acts of the whole church which they represent; and they who hear the presbytery, hear the church.

We know this to be the case because of Matthew 18:15-18, where Jesus instructs His disciples to turn the uncooperative and resistant members of the church over to the church, or the public assembly of the people of God, for discipline.  “But the public assembly, consisting of men, women and children, is not a tribunal competent to decide a case in which, it may be, evidence of a complicated nature shall have to be produced.  They naturally refer it to those officers who have  been chosen and ordained to be over them in the Lord, who may examine the case themselves, or leave it to arbitrators, I Corinthians 6:1-7.  --  Every local church is by divine right vested with a self-governing and self-purifying power, to be exerted in accordance with the law of Christ, and that its rulers, acting on its behalf and with its consent, have divine authority to admit members, to edify and judge brethren, to expel offenders, to restore penitents, and to carry out, in accordance with divine directions, the general objects for which the church was founded.”- Thomas Witherow, pp. 148f, 159.

B.   The Standard of Church Authority and Jurisdiction

Second, what is the standard for church authority and jurisdiction?

The standard defining the nature and extent of church authority is the entire Word of God written—sola scriptura—not the laws of the state, the civil constitution of a nation, nor the will of the members or officers.  “From the very nature of the church, as subject to Christ its Head, His will must be the only rule for guidance of the church in the matters in which it is called upon to act; and Christ’s will is nowhere expressed or announced, except in the Bible.”- James Bannerman, Vol. I, p. 212.  Therefore, the conclusion cannot be successfully evaded that the church is bound in everything it does to take the Bible as her only, final, inerrant and all-sufficient law and rule of proceedings.

C.   The Nature of Church Authority and Jurisdiction

Third, what is the nature of church authority and jurisdiction?

1.   The Ministerial Nature of Church Power

First, church authority is ministerial.  The authority of church officers and church courts is subordinate to Christ and His Word, and is, therefore, ministerial, “having no authority or discretion of their own, and being merely ministers or servants to carry out the will and execute the appointments of Christ. --  In reference to the office-bearers of the church, of whatsoever place or authority in it, they, if they keep within their office, are but the instruments in the hands of Christ Himself, acting in His name, ruling in His authority, and carrying into effect no more than His instructions.”- Bannerman, Vol. I, p. 219

2.   The Nature of the Authority of Decisions of Church Courts

Second, God’s authority is directly related to the exercise of church authority and the decisions of church courts.  “If the judgment or decision pronounced in the lawful exercise of their authority by the church or its office-bearers is in accordance with the principles of the Word of God, that decision was before pronounced in heaven; and it is both valid and binding upon the conscience, not only because it is consistent with God’s Word, but also because it is a decision lawfully pronounced by a lawful tribunal appointed by Christ for that purpose, Matthew 18:15-18.  --  No judgment of any church whatever can bind the conscience, except in so far, and no further than, it is grounded upon the Word of God.”- Bannerman, Vol. I, pp. 220f

D.  The Jurisdiction of Church Authority

Jesus Christ, as Head and King of His church, has given church courts a threefold authority:  authority in matters of doctrine; authority in matters of worship; and authority in matters of discipline.

1.   The Authority of the Church in Matters of Doctrine

First, the authority of the church in matters of doctrine.  As the pillar, guardian and custodian of the revealed truth of God, the church is to be a witness, interpreter and defender of Biblical truth to the consciences, minds, hearts and lives of people, both inside and outside the church.

The church is the official custodian and teacher of the Word of God to those within her membership, I Timothy 3:15; Matthew 28:19-20; II Timothy 2:2.  The Head of the church has commissioned His church to guard His Word from supplementation, perversion, alteration or abridgement.  She is to teach it, pure and unmixed, that it may accomplish the purposes for which it has been given.  “The church is the institution of God on earth to preserve His truth, that it may not perish from the hostility directed against it by an unbelieving world…  In this respect the church is the keeper of a precious deposit…   But more than this.  Over and above our preservation and defense of the truth, there is laid upon the church the additional duty of the teaching of the truth.”- Bannerman, I, p. 279.   So then, the church, particularly through her office-bearers, has been authorized by Christ to be the guardian and teacher of the Word of God.”- p. 282.

The church is also commissioned by Christ to be the authoritative witness to the world on behalf of the truth of the Word of God, Acts 1:8; Philippians 2:15-16.  In being Christ’s authoritative witness to the world, she is also to confess her faith solemnly, boldly and clearly in the face of the world’s unbelief and evil, Ephesians 5:1f.  This responsibility of confessing the truth of the Word of God to the world has been discharged by the church historically by the framing of  summaries of the truth in confessions of faith or catechisms, “directed particularly against the particular heresy or unbelief which may have arisen; so that, in addition to defending and preaching the truth, it may bear specific testimony against the corresponding falsehood.”- Bannerman, p. 282  Such confessions and catechisms, concisely and precisely bearing witness to revealed truth over against falsehood serves a twofold purpose:  (1). A witness for the truth; and (2). A protest against false doctrines.  Confessions and catechisms, therefore, are at the same time testimonies for the truth of Christ and testimonies against the unbelief that would deny or the heresy that would pervert that truth.

These confessions and catechisms of faith do not displace the Word of God, nor are they on par with the Word of God.  They are subordinate to the Word of God as helpful aides in understanding and confessing the only rule of faith and practice, i.e., the Bible.  They have a place in the life of the church only if they represent Biblical Christianity in its purest human expression.  Such creeds, confessions and catechisms, if they are fully Biblical, have many important functions in the life of the church.  They serve as a basis of fellowship, a test of orthodoxy, and a method of education, as well as a means of confessing our faith clearly and unequivocally before the world.

2.   The Authority of the Church in Matters of Worship

Second, the authority of the church in matters of worship.  The church has the authority to put into effect the institutions, ordinances and laws appointed by Christ in His church, which does NOT involve the power to bind the conscience of its members to the observance of new and additional ordinances enacted by itself.  Just as the church cannot use any coercive or compulsive physical power to force people to believe its doctrines, so it cannot use any physical means to enforce obedience to its ordinances.  “Let the church pretend to use a compulsory, not a spiritual authority, in enforcing its laws; and obedience becomes a dead and mechanical and worthless form, not a living and spiritual obedience.”- p. 227

The authority of the church in matters of worship is concerned with the following four points:  (1). The church is commissioned to preserve from generation to generation the public worship of God according to the way God Himself has commanded in His Word.  (2). The church is to preserve from generation to generation the  observance of the Christian Sabbath according to the way God Himself has commanded for it to be observed in His Word.  (3). The church has the responsibility to maintain the office of the minister of the Word from generation to generation as “the instrumentality by which…the public services of the church in its acts of worship are to be carried on, requiring as they do a special order of men to be set apart and qualified for the work.”- p. 323.

The doctrine, then, in regard to the exercise of church power in the worship of God…is sufficiently distinct.  The church has no authority in regulating the manner, appointing the form, or dictating the observances of worship, beside or beyond what the Scripture declares on these points,---the Bible containing the only directory for determining these matters, and the church having no discretion to add to or alter what is there fixed.- Vol.II, p. 337f

3.   The Authority of the Church in Matters of Discipline

Third, the authority of the church in matters of discipline.  The church has the power to apply church discipline, to admit and to exclude from the fellowship of the church, and to govern the conduct of members while they continue members.  This power of discipline has been conferred upon the church by Christ Himself in Matthew 16:18f; 18:15f; John 20:21f; I Corinthians 4:18f; 5:1f; II Corinthians 2:1f; 7:8f; 10:2f; 13:2f; and I Timothy 1:19f.  This is not a physical discipline, nor is any of its application physical or corporeal.  “A discipline not spiritual, not addressed to the understanding and conscience, cannot be discipline in the proper sense of the term at all.”- Bannerman, Vol. I, p. 228.

Church discipline is necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren; for deterring of others from the like offences; for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump; for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the gospel; and for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the church, if they should suffer His covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.- Westminster Confession of Faith, 30.3

In the apostolic church, believers in Jesus Christ joined themselves and their families to a local congregation under the shepherding oversight of elders, Acts 20:28; Hebrews 13:17; I Thessalonians 5:12.  These elders would lead them into the truths of the Bible so they might be “established in grace,” Hebrews 13:9, that they might grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, II Peter 3:18.  In those local congregations, the elders and all faithful members would work and pray toward the end that the church would be as pure as possible in both what it believed and confessed as well as in how it behaved, Acts 19:8-12; Romans 16:17-20, to the glory of the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.  This must be true of us today, for a strong church is a church that looks like the church the apostles left as our model in the New Testament.  One of the vows a person takes when he joins a Presbyterian church is this:  “Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to strive for its purity and peace?”

The purity of the church is the goal toward which a church is constantly striving—a goal of faithful orthodoxy of doctrine, Ephesians 4:13-15; II Timothy 3:15-17; Acts 2:42, and of faithful orthodoxy of life and love, I Peter 1:16; 2:1-9; Hebrews 3:12-13, motivated by an intense love for God in Christ, II Corinthians 5:14.  To be orthodox is to be right, to be Biblical, to be in conformity to the word of God in what we believe (theology) and in how we behave (ethics). 

Why should we have this concern for the purity of the church in faith and practice, since no perfect church will ever exist on this side of death?  The immediate response to such a question is another question:  Why should a Christian strive after peace and holiness, when no perfect person will exist on this side of death?  The answer to both questions is obvious:  the individual and the church are commanded to do so by the Lord Jesus Christ, who bought them as His own personal property with His own blood, Acts 20:28f; I Corinthians 6:19-20.  Motivated by love and gratitude, the Christian individual and church seek to please the Lord Jesus Christ by obeying and worshipping Him, repenting of failure, continuing to persevere in well-doing by the Spirit’s help in the way of holiness to the end, Matthew 5:48, knowing that one day, after death and resurrection, the Christian individual and the Christian church will be completely perfect, Ephesians 5:27.

How is the purity of the church in its doctrine and life to be maintained?  This is a vitally important question that is rarely asked; but the life of the church in America depends upon our response to it.  How does the Bible answer this question?

First of all, church discipline is rooted in self-discipline.  Every Christian is called to practice self-discipline by living his life unto the Lord according to His revealed will, Matthew 6:13; Galatians 5:23; I Corinthians 7:9; 9:25.  Without this self-discipline, church discipline will be either non-existent or tyrannical.

Three means are presented in the Bible whereby a church can preserve and advance its purity of doctrine and practice.  As we use these three means diligently, depending upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the purity of the church will be maintained and advanced.  Those means are:  (1). The careful admission of people into the church’s membership and to the Lord’s Table by the elders; (2). The practice of loving church discipline in the congregation; and (3). The careful, faithful preaching and teaching of the whole Word of God.

THE CAREFUL ADMISSION OF PEOPLE INTO THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH BY THE ELDERS

The one requirement for church membership is a credible profession of faith in Christ and the Bible, Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:41; Matthew 28:19.  A credible profession of faith is a profession of faith in Christ and the Bible that is believable, that is in general conformity with the teachings of the Bible and that is demonstrated in a life of obedience to God in the one making the profession.  A credible profession is one that is able to affirm vows similar to these:

Do you believe that you are a sinner, justly deserving God’s displeasure, and without hope, except for His sovereign mercy?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and do you rest upon Him alone for salvation?

Depending upon the Holy Spirit to give you strength, do you promise to live as becomes a follower of Christ?

Do you promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to strive for its purity and peace?

Elders have a special responsibility here—Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.- Acts 20:28-29.

Elders must exercise great care and vigilance in this area of receiving people into the church, praying that God would give them discernment, courage and wisdom, James 1:5, so as not to expect too little or demand too much from those who would come under their shepherding oversight and join the congregation committed to their charge.  They must make the requirements for church membership and admittance to the Lord’s Table in complete accordance with the requirements of the Bible, guarding their membership to keep out professed unbelievers, hypocrites, and those, who because of their life and beliefs, cannot give a credible profession.  On the other hand, they must be sure that their requirements are such that they can include and welcome into the church, the spiritually immature and the weaker brothers and sisters, who are converted, but in whom the marks of grace are barely traceable.

 

THE PRACTICE OF LOVING CHURCH DISCIPLINE

Discipline and discipleship are the same thing.  It is the training of a believer to live an increasingly faithful life of devotion to Jesus Christ, glorifying and enjoying God in all he is and does.  Christian discipline or discipleship is comprised of three components:  instruction, which is preventive discipline, chastisement, which is corrective discipline, and counseling, which is restorative discipline. 

Preventive discipline is the exercise of the authority Christ gave His church to instruct and guide its members in the revealed ways of God, Deuteronomy 29:29 and to promote purity and peace in the church, Matthew 16:19.  It involves the active, vigorous and consistent preaching and teaching of the Word of God, catechizing, training and instructing the young and old in the true revealed religion.  This careful teaching of the whole counsel of God protects and nurtures the disciple and his family as they learn how to observe, from the heart, all that Christ has commanded. Restorative discipline is essential to the purity of the church.  It is not only to be practiced by the ministers and elders, but by all the members of the church, who, as they are filled with faith, goodness, knowledge and wisdom from the Word, are “competent to counsel,” Romans 15:13-14.  The best and most Biblical books on Biblical counseling are by Jay Adams.

Corrective discipline is needed in the congregation, because all congregations are comprised of believing sinners.  According to II Timothy 3:16-17, the Bible is God-breathed, and therefore inerrant in all it asserts to be true on any subject.  Scripture is  all sufficient, so that the man of God can be thoroughly and all-profitable, not only to lead and teach us, but also to correct us when we are wrong.  When a church member wanders into sinful paths, inadvertently or deliberately, he needs loving correction and restoration, much as an erring child needs correction, even chastisement to learn that the way of the transgressor is hard so that he might be restored.

The Bible involves every church member in the work of discipling or disciplining one another, Hebrews 2:12; 10:24.  Matthew especially involves each member, for he sets forth the procedure by which we encourage one another in the faith and by which we apply corrective discipline to wayward members in order to restore them.  This Biblical procedure of church discipline revealed in Matthew 18:15-20 places the primary, frontline responsibility for the watchful care and discipling of members on the church members themselves, and not primarily, much less exclusively, on the Session.  A church which has members who have compassion and courage to practice church discipline humbly, consistently and sensitively is a strong and healthy church.  The procedure is as follows:

First, the person who is offended and concerned because of some sin against him from another church member is to approach the offender in love about his sin and the problems arising from it, in an effort to set things straight, and to save the brother from further hurt and shame.

Second, if this fails, he is to take witnesses with him either to witness the offender’s refusal to repent, or to back up the pleas of the offended person that the offender make things right with God and with his brothers and sisters, James 5:19,20.

Third, if this fails, the matter is to be brought before the ruler-representatives of the church, the Session of elders, to offer a solution through prayer, love, counseling and the searching of the Scriptures.  The provision in Matthew 18:15-21 that Jesus made for dealing with persistently wayward members, after private counsel and admonition before a witness have failed is to tell it to the church, v. 17.  This is an allusion to the practice of the Jewish church—to turn the impenitent over to the official representatives of the church for admonition and/or excommunication.  Because of the representative nature of elders, the word “church” can signify the church of God as represented in its elders.  In the Old Testament, when the elders of Israel met in official “session,” Psalm 29:10, they represented the entire congregation of the Lord, just as they represented the Lord and His covenant with Israel.  To address the elders of Israel was to address the entire congregation of the Lord.  In fact, when these elders met in official session, they could be said to be the congregation of the Lord, or the children of Israel representatively, Exodus 3:14, 16,18; 4:29, 30, 231; 19:7, 8; Leviticus 4:13f.

The Hebrew word for “church,” qahal, and the Greek word, ekklesia, in the Septuagint, are both used with reference not only to the congregation of the Lord directly, but to the elders and rulers of the congregation[1], I Chronicles 13:2,4; 29:1; II Chronicles 1:3.  That which is said of elders in Deuteronomy 19:12 and Joshua 20:4 is said of the whole congregation in Numbers 35:24.  In Revelation 4:1-4 and 5:8f, the entire church of Christ is gathered around His throne in her representatives—the twenty-four elders, i.e., the twelve patriarchs of the Old Testament (heads of twelve tribes) and the twelve apostles of the New Testament. As George Gillespie said, “It was not, therefore, to any assembly, but to an assembly of rulers, that causes were brought in the Old Testament.  --  The church mentioned in Matthew 18:17 has a forensical and juridical power [as the O.T. elders]…  I hope I may now conclude that Tell it to the church is neither meant of the civil magistrate, nor simply of a greater number, but of the elders, or…of the eldership or assembly of elders.”- AARON’S ROD BLOSSOMING, pp. 188-190. 

Hence, when read in the light of the Old Testament, the phrase in Matthew 18:17—tell it to the church—means “tell it to the elder-representatives of the church for adjudication.” As a final resort in church discipline, we are to turn a straying member over to the elders for their counsel, ministry, and adjudication.  Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that it was the ruling officers of the church to whom the keys of the kingdom were given to govern and discipline the church.

Fourth, if this fails, and the offender hardens himself in his impenitency, the Session is to excommunicate him from the fellowship of the church, and he is to be treated by the church as apostate and an unbeliever who is outside the warmth and safety of the church, that he might be forced to live by the consequences of his rebellious decision, be brought to his senses and to repentance, that he might be restored to Christ and to His church.  The elders also make such a judgment for the sake of the purity of the church that Christ might be glorified and honored by all men.  It must be added that, while this should be done in great sorrow, it should not be done in despair, because it is done to the glory of God and for the purity of the Church, in obedience to the Word of God; and usually, consistent corrective discipline brings the offender “back home.”  (In Acts 15 we see how several churches cooperated in practicing church discipline.)

Several ways are offered in the Bible whereby the elders may correct and discipline an obstinate church member who has been brought before them.  They may strongly admonish him for his sin and solemnly urge him to repent, I Thessalonians 5:12; Galatians 6:1.  It may bar him from the Lord’s Supper for a season to shame him into repentance, Romans 11:14, or to move him to holy jealousy of those who are walking with the Lord under His rich blessing, that he might be provoked to return and walk with them.  If the offender persists impenitently in his sin, he may be excommunicated from the church of Christ.

Excommunication is a thoroughly Biblical concept: Genesis 17:14; Numbers 15:30; Matthew 18:17; Romans 16:17; I Corinthians 5:1-11; II Corinthians 2:6-8; II Corinthians 6:14-18; II Thessalonians 3:6,14; I Timothy 1:20; Titus 3:10.  This extreme and final form of church discipline is the withdrawing of church fellowship from the person who impenitently and obstinately commits sinful acts, as defined by God’s Law, which cannot be tolerated in the church, only after admonition and entreaty.  Once a person has been excommunicated, he is to be viewed and treated by the rest of the church members as an unbeliever.  He must be loved, prayed for, and evangelized.  But!  Church members are forbidden to fellowship with him or to eat meals with him that he might learn how lonely it is to be “without God in the world”—But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one, I Corinthians 5:11.

The Bible presents us with four general areas of offense deserving excommunication:

Impenitent and Persistent sins against love, Mat. 18:15-17

Impenitent and Persistent sins against church unity, Rom. 16:17; I Cor. 1:10f

Impenitent and Persistent sins against Biblical Law, I Cor. 5:7,11; II Thes. 3:6,14

Impenitent and Persistent sins against revealed truth, I Tim. 1:19-20; 6:3-5; Titus 3:10; II Jn. 10.

The reason these sins are deserving of excommunication is that they are assaults on the very heart and foundation of the church’s life in Christ.  If such sins  are allowed to remain unchecked, they will eventually destroy the fellowship and purity of the church, Hebrews 12:14-17; I Corinthians 5:6,7.

In Revelation 2:13-16, (cmp. 2:20-25), Jesus Christ addresses His church at Pergamus, compliments them for their faithfulness in the face of persecution, 2:13, rebukes them for the toleration in their membership of those who believe and teach doctrines contrary to Holy Scripture, 2:14,15.  Then He exhorts them to repent, 2:16, or else He will come in judgment upon that church at a particular point in their history.  What would repentance involve in this instance?  They would have to cease their toleration of those who are false teachers and convert or excommunicate them, thus shutting their mouths from teaching falsehoods.  In doing so, they would avert divine judgment and “overcome” in such a way as to be highly favored by Jesus Christ and richly rewarded by His gracious hand so that communion with Him is deepened and assurance of salvation increased, 2:17.

As the honor of the church is inseparably connected with the character of her elders, each presbytery ought, with the greatest care and impartiality, to watch over the personal and official conduct of all elders.  On the other hand, no elder ought to be shielded from justice, nor his offences be slightly rebuked; so neither ought charges to be received against him by any church court on slight, trivial or hear-say grounds.  As the apostle Paul instructed the minister Timothy—Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.  --  Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.  Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning.  I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.- I Timothy 5:17, 19, 20, 21

So then, to summarize, the objective of church authority is “the purity and perpetuation of the church, providing the spiritual good of its members, securing the administration of ordinances and promoting the religious ends for which the society exist.  But mainly it consists in the four following things:”- Thomas Witherow, p. 151

First, the reception of members.  Since the elders are the guardians of the membership of the church, they are responsible to admit into the church all those who make a credible profession of faith in Christ and His religion, along with their children.  While church members are duty-bound to receive believers as brothers and sisters, Colossians 4:10; Romans 14:1, the formal and official act of admission into the visible church belongs to the elders of the church, Acts 20:28f. “The admission of persons in the Christian society is part of that rule which, when duly discharged, has a reward promised, and if diligently discharged and accompanied by teaching, has a double reward, I Timothy 5:17.  The remuneration of the builder at the hand of the Master depends much on the kind of material and the nature of the edifice which he erects upon the foundation, I Corinthians 3:8,9.”- Witherow, p. 152

Second, the edification of members.  Church members have the responsibility to act and live as a true communion of saints, the organic body of Christ and family of God, loving each other, helping each other, edifying, encouraging and admonishing each other, I Thessalonians 5:14; but this responsibility and authority is assigned particularly to the elders of the church, I Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:17.  “In the purest and best ordered churches there may be found persons in danger of falling, or who have actually committed gross sins.  Persons of this kind are to be dealt with tenderly, faithfully, wisely.  Accusations or formal charges against private members, and still more against church officers, are neither to be lightly made nor rashly entered upon; but persons who sin publicly and boldly are to be rebuked before the congregation in the ordinary ministrations of the Word, I Timothy 5:19,20.”- WItherow, p. 152

Third, the exclusion of impenitent offenders.  Excommunication by the elders from the fellowship of the church due to hardened impenitency is a solemn but important part of church government and discipline, I Corinthians 5; I Timothy 1:19,20; II Timothy 2:17,18; Titus 3:10.

Fourth, the restoration of penitents.  When excommunication serves the purpose for which it was imposed, as a means of grace, it restores the offender to repentance.  And as soon as the penitent admits his guilt and expresses godly sorrow for it, it is the duty of the church to forgive, comfort and readmit him to its fellowship, II Corinthians 2:6-8; Galatians 6:1.  The elders have the power to forgive and restore such a one in the name of Christ, II Corinthians 2:10; Matthew 18:18; John 20:23.  “To convey the church’s forgiveness to a penitent on behalf of the members is the only kind of absolution competent to church officers.”- Witherow, p. 158

E.   The Limits of Church Authority and Jurisdiction

First, church authority is limited in that it is distinctly and exclusively spiritual authority.  This means that the church does not have the authority to impose civil or physical sanctions and penalties, such as pecuniary fines, beatings, imprisonment, or corporeal penalties of any kind.

Second, church authority is limited by its Origin, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, from whom it is derived.  The authority of the office-bearers in the church is subordinate to Christ’s authority and is purely ministerial, not legislative.  It cannot add to or subtract from what Christ has given it. It may not create new laws, doctrines and rituals for the church; rather, it is to administer only and totally what is written in God’s Word.  Office-bearers are, in the strictest sense of the term, the ministers and servants of Christ; and their authority may never be viewed as independent of, equal to or higher than His.

Third, church authority is limited by the Standard by which it is to be exercised, i.e., the written Word of God.  The church is forbidden “the unauthorized addition or subtraction of anything in the constitution, doctrine, worship, or discipline of the church, such as Christ as not sanctioned in His Word.”- Bannerman, Vol. I, p. 248

Fourth, church authority is limited by the subjects of that authority, that is, it is limited by the privileges and duties of the Christian people themselves.  This limitation “prevents church power from becoming the instrument of spiritual oppression and tyranny as directed against the members of the church…  --  Beneath the shelter of such a limitation, the conscience has a sanctuary which is blessed and sanctified by Christian freedom within, and over the threshold of which authority, even the authority of the church cannot pass.  Within that sanctuary none but the Lord of the conscience may enter…”- Bannerman, Vol. I, p. 248

F.   The Relation of Church Courts to Civil Courts

The church, under Christ her King, is an independent domain, even as the state is.  The church is a separate institution with its own powers, functions and jurisdiction.  The state has its own domain.  Each institution may exercise authority only within the jurisdiction given it by Christ.  Ecclesiastical constitutions have no authority in civil government; and civil constitutions have no authority in ecclesiastical government. To reject this limitation is political, cultural and ecclesiastical suicide.  The courts of the church are not under the jurisdiction of the courts of the state and vice versa.  The church, therefore, is not a tax-exempt organization; it is, rather,  non-taxable by the state, because as an organization, the church is not under the state’s jurisdiction.  Its government is in the hands of the officers of the church and is distinct from the civil magistrate.

After having said this, it must be reiterated emphatically that this institutional separation of church and state does not imply any antithesis between God and state, Christianity and state, Biblical morality and state, or Bible and state.   Religious neutrality in politics is a myth the humanists try to impose on Christians, while they themselves are never neutral.  Christians may never even attempt to be religiously neutral, for Jesus said that we are either for Him or against Him. Between these two poles there is no neutral ground.

In Deuteronomy 16:18-17:20, God instituted civil courts.  The origin of their authority and jurisdiction is God Himself, v. 18.  The function of courts is defined by God alone:  to administer justice in terms of God’s revealed Law, v. 18-20.  The judge is not to be an impartial referee, but a champion of God’s Law, actively concerned with bringing God’s justice to bear on every situation, II Chronicles 6:23.  As Rushdoony wrote:  “If the judge does not represent God’s Law order, he is ultimately a political hack and hatchet man whose job it is to keep the people in line, protect the establishment, and, in the process, to feather his own nest.  Ungodly judges are to be feared and hated:  they represent a particularly fearful and ugly form of evil, and their abuse of office is a deadly cancer to any society.”- INSTITUTES OF BIBLICAL LAW, p. 613.

The standard of judgment in civil courts is to be the Lord’s revealed Law, Deuteronomy 16:21-17:1.  As Samuel Rutherford has taught us in his classic, LEX REX, as only God can define and distinguish good and evil, so only God can justly define criminal behavior and the nature of civil punishments for that behavior.  When man is the source of law, who determines what crimes are and how they are to be punished, good is called evil, evil is called good, justice is perverted and penalties become arbitrary and cruel.

“The more a power departs from God’s Law, the more impotent it becomes in coping with real offenses, and the more severe it becomes with trifling offenses or with meaningless infractions of empty statutes which seek to govern without moral authority and with reason.- Rushdoony, INSTITUTES, p. 620

In 17:2-7, we are taught that the procedure of the court must be just, orderly, solemn and public.  Cases can be appealed to higher courts, I Kings 3:5-15.  Trials should be swift and just, Ezra 7:26.  And corroboration among witnesses is absolutely essential, Deuteronomy 17:1-7; Exodus 22:10f.  This means that perjury is a heinous civil and criminal, as well as religious, offense.  Perjury is a destructive blow at the foundation of justice.  Therefore the penalty of perjury is in terms of lex talionis, i.e., “eye for eye, life for life” justice.  This means that the heinousness of the crime determines the severity of the civil punishment, or more simply, the punishment must fit the crime.

When a judge renders a righteous decision, according to the Bible, it is the judgment of God Himself, 17:10-12.  Although imprisonment is not a Biblical form of civil punishment, three kinds of civil sanctions are presented in the Bible, depending on the nature of the crime.  The first is restitution in matters concerning money, property and injury.  For instance, in cases of damages, the person who injures or wrongs another shall be liable to pay damages, Lev. 24:19, and medical expenses, Exod. 21:19, and for time lost from work.  In regard to stealing property, double restoration and more in some cases is required, Exod. 22:1-14; Lev. 6:1-7. Second, whipping is also required for some offenses, Deuteronomy 22:18.  Third, capital punishment is required without mercy for those convicted of capital crimes as defined by God, Exodus 21:12-14; 21:16; Deut. 22:23-27.  Romans 13 tells us that the civil government still bears the power of the sword to punish evil-doers.

What is the relation of the Christian to civil courts of law today?  As we have just shown, civil courts were instituted by God to be used by God’s people for protection from criminals, for the maintenance of liberty and justice for all, and for the preservation of God’s moral and social order.  The apostle Paul used the established judicial system of his day in Acts 25.  The leaders of the Jewish church had brought unjust and untrue charges against Paul before the civil official, Festus.  In his court, Paul spoke in his own defense testifying that he had committed no crime.  Because Festus was prejudiced toward his Jewish accusers—wishing to do the Jews a favor, v. 9, Paul knew that he could not receive a fair hearing.  Therefore, in formal legal language, Paul appealed to a higher civil court—I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried.  I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.  If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them.  I appeal to Caesar, v. 10-11.  In making this appeal, he was “taking to court” his fellow-members of the Jewish church.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:33-42, Jesus condemned the abuse and perversion of issues that pertained only to the court with its administration of justice.  He forbade his disciples to use vows and oaths in their everyday conversations with each other, because they were too solemn to be used casually in ordinary interpersonal relations.  Oaths and vows may be imposed by those with the authority to do so, i.e., heads of families, elders in churches and civil magistrates.  He is not outlawing oaths and vows absolutely, for to do so would require Him to contradict what God had revealed elsewhere in His Law.  In Matthew 5:38-42, he also made clear that the principle of lex talionis, so essential to the administration of justice in civil courts, is not to be used in ordinary, everyday interpersonal relationships.  Those relationships are to be governed by love, mercy and kindness.  Courts are to administer justice, not show mercy, Deuteronomy 13:8.  In this text, Jesus is not concerned with the relationship of the Christian to the state, but the response of the Christian to things done to him personally.  He is to be concerned for law and order, while not always pushing for his own rights, and being prepared to suffer insult for believing in law and order.

The apostle Paul dealt with the relation of the Christian to courts of law, both civil and ecclesiastical, in I Corinthians 6:1-8.

[1]Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?  [2]Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?  [3]Do you not know that we shall judge angels?  How much more, matters of this life?  [4]If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?  [5]I say this to your shame.  Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, [6]but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?  [7]Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be defrauded?  [8]On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.

The point of this important text has been narrowed by some today to say merely that members of the church of Christ should never sue their fellow-members in a civil court of law.  Such a narrow view fails to understand our text in the light of its Biblical and historical context.  First, such a view disregards the fact that God Himself instituted civil courts for the benefit of all citizens, including those who are members of churches, Deuteronomy 16:18-17:1.  And, it should not be forgotten, that, since these courts were instituted in ancient Israel, all of those participating in lawsuits would be members of the covenant community, i.e., they would be fellow members of the Old Testament church.  Second, Paul, who is issuing these apostolic injunctions to the Corinthian church, initiated a lawsuit-appeal, not only against fellow church members, but also against the leaders in the Jewish church of his day in his appeal to Caesar recorded in Acts 25.  As Charles Hodge has written:  “…under the circumstances in which the Corinthians were placed, it was wrong to go to law, even to protect themselves from injury.  That this is not to be regarded as a general rule of Christian conduct is plain, because…God appointed judges for the administration of justice; and because Paul himself did not hesitate to appeal to Caesar to protect himself from the injustice of his countrymen.”- I CORINTHIANS, p. 97.

Furthermore, what Paul is condemning in I Corinthians 6:1-7 is, to quote John Calvin, “an excessive fondness for litigation, which took its rise from avarice.”  Calvin, then, clarifies the point of the text:  “Paul does not here condemn those who from necessity have a cause before unbelieving judges, as when a person is summoned to a court; but those who of their own accord, bring their brethren into this situation, and harass them, as it were, through means of unbelievers, while it is in their power to employ another method.  --  Let us therefore bear in mind, that Paul does not condemn lawsuits on the ground of its being a wrong thing in itself to maintain a good cause by having recourse to a magistrate, but because it is almost invariably accompanied with corrupt dispositions, as, for example, violence, desire of revenge, enmities, obstinacy, and the like.”- COMMENTARIES, Vol. XX, pp. 198-199, 205.

The points Paul is making in our text are practical ones:  (1). Christians dare not do anything that tends to bring reproach on the name of Christ, the church of Christ, or their Christian profession of faith, James 2:7.  (2). Christians should never engage in lawsuits until all other remedies have been tried and have failed.  (3). Christians must put aside completely a spirit of revenge and retaliation.  We may go to court to maintain law, order and justice, but never to get even.  (4). Christians must learn to suffer injuries quietly.  (5). In Corinth, an improper lust for possessions had them in such a grip that they could not refrain from hurting one another.  (6). The Christian, and especially the elder, has the responsibility to know Biblical law to the point that he can apply it correctly to situations as they arise without being too loose or too strict.

Excerpt from the study guide,

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ

by Dr. Joe Morecraft, III

[1] The five-fold meaning of the word, church, in the New Testament is the exegetical basis of ecclesiastical republicanism, i.e., representative church government:  (1). “Church” signifies the whole body of people, in heaven and on earth, who have been, are or shall be gathered under Christ their head, Ephesians 5:25. (2). “Church” signifies the whole body of those who profess faith in Christ and their children throughout the entire world, i.e., the visible catholic church, Hebrews 3:6; Acts 7:38.  (3). “Church” signifies an assembly of those who profess faith in Christ and their children in any particular place, associated together under elders, in the worship and service of God according to His Word, I Corinthians 16:19; Acts 14:23; Romans 16:3-5; Colossians 4:15.  (4). “Church” signifies a number of local congregations organized and connected together under a common confession of faith and a common church government, Acts 9:31; Acts 8:1-3; Galatians 1:13,22; Philippians 3:6; I Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11,12.  (5). “Church” signifies a body of Christian in any locality represented in their elders.

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The Mission of the Church of Christ

Article By: Dr. Joe Morecraft, III, Posted On: 2008-10-10

The Mission of the Church of Christ[1]

Although the Larger Catechism is regretfully silent regarding the mission of the church of Christ, the Westminster Confession of Faith, XXV, iii, sets forth in clear, although abbreviated language, the mission of the church, the Spiritual power making that mission effective, and the divinely-ordained means by which that mission is to be carried out:

Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, FOR THE GATHERING AND PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS, in this life, to the end of the world:  and doth, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.

 

The mission of the church is the gathering and perfecting of the saints; the power making that mission effective is the presence of Christ, His Spirit, and His revealed promise.  The divinely-ordained means by which that mission is to be carried out are the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God which Christ has given to His catholic visible church.

In defining the mission of the church as the gathering and perfecting of the saints, the Westminster fathers are not only reflecting Biblical language, they are teaching us that the mission of the church is twofold, one aspect of it directed to the sinful world, and another aspect of it directed toward believers in Jesus, members of the church, i.e., saints.

A.  The gathering of the elect out of the world

And He [the Son of man] will send forth His angels “with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other, Matthew 24:31.  As Marcellus Kik has so ably shown, this verse is not a description of the effect of the Second Coming of Christ.[2]  It is obvious how such an interpretation could be made, seeing that I Corinthians 15:52 speaks of the last trumpet, clearly in connection with the Second Coming.  In Matthew 24:31 the sound of a great trumpet gathers the elect together from all over the world; and in I Corinthians 15:52, the last trumpet raises the dead to life.  However, as we shall see, the reign of Christ, the gospel age, not only will end with a trumpet blast, it also began with a trumpet blast, just as “The Year of Jubilee” every fifty years in the Old Testament was begun.  “Jubilee” means “a joyful shout, sound of the trumpet.” 

By the sound of the Jubilee trumpet, liberty was proclaimed to all Israelites who were in bondage to any of their countrymen, and those who had been compelled through poverty to sell their ancestral possessions received them back.  --  The spiritual significance of the year of Jubilee is given in a beautiful passage in Isaiah:  The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, [the year of Jubilee], and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified, Isaiah 61:1-3.

 

That the year of Jubilee was symbolic of the Gospel age is clearly seen from Jesus’ identification of Isaiah’s acceptable year of the Lord with His Gospel ministry,  [when, in the synagogue at Nazareth, after reading Isaiah 61, He said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears, Luke 4:17-21].  The real significance of the year of Jubilee finds its fulfillment in the Gospel age.- Kik, p. 146.

 

And it will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem, Isaiah 27:13.  A literal trumpet will not be heard in Assyria and Egypt.  This is a figure of speech denoting the time of great deliverance during the reign of the Messiah, i.e., the gospel age.  Historically, it refers to the captive and scattered Jews perishing in their exile.  The Lord promised that He would deliver them from their bondage and exile.  The fulfillment of this promise is found in Jesus Christ and His mighty deliverance, Luke 1-2.  This trumpet, as the trumpet in Matthew 24:31, announces universal deliverance from sin for God’s people all over the earth through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  “The world-wide mission to conquer the world for Christ began actually on the day of Pentecost when the Apostle Peter preached to the Jews…out of every nation under heaven.  --  All the nations of the earth were to benefit from the coming of the Messiah and His atoning death.”- Kik, p. 150.

Now the question arises:  if verse 31 is describing the gospel age and not the Second Coming, who are His angels whom He will send forth to gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other?  The mention of angels here has also led some to think of this verse as speaking of the Second Coming, because that Coming of Christ will be accompanied with angels, II Thessalonians 1:7-10. 

The Greek word, angelos, often translated “angels,” does not always refer to these purely spiritual beings.  The meaning of the word must be determined by its context.  In Matthew 11:10, Luke 7:24,27, 9:52, Mark 1:2, James 2:25 and Revelation 2-3, the Greek word, angelos is translated “messenger.” John the Baptist is also called an angelos.  His disciples, as well as the disciples of Christ were called “angels.”  In these instances, the Greek word must be translated “messenger,” because of our association of the word “angel” with a heavenly, spiritual being.

The context of Matthew 24:31 determines the meaning of angelos in verse 31. As the word is used for a messenger of Christ or minister of God in other N.T. passages, so it should be translated “messenger” or “minister” in this passage.

We know that Christ gave the function of preaching the Gospel and gathering the elect to His disciples and through them to the Church.  They were to go to the uttermost ends of the earth and proclaim the glad tidings of salvation, and by baptism receive the elect into the church.  From the day of the Great Commission unto this day His ministers have been fulfilling the function of “messengers” or “angels” in gathering the elect from all nations.- Kik, p. 90.

 

The Greek word for send forth supports this interpretation.  It is apostelei, the verb from which we get the word “apostle,” i.e., one commissioned by Christ to gather and perfect His elect.

The verb, gather together, in verse 31, as the work of the His angels, is rich with meaning.  The Greek word is a form of the verb epi-synago from which comes the noun epi-synagoge, which obviously is the word from which the English word, “synagogue,” comes.  Along with the word, ekklesia, this word, synagogue, as we have seen, is one of the words for “church” in the New Testament, James 2:2.  The verb means “to gather together,” and the noun means “a gathering place.”  The synagogue was a place where the faithful to God gathered for worship and religious/ethical instruction, Exodus 18:20.  The church became the Christian Synagogue, the gathering place of the people whom God had gathered out of the world, to worship Him and to learn His will.

So then, when Jesus, in Matthew 24, said that He would commission His messengers to gather together His people from all over the world, He is saying that they will lead, gather and bring together into Christian Synagogues, i.e., churches, all over the world.  Beginning with His Ascension and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D., 70, Jesus will send out His messengers to gather His elect into His (Re)New(ed) Synagogue, the Church.  He is actually quoting Moses, who promised:  If your outcasts are at the ends of heaven, from there the Lord your God will GATHER, [synago], you, and from there He will take you, Deuteronomy 30:4 (Septuagint).  Neither Deuteronomy 30:4 nor Matthew 24:31 has anything to do with the “rapture”; “both are concerned with the restoration and establishment of God’s House, the organized congregation of His covenant people.”- David Chilton, PARADISE RESTORED, p. 104.

According to such passages as Matthew 23:37-38, (where synago translated “gather” is used), “because Jerusalem apostatized and refused to be synagogued under Christ, her Temple would be destroyed, and a New Synagogue and Temple would be formed:  the Church.  --  The Christian congregations immediately began calling themselves “synagogues”, James 2:2, while calling the Jewish gatherings “synagogues of Satan,” Revelation 2:9, 3:9.  Yet they lived in anticipation of the Day of Judgment upon Jerusalem and the Old Temple, when the Church would be revealed as the true Temple and Synagogue of God. --

 

The Old Testament promise that God would “synagogue” His people undergoes one major change in the New Testament.  Instead of the simple form of the word, the term used by Jesus has the Greek preposition epi prefixed to it.  This is a favorite New Covenant expression, which intensifies the original word.  What Jesus is saying, therefore, is that the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70…will display His Church before the world as the full, the true, the super-Synagogue.- David Chilton, pp. 103-105.

 

This verb, gather together, has implications for our method of evangelism.  Our goal in evangelism is not to “get decisions,” or to “get people to come forward,” or to get people to “ask Jesus into their hearts.”  Rather, an essential aspect of our evangelism in bringing people to Christ, is bringing them into His visible church, to gather these converts together in the Christian Synagogue under the headship of Christ.  Biblical evangelism is the presentation of Jesus Christ boldly and “in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS CHURCH.”- J.I. Packer, EVANGELISM AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, pp. 37-38.  As Luke wrote in Acts 2:47—And the Lord was adding to their number [i.e., the membership of the church in Jerusalem] those who were being saved.

In Matthew 24:31, His elect are those whom God chose in Christ before the beginning of time to be holy and blameless before Him—In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, Ephesians 1:3-6.  The chosen of God are Christ’s elect, (His elect), because they were chosen and predestined in Christ, Ephesians 1:4,5, and chosen for Christ, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 5:27.

By these words of Jesus we are assured of the success of the mission of the church in global evangelization.  Such evangelistic and world-mission efforts are the divinely-appointed means by which Christ will gather His elect into His church.  We are unable to identify the elect, but the Lord knows those who are His, II Timothy 2:19.    Jesus said, I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, John 10:14.  And it pleases Him to gather His own unto Himself in His Church through the Church’s efforts at evangelizing the world with the Word of God.  Knowing this spurs us on when we are tempted to be discouraged:  Christ uses our witness to save His elect.  This guarantees the success of evangelism and world missions.  When Paul was discouraged at the small number of converts in response to his preaching, Christ comes to him in a vision and encourages him by saying, Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, FOR I HAVE MANY PEOPLE IN THIS CITY, Acts 18:9-10.  “The meaning is not that there were already many converts in the place who would protect him, but that there were many [elect people] yet to be converted [through his preaching], for whose sake his life must be preserved, (Compare John 10:16).”- J.A. Alexander, THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, p. 171.

Phrases such as from the four winds and from one end of the sky to the other indicate the universality of the gospel.  The latter phrase was probably borrowed from Deuteronomy 30:4.  God will use His Church, which bears witness to His Word, to gather to Himself His people from all the nations of the world, Revelation 5:9.

The Old Testament prophets taught time and again that with the advent of the Messiah would come the gradual conversion of the world’s nations as Christ’s kingdom made its invincible conquests in the earth.  All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before Thee.  For the kingdom is the LORD’s and He rules over the nations, Psalm 22:27-28.  Isaiah quotes Jehovah as saying, Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me, every knee WILL bow, every tongue WILL swear allegiance.  They will say of Me, “Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.”  Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame.  In the LORD all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory, Isaiah 45:22-25.

The destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, [described in Matthew 24:1-34], signalized the end of a dispensation limited to one nation and the beginning of a new Israel composed of the elect from all nations of the world.  The elect would henceforth be gathered from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other.  Our Lord used a very similar expression in reference to the universality of the Gospel when He said:  And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God, Luke 13:29.  --  The Lord’s words recorded in Luke 13:29 had no reference to His Second Coming, and there is no need to interpret Matthew 24:31 as teaching His Second Coming.  Both indicate the universality of the Gospel dispensation.- Kik, p. 148-149 

 

Therefore, the ascending Christ commissions His disciples:  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…

B.  the perfecting of the saints,  (i.e., those gathered out of the world)

Christ has also commissioned His church to perfect those who have been gathered together out of the world into one under Christ.  This word, perfect, is the word the KJV uses in its translation of Ephesians 4:12, which states the work of the officers of the church—the perfecting of the saints….  The NASV translates Ephesians 4:11-12 as follows:  And He [the exalted Christ] gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ….  Several important truths should be observed in this text.

First, the ascended and exalted Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom all power and authority have been given, has given His church the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as offices that are necessary for the maintenance of the unity and purity of the church, Ephesians 4:1-10.  These offices comprise the preaching and teaching ministry of the  church.

Second, the work of the church in its ministry of the Word is the perfecting [or equipping] of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.  The Greek word for perfecting is kataptismos, which has a variety of meanings:  “to unite and bind together,” “to reduce to order,” “to render complete, or perfect,” “to prepare or render fit for us,” “to equip.”  This last definition, “to equip,” is to be preferred because it is the prevalent way the Apostle uses the word, and because it is the meaning best suited to the context. 

So then, by means of the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, the Church has the responsibility to prepare, equip and render fit the saints.  These are true believers in Jesus Christ.  In Ephesians 1:1, Paul addresses his epistle to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.  Saints are those who are faithful to Jesus, and who have been gathered together to God as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, I Peter 2:9.  They belong to God now and are to live for His pleasure and glory according to His Word in the power of His Spirit in and with His Church.  And by the ministry of the Word, the Church equips these true believers to live and think in a manner consistent with what God says He has made of them in Christ.  They must be taught how to live as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.  Furthermore, they must be equipped to fulfill the task that has been assigned them—to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness into His glorious light.  Or to use Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:12, to equip the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

Third, the ministry of the Word has the task of equipping the members of the church that the members of the church might be prepared and enabled to participate effectively in the work of service and the building up of the body of Christ.  This understanding of this text, that the ministry of the church is to equip the church, and the church to work at service and building up the body, is based on the connection of the clauses in Ephesians 4:12, determined by the prepositions in the verse—FOR [pros] the equipping of the saints FOR [eis] the work of service TO [eis] the building up of the body….  God gave the mentioned offices for the purpose of equipping the saints, so that the saints would be effective in their twofold work of SERVICE and BUILDING UP or EDIFYING the body of Christ.

So then, the church, in its ministry of the Word is to perfect and equip the members of the church to do the work of SERVICE (diakonia) and EDIFICATION (oikodomen) to one another in the church.  The work of SERVICE[3] refers to the work of mutual service and acts of kindness and compassion by each person of the congregation with one another in Christ-like fashion, for the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; and to give His life a ransom for many, Mark 10:45.  The ministry of the Word has as its purpose equipping believers to serve one another.  The work of building up of the body of Christ is obviously inseparably related to serving one another in Christ, for it is only as the ministry is being faithful in administering the Word, and believers are being faithful in ministering to one another, that the body of Christ is being built up, or edified.  In fact, the KJV translates the phrase in verse 12 as the EDIFYING of the body of Christ.  Edification, oikodome, in its verb form, means literally “to build a house,” although it is often used in the figurative sense “to build up spiritually.”  It denotes “to bring a house, or a person to completion.”  Paul’s apostolic work as a vehicle of the Word of God is described in I Corinthians 1:10-15 as a building upon the foundation in Christ.  (See I Corinthians 14:1f.)  This edification of the church presupposes the mutual interrelationships in the covenant community of the church manifested in a mutual activity—Therefore encourage one another, and build up [edify] one another, just as you also are doing, I Thessalonians 5:11.  Edification is the resulting effect of exhortation, encouragement, love, consolation, and the prophetic, apostolic Word, I Corinthians 14:3,4,24.  And it is to continue until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.  As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love, Ephesians 4:13-16.  These verses reveal to us that the goal and effect of this mutual edification is unity in the revealed truth of God, mature Christlikeness, moral and theological stability coupled with discrimination between truth and error, and the strengthening of the unity of the church as the body of Christ.

 

 

 

 

An excerpt from The Authority of Christ's Church,

by Dr. Joe Morecraft, III

[1] “The duty of the church in reference to the conversion of the world is everywhere implied in these [Westminster] Standards, and may be logically inferred from their teachings, inasmuch as the whole theory and trend of the Calvinistic system makes the evangelization of the nations the chief enterprise of the church.  ‘God, through Christ, by the Spirit, has given the message of life to the church, and the church in turn is to give this saving message to the whole world.’  Such is the teaching of the Westminster Standards.”- Moses Hogue in MEMORIAL VOLUME OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY  1647-1897, p. 193.

[2] See J. Marcellus Kik, AN ESCHATOLOGY OF VICTORY,  p. 144, (Phillipsburg, NJ:  Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1971).

[3] In the KJV’s translation of the work of the ministry in Ephesians 4:12, it adds the article the, which does not appear in the Greek text; hence the NASB is more accurate when it translates it the work of service.

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Averting Depression—For Now

Article By: Carmon Friedrich, Posted On: 2008-09-29

Our family has been carefully following the economic situation that has been riveting the attention of many other families, I'm sure. The technical lingo that obfuscates the issues keeps many people scratching their heads and wringing their hands (though maybe not simultaneously, unless they are also able to walk and chew gum at the same time), and that makes it easy for tricky demagogues to make political hay from the confusion. If only they were Rumpelstiltskins, spinning gold from all that hay. I'm afraid there's a lot of spinning going on, but instead of gold we are getting inflation and the depreciation of the dollar.

One way we are trying to make sense out of all this is by reading some solid economics books written from a conservative and biblical perspective. In our selfish chronological snobbery, we are inclined to believe that the bad situation we are facing is unlike anything that has ever happened before, and we forget that there have been times in the not-so-distant past that may have been far worse. The 777 point drop in the Dow today sounds frightening (a 7 percent decline), until you recall that in October 1987 there was a one-day drop which was a smaller number but a decline of over 20 percent. Today's drop was only the 17th-biggest decline. That doesn't mean things are hunky-dory, but it gives a little perspective and takes some of the edge off the doom-and-gloom threats we are hearing if we don't fork over the financial pie to the federal government. Reading sensible books and articles about other economic downturns and understanding the reasons we are in this mess is one practical way you can help your family to deal with the frightening issues we are facing.

I have been slowly reading to my children the chapter called "Idols of Mammon" in Idols for Destruction by Herbert Schlossberg. If you go to page 88 on the link I just gave, you can read a great deal of the chapter online, but I highly recommend the entire book for a biblical view of many cultural issues. I also got out Clarence Carson's fifth volume in his A Basic History of the United States: The Welfare State-1929-1985. Does history repeat itself? Listen to the first paragraph in the introduction, in light of the current attempt to wrest $700 billion from American taxpayers through a "bailout" for irresponsible financial institutions:

A major thrust toward establishing the welfare state came swiftly in 1933. In a special session, which lasted from March 9 through June 16, 1933, Congress, prodded by the President, asserted the authority of the federal government over the American economy in an unprecedented fashion. Never before, certainly not in a time of peace, had such far-reaching legislation been passed by any Congress. The swiftness of it has led some historians to ponder whether or not it was a revolution. That is, it was not a successful revolt against the established authority, carried out by force of arms. If however, the term be taken to taken to signify a swift, as opposed to a gradual change, the change in direction was made quickly, and it did have a considerable impact on the country.

One major impact he says it had was a shift in the view of the government's role. "But the premise of the welfare state was vigorously asserted, and it became established. The premise of the welfare state in the United States is that the federal government is basically responsible for the material well-being of the American people."

That premise is now a given for most people. The powers-that-be have been spinning the current financial "crisis" and bailout proposal as necessary for the well-being of the American people, when it is really for the well-being of Wall Street. As Ron Paul said, if the government does nothing, we will have a bad year, but if they get their way with a bailout, then we will have a bad decade. Isn't it funny how Congressman Paul's opinions about this mess are suddenly sought by the media, when he was persona non grata just a few months ago?

I just read a great article about how we got into this financial meltdown, and why a bailout would be a disaster. Even though Congress thankfully refused to pass the bailout proposal today (Ludwig von Mises's birthday, by the way), I'm sure a revised version will be brought forward soon, so read this, inform yourself, and write to your representatives to let them know why you don't want them coming to the rescue.

You can get contact information for your congressman here. You can see how your congressman voted on today's bill here. Pastor Bret has been writing quite a lot on the shenanigans of Wall Street and D.C. In answer to a question from a reader about the creepy Federal Reserve and a request for further economics reading, he said:

Should the Fed be axed?

Axed, burned, crushed into dust and sprinkled on your cornflakes for breakfast.

The book recommendations on this subject are a little difficult. Gary North has done some good stuff but you have to careful of his over Libertarian economic philosophy. Chilton's book "Productive Christians In An Age Of Guilt Manipulators" is good. R. C. Sproul Jr. has a book out entitled "Biblical Economics." I haven't read it but I tend to trust Sproul's counsel. A lecture you can find online that you should read is "I pencil" by Leonard Read.

Other books I would recommend are

  • Belloc's "The Servile State"
  • Hayek's "Road To Serfdom"
  • Rushdoony's "Roots Of Inflation"
  • Ropke's "The Social Crisis of our Time"
  • Nock's "Our Enemy The State"
  • Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson"
  • Griffin's "The Creature From Jekyll Island"
  • Sowell's "Basic Economics"

To really understand Economics from a Christian perspective you have to get an understanding

of what Socialism is. The appropriate chapter from "Idols for Destruction" should be consulted for help on that score. Also "You Can Trust The Communists To Be Communist" would help you here.

Well, that gives you a beginning. If you get all those done come back and I'll recommend some more.

Also, for some articles which can guide you through the morass, you might find The Recession Reader helpful. It offers this good insight, with which I heartily agree...I hope you will take it to heart and make the effort to educate yourself and your family about these things, which unlike fiat money are not ephemeral, but profoundly affect you now and your children and grandchildren in the future.

What's important is not necessarily the specific political opposition to this bailout, but rather educating people about the dangers of nationalization, central banking, and government regulation. Only when people recognize the dangers of the government's "socialism for the rich" will we be able to get back on the road to prosperity. Unfortunately, a correction is necessary. There is no such thing as a free house. The more the government intervenes, the longer and more painful it will be. But this crisis gives the country a chance to rethink its previous assumptions about the economy and the government's role in it. Hopefully, this reader will be a first step for many into an exciting, growing branch of economic thought.

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Women Civil Magistrates?

Article By: Joe Morecraft III, Posted On: 2008-09-15

Introduction 

    How can anyone not like Sarah Palin?  How can anyone keep from admiring her as a mother of five and as a wife, for her apparent faith in Christ, her pro-life stand, her intelligence, her eloquence, her effectiveness as governor of Alaska, her love for moose hunting and her beauty, although she is not a constitutionalist.  I would take her over Obama, Biden, and McCain anytime.  She is a gifted, extraordinary Christian woman, who should not be running for Vice President of these United States anymore than she should be serving as Governor of Alaska.  I pray that God would give her a significant and Biblical role in the advance of His kingdom in her family, church and nation.

    I must say, however, that I question her wisdom in giving such whole-hearted support to John McCain for president in the light of his socialistic, unconstitutional and unbiblical, hence, unworkable, answers to America’s critical problems; and in the light of his long-standing pro-abortion track record on matters of judicial appointments, stem cell research, funding for Planned Parenthood, and more.

    Now, do not misunderstand me.  I am not recommending that you vote for Obama, with his socialistic, unconstitutional and unbiblical answers to America’s problems, his long-standing pro-abortion stance, and his desire, which he expressed in Berlin, Germany, that all walls be torn down between Christians, Muslims and Jews, because of the equality of all religions.

    Also, I do not intend to tell you whom to vote for.  This sermon today is not political propaganda, it is the preaching of the all-sufficient word of God, and I pray God would bless it to your hearts.  Because the Bible is the inerrant word of God, whatever it asserts to be true on any subject is true.  The Bible is divinely authoritative on everything about which it speaks and it speaks about everything.  Do you believe that?  Are you willing to look seriously at what it says about women civil magistrates?  Are you willing to submit your every thought to be governed by that Word?  Are you willing to have your mind changed by that Word no matter what it will cost you?

    When heard in the light of the history of Calvinism and Presbyterianism, this will not be a radical sermon.  It will be run-of-the-mill compared to Reformed preaching for generations.  But, today it is controversial, sadly, among evangelical and Reformed Christians; it will anger some and it will cause some brothers and sisters to view me as divisive and destructive to the conservative cause in America.

    By far the most famous book on the Bible’s teaching regarding women civil magistrates was written by the great Scottish Reformer of the 16th century, John Knox, whose theology had such a dominant influence on the American mind of 1776.  His book, written in 1558, was entitled, THE FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET AGAINST THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN.  It hit Scotland and England like a nuclear bomb.  Its target was Mary Guise, the queen regent of Scotland and later Mary, Queen of Scots, both of whom were enemies of the Protestant Reformation, and Bloody Mary Stuart, Queen of England, who was worthy of her name as a persecutor of Protestantism.  (The fourth Mary that plagued Knox, was the Roman Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven, that continues to have such a central place in the Roman Catholic Church today.) 

    The reason for this hostility to our view is largely the pragmatism, egalitarianism, ignorance of the Bible, and unwillingness to be consistent with the Bible that pervades American churches today.  By pragmatism, I mean, the idea that the end justifies the means, that whatever works is best.  By egalitarianism I mean that fundamental belief of American society that all people are equal so that whatever avocations are open to men should be open to women, including politics and the military.  By ignorance of the Bible, I am referring to the abysmal ignorance among Christians regarding what the Bible teaches in respect to politics, civil government, church government and the social order in general.  And by unwillingness to apply consistently the Bible to the critical issues of today, I am referring to those who are not willing to challenge the status quo, or the consensus of opinion, because of fear of repercussions. 

    I must add that some consistent Christians will honestly disagree with my exposition of some of our Scriptural texts today.  They want to do the right thing.  They are courageous in standing for the right; but, they disagree with our interpretation.  I pray that I can cast some light on their position that will help them to change their mind about some things.  I pray that God would give me humility, wisdom and discretion in my sermon today, and that His Spirit would lead me into His truth, protecting me, and all of us, from error.  I pray for you today that you will be open-minded to the truth of God, and that you will be willing to follow that truth wherever it leads you.

    My point today is that just as the Bible does not allow women to usurp the governing headship of the home from their husbands, Ephesians 5; and just as it does not allow women to become elders and usurp the government of the church, I Tim. 3; so the Bible does not allow women to become civil magistrates and usurp the government of the state.  I would go one step farther and say that since voting is a key element of civil government, that women suffrage is also unbiblical.  And the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States is one of the few denominations that does not practice women suffrage in its congregational meetings.

    There is nothing novel about this view, nor is it chauvinistic.  In the 19th century this view was the consensus among godly and thoughtful women in this country.  This almost forgotten attitude can be beautifully illustrated in Augusta Jane Evans, a native of Columbus, Georgia, and one of the most celebrated women authors of the 19th century, who pled for the improvement and education of women.  In his excellent book, SOUTHERN TRADITION AT BAY, (p. 273), Richard Weaver has written:  “She was the first of a long line of Southern women novelists, who…managed to capture the popular imagination and to create characters of universal appeal,” from 1833 to well into the 20th century. Her novels, all of which are explicitly Christian, also reveal two of her most seriously held convictions:  the morality of the Bible is fixed, absolute and permanent; and “the emancipation of women [recommended by the radical feminists of her day] entailed her degradation and would lead to the dissolution of society.”- Weaver, p. 274

    In her great novel, ST. ELMO, through her main character, Edna Earle, she battles to save a Christian moral and social order, “taking her stand on the principle that woman can be most influential in society as a woman.”- Weaver, p. 275

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      Believing that the intelligent, refined, modest Christian women were the real custodians of national purity, and the sole agents who could arrest the tide of demoralization breaking over the land, she addressed herself to the wives, mothers, and daughters of America; calling upon them to smite their false gods, and purify their shrines at which they worshipped.  Jealously she contended for every woman’s right which God and nature had decreed her sex.  The right to be learned, wise, noble, useful, in woman’s divinely limited sphere.  The right to influence and exalt the circle in which she moved.  The right to mount the sanctified beam of her own hearth-stone; the right to modify and direct her husband’s opinion, if he considered her worthy and competent to guide him; the right to make her children ornaments to their nation, and a crown of glory to their race; the right to advise, to plead, to pray;…the right to be all the phrase “noble Christian woman” means.  But not the right to vote; to harangue from the hustings; to trail her heaven-born purity through the dust and mire of political strife; to ascend the rostrum of statesmen, whither she may send a worthy husband, son, or brother, but whither she can never go, without disgracing all womanhood.- Weaver, p. 395

    In her book, A SPECKLED BIRD, published in 1902, Augusta Jane Evans’ character, Eglah Allison, granddaughter of a Confederate general, sums up Miss Evans’ view of woman’s proper sphere:

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      Indeed, I have the most affectionate and jealous regard for every right that inheres in my dower of American womanhood.  I claim and enjoy the right to be as cultured, as learned, as useful, and—if you please—as ornamental in society and at home as my individual limitations will permit.  I have no wrongs, no grievances, no crying need to usurp lines of work that will break down the barriers God has set between men and women.  I am not in rebellion against legal statutes, nor the canons of well-established decency and refinement in feminine usage, and, finally, I am so inordinately proud of being a well-born Southern woman, with a full complement of honorable great-grandfathers and blue-blooded, stainless great-grandmothers that I have neither pretext nor inclination to revolt against mankind.- p. 119f

    In her last novel, DEVOTA, published early in the 20th century, which she wrote at seventy-two years of age, she develops the thesis “that it is treason for woman to desert her God-given sphere.” – Weaver, p. 279.  (These are descriptions of the typical Southern Christian woman one hundred years ago.  Few women have survived the ravages of the 20th century.)

    By the way, consider what Queen Victoria said in 1870—“The Queen is most anxious to enlist anyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of ‘women’s rights,’ with all its attendant horrors on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.”

    Where did this modern, and humanistic view of women in politics originate?  It arose out of the antichristian egalitarianism of the 18th century European Enlightenment (Endarkenment), that moved Europe off its Christian foundation onto a humanistic one, and the bloody French Revolution of 1789, that sought to expunge Christianity from France with its rallying cry:  “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality.”  This revolutionary faith believes that legislation and human rights must disregard all distinctions of sex and treat both sexes with total equality in every respect.  This radical theory of human rights, which most people in our country believe, including most Christians, teaches that “every human being is naturally independent, owes no duties to civil or ecclesiastical society save those freely conceded in the ‘social contract’; is the natural equal of every other human except as he or she has forfeited liberty by crime. --  If these propositions were true, then, indeed, their application to women would be indisputable.  --  They can quote the Declaration of Independence in the sense these radicals hold it:  ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are by nature equal and inalienably entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’  It is true that this document, rationally interpreted, teaches something wholly different from the absurd equality of the radical, which demands for every member of society all the specific [privileges, liberties and rights] which any member has.  The wise men of 1776 knew that men are not naturally equal in strength, talent, virtue, or ability; and that different orders of human beings naturally inherit very different sets of rights and [privileges]…  But they meant to teach that in one very important respect all are naturally equal.  --  It is the equality embodied in the great maxim of the British Constitutions: ‘that before the law all are equal.’  --  This is the equality which is thoroughly consistent with that wide diversity of natural capacities, virtues, station, sex, inherited possessions, which inexorable fact discloses everywhere and by means of which social organization is possible.  But in place of this…our modern politician now teaches, under the same name, the equality of the Jacobin…which absurdity claims for every human the same specific powers and rights.  --  Our fathers valued liberty, but the liberty for which they contended was each person’s privilege to do those things and those only to which God’s law and providence gave him a moral right.  The liberty of nature which your modern asserts is absolute license:  the privilege of doing whatever a corrupt will craves…  The fathers of our country could have adopted the sublime words…LEX REX, the Law is king.  --  But now…the supreme law is the will or caprice of what happens to be the major mob, the suggestion of the demagogue who is most artful to seduce.”- Robert L.Dabney, DISCUSSIONS, Vol. II, p. 114-116, 5f.

    I am not naïve regarding how this sermon will be received by some people, or regarding how this will effect the reputation of our church; and so, I do not preach on this subject in a light-hearted manner because I believe that the election of 2008 will be one of the most destructive elections in our history, whoever is elected.  And the enthusiastic support of Sarah Palin by evangelical and Reformed Christians is most disconcerting.  Doug Phillips is exactly correct when he says that “the widespread acceptance of a pro-life professed Christian Republican, self-proclaimed feminist mother of an infant and four children as a candidate for the highest office of the land is the singular most dangerous event for the conscience of the Christian community of the last ten years at least. --  In order to win an election they have sold the core of what is right and true about the defining issue of our generation—the family!  Once this threshold is passed, it will be virtually impossible apart from widespread repentance to recapture this ground.”

    If Mrs. Palin is elected Vice President, and then perhaps President, four years from now, it will result in another blow to the family as defined in the Bible, although she would never intentionally want to do such a thing. It will split churches, and cause churches to compromise their historical stance. Her husband is “a stay-at-home Mr. Mom,” which is most certainly not the role of the husband and father according to Ephesians 5.  Regardless of what she thinks, she has placed her incredibly demanding career above her God-given calling of raising five children. She is leaving the impression that this is what young women should aspire to be, rather than aspiring to being the helpmeets of their husbands, the nurturers of their children, and the keepers of their homes.  As Titus 2:5 exhorts older women to encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.  I guarantee you that with all the heavy demands of a national office, a mother who is vice president will not be able to raise her children faithfully and effectively.  As Bill Einwechter has written:  “By defending the propriety of  a mother of young children ruling over the nation, they have undermined the doctrine of male headship and women as keepers at home.”

    Now let’s consider some Biblical passages that have to do with our subject.

Exposition

  1. god’s social order for men and women is clearly revealed in the bible, and it excludes the official leadership of women in home, church and state.
    1. the social order revealed in i corinthians 11:1-12
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      Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (2) Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.  (3) But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the a woman, and God is the head of Christ.  (4) Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying, disgraces his head.  (5) But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying, disgraces her head; for she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved.  (6) For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.  (7) For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.  (8) For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; (9) for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.  (10) Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.  (11) However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. (12) For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.- I Corinthians 11:1-12

    Notice the main points of this text: 

    First, the apostle Paul tells us to receive this text because it is truth he received from Christ by the Holy Spirit which he transmits to us by the inspiration of that Spirit.  This is “revealed tradition” as opposed to the traditions of men.  Paul goes so far as to say in I Cor. 14:37—If any one thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I wrote to you are the Lord’s commandment.

    Second, God, who created all human beings—male and female He created them, Genesis 1:27—has an order and arrangement by which He wants human society to be structured, rejection of which spells death for that society.  He has revealed all the necessary elements of His social order in the Bible, which is His revealed will for us.  This social arrangement is representative or covenantal in nature, based on a “headship” principle.

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            God is the head of Christ.

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            Christ is the head of every man.

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            Man is the head of woman.

    Just as Jesus is the head of every man, whether he is single or married, saved or lost, regardless of whether he is recognized as such, so man is the head of woman.  The word used for males in the first phrase—Christ is the head of every man—is the same word used in the second phrase—and the man is the head of a woman. As Wayne Mack has written:  “Christ is the head of every man, whether he is a Christian or not, whether he is a husband or not.  Likewise in the plan of God, man is to be head of woman whether that man is husband or not and whether the woman is a wife or not.  He is talking about the relationship of the sexes and he says very clearly that the head of the woman is the man.  He does not merely say that the head of the wife is the husband.”- THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH, p. 13.

    So then, as God has authority over Christ, Christ has been given the authority over all men; and man has the God-given authority over woman.  Just as man is to reflect God’s image, woman is to reflect God’s image in her role as man’s counterpart, completing him. Just as the faithful life of man brings praise and honor to God, the faithful life of woman brings praise and honor to man under God. Woman is man’s glory because he is incomplete without her—However, in the Lord, neither is the woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God, I Cor. 11:11-12.

    Contrary to all the radical theories of human equality swirling around us that give to human beings natural and absolute autonomy, the Bible teaches us that “there are orders of human beings naturally unequal in their inherited rights, as in their bodily and mental qualities; that God has not ordained any human being to this proud independence, but placed all in subordination under authority, the child under its mother, the mother under her husband, the husband under the ecclesiastical and civil magistrates, and these under the Law whose guardian and avenger is God Himself.”- Dabney, DISCUSSIONS, Vol. II, p. 107

    This subordination of woman to man, which does not imply the inferiority of woman to man, relates to human society generally:  home, church and state.

    Third, the woman gives public testimony to her glad submission to God’s social order revealed in the Bible by having a symbol of authority on her head, I Cor. 11:10. That symbol of authority is her beautiful long hair, as contrasted with man’s shorter hair—Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her?  For her hair is given to her for a covering, I Cor. 11:14.

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    1. the social order implied in ephesians 5:22-25
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      (22) Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. (24) But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.  (25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her…

    This passage makes the point that in the home the husband is responsible for loving headship, i.e., covenantal representation, governing authority, leadership, protection and provision.  And the wife is to be in loving and respectful submission to his headship.  But this passage also has implications for the place of women in the church and state as well, for she is to be subject to her husband in everything, v. 24.  This includes what happens inside the home and outside the home, in church and in society and its institutions.  Just as it is improper for a woman to have dominion over her husband in the privacy of the family, so it is improper for her to exercise dominion over her husband in the church or state.  If she cannot be the head of one family, she cannot be the head of a number of families.  In others words, a woman may not occupy a position in the church or state which she cannot hold in her own home.  If she may not rule in the home, she may not rule in church or state.

    Just as Christ is the covenant head of His church, representing, loving and being in charge of her, so the husband is the covenant head of his wife, representing her and all their children and dependents.  Douglas Wilson has written:  “Each home is to be a small republic, with a representative head who represents that family, and who in a covenantal sense is that family.  But the modern family, even when it has not disintegrated, insists upon functional parity between husband and wife.  But despite of what we think, a husband is a head and a lord—his fiefdom may be tiny, and he is frequently not worthy of it.  --  The man is an individual, a private person, but as husband he also holds a public office…   He and his wife are both individual citizens of this small republic, and they each have their individual perspectives.  But he is a public person, and is called to function in that role as the representative head of his household. --  When understood in a household, the applications of this foundation truth [of covenant headship], not surprisingly can be found everywhere.  And at every point, they will reveal how much this knowledge of headship and submission is completely out of step with the spirit of the age.”- ANGELS IN THE ARCHITECTURE, p. 113f.

    We are told that “in the old days” society did not care what women thought about things, it only wanted to hear what the husbands had to say.  Now, we are more enlightened, we want to hear from both wives and husbands.  The problem with this viewpoint is that it fails to recognize the covenantal relation of husband and wife as a household.  The real question is:  what does the household, the familial republic, think?  We discover this by asking the representative spokesman, the covenant head.  “He would answer for his family, and in speaking, represented them.  In other words, the issue is not whether men vote as opposed to women.  The issue is whether families can vote.  In our modernist blindness and folly, we did not enfranchise women, we disenfranchised the household.  And consider where it has gotten us.  When husbands and wives agree, voting the same way, all we have done is multiply the entire vote tally by two.  And when they disagree, all that has happened is that their votes cancel out the voice of their household.”- Wilson, p. 116-117

    Some people wrongly use Ephesians 5:21 to cancel out our interpretation--…and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.  However, this important text teaches us that the submission God requires of the wife to her husband grows out of the mutual readiness in the church generally to renounce one’s own will for the sake of others because of their common subjection to the revealed will of Christ.

  1. the reason for the functional subordination of women in home, church and state is the order of creation and the nature of eve’s involvement in the fall
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      Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.  But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.- I Timothy 2:1-14

    The New Testament is explicit on the issue of the functional subordination of women to men in church government:  women may not share in the government of the church, nor may they be placed in any authoritative role over men in the church:  they may not teach, hold office or lead in worship—Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says.  And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.- I Corinthians 14:34-35.  In this text, “women” means “women,” and not simply “wives,” Matthew 27:55; 9:20; and the Greek word translated “husbands,” is, in fact, the more general word for “men.”  In other words, if women have questions they are to ask “their own men at home,” which could include their husbands, brothers, uncles, fathers, sons, or elders; but they may not ask their questions publicly when the church meets.

    Why these restrictions on women in the church?  They are to quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.  They are not allowed to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  They are to keep silent in the churches.  They are not permitted to speak.  Rather, they are to subject themselves…and if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.  Now what is the reason for these restrictions?  Is it because of the inferiority of women?  Or is it because maleness is superior to or more ultimate than femaleness?  Absolutely not.  These are not the reasons the Bible gives.

    The reasons the Bible gives for this functional subordination of women to men in family, church and state are two:  the creation and the fall—For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.- I Timothy 2:13-14.

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    1.  
      1. the order of creation:  adam was created then eve

    God’s social order requires the subordination of woman to the leadership of men because of the order of creation:  Adam was created first, and then Eve was created.  In other words, the reason for this order of society is not because women are the weaker sex, but because of God’s sovereign ordering of creation and society according to the good pleasure of His will.  This principle specifically excludes women from holding office in the church or voting in the church, since both of these actions are key elements of governing.  And, by implication it excludes women from holding public office or voting in civil issues for to do so is to exercise authority over man, who was created first in God’s order of things.

    God created man first, and then He created woman, who was taken from the body of man, Genesis 2:22.  The purpose of the woman’s creation and existence is to be a helpmeet for man, “in a sense in which the man was not originally designed as a helpmeet for the woman.  Hence, God, from the beginning of man’s existence as a sinner, put the wife under the kindly authority of the husband, making him the head and her the subordinate in domestic society.”- Dabney, DISCUSSIONS, Vol. II, p. 106

    William Hendricksen has written:  “In His sovereign wisdom God made the human pair in such a manner that it is natural for him to lead, for her to follow; for him to be aggressive, for her to be receptive…  The tendency to follow was embedded in Eve’s very soul as she came forth from the hand of her Creator.  Hence, it would not be right to reverse.   Why should a woman be encouraged to do things that are contrary to her nature?  Her very body, far from preceding that of Adam in the order of creation, was taken out of  Adam’s body.  Her very name—Ish-sha—was derived from his name—Ish, Genesis 2:23.  It is when the woman recognizes this basic distinction and acts accordingly that she can be a blessing to the man, can exert a gracious yet very powerful and beneficent influence upon him, and can promote her own happiness, unto God’s glory.”- NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY:  Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, p. 109-110

    Robert L. Dabney explains the implications of the phrase in Genesis 1—male and female He made them. 

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      In order to ground human society God saw it necessary to fashion for man’s mate, not his exact image, but his counterpart.  Identity would have utterly marred their companionship, and would have been an equal curse to both.  But out of this unlikeness in resemblance it must obviously follow that each is fitted for works and duties unsuitable for the other.  And it is no more a degradation to the woman that the man can best do some things which she cannot do so well, than to the man that woman has her natural superiority in other things.  But it will be cried:  “Your Bible doctrine makes man the ruler, woman the ruled.”  True.  --  It was essential to the welfare of both husband and wife, and of the offspring, that there must be an ultimate human head somewhere. --  …to be governed under the wise conditions of nature is often a more privileged state than to govern.  --  Now, a wise God designs no clashing between his domestic and political and his ecclesiastical arrangements. He has ordained that the man shall be head in the family and the commonwealth; it would be a confusion full of mischief to make the woman head in the ecclesiastical sphere.- DISCUSSIONS, Vo. II, p. 111-112

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    1.  
      1. the nature of the fall:  Eve was deceived not adam

    Eve fell because she was deceived by Satan, whereas Adam sinned without being deceived, I Timothy 2:14.  This means that whatever woman’s strength, she is not constitutionally fitted to be an official governor in church or state.  She listened to Satan and sinned before Adam, to whom she gave the forbidden fruit.  Eve was the leader and Adam was the follower.  As Hendricksen said:  “She led in the way of sin, when she should have followed in the path of righteousness.  --  Hence, let none of her daughters follow her in reversing the divinely established order.”- p. 110

    Eve was deceived into leading when she should have been following.  So we see what happens with role reversal between men and women:  disaster!  Adam had the responsibility for leading, and he was equipped to deal with Satan’s temptations. He was not deceived.  He sinned deliberately against better knowledge.  Eve was not given the role of leader and was in fact unprepared to discern Satan’s lies.  She was deceived by him. 

    Satan saw that the best way to seduce Adam was through Eve.  Woman represents human grace and beauty in a special degree.  That which is beautiful in creation apparently enthralls her more than it does man, Genesis 2:9; 3:6.  Her appreciation of beauty and her aesthetic sensibilities were more susceptible and alert to the impressions of the attractive.  This is not to say that woman is instinctively less holy or more sinful. 

    Trent and Smalley have explained in their book, THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE, in a chapter entitled, “Are Men Really Brain Damaged?” (p. 35-36) that between the 18th and 26th week of pregnancy, something happens that forever separates the sexes.  Researches had observed a chemical bath of testosterone and other sex-related hormones wash over a baby boy’s brain.  This does not happen to the brain of a baby girl.  Here is what happens:

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      The human brain is divided into two halves, or hemispheres, connected by fibrous tissue…  The sex-related hormones and chemicals that flood a baby boy’s brain cause the right side to recede slightly, destroying some of the connecting fibers.  One result is that, in most cases, a boy starts life more left-brained oriented.

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      Because little girls don’t experience this chemical bath, they leave the starting blocks much more two-sided in their thinking.  And while electrical impulses and messages do travel back and forth between both sides of a baby boy’s brain, those same messages can proceed faster and be less hindered in the brain of a little girl.  – What occurs in the womb merely sets the stage for men and women to “specialize” in two different ways of thinking.  And this is the major reason men and women need each other so much.

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      The left brain houses more of the logical, analytical, factual and aggressive centers of thought. It is the side of the brain most men reserve for the majority of their waking hours.  It enjoys conquering five hundred miles a day for family vacation trips; favors mathematical formulas over Harlequin romances…and generally favors clinical, black-and-white thinking.  It is the side of a man’s brain that cannot wait to buy the latest copy of some how-to magazine for the latest fix-it technique; memorizes batting averages and box scores; and loves to sit for hours, watching back-to-back games and yelling at referees.

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      On the other hand, most women spend the majority of their days and nights camped out on the right side of the brain.  It is the side that harbors the center for feelings, as well as the primary relational, language, and communications skills; enables them to do fine-detail work; sparks imagination; and makes an afternoon devoted to art and fine music actually enjoyable. It pulls over at rest stops and historical markers on purpose; does not vaguely care about football or hockey games unless they personally know the players or their wives…and would rather read PEOPLE than POPULAR MECHANICS, because it is more relational.

    What we have said in no way implies the sexual inferiority or superiority of men or of women.  Her Biblical role is not degrading, nor is it a less dignified position than that of man.  You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow-heir of the grace of life…- I Peter 3:7.

    Some have tried to use Galatians 3:28 to refute our position—there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  However, this verse is not saying that these distinctions have no meaning at all; rather, it is saying that the blessings of salvation are equally enjoyed by all in Christ by grace through faith, regardless of race, social status, or sex.  While the responsibilities of the government of church and state are laid on the shoulders of men, the privileges of salvation in the church are equally shared and enjoyed by men and women.  No conflict exists between Galatians 3 and I Corinthians 14 or I Timothy 2.  Galatians 3 is concerned with the privileges of salvation all believers share in Christ; and I Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2 are concerned with duties and responsibilities not all believers share.

    Rather than being restrained and restricted by the requirements of God’s social order, women are actually freed from the demands of governing authority to give themselves entirely to the high calling of helpmeet.  As Susan Hunt and Peggy Hutcheson have written:  “When women insist on role interchangeability…everyone loses.”- LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN IN THE CHURCH, p. 10,11.

    It should be pointed out, to get a complete picture, that not all male members of the church are allowed to hold office or to vote in the church, and by implication in the state.

    In both testaments we see the principle of maturity and godliness of leadership, Exodus 12, Isaiah 3, I Timothy 3, and I Thessalonians 5:12f.  In Isaiah 3, we learn two things about government in the hands of immature and ungodly males:  (1). It is detrimental to society; and (2). It is a sign of God’s judgment on that society.  The Lord said concerning disobedient Israel:  I will make mere lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, Isaiah 3:4.  Paul said to Timothy concerning governors in the church:  He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)- I Timothy 3:4,5.

    This principle of mature leadership means that only adult male heads of households and not immature males still dependent upon their fathers and still under their father’s authority, or males that are capricious and therefore ungodly, should be placed in positions of authority or allowed to vote in church or state.  The rule of the church and state must be in the hands of mature, responsible, godly leaders, not in the hands of immature or ungodly people.  As holding office, so voting is by its very nature, an expression of government, therefore it should be reserved for responsible, mature Christian men, not boys.

  1. the bible sets forth the authority and ministry christian women do have in church and society.

    First, a godly wife is her husband’s crown and joy—A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, Proverbs 12:4.  She is of inexpressible value to her husband—Who can find a virtuous woman?  For her price is far above rubies.- Proverbs 31:10.

    Second, covenant children are to honor their mothers just as much as they honor their fathers—Honor your father and mother.., Exodus 20:12.  They are to submit to the teaching of their mothers just as much as they do to their fathers—My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother, Proverbs 1:8.  The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it, Proverbs 30:17.

    Third, I Timothy 5:9-15 tells us many things that Christian women may do for Jesus Christ—Let a widow be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work.  But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, thus incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge.  And at the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention.  Therefore, I want younger women to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside to follow Satan.

    What do we learn here about the responsibilities and ministries of Christian women:  (1). They are to have a reputation for good works.  In fact, they are to devote themselves to every good work.  (2). They are to bring up children.  In fact, she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self restraint, I Timothy 2:15.  (3). They are to show hospitality to people.  (4). They are to serve people, meeting the needs of others, as they are able.  (5). They are to assist those who are in distress.  (6). They are to practice self-discipline.  (7). They are not to be idle and are not to neglect their responsibilities at home. They may not go from house to house to gossip, but they may go from house to house to minister, encourage, comfort and serve.  (8). They are to keep house.  A woman’s home is “her kingdom and neither the secular nor the ecclesiastical commonwealth.  Her duties in her home are to detain her away from the public functions.  She is not to be a ruler of men, but a loving subject to her husband.”- Dabney, DISCUSSIONS, Vol. II, p. 106

    Titus 2:3-5 gives us more responsibilities Christian women have at home and in church—Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.

    Notice:  (1). Older women are to be reverent and respectful in their behavior, as models for younger women.  (2). Older women should encourage and teach younger women how to be faithful Christian women, wives, daughters, mothers and home-makers.  (3). Married women should love their husbands and their children.  They should be sensible, pure, kind homemakers.  And (4). Wives should be subject to their own husbands so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

  1. the qualifications for public office according to the law of god

    The Law of God in the New Testament clearly requires that office-holders in the church be godly and mature men, I Timothy 3.  The New Testament forbids women to be ministers, elders or deacons.  By implication, elders in the gates, i.e., civil elders, are to be no less qualified than elders in the church.  But we are not left only with implications.

    Some evangelicals today are saying that whereas qualifications are presented in the Bible for governors in the home and in the church, the Bible gives no qualifications for civil magistrates. The argument is that since the civil magistrate is a secular institution, God does not require civil office-holders to be Christian in character, worldview or political opinion.  Likewise, they say, that although the eldership in the church is to be confined to men, no such gender restriction is in the Bible regarding civil magistrates.

    Nothing could be farther from the truth!  As Pastor Bill Einwechter has clearly shown in his article, “Sarah Palin and the Complementarian Compromise:  A Response to Our Brothers Al Mohler and David Kotter:  “…the Bible does give explicit teaching on the qualifications for civil magistrates. The two primary passages are Exodus 18:21—[Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them, as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens]—and Deuteronomy 1:13—[Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads].  These texts teach that if God’s people have the privilege of choosing their magistrates, they should choose wise and able men who fear God.  Significantly, both of these texts specify that civil leaders must be men.  There are a host of other passages that teach what God requires of civil magistrates (Deuteronomy 16:18-20; 17:14-20; II Samuel 2:23; II Chronicles 19:6-7; Nehemiah 7:2; Proverbs 29:2; Romans 13:1-6), and in every one of these texts men, not women, are in view.”  The teaching of the Bible is explicit and extensive regarding the qualifications for public, civil office.  Non-Christians are disqualified.  Women are disqualified, even Christian women.  Christian women, then, are not to put themselves forward as candidates for civil office.

    You might ask:  in the light of all these texts spelling out the qualifications for public office, how can evangelicals claim that the Bible gives no such qualifications?  It is because of their flawed Biblical hermeneutic that says that Old Testament texts do not apply.  They say that since Mosaic Law was confined to Israel of the Old Testament dispensation, it is now abrogated for Christians today.  However, Jesus had a much different opinion.  He said in Matthew 5:17-19—Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.  Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

    When we enter the voting booth, we must not do as most professed Christians do in America today—leave the Bible outside the voting booth.  Rather, as Christians, we want our every thought and action to be held captive by the Word of God, so then the question must be as we cast our votes, not is this person winnable, nor will voting for this person defeat her opponent, but does this candidate for office meet the biblical qualifications for civil magistrates?  Are you willing to be that faithful to Christ this November?

  1. and then there was deborah of the old testament…
  1.  
    1. the civil role of deborah in the history of israel during the time of the judges  (Judges 4:1-5:31)
  1.  
    1.  
      1. the historical context

    Once again Israel had degenerated into apostasy.  Once again they repented and cried out to the Lord for deliverance from their sin and from the judgment that sin brought on them, 4:3. In grace and in answer to Israel’s cries for deliverance, the Lord proves Himself once again to be a God of mercy and covenant faithfulness by providing Israel with deliverers in a great women named Deborah and her husband, General Barak, whom He would use to defeat Israel’s enemies and bring them to victory and peace.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. the significance of deborah

    Deborah puts any contemporary woman magistrate in the shade!  Judges 4:4 describes her as a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, [who] was judging Israel at that time.  She carried out her divinely-assigned functions under the Palm Tree of Deborah between Raham and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, i.e., in the heart of Israelite territory where life still had some tranquility in it, 4:5.  The sons of Israel came up to her for judgment, 4:5.  She also was a gifted song-writer and singer, who co-authored the song recorded in 5:1f with Barak, and who sang it along with Barak.

    Although she was a “prophetess,” i.e., a Spirit-inspired mouthpiece of God with the divine gift of prophecy, and an administrator of justice, and a deliverer of Israel, at least spiritually and morally, as well as a popular personality throughout Israel, the Bible emphasizes the fact that she was a woman…the wife of Lappidoth [Barak].  She identifies herself as a mother in Israel, 5:7.  It is more than interesting to note in Deborah’s song, 5:24, that, rather than identifying herself as the most blessed woman in Israel, whom God had raised up as Israel’s judge and deliverer, she identified Jael, who held no other position than that of the wife of Heber the Kenite, as most blessed of women.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. the significance of barak

    Barak means “lightning bolt.”  Historically, Jewish rabbis have identified him as Lappidoth, Deborah’s husband.  Whatever the case, she would not rule without him, being always associated with him, 4:4, 6, 9; 5:1, 12.  Although she was a judge in Israel she called upon Barak to lead Israel’s armies into battle against Sisera. She refused the role of Commander-in-Chief of Israel’s armies.  However, she did agree to be present at the battle as a popular figurehead and symbol of God’s deliverance.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. the meaning and function of a “judge”

    “Judges” were not merely civil officials who rendered judgments in disputes; they were primarily “deliverers” or “saviors,” empowered by the Holy Spirit, whom God raised up to deliver His covenant people, spiritually and nationally, and frequently militarily in times of national disaster.  As Judges 2:18 says:  And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge;  for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them.  Judges had civil and spiritual functions—as adjudicators and as prophets.  They were not considered as heads of state, like kings.  In fact, at some points, Israel had more than one judge.  To simply say that a judge was chief civil magistrate is not adequate.  Israel did not have chief civil magistrates until the days of the kings.

  1.  
    1. the true identity of deborah and her place in the plan of god

    Why did the Lord raise up Deborah, a woman, to judge and deliver Israel? That is an appropriate question in the light of the fact that according to Mosaic legislation, God’s social order called for the rule of men in family, church and state.  How are we to explain a female judge, prophetess and savior of Israel?  There are at least two answers to these questions.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. to remind israel of his judgment

    When Deborah arose  to power in Israel, Israel was under divine judgment because of her apostasy.  Such passages as Isaiah 3 tell us that one of the signs of God’s judgment on an apostate nation is that their oppressors are children, and women rule over them, Isaiah 3:12.  God wanted to remind Israel that His mercy was free and undeserved but not cheap. Judgment is always there for the unrepentant.

    It is most certainly true that Deborah is God’s answer to the cries of His people, 4:3, just as King Saul was God’s answer to Israel’s cries for a king, I Samuel 8:5; 9:16. In giving Deborah and Saul to Israel, God acted in total sovereignty, for Deborah was disqualified by her gender and Saul was disqualified by his character. Both cries were answered by God in such a way as to remind Israel of God’s righteous judgment upon all those who chose to trust in the state rather than in the goodness and faithfulness of God.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. to humble israel

    God was using this woman, Deborah, to humble Israel, especially the male leadership of Israel, and to cause Israel to look totally to Him as their Deliverer, who magnifies His strength, and who humbles human strength, by using a woman as the instrument by which He defeats His enemies and saves His people.  Deborah’s testimony to General Barak, who asked her to go into battle with him as a popular figurehead and symbol of God’s presence, was:  I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman, Judges 4:9.  In fact, God would save His people and defeat His enemies through two godly women:  Deborah and Jael, 5:24.

  1.  
    1. the use of deborah by critics of the biblical view of women civil magistrates

    The first response most people give to our view that the Bible disqualifies women as civil magistrates is:  But what about Deborah?  It is most often offered not as a question but as a refutation:  how can your view be correct, since Deborah was a God-appointed civil magistrate?

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    1.  
      1. the failure to apply a basic principle of biblical hermeneutics

    Those are fair questions, although they usually represent a failure to apply a basic principle of Biblical hermeneutics: the legal and didactic portions of the Bible must be used to explain the historical portions and not vice versa.

    The Bible contains many historical facts.  Which are to be used as examples and models for our behavior and which ones should not be so used?  We are dependent upon the commands and prohibitions of God’s Law and the instructional and doctrinal texts that interpret those historical facts for us.

    We used this principle the other Sunday when we studied Psalm 30, which has as its historical context the events described in II Samuel 24 and I Chronicles 21.  As we saw, these two historical chapters have several numerical disagreements regarding details of the events described.  How did we deal with those disagreements? 

    First, we went to the didactic portions of the Bible to show that the Bible itself teaches its inerrancy, i.e., that what it asserts to be true on any subject is true, and that what it describes as having happened, did in fact happen.

    Second, when we came to the numerical disagreements between II Samuel 24 and I Chronicles 21, we did not interpret them so as to show that the Bible does in fact have errors; rather we tried honestly to explain and harmonize these two chapters in a way that was demanded by the Bible’s teaching on its own inerrancy.  In other words, we tried to interpret the historical in the light of the didactic.

    Reversing this basic principle from allowing the legal and the didactic to interpret the historical to allowing the historical to interpret the legal and the didactic leads to many false doctrines and heresies.  For example, the reversed principle is the basis for the charismatic movement.  Its argument is:  in the book of Acts we see the historical facts that the apostolic church experienced speaking in unknown tongues and the performing of miracles, therefore these same facts should be experienced and practiced by the church today; and the legal and didactic portions must be interpreted so as to support this viewpoint.

    But Biblical hermeneutics require that historical events in the Bible do not stand alone, isolated from their divinely-given interpretation.  It is God’s revealed interpretation that gives any historical fact its meaning.  That Jesus was crucified is an historical fact.  We know the meaning of His death only because of the legal and didactic portions of the Bible.  By taking that central fact by itself some have taken it to mean only that it teaches us how far love for others must go, or some other moralistic meaning.

    Now, we apply this principle of interpretation to Deborah.  The legal and didactic portions of the Old Testament—the Mosaic legislation in the Pentateuch—teaches that only men, not women, should be elected to civil office.  When we come to Deborah, we must not interpret that historical event so as to contradict what we learned in the Mosaic legislation:  women should not be chosen for public office.

    Hence, God’s sovereignly raising up Deborah to public office to accomplish His predestined purposes does not present her as a model for women any more than God’s predestining Judas’ actions in betraying Jesus or Pilate’s actions in crucifying Him are models for us.

    God does what He pleases.  As Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us:  The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this Law.  So then, whatever God sovereignly chooses to bring to pass, our clear duty is to observe all the words of this Law.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. the out of the ordinary rule of deborah and the abnorMal period of the judges in israel’s history

    It is certainly true that Deborah’s role in Israel’s history was out of the ordinary.  It is equally true that the period of Judges was an abnormal and temporary time in Israel’s history. Mosaic legislation had already laid the groundwork for a more stable and mature form of civil government for Israel after the age of Judges, in Deuteronomy 16 and 17.  Although there were periods of short-lived and shallow repentance the whole period of the Judges was marked by the description set forth in the last sentence of the book of Judges 21:25—In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  Therefore, we should not use as our model for civil government the civil government of Israel during those dark ages.

  1.  
    1.  
      1. the argument that desperate times call for desperate measures

    Some have tried to justify Deborah and Sarah Palin by the argument:  “desperate times call for desperate measures.”  I have several problems with this statement as it applies to Deborah and Sarah Palin.  First, this is a mere assertion without any Biblical basis.  Second, if the principle—“desperate times call for desperate measures in Deborah’s case”--justifies women holding political office today, then how does this apply to the church in desperate times? Deborah was also a prophetess. Does that mean that in desperate times women preachers, elders and deacons could be justified, when men abdicate their role?  Do desperate times justify disobedience to the Word of God?  Or are desperate times caused by disobedience to the Word of God?

    My wife, Becky, answers this objection:  “What is at the root of all the controversy among Christians about a woman running for political office?  I can understand why the world would disagree with the biblical perspective that women may not hold civil office.  Those people who do not bow the knee to King Jesus have no qualms about disputing God’s order for life. But when Christians look for loopholes to prove themselves justified—“desperate times demand desperate measures” is the catch phrase—their belief in the adequacy of God’s Word comes into question.  GOD IS NOT DESPERATE!  He has a plan that is ‘no fail.’  We only contribute to the winning side when we follow the revealed instructions He has given us in His Word.  Life becomes so complicated when we invent ‘short-cuts’ to try and ‘help God’ succeed in making our lives better.  Why can’t we humble ourselves and remember what we were taught as children?  Trust and obey for there’s no other way…”

  1.  
    1. the proper application of the case of deborah to the American election of 2008

    So then, how do we properly apply the case of Deborah to the American Election of 2008?  Not by condoning, encouraging and supporting women to run for political office!  How then?  In two ways.

    First, the candidacy of women for political office, like the holding of the office of elder and deacon by women in the church, is a sign of God’s judgment on America!  Don’t brush off lightly what God says in Isaiah 3 regarding what God does when He begins to judge a culture for its apostasy:

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      For behold, the LORD God of hosts, is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water; the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the expert artisan, and the skillful enchanter.  And I will make mere lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the youth will storm against the elder, and the inferior against the honorable.  --  For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, to rebel against His glorious presence.  --  O my people!  Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them.  O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray, and confuse the direction of your paths.- Isaiah 3:1-12

    For some people, the worst thing that can happen in 2008 is the election of Obama to the U.S. presidency. The reality of the situation is that the worst thing that could happen is God’s continuing and intensifying judgment falling on us regardless of who is elected this fall, because of our long-standing national apostasy.

    I received an e-mail from Doug Phillips just this morning that not only confirms that [Sarah Palin’s] election would be a sign of divine judgment upon our nation, but that also presents another, closely related, viewpoint:

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      I believe the Sarah Palin issue is not only a judgment, it is a great gift from the Lord.  I don’t need to explain to any of you how it is a judgment.  Let me offer my thoughts on why it is also a gift.

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      In my view, this issue has forced questions that have long been lingering.  It has revealed the true loyalties of Christians in leadership to partisan politics over historic, sound, biblical exegesis. It is separating the men from the she-men, the women from the he-women…

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      The impoverished, illogical and ridiculous arguments of men who should know better, have opened the door for us to have a platform to make intelligent, biblical and systematic arguments in defense of orthodoxy and the biblical vision for the family.  We have never had a better opportunity to make our case and we must do so.

  •  

      This is not a time to merely encourage—we must fight, articulate, defend, and take advantage of this historical opportunity.  Having read many of the arguments that were made by anti-suffragettes before the adoption of the 19th amendment, I am saddened by the fact that there were few clearly biblical voices at that time.  This time, we can speak to the issue.  At least we leave a record for a less emotional season.

    Second, the candidacy of women for public office, like women officers in the church, serve to humble American men and Christian men.  Where are the Christian men in the critical battles we are fighting today for the future of our nation?  As Gary DeMar rightly asks:  “Why did Sarah Palin run to head the PTA? Where were the worthy men?  Why did she run for mayor of Wasilla?  Where were the worthy men? How did she beat an incumbent governor in the primary and go on to win the governorship? Where were the worthy men in this long election process?  --  Sarah Palin’s candidacy is an indictment on the many men who have compromised their principles.”  Men in this congregation, where are YOU in this battle for the future of America?

    Becky makes this response:  “Perhaps Satan’s ploy to divide Christians on this issue will backfire, however.  Perhaps there are some Christian men who have been so distracted in their attempts to get ahead in business or who have felt they were doing their civil duty simply by casting a vote (if they have time) who now will be stirred to action and run for local, state or national offices.  Maybe it took a courageous but misguided woman to shame them into it!  Are there men complaining about the disastrous choices facing us in this election?  I challenge them to give voters an alternative to a woman running and run themselves or at least, finance and promote uncompromising men who will run.  --  If Sarah Palin turned her back on this candidacy because of a conviction that she has been called to reign in another sphere, as queen of her home and of her husband’s heart, she would do more to rebuild our nation than anything she hopes to accomplish in public office, preferring the exceeding great riches available to her through a bold admission of God’s claim on her life as a wife and mother.  My heart sank as I watched the news and saw a little girl standing behind the reporter who was speaking.  She was holding a sign that said, ‘I want to be like Sarah Palin when I grow up.’  Multiply that times ?  and think about the future…”

    Pray for Sarah Palin that she would honor God with her life. Pray for evangelical and reformed churches that they will not be swept away in the tide of popular opinion, but that they will firmly stand on the solid rock of the Bible. Pray that Christians will return to their roots.  Pray that God will raise up Christian men to places of influence in civil government.  Pray that men will no longer abdicate their governing role in the home.  Pray that churches will elect ministers, elders and deacons who are truly, thoroughly, and tenaciously Reformed by the Word of God.  Pray that American Christians will learn how to vote and to govern as Christians held captive by the word of God.  Pray that God would vastly increase our numbers.

Conclusion

    In closing, if you think that our view hides a low view of women, listen to these moving words by Robert L. Dabney assigning to Christian women the highest of honor and responsibilities in the restoration of the American Republic, after the devastation of the South in the War Between the States, in his article:  “The Duty of the Hour.”  He writes:

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      …never before was the welfare of a people so dependent on their mothers, wives and sisters, as now and here.  I freely declare that under God my chief hope for my prostrate country is in their women.  Early in the war, when the stream of our noblest blood began to flow so liberally in battle, I said to an honored citizen of my State, that it was so uniformly our best men who were made the sacrifice there was reason to fear that the staple and pith of the people of the South would be permanently depreciated.  His reply was:  “There is no danger of this while the women of the South are what they are. Be assured the mothers will not permit the offspring of such martyr-sires to depreciate.”

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      But since, this river of generous blood has swelled into a flood. What is worse, the remnant of the survivors, few, subjugated, disheartened, almost despairing and, alas, dishonored, because they have not disdained life, on such terms as are left us; are subjected to every influence from without, which can be malignantly devised to sap the foundations of their manhood and degrade them into fit material for slaves.  If our women do not sustain them they will sink.  Unless the spirits which rule and cheer their homes can reanimate their self-respect, confirm their resolve, and sustain their personal honor, they will at length become the base serfs their enemies desire.  Outside their homes, everything conspires to depress, to tempt, to seduce them.  --  Only within their homes is there, beneath the skies, one ray of light or warmth to prevent their freezing into despair.

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      There, in your homes, is your domain.  There YOU rule with the scepter of affection, and not our conquerors. We beseech you, wield that gentle empire in behalf of the principles, the patriotism, the religion, which we inherited from our mothers.  Teach our ruder sex that only by a deathless love to these can woman’s dear love be deserved or won.  Him whom is true to these crown with your favor.  Let the wretch who betrays them be exiled forever from the paradise of your arms.  Then shall we be saved, saved from a degradation fouler than the grave.  Be it yours to nurse with more than a vestal’s watchfulness, the sacred flame of our virtue now so smothered.  Your task is unobtrusive; it is performed in the privacy of home, and by the gentle touches of daily love.  But it is the noblest work which moral can perform, for it furnishes the polished stones, with which the temple of our liberties must be repaired.  --  Such is your work; the home and fireside are the scenes of your industry.  But the materials you shape are the souls of men, which are to compose the fabric of our church and state.  The politician, the professional man, is but the cheap, rude, day laborer, who moves and lifts the finished block to its place.  You are the true artists, who endue it with fitness and beauty; and therefore yours is the nobler task.- DISCUSSIONS, Vol. IV, p. 120-122

    As R.J. Rushdoony wrote in the last chapter of his book, INTELLECTUAL SCHIZOPHRENIA:  “The end of an age is always a time of turmoil, war, economic catastrophe, cynicism, lawlessness and distress.  But it is also an era of heightened challenge and creativity and of intense vitality.  And because of the intensification of issues, and their world-wide scope, never has an era faced a more demanding and exciting crisis.”

JCMIII

September 14, 2008

Cumming, Georgia

Soli Deo Gloria

Track Back to the Original Article Here

Striking the “S” Word: The Non-Problem of Bristol Palin

Article By: Ricardo Davis, Posted On: 2008-09-04

As the political drama of the 2008 presidential election unfolded, I was intrigued when McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. As the endorsements from Christian leaders and groups started rolling in, the campaign hit its first speed bump — the revelation that Palin’s 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol was pregnant. As conservative leaders made their statements in solidarity with the Palin family, I sensed that something was missing but couldn’t identify the source of my concern. Meanwhile commentators rolled over the speed bump, talking about the non-problem of Bristol Palin as something common in the American experience.The fact that the McCain campaign treated this as a non-issue was not surprising. McCain advisor Steve Schmidt said, “Life happens.” McCain speechwriter Mark Salter commented, “An American family.” I didn’t expect the conservative pundits to even blink at the revelation.

I anticipated the outpouring of support from conservative Christian leaders who praised the decision of Miss Bristol Palin to not commit prenatal murder (a.k.a. abortion) and to marry the father of the child. Albert Mohler’s comments are illustrative:

“Now there is another gift — this time in the form of a pregnant daughter and a child conceived outside of marriage. The Palins spoke of their pride in the fact that their daughter would keep her baby and marry the father. Once again, the Palin family chooses life over death, birth over abortion, when aborting the baby would be justified by many and considered the easy way out of an embarrassing situation. Yes, that baby is a gift, as is every single living human being, born and unborn.

But the entire nation felt the awkwardness of the situation, and even part of the embarrassment. Yes, as Steve Schmidt said, ‘Life happens,’ but not always like this. And Mark Salter is certainly correct in describing the situation as ‘an American family.’ Still, this is not the script many families would choose — especially evangelical families who had been most encouraged by Gov. Palin’s choice as Sen. McCain’s running mate.

Will this damage the McCain-Palin ticket in November? Time will tell, but there is good reason to doubt that it will. Teenage pregnancy is hardly unknown these days, and the very public decision to keep the baby will encourage pro-lifers all the more. The press is likely to leave this issue alone, at least as much as possible.”

John Ensign, a Christian leader and U.S. Senator, stood up for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter in a brief interview Tuesday. “I’m a parent of a teenager and it’s one of our worst fears,” he said. “But you can do everything you can possibly do as parents and your kids are going to do things, just like we did, that our parents don’t approve of. They’re going to make mistakes. That doesn’t mean they did anything wrong as parents.”

Many of the usual suspects in the “Religious Right” treated the revelation of Bristol’s pregnancy with the rigor we’ve grown to expect in American politics. “I am disgusted by the outrageous attacks on Governor Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a press release. “The Palin family courageously embraces their pro-life values, and extremist bloggers are excoriating them for it. I strongly condemn the baseless attacks on Sarah’s fitness to lead as a mother and Vice President.”

In a press release Reverend Rob Schenck of the conservative National Clergy Council noted that he met Sarah Palin when he was a VIP guest at her first appearance with John McCain in Dayton last week. Schenck said that Bristol’s pregnancy is “none of our business,” and commended Barack Obama for saying so. “This is a private family matter. The Palins, especially their teenage daughter, are entitled to privacy on this matter. Anyone who cares about young people will back off and give this young woman the space she needs. Anyone who exploits her for political or commercial gain is disgraceful.”

Friends and acquaintances have been probing me for my reaction to these events. My response was that I’m still researching the matter. I have dear friends who have gone through what Todd and Sarah Palin are facing. I kept the matter in prayer and asked that God would give the Palins wisdom.

After mulling over what I heard repeated in the Christian media I finally realized the cause of my unease; the three-letter “S” word — sin — had been completely absent in the discussion! The non-problem of Bristol Palin expressed itself in the conservative Christian media with a complete lack of discussion by Christian leaders and ministers of the problem of fornication in America and the Gospel remedy!

Fornication is the sin that fuels the abortion industry, so it is connected to the pro-life discussion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ stands alone in effectively and holistically healing the individual, familial, and cultural decay caused by fornication. But to date I have not heard one national Christian commentator bring up the subject. Not one politically active conservative Christian leader that I know of framed the non-problem from a Biblical worldview. No one interviewed by the mainstream media admitted that Bristol and Levi committed fornication and that God’s Word clearly condemns premarital sex. I haven’t heard one minister with an open mike on a nationwide talk show say that as loving Christian parents Todd and Sarah Palin’s primary responsibility in the matter is to help their daughter Bristol apply the Gospel - restore the relationship between Bristol and God through confession of the sin of fornication and repentance. It is my hope that this happens. It is my prayer that the Palin family receives wise Biblical counsel in the months ahead because the parents must redemptively help Bristol work through the consequences of her choices.

It is clear that conservative Christian leaders and organizations are publicly dealing with Bristol’s pregnancy from the American “conservative” political framework. Sadly, I am convinced that a redemptive discussion on fornication has been trumped by a desire to say nothing that would expose the McCain-Palin campaign to any criticism during the Republican National Convention. In the press releases and commentary I’ve seen, read, and heard from these leaders to date the message has been that the Palins’ pro-life decisions validate Sarah’s fitness as a vice presidential candidate. Whether the treatment of Bristol’s fornication is due to a prior loyalty to the GOP or agreement with Senator Obama, our Christian leaders have missed a rare opportunity to deal with the national sins of fornication and prenatal murder with a clear Gospel message. I’ve seen firsthand through volunteer work at crisis pregnancy centers and counseling in front of an abortion center that fornication and abortion are problems in this American culture and in the Christian community! Scoffers who mock Christian morality will hammer away at the hypocrisy of those Christian leaders’ unwillingness to deal with Bristol’s fornication. Alan Wolfe writing for The New Republic makes the following observation:

“Sarah Palin’s nomination is a public service. No longer will we hear lectures from the likes of Newt Gingrich telling poor women on welfare how to conduct their sex lives. Focus on the Family will have to focus on a different kind of family. William Bennett has no virtues left to write about. At long last our national nightmare over sexual hypocrisy has come to an end, and we can all thank John McCain for that.

And that is not all. In rushing to Sarah Palin’s defense, the leaders of the Christian right have made it abundantly clear how they define a Christian. We don’t care if you sin. We are not bothered if you put your ambition ahead of the needs of your children. If you have lied or broken the law, we will look the other way. It all comes down to your stand on guns and fetuses. Vote the right way, and you have our blessing. If any proof were needed that James Dobson is a political operative rather than a spiritual leader, his jumping on the Palin bandwagon offers it.”

Rev. Flip Benham rightly called offense-free, consensus-building, politically partisan, worldly-wise conservatism “pretend salt.” That Sarah Palin is supporting Senator McCain should give thinking Christians pause regarding Palin’s pro-life convictions. McCain has voted to confirm three pro-abortion U.S. Supreme Court justices (Breyer, Souter, and Ginsburg), is endorsed by Republicans for Choice, and has consistently voted for legislation funding surgical and chemical abortions, embryonic stem cell research, and licentious sex education that promotes fornication. Yet she will be promoting this man, his record, and his policy agenda. To date she has been very effective in using her influence to convince conservative Christian leaders and the grassroots pro-life activists to vote for McCain. And for that very reason Christian voters should turn off the TV, stop reading the McCain-Palin “rally the troops” emails, and open their Bibles. We need to search the Scriptures to glean the principles by which we are to choose civil rulers, then do our duty and leave the results to God.

Ricardo Davis is a grateful husband who has been blessed with his beautiful wife and three children age 17, 15 and 4. He lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area and is active in advancing the pro-life cause. He can be reached at rcdavis@georgia4life.org.

Copyright 2008 Ricardo Davis
All rights reserved

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