Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian?

Over at the First Thoughts blog, Mark Movsesian offers a brief note on the question of whether Abraham Lincoln was a Christian, or even claimed a religious affiliation at all.

In April of 2000, Brian Lamb of C-SPAN’s Booknotes asked about this when interviewing Allen Guellzo, author of the intellectual biography Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, which goes into detail about Lincoln’s views on religion): 

Prof. GUELZO:  . . . Many religious people, many Christian believers who read this book experience a sense of disappointment, because they may have read in a number of other places or heard from a number of other quarters that Abraham Lincoln was a Christian.

Well, the truth of the matter is that, no, he was not. He was exposed to Christian influences all through his life. He knew Christian people. He worked with Christian people, worked with Christian ideas. But Lincoln never joined a church, never was actively involved in any kind of Christian organization; in fact, really had only the most minimal religious profile in his own day.

What has happened, though, is that after Lincoln’s death, there was no shortage of people who wanted to claim Lincoln as being one of their own. They could do this because Lincoln was a very private person. He was often described as being shut-mouthed and reticent, and he really was. He did not like to talk about himself or his inner life.

His law partner, Herndon, who knew him probably as well as anybody could know someone not being part of the immediate family—Herndon said of Lincoln that Lincoln kept half of himself secret, away from the general public, and then he kept half of what was left even from his closest friends. People have rushed into that vacuum and tried to suggest, well, Lincoln was really heading in this direction or Lincoln made some kind of secret statement about this direction.

There was a very famous story that suggests that Lincoln was about to join the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday 1865.

LAMB: In Washington.

Prof. GUELZO: In—right here in Washington. And, of course, he’s assassinated on Good Friday. And the line of reasoning is that had not Lincoln been shot, he would have joined. He would have made a public Christian association of himself with the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church the following Sunday. It’s a very famous story. I’ve bumped into it any number of times, and there is not a single shred of evidence that it’s true.

LAMB: You say he was a deist?

Prof. GUELZO: He was something close to a deist.

LAMB: What is that?

Prof. GUELZO: He believed in a very general sense that there was a God, or at least there was a force that gave order and shape and predictability to the world and to the universe. But he would not move beyond anything more than that, anything more explicit than that. He believed there was some kind of God. But whether this God was a personal God, whether this God gave active direction and intervention to human affairs, that was a subject which, over years, he tended to shift his position on a good deal.

LAMB: I’m going to mention different things that you write about and–and just tell us what impact they had on his life. The Baptists.

Prof. GUELZO: Well, he was born into a Baptist family—in fact, a Baptist group who were very sectarian, very come-outerish. They were radical predestinarians. In other words, they believed that God ordained every event, whatever comes to pass. For that reason, this particular Baptist group, sometimes known as the Separate Baptists, would not sponsor missionaries. If the heathen were going to be converted, God would do it. You did not put yourself into a place where you were going to accomplish it. They did not have a professional paid clergy. They did not have Sunday schools. They even frowned on involvement in reform movements.

Lincoln grows up in that environment, and, in fact, he is so good at understanding that environment that, in his youth, he would get on top of tree stumps and deliver sermons that he had heard from the Sunday previous almost word for word, because his memory was so good. But this was acting; this was not being part of something. He never joined a Baptist church, never committed himself to a religious organization that way.

But he does carry with him—and this is the interesting thing—he does carry with him the stamp of that belief in predestination. He secularizes it into a belief in necessity or determinism. But like those folks that he grew up with, he does not believe that human beings have free will. He does not believe that human choices come from within ourselves. And he often described himself all through his life as a fatalist and would speak to people, “I do not believe that human beings make their own choices.”

LAMB: The Methodists.

Prof. GUELZO: The Methodists he knew because so many of the Methodists were so aggressive on the frontier in building churches, and sometimes not only building churches, but building public profile. One of his most famous political opponents in Illinois was a Methodist circuit-riding preacher, Peter Cartwright, and it was Cartwright, first of all, who was his opponent for the congressional seat that he ran for in the 1840s. Cartwright was running as a Democrat; Lincoln as a Whig. But Cartwright also started what Lincoln called a whispering campaign through the Seventh Electoral District, which suggested that people should not vote for this man, Lincoln, because he was an unbeliever and an infidel and, therefore, could not be trusted.

That accusation provoked the single-most important statement Lincoln ever made about his own personal religious beliefs, and that came in the form of a handbill, which was printed and circulated throughout the district prior to the election, in which Lincoln said, “It’s true that I do not belong to a Christian church, and it’s true that I have never made any profession of Christian belief, but I’ve never scorned Christians. I’ve never criticized Christian churches. I’ve never been an open scoffer at Christianity. And what’s more, I believe in this doctrine of necessity. But isn’t it true that there are some religious denominations that also believe in a doctrine of necessity?”

And he’s, of course, thinking about the Separate Baptists and a number of other denominations, like the old-school Presbyterians. And he defends himself by saying, “It’s true I believe in this doctrine of necessity, but, look, there are other religious people who believe in it, too. Therefore, the accusations that Cartwright is making against me really fall to the ground because you could just as easily make them about religious people.”

LAMB: Presbyterians.

Prof. GUELZO: He came to Springfield in 1837, and for many years did not associate himself with a church. In fact, he wrote back to New Salem at one point saying that he’d been in Springfield now this period of time and hadn’t gone to church because he was afraid he wouldn’t know how to behave there. I think that there’s some truth to his statement about his anxiety about behavior, but I think lying behind that is the fact that he really did not have anything in the way of religious beliefs. In fact, people who knew him in those early years in Springfield said that he would gather around him a number of his friends and he would take up the Bible and he would read parts of it aloud and criticize it, scoff at it, say that this couldn’t possibly be true, sometimes to the point where a number of his friends thought he was an atheist.

When he married Mary Todd, she was kind of religiously chilly herself, and for a number of years, neither of them went to church. But then in 1850, Lincoln’s second oldest son, Edward, dies and this provokes a crisis in the Lincoln household. It’s a crisis that is met by the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, a Scotsman named James Smith. He ministers to Mary Todd and has a very effective ministry to her, counseling her in her bereavement, and Lincoln goes to him–to Smith–with his perplexity, his questions. `Why did God take my son? I’m perplexed about predestination and providence.’ And from that point on, the Lincoln family affiliates with the First Presbyterian Church and Lincoln rents a pew there. He doesn’t join the church. In fact, sometimes he doesn’t even come, but he does take this step of associating his family, if not himself personally, with the First Presbyterian Church.

And he comes to like First Presbyterian because among the Presbyterian Churches, First Presbyterian is an old school church. It’s an old school church meaning that it was very loyal to the old traditional standard teachings about predestination. It was a very Calvinist church. And not only will Lincoln feel comfortable with that, because he is a fatalist, but when he comes to Washington as president, the church that he will affiliate his family with here, the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, is also an old school Presbyterian Church. If he is going to feel comfortable with any kind of formal religion, it will be the old school Presbyterians.

A Golden Age in Christian Publishing

I sometimes find myself grumbling a little bit about the state of publishing today, and especially the state of Christian publishing. Many of the big publishers have been gobbled up by corporations whose primary concern is not the glory of God but the health of the bottom line. Some of the medium-sized publishers seem to collect any and every rambling word of the popular pastors and personalities so they can slap those words on paper. Many of the smallest publishers are churning out books that simply do not deserve to be printed. New tools for self-publishing allow anyone with an idea to commit it to paper and distribute it as widely as they can. And that’s not all that is concerning or annoying. There are the thousands of truly awful, unbiblical books being published each year, and the fact that the bestseller lists are inevitably dominated by titles that are not only bad, but often downright dangerous.

And yet, when I stop and consider the state of Christian publishing, I can’t help but think that we are in a golden age. A strange age, to be sure, but a golden one nonetheless. Christians today are extraordinarily blessed by a vast number of excellent, Christ-centered, God-glorifying books.

I see evidence for this golden age in so many different ways.

I see it in Christian-owned and Christian-operated publishers who believe their mission is to publish books that are doctrinally-rich, biblically-sound, and skillfully-written. Many of these publishers have existed for decades and have maintained their mission and focus for generations. I am grateful for the work of P&R (serving us since 1930), Crossway (serving us since 1938), Christian Focus (serving us since the early 1970’s), and so many others.

I see it in the dedicated men and women who work for publishers formerly owned by Christians that have since been purchased by giant multinational corporations. While the corporations may be answerable to their shareholders, there are sincere people within these organizations are who committed to publishing excellent and God-glorifying books. In that vein I am grateful for so many dedicated Christians who labor behind-the-scenes at Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Multnomah, and others.

I see this golden age in new and promising strategic partnerships between ministries and publishers, where publishers are joining with gospel-loving ministries to extend the reach of those ministries through the printed word. The Gospel Coalition is partnering with Crossway, 9Marks is partnering with B&H (and several others), while many other partnerships are only just taking shape; as they do that, they will bring us even more good books.

I see it in publishers that are committed to publishing Bible commentaries that, though they may sell far fewer copies than the popular-level books, serve new generations of pastors by better equipping them to understand, explain and apply God’s Word to their lives and their congregations. InterVarsity Press has been doing this very thing for many years, as have Eerdmans, Baker, Moody, Evangelical Press and many others.

I see it in publishers that focus on academic works that, like commentaries, sell in lower volumes than those Christian living books we so love. These academic works allow scholars to continue to examine the deep things of Scripture and allow them to respond to those who take dissenting or even outright heretical perspectives. These are usually the same publishers who are producing commentaries, though most publishers serve us here to at least some extent.

I see it in publishers that look to the great books published in the past, seeking to draw from the best of the authors who lived many years ago. These publishers mine the voluminous writings of the Reformers and Puritans and other theologians of church history to make those old but brilliants works accessible. We owe a debt of gratitude to Banner of Truth, Reformation Heritage and others like them.

I see it in publishers that produce material specifically for devotional purposes and material that will help us raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. These publishers provide fine books that can guide us as we study God’s Word and as we teach it to our children. The Good Book Company excels here, as do New Growth Press, Matthias Media, Shepherd Press and B&H.

I see in in newer publishers that have been inspired by the mission of those publishers that have served us so well and for so many years. They have founded new companies to address specific issues, to serve specific demographics, or to fill specific niches. I thank God for 10ofThose and am blessed to have been involved in the founding of Cruciform Press, as just a couple of examples.

In all these ways, and so many more, today’s Christian readers are well served and greatly blessed. I believe that in the future we will look back on this time and see it for what it is: a golden age in Christian publishing.

How to Become A Strong Christian — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Lloyd-Jones,

We have to spend time in understanding and studying…[the] great doctrines of the Christian faith. It is only as we do so that we shall become strong, and become men, and be able to take the stronger meat, and so grow, and be powerful and able to teach others. There is no doubt but that the most unhappy and discouraged Christians today are those who do not exercise their senses with respect to this Word of God.

We cannot live on snippets in the spiritual realm. We have to get down to these profound truths of the Scripture; we have to make time to read them and to read books about them. The trouble today, as it has been for so many years, is that Christian people have not been reading their Scriptures, not troubling to understand them. They say, ‘Oh, I am too busy, I have too many things to do, and life is very harassing at the present time’. But our forefathers, who worked much harder, and for much longer hours, and for much smaller wages, found the time.

Those men used to read their Scriptures and study them. They generally bought a Bible which had a commentary at the bottom of each page, and they studied it and spent time with it. They also read other books which helped them to understand the Scriptures. They were ‘exercising their senses’; and that is what made them strong.

That was the secret of the Protestant martyrs. It was the secret likewise of the Covenanters in Scotland in the seventeenth century. Those men were strong because they knew their Scriptures, and they knew the truth of the Scriptures. They had exercised their senses. They gave time to the exercise; they lived by the Word. And thus they ceased to be babes and became mighty, strong men.

You and I must behave in a like manner. There is no substitute for that. We do not sit back and ‘just look to Jesus’ to do it all for us. That is a false doctrine: I do not hesitate to use such a term. We must exercise our senses, we must build ourselves up in our most holy faith. It will not happen to us automatically; there are no shortcuts in the Christian life. If you want to build yourself up, exercise yourself in the Scriptures.

taken from: D.M. Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977)

5 Principles for Christian Growth — J.C. Ryle

J.C. Ryle,

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

The words of James must never be forgotten: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). This is no doubt as true of growth in grace, as it is of everything else. It is the “gift of God.” But still it must always be kept in mind that God is pleased to work by means. God has ordained means as well as ends. He that would grow in grace must use the means of growth.

This is a point, I fear, which is too much overlooked by believers. Many admire growth in grace in others and wish that they themselves were like them. But they seem to suppose that those who grow are what they are by some special gift or grant from God and that, as this gift is not bestowed on themselves, they must be content to sit still. This is a grievous delusion and one against which I desire to testify with all my might. I wish it to be distinctly understood that growth in grace is bound up with the use of means within the reach of all believers and that, as a general rule, growing souls are what they are because they use these means.

Let me ask the special attention of my readers while I try to set forth in order the means of growth. Cast away forever the vain thought that if a believer does not grow in grace it is not his fault. Settle it in your mind that a believer, a man quickened by the Spirit, is not a mere dead creature, but a being of mighty capacities and responsibilities. Let the words of Solomon sink down into your heart: “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4).

a. One thing essential to growth in grace is diligence in the use of private means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man must use by himself alone, and no one can use for him. I include under this head private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, and private meditation and self–examination. The man who does not take pains about these three things must never expect to grow. Here are the roots of true Christianity. Wrong here, a man is wrong all the way through! Here is the whole reason why many professing Christians never seem to get on. They are careless and slovenly about their private prayers. They read their Bibles but little and with very little heartiness of spirit. They give themselves no time for self–inquiry and quiet thought about the state of their souls.

It is useless to conceal from ourselves that the age we live in is full of peculiar dangers. It is an age of great activity and of much hurry, bustle and excitement in religion. Many are “running to and fro,” no doubt, and “knowledge is increased” (Dan. 12:4). Thousands are ready enough for public meetings, sermon hearing, or anything else in which there is “sensation.” Few appear to remember the absolute necessity of making time to “commune with our own hearts, and be still” (Ps. 4:4). But without this, there is seldom any deep spiritual prosperity. Let us remember this point! Private religion must receive our first attention, if we wish our souls to grow.

b. Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is carefulness in the use of public means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man has within his reach as a member of Christ’s visible church. Under this head I include the ordinances of regular Sunday worship, the uniting with God’s people in common prayer and praise, the preaching of the Word, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. I firmly believe that the manner in which these public means of grace are used has much to say to the prosperity of a believer’s soul. It is easy to use them in a cold and heartless way. The very familiarity of them is apt to make us careless. The regular return of the same voice, and the same kind of words, and the same ceremonies, is likely to make us sleepy and callous and unfeeling. Here is a snare into which too many professing Christians fall. If we would grow, we must be on our guard here. Here is a matter in which the Spirit is often grieved and saints take great damage. Let us strive to use the old prayers, and sing the old hymns, and kneel at the old communion rail, and hear the old truths preached, with as much freshness and appetite as in the year we first believed. It is a sign of bad health when a person loses relish for his food; and it is a sign of spiritual decline when we lose our appetite for means of grace. Whatever we do about public means, let us always do it “with our might” (Eccl. 9:10). This is the way to grow!

c. Another thing essential to growth in grace is watchfulness over our conduct in the little matters of everyday life. Our tempers, our tongues, the discharge of our several relations of life, our employment of time—each and all must be vigilantly attended to if we wish our souls to prosper. Life is made up of days, and days of hours, and the little things of every hour are never so little as to be beneath the care of a Christian. When a tree begins to decay at root or heart, the mischief is first seen at the extreme end of the little branches. “He that despises little things,” says an uninspired writer, “shall fall by little and little.” That witness is true. Let others despise us, if they like, and call us precise and over careful. Let us patiently hold on our way, remembering that “we serve a precise God,” that our Lord’s example is to be copied in the least things as well as the greatest, and that we must “take up our cross daily” and hourly, rather than sin. We must aim to have a Christianity which, like the sap of a tree, runs through every twig and leaf of our character, and sanctifies all. This is one way to grow!

d. Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is caution about the company we keep and the friendships we form. Nothing perhaps affects man’s character more than the company he keeps. We catch the ways and tone of those we live and talk with, and unhappily get harm far more easily than good. Disease is infectious, but health is not. Now if a professing Christian deliberately chooses to be intimate with those who are not friends of God and who cling to the world, his soul is sure to take harm. It is hard enough to serve Christ under any circumstances in such a world as this. But it is doubly hard to do it if we are friends of the thoughtless and ungodly. Mistakes in friendship or marriage engagements are the whole reason why some have entirely ceased to grow. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (1 Cor. 15:33; James 4:4). Let us seek friends who will stir us up about our prayers, our Bible reading, and our employment of time, about our souls, our salvation, and a world to come. Who can tell the good that a friend’s word in season may do, or the harm that it may stop? This is one way to grow.

e. There is one more thing which is absolutely essential to growth in grace, and that is regular and habitual communion with the Lord Jesus. In saying this, let no one suppose for a minute that I am referring to the Lord’s Supper. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean that daily habit of communion between the believer and his Savior, which can only be carried on by faith, prayer and meditation. It is a habit, I fear, of which many believers know little. A man may be a believer and have his feet on the rock, and yet live far below his privileges. It is possible to have “union” with Christ, and yet to have little if any “communion” with Him. But, for all that, there is such a thing.

The names and offices of Christ, as laid down in Scripture, appear to me to show unmistakably that this communion between the saint and his Savior is not a mere fancy, but a real true thing. Between the Bridegroom and His bride, between the Head and His members, between the Physician and His patients, between the Advocate and His clients, between the Shepherd and His sheep, between the Master and His scholars, there is evidently implied a habit of familiar communion, of daily application for things needed, of daily pouring out and unburdening our hearts and minds. Such a habit of dealing with Christ is clearly something more than a vague general trust in the work that Christ did for sinners. It is getting close to Him and laying hold on Him with confidence, as a loving, personal Friend. This is what I mean by communion.

Now I believe that no man will ever grow in grace who does not know something experimentally of the habit of communion. We must not be content with a general orthodox knowledge that Christ is the Mediator between God and man, and that justification is by faith and not by works, and that we put our trust in Christ. We must go further than this. We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus and to deal with Him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realize what it is to turn to Him first in every need, to talk to Him about every difficulty, to consult Him about every step, to spread before Him all our sorrows, to get Him to share in all our joys, to do all as in His sight, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to Him. This is the way that Paul lived “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” “To me to live is Christ” (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21). It is ignorance of this way of living that makes so many see no beauty in the book of Canticles. But it is the man who lives in this way, who keeps up constant communion with Christ—this is the man, I say emphatically, whose soul will grow.

- J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
taken from: Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.

View the original article here

Why Aren’t Christian Leaders More Discerning? — John MacArthur

MacArthur,

I’ve been all over the world, as you know, and have had lots of discussions with lots of Christian leaders and I’ve read lots of things about the church and the history of the church and the theology of the church. I’ve been all over everywhere and I can just tell you this. Right now in this day, and it’s been this way for a long time through this twentieth century, THE biggest problem in the church is its inability and unwillingness to distinguish true Christians from false. It’s…it’s literally killing the church.

You go all over the world, and you see people who claim to be Christians. I’ve been in the eastern Europe and I’ve seen the orthodox church which is by its own definition a Christian church. They believe they’re the only true Christians in eastern Europe. And then you go into western Europe, and earlier this year in France and then in the last couple of weeks in Italy and there is this massive monolithic system called Roman Catholicism which believes itself to be the only true Christian Church on the planet. It’s one thing for them to believe it, it’s something else for Billy Graham to say the Pope is a fine, outstanding Christian. Something else for him to hold an evangelistic meeting and invite all the Catholics to cooperate. It’s something else for Bill Bright to say that the Pope is a fine, outstanding Christian. It’s something else for people in the ECT, the people who are in Christian leadership in America to embrace the Roman Catholics and say we all love the same Christ, we all serve the same God in the same way. And these are all our Christian brothers and sisters. It’s one thing for these institutions to exist, it’s something else for those people who are Christians to embrace them as if they’re all true Christians. This obliterates the line of clarity and invites the enemy into the camp and just devastates the church.

You can turn on your television and watch TBN. Everybody that comes on is embraced as a Christian, even though it’s just…just filled with false teachers and people who obviously haven’t been delivered…It’s the idea that anybody who believes in Jesus is a Christian. And if you want to push the point beyond that, you’re somehow a problem and you’re divisive and schismatic…Liberal Anglicanism in England back in the 60's was in its heyday and there were some evangelicals in the Anglican church and they thought…Well, we need to move in to the Anglican church and get a hold of this thing and partner up with these brothers, they’re our brothers. We can’t let things divide us, we’re all one church.

And it was David Martyn Lloyd-Jones who stood up and said this is wrong. You’ve got to separate. And he was vilified and he was marginalized and he was pushed out, but he was right as time has proven because whatever evangelicalism was there has succumb to the power of liberalism and the pollution of the church.

You can look at the American denominations…the historic denominations of the Presbyterians, and the Methodists and the Episcopalians and even largely the Lutherans and others and you can see the tremendous slide. And it goes back. They invited people into their schools, in their seminaries to teach. They said they were Christians but they were wrong and they came in and they stole the institutions and sent them right down the drain. This is deadly stuff. And now you even have evangelical churches that are designing their churches to make unbelievers comfortable.

This is frightening stuff. And I guess I feel at this point, I’ve got nothing to lose anyway, I need to…I have to be accountable to the Lord, it’s just time to stand up and say this…this has got to be brought to the test of Scripture. You can have a thing called Amsterdam 2000, you can have 5,000 so-called evangelists and celebrate all this unity, but who’s finding out whether these people are Christians? They come from Catholicism and orthodox groups and fringe groups and all kinds of strange groups and even some cults. I talked to a man even this week who said he thinks there’s going to be many Mormons in heaven. This is continuing to escalate.

And I guess it’s time to just stand up and say there has to be a line drawn. The issue of who is truly a Christian is at the very center of the church’s life and ministry. This has to be protected. There isn’t any fellowship between light and darkness, is there, 2 Corinthians 6? There isn’t any concord between Christ and Satan. Two can’t walk together unless they be…what?…agreed. You have to come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing.

And here is the church absorbing all of this. And now it’s so confusing that the church itself doesn’t even know who’s a Christian and frankly I don’t think they particularly care as long as you say you believe in Jesus. A friend, Iain Murray who is a gifted theologian and a great biographer, [who] wrote the massive two-volume biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones has also written on Jonathan Edwards and many others. He is a very esteemed Englishman and has been here many times, we’ve spent many hours together, has written a new book called Evangelicalism Divided in which I read it, just devoured it over the last few weeks while I was in Italy in the plane, in the back of the bus, in the room, everywhere because it just consumed me. Murray is tracking the twentieth century decline of evangelicalism and it’s a book of history that is very, very revealing. And Murray says, and I think he’s absolutely right, he says, the inability of the evangelical church to distinguish between a Christian and a non-Christian is quote: “The greatest failure of professing Christianity in the English-speaking world in the twentieth century,” end quote.

He understands the implications. If you redefine non-Christians as Christians you obliterate the distinctiveness of the church and you therefore create an environment in which you have to tolerate error because these people represent error. He further writes, this is very important and insightful, “The health of the church,” and he’s speaking as a historian here, having tracked it very carefully, “the health of the church has always been in proportion to the extent to which the difference between Christian and non-Christian has been kept sharp and clear.” Absolutely right. The starting point for the church is to be absolutely clear about who is saved and who is not. If we’re not clear about that, then we don’t know who’s on our side and we don’t know who we really need to reach.

From the time that God began to form a people for Himself, Satan endeavored to intrude. From the time that the demons cohabitated with the…with the daughters of men in Genesis 6, Satan has been trying to pollute and mix…all the way down to sowing tares among the wheat. And it’s really true. Murray says, “The most insidious opposition to the gospel has come from within worldly churches.”

I’ll say this as simply as I can. The gospel is more often attacked on TBN than it is on NBC. This has been the legacy of liberalism which has been embraced by quote/unquote “evangelicals.” This has been the legacy of Charismaticism where theology and…I’m not speaking about all the people but for the most part where the Movement tolerates anybody’s view. This has been the legacy of the seeker-friendly pragmatic movement. This has been the legacy of evangelical ecumenism which wants to re-embrace orthodoxy and Catholicism and everybody else. And the confusion goes from the grass roots right on up to the top. I’ve talked to the evangelical brain trust, if you will, and they aren’t even willing to commit to who’s a Christian. Even my conversation with J.I. Packer, so capable and gifted a theologian and writer, when I asked him…what is the line by which you determine a true Christian? All he could say was, “That’s a good question.”

For most of the last part of the twentieth century, the last 50 years, there has been a sustained effort to invent and promote a popular definition of Christianity, which is neither biblical nor legitimate and to fill the church with non-Christians. . .

Satan always wants to get the church confused about who’s saved, then he can infiltrate and take over, as he’s done in so many institutions and denominations.

Iain Murray again writes, “When churches have recovered from apostasy, historically, such as at the time of the Reformation and the eighteenth century evangelical revival…it has always been…by a return to such discriminating preaching and practice.” What he means is when there’s ever a recovery from a time of apostasy, it has come when preaching has become discriminating.

What does it mean to discriminate? If you say you discriminate, what does it mean? If you say…you hear people say, be a discriminating buyer, what does that mean? It means that you can choose the best out of the lot, right? You know how to discriminate. It means to discern. The only hope for the church is discriminating, discerning preaching. I don’t think there’s any organizational answer. I don’t think we need more meetings, more seminars. We need preachers who will stand up and preach discriminating messages.

And Murray says, “Given the great decline in the English-speaking churches of the twentieth century, the chief need again was the reassertion of the meaning of being a Christian.” Wow! The chief hope for the church is discriminating preaching primarily directed at the issue of who is a Christian.

I don’t care how widely known you are as an evangelical leader, to say that Roman Catholics and the Pope are wonderful Christians is not discriminating, he questions somebody’s faculties of discernment. And sometimes I wonder if those who can’t discern the true church can’t discern it because they’re not part of it. I know people who aren’t a part of it can’t discern it because the natural man understands not the things of God. I don’t expect non-Christians to be discerning about the church, but I do expect Christians to be discerning about the church. And yet you have people who have risen to prominence in evangelicalism who have defined evangelicalism on a large scale who lack that discernment. And what we need is exactly what Murray says, we have to have some discriminating preaching. It’s time…it’s time to draw the line again and that means to be unpopular, I hate to say.

And people ask me…why do people do this? Why do they compromise? Why aren’t they discriminating? Why don’t they say what needs to be said? Why don’t they say this is not a Christian institution, these people are not Christians? Why don’t they make a clear-cut line? Why don’t do they do that?

And the only answer I can come up with and I think it’s a general one and Murray in his book agrees with me on this, the fear of being alienated. It’s the fear of man, it’s the desire for popularity. It’s the desire for the widest possible acceptance. It’s the desire for a reputation. It’s the desire not to be marginalized and pushed off into a corner. It’s a desire to be tolerable and tolerant because it affords you some level of popularity. Because it lets you move up the social strata in the world of Christianity. And so they seek the approval of man. And it’s amazing how they can seek the approval of man at the expense of the approval of the Lord of the church.

taken from: Deliverance: The Neglected Doctrine, a sermon preached by John MacArthur on October 01, 2000 (emphasis added). Click here to listen to, or read the message in its entirety.

The Primary Means of Christian Growth — A.W. Pink

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” — John 17:17

Pink,

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

It was not the sanctification of the apostles’ persons that Christ prayed for, nor the sanctification of their nature, but rather of their walk. As to their persons, God had set them apart in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4); as to their nature, that had been sanctified when (at the new birth) a principle of holiness had been communicated to them; and neither the one nor the other admitted of any improvement. Now in connection with the sanctification of the walk–a term which includes much more than outward conduct–the Word is the great means employed by God, working effectually with and by it on the hearts of His people. By the Scriptures the Spirit continues to enlighten the understanding, convict the conscience, inflame the affections, and move the will. By them He conveys to us a fuller and clearer knowledge of the amazing grace of God and love of Christ toward us, and how it becomes us to act in return. Not that our hearts then become more sanctified, but they are more influenced by Divine things and exercised before God.

Many and varied are the Scriptures which treat of this particular branch of our subject: the place which the written Word has in the practical sanctification of the believer. From them we select the following: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psa. 19:7-9). “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word” (Psa. 119:9). “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32). “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). “I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25, 26). “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1, 2). But let us enter more into detail and show wherein the believer is sanctified by the Truth.

First, by imparting to us a knowledge of God’s will. That which He requires of us can be ascertained in no other way than through an acquaintance with the teachings of Holy Writ. It is for that reason God has given to us His Word: to set before us His standard of conduct, to make known to us what He hates and what He loves, to expose the sophistries of Satan and the vanities of the world–in short, to provide us with a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). The believer is sanctified experimentally just to the extent that he is brought under the illuminating and commanding influences of the Word of Truth. Personal holiness is our conformity to its requirements. Practical holiness is separation and abstention from evil, and association with and performance of that which is good; and only from the Scriptures can we fully discover what is evil and what is good.

From what has just been pointed out, it necessarily follows that all human rules and regulations for godly living are worthless, and the Christian must steadfastly refuse to be brought into bondage by them. Men have devised a great variety of prohibitions and observances in which they suppose holiness to consist, and by attending to the same have appeared to themselves and to others to have attained a very high degree of sanctity. The Pharisees were guilty of this, adding to the commandments of God their own traditions, such as the ceremonial washing of their hands and vessels in order to avoid moral defilement. Roman Catholics have followed in the same track, by inducing many of their deluded victims to retire entirely from the world to the “holy” solitude of monasteries and convents, binding themselves to devote most of their time to the repetition of prayers and other “sacred” exercises.

There has always been an element in Protestantism–those temperamentally disposed toward asceticism and mysticism–who have pursued this same will o’ the wisp. Supposing that the same would produce a greater deliverance from sin and secure a closer walking with God, they have submitted themselves to frequent fastings and other penances, taking upon them vows of poverty and celibacy, depriving themselves of the ordinary comforts and innocent recreations of life, and having sought to exist on the sparsest possible diet…But as the Holy Spirit tells us in Colossians 2:20-23 these ordinances of “touch not, taste not, handle not” are but “the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body,” but, as it is added, “not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”

The aesthetical austerities advocated in varying degrees by Keswick and other “Victorious Life” platforms, are little better than those of the poor Roman Catholics, and we may say of the one what Luther said of the other, “they are nothing else than spiritual sorceries.” How thankful should we be, then, that God Himself has placed in our hands a perfect and complete revelation of His will, an unerring standard by which we may measure all the plausible theorizings of “nice” and “good” men!

As we cannot serve God by doing what He has not commanded and still less by doing what He has forbidden (bringing ourselves into bondage to modern Pharisees-A.W.P.) so it is presumptuous to expect God’s blessing upon means which, being introduced as supplementary to His ordinances, very plainly import that in this respect man is wiser than He is (John Dick).

We have dwelt longer upon our first division because we were most anxious the reader should clearly perceive that the written Word is the chief means used by God in the practical sanctification of His people, for it–and it alone–imparts to us a knowledge of His will, discovering the things to be shunned and revealing the things which are to be followed. Just so far as we, in our quest after piety, substitute for the teachings of Holy Writ the sophistical reasonings and dictatorial edicts of men, shall we forsake the substance and vainly pursue the shadows. On the other hand, just so far as we abstain from what God has forbidden and perform what He has enjoined, are we really treading the Highway of Holiness. How it behooves us, then, to test our views and ideas by the Word of Truth!

Second, by its influential considerations. The Word of Truth not only defines our duties, but it also presents many considerations which are calculated to work powerfully upon our affections and wills. The Scriptures do more than set before us bare precepts–they exhibit them in all the loveliness of example, in the history of saints, and particularly in the life of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the precepts are accompanied by encouraging promises (2 Cor. 7:1)–the value of which is realized only so far as we are conscious of our weakness. When called upon to “purify our hearts” (James 4:8), we are ready to exclaim, “How is it possible for me to cleanse myself from the pollutions of indwelling sin?” In this state of despondency the Scriptures afford relief by assuring of supernatural grace: James 1:5; 4:6; 2 Corinthians 12:9. When bidden to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we are informed “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12, 13).

Third, by strengthening faith, for the Word is its appointed food: “nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:6). There are many of God’s dear children who long after and pray for an increase of their faith, but it is idle to do so while they continue to neglect the means provided for its nourishment. Trust in God will only be developed by feeding on His Word: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16). When the Devil challenged the faith of Christ, He set His people an abiding example by replying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Faith is strengthened by clearer apprehensions of the Truth. Hope brightens at the glorious prospect of life and immortality which the Gospel displays. Love grows warmer as the love of God is better known. All the graces of the Christian thrive under the beneficent influences of the Truth.

Fourth, by making us better acquainted with Christ. The more our minds are opened to take in the Truth concerning the Person and work of the Redeemer, the more is the soul perfumed therewith, and the more are its faculties influenced thereby. A deeper experimental knowledge of Christ enables us to rest upon Him more simply for the whole of our salvation. It is through the Truth that we become more firmly persuaded of the Father’s love to us in His Son, whereby is “the heart established in grace” (Heb. 13:9). As our first believing of the Gospel had a most powerful effect upon the heart, so our continued apprehensions of other portions of the Truth produce beneficial results in the soul. It is because we shall have a perfect knowledge of Christ in Heaven that there we shall be perfectly holy.

Fifth, by its sacred awe upon the soul. “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner (critic) of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). There is a pungency to the Holy Scriptures possessed by no other writings; often the wicked are conscious of this, and therefore refuse to read them. But far more are the regenerate aware of it: to them their utterances are the voice of God Himself, and they “tremble at His Word” (Isa. 66:2). Its denunciations of sin, the exposure of its infinite enormity, the announcement of its eternal punishment, the exhibition which the Scriptures give of the Son of God dying upon the Cross in order to make an atonement for it, cause the believer to walk more and more softly before God. While the character of God as revealed in His Word–His majesty, His power, His holiness, His wrath–exerts both a restraining and constraining influence upon its readers.

It is this very quality of the Scriptures–to sanctify–which supplies the Christian with the surest witness of their Divine origin. “When ye received the Word of God . . . . which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). Ah, it is not “the testimony of the Church” nor the witness of Christians, but a personal acquaintance with their sanctifying power which conveys certainty to the soul. It is well to heed the testimony of the Lord’s people first, just as we take a medicine on the recommendation of others who have found it helpful; but we must not rest there. “For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thess. 1:5): this is what supplies convincing proof–as it was with the Samaritans who came to Christ because of the testimony of the woman at the well, saying to her, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves” (John 4:42).

Alas, the great majority in Christendom receive the Scriptures on no better ground that the Muslims believe the Koran–because it is the tradition of their fathers. O labour, my reader, for something better than that, and “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). In order for that the Scriptures must be read, searched, studied, meditated upon; and, above all, received by faith. Note how “through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth” (2 Thess. 2:13) are linked together. The Truth has no power on us further than it is believed by us. The Word worketh not without an act on our part, as well as God’s. Solemn is that warning, “The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2). Where faith is active the precepts awe and the promises cheer. When tempted to evil, faith says, Shall I thus requite Christ for dying in my stead?

It is at this very point that we may perceive the great and vital difference which exists between social respectability and real piety or practical sanctification. The one is produced by moral education, according to natural principles, without any spiritual knowledge or heart desire to please God. Many are upright, truthful, honest in commercial transactions, obedient to civil laws and restrained from outward wickedness, who yet have no true grace. But all real practical sanctification is inclined and regulated by the Scriptures. Only that is personal holiness when we submit and conform ourselves in heart and life to the will of God as it is revealed in His Word. “He that doeth Truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:21): he tests himself by this rule and measures his conduct by this standard.

taken from Arthur W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, January 1937.

The Dark Side of Christian Celebrity

We have a love-hate relationship with celebrity culture. We who consider ourselves part of this New Calvinism hate the idea of celebrity, but have no clear idea how to avoid the reality. We say we hate a celebrity culture, yet stories about our celebrities dominate blogs and periodicals; a sure way to draw in massive amounts of traffic is to write about each new scandal connected to each of our celebrities. We see the dangers posed by a culture of celebrity, but also see that to some degree it is unavoidable. After all, there are men and women we honour and respect and look up to, who are worthy of our regard and worthy of the leadership we give them.

We expend all kinds of effort in celebrating these people we love, and commending them to others, and spreading their fame. We serve as evangelists for their books and their churches and their conferences. We build them up in our own minds and in the wider church culture. We do this naturally and almost without thinking about it. “You’ve just got to read Don’t Waste Your Life!” “Have you seen Paul Washer’s Shocking Youth Sermon?” “Don’t you read that blog? Don’t you follow that Twitter account?”

We can’t stop this celebrity culture. Not all the way. Carl Trueman has become a celebrity in his own right at least in part because of all he has written to oppose celebrityism. Ironically, his anti-celebrity earned him a place on the front stage at one of the biggest conferences going. And this is what happens to the men and women we raise up—they are given bigger platforms and a louder voice. This is the way we want it. We usually don’t regard celebrityism as a problem so long as our celebrities are the ones on top. It’s the other person’s celebrity we have problems with. If we need to have celebrities, I’m glad that Trueman is one of mine.

This is the front side of celebrity culture—elevating people to high positions. We all see this and all know it. But there is another side as well. There is a flip side and it is even uglier. It is the destruction of those people we once honoured. Sometimes I wonder what we love more, raising up our celebrities or tearing them back down.

Let me pause for one moment to assure you that I began writing this article long before the most recent scandal, and even the one before that (which takes us back all of about ten days, I suppose). But if you think I am taking the passive-aggressive approach to writing about that guy or those guys or that situation, you’re wrong.

Back to where I left off. We love the rise and we love the fall. Both make for fantastic entertainment. I wonder sometimes if the reason we end up tearing down our celebrities is that we have elevated them to such a degree in the first place. Once we have done that, once we have put them on the biggest platforms and once we have given them publishing deals with the wealthiest publishers, there is really only one way for them to go, and it’s not up.

There is something perverse within us that rejoices just as much at their downfall as it did at their elevation. The satisfaction we feel in seeing them gain authority is matched only by the satisfaction we feel in seeing them lose that authority. Just as we have web sites dedicated to their ascension, we have web sites dedicated to their destruction. There is a celebrity machine, to be sure, but there is also a celebrity landfill, a celebrity dump, a place we relegate people once we are through with them, once they no longer please us.

What is amazing is how quickly we can make the switch, how quickly we can turn honor into dishonor and love into hate. From the heights to the depths may be only a matter of weeks or months. Then the book deals are gone, the platforms are removed, the Twitter feed vacant. The higher the climb, the farther the fall. The farther the fall, the longer we have to sit back and watch it all unfold. When it comes to our celebrities, we can be every bit as petty and every bit as cutthroat as the culture around us.

Let’s be clear: Some of our celebrities forfeit their right to be admired. Some of them take advantage of our goodwill and commit gross sin. But many others we demolish on the basis of rumor or hearsay or angry former friends and colleagues. Somehow we want to believe what we read about them, we do not give them the benefit of the doubt, we do not believe all things and hope all things about them. We read the rumors, we spread the rumors, we stand back and watch them fall. The effort we once put into raising them, we now put into destroying them.

My thoughts on Christian celebrity are still unclear, still forming, still in their infancy. I need to think and write more about it. But in the meantime, let’s consider that flip side, that dark side, to this culture of celebrity. There’s the up and there’s the down, and we seem to love them both. Do you?

(For more thoughts on Christian celebrity consider reading The Christian Celebrity where I posit that we are often unfair in raising celebrities who are poorly equipped for what we demand of them. If we load them with expectation and opportunity that exceeds their ability, we shouldn’t be shocked when they do not succeed in the way we had hoped.)

Living the Christian Life One Day At a Time — John MacArthur

John MacArthur,

While all Christians are spiritual positionally, they are not always spiritual practically. That is, we do not always act spiritual. That is why Paul wrote about spiritual babies in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. Paul said that he should have been able to talk to the Corinthians as spiritual men, but they were not acting like spiritual men. They were not receiving the Word, and there was unholiness in their lives. They were behaving carnally, requiring him to deal with them as babes in Christ.

The Corinthians were not unique. All Christians face the same problem. All Christians are “spiritual” because they know Christ as Savior and have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, but all Christians do not always act spiritual. Sometimes we act in very carnal and natural ways.

A good illustration of that is the apostle Peter. In Matthew 16 Peter recognized Christ as the Son of the living God. Jesus immediately responded, “Blessed are you, Simon, and now I am going to change your name to Peter [the word meant "rock"]. You are going to be a new person, solid as a rock” (see 16:17-18). But in the twenty-first chapter of John, Jesus met Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, following Peter’s failure on the night before the crucifixion. There Jesus called him Simon, because Peter had been acting like his old self–like the man he was before he believed in Christ.

What Peter had done–and what all of us do from time to time–was temporarily cease following closely after Christ. Even after Pentecost, Peter continued to struggle occasionally with fleshly behavior. At one time even Paul had to rebuke him face to face (see Gal. 2:11-21)

Paul himself understood firsthand the Christians unrelenting struggle with the flesh, and wrote movingly of it in Romans 6-7. The point is, spirituality is not a permanent state you enter into the moment you get “zapped” with some kind of spiritual experience. Spirituality is simply receiving the living Word daily from God, letting it dwell in you richly, and then living in obedience to it through a moment-by-moment walk in the Spirit. Paul said as much in Galatians 5:16: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

The word “walk” is a very important word in the New Testament. To walk speaks of moment-by-moment conduct. Paul taught the church to walk in accord with the Holy Spirit: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Walking speaks of a measured pace, taking one step at time. That is, after all, how true spirituality functions: one step, one moment at a time.

taken from: Charismatic Chaos. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. pp. 250-251. (emphasis added)

View the original article here

The Christian Home: Another Protestant Reformation Blessing

The Reformation was a time of rediscovery. The church, in a sense, rediscovered justification by faith alone. The reformation also rediscovered biblical worship, and this was seen as the second pillar of the protestant reformation. As the church was freed from the bondage of a fear based religion, other blessings were brought forth.

Other aspects of the reformation affected the life of the church and had profound implications on a developing Christian society. One such blessing in the rediscovery of biblical religion was the Christian home and the Christian marriage, which brings us to Psalm 128.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
 who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed,
and it shall be well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” What an assuring introduction. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all blessedness. If you fear the Lord, the psalmist says, “It shall be well with you.”

In April of 1523, twelve nuns who had been convinced of Lutheran theology escaped in a fish barrel-wagon to Wittenburg. Martin Luther made sure that each of the nuns were able to safely continue their journeys to their parents, new husbands, or others who would care for them. After two years there was one nun left, Katherine Von Bora, and she had her eyes set on The Doctor himself—Martin Luther. However, his opinion of her was that she was proud and stubborn, and he would hear nothing of the idea of marriage for fear of ruining what was begun in the Protestant Reformation.

Eventually, Luther prayerfully considered marriage according to God’s Word and the blessed promise this this psalm puts forth about marriage and family: “It will be well with thee.” Subsequently, he confided to a friend that he would marry Katie, because  “My marriage would please my father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep.”  Classic Luther, for sure.

In 1525, the Doctor Luther proposed to Katie. She accepted and they married, some sources claiming that very same day. Indeed they were blessed as they entered into marriage in the fear of the Lord.

Psalm 128 goes on to describe the blessedness that comes to a man when he is living in the fear of the Lord. Verses 2, 3, and 4 each describe the blessedness in this life which makes up the Christian home. The Word of God tells us that belief in the gospel will result in temporal blessings–even a home unto the glory of Christ. We must cling to this promise.

These blessings also show us that what was destroyed at the fall, as the man was cursed to labor by sweat and the woman was cursed to labor by pain, is reversed under the gospel and becomes great blessing unto Christ’s glory.

The husband who fears the Lord is promised in verse 2: “You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands. A reversal of the curse delivered to man in The Garden.  The wife is described in the following verse as “a fruitful vine” within the house. The vine is a symbol of fruitfulness and joy and even of covenant faithfulness. The wife is seen here as productive and joyful and faithful. The curse is reversed for her as well as the kingdom labors within the home are shown as fruitful and blessed!

And then verse 3 continues that the children of the home will be “like olive plants” around the table. They will prove to be a blessing, but one that needs to be cultivated—the olive trees being described here as plants, or saplings, needing much love and care and food.

As we think again of Martin and his Katie, we know that they set a biblical example for all protestant marriages to follow. Love, industry, and mutual duties were well cultivated in the home. They lived in the former Augustinian monastery where Martin pastored, taught, wrote thousands and thousands of pages, and directed so much of the early stages of the Protestant Reformation. He had up to 30 theological students at a time that he was training for ministry!  So Martin was a busy husband laboring for the kingdom and seeing the fruit of those labors.  As verse 2  describes, he was blessed.

Equally blessed was Katie. Martin called her “Lord Katie” partly in fun, but partly because of her industry. She was a fruitful vine within the home. She administered the finances of the home. She purchased and bred cattle, even butchering them herself. She ran a fish pond. She was a well respected brewer of fine beer (a staple of German  Reformed Christianity). She  managed many of the affairs of the theological students as well.

Besides all these duties, Katie raised 6 children, one of whom died at the age of 13. She and Martin also had 4 long-term foster children in the home. A busy place indeed, but a place where kingdom work was central, and a place that was being watched by newly-wed Protestants in those early days of reform.

And all of this was kingdom work, as we see in our psalm, and it is called blessedness.

Katie was a fruitful vine for the kingdom of God—and  this idea of a godly marriage was something that was recovered at the time of the Reformation. The official Roman Catholic doctrine was that marriage was for the weak and celibacy was for the pious. Martin and Katie helped to normalize intimate, loving, industrious marriage with Christ at the center, a powerful force in the kingdom of Christ.

Each of their children grew to be productive in the kingdom as well—physicians, politicians, theologians. In our reflection on Psalm 128, we reflect on the man who believes the gospel and is blessed. We reflect on his wife who is blessed. We reflect on his children – who are blessed.

In verse 4 we are called to step back and to see this great blessing yet again, “Behold! Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”  The result of this great blessing is that the family–the  Christian home—receives  the benediction of God and it results in Jerusalem’s blessing. “The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel.”

When the family is in submission to God and his Word, there are resulting blessings that flow. We see that the church will prosper as families prosper. And we see that the covenant is expanded again to another generation. The psalm says, “You will see your children’s children.”

To look back to our believing grandparents or forward to believing grandchildren is a blessing that results from a gospel-centered home. The church of Jesus Christ will only be as strong as her families. During the reformation, the biblical concept of a loving, Christ-centered, and biblically ordered home was recaptured and the church prospered because of it, under the blessing of God.

One historian said of dear Katie and Doctor Martin’s marriage, “It is likely that no marriage has done more for establishing and demonstrating to the world the power and beauty of the gospel in a time when so many desperately needed to be rescued from the torments and prison of monasticism, depression, and guilt—all products of a burdensome and corrupted religion that had wreaked havoc upon the Church.”

May the Lord Jesus strengthen our homes and establish us in our roles as Christian fathers and husbands, mothers and wives, and children.And may we see the blessing of Zion and the covenant extended to the next generation of sons and daughters of the reformation.

 

Five Truths About Christian Suffering

All Christians suffer. Either you have, you are, or you will — “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

This reality is a stark reminder that we have not reached the new heavens and new earth. The new Jerusalem of no tears and no pain, of no mourning and no death, hasn’t arrived yet (Revelation 21:1, 4).

But just because we experience suffering as we await the redemption of our bodies, it doesn’t mean that our suffering is random or without purpose. And neither does it mean that Scripture doesn’t tell us how to think about our suffering now.

Here are five important biblical truths about suffering every Christian should have ready:

Suffering has many faces. The Bible doesn’t whitewash our experience of suffering by saying that it’s all of one stripe. Rather, it recognizes the multifaceted ways that suffering can come upon us. The apostle Paul wrote, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).

In these two verses, Paul lists several types of suffering — mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Each of these are different ways that we can suffer, and when suffering comes, often several of these types of suffering are involved.

The church is not meant to be a loosely bound association of functional Lone Rangers. Paul confronts that type of thinking when he writes, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

The church is meant to be a refuge for those suffering. When a member is hurting, the church applies the bandages; when a member is down, the church encourages; when a member is in need, the church comes alongside to help.

Firsthand experience in suffering is essential in equipping us for ministry. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that God “comforts us in all afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

But how? And what is the link between experiencing suffering and equipping for ministry? David Powlison answers this way:

When you’ve passed through your own fiery trials, and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he has reshaped you more into his image. . . . What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress. (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, 166)

Wherever there is suffering, there is a battle — a battle for your soul. The book of Job shows us there can be two ways to respond to suffering, one that curses God because of suffering and one that praises God, even in the midst of suffering (Job 2:9–10).

One of the counter-intuitive truths about suffering is that it prepares Christians for more glory. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

These verses are like sandpaper on our modern sentiments about suffering. We naturally try to avoid suffering at all costs but God brings suffering in our lives for the sake of our eternal joy — yes, even glory.

The State of the ‘Almost Christian’

There are many whom I must call “almost Christians,” for I know no other expression in the Bible, which so exactly describes their state. They have many things about them which are right, good and praiseworthy in the sight of God. They are regular and moral in their lives. They are free from glaring outward sins. They keep up many decent and proper habits. They appear to love the preaching of the Gospel. They are not offended at the truth as it is in Jesus, however plainly it may be spoken. They have no objection to religious company, religious books, and religious talk. They agree to all you say when you speak to them about their souls. And all this is well.

But still there is no movement in the hearts of these people that even a microscope can detect. They are like those who stand still. Weeks after weeks, years after years roll over their heads, and they are just where they were. They sit under our pulpits. They approve of our sermons. And yet, like Pharaoh’s lean cows, they are nothing the better, apparently, for all they receive. There is always the same regularity about them—the same constant attendance on means of grace—the same wishing and hoping—the same way of talking about religion—but there is nothing more. There is no going forward in their Christianity. There is no life, and heart, and reality in it. Their souls seem to be at a deadlock. And all this is sadly wrong.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: Where Are You?

A Christian Guide to Reading Books

Tony Reinke recently wrote a helpful post asking the question, “Should You Read My New Book?”

Here are Leland Ryken and Randy Alcorn’s answers to his question:

“There is so much to commend about this book that it is hard to know where to start. The most obvious virtue of the book is its scope. On the subject of reading, Reinke covers every possible topic. Each topic, in turn, is broken into all of its important subpoints. With a lesser writer, this could produce a tedious book, but the opposite is true of this book. Reinke says just enough, but not too much. The effect is like seeing a prism turned in the light. There is never a dull moment in this book.

“Once I sensed that Reinke was going to cover all the important topics, and with unfailing good sense and Christian insight, I could hardly put the book down. What will Reinke say about THAT topic? I found myself asking. But to add yet another twist, Reinke has read so widely in scholarly and religious sources that I do not hesitate to call the book a triumph of scholarship. Reinke writes with an infectious and winsome enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine a reader of this book who would not catch the spark for reading after encountering Reinke’s excitement about reading and his carefully reasoned defense of it.”
—Leland Ryken, professor of English, Wheaton College

“I read many books, but seldom do I enjoy one more than I did Tony Reinke’s Lit!. Many of my greatest childhood adventures, and much of my growth after I was converted as a teenager, came through reading imagination-expanding and life-changing books. Tony’s writing is thoughtful, perceptive, concise, and God-honoring. He upholds biblical authority, and offers helpful guidance, while allowing for a range of tastes. Lit! rings true to my own lifetime of reading experience. As a reader and writer of both nonfiction and fiction, I appreciate the breadth of Tony’s treatment, which includes a variety of genres. For book lovers, this is a treasure and delight. For those who aren’t book lovers, it makes a great case for becoming one.”
—Randy Alcorn, founder, Eternal Perspective Ministries

 

The Hardships of Christian Ministry

The president of the seminary I attended often said, to the men preparing for ministry, “Your hardest day in seminary will be easier than your easiest day in the ministry.” While this may not be true without exception, it is certainly the case generally speaking. The apostle Paul told young Timothy-as he began his ministry–that he would have to “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Murray frequently said to the men coming for ordination, “If there is anything else you can do, you should do it.” Interestingly this is precisely what John Brown of Edinburgh wrote in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians. When he came to chapter 4 (where the apostle Paul is pouring his heart out to the churches which he had planted, and which were now rejecting the Gospel he had preached to them), Brown wrote:

The Christian ministry, if entered on with appropriate sentiments, and prosecuted with conscientious fidelity, will be found replete with difficulties. Its toils are arduous and unceasing— its trials numerous and severe. He who would ” war this good warfare” must “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The man who assumes the sacred character of a minister of Christ, with the honest intention of performing its duties (and he who resumes it without such an intention will find, in the ultimate result of things, that he had better have chosen any other profession) must lay his account with submitting to labours often ill-appreciated, sometimes unkindly requited, and with meeting with trials and afflictions which are the more severe as coming from a quarter from which nothing but support and encouragement had been expected.1

If there was only one piece of advice I could give to every other young man preparing for the Gospel ministry it would be the Apostle Paul’s sentiments in 2 Timothy 2:1-10. We must enter the ministry knowing that difficulties, trials and tribulations await us. Ministers must fill the office with “the honest intention of performing its duties;” but they must have the sober realization that their work will often be ”ill-appreciated, sometimes unkindly requited, and will meet with trials and afflictions.” These hardships will be more hurtful and difficult when they come from those from whom “support and encouragement had been expected.” Our Lord Jesus endured the greatest suffering (Heb. 12:1-4) in fulfilling His calling as the great Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The apostle Paul went through these difficulties, as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, when the churches he had planted rejected him. Timothy was told that he would go through them–and he did when the people despised his youth. Nevertheless, the Christian minister must “endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

Brown, John An Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853) p. 218

 

How Can I Know I'm Not a Christian?

How can I know that I’m a Christian? This is a question most of us have faced at one time or another, and even if we have not asked it ourselves, it’s likely that someone has asked for our help in wrestling through it. I recently came across an article from Michael McKinley that provides an interesting counter-question: How Can I know that I’m not a Christian?

In II Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul commands his readers: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

OK, that seems straightforward enough.  But what does it mean to examine yourself?  What should you be looking for?  How do you know whether or not you are “in the faith”?  What is the “test” that we might fail?  I wrote Am I Really a Christian? in order to try to help answer these questions.

Well, we should all hope that we pass “the test” (again, Paul’s words, not mine!).  And Scripture gives us a few things to look for that would indicate that in fact we are not “in the faith”.  A few examples:

You’re not a Christian if you don’t believe true doctrine: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” (I John 4:2-3)

You’re not a Christian if you enjoy sin: “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (I John 2:4-6)

You’re not a Christian if you don’t persevere: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (I John 2:19)

You’re not a Christian if you don’t love others: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (I John 4:7-8)

You’re not a Christian if you love your stuff more than you love Jesus: “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)

View the original article here