“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[Editor’s Note: This article is republished with permission of the Reformation Scotland Trust.]
Atheists like Richard Dawkins have come round to the idea that getting rid of Christianity is a bad idea. It would “give people a license to do really bad things”. In other words, secularism fails to provide a coherent moral framework for good and evil. Douglas Murray recently admitted that the idea of human rights cannot long survive being cut off from its Christian roots. Western society has been living on the inheritance of a Christian heritage but now the capital is running out. This is what Murray describes in his book The Strange Death of Europe. These benefits derive not just from Christian influence but from the gospel itself. The Bible warns that when a people send the gospel into exile, it will not be long before their own exile follows.
Thomas Brooks drew attention to this at a time when he along with thousands of other gospel preachers were being silenced by the state. He asks the question: “When the gospel goes from a people, what goes?” He also helps us to go beyond the bleak reality of answering that question. He highlights both encouragements and challenges that arise from this. It should make the gospel even more valuable to us. We also need courage and zeal to proclaim the gospel faithfully in the face of opposition.
1 Prosperity Goes When the Gospel Goes
In the northern kingdom of Israel, they were without the law and the true God. They had no teaching priests, only Jeroboam’s false priests (compare 2 Chronicles 15:3 with 2 Chronicles 13:9). The following verses go on to show that there was no peace in the nation but rather disorder, destruction and adversity (2 Chronicles 15:5 and 6).
2 Safety Goes When the Gospel Goes
When the Ark was taken away, their strength and safety was gone (2 Chronicles 15:6). When the Jews rejected the gospel, the Romans came and took away both their place and nation. About forty years after Christ’s crucifixion, Titus and Vespasian took away the Jews’ city. They had cried, if we do not deal with this man [Jesus] the Romans will take away our nation (John 11:48). But to do so was the quickest way to bring the Romans on them.
3 Civil Liberty Goes When the Gospel Goes
When the Jews slighted the gospel and turned their backs on it, they quickly became bond slaves to the Romans.
4 National Honour Goes When the Gospel Goes
When the gospel goes, the honour, glory, splendour and beauty of a nation go. It is the gospel that is the honour and beauty of a nation. When that goes, all the glory goes. When the Ark was taken away, the glory was departed from Israel (1 Samuel 4:22). When a people exchange the true worship of God for things that do not profit (the traditions of men) they abandon their glory (Jeremiah 2:11-13).
What is it that lifts up one nation above another, but the gospel? Our nation has been lifted up to heaven above all nations of the earth because of it.
5 True Happiness Goes When the Gospel Goes
When the gospel goes, all soul-happiness and blessedness go. The gospel is the means appointed by God to bring souls to acquaintance with Christ, to acceptance of Christ, to a claim to Christ, to assurance that He is theirs and they are His. Now when this goes, all soul-happiness and blessedness go.
God’s Special Presence Goes When the Gospel Goes
When the gospel goes, the spiritual presence of God goes, for that always goes with the gospel. There is a general presence of God which the Psalmist speaks of (Psalm 139:7-8). This presence of God reaches from heaven to hell; in that sense God is included in no place, nor excluded out of any place. But what is the benefit of this general presence when the gospel goes? When it goes, the special presence of God goes.
The Gospel Has Not Gone Yet
(a) The Gospel cannot be taken out of our hearts.
It is in the understanding, affections and consciences of sinners as well as saints. It has got so deep a root in the hearts of many thousands that it is beyond the power of hell to pull it out.
(b) The Gospel still has preachers.
There are many of God’s servants in this nation to preach the everlasting gospel. They would be glad to preach it on the hardest terms. They will keep God and a good conscience to preach it freely as the apostles did. God has deposited this treasure for a purpose.
(c) The Gospel has not been destroyed.
All previous attempts to destroy the gospel have been ineffective. They have only helped the gospel to advance, flourish and spread.
(d) The Gospel does not go till a people reject it.
God never takes the gospel away from a people until the body of that people have thrust the everlasting gospel away from them. Although God’s messengers were abused, He continued to provide the Jews with the everlasting gospel until they thrust it away from them (2 Chronicles 36:15-23; Jeremiah 25:1-14 and Acts 13:45-47).
(e) The Gospel is promised to the children of believers.
Will God not fulfil His engagements to them (Deuteronomy 30:6; Psalm 112:2)?
The Gospel Must Be Personal
(a) Make sure of your salvation.
Make it your great business, your work, your heaven to make your claim to salvation in Christ sure and secure. This is not an age or hour for someone to be between fears and hopes, to be between doubting and believing. Do not depend on outward practices or privileges. Make Christ and Scripture the only foundation for your souls and faith to build on (1 Corinthians 3:11; Isaiah 28:16).
(b) Rejoice in the Gospel.
Rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice that God has done your souls good by the everlasting gospel. Rejoice that He did not leave you until He brought you to accept it and to commit your souls to Christ. Rejoice that you have had the everlasting gospel in so much light, purity, power and glory as you had had. Rejoice in the riches of grace that has brought it to you in such a way. But weep that you have provoked God to take away the gospel and that you have not made best use of it
The Gospel Faces Opposition
Brooks also addresses the issue of why there is such opposition to the gospel that people want rid of it. People hate plain, powerful and faithful preaching of the gospel. This is because it shows up the nature of their lives. They hate the light and do not want to come towards it because their sinful actions and lifestyle will be exposed (John 3:20). Sinners also hate the gospel because their sin is restrained where the gospel shines in power and glory.
The gospel also requires things that sinners consider too hard. They must abandon darling sins to live according to it. This is hard for them even to hear (John 6:60).
The effect of the gospel is different. It softens one and hardens another sitting right beside them. It wins one and enrages the other. It is like the sun which has different effects on the things on which it shines (living things flourish, corrupt things increase in corruption).
Opposition to the gospel ultimately comes from Satan himself. He knows that the tendency of the gospel is to shake his kingdom. Thus, he and those of his kingdom do all they can to oppose and show their hatred against the everlasting gospel. This makes them to be in such a rage against the gospel.
Conclusion
This brings an implicit challenge to us. Is the gospel we proclaim faithful enough to stir up inevitable opposition? Or have we toned down the aspects that stir up such antagonism? Are we in danger of helping those who want rid of the gospel because we do not present it fully? Have we prized the gospel or just taken it for granted? Is it so personal for us that we rejoice in it and live in the light of it?
+ Reformation Scotland Trust, Whiteside House, Bathgate EH48 2RX, Scotland, matthew@reformationscotland.org
Tolle Lege Press several years ago published a new edition of the 1599 Geneva Bible, whose “Lex Rex” marginal notes written by John Calvin, John Knox, and others, became one of the key reasons “Rex Lex” King James I sponsored development of the 1611 King James Bible. Leather-bound, hardbound, and searchable CDROM versions of the 1599 Geneva Bible were offered.
Tolle Lege Press sometime later began publishing a hardbound version called the 1599 Geneva Bible Patriot’s Edition, which includes documents from the US’s founding fathers and other similar non-biblical material. This “Americanist Apocrypha” has been roundly, and rightly in the editor’s opinion, condemned for including the Americanist material, but the cage-stage vitriol directed toward this edition has included baseless condemnation of the 1599 Geneva Bible in general that borders upon Ninth Commandment violation.
Never fear, because Republican Legion is offering the original Tolle Lege Press leather-bound 1599 Geneva Bible for US$37.50, which is not a Patriot’s Edition and does not contain the Americanist material. The editor heartily recommends this version and has used it for Bible study and sermon preparation for more than a decade.
Lest any cage-stage offense be taken because of the word “Republican” being in the vendor’s name and additional condemnation of the 1599 Geneva Bible result, please study the term “genetic fallacy” and if one is still offended, the Bible is available directly from Tolle Lege Press.
+ Tolle Lege Press, 1038 Merchants Dr, Dallas, Georgia 30132, Contact Page
In the advertisement for its 2020 conference, Hillsong Australia claims that over twenty denominations are represented at its annual conferences, including Anglican, Apostolic, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Foursquare, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian [ed. assume mainline Presbyterian], Seventh day Adventist, and Uniting. Latter Rain ecumenism is a major Hillsong theme, one of the most prominent producers of contemporary worship music. The goal is to unite “the greater church” for the expected “latter rain” miracle revival outpouring. This is a heresy nowhere taught in Scripture. New Testament prophecies of the end of the church age describe terrible apostasy, not revival. See 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3-4, for example. The “signs and wonders” that are described for the end of the age are not true apostolic signs as per 2 Corinthians 12:12. Rather, they are false signs. See Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Hillsong’s “signs” are such things as gibberish tongues, failed prophecies, spirit slaying, holy laughter, shakings, electric shocks, word-faith confessions, and failed healings, none of which do we see in the ministry of Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, or Jude. Hillsong’s annual conferences are party extravaganzas that breathe of worldliness rather than biblical holiness and the fear of God. Take away their rock & roll, and there would be nothing left. In 2020, Hillsong Australia’s conference is scheduled for the Qudos Bank Arena, the largest entertainment arena in Australia. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). (For more about Hillsong, see “Darlene Zschech and Hillsong” in the Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, available as a free eBook at www.wayofife.org.)
+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org
[Editor’s Note: The following article is from Way of Life Ministries, a fundamentalist, independent Baptist publication, and thus reflects that theological mindset, which includes an almost visceral dislike of anything resembling Calvinism. Please then, do not take umbrage at this article being republished in Presbyterians Week.
The editor strives to educate and enlighten readers in matters related to the worldwide Presbyterian and Reformed community, and publishing articles coming from a differing perspective at the least will help the reader understand the differing mindset of the article’s author, and at best may spur the reader to be a more effective witness for the Full Bible, Covenantal, and yes, Calvinist perspective of Presbyterians Week readers when interacting with e.g., fundamentalist, independent Baptists.]
Since 2006, we have documented the move toward Reformed Calvinism on the part of many BJU graduates, but it wasn’t clear where the school itself stood. That picture has now come into clear focus, and it is worse than we suspected. In October, BJU president Steve Pettit participated in the “Greenville Conference on Reformed Theology” at Second Presbyterian Church. The other two speakers were Joel Beeke and Richard Phillips. Beeke is a professor at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and Phillips serves on the board of the Gospel Coalition. On November 11-12, Andy Naselli was the guest speaker at BJU for the Stewart Custer Lecture Series. Naselli is a professor at John Piper’s Bethlehem College & Seminary and an elder of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Naselli is also on the staff of The Gospel Coalition. It is becoming more clear why Bob Jones University is building bridges to Keith Getty, who is a Reformed Calvinist and whose pastor, Alistair Begg, is a prominent member of The Gospel Coalition.
TGC represents the new Reformed Calvinism. Unlike old Reformed Calvinism, new Reformed Calvinism is ecumenical. The old Reformed men believed that Rome is the great whore of Revelation 17, drunken with the blood of the martyrs, but the new Reformed have ecumenical relationships with Rome, or at least are sympathetic to it. On the TGC web page “Should Christians Be Ecumenical,” we find the following: “Can evangelicals and Catholics truly be together? … Jesus’ prayer for unity in the Body obligates me to see the ecumenical task as important for Christianity” (by Trevin Wax, a Southern Baptist Wheaton College professor who associates with the Gettys). This is false. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 has nothing to do with ecumenism. In fact, Christ emphasized obedience to God’s Word and the importance of truth (Joh. 17:6, 8, 14, 17, 19), which are incompatible with ecumenism. Lou Martuneac makes the following observation, “What has BJU president Steve Pettit shown us by taking an active role in this conference, with these speakers? First, he has removed any lingering doubt of having led the University to embrace Reformed Theology. Second, The Gospel Coalition (TGC) includes men in its leadership who are some of the most egregious of ecumenical compromisers among the so-called ‘conservative’ evangelicals. ... To any objective observer surely enough has been seen to erase any lingering doubt that BJU has abandoned its foundational, separatist principles. ... The University has always been theologically broad. So--that’s not new. What is new is the association with compromised denominations that have never espoused fundamentalism” (“This Is Not Your Father’s Bob Jones University, A Continuation,” In Defense of the Gospel, Nov. 14, 2019).
+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org
