"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."--Frank Herbert.
New article in the local paper by my pastor. Answering the internet: What about cremation?
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/05/29/opinion/answering-the-internet-what-about-cremation/25953.html
"The most popular Google search about the Bible is, “What does the Bible say about cremation?”
The short answer to that: Nothing.
When God decides not to give us a rule, this is because, either way, there is no harm done and we should not be in the business of making rules to govern non-issues.
The bottom line on cremation seems to be, what we do to deal with the remains of our lives is only a temporary solution.
The Bible teaches a future, general resurrection of the dead. It’s called general, because all the dead will be raised to life again. So, whatever we do with a dead body in the here-and-now, that’s a temporary thing.
Now, no one is ever honorably cremated in Scripture, and the burning of a dead body was often a public way of signaling the extreme displeasure of either God or the kings. For instance, a king tried to burn Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, quite unsuccessfully.
A character named Achan, along with his family, committed idolatry as soon as Israel entered Canaan. They were stoned to death and then their bodies were burned. The burning had the effect of scattering them to the wind, literally, so that they would have no place in the Promised Land. Burial had the opposite effect. It made sure you stayed in the land of your inheritance until Judgment Day.
In the millennia since then, millions of believers have had their bodies burned, after cruel tyrants murdered them in various, innovative ways. Or the burning was how they were slain. Either way, the Gospel hope in that situation is that God is fully capable of raising them from the dead on the last day, regardless of how their physical remains have been scattered or lost. Science suggests that a physical copy of your body could be produced from a single cell, by cloning. I bet God can do better than that.
Multitudes of Christians were devoured by lions in the Roman arenas. Their only burial was in the stomachs of the beasts. God’s intention to grant his people new life for eternity will not be foiled by any of this.
So, the issue of what happens to your body after you die is ultimately a non-issue. Again, God made no rule or law about it. What we see in the Bible about burial are human customs in action. They may be well-intentioned and even honorable customs, but they have no power to bind the conscience or make demands of you.
I, for one, will not counsel a grieving family that they must compound their loss of a loved one by now destroying their finances to pay for a burial because of “custom.” Cremation with a Christian service or memorial is just fine.
You came from dust. You will return there. The method or mode of your return, or the various intentions of those who dispose of your remains will not affect this outcome.
We ought to be far more concerned with this: “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: You can trust modern translations.
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/05/15/opinion/you-can-trust-modern-translations/25910.html
"My last column addressed the objection that says the Bible can’t be trusted because of how often it has been translated and hand-copied through the centuries.
My point was that the documented history (in over 5,000 ancient manuscripts) shows the result is really the opposite. That is, the many manuscripts, from different centuries and regions, prove there has been stunning consistency over the last 2,500 or so years. By comparing old ones with newer ones, we can see plainly where any copyist errors or bad translations were made.
This is not something that only Evangelical scholars believe. Renowned atheist scholar, Bart Erhman, agrees: You may hate what it says, but there’s no denying that the New Testament we possess today is the same as the one possessed by the church in the first several centuries of Christianity.
This raises a question about translations of the Bible. If we admit that humans can and do make errors when translating from, say, Hebrew into English or Spanish, what does that say about the reliability of our modern translations? Well, it means that a translation that compares well with all the ancient data, being fundamentally faithful, can be trusted.
It means that a decent translation of the Bible into your native tongue can and should be received as the inspired word of God. It doesn’t mean, though, that we must believe in perfect or infallible translations. It just means that you will come across places in your study where it will be helpful to compare the translation you’re reading with others. Most modern Bibles, in fact, point this out with little notes explaining there is some question about which is the better English word in this place or another.
The historic, Protestant view is that inspiration resides in the original Scripture as it was first written. When Paul signed his name to one of his letters, that autographed copy is what was inspired. Inspiration didn’t extend to the hand-written copies that were made. However, it is precisely because of those copies that it’s reasonable to say, though we no longer have those originals, we know what they said. The relatively few places where we have any doubt at all about a word or phrase, the choice is generally between two options, neither of which change any Bible doctrines at all.
The Bible itself treats translations in this manner: a faithful translation may be considered the word of the Lord. When the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it overwhelmingly quotes from the ancient Greek translation of the original Hebrew, and freely calls the Greek rendering God’s word.
We have to keep in mind which documents were inspired: the originals. No translation has to be considered specially inspired in order for us to trust that we have the word of God with us. A plethora of basically faithful translations helps us in this regard, since they can be compared with each other, and with all the ancient documents.
The bottom line is, though we don’t possess the original letters of Peter, for instance, your modern Bible tells you what that original said, and there is no evidence-based reason to doubt this."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
New article by my pastor: Bible not corrupted by translations. https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/05/01/opinion/bible-not-corrupted-by-translations/25872.html
“Pastor, how can you believe in the Bible when it’s been translated so many times?”
That’s a common objection. Meaning no insult, but it’s an argument based on ignorance. The objector doesn’t know anything about how the Bible came to be and assumes the worst: a shadowy history littered with corruptions both accidental and nefarious.
It’s assumed that we got the Scriptures through a process much like the old party game, “Phone Message.”
In that game, you line up several children in a row. A long sentence is told to the first child. He takes off running, around a cone, and then comes back and whispers the sentence he was told to the next kid. When you get to the last child, there’s the punchline. You have the last one recite what he thinks he heard, and everybody gets a good laugh at how mangled the message has become, compared to what the first child was actually told.
People think we got the Bible that way. Or, they assume the process is something like making old Xerox copies, and then making copies of the copies, until the document is ugly and hard to read.
But if I write a book in English and then three friends translate my book into their native languages (say French, Spanish, and German) that has no effect on the book I wrote. None at all. It still says what it says when I typed the words, “The End.”
Now, one of the friends may have made some translational errors. Maybe he’s not so great at English after all. OK, that’s not hard to spot, because eventually we’ll run across someone who knows both languages and can highlight the errors. So what should be done? We just make a new translation, hoping to improve on previous efforts. We still have the original book for making comparisons.
In that process, no matter how many times it’s repeated, it doesn’t change what was originally written. The same is true for making hand-written copies: as long as we have the source document, we can spot inaccuracies and correct our work.
There are in existence right now over 5,000 ancient manuscripts of Scripture and lots of ancient translations into other languages. In some cases, the source documents we’re working with date to several hundred years B.C.
We have copies from many time periods and geographical regions. We have enough to say with certainty that the Phone Message game is not what happened here. How do we know?
Because the older copies say the same thing, overwhelmingly, as all the later copies. The medieval era Latin carries the same message as the Hebrew and Greek from 300 A.D. If somebody made huge errors along the way, or the Council of Nicea (for instance) had forced a bunch of wholesale changes, that would be very easy to spot.
We have all the receipts, as the kids say. We can spot all the issues, like missing words, misspellings, and transposed numbers. There are modern English translations that will even show you where all those places are.
Nobody’s hiding any of this. There’s no need. You have the Bible God intended.
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com.
#faith #bible #christian
From my pastor: MOST EMBARRASSING FAILED DISPENSATIONAL PROPHECIES, candidate five
"Antichrist Identification"
First off, even calling the End Times supervillain THE Antichrist is biblically shaky. "The Man of Sin" or the First Beast or the Little Horn would be more correct. (John describes "antichrist" as a spirit, not an individual man.) But Antichrist is easily the most marketable of those labels so we'll run with it.
The embarrassing bit I'm referencing is the cascade of wrong guesses that have flowed out, and continue to flow out, from believers who have the Revelation open, highlighter in hand, while watching Fox News.
I don't have a lot of memories before the 70's but I've been alive to see every President of the US, the USSR and Russia, and Israel since then; plus the Prime Ministers of every prominent European power, plus every Pope; plus anyone who achieved any sort of world-status in international affairs, identified as the Antichrist. In fact, just hours before I wrote this post, a FB friend suggested (I think seriously) President Macron of France. This paragraph has probably only scratched the surface of the constant stream of guesses that have all come up false.
At least, with guessing the timing of the Rapture, we have a warning from Jesus that no man knows the day. That doesn't stop those bad guesses, but I'm thinking it probably does curb them a bit. With the Antichrist, there's no such warning against trying to identify him, and so the wrong guesses fly like clay pigeons at a skeet shoot.
If this is what your interpretive scheme produces in every place it's taught, a non-stop avalanche of false warnings, don't you have to consider that the underlying problem is systemic?
#faith #bible #christian #endtimes
From my pastor: Consider these two minutes to be part four of my expose' of Dispensational prophecy failure. Thanks for the convenient assist, Pastor Baldwin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YRsY03rLo
#faith #bible #christian #endtimes
From my pastor: MOST EMBARRASSING FAILED DISPENSATIONAL PROPHECIES, candidate three
“The Third Temple”
Immediately, I’ll be met with this answer, even before I start explaining anything. The Dispensationalist will say, “It’s coming, though! You just wait! You call it failed now, but what if it gets built in the next twenty years?”
The issue is timing, though. The same believer who says, “Just wait!” also believes the Rapture could happen later today, and we’d be in the End Times seven-year period called the Great Tribulation. They see this period described in (roughly) Revelation 6-18. Everything in this section has to be done in the seven years immediately following the Rapture.
The issue is that Revelation 11:1-2 has a temple in Jerusalem, being trampled down and overrun by the nations for 42 months, or the second half of the seven years. This means the temple has to be up and running at this point, midway through the Great Tribulation.
I realize that there are a number of groups that currently advocate for building a new temple in Jerusalem. I’ve seen reports talking about all the resources and items they’ve amassed that could be used in its construction.
The very same sorts of stories were being excitedly shared among the Dispensationalists when I was converted to Christ in 1989. I read them and was thrilled by them. Then some old-timers off-handedly mentioned that those stories had been told and repeated for decades already, even at that time.
Now, again, with the caveat that God can do anything at any time, a quick look at the political situation will yield (to the mind of anyone without a Dispensationalist agenda) that any new temple in Jerusalem is nowhere on the horizon.
But, but, the Rapture could happen today! And that’s the big failure of the Dispensational scheme here: For the Rapture to be imminent, the new temple needs to be at least mostly complete. In the world we actually live in, this is a pipe dream. If the temple isn’t right around the corner, then neither is the Great Tribulation. It is a failure of the system that its leaders have been confidently calling it imminent (any moment now!) for at least 80 years.
#faith #bible #christian #endtimes
From my pastor: MOST EMBARRASSING FAILED PROPHECIES OF DISPENSATIONALISM, candidate two
“The Revived Roman Empire”
The concept here is that, in the End Times, there will be a renewal or replay of the ancient Roman Empire. The Antichrist will be at its head, of course. It will consist of 10 member states and will be a terrifying force to be reckoned with, like no military power before it
.
As with all the other Dispensational fancies, this one only survives by hiding behind that well-worn, gossamer dodge that says, “Yes, I know it hasn’t come to pass like we said it would, but God can make it happen in the future!”
But everything you’ve pointed at with great seriousness and excitement as a possible, present fulfillment has fallen away, even though you’ve been willing to stretch and mangle your own terms beyond recognition.
The failure in it is this: You think the Rapture is imminent. You believe the Great Tribulation could start tomorrow. But your own system absolutely must have Italy, and Rome specifically, as the head of the world-conquering military alliance mentioned above. It has to be up and running at the beginning of the seven years. You believe the ultimate Final Boss will go out “conquering and to conquer” at the onset.
At the very least you are of two minds. You think the Tribulation could begin today, but there is no hint of the Beast’s Italian end-times army mustered anywhere.
The very idea of such an army is laughable. God can do what He wants, but as things stand today, the idea is ludicrous: Italy currently spends a little more than Australia on its military, well behind several other European nations, and military powerhouses like Japan and South Korea. Its military size ranks at #31 in the world, behind behemoths like Eritrea and Morocco.
Now, to their credit, Dispensationalists have recognized for decades how inconvenient this is for their system and have sought to soften the blow of failure by suggesting that maybe “Empire” can mean “treaty organization” or “trade summit”.
And maybe it could be called Roman if Italy is simply a member, and not actually in charge of it. Maybe the United Nations armed troops qualify as some reflection of ancient Rome’s brutal conquerors who crushed whole countries. Only blind allegiance to a system, regardless of truth, could account for this word-salad twisting.
The European Union began in 1993 and many Dispensationalists were all a-flutter when the tenth member joined. This must be it! It’s all winding down now, baby! Well, the prophetically mandatory number of ten was quickly surpassed. There are well over 30 member states now.
Hey, believe what you will about what this “Roman Empire” must look like in its End Times incarnation. Knock yourself out. You just can’t consistently also believe that you could be raptured out of here at any time. That empire has to be ready to roll, as many things have to happen in a very short period.
You’ve seen what trouble it’s been for a well-funded, legitimate military force (Russia) to try to take over a single, much less powerful nation. And you think Italy is on the verge of conquering ten? C’mon.
Again, God can do what He wants, but at some point shouldn’t you be willing to go back and reassess your theories?
#faith #bible #christian #endtimes
From my pastor: MOST EMBARRASSING DISPENSATIONAL FAILED PROPHECY, Candidate one:
"The Generation of the Fig Tree."
First popularized by Hal Linsey when I was a kid, this theory states that the end of the world will occur within one generation from the formation of the modern nation of Israel in 1948.
Up until Jan 1, 1989, Dispensationalists taught that a Biblical generation is 40 years. Calvary Chapel icon Chuck Smith specified that the Rapture would happen in '81, to fit in the seven years of Great Tribulation prior to '88.
Once those dates passed, as you can imagine, a bunch of scrambling and scurrying happened in a giant CYA effort. Maybe the first year of the fig tree generation should not be 1948, but 1967 when Israel got control of Jerusalem. Then 2007 came and went and the world stubbornly failed to end.
The current, latest panic-mod of the theory is that a biblical generation can be as much as 80 years, which gives them until 2028. But it really doesn't because we're only about 4 years out and the 7 year Tribulation hasn't started (it's 3 years late).
At some point, please. Just stop. The problem isn't with your math but with your interpretive scheme.
For some receipts on all this start here: http://calvarychapel.pbworks.com/w/page/13146568/1981#Quote%20from%20Chuck's%20Own%20Hand
#faith #bible #christian #endtimes
New article by my pastor: Challenge, why doesn't God show himself? https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/04/17/opinion/challenge-why-doesnt-god-show-himself/25809.html
"I was reading one of the thousand or so articles that pop up on my email homepage, about why people reject religious faith: “17 Challenges Atheists Have for Believers.”
These are always good for a chuckle.
One objection caught my attention. It was this: If God exists why doesn’t he show himself?
Well, how big a show would it take for you to believe? Would 10 consecutive, pre-announced plagues, reducing the world’s most powerful nation to rubble, be enough? How about splitting the Red Sea so people could cross through on dry land?
You simply wave away the testimony of witnesses to these and a thousand other miracles. Why doesn’t he show himself? Well, for one, you still wouldn’t believe. You’d simply redouble your efforts to debunk and discredit.
God already has shown himself, and you’ve amassed reasons why you don’t have to pay attention to the record. God took on human flesh and walked among us in the person called Jesus of Nazareth, and all the doubters crucified him. If he showed up in the same manner today, I don’t doubt they’d treat him the same way. And what side would you be on when they did? While he’s hanging on the cross, maybe you’d be muttering to yourself, “If only God would show himself!”
In the biblical accounts of Christ’s resurrection, there were plenty of people who knew the event had happened in reality, and still chose not to believe in God.
But, for a direct, biblical answer to this objection, I’d point you to Romans 1:18-22 and the assertion that God has already shown himself by the things he has made. His fingerprints are on all his works. The heavenly judge has decided you’ve received enough evidence to be without excuse for your unbelief.
You know God exists, and you know precisely which God, among all those imagined, exists. You’ve felt the sunshine on your cheek. You’ve experienced love, rain, and good food. You’ve stood awestruck at the majesty of the mountains; heard the ominous roar of a sea; and been overwhelmed by the vastness and beauty of the heavens. Your unbelief is not a conclusion based on proof, but a moral choice you’ve made in the face of the evidence. God says you know. He’s shown himself.
A Bible teacher named R. C. Sproul was invited to a meeting of college atheists. Specifically, he was asked to bring his best arguments for the existence of God.
Sproul accepted the invitation and went to the event. He began his talk by thanking them for the opportunity. I can’t quote him from memory, but he said something like this to them: “You’ve asked me for evidence, and I’m happy to present it. I’m eager to do that for you because I think the evidence is irrefutable. But I must tell you before I begin, I think you already know. The problem is not with the evidence you know or don’t know. The problem is that you hate what you know.”
Jesus said darkness hates the light and will not come to the light. How’s your unbelief been working out for you? Isn’t it time to yield to what you already know to be true?"
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Popular objection: Jesus never said 'I am God'. https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/04/03/opinion/popular-objection-jesus-never-said-i-am-god/25768.html
"I’m seeing a particular objection to Christianity repeated often on the internet. It started, I believe, among some Muslims, but has spread to the larger culture.
The objection is this: In the Bible, Jesus never claimed to be God.
He never said, “I am God. Worship me.”
I’m not sure what has made this criticism so popular recently. Can I be harshly direct and say it’s stupid? Maybe not. Maybe I should be lighthearted about it and say it’s “all hat and no cattle.”
It’s a vacuous statement either way, especially if you’ve ever bothered to read the Bible once. If you have, you surely know that the teaching method of Jesus about himself is rarely direct. What Jesus prefers to do is take you by the hand and walk around a particular truth, pointing you at it and referring to it.
The objection that he never said the words, “I am God,” implies that he must not have thought he was. The ascription of deity to Jesus was not something he wanted or approved of, according to this thought.
But there’s not much to this, when you’re willing to read what he did say. He claimed to be the light of the world; the bread of heaven; the good shepherd (see Psalm 23:1); the judge of all people; the forgiver of sins; the living water; the way, the truth, and the life; the source of life after death; and, one who existed in glory before the creation of all things. This is a small sample.
I think what this objection is doing is criticizing the Lord for his willingness to put all the evidence in front of you and let you come to your own conclusion. The Bible in general, and Jesus specifically, teach in a manner that is quite plain and open, without simply slapping you upside the head with a truth-hammer.
It’s plain, though often indirect. Unless you come to it with an agenda, it’s hard to misunderstand on this point. But it’s not going to spoon feed you. It points to the truth and invites you to do with it what you will.
On another level, though, Jesus did in fact directly claim divinity. He just didn’t use the words “I am God.” These objectors act like that’s supposed to be significant. He claimed to be the Son of God, and the Jews who heard him tried to stone him for using the phrase, a phrase that implied equality with God.
His favorite title for himself, though, was “Son of man.”
You might hear this and think it’s really a claim to humanity. But in Daniel 7:13-14, the Son of man is a divine figure, with judging and ruling authority over the whole world. Again, when his opponents heard this, they knew it was a claim to deity.
The claims of Christ are so unmistakable that, as C. S. Lewis noted, we have only three options in evaluating him. He’s either a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord. He clearly thought he was God. If he was wrong, that was either intentionally lying, or it was mad raving.
But if he was right, then you see what last Sunday’s Easter celebration was all about."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
My pastor just published a 40-day devotional through Psalm 51, and it's outstanding. https://www.amazon.com/Longing-Light-Forty-through-Valley-ebook/dp/B0CY38CCGQ
"This series of 40 daily meditations is taken from King David's iconic prayer of repentance, the 51st Psalm.
Deepen your walk with a devotional guide that manages to teach solid theology while also touching the tender heart.
This book would be a wonderful personal study for the penitent believer during the season of Lent, written from an Evangelical Baptist perspective.
Experience true repentance. Understand concepts like grace, faith, and forgiveness in a deeper, more biblical way."
#faith #bible #christian
https://m.primal.net/HqNf.jpg
"The Easter takeaway is not that Jesus died and went to heaven so that we can die and go to heaven.
It's that Jesus was resurrected in order to resurrect — and redeem — the entire cosmos."--Andrew Sandlin
#faith #bible #christian
Is the popular version of the Rapture biblical? Will Christians disappear from the world suddenly, leaving only their clothing behind?
I argue that it is not, and they will not because it's good to be left behind, actually.
https://pca.st/4jjp783m
#faith #bible #christian
This new commentary by Ken Gentry on the book of Revelation has been in the works for many years. I can finally snag a copy! https://www.kennethgentry.com/the-divorce-of-israel-2-vols-by-gentry-pre-publication-offer
"The Divorce of Israel presents a “redemptive-historical” approach to Revelation. As such it provides a fully orthodox preterist interpretation of the Apostle John’s great prophecy, while presenting a “Now/Not Yet” understanding of the conclusion of Revelation, with the coming of the New Heavens and New Earth. In it John is presenting a forensic drama wherein God is divorcing his old covenant wife Israel so that he can take a new bride, the new covenant “Israel of God” composed of Jew and Gentile alike.
John’s drama builds upon numerous Old Testament passages while expanding on Jesus’ Olivet Discourse. That Discourse declared God’s judgment on unfaithful Israel’s beloved temple and her holy city. God’s divorce results in first-century geo-political Israel’s judgment by capital punishment for spiritual adultery in rejecting her Messiah, declaring she has no king but Caesar, and persecuting the Messiah's new covenant family.
Thus, Revelation presents the vitally important redemptive-historical transition from the land-based, ethnically-focused, typologically-oriented, temple-dominated old covenant economy to its worldwide, pan-ethnic, spiritual new covenant fulfillment which spiritually anticipates the consummate, material, eternal new creation wherein dwells righteousness. "
#faith #bible #christian https://m.primal.net/HoaP.png
"Behind the intellectual objections to the Bible and Christianity is the moral issue that keeps rebels of God from submitting to him.
If God is God, then you are not free to live your life any longer as if you are unaccountable to Him." --Zachary Conover
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Truth about Abraham, Sarah surprising.
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/03/20/opinion/truth-about-abraham-sarah-surprising/25717.html
"In my regular Bible reading, I was back in Genesis the other day and here’s the thought that struck me as I went through the life of Abraham: Abraham and Sarah did not have the kind of marriage that a lot of evangelicals promote as ideal.
Specifically, a lot of modern conservatives, such as the Duggars on television and those informed by material from men like Bill Gothard, advocate for a “biblical patriarchy” in which the husband rules over everyone else. He gets the final say about everything, over everyone, and things are ordered according to his wishes. They’d want him to be nice about it, sure. But that’s somewhat lower on the list of considerations.
These types of believers see the apostle Peter commending Sarah for calling her husband her “lord” or master and think that makes their case. Their marriage must’ve followed this model.
I just don’t see it, not when you look at what they actually did. Sarah literally got whatever she asked for, even when her desires upset Abraham. He’s never shown putting his foot down and saying, “Submit, woman!”
Even when Sarah’s choices were faithless or immoral, Abraham did what she wanted him to do. When Peter points out that she called him her master, that was meant to be considered in light of the actual record of events. When these modern husbands salivate at the idea of being kings in their own castles, in the words of Fezik from The Princess Bride, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
This is not to say that the Bible presents no gendered order at all. The husband is still supposed to be the leader of his home. But Biblical leadership is different than rulership. A biblical leader is not a commander or an order-giver. Rather, he has a proven track-record of integrity, service, and accountability. He leads by truth-telling and consistent example.
When the wife is told to submit to her husband, and when they’re both told to submit to the government, that is not a term that means “obey without question.” Much less does it mean to obey bad orders. It means to acknowledge that I am supposed to be willing to serve you in whatever appropriate fashion I can. It’s not a word that turns free people with moral responsibility into slaves and order-followers.
There are no biblical commands for what that must look like in a Christian home, other than the man is meant to lead. The Proverbs 31 woman, for instance, was in charge of household servants, ran a small business, and purchased land on her own initiative. What if the husband is a chef, though, and wants to be in charge of the family kitchen? They’re free to work these considerations out between them.
She should see him as her leader and honestly seek to serve. But even if she doesn’t (which would be bad) he’s given no authority to force anything from her. He should be serving her as well, even as Christ loved the church and served her by providing everything she would ever need. He lowered and emptied himself in order to exalt her.
We are all, regardless of gender, told to imitate that example in Philippians 2:5-11."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Human rights endowed by the Creator.
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/03/06/opinion/human-rights-endowed-by-the-creator/25664.html
"I made the mistake of watching some talking heads on a mainstream news channel the other day. When will I learn? My wife’s not holding her breath.
Anyway, there was a panel discussion on the scary, new political faction on the scene. Religious zealots have arisen out of nowhere, apparently. The news has dubbed them Christian Nationalists.
A pearl-clutching lady pointed out one of the horrifying doctrines of this group. These cultists think that our rights come from God, and not from any government.
You may have to read that sentence again. Those crazy religionists!
Now, it’s been a long time since I sat through a civics class, granted. I could be remembering wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Declaration of Independence had something to say about that: Something about a Creator endowing everybody with certain unalienable rights.
Apparently, we’re at the point in America where that is seen as a dangerous, radical idea. It must’ve sounded treasonous back in merry ol’ London. Were all the signers of the Declaration Christian Nationalists?
The only other working theory of rights is that they are granted, regulated, and abolished on the whim of a centralized government. So, then, for instance, your right to life or to private property is no stronger than the shifting sands of political opinion. And this is dependent on which lobbying group has purchased your senators.
It’s the “land of the free, and home of the brave,” until the elected grifters tell you it’s not. Or, more accurately, until you realize the whole thing was sold down the river generations ago.
Atheistic theories of authoritarian government (such as the one we live with) cannot provide any sure foundation for rights, or human flourishing, any more than they can justify their use of terms like good and evil, or right and wrong. As one, classic atheist has said, “If there is no god, then nothing matters.”
The Bible, on the other hand, gives us solid ground for maximizing individual liberty. You have a right to life. How do we know? Because God tells everyone else not to murder you. We know you have property rights. How so? Because it says, “Thou shalt not steal.” (If it wasn’t really yours, it couldn’t be stolen from you.)
Since God gives no government the right to coerce you into faith (as if that was possible) and no right to punish your thoughts, your right to religious freedom is secured.
When the newspeople sitting around the table practically needed smelling salts to avoid fainting over these things, it told me something. The idea of religious faith is completely foreign to them, for one. I can only imagine the insulated bubble they live in.
They’ve heard of people who think God is real through second or third-hand accounts over martinis. That’s when all the cool people throw back their heads and laugh.
Two, they assume these beliefs are politically threatening, that everyone holding to them is trying to take over. In large part, this is an exercise in projection, as they themselves can’t imagine believing in something that doesn’t grant them power over people. That must be what these kooks are after since that’s the only thing worth striving for."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
My son's mom was in a fatal car accident yesterday. She survived, but her passenger did not.
Life is short, folks. None of us are promised today or even tomorrow.
Are you ready to meet Jesus?
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor. Bible: you can have joy again. https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/02/21/opinion/bible-you-can-have-joy-again/25613.html
Psalm 51:8 - “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
"Whatever you think of the Harry Potter books, the author created a creepy monster called a Dementor. It was meant to be the personification of clinical depression.
Dementors are invisible, heartless, and relentless in their desire to suck all the joy and happiness out of a person. One victim said the monster’s effect was to make her feel like she’d never be cheerful again.
Live long enough and you’ll come to a place where you fear death less than you fear that your current state may go on forever. In fact, that latter fear can so twist you that you begin to welcome death. The Dementors could make this happen to you.
If this doesn’t horrify you, stick around. The world has a way. You will learn.
Our verse has David experiencing this sort of bleak existence. The guilt and weight of his sin has crushed him. Have you ever been wracked with such sustained sorrow that you would have preferred actual broken bones? That’s David.
It’s a mark of the low state of Christianity that we rarely hear of any convert to Christ having to crawl through this ink-black valley on the way to the Light of the World. We’ve made “receiving Jesus” an easy transaction.
Coming to him costs nothing and meets no real need as far as anyone can tell. So when they leave him, as multitudes do, it’s with no sense of loss. It’s like returning a gift to the store and walking out with cash.
Give me the man who hears the Gospel and thinks, “That’s too good to be true. I wish it was real. But I am too far gone for that sort of pipedream. God knows what I’ve done, and we both know what’s coming to me. I deserve it.”
That’s the sinner I want to preach to. I want the guy dying of thirst in the wilderness of his own sorrow and regret. He may not initially believe that the water I’m offering is free. He may at first consider it a foolish mirage. But when he gets the smallest hint that it’s real, he’ll reach for it in something close to panic.
The modern “convert” takes the glass of water, sniffs it, and asks, “You sure you don’t have one of those canned seltzers around here? I can pay for it.”
“No, sir. This is it. The water of life.”
He sips it and hands back the glass. “OK, so we’re done now, right? I’m not going to hell?”
Give me the man whose own sin is breaking his bones. Give me the woman whose shame has been with her so long, she’s given up on ever being cheerful again. Give me the unbeliever who would say with St. Augustine that his quest for sanity is driving him insane.
I’ve got something for you. Cool water. A bright candle. Joy and gladness. Freedom, cleansing, healing, release.
Of course, it’s not from me. I’ve tried it myself, though, and it’s real. The cross of Christ did its terrible, murderous work on him, but his grave lies empty."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
"The call of the Great Commission is to ensure that every nation has Jesus as its God. The Great Commission requires the transformation and Christianization of every nation on earth." -Rich Lusk
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Redemption demands brutal honesty. https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/02/07/opinion/redemption-demands-brutal-honesty/25571.html
"Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
David is direct, even blunt, here. He’s not sugar-coating anything. Even so, these words are routinely misunderstood, especially by new readers of the Bible, or older ones who’ve never paid attention.
The sense is the same as if he had said, “I was born into the tribe of Judah, and therefore Judah is my tribe.”
Only, here, the tribe in question is that one we call “humanity.” As cats bring forth cats, and dogs have litters of puppies, so the descendants of Adam and Eve have babies well outside the Garden of Eden. The Fall has happened, and Paradise has been lost.
As Paul would later explain, even the youngest humans, who haven’t sinned yet (like Adam did) are under the umbrella of his punishment, subjected to a lifetime of toil and death. Babies die, not because they sinned, but because that’s the end of all the members of their tribe.
David’s mother didn’t sin by becoming pregnant. Adam and Eve were told to make babies before they messed everything up. They were told to populate the earth before sin was an issue.
David was from a long line of sinners. You can see how he might have been tempted to use that as an excuse, wrestling with God over his gross violations of the commands. He might’ve said, “C’mon, what do you expect of me, Lord? You know who and what I am. In fact, you are in charge of all that. If you create me with a nature that is inclined to sin, how can you condemn me for sinning?”
We hear things like this all the time. That’s not how David is using the concept.
He’s honestly owning his personal corruption. He’s admitting that he is a sinner from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, and lower than that, at a foundational level: From root to fruit, so to speak, and including the soil.
Even so, let’s answer the hypothetical question: If you made me a sinner, how can you be angry at my sin? Well, because, O king, God has loaded you down with benefits and graces. He’s revealed himself to you. You’ve heard his voice. You’ve experienced amazing tokens of his salvation. You’ve communed with his Spirit. You’ve had the word, and it has delighted you as it taught you.
At some point, shouldn’t there be a payoff for all these acts of his love toward you? How much would he need to do before he’d have a right to expect you won’t go around murdering people?
That’s what David is coming to grips with. It’s not just that he’s done things. But he did them in the face of the mighty acts of God on his behalf. He’s unworthy, ungodly, and undeserving … all the way down.
And you, Christian, living in a better covenant than David could have fathomed, because of the Messiah, Jesus, the son of David, what will your own excuse be? From the one to whom much is given, much will be expected."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
Dynamite sermon from Pastor Jeff Durbin on the unique authority of Scripture over and against all other authorities.
Sola Scriptura & Rome, Pt 1 | 2 Timothy 3:16-17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7lIRhi3VE
#faith #bible #christian #solascriptura
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Our self-identification is not enough.
"The truth is that within Christian churches we have a history of allowing people to “identify” as something they merely feel or wish they were, but for which there is no objective evidence.
Not only have we done this consistently, but we have a little sub-culture in which this is enthusiastically encouraged. We make quasi-celebrities out of the preachers who can convince the most people to make this (false) identification. We call this evangelism.
Sometimes we hold special services called revivals, in which the goal is to get as many people as possible to identify as believers in Jesus.
Just raise your hand during the final prayer or walk the aisle to the front. Say this repeat-after-me incantation, even with half a heart and zero understanding. From that point forward, we’ll urge you to identify as a Christian or be “saved” or “born again.”
When you say you are those things, we’ll all get happy, and no one will dare question you about it.
We won’t require any objective evidence. Your identification doesn’t have to conform to even the smallest spec of what anyone can see.
You never show up at church again? That’s OK. We already counted you on our books as someone we saved.
You lead a life that looks the same as all your friends, who never claimed to believe? Fine. If you’ll continue to say yes when someone asks if you’re a Christian, that’s all that matters — you identify that way.
As one preacher has said, “If you were on trial for your faith in Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
Jesus instructed us to tell what kind of tree we’re looking at by inspecting its fruit. It wouldn’t be enough to see a sign on its branches that says, “I’m an apple tree,” if the fruit it’s dropping is pecans.
John the Baptist warned the crowds who were identifying as repentant people that they needed to bear those fruits — their lives had to show that they had changed.
When people criticize the church for being “full of hypocrites” this is what they are complaining about. The identification points in one direction, but all the fruit lines up the other way.
No, I’m not saying you must walk in sinless perfection before you call yourself a believer. But I am saying that the more people are around you, they will inevitably see the reality.
You’re either aiming for righteousness and accidentally missing here and there, or you’re disguising a faithless lifestyle under the label, the identification, of Christian.
Someone will almost certainly read these words, become nervous or annoyed, and comfort himself with the fact that he raised his hand at Vacation Bible School 60 years ago, so he must be saved. They asked the kids if any of them wanted to go to heaven and he, with all the rest, raised his hand. So, boom, there’s your evidence, preacher.
The evangelism of Jesus was about counting the cost, renouncing worldly goods, and not loving your own life, even unto death. But we think the Jesus-fish on our car proves we’re in the in-crowd.
The good news is there is still time to repent … and to do it in a manner that everyone can identify."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2024/01/24/opinion/our-self-identification-not-enough/25523.html
#faith #bible #christian
Stolen from X:
If Christianity is just about control and secularism is about freedom, why are there 613 laws in the Bible and literally millions of laws in this secular theocracy we call the United States?
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 30th)
Loved to Perfection
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end — John 13:1
This fact is essentially a promise; for what our Lord was He is, and what He was to those with whom He lived on earth, He will be to all His beloved so long as the moon endureth.
"Having loved": here was the wonder! That He should ever have loved men at all is the marvel. What was there in His poor disciples that He should love them? What is there in me?
But when He has once begun to love, it is His nature to continue to do so. Love made the saints "his own" - what a choice title! He purchased them with blood and they became His treasure. Being His own, He will not lose them. Being His beloved, He will not cease to love them. My soul, He will not cease to love thee!
The text is well as it stands: "to the end," even till His death the ruling passion of love to His own reigned in His sacred bosom. It means also to the uttermost. He could not love them more: He gave Himself for them. Some read it, to perfection. Truly He lavished upon them a perfect love, in which there was no flaw nor failure, no unwisdom, no unfaithfulness, and no reserve.
Such is the love of Jesus to each one of His people. Let us sing to our Well-beloved a song.
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 28th)
Absolute Assurance
He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee — Hebrews 13:5
Several times in the Scriptures the Lord hath said this. He has often repeated it, to make our assurance doubly sure. Let us never harbor a doubt of it. In itself the promise is specially emphatic. In the Greek it has five negatives, each one definitely shutting out the possibility of the Lord's ever leaving one of His people so that he can justly feel forsaken of his God. This priceless Scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us against desertion. We may be called to traverse strange ways, but we shall always have our Lord's company, assistance, and provision. We need not covet money, for we shall always have our God, and God is better than gold, His favor is better than fortune.
We ought surely to be content with such things as we have, for he who has God has more than all the world besides. What can we have beyond the Infinite? What more can we desire than Almighty Goodness.
Come, my heart; if God says He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, be thou much in prayer for grace, that thou mayest never leave thy Lord, nor even for a moment forsake His ways.
#faith #bible #christian
New article in the local paper by my pastor: Have courage for coming victory.
"The new year stares us right in our faces like a gunslinger in a classic Western. Its gaze narrows. Its trigger finger twitches, waiting for a signal.
The last several years have come after us like low-down, mangy desperados. After what we’ve seen, it’s normal to wonder what fresh misery has been brewed up for us in days to come. You may think you’re prepared, but you’ve thought that before, and still wound up having to ask, “Where in the world did all that come from?”
This is a completely understandable way to think. We’re gun shy. We’ve been through some things and have the scars to show for it.
It’s understandable, natural, and even to be expected. But (and I say this as your friend, not your accuser) it’s faithless.
You claim some faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, crucified and raised from the dead: you are not allowed to go timidly into coming days. I’ll grant that you have your reasons. I’d even concede that they make perfect sense. Still, your undefined fear of what the year will bring is a red flag signaling, to yourself at least, that you do not believe as you should.
Your homework assignment (because, of course, I’m in a position to assign work to you) is Numbers 13 and 14. It’s a 10-minute read. Moses sends spies into the Promised Land. All 12 come back in agreement that it’s an amazing land, abundantly fruitful, populated with fortified cities and even some of the Nephilim, the giants.
The division among the spies is over the question of who will eat whom. Ten spies are convinced the land will devour the people of Israel. Joshua and Caleb, however, see it working out the other way. In a delightful example of biblical “trash talk,” their argument is that even if there are giants, that’s just more meat on the bone to go around. “They are bread for us,” they say in 14:9.
Christian, this all happens in the fourth book of the Bible. Sixty-two more come after it, and each of them gives you more, not less, reason to tread confidently into the world laid out ahead of you. Give old Caleb a tenth of the good promises you have in Christ, and he’d win the planet, not just a strip of real estate in the Middle East.
In this world you will have tribulation, but Christ has overcome the world. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. The one with all authority is with you until the end of the age. You’ve been seated with him in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Nothing 2024 can throw at you can separate you from the love of your king: not death, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. You are in his hand, and no one is great enough to snatch you out. Your enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus Christ has come that you may have life, more abundantly.
Who is the food in this equation and who will do the feasting?
The year is bread for us."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 27th)
His Kindness and Covenant
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee — Isaiah 54:10
One of the most delightful qualities of divine love is its abiding character. The pillars of the earth may be moved out of their places, but the kindness and the covenant of our merciful Jehovah never depart from His people. How happy my soul feels in a firm belief of this inspired declaration! The year is almost over, and the years of my life are growing few, but time does not change my Lord. New lamps are taking the place of the old, perpetual change is on all things; but our Lord is the same. Force overturns the hills, but no conceivable power can affect the eternal God. Nothing in the past, the present, or the future can cause Jehovah to be unkind to me.
My soul, rest in the eternal kindness of the Lord, who treats thee as one near of kin. Remember also the everlasting covenant. God is ever mindful of it - see that thou art mindful of it too. In Christ Jesus the glorious God has pledged Himself to thee to be thy God, and to hold thee as one of His people. Kindness and covenant - dwell on these words as sure and lasting things which eternity itself shall not take from thee.
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 26th)
God Only, You Can Trust
Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended — Matthew 26:33
"Why," cries one, "this is no promise of God." Just so, but it was a promise of man, and therefore it came to nothing. Peter thought that he was saying what he should assuredly carry out; but a promise which has no better foundation than a human resolve will fall to the ground. No sooner did temptations arise than Peter denied his Master, and used oaths to confirm his denial.
What is man's word? An earthen pot broken with a stroke. What is your own resolve? A blossom, which, with God's care, may come to fruit, but which, left to itself, will fall to the ground with the first wind that moves the bough.
On man's word hang only what it will bear.
On thine own resolve depend not at all.
On the promise of thy God hang time and eternity, this world and the next, thine all and the all of all thy beloved ones.
This volume is a checkbook for believers, and this page is meant as a warning as to what bank they draw upon, and whose signature they accept. Rely upon Jesus without limit. Trust not thyself nor any born of woman, beyond due bounds; but trust thou only and wholly in the Lord.
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 22nd)
Immediately Present
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble — Psalm 46:1
A help that is not present when we need it is of small value. The anchor which is left at home is of no use to the seaman in the hour of storm; the money which he used to have is of no worth to the debtor when a writ is out against him. Very few earthly helps could be called "very present": they are usually far in the seeking, far in the using, and farther still when once used. But as for the Lord our God, He is present when we seek Him, present when we need Him, and present when we have already enjoyed His aid.
He is more than "present," He is very present. More present than the nearest friend can be, for He is in us in our trouble; more present than we are to ourselves, for sometimes we lack presence of mind. He is always present, effectually present, sympathetically present, altogether present. He is present now if this is a gloomy season. Let us rest ourselves upon Him. He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him; He is our very present help, let us repose in Him now. We need not have a moment's care, or an instant's fear. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 20th)
Men as Men; God as God
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? — Isaiah 51:12-13
Let the text itself be taken as the portion for today. There is no need to enlarge upon it. Trembling one, read it, believe it, feed on it, and plead it before the Lord. He whom you fear is only a man after all; while He who promises to comfort you is God, your Maker, and the Creator of Heaven and earth. Infinite comfort more than covers a very limited danger.
"Where is the fury of the oppressor?" It is in the Lord's hand. It is only the fury of a dying creature; fury which will end as soon as the breath is gone from the nostril. Why, then, should we stand in awe of one who is as frail as ourselves? Let us not dishonor our God by making a god of puny man. We can make an idol of a man by rendering to him excessive fear as well as by paying him inordinate love. Let us treat men as men, and God as God; and then we shall go calmly on in the path of duty, fearing the Lord, and fearing nobody else.
#faith #bible #christian
The American Right has little to offer the people except a slower paced leftism. “The Land of the Free” has become the home of would-be tyrants with ever-expanding dreams of control. ~ R. J. Rushdoony
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 19th)
Afflictions, but No Broken Bones
He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken — Psalm 34:20
This promise by the context is referred to the much afflicted righteous man: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." He may suffer skin-wounds and flesh-wounds, but no great harm shall be done, "not a bone of him shall be broken."
This is great comfort to a tried child of God, and comfort which I dare accept; for up to this hour I have suffered no real damage from my many afflictions. I have neither lost faith, nor hope, nor love. Nay, so far from losing these bones of character, they have gained in strength and energy. I have more knowledge, more experience, more patience, more stability than I had before the trials came. Not even my joy has been destroyed. Many a bruise have I had by sickness, bereavement, depression, slander, and opposition; but the bruise has healed, and there has been no compound fracture of a bone, not even a simple one. The reason is not far to seek. If we trust in the Lord, He keeps all our bones; and if He keeps them, we may be sure that not one of them is broken.
Come, my heart, do not sorrow. Thou art smarting, but there are no bones broken. Endure hardness, and bid defiance to fear.
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 18th)
Defended and Covered
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem — Isaiah 31:5
With hurrying wing the mother bird hastens up to the protection of her young. She wastes no time upon the road when coming to supply them with food, or guard them from danger. Thus as on eagle's wings will the Lord come for the defense of His chosen; yea, He will ride upon the wings of the wind.
With outspread wing the mother covers her little ones in the nest. She hides them away by interposing her own body. The hen yields her own warmth to her chicks, and makes her wings a house, in which they dwell at home. Thus doth Jehovah Himself become the protection of His elect. He Himself is their refuge, their abode, their all.
As birds flying, and birds covering (for the word means both), so will the Lord be unto us: and this He will be repeatedly and successfully. We shall be defended and preserved from all evil: the Lord who likens Himself to birds will not be like them in their feebleness, for He is Jehovah of hosts. Let this be our comfort, that almighty love will be swift to succor, and sure to cover. The wing of God is more quick and more tender than the wing of a bird, and we will put our trust under its shadow henceforth and for ever.
#faith #bible #christian
Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.
Charles Spurgeon
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 17th)
Nearest and Dearest Fellowship
So shall we ever be with the Lord — 1 Thessalonians 4:17
While we are here the Lord is with us, and when we are called away we are with Him. There is no dividing the saint from His Saviour. They are one, and they always must be one: Jesus cannot be without His own people, for He would be a Head without a body. Whether caught up into the air, or resting in Paradise, or sojourning here, we are with Jesus; and who shall separate us from Him?
What a joy is this! Our supreme honor, rest, comfort, delight, is to be with the Lord. We cannot conceive of anything which can surpass or even equal this divine society. By holy fellowship we must be with Him in His humiliation, rejection, and travail, and then we shall be with Him in His glory. Before long we shall be with Him in His rest and in His royalty, in His expectation and in His manifestation. We shall fare as He fares, and triumph as He triumphs.
O my Lord, if I am to be for ever with thee, I have a destiny incomparable. I will not envy an archangel. To be for ever with the Lord is my idea of Heaven at its best. Not the harps of gold, nor the crowns unfading, nor the light unclouded, is glory to me; but Jesus, Jesus Himself, and myself for ever with Him in nearest and dearest fellowship.
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 16th)
Divine Expulsion
Thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong — Joshua 17:18
It is a great encouragement to valor to be assured of victory, for then a man goes forth to war in confidence, and ventures where else he had been afraid to go. Our warfare is with evil within us and around us, and we ought to be persuaded that we are able to get the victory, and that we shall do so in the name of the Lord Jesus. We are not riding for a fall, but to win; and win we shall. The grace of God in its Omnipotence is put forth for the overthrow of evil in every form: hence the certainty of triumph.
Certain of our sins find chariots of iron in our constitution, our former habits, our associations, and our occupations. Nevertheless we must overcome them. They are very strong, and in reference to them we are very weak; yet in the name of God we must master them, and we will. If one sin has dominion of us we are not the Lord's free men. A man who is held by only one chain is still a captive. There is no going to Heaven with one sin ruling within us, for of the saints it is said, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Up, then, and slay every Canaanite, and break to shivers every chariot of iron! The Lord of hosts is with us, and who shall resist His sin-destroying power?
#faith #bible #christian
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7 LSB)
Consider these prophetic words, written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. What foundational theological reality undergirds them? What did people have to believe to understand their message and their fulfillment? No Open Theist could make heads or tails of such a prophecy because, of course, the fulfillment would require millions of "free will" decisions made by creatures that, by that system, cannot be known to God. And those who properly recognize the incoherence of open theism are left cobbling together some kind of system that pretends to affirm the biblical statements of God's sovereignty over time while still allowing man to be sovereign over his own fate. But the fact is, one of the key texts we celebrate at this time of year can only be understood when you recognize that "the zeal of Yahweh of armies" will accomplish exactly what He wishes to accomplish, when He wishes to accomplish it, all to His glory and honor. - James White
#faith #bible #christian #opentheism
John the Baptist and Jesus preach the coming of the kingdom, the reign of God.
That is to say: In Jesus, God asserts His claim on the world.
Jesus declares to Satan, to demons, to Caesars and Stalins: This world is not yours. It is mine.
That’s the Advent gospel. - Peter Leithart
#faith #bible #christian
Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 14th)
Nothing Old
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new — Revelation 21:5
Glory be to His name! All things need making new, for they are sadly battered and worn by sin. It is time that the old vesture was rolled up and laid aside, and that creation put on her Sunday suit. But no one else can make all things new except the Lord who made them at the first; for it needs as much power to make out of evil as to make out of nothing. Our Lord Jesus has undertaken the task, and He is fully competent for the performance of it. Already He has commenced His labor, and for centuries He has persevered in making new the hearts of men, and the order of society. By-and-by He will make new the whole constitution of human government, and human nature shall be changed by His grace; and there shall come a day when the body shall be made new, and raised like unto His glorious body.
What a joy to belong to a kingdom in which everything is being made new by the power of its King! We are not dying out: we are hastening on to a more glorious life. Despite the opposition of the powers of evil, our glorious Lord Jesus is accomplishing His purpose, and making us, and all things about us, "new," and as full of beauty as when they first came from the hand of the Lord.
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The gospel is the grand emanation from the fountain of blessedness, an overflow of the Divine goodness. It is the infinitely happy God, pouring forth his happiness upon miserable sinners, through Jesus Christ. — Andrew Fuller
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New article in the local paper by my pastor: Restoration is focus of Advent.
"Many churches that follow a traditional calendar in their activities will regard this upcoming Sunday as the third Sunday in the season of Advent. In the first, they focused on themes of hope and expectation. Last Sunday was about promise and fulfillment. Looking over the suggested Scripture readings for the third Sunday, the theme of restoration is prominent.
The people of God who had managed to hold on to their faith at the time of Jesus of Nazareth were in need of restoration, severely so. Beginning with the captivity in Babylon, at the time of the book of Daniel, they had been oppressed and harassed by four successive world empires.
After the Babylonians came the Medes and Persians. These were ousted by the fierce Greeks under the swift generalship of Alexander the Great. The Greek reign over Israel was so bloody and tyrannical that when the Romans finally booted them out, many Jews were tempted to believe the Romans were the messengers of God’s grace toward them, and had, for all practical purposes, established the kingdom of God on Earth.
This pro-Roman faction among the Jews shows up as the sect of the Sadducees in the Gospel accounts. Their basic issue with Christ’s preaching was that, if people followed it, the Romans might feel a need to come and crack some heads in Israel, and their (relatively) comfortable lifestyle would be reduced to shambles.
Their nightmarish past with the Greeks had made them eager to live quietly under the oppression of the Romans. It wasn’t great, but it was night-and-day better than it had been. This trauma response made the offer of Christ’s restoration sound dangerous and upsetting. Living under the iron boot of Rome was enough for them.
But the prophets had promised them actual freedom. God had prophesied about making sure all their previous losses were repaid. Ruined cities would be rebuilt, teeming with laughing children like a field teeming with well-kept flocks. Those who robbed and destroyed would be cast down, and restitution extracted from them.
Isaiah, for instance, prophesied about this day of restoration in Isaiah 61 (one of the Advent readings). Jesus then applied this same text to himself in Luke 4, saying, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The offer was clear. Here I am. The time is now. Today, the promised restoration is yours.
Less than 10 verses later, they all tried to murder him.
And you? How does the offer of Christ’s restoration strike you today, this Advent season? Hopefully, like a piping mug of something smooth on a snowy day.
Or, maybe your past troubles have convinced you that a day without the walls burning down is about all you can hope for.
The good news is this, but it will challenge your faith: God has something better for you.
The promised Messiah, who died and was raised, still offers restoration. He’s still in the business of rebuilding ruins. He’s still the king of justice, who will make sure that no one gets away with anything. The books will all be balanced and the debts will be paid.
May this season be healing to you."
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: reformnm@yahoo.com
https://www.qcsunonline.com/story/2023/12/13/opinion/restoration-is-focus-of-advent/25406.html
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 13th)
Evening Brightens Into Day
It shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light — Zechariah 14:7
It is a surprise that it should be so; for all things threaten that at evening time it shall be dark. God is wont to work in a way so much above our fears and beyond our hopes, that we are greatly amazed, and are led to praise His sovereign grace. No, it shall not be with us as our hearts are prophesying: the dark will not deepen into midnight, but it will on a sudden brighten into day. Never let us despair. In the worst times let us trust in the Lord who turneth the darkness of the shadow of death into the morning. When the tale of bricks is doubled Moses appears, and when tribulation abounds it is nearest its end.
This promise should assist our patience. The light may not fully come till our hopes are quite spent by waiting all day to no purpose. To the wicked the sun goes down while it is yet day: to the righteous the sun rises when it is almost night. May we not with patience wait for that heavenly light, which may be long in coming, but is sure to prove itself well worth waiting for?
Come, my soul, take up thy parable and sing unto Him who will bless thee in life and in death, in a manner surpassing all that nature has ever seen when at its best.
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 12th)
A Quiet Heart
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength — Isaiah 30:15
It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mistrusting. What can we do if we wear ourselves to skin and bone? Can we gain anything by fearing and fuming? Do we not unfit ourselves for action, and unhinge our minds for wise decision? We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.
Oh, for grace to be quiet! Why run from house to house to repeat the weary story which makes us more and more heart-sick as we tell it? Why even stay at home to cry out in agony because of wretched forebodings which may never be fulfilled? It would be well to keep a quiet tongue, but it would be far better if we had a quiet heart. Oh, to be still and know that Jehovah is God!
Oh, for grace to be confident in God! The Holy One of Israel must defend and deliver His own. He cannot run back from His solemn declarations. We may make sure that every word of His will stand though the mountains should depart. He deserves to be confided in; and if we would display confidence and consequent quietness, we might be as happy as the spirits before the throne.
Come, my soul, return unto thy rest, and lean thy head upon the bosom of the Lord Jesus.
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A little faith is no less faith than a great faith; yea, a little faith will carry a man as safely to heaven, though not so comfortably, nor so fruitfully, as great faith.
—John Owen
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 11th)
Trust and Do; Do and Trust
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed — Psalm 37:3
Trust and do are words which go well together, in the order in which the Holy Spirit has placed them. We should have faith, and that faith should work. Trust in God sets us upon holy doing: we trust God for good, and then we do good. We do not sit still because we trust, but we arouse ourselves, and expect the Lord to work through us and by us. It is not ours to worry and do evil, but to trust and do good. We neither trust without doing, nor do without trusting.
Adversaries would root us out, if they could; but by trusting and doing we dwell in the land. We will not go into Egypt, but we will remain in Immanuel's land - the providence of God, the Canaan of covenant love. We are not so easily to be got rid of as the Lord's enemies suppose. They cannot thrust us out, nor stamp us out: where God has given us a name and a place, there we abide.
But what about the supply of our necessities? The Lord has put a "verily" into this promise. As sure as God is true, His people shall be fed. It is theirs to trust and to do, and it is the Lord's to do according to their trust. If not fed by ravens, or fed by an Obadiah, or fed by a widow, yet they shall be fed somehow. Away, ye fears!
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“Faith is often diversified by doubt, but a man should not desert the conviction of his better moments because the dark moments come.”
~Machen
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"Christ upholds God’s Law. And this includes his upholding one of the laws most commonly misunderstood and employed today. This law is often used in arguing against the continuing relevance of God’s Law in the civil sphere. He upholds the law calling for capital punishment for incorrigible criminality. Even the parents of a dangerous individual are expected to turn him over to civil authorities for capital punishment."
https://postmillennialworldview.com/2023/12/01/christ-and-the-rebellious-son-law/
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 10th)
God Is Our Ally
But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries — Exodus 23:22
The Lord Christ in the midst of His people is to be acknowledged and obeyed. He is the vicegerent of God, and speaks in the Father's name, and it is ours implicitly and immediately to do as He commands. We shall lose the promise if we disregard the precept.
To full obedience how large the blessing! The Lord enters into a league with His people, offensive and defensive. He will bless those who bless us, and curse those who curse us. God will go heart and soul with His people, and enter in deepest sympathy into their position. What a protection this affords us! We need not concern ourselves about our adversaries, when we are assured that they have become the adversaries of God. If Jehovah has taken up our quarrel we may leave the foemen in His hands.
So far as our own interest is concerned we have no enemies; but for the cause of truth and righteousness we take up arms and go forth to conflict. In this sacred war we are allied with the eternal God, and if we carefully obey the law of our Lord Jesus, He is engaged to put forth all His power on our behalf. Wherefore we fear no man.
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Leave out the cross and you have killed the religion of Jesus. Atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth; it is the heart of it.
Charles Spurgeon
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 8th)
Following Leads to Honor
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor — John 12:26
The highest service is imitation. If I would be Christ's servant I must be His follower. To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honor to His name. Let me mind this every day.
If I imitate Jesus I shall have His company: if I am like Him I shall be with Him. In due time He will take me up to dwell with Him above, if, meanwhile, I have striven to follow Him here below. After His suffering our Lord came to His throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with Him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. The issue of our Lord's life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with Him in His humiliation we shall be with Him in His glory. Come, my soul, pluck up courage, and put down thy feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.
Let me not fail to note that the Father will honor those who follow His Son. If He sees me true to Jesus He will put marks of favor and honor upon me for His Son's sake. No honor can be like this. Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honor; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 7th)
Gift of Strength; Peace to Bless
The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace — Psalm 29:11
David had just heard the voice of the Lord in a thunderstorm, and had seen His power in the hurricane whose path he had described; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that overwhelming power by which Heaven and earth are shaken is promised to be the strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring bolt will give to His redeemed the wings of eagles; He who shakes the earth with His voice will terrify the enemies of His saints, and give His children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the Lord's own peace is ours? Jesus, the mighty God, is our strength; let us put Him on and go forth to our service. Jesus, our blessed Lord, is also our peace; let us repose in Him this day, and end our fears. What a blessing to have Him for our strength and peace both now and for ever!
That same God who rides upon the storm in days of tempest will also rule the hurricane of our tribulation, and send us, before long, days of peace. We shall have strength for storms, and songs for fair weather. Let us begin to sing at once unto God our strength and our peace. Away, dark thoughts! Up, faith and hope!
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 6th)
"Through" Not Engulfed
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee — Isaiah 43:2
Bridge there is none: we must go through the waters, and feel the rush of the rivers. The presence of God in the flood is better than a ferry-boat. Tried we must be, but triumphant we shall be; for Jehovah Himself, who is mightier than many waters, shall be with us. Whenever else He may be away from His people, the Lord will surely be with them in difficulties and dangers. The sorrows of life may rise to an extraordinary height, but the Lord is equal to every occasion.
The enemies of God can put in our way dangers of their own making, namely, persecutions and cruel mockings, which are like a burning fiery furnace. What then? We shall walk through the fires. God being with us, we shall not be burned; nay, not even the smell of fire shall remain upon us.
Oh, the wonderful security of the heaven-born and heaven-bound pilgrim! Floods cannot drown him, nor fires burn him. Thy presence, O Lord, is the protection of thy saints from the varied perils of the road. Behold, in faith I commit myself unto thee, and my spirit enters into rest.
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“The great thing about salvation is that we’ve been restored to know God in His glory and remember that we are but nothing in His sight and we exist to serve Him.”
Greg Bahnsen
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 5th)
High Places of Defense
He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure — Isaiah 33:16
The man to whom God has given grace to be of blameless life dwells in perfect security.
He dwells on high, above the world, out of gunshot of the enemy, and near to Heaven. He has high aims and motives, and he finds high comforts and company. He rejoices in the mountains of eternal love, wherein he has his abode.
He is defended by munitions of stupendous rock. The firmest things in the universe are the promises and purposes of the unchanging God, and these are the safeguard of the obedient believer.
He is provided for by this great promise, "Bread shall be given him." As the enemy cannot climb the fort, nor break down the rampart, so the fortress cannot be captured by siege and famine. The Lord, who rained manna in the wilderness, will keep His people in good store even when they are surrounded by those who would starve them.
But what if water should fail? That cannot be, "his waters shall be sure." There is a never-failing well within the impregnable fortress. The Lord sees that nothing is wanting. None can touch the citizen of the true Zion. However fierce the enemy, the Lord will preserve His chosen.
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 4th)
Covered and Protected
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler — Psalm 91:4
A condescending simile indeed! Just as a hen protects her brood and allows them to nestle under her wings, so will the Lord defend His people, and permit them to hide away in Him. Have we not seen the little chicks peeping out from under the mother's feathers? Have we not heard their little cry of contented joy? In this way let us shelter ourselves in our God, and feel overflowing peace in knowing that He is guarding us.
While the Lord covers us we trust. It would be strange if we did not. How can we distrust when Jehovah Himself becomes house and home, refuge and rest to us?
This done, we go out to war in His name and enjoy the same guardian care. We need shield and buckler, and when we implicitly trust God, even as the chick trusts the hen, we find His truth arming us from head to foot. The Lord cannot lie; He must be faithful to His people; His promise must stand. This sure truth is all the shield we need. Behind it we defy the fiery darts of the enemy.
Come, my soul, hide under those great wings, lose thyself among those soft feathers! How happy thou art!
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Oh boy. A guy I follow has bought into flat earth. Watch his video. Are you convinced? Ep. 8 The Firmament, the Flat Earth, and the Glory of God https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpy9XGUEGzA
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Rejoice today at the beginning of the Advent season! The promised seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, crushed the head of the serpent. He was wounded but rose from the dead on the third day. He is God with us, the Lord almighty in the flesh.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.--Genesis 3:15
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Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook (December 1st)
True Walking Posture
He that walketh uprightly walketh surely — Proverb 10:9
His walk may be slow, but it is sure. He that hasteth to be rich shall not be innocent nor sure; but steady perseverance in integrity, if it do not bring riches, will certainly bring peace. In doing that which is just and right we are like one walking upon a rock, for we have confidence that every step we take is upon solid and safe ground. On the other hand, the utmost success through questionable transactions must always be hollow and treacherous, and the man who has gained it must always be afraid that a day of reckoning will come, and then his gains will condemn him.
Let us stick to truth and righteousness. By God's grace let us imitate our Lord and Master, in whose mouth no deceit was ever found. Let us not be afraid of being poor, nor of being treated with contempt. Never, on any account whatever, let us do that which our conscience cannot justify. If we lose inward peace, we lose more than a fortune can buy. If we keep in the Lord's own way, and never sin against our conscience, our way is sure against all comers. Who is he that can harm us if we be followers of that which is good? We may be thought fools by fools if we are firm in our integrity; but in the place where judgment is infallible we shall be approved.
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