Trees Marked For the Axe

"To fix our confidence upon a dying world is folly. It is as if we were building our nests when the tree is being cut down, or decorating our cabin when the ship is likely to be dashed in pieces or is already sinking." 

Is it a time to drive a trade for ourselves when we are just leaving earth, and hope soon to be in heaven? Yet too many among professors are doing this. Their hearts are set upon their money, they build their nest in the golden grove; or they are wrapt up in their children, and, as it were, nestle down among those who spring up as willows by the watercourses. The axe is laid at the root of all earthly comforts, and, therefore, those who are taught of God soar aloft, and make their eyries on the Rock of Ages. What is our friend doing whose eyes are now scanning the page? Where is your heart? What is its dear delight and joy? Is it of earth? Then be sure that to earth it will return. Is your joy a thing of heaven? Then alone is it stable and sure. My soul, the world is passing away, set not thy love upon it. The ship is sinking, care little about the little luxuries of the berth which thou hast for a while occupied in it. Up and away! This is not thy rest. See, before thine eyes the fashion of this world passeth away; look to eternity and to thy God, for there alone is solid bliss. 

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, "Trees Marked for the Axe," p. 73

Arminianism Has Flooded the Reformed Churches

Our opposition to the offer of the gospel is not academic. Through the teaching and practice of the offer, Arminianism has flooded the Reformed churches. Today, a Reformed man cries out: "O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps" (Ps. 79:1). The revivalistic, "soul-winning" mentality of free will has taken over among many Reformed people. The altar call, that johnny-come-lately innovation of Finney, an abomination before God and man, is widely practiced in Reformed churches. The evangelism of Billy Graham is revered, so that if one dares to call the message of Graham "the doctrine of Pelagius out of hell," as the Canons of Dordt do indeed call it, he is likely to be stoned as a blasphemer in the streets of Reformed Jerusalem. The children of the covenant are more and more viewed, not as covenant children to be reared in the truth but as potential converts who must make the decision for Christ. Reformed churches are wide open to the most blatant Arminian, "free willist," evangelistic societies, e.g., Campus Crusade for Christ. They are ravaged by ecumenical endeavors based on Arminian universalism., e.g., Key '73 and "Here's Life, America." Loosened from their moorings by Arminianism, they are swept by every wind of doctrine that finds salvation in man's feeling and experience, e.g., neo-Pentecostalism. Even the Holy Scriptures are defiled. Reformed people, schools, and churches gladly receive, eagerly use, and enthusiastically distribute as the Bible a book that is nothing other than a man's revision of the Scriptures along the lines of Arminian theology. Kenneth Taylor's The Living Bible, in all its myriad forms, is the bible of Arminianism. Systematically, it corrupts those passages of Scripture which teach the sovereignty of God in salvation and damnation, so that they will teach the sovereignty of the will of man. With this book, the Remonstrants had routed the Synod of Dordt. If a Reformed man had done to the sacred Scriptures in the interest of the Reformed faith only one tenth of that which The Living Bible has done in the interest of Arminianism, he would have been drawn and quartered in every pulpit and religious paper in the land, and his bible would have been scorned at the book stores. As for The Living Bible, it is lavished with praise, and its sales are booming. Why? Because the spiritual leaders delude the people, so that they no longer know that salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God Who showeth mercy, and the people love their delusion. 

There is only one hope for Reformed men and Reformed churches, and only the sovereign grace of God can realize it-- back to Calvinism: the old Calvinism of Dordt, of Calvin, of Augustine, of Paul. And this means the rooting out of the well-meant offer of the gospel. 

David J. Engelsma 

Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel, pp. 63-65

THE TRAITOR WITHIN

 "A garrison is not free from danger while it hath an enemy lodged within." 

You may bolt all your doors, and fasten all your windows, but if the thieves have placed even a little child within doors, who can draw the bolts for them, the house is still unprotected. All the sea outside a ship cannot do it damage till the water enters within and fills the hold. Hence, it is clear, our greatest danger is from within. All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our nature. The sparks will fall harmlessly if there is no tinder. Alas, our heart is our greatest enemy: this is the little home-born thief. Lord, save me from that evil man, myself. 

Charles H. Spurgeon 

Flowers From A Puritan's Garden, pp. 62-63

Heresies: Then and Now

 

Heresy has always been present in the church. It was present in the old dispensation when, already at Sinai, Israel worshiped a golden calf, which they said was the god who had delivered them from Egypt (Ex. 32:4). God's constant warning against false prophets could only have been due to the presence in Israel of men who were corrupting the truth, for example in Deuteronomy 13:1-5.

The times of Christ and the apostles were no different. Christ repeatedly warned against the heresies of the scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, who took away the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52) and crucified the Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Paul frequently had to write his epistles to combat false doctrine; to the Colossians to ward off an incipient gnosticism; to the Galatians to defeat the Judaizers; and to the Thessalonians to correct errors in eschatology that they had learned from false teachers. Both Peter in 2 Peter 2 and Jude in his epistle warned against the evil men who were attempting to lead the church astray.

From the end of apostolic era until the present, the church has never been free from the threat of false doctrine. Fighting false doctrine is so crucial a part of the church's existence in the world that to ignore it is to run the risk of not understanding church history at all. One cannot learn anything significant about a man whose biography has been omitted the most important events in his life. One cannot understand the history of the church militant without understanding her battles against false doctrine.

A striking feature of heresy over the ages is the reappearance of false doctrines that had been taught in earlier times. Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). This is true of heresy as well as every other event. Heresy may appear in new clothing, but it remains the same heresy against which the church has fought many centuries earlier.

We can, therefore, learn from heresy and from the battle that the saints fought against it; the heresies are always very much the same. The church's calling today is no different from the calling of the church in past years: "Be thou faithful unto death" (Rev. 2:10).

If we live in ignorance of the church of past years, knowing nothing of its struggles, battles, temptations, and heresies it faced, we will be at a terrible disadvantage in our own time when heresy rises in our own church or denomination. False doctrine will seem to us to be only a new insight into the truth, and we will lose the benefit of the experience and struggle as well as the victory of our brethren from earlier centuries. We will be an easier prey for the enemy.

Knowledge of the past will give us knowledge to use in our own battles, give us assurance that Christ preserves His church against all the attacks of the enemy, provide us with skill in defending our faith, and make us joyful in knowing more fully its great truths as the Spirit of our ascended Christ has led the church to confess them.

May God be glorified through the story of the defense of His truth, and may the church be thereby strengthened in her calling.

Excerpted from the preface of Herman Hanko's 

Contending for the Faith, xvii-xviii

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-herman-hanko/products/contending-for-the-faith 

Trusting in the Sun of Righteousness

30 MAY

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow  up as calves of the stall. Malachi 4:2

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 1:1-18

"Sun" is an appropriate name for Christ, for God the Father has given a much clearer light in the person of Christ than He did formerly by the law and all its appendages.

Christ is called the light of the world, not because the fathers wandered as the blind in darkness and were content with the law as with the dawn or with the moon and stars. We know how the doctrine of the law was so obscure that it may truly be said to be shadowy. When the heavens at length were opened and the gospel was made clear, it was through the rising of the Sun, which brought the full day. Hence it is the peculiar purpose of Christ to illuminate us.

On this account, the first chapter of John says that the true light which illuminates every man that comes into the world existed from the beginning. Yet this light shone in the darkness, for some sparks of reason exist in men, however blinded they became through the fall of Adam and the corruption of nature. Christ is specifically called the light with regard to the faithful, whom He delivers from the blindness by which all by nature have been afflicted, and whom He undertakes to guide by His Spirit.

The meaning, then, of the word, "Sun," when applied to Christ, is that without the Light of the World we can only wander and go astray. But by His guidance we shall keep in the right way. Hence He says, "He who follows me walks not in darkness" (John 8:12).

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: 

Without Christ and His light, we would be doomed to wander in darkness. If you are a Christian, thank Him particularly for dispelling the darkness in which you were determined to remain. You could not see the light until the Spirit opened your eyes.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Postmillennialism (6)

The Postmillennial Interpretation of Revelation 20 (cont.)

In the past, the majority of postmillennialists explainedRevelation 20:7-9 as teaching that the millennium will be followed by a final apostasy from the gospel and law of Christ and by a worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ. Towards the very end of history, Satan will be loosed to deceive the nations and marshal them against the church. Among those who taught this final apostasy were the Presbyterian J. Marcellus Kik and the Christian Reconstructionist Gary North.¹ Kik's interpretation of the passage is representative: "For the thousand-year period he [Satan] was bound. He could no longer deceive the nations.... At the end of the millennium period he is again to be released to deceive the nations. That will be a woeful day for the world."²

Recently, prominent postmillennial Christian Reconstructionists Rousas J. Rushdoony and Martin G. Selbrede have rejected the teaching of a final apostasy as pessimistic. According to Selbrede, the millennium of Revelation 20 (which he understands as the glorious reign of the church over all her enemies in a "golden age") will climax in the salvation of every living human. To such a world, Christ will return. No worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ will intervene between themillennium and the coming of Christ. Selbrede calls his doctrine of the last things "eschatological universalism" and praises it as a teaching of "unbounded optimism." He acknowledges that he is dependent for both the teaching and its name upon the noted Presbyterian theologian Benjamin B. Warfield.

The Optimistic Interpretation of Revelation 20:7-9

Optimistic though this rejection of a final apostasy and rebellion may be, it still must reckon with Revelation 20:7-9: "And when the thousand years [the millennium] are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth...to gather them together to battle...[against] the camp of the saints...and the beloved city." Even optimism must be "bounded" by the word of God.

Selbrede, the contemporary Christian Reconstruction postmillennialist, relies entirely on Warfield's exegesis of the crucial passage on a final apostasy.³ Warfield's explanation is a denial that the "little season" of Satan's loosing (Rev. 20:3) follows the thousand years in history. Rather, the "little season" is contemporaneous with the thousand years. While the saints are living and reigning with Christ in heaven, Satan is constantly opposing the church on earth. According to Warfield, the binding of Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2) refers to his inability to trouble the saints in heaven. The loosing of Satan for a little season refers to his warfare against the church on earth (during much of the same time that he is bound with regard to the saints in heaven). In Warfield's explanation of the binding and loosing of Satan, time is not in view. It is a mistake to think in terms of before and after, as though Satan is bound before the millennium and loosed after it.

The chaining of Satan is not in the event a preliminary transaction, on which the security of the saints follows: nor is the loosing of Satan a subsequent transaction, on which the security of the saints ceases. The saints rather escape entirely beyond the reach of Satan when they ascend to their Lord and take their seats on His throne by His side.... But while the saints abide in their security Satan, though thus "bound" relatively to them, is loosed relatively to the world—and that is what is meant by the statement in verse 3c that "he must be loosed for a little time." ...We must here look on the time-element...as belonging wholly to the symbol and read in the interpretation space-elements in its place.4

Although Warfield does not make this explicit, his explanation of Revelation 20:7-9 includes that gradually Satan's assault on the church during the "little season" (which for Warfield is the entire present age up to the beginning of the "golden age") will weaken as the gospel converts more and more members of the nations, Gog and Magog. Then will be realized the "golden age," which will culminate in the conversion of every living human (Warfield's and Selbrede's "eschatological universalism"). Finally, Christ will return to a "converted earth."

Evidently, the "golden age" with its eschatological universalism must be inserted into Revelation 20 between verse nine and verse ten. The falling of fire from heaven upon the enemies of the church in verse nine cannot refer to the second coming of Christ, for according to Warfield and Selbrede no enemy of Christ remains at His coming. But the casting of the devil into the lake of fire in verse ten must occur at Christ's second coming. The "golden age" of postmillennialism must, therefore, be found between verse nine and verse ten.

This is the exegesis of Revelation 20:7-9 that Selbrede recommends to his postmillennial comrades, who hitherto have been afflicted with the dread malady of pessimism inasmuch as they have allowed the passage to convince them of a final apostasy. Selbrede's recommendation of Warfield's exegesis of the passage comes with a high cost to postmillennialism. The cost is giving up Revelation 20 as proof of postmillennialism's "golden age." As I pointed out earlier in this series on the last things, Warfield demonstrated that the millennium of Revelation 20 refers to the intermediate state. The living and reigning of the saints with Christ take place in heaven, not on the earth. According to Warfield, there is nothing of a "golden age" on earth in the whole of Revelation 20(Warfield finds the "golden age" of postmillennialism elsewhere in Revelation).5 It is very much to be doubted that postmillennialism is willing, or can stand, to pay this cost, even in order to rid itself of the incubus of a final apostasy.

Erroneous Interpretation

Warfield's interpretation of the loosing of Satan, inRevelation 20:7-9, is erroneous. It is so egregiously erroneous as to betray that Warfield's exegesis is driven by his postmillennial theology. A loosing of Satan towards the end of history resulting in a worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ contradicts the dearest tenet of postmillennialism, namely, that history must come to a close with an earthly, visible, and complete victory of the Messianic kingdom. Therefore, the loosing of Satan must be explained away, regardless that the explanation violently conflicts with the plain language of the text and regardless that the explanation is burdened with insoluble difficulties regarding other elements of the passage, as Warfield himself admits.

The truth is that the loosing of Satan from his chain and prison follows the thousand years during which he had been bound: "When the thousand years are expired (Rev. 20:7)." "When" is a particle of time. The words "are expired" translate the Greek verb that means "were ended," or "were brought to [their] end." It is the same word used of the ending of the thousand-year period in verse three of Revelation 20 and there translated, "should be fulfilled": "that he [Satan] should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." The thought is that Christ has a purpose with the binding of Satan for a thousand years. This purpose is the gathering of the elect church out of the nations by the preaching of the gospel. This purpose would be impossible of realization, if Satan were not bound and thus prevented from deceiving the nations under Antichrist. Only when Christ's goal, or end, with the thousand years has been reached, in the salvation of the entire church, will He loose Satan for a little season, to do his damnedest.

The element of time is very definitely in the passage, both grammatically and with regard to the doctrine.

That the loosing of Satan follows the millennium in time is clearly taught also in verse three. Satan is bound for a thousand years "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled[that is, ended, in the sense of having been brought to their appointed goal]: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Time is everywhere in the text. Time is prominent. Time is of the text's essence. Satan is bound at the beginning of the thousand years. During the long period of the thousand years, Satan remains bound. Only when the thousand years have ended is he loosed: "after that." And he is loosed "a little season [of time]."

In opposition to Warfield's assertion that the little season of Satan's loosing is the same period of time as the thousand years during which he is bound, verse three sharply distinguishes the time of Satan's binding from the time of his loosing. A thousand years is a long time. It is the time from Christ's ascension until shortly before His coming again. In contrast, the time of Satan's loosing is very brief: "a little season" (literally: "a little time"; time is in the passage literally). And this will be a great comfort to the church that must suffer the consequences of Satan's loosing.

If further evidence of the falsity of Warfield's (and Selbrede's) interpretation of the loosing of Satan were required, it would be that this interpretation forces Warfield to explain the "nations" mentioned in verse three as the elect church in heaven. According to Warfield, the binding of Satan refers strictly to his inability to trouble the saints in heaven in the intermediate state. When verse three, then, teaches that Satan is bound "that he should deceive the nations no more," the meaning must be that he is bound so that he will not deceive the elect in heaven. Warfield recognizes his problem: "The only real difficulty lies in the word 'nations' [in v. 3]. Should we not expect 'saints' instead—for is it not merely with reference to the saints that Satan is supposed to be bound?"6 Half-heartedly, Warfield suggests as the solution to his problem that "nations" in verse three "may include Christians also."7 But he quickly admits that his attempt to explain "nations" in verse three is unsatisfactory. "It cannot be pretended that a real solution of its ['nations' in v. 3] difficulties has been offered in any case; it remains a dark spot in an otherwise lucid paragraph and must be left for subsequent study to explain."8

Apart from the usage of the word "nations" elsewhere in the book of Revelation, the word "nations" is used in verse eight of Revelation 20 to refer to masses of ungodly men and women on the earth. The "nations," identified as Gog and Magog, are the reprobate, ungodly enemies of the true church, whom Satan unites in the little season of his loosing to attack the church. The "nations" of verse three are the ungodly in the world whom Satan cannot deceive during the thousand years, but whom he does deceive during his little season after the thousand years. The "nations" in verse three are the same as the "nations" in verse eight. They are not the elect, believing church, much less the elect in heaven. They are the reprobate wicked, who are always susceptible to Satan's influence. One thing, and one thing only, prevents them from being deceived during the thousand years, and this is Christ's binding of Satan so that he cannot deceive them before Christ has accomplished His great purpose of gathering His church.

Warfield's interpretation of the loosing of Satan, let it be noted, completely distorts the prophecy of Revelation 20:7-9. The passage teaches a loosing of Satan towards the end of history that culminates in an all-out, worldwide attack on the church of Jesus Christ. The church will finally be delivered from this attack and from her ancient foe by a wonder. Fire will come down from God in heaven to devour the hordes of ungodly that assail the church. At that time, Satan will summarily be cast into hell. And then the final judgment will sit (Rev. 20:10ff.).

What is the explanation of the passage by Warfield (and presumably by the Christian Reconstructionist Selbrede)? Satan's attack on the church throughout this present age concludes with the total conversion of the nations, Gog and Magog, that had been attacking the church. Gog and Magog will be saved, to the last man or woman. The camp of the saints and the beloved city will go up on the breadth of the earth, compass the nations that are on the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, about, and successfully evangelize them so that every human then living will be saved. Then will follow a long period of earthly dominion by the saved human race, the "golden age." Where Satan will be during this "golden age," and what he will be up to, we are not told. To this "converted earth," Christ will one day return.
Revelation 20:7-9 is turned on its head.

David J. Engelsma  
http://sb.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-6 

---

1 See the previous installment in this series on the doctrine of the last things.

2 J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 246.

3 See Martin G. Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," The Journal of Christian Reconstruction: Symposium on Eschatology 15 (Winter, 1998), 187, 188.

4 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 655, 656.

5 See David J. Engelsma, "The Millennium (2)," Standard Bearer 85, no. 15 (May 1, 2009): 345.

6 Warfield, Biblical Doctrines, 656, 657.

7 Ibid., 657.

8 Ibid.

Why Animals Suffer

29 MAY

I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. Zephaniah 1:2-3

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Genesis 7

Why does God pronounce vengeance on the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea? For no matter how much the Jews have provoked God by their sins, innocent animals ought to be spared. If a son is not to be punished for the fault of his father (Ezek. 18:4), but only the soul that has sinned must die, why does God turn His wrath against fish and birds and animals? This seems to be a hasty and unreasonable infliction.

To answer that, let us first bear in mind that it is preposterous for us to estimate God's doings according to our judgment. Proud and perverse people do that today, for they are disposed to judge God's works with such presumption that whatever they do not approve of they think it right to fully condemn. It behooves us to judge God's ways with modesty and sobriety, confessing that His judgments are a deep abyss. When a reason for God's ways does not appear obvious, we ought to reverently and with deep humility look for the day in which that revelation comes.

Second, it is wise for us to remember that because animals were created for man's use, they must undergo much along with him. God made the birds of heaven and the fishes of the sea and all other animals subservient to man. Why, then, should we wonder that the condemnation of the one who has sovereignty over the whole earth should also extend to the animals?

The world was not willingly or naturally made subject to corruption, but because the corruption from Adam's fall diffused itself through heaven and earth.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION:

The horrifying cruelty sometimes found in the animal kingdom is not natural, but is the product of our sin. Though the animals did not sin against their Creator, they too were destroyed in the flood. The next time that we are tempted to think lightly of sin, let us reflect on the incredible suffering that we have brought upon this earth and tremble at the seriousness of sin.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke