Saturday, June 28, 2008
In the presence of evil
In the book That Hideous Strength, C. S. Lewis describes a group of people who, in one way or another, have become refugees from their own homes. They are taken under the wings of the Director whose name is Ransom. They are living in the presence of evil as they watch a group of diabolical utopians tear apart their familiar world, a small but ancient college town.
The beauty of this story is that the gathered people live as a family expecting to do great things in the presence of great evil. But the most important thing they do is follow the directions of the Director whether that is doing kitchen or garden duty or running risky errands for Ransom. In the end it is the wizard, Merlin and all the powers of heaven that confront and destroy the evil as those in Ransom’s house simply watch with some wonder.
The Church in the world, the ancient city of God, those gathered under the care of Jesus often face evil and faithlessness. But it is faithfulness and obedience that is required. The words of Holy Scripture are His directions.
“But you, beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’ These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 17-25)
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9 comments:
Viola:
A good post. Sorry that the PC(USA) chooses to kick the ladder out from under those faithful who try to " save others, snatching them out of the fire. . .."
Thank you Viola for your continued ministry, but are you not confusing the church for the world? Can you show me any biblical mandate to stay within a church or denomination that is being led by heretics and those who deny the faith? Is not a large part of the PCUSA in theology and action not anti-Christ? How do you justify continued support and allegiance to such?
Are you withholding? Are you bringing charges of heresy? How will things change for the positive, unless those who hold these liberal theologies are removed from leadership positions?
Must there not be a division?
Adel Thalos---I believe in this passage of Jude he is writing about those we need to be aware of in the Church. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4) and also, “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; etc. etc.” (12) This is the world in the Church and although they certainly are in the PCUSA in great abundance God does call some to stay and do ministry in the midst of beginning apostasy. And you ask a lot of questions which a lot of renewal people are praying about.
There have been such times. For instance Athanasius had no other Church to go to and did not form one; he just continued to stand for the truth of the deity of Christ even in exile. John Hus is another example—of course it did get him killed.
But it should be noted that if the PCUSA continues on toward a complete apostasy as those who became Unitarian did in an earlier America then it will be time for division. First they officially denied the Trinity and the deity of Christ. Then they denied the saving work of Christ. Finally in the twentieth century they opened their doors to complete paganism.
On another subject, I looked at your profile and blog site. I just wanted you to know that one of my sons-in-law went to Trinity International Seminary where he got his PHD in New Testament. He teaches at Toccoa Falls College in GA. Trinity International is a good school.
Viola,
Thank you for visiting my blog, and I look forward to other interactions, both in cyberworld and possibly sometime in real life. I have a dear friend who teaches at Toccoa Falls, Dr. Gary Elkins (a former PCUSAer who has denounced it), a graduate of Denver Seminary like myself.
I am also very grateful for your outstanding ministry and am praying that our Lord will draw many to himself and away from the broad road of the PCUSA through your continued witness for Biblical truth.
Unfortunately I do not agree with some of your interpretation and assessment of Jude and the response to heretics, which so many so-called renewalists and evangelicals refer to as brothers and sisters...I do not. Suffice it to say that one of the major signs of a true church is non-existent in this denomination (discipline), and another is sparse at best (rightly preaching the Word). I would point out that those who are disciplined are in fact, the true church.
I believe there are a plethora of other solid Biblical and reformed reasons for congregations to disaffiliate, which is the path that many faithful congregation are taking, and I praise God for those moves.
I will try and do a more thorough discussion of Jude, 1Timothy and other pertinent inerrant scriptures on my blog as time permits.
I also believe that the BOO has been rendered so weak as to be meaningless (furthered with the affirmation of PUP recommendation 5 at this most recent GA). A denomination believes only what it is willing to discipline (please read my blog entry for June 22 for more on this), therefore this denomination believes in holding onto property at any expense, and that is pretty much it.
Thank you Viola.
In the Grace of Jesus the one and only Savior and Lord,
Adel
Mac, I forgot to say thanks and I think that ladder got kicked across the fence and down the street. I am thinking of what Barth wrote to the Church in Germany, (and I shall add some words here):
"Along with the external oppression of the Church she can be summoned to consider that God is at liberty to take away the light of the Gospel, if we do not want to have it otherwise. Even as He once removed the 'candlestick' from the North African Church, which was as much the Church of St. Augustine as the German Church is that of Luther. It would then be fruitless and a silly thing to fight, by means of the instruments of Church-politics, against the sign given us in maybe one last moment in which all that mattered would be to cry aloud unto God, in the presence of this certainly fearful signal, that He might not be altogether weary of His rule amidst the great disloyalty of modern German Christianity [postmodern progressive American Christianity] and 'Churchianity,' and that He might be disposed to make us more loyal to His Word, by means of His Word, than we and our fathers [and mothers] have been."
So let us first of all pray that God will make us who are orthodox loyal to his living Word found in His written Word.
"a church or denomination that is being led by heretics and those who deny the faith? Is not a large part of the PCUSA in theology and action not anti-Christ?"
A perfect example of how not to obey the teachings of Jesus on how not to fight evil.
If you believe in what you are saying, you completely undermine your own position by using such language. And since it is in blatant disobedience to Christ, one could argue that it is, itself, anti-Christ.
So I agree with Viola's final comment, with a slight twist:
So let us first of all pray that God will make us [all] loyal to [Him]. Just as He is first loyal to all of us.
Ritchie
Ritchie you are still simply repeating the same thing you did on the last blog posting. Either find a new subject or do not comment. If you do not like the idea of people stating the obvious about apostasy in the Church you should probably read else where.
God, in his graciousness, in the death of Christ has offered us freedom from our bondage to sin. When others attempt to change that they need to be called to account. The gift Jesus bought is free but not cheap. Christ asks us to take up our cross which sometimes means telling the truth about what is happening in the denomination.
Viola,
If my response seems repetitive, it is because the stimulus is repetitive.
Your claim of apostasy is itself apostate. If that is not clearly obvious to you, it is worth repeating again.
"Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things"
Romans 2:1
The Truth is a knife that cuts both ways.
Ritchie
Ritchie,
When a Scripture passage starts with "therefore," it is a good idea to backup and see what the therefore was referring to. In this case it refers to these verses:
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil: full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventers of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32”
Since Paul here is making a judgment call by naming all of the sinful things that the people are doing what are his intentions when he writes Romans 2:3; that we should not judge others? That isn’t the meaning of the verse at all. Paul is showing that all of us are under the judgment of God. And that can be seen from the following verses:
“And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this O man when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of the your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for your self in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
So what does Paul say that will finally help those who participate in all of these evil deeds, (and that includes all of us)? “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; through perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11)
So such judgment lies on all of us without the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. And if others in the Church are calling sin good and thereby causing others to fail to repent and be transformed then God calls us to speak up for the sake of his redeeming work.
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