In this fourth and final post I will continue to critique an Internet treatise titled "Primitive Baptist Church: Bible Basic Doctrines" (See here) authored by Elders Johnson Vernon, Michael Ivy, and Don Watson, and found at the web page of Denton Primitive Baptist Church (www.dentonpbc.org). As I have been showing, their treatise is full of examples where they twist and distort the scriptures and seem to do so with much carelessness.
There are so many things in their long apologetic for Hardshell beliefs that are wrong that it would take much labor to address them. The preceding ones are enough to show how the way they approach scripture impugns their motives and methods. But, before I close this series, let me give the reader a few more examples of how they give forced and unnatural interpretations of scripture so that they can retain their man-made propositions. For instance, they wrote further:
"First, the gospel is directed to God's people. Mark 16:15 "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The creature is the spirit born children of God." (pg. 56)
Here they uphold their view that it was never God's will for the gospel to be preached to every man. In the preceding chapter I cited from one of their associations in 1905 which declared non-fellowship for the belief that the gospel is to be preached to unregenerate sinners, saying they "declare non-fellowship for the idea that it is the duty of the ministry to admonish the alien sinner to repent and believe the gospel." So, it is no wonder that they would not want to believe that "every creature" meant every man. So, they say that "every creature" means "every new creature." That is a ridiculous interpretation and invention, made so that it doesn't contradict their proposition.
The above view is easily refuted. First, because it is far-fetched, not being what the ordinary person would understand. Second, the next verse says "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned." So, among the "every creature" class to whom the gospel is to be sent there are those who are believers and those who are unbelievers, those who will be saved and those who will be damned. That disproves such a ridiculous interpretation. I question the honesty, and even the salvation, of men who can handle the word of God so deceitfully. It disproves their idea that says the gospel is not to be preached to every creature and they ought to throw away their idea and accept what the text says. But, because of their greater loyalty to their own man-made set of propositions they would rather pervert the scriptures than uproot those propositions!
Further, how could the ministers Christ is commissioning know who was a new creature and who was not so as to only preach to the new creatures? So, no one should announce the good news to anyone until they can discover that they have already been made a new creature?
Other verses of the scriptures confirm that the gospel is to be preached to every person and that it is the duty of every Christian to tell others the good news. Wrote the apostle Paul:
"Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." (Col. 1: 28-29 nkjv)
Paul preached to "every man." In the Greek text "man" is from "anthropon" which means a human being, whether male or female. In the text "every man" is mentioned three times.
Further, as we have seen, Christ preached the gospel to those who he identified as unregenerate children of the Devil. So too did John the Baptist preach to those he called snakes and who he warned to flee from the coming wrath. So too did all the apostles preach to those who they knew were unregenerate sinners.
They also wrote:
"We do not teach people to know the Lord! Heb. 8:11 “And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” The Lord’s born again children know the Lord through the miracle of the new birth." (pg. 65)
I have refuted the nonsensical interpretation that Hardshells put upon this text. First of all, we are indeed to teach people to know the Lord. This is clear if we look at the passage in Jeremiah that the Hebrew writer is citing, which says:
"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD." (Jer. 31: 34 nkjv)
Notice the words "no more." Those words tell us that it was the case in the old testament that every man (in Israel) taught his Hebrew neighbor and brother to know the Lord. So, it cannot be argued that it was never good for a man to so teach his neighbor or brother. What the text is saying is that this old covenant teaching of people to know Yahweh was to no longer be restricted to Jews teaching Jews but under the new covenant was to be extended to teaching everyone, including the Gentiles. Also, it will be true when the new heavens and new earth are realized on earth, when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9; Hab. 2: 14), just as there is no need to teach people in heaven to know the Lord. Why? Paul says "for they shall all know me." Once everyone knows the Lord, there will no longer be a need to teach people to know the Lord.
During Christ's ministry on earth he restricted his preaching to the Jews, saying to his missionaries - "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matt. 10: 5-6 kjv) After his resurrection, Christ then commissions his missionaries to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" or "every man." The purpose of this is to teach people about who God is, who Christ is, who the Spirit is, and the way of salvation. Paul said in Romans chapter ten that no one can know Christ unless someone tells him or her about Christ.
God also has providential ways that he uses to bring people to know him. So we read:
"And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." (Exo. 7:5, 17; 8:10,22; 14:4, 18 kjv)
"Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him." (Deut. 4: 6 kjv)
There are many such verses in the old testament that say the same thing. Rahab the harlot learned of Yahweh and claimed to believe in him. How? We read this testimony of Rahab to the Hebrew spies:
“9 I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” (Josh. 2: 9-13 nkjv)
So, how did Rahab come to know and believe in Yahweh? We know that she was a believer from this testimony:
"By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace." (Heb. 11: 31 nkjv)
How did she come to know the Lord and place her faith in him? It was by hearing about him, about his providential doings in destroying Israel's enemies and delivering Israel from bondage. This was what God intended. He wanted the news of what he had done in judging the enemies of his people and in delivering them to be spread abroad and by that means bring many to know him. So we read:
"For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."" (Rom. 9:17 nkjv)
People come to know the Lord through hearing about him, learning of his attributes and character, his works and ways. Notice how this is affirmed in this text:
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye (all) may know how that I am the LORD." (Exo. 10: 1-2 kjv)
The pronoun "thou" (you) in the text is a singular and denotes Moses, but the pronoun "ye" (you) is plural and means "you all." I say this because the text says that sons and grandsons are to be taught the ways and works of the LORD in order that they might thereby come to know the LORD. So, the idea that people cannot come to know the LORD by hearing his word, or that he cannot reveal himself through his word, is not scriptural and thus the Hardshells are wrong when they say that God does not reveal himself through his word. Wrote the Psalmist:
"Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." (Psa. 100:3 nkjv)
Here people are commanded to know the Lord and to know that Yahweh is God. But, this is what is denied by the above authors who are defending Hardshellism. They do not think it is right for preachers to exhort sinners (those who do not know LORD God) to know God. Nor do they think that men choose to know God, to do what the Psalmist commanded them to do. Yet, we read of people who "through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD." (Jer. 9: 6 kjv) If they can choose not to know the LORD, they surely can choose to know him.
They also wrote:
"Flesh and blood did not reveal Christ to Peter, but the Father in heaven revealed him to Peter. While we do not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord” we do teach about the Lord." (pg. 66)
If such revelation occurs in being regenerated or born again, then why have Hardshell leaders over decades averred that believing in Jesus is not necessary for salvation from sin and that myriads of people are going to heaven who never heard about Jesus, and if they did, never believed in him? Why do they say there are born again people who are polytheists or Muslim monotheists?
Why do the authors of this treatise assume that God does not use his commissioned preachers as means to reveal Jesus? Did Paul not say that no one can believe in Jesus unless a preacher informs him about him? (Romans chapter ten) Did Paul not say that he and Apollos were "ministers by whom you believed"? (I Cor. 3: 5) Jesus said that the Father teaches and draws a sinner prior to that sinner coming to Jesus for life. (John 6: 44-45) Surely it is by the Father and Spirit opening the eyes to hear and understand the gospel that this revelation of the person of Christ is revealed.
Further, just because a few people have had a revelation of Christ by a personal appearing of God, Father, Son, or Spirit, as Saul of Tarsus, does not mean that everyone obtains that revelation the same way.
Further, though teachers of the word give the word of God to people and the people, by that word, obtain a revelation of who Christ is, yet it is not the giver of the word that does the revealing but the Father, Son, and Spirit who blesses that word to impart that revelation to sinners and thereby make believers of them.
They also wrote:
"When we were "dead in trespasses and sins we heard the life giving voice of the Son of God speaking spiritual life into our very being and thus we now live spiritually." (pg. 103)
So, dead people "hear" before they are made alive? I thought the Hardshells taught that the dead can't hear the word of God? That people must be made alive before they can hear?
Also, in Ephesians chapter two, where the above words about being made alive from being dead in sins are found (2: 1,5), Paul says this salvation from death is "by grace through faith." (vs. 8) So, these dead people heard the word or voice of the Son of God and believed it before they were saved from spiritual death.
The Hardshells will say that this "voice" is not heard in hearing the word of God or the gospel but is a direct speaking of the Son of God apart from the word to the sub-conscious mind. However, that is far from being scriptural. Many times you will hear their preachers say, in expressing this idea, "folks, you are hearing the words of God in my preaching but you are hearing my voice." To them the "voice" of the Lord is a direct vocal speaking of Christ personally and directly apart from the written word of God. However, that is not what is meant by the "voice" of God or Son of God.
First, in the scriptures we read about "the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day" (Acts 13:27 kjv). Notice that the "voices" of the prophets are "read" in the synagogue each Sabbath. This fact alone destroys the Hardshell invention about the voice of the Lord not being what is heard in hearing the word of God read. Yes, "voice" (Greek phōnē) may denote the "sound" or noise of speech, but it also means speech or the word spoken.
By the argumentation of the Hardshells about what "voice" of the Son of God means they are admitting that people cannot hear Christ's voice when they hear Hardshell preachers preach the word! When I was saved as a young man of sixteen I heard the voice of the Lord calling me when I heard preaching of the word. I specifically remember hearing Christ in my head when the invitation hymn was being sung that said "Where he leads me I will follow" and the line "I'll go with him all the way" and heard Christ say to me "I will go with you all the way" and I in turn said to Christ "I will follow you all the way." The apostle Paul said that Christ was "speaking in him." (II Cor. 13:3) Jesus said to his missionaries - "whoever hears you hears me" (Luke 10:16). Notice these words of Paul:
"So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." (I Cor. 14:9-11 kjv)
Here "voices" are associated with words heard and understood. Not only that, but those who hear the word of God and reject it are refusing to hear the voice of the Lord. Notice the proof of this:
"Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness...For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." (Heb. 3:7-7-8, 13-14 kjv)
"Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." (4:7)
"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." (12: 25 kjv)
They also wrote:
"How many ways are there for being born again? Were people in the Old Testament days born-again in a different way than in these New Testament days? Are those who die in infancy or those who are mentally incapable of responding to the gospel born-again in a different way than those who do hear the gospel? Are people who never have an opportunity to hear the gospel born-again in a different way than those who hear the gospel?" -- "every one" is born of the Spirit in the same way." (pg. 110)
There is only one way to be born again. Peter said it is "by the word of God which lives and abides forever" and which is "by the gospel is announced." (I Peter 1: 23-25) James said God "begat us with the word of truth." Paul says people are "begotten by the gospel." (I Cor. 4: 15) Where is the text that says it is not by the word of God?
Are these brethren saying that people go to heaven as unbelievers? We cannot base our ideas about how God saves adult sinners on how he saves those who die in infancy or the mentally incapacitated, especially since the scriptures do not address that issue specifically. We must simply take what the scriptures say about how people who are able to think and do are saved and that is clear in scripture. They must hear the gospel and believe it, and believe in the one true and living God, and in the Son of God as the Messiah, and in his resurrection.
I am sure that these elders thought that they had given unanswerable proofs for their Hyper Calvinistic beliefs. But, if they really believed that, why do none of them engage with others in debate, such as I, on these topics?
This will conclude this short series.
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