More Thoughts on Speculation

As a follow-up to my post yesterday I am reminded of these statements made by Elder Thomas Mann in his popular sermon published on this blog:

"If an infant is elect of God and dies in infancy, what happens? It goes right to be with God. Could that infant articulate its love for Christ as an infant? Of course not, but the Bible doesn't spend a lot of time on that. And what I want to try to do in the next weeks, if again the Lord leads in this, is to try to stick with the Scriptures. Because I have literally argued till I was blue in the face with, not people in this church, but people across the country who asked me questions about this. And invariably if you get off into speculation, “Well now, what about this, what about that, what about this ramification, what about that implication” it starts getting real foggy, but if you can just keep saying “Well, let's try to come back to what the Scripture says. Let's come back to the Bible on this”. It's amazing how things start to shift and fall into place."

As a former PB elder myself, I know exactly why Mann made this statement.  Obviously he noticed as well that his contemporaries put too much emphasis on speculation (in this case, the salvation of infants) when seeking to undermine the gospel means pattern of salvation in order to build a case for their own novelty.  Mysterious cases, what-about-this, what-about-that, should be given secondary importance, and interpreted in the light of the Bible, where matters are settled by a “thus saith the Lord” authority.

And I would like to add that even if we as Christians were never able to give an answer to such cases, our position is in no wise weakened. We have explicit texts in the Bible which teach gospel means.  And that is where we take our stand!  No amount of speculation will overthrow “Thus saith the Lord”! Indeed, it marked a great turning point in my own life when I began to let the clear teaching of scripture dictate my position on certain doctrinal points, not allowing that which is less clear to have the priority it once did.

So heap together all the speculation in the world you desire to undermine God’s use of means in the salvation of the soul.  I will write the word of God on top of it all:

"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?  and how they shall believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!  But they have not all obeyed the gospel.  For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:14-17)

The Problem Of Speculation

What about infants?

What about the heathen in remote lands?

What about the American Indians before 1492?

Speculation about the fate of those who we think have no opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ occupies no small place in the Primitive Baptist defense of their anti-means theology.  I should know. I did it for over a decade. The fact that the gospel of our Lord had not made it to certain peoples throughout history automatically precluded the gospel means pattern of salvation from consideration.  There was really no need to bother with exegesis, as a simple scan of history revealed that the reach of the gospel was limited; and that this was enough to tell you that Hardshell anti-means doctrine must be true. Indeed, must be the only truth.

There is no doubt in my mind that my Primitive Baptist friends today are greatly afflicted with this sort of reasoning. I have been in their company too many times and borne witness to such. For instance, on the day I was excluded from my home church, the moderator of the meeting, instead of appealing to scripture, asked me this question:  “What about the people who live in China?” As if all we have to do is just take notice that the gospel has not made it into such-and-such-place, and we may safely conclude at the outset that salvation must therefore be wrought without means.

I used to hear similar questions to this all the time:  What about my next-door neighbor?  What about my sister who is a good person but never goes to church?  What about all those people who....[fill in the blank]?

Yes, let’s not refer to a specific text in God’s Word.  Rather, let’s get our answer by speculating about the fate of people living in a country or situation wherein the gospel is not totally known, and conclude from it that the average Christian’s understanding of salvation must be incorrect, and excluded from the outset! I can then take this view of mine to the scripture and interpret it based on what I have already deduced from my view of the world.

The average reader should be able to easily conclude that this sort of argumentation is not justified. Indeed, what is the main problem with this sort of argumentation, apart from the conclusion flying smack-dab in the face of the Bible?  It is this, and I pray that my Primitive Baptists will give heed to what I now say.

The question of whether or not men must hear and believe the gospel to be saved is going to be settled, like all other matters, by a submission to God’s Word. We do not get truth by first turning to the world, make a deduction based on what we think we see, and then take this perspective to the Bible.  Rather, we get truth by going straight to the Bible, learn from there how our God operates, and then let this determine how we see the world.  When we do that, the express statements of the Bible will be made to trump any deduction made from speculation, observation, reason, or logic. As it ought.

Are Anti Missionaries Saved?

Spurgeon said:

“Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that you are either trying to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus, and a totally silent tongue about him. Of course I do not mean, by that, that those who use the pen for Christ are silent; they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well; but I mean this,—that man who says, ‘I believe in Jesus,’ but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 54 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1908), 476–477.

"Do you want to go to heaven alone? I fear you will never go there. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that. What is the most natural plan to use for the salvation of others but to bear your own personal testimony?"

“SHE WAS NOT HID” NO. 2019

Do you witness to others about their salvation? If not, then you are likely not saved yourself.

"My Words Will Not Depart From You"

"As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever." ((Isa. 59: 21)

The word of promise is not only that the LORD will without fail "put" his "spirit" upon his chosen people and his "words" into their mouths but would insure that those very words would remain ("not depart") in the mouth. This is about a good a verse supporting the sure and certain perseverance of the elect, of those who have God's "spirit" upon them and his "words" in their hearts and mouths ("for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks"), as any.

Dr. Gill wrote:

"As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord,...Which shall be manifested and made good to them that repent of their sins, and, believe in Christ; and to whom the particular blessing of it shall be applied, the forgiveness of their sins."

shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever; that is, shall always continue with the church and her spiritual seed, such as are born in her, and brought up by her, throughout all successive ages, and to the end of time; and it may be observed, that after the conversion of the Jews, to which this prophecy has a special regard, they shall no more apostatize; the Spirit of the Lord shall not depart from them; and the Gospel shall always be professed by them: and it may be further observed, that the Spirit and the word go together; and that the latter is only effectual as accompanied will, the former, and is a proof of the perseverance of the church of God, and of all such who have the Spirit and grace of God, Christ will always have a church, and that church a seed, in which the Spirit and word will always remain. The grace of the Spirit, in the hearts of God's people, never removes from them; nor his Gospel from such, in whose hearts it works effectually. The Targum interprets this of the words of prophecy; and the Talmud of the law not departing from the disciples of wise men; but it is best to understand it of the Gospel not departing from the disciples of Christ, and the seed of the church."

Ah yes, "the Spirit and the word go together"!

Real conversion and rebirth in the image of God will issue in faithful adherence to Christ.

How Can I Not Remember?

"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psa. 9: 17 kjv)

"I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me." (Psa 119:93)

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Psa 137: 5-6)

Is the new birth experience or phenomenon not "memorable"? Is it not such a drastic radical change that "old things are passed away and all things become new"? (II Cor. 5: 17)  Does not God make a "lasting impression" on the sinner's heart when he turns to the Lord in repentance and faith?

The texts above, like many others of the same nature, show that the salvation and conversion experience makes such a lasting impression upon the soul or spirit that what is learned in it is "indelibly written" upon it. "Indelibly" means "in a way that cannot be removed or forgotten"!

Does God not "write" upon the table of the heart in the new birth? And, does he not continue to write upon the heart as we live our lives as newborn children of God?

Anyone who forgets God is doomed for Hell. That is what the Psalmist said.

Said the Lord Jesus:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14: 26)

Here the Holy Spirit is viewed as being an agent in bringing to remembrance. That fact itself overthrows the reasoning of some that Paul's words imply that real Christians can forget God and what he has taught them in the new birth.

Bad Translation
(Of I Cor. 15: 2)

Consider also the fact that "keep in memory" is a bad translation. The KJV intends that "keep in memory" mean all the same as "hold firmly" yet that is not what the average English reader will understand in our day. Nearly all other English translations translate more correctly. The Greek word is κατέχετε (katechete) and means "you hold firmly."

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers says:

"If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you.—Better, if ye hold fast with what word I preached the gospel to you, unless you believed in vain."

Barnes Notes says:

"If ye keep in memory - Margin, as in the Greek, "if ye hold fast." The idea is, that they were saved by this, or would be, if they faithfully retained or held the doctrine as he delivered it; if they observed it, and still believed it, notwithstanding all the efforts of their enemies, and all the arts of false teaching to wrest it from them." 

See my entry along this line in the posting "On Perseverance" (here).

Dr. Gill wrote:

"if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you; or rather, "if ye hold fast, or retain"; that is, by faith, the doctrine preached to you, and received by you, particularly the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; for the salvation that is connected with it does not depend upon the strength of the memory, but upon the truth and steadfastness of faith: it is the man that perseveres in the faith and doctrine of Christ that shall be saved; and everyone that has truly believed in Christ, and cordially embraced his Gospel, shall hold on, and out to the end; though the faith of nominal believers may be overthrown by such men, as Hymenaeus and Philetus, who asserted, that the resurrection was past already; but so shall not the faith of real believers, because the foundation on which they are built stands sure, and the Lord has perfect knowledge of them, and will keep and save them. The other exception is,

unless ye have believed in vain: not that true faith can be in vain; for that is the faith of God's elect, the gift of his grace, the operation of his Spirit; Christ is the author and finisher of it, and will never suffer it to fail; it will certainly issue in everlasting salvation: but then as the word may be heard in vain, as it is by such who are compared to the wayside, and to the thorny and rocky ground; and as the Gospel of the grace of God may be received in vain; so a mere historical faith may be in vain; this a man may have, and not the grace of God, and so be nothing; with this he may believe for a while, and then drop it: and since each of these might possibly be the case of some in this church, the apostle puts in these exceptions, in order to awaken the attention of them all to this important doctrine he was reminding them of."  (Commentary)

Now this is the Old Baptist belief in regard to I Cor. 15: 2 and to the doctrine of perseverance.

In closing let me say that the words "ye are saved" are present tense linear and could rather be translated as "ye are being saved."

Is Alzheimer's Proof of Time Salvation?

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." - 1 Cor. 15:1-2

When the Apostle Paul originally penned down these words to the Corinthians was he aware that sometimes folks have memory lapses, or lose it altogether?

One of the more fanciful interpretations of scripture that I ever heard while still belonging to the Primitive Baptist denomination was a certain elder’s take on this passage.  It was at a bible study, which was a rare thing, at least in my neck of the woods.  He argued that this passage could not possibly be talking about eternal salvation as some people suffer from Alzheimer’s and, consequently, memory loss. And since we believed that God’s people could not lose their eternal salvation, then the only alternative was that a different salvation was under consideration.  Sadly, this made sense to me at the time. But the days of my strange approach to scripture are over, thankfully.

Utterly amazing is the fact that no one else in Christendom makes such an argument. 

Such an argumentation reveals much about the Hardshells and their beloved doctrine of gospel time salvation.  Apparently, they are okay with the failure of gospel time salvation!  If they were not, they would resort to the same philosophizing, simplistic reasoning, and strange argumentations in order to preserve the integrity of time salvation with which they do in regards to eternal salvation.  The fact they do not is an implicit admission that their beloved, novel doctrine is of man, both accomplished and preserved by libertarian free-will. 

We said it, and we will say it again.  If Hardshells believed that gospel time salvation was "of the Lord", then they would be jumping up and down, screaming that an even different salvation than this one must be under consideration! They would be striving with all might, fighting tooth and nail, to preserve its integrity with the same vigor as they do that of eternal salvation!

Why is the existence of Alzheimer’s not also proof that 1 Cor. 15:1-2 can’t be treating of gospel time salvation? Because of what I just wrote above.  Primitive Baptists are okay with gospel time salvation failing in those “few” elect they feel even come to know and believe the gospel in the first place.  It’s up to the born-again child of God to rely upon his own ability to continue in the faith, for in this system, preservation does not include perseverance.

P-E-L-A-G-I-A-N-I-S-M.

Doctrines Of Demons

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." (NKJV)

Recently I wrote another posting on "demons" titled "Demons Today" (here). In this posting I want to focus on how demons are behind the proliferation of Christian cults (not to mention non Christian religious cults) and false doctrines, and show that many heretics are demon possessed or demon influenced.

Let us first begin by asking - What kind of Genitive is intended by the words "doctrines of devils"? Do the words mean "teachings concerning demons" or "teachings by demons"?

Wrote Albert Barnes:

"This may either mean teachings "respecting" demons, or teachings "by" demons. The particular sense must be determined by the connection. Ambiguity of this kind in the construction of words, where one is in the genitive case, is not uncommon...Instances of the construction where the genitive denotes the "object," and should be translated "concerning..."

"Whether the phrase here means that, in the apostasy, they would give heed to doctrines "respecting" demons, or to doctrines which demons "taught," cannot, it seems to me, be determined with certainty. If the previous phrase, however, means that they would embrace doctrines taught by evil spirits, it can hardly be supposed that the apostle would immediately repeat the same idea in another form; and then the sense would be, that one characteristic of the time referred to would be the prevalent teaching "respecting" demons. They would "give heed to," or embrace, some special views respecting demons."

I tend to agree with the majority interpretation that the words mean "doctrines coming from demons." Yet, both interpretations are true. In other words, in the latter days, vast numbers of people will both embrace heresies coming from demons as well as heresies concerning demons. Let me focus on the former, however.

The source of false doctrine is demonic. These false doctrines are "inventions" of men who are "inspired" by demons.

"Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions." (Psa 99:8)

"Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them." (Psa 106:29)

"Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions." (Psa 106:39)

"Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." (Ecc 7:29)

Said Dr. Gill on Psa 106:29:

"All false doctrine and false worship are of men's finding out; all idolatrous practices are their inventions, and which are here intended."

The apostle Paul speaks of "inventors of evil things." (Rom 1:30) Surely this would include inventors of false doctrines, inventors of ways to change the meaning of words to alter the original meaning of the text of scripture, inventors of ingenious Sophistic "interpretations" of biblical texts.

Here is what I wrote several years ago in chapter seven of "The Hardshell Baptist Cult" and titled "Time Salvation A Novel Idea":

This is where a cunning and devilish mind "invented" a "new" doctrine, for the purpose of defending "anti-means" in the face of passages that clearly teach the use of them. It was "sophistry" at its best. It was invented to simply win an argument and not from an honest genuine conviction that Hardshellism is taught in the Scriptures.  (See here)

They "invented" a new doctrine when they came up with their "time salvation" ideology.

Paul uses the plural for "doctrines" when he speaks of "doctrines of demons." Why is the plural used instead of the singular "doctrine" in this passage? Wrote one writer:

"Have you ever noticed that when the inspired word makes reference to the teachings of God or Christ, it always uses the word "doctrine" (singular). For example, "Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9). Or, "showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God" (Titus 2:10).

Contrast this with references to the teachings of men — the Bible typically uses the word "doctrines" (plural). Notice:

"But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:7)

"(Which all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men" (Colossians 2:22)

"…paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1)

"Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings" (Hebrews 13:9)

Have you any ideas about why there is this different usage of words in the New Testament? Here's a simple suggestion:

God and Jesus have only one doctrine. There is no contradiction. All of the teaching that comes from them is completely harmonious. Men have many doctrines. They are confusing; they do not agree with one another; there is tremendous contradiction. This easily applied rule can be a great help to us as we seek the truth. If something is from God, it conforms to all other aspects of truth. On the other hand, if we are unable to harmonize something we believe with other things taught in God's word, it should warn us to look deeper — there is a problem with some part of our understanding. It's a simple point, but one that lots of folks need to learn!" (see here)

Be careful my brothers with being inspired by demons in your interpretation of scripture. Demons, like Satan their master, know the scriptures well, and they know how to confuse the mind as it ponders the word of God. These demons whisper in the ear as you read saying "that does not mean what you think it means, but it means this." The leading of demons and of the sinful flesh and mind is to twist or distort what is read in Scripture. Be careful with holy scripture. Have an honest and sincere heart as you read and study and be on guard that your understanding is coming from the Holy Spirit rather than an evil spirit.

On The "Free Will" Theodicy

"The simple presence of free will is not enough to explain the origin of evil." (From "Why Does God Allow Evil?" by R.C. Sproul (here)

I have studied the so called "problem of evil" for nearly fifty years and I can say amen to the above words.