W W W W World Wide Web Witness Inc. Home Page Contents Page for Volume What is New
CHAPTER 9
CHRIST MANUFACTURING PLANTS ?
News 458
The Sunday Mail, p. 32, April 22, 2012
Recently, someone sent me a newspaper clipping. It had no other words with it, so someone needs to answer it. It is one more combobulation of creed, concept, Christian past and conglomerate present to make a stripped down and built up synthesis. That is, much is removed, more is added, and the result, rather like flummery with oil added, is there to behold.
It is as with so many things in this field, a mixed offering.
Notice that the writer is not willing to leave the FAITH of his mother and grandmother. Dad seems to be in a different place!
Notice too that he is partly agnostic. PARTLY! His presentation, as to base, sort, kindred, is all mixed up. This sort of agnosticism (which means the idea of NOT knowing who God is or what) which does not EVEN know God, is agnosticism indeed, with no part faith. THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, said Jesus the Christ, "that they may know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent," John 17:3.
A person can follow this man or Christ; but not both. By his own words, he has not followed Christ even to the point of knowing God, and hence, if this stated basis be biblically applied, does not have eternal life; so what is the use of that ? If you want to use the biblical past, authority or presence, so be it. If not, so be it; but synthesis with psychic preference and personal intimation removes the authority of the former to that of the latter: it then becomes simply one man's preferred religion. For this, no reason is supplied, just preference; no ground, just a set of values. It is as in II Corinthians 10, where some people were found, as cited by the apostle Paul, to be measuring themselves by themselves, and so not wise!
Any one blow-fly can buzz around the garbage. It is necessary to enter the door to the kitchen, and for that you need to know what and where that door is. The garbage, what is dissociated from its original base and now second hand, may have delicious fragments in it; but it is thrown out, orphan food. Flying around it as it decays, separate from its base may be fun, or contain pleasant odours, but it is essentially desultory. You can have a pleasant bird doing it, if you so list, but the principle is the same.
Jesus said, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture," John 10:9. Being saved makes one into a member of HIS flock*1. Of these, He states this in John 10:27-28, that they know His voice (not just know Him, even know His voice), and follow Him, and He gives them the eternal life, and they will never perish. Further, if the Bible is in view, consider this from Jeremiah 9.
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches,
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth,
For in these I delight, says the LORD."
THIS is the constant and basic part: YOU KNOW GOD, and should be rejoicing in this, if you belong to Him! This is not about whether you know Him, but about rejoicing BECAUSE you do. Without this, no relationship.
KNOWING GOD is elemental, the beginning. This man who is writing in what you sent, omits the beginning, so I do not like the look of the end for him, except he repents and returns to the faith which was doubtless around in his early days. If he had assuredly received it, then it would have changed things for him. If only he had received the Lord in reality, biblically, and not partly, and so come to know Him for himself, where would this agnosticism trail have been! He would have seen for himself, like the blind man who saw! So the case seems.
It is rather like being married for years, and then saying, NO ONE can know my wife, I don't, nor can anyone. If someone said this, you might doubt his sanity. It is worse; for God MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN to those who are willing (Proverbs 1:22-24).
Thirdly, notice that he is against the extremists. Now Christ declared this, Except you forsake all that you have, you cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:27ff.). Is this not extreme ? The writer on the page which you sent is simply or apparently getting confused with hateful extremism, which kills and maims and ruins and forces, far from the extreme self-sacrifice of Christ, and the Sermon on the Mount, and His entire rejection of force used in His name (John 18:36). This approach of grace was so dramatically shown when Christ told Peter to put up his sword, even when it might have stopped His arrest! With God, it is all or nothing; yet not to batter people, but to bless. Thus, what is the first commandment but to love God with ALL your heart and mind and soul and strength! You can be half-hearted; but not for or with Christ! It is HE who says so.
The greatest work, the news writer indicates, is doing good. It is great to do good but the greatest work shown in the Bible is that of paying for sin that life from GOD and not from one's own sinful heart, might flow. That is what the Lord states (Galatians 6:14). Once more, this man differs, constructing some god into his own religion, in total contrast at the centre and base, with Jesus Christ. Building your own god is called idolatry in the Bible (cf. (II Corinthians 10-11, Deuteronomy 32).
It is no use trying to build a skyscraper, starting in mid-air at the second story, and omitting the foundation. Others then fill it in with Hitler of Stalin, Communism or agnosticism, insulting God and making light of the Saviour, rejecting the entire centre of a faith which is not in man and his nice acts, but in God and in His grace, achievement for man, power and peace, once done at Calavary, as foretold (Psalm 22, Hebrews 9).
Proselytising is out for him; but what does this mean ? It means this, that when Christ says, Go forth into all the world and preach the Gospel, teach the commandments, all whatever of them, this man has another mission, DO NOT GO FORTH, ignore the spreading of the work of Christ, salvation and resurrection, and hitch your own star to the wagon, daring to use some of Christ's religion, perhaps even the name of Christ, while utterly rejecting HIS claims of Lordship (Romans 14:9). This is like clinging to the wagon bells and ignoring the need for wheels and content.
The writer concerned acts to ignore the specific acts and constant current of love and mercy, sacrifice for sin and restoration to righteousness, lovingkindness and realism in the Bible, with the way for this to be done, and so selects a text in some sort of lucky dip approach to the Bible. It is like putting your hand in someone's pocket and bringing out 10 cents, and concluding he is poor. The example given in the News article, in Exodus 21:20 is also misleading in various ways, and inaccurate. It's about its being O.K. to beat a servant, and it mocks such a setting. Let us examine this a moment.
First, let it be noted that the 'servant' is not an Israeli, but someone bought. The Israeli servants are better used, as in Leviticus 25:39-44. You are not to "rule over these with rigour."
If then a slave be bought, if that is the system in view, then punishment is possible, for great may be the crimes; but it is to be with a rod, a suitable implement, not with sword or what might kill. How hard could he punish ? why just as hard as he would LIKE to be punished if himself guilty! That is covered in Leviticus 19:8, where you are to love your neighbour as yourself.
There is another slight point. The writer says that according to the Bible it is O.K. to beat your servants so long as you don't kill them. It is a long while since the theocracy was in force (about 2000 years), so that he is rather out of date. This was for the theocracy, where the ways of the State were incorporated also. This was according to the powers and sanctions of that day. In that case, you have to consider all that this law says, as in any legal system. You have to find the way the law worked, both as to what and HOW things were to be done. Mercy is always recommended to the point that we read this: for the Lord loves mercy (Micah 7:19ff.) ? no "delights" in it! It is the way He is! It is the way we are to be. We have our own ways of dealing with misdemeanors. They still exist, including years in prison, in Australia today!
II Samuel 22:26 tells us that with the merciful, God will show Himself merciful. Give what you hope to get! This is mandatory.
So in stating that beating is OK, the man is 2000 years out of date; and misses the point anyway, lucky-dipping without systematic knowledge.
If he WERE interested in knowing what the Christian faith says on this issue, it could be found in Ephesians 6:5-9, which I reproduce below, to show the error of the clamour of his assertions.
"Bondservants, be obedient
to those who are your masters according to the flesh,
with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;
not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers,
but as bondservants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart,
with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,
knowing that whatever good anyone does,
he will receive the same from the Lord,
whether he is a slave or free.
And you, masters, do the same things to them,
giving up threatening,
knowing that your own Master also is in heaven,
and there is no partiality with Him."
This is far removed from his O.K. tilt.
Then he tells us that he believes in REDEMPTION! How could he when agnostics are fine, and according to his allegation, no-one knows God, whereas in the Bible if you belong to God, you DO KNOW HIM. He has mixed up religions and bits and made his own. WHO redeems, but Jesus Christ, and how do you not worry about other faiths and let people go without concern, if they then are liable to occupy hell, the punishment from which, if reconciled to God (II Corinthians 5:17ff.), you are redeemed by the blood of Christ! There is no option (Acts 4:11-12). If you make one, you make your psyche the source of divine salvation, an ambitious, not to say ungainly project. You are not the centre of the universe, nor did you make it, nor do any bunch of pals become either its creator or its judge.
If a man himself, then, is saved, does he not care for others ? God has His ways, but if you walk with Him, then you seek mercy wherever you can duly bring it, as to inclination. Does not the love of God which propelled Christ (Psalm 40), and moved the Father (John 3:15-19), move those on whom it is shed (Romans 5:1ff.). There is, assuredly, such a thing as sybaritic pseudo-Christianity, interested in getting only and not in the word, will and ways of the Eternal God. It is an offshoot often found, never approved in the Bible (Jeremiah 7:7-14, Isaiah 1, Matthew 23).
The news writer appears to want the goodies but not the basis; the product but not the producer. No wonder he is significantly satisfied with the agnostics. What will become of him is God's business, but having the light and preferring the darkness is a perilous way to go (John 3:19). God, as the light, defines it. It does answer all the questions which plague man, when you look for it.
In fact, he thinks maybe there is no reward in heaven, not even a heaven, not even a hell. That makes him at war with Jesus Christ, who is most emphatic on the point (see Mark 9, John 14, 17). This is convenient for a lucky-dip approach, but luck is not faith, and without faith you cannot please God, nor can you know Him! (Hebrews 11:6). That explains a lot.
So he is implying that the Bible and the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26) are wrong, even in some basics, and that he is right, and does not know that one need bother about believing this same Jesus Christ, though you must get His redemption, since there is no other! But from where, since he believes in an "ïnclusive ideology" and he has already changed or rejected Christ, according to this piece. How is he to find this, since there is no other ? As to Jesus Christ, He is statedly inclusive only of those who believe God, Him the Messiah without whom there is neither way, nor truth nor life (John 14:6, 8:24).
IF, said Christ,
"God were your Father you would love Me,
since I proceeded forth and came from God,"
"NO MAN," He declared, "comes to the Father but by Me!" Love ?
IF anyone loves Me, he will keep My word,"
(John 14:21ff., cf. John 14:26).
Again, He declares: "He who has My commandments and keeps them,
it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father."
A doctor can write a prescription for a disease, but no man can write a prescription for God; to attempt it is like trying to rebuild the universe which He made, and yourself with it. This is the on your own specifications - a little late, and far worse, for all these things are just made, whilst God is eternal.
It was good to receive this article in the mail, for it appears to use a particular type of god-making avoidance of Jesus Christ, a lucky-dip approach to bits and pieces of things here and there. It is rather like looking at a photograph, and keeping the image of the ears, throat and hips, but tossing away the rest, and sketching this in anyhow. A person CAN do it, but it suggests nothing but reckless disregard of truth, and a total rejection of Jesus Christ as the criterion of truth, indeed the Truth itself, God incarnate, One on whom a man or a woman may operate, with what the Bible calls, idolatry, should the result be worshipped.
It is God who is the Judge and how competent He is; but He judges this, that to add to His word, or alter it, is like theft, if it be regarded as the word of God, or as having any of its authority. You see this in Proverbs 30:6, Jeremiah 23 and Mark 7:7ff.. Ideas from persons who pass by what is written, in order to adorn or alter it, naturally enough, God does not favour. It is a replacement theology, when what is displaced is the God-who-speaks, by the man-who-speaks, using some of His word, and displacing the rest, so making a new Jesus and a new Gospel, with new multiple attachment points, new invasions, incursions and excursions, just as in II Corinthians 10-11.
If it is to pass as having to do with the authority of God, then He declares, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran (Jeremiah 23:21), and much more besides in that Chapter. If it is presented as NOT having the authority of the Bible and the Lord's Christ which it presents, so be it. It is then merely a man's preferences from his own psyche. There are many such. A person may be founded on his or her self, or on God; they are not the same. Man's own select religion, founded on the psyche, has no prospect from the One who founds all faith on the foundation that is Christ Jesus, with no other name (Acts 4:11-12), available, nor any other Christ (II Cor. 10-11).
The Lord is good. One must taste and see. This cannot be done without trust, nor can anyone else do it for another. If we mean business with God, we must act, in faith.
NOTES
Ephesians 2:5-8 shows the situation very succinctly. It declares that by grace you are having-been-saved people. It is through faith and the whole thing, as the grammar makes plain, is not of yourselves. What then is the source of this salvation ? It tells us: "It is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." When you come to God, or better, when He comes to you (cf. Galatians 4:9), there is a question first, of your genesis. You did not make yourself (Psalm100), for if you did, you would need to be there to do so, before you existed, which is rather a special way of begging the question. What is made never gives any indication of the power to produce the information back of you: nature, so-called, is not a natural for the task (cf. The gods of naturalism have no go! and Not Only is God Great, but Glorious Ch. 5).
When it comes to rectifying what causes restlessness in man, searching and creating concepts for the remedy of his invidious and insidious situation (cf. Reason, Revelation and the Redeemer), surrounded by mischievous powers and significant power in one fragile bundle of societies often at war multiply, sometimes madly, warped without wisdom, incited by hatred, motivated by spurious imaginations, furious thoughts or revenge without limit: what then ? Then, the same Maker is needed.
It is not possible to make your Maker when you are the made. You are derivative, and despite amazing powers dowered to man, including that to criticise and pretend to change the Maker at will, this is liberty of thought, not of action. The Maker knows all about the made, and in making it, did not dither.
He is ahead of all betrayal, insolence, rebellion (Psalm 2, Acts 2); and without being merely authoritative, does have authority mixed with a Creator's love which is dirigible by One only: Himself. He shows this in the endless streams of fulfilled prophecy continually to this hour, even if it were not already apparent (cf. SMR, incl. Chs. 8-9, TMR). He notes that fact, for example in Isaiah 44-45, focussing on it in 44:25-28.
He discloses to created man what is his salvation, remedy, restorative way, and the wisdom of it repeatedly. He is neither outwitted nor stultified. It is becoming increasingly common to seek to bypass God, but He does not bypass us. The magnificence of His invention of liberty for created beings, to criticise, carp or reason aright, to lie or pretend, to be humble and receptive, MEANS that rebellion has a place. It is the obverse of liberty, and if it COULD not happen, then neither could liberty nor love.
The options for turning ourselves into another creation (rather than a botched and misbegotten ruin by childish feats of pseudo-omniscience on the part of our race), are zero. We can fiddle at this spiritual level, not found it; we can make our wills evident in programmatics, but not in the will of the being made. We can dower these with statistical or perceptive inputs, but these move according to our plan in outcome. As a race, we cannot and do not invent freedom - politically there is a good illustration. It may be seen when Islam becomes elected into power in a nation, and then aborts liberty in favour of some conception which is its own, based on a false prophet (just as Islam makes of Christ, a new face, having created a same-name-substitute who did not redeem, was not the Son of God and did or did not die, some 600 years after He was on earth - references below).
You may receive the salvation which Christ bought (Matthew 20:28, Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 9:12-28), and as with a new car, acknowledge its specifications (otherwise make your own), or not, just as it would be possible if you had the power, to abort yourself in the womb, or not. You cannot invent this divine remedy, since it relates to pardon and peace, and these are not self-enduable. You cannot pardon yourself and tell the one offended against, the terms. It is for the One offended against to tell you. You may tread the conditions of pardon under foot if you will (Hebrews 10:29ff.). The cost that God paid for our open door to pardon, and the magnificence of His presence with the redeemed was of an infinite order. To overthrow it in mind, is to ask for dissolution from sin, and grievously, for all that it deserves.
Making up new salvations is like making up new figures in your bank account. Naturally you can do it, but equally naturally it will not alter the balance - unless crime were involved, which means tampering with the truth by lie. This however does not found you or found fact; it merely robs; and being in confrontation with reality, where God is concerned, such actions are only waiting for exposure, and can never achieve more than deception for a time with others, and ultimately perhaps of oneself. Truth outlasts it, and in the end, judges it (Acts 17:31). God is not a ninny as He sometimes reminds us (Psalm 50:211ff.), and keeps His own counsel (Isaiah 40:14).
More Marvels ... Ch. 4, esp. *4,
SMR pp. 50ff., 62ff., 829ff. , 1080
Dancers, Prancers, Lancers and Answers Ch. 3, *1A, misconceptions about the Cross,
variable and mutually conflicting, on the part of the KoranLord of Life Ch. 3 (and force), 1081ff. (and faith), Outrageous Outages ... Ch. 5;
His Wounds Opened Eternity Ch. 4; 3
Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 9,
Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 8 (in perspective), see also *1,See Divine Agenda Chs. 6
with 3 (an overview of religious truancies, including Marx, Darwin and Koran)
and Highway to Hell - (Koran citations in both, with ideational parallels in perspective, in the latter two; and in the former, futile depravities in endless ideologies such as Sudan has shown so significantly, Islam ablaze without glory),
cf. Overflight in Christ Ch. 1 (and the Koran's musings);
1493 (esp. Britain and sharia);
News 138, Beauty for Ashes Chs. 4, 7Jesus Christ, Defaced, Unfazed: Barrister of Bliss Ch. 5, Acme ... Ch. 9 ,
Great Execrations ... Ch. 3, SMR p. 1O88D - three major religions in some ways in concert, astray.
News 138, Beauty for Ashes Chs. 4, 7, SMR pp. 1074ff., esp. 1079, 1081ff.
(These latter show this religion, with the other three major conspiracies towards the ultimate - why conspiracies ? It is because men conspire, or breathe plans together for a control, rule or oversight not ordained by God (Psalm 2): these are breaths of man. The breath that matters is that of God, in and by which all scripture is inspired by Him (II Timothy 3:16, Isaiah 8:20), in the verified and validated Book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16), the Bible, and sustained and implemented by Him (Matthew 26:54ff.). Other ideas for rule are always unruly, since they always tend to use power for what neither reason nor truth compels.)Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ
Who Answers Riddles
And Where He Is Darkness DepartsSee also: Possess Your Possessions Ch. 8, App., PP 11, 4, 11, 5 (national character and character of Islam).