W
W W W World Wide Web
Witness Inc. Home Page
Contents
Page for Volume What is New
CHAPTER 2
Of Searches for Churches
Defilements and Destinies
Avoid the
evil, the idols, the extrapolations of human psychology and find the One who
made the system. What then ? You are pardoned ? in the name of Christ ? because
of His death for sin (Colossians 1:22), through faith in Him as God’s gift, who
in supreme love left heaven in order to bring some out of earth to heaven ? and
this by a divinely planned sacrifice, so that the eternal word of God, becoming
flesh, lived amongst us, and became the
bridge to heaven ? giving His life as a ransom for sin ? and in HIM, is your
trust (cf. Psalm 2, Acts 2:37ff.). To
all this, it may be that you reply in the affirmative.
In such a world, at
such a time, you do well. But do you go to the church of the living God against
which the very gates of hell’s strategic plannings, weapons and ruses cannot
prevail ? Do you choose wisely ? It is not a spiritual supermarket for your
pleasure, but a team for your labours. The following reply to an enquirer will
provide you with some of the considerations, first to examine yourself to
ensure you are IN THE FAITH, and second to FIND through faith, and the
direction of the Lord and His word, the church where He is being honoured, and
His word magnified and trusted, so that you may find the local body of which
you are to be a part (cf. Hebrews 10:25).
Alas, and great is
the grief of it, just as Paul predicted to the Ephesian elders, so is the case:
wolves have come in to steal the flock, not believing in Christ, but in their
own ideas. They may come equipped with that name, that of Jesus, stolen for
their purposes, while they steal the flock. In practice, they may often be
found adding their thoughts or those of some body falsely called ‘church’, to
the word of God. In what then do they believe as they ‘create’ the Saviour (cf.
II Peter 2, II Corinthians 11) ?
In Peter’s
terms, many will be believing in an
income from a ‘faith’ work, which is in fact a faithless meander into the myths
of the Age, whether biological, cultural, national, philosophic, religious or
some amalgam (Acts 20:25-32). They may be geared to seduce, if it were
possible, the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-31).
Notice Paul’s words
of warning:
“And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone
preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to
you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I
have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the
“Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease
to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to
God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
To this, add II Peter
2:1, II Timothy 3:1-5, I Timothy 4:1ff., and tremble.
In what way, ‘tremble’ ? In this, that “the fear of the Lord is CLEAN” (Psalm 19), and you
do not need to be anxious if you are cleansed in this way. It is not that fear
replaces love, indeed perfect love casts out fear, craven, cowardly reticence,
but it does not remove the cleansing operation of the holy and reverential fear
of the God whom we love. It is rather like fire. Fire is good, comforting, warming, and empowering for many things, and
can be gentle or fierce as the need is; but unwise is he who through love of
it, takes it for granted and does not adhere to a splendid carefulness as the fire rages on the grate,
in view of his love of it!
Our God is a
consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), and it is well that He is, for it is not only a
token of His holy infinitude of love, tenderness and the purity essential for
that, but a way for the dealing with the massive waste ‘problem’. Therefore,
with love of His grace, with conviction about His wisdom, armed with faith in
Him, and equipped with the promises such as that of James 1:5-7, SEEK WISDOM in
your difficulties, whether in finding a church for your worship, one which is
sound, alive and true, or a career for your talent, or the service which first
of all the Lord wants of you.
As I write, doing the
work of an author in the Ministry of Christ, I am conscious that at THIS TIME,
this is the will of God for me. Assuredly, long ago I should have stopped, if
my conviction after earnest prayer and meditation were otherwise. The mere fact
that it would NOT AT ALL be MY choice, is irrelevant. If it serves Him, it is
enough. I serve Him; He is Master, and
it is to me, a privilege without equal, to know how I can best serve Him, out of
love, knowing that when one loves God and truly sets one’s heart to keep
His commandments, it is then that the love of the brethren is fulfilled (I John
5:2).
This being in His
word, is taken like the rest of it, in trust. It is not enough that reason
requires faith in it; for this does not PRODUCE the faith. It may stir,
stimulate, help, resolve: but it is not the same as faith. One must therefore
believe in Him; and it is then that He empowers and enables, as He graciously
does in this work, or whatever is His biblical will, and personal desire for
ANY of His servants.
In seeking the will
of God in ANYTHING, it is enormously important to be willing to do that WILL in
EVERYTHING! So Colossians 1:9-16 speaks so clearly:
“For this reason we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you
may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him,
being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience
and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
“He has delivered us from
the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His
love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him
all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him.”
As with us all, it is necessary to know the name and address
of the one concerned, and to find that one where he or she dwells. With God, the address is heaven, name of entry
and belonging is Jesus Christ, the street address is the Bible, the enquiry
gate is the Cross, the entry is the bodily resurrection of Him who by His
supreme power was able even to surmount that, on our behalf vicariously, for
all who believe (Romans 4:25-5:1, 10:9).
Apply elsewhere, or trying to establish other spiritual
territories to which to do, seek elsewhere, and it is free: it is just that
there is nothing there.
Now follows something like the letter sent in response to an
enquiry with which some may empathise, to a point, and so profit in the grace
and mercy of Christ.
Dear Enquirer,
It is good that you
appear drawn to Jesus Christ, and sense something of the wonder in Him. Faith
only can complete that. Reason should be
pondered in the areas shown, if you want to be faithful in that; and I leave
that to you. I proceed on that basis of demonstration, and the rest is on such
a plateau, as first explained to you. The structure of reason precedent to
discussion, as noted, is there and will be assumed as presented. No other
solution there is to be found that fits the mix.
Yet
we must be clear: reason may trumpet to the uttermost, proof be sure: but the
faith is not required by it. That, faith, it is a personal matter. I remember
well one young Malaysian who said that he was convinced of Christ, but the COST
was too great!
As
to the Church problem you encounter, I can understand. I can sympathise, and
can offer a step for you to ponder. At times it can be a cost, especially in
times of international decline, when one may have to suffer for the truth
rather markedly; but then, for what is it a cost ? If it is for Him, so be it.
A creation of God – doubly, as a person and as a new person (II Cor. 5:17ff.),
I find no cost too great. What is to great for life!
On
the other hand, though one appreciates the difficulties you may indeed find
with many churches, we must be determined and decisive. It must be in a church
which meets HIS specifications both in doctrine and in willingness to follow
His commandments. It does not have to be nearly perfect; it does have to seek
for this, and to abide by what is written. Like a child –and if it is of His
children, we could expect this sensitivity – it is to be willing to be led by
Him who gave both His word, the Bible,
and His Son the Redeemer. Finding such a body ? This is not as easy as
it was; but it is possible.
I
myself has been persecuted several times, to the loss of very much; but when I
am persecuted, it is that I have to stand for what God has said – after all, He
knows His own mind better than they do – and demonstrate for any and for all
that the Bible is the sole authorised, written declaration of God to mankind
(cf. SMR, Acme, Alpha and Omega – Jesus
Christ Ch. 8, Repent or Perish Chs. 2, 7 et
al.). Some will try to remake, remodel a Jesus for their own will, whom
caprice, desire would mould, to let them off the hook ethically, morally, or in
some other way, so that God can be bent to their purpose; or for some other
alien motivational thrust. That is merely irrational: if you want to follow the
Christ, so be it; but to USE HIS NAME for the product of your own mind, is
neither wise nor true.
You
might as well make “Karl Marx” to be the owner of 5 Cadillacs, just so that you
could follow THAT sort of a Marx. There is however no famed philosopher Marx of
that sort. What they are, is what they have shown themselves to be. As
Gladstone, British PM, is reputed to have said, IF you want to found a new
religion, fine, only make sure you rise after three days.
THREE THINGS
In
view of the persecutions suffered, the scribes and their fellows met, it would be
possible for me to say, AH! So that this
is this so famous
It
may be hard to be patient with people, until one considers three things,
Ø The
first is this: Maybe they find me not
the best in this and that to which I may not be sufficiently sensitive.
Therefore let me ensure that I do not judge them on a different basis from that
on which I judge myself.
Ø The
second thing is this: BUT can I
precisely judge myself ? (I Corinthians 4:1-5). It is easy to be sensitive to
the things which are so placed in one’s life, and NOT TO NOTICE some of the other
things which other people may notice, just as it is easy for enemies because of
the GOSPEL (cf.
Philippians 3:17-19) to
magnify or even invent grounds of criticism.
Ø Hence
David asks GOD TO CHECK HIM OUT (Psalm
139:22-24). However he well knew WHO GOD WAS, His word and His commands,
His presence and His power, His guidance and His grace. He was not walking in
the dark! (Psalm 27:1ff.). He did not seek this work of God upon His spirit, as
a gesture. It was a functional matter! God means business with His children.
Thus David made the request: “Search me and know my
heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
That
is most wise. The Holy Spirit, said Christ, will convict of sin (our own), righteousness (that of Christ who gave Himself the perfect
sacrifice to cover sin in the interests of love and mercy, and meet justice in
the interests of truth – Hebrews 9:12-28), and
judgment (that coming to mankind who rejects mercy where God places it, who
considers himself above it all, when this is not the case). When one is checked
out, there is much to do! This exercise of David’s was not in order to be
saved, for if one has put one’s life’s faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord
according to His word, without ANYTHING ELSE (NOT Christ plus my ideas, or someone else’s), then one is already saved. David
foresaw and in great detail PREDICTED the Messiah, and so his heart already
trusted in Him.
For
him, then, this would be a work of
sanctification, to become more like God in character. It is in a way more like
asking the mechanic not only to fix what you tell him, but what he may find
when he carefully checks your car out! At 74 I still find much to do, needing
to be done in the spiritual premises, and am glad to have life with which to do
it!
Ø The
third thing ? It is that one must ensure that WHERE one is finding the ‘church’
of Jesus Christ, is where God defines it. If one joins the Liberal Party, for
example, all that SAYS it is that party, is not in the same condition. Some
body may have the historical AUTHENTICITY (that is, in now being what it
claims, it is not just some claim about ITS past) that makes it the party you
actually have in mind. Other bodies may simply use the name, on purpose or even otherwise, in order to make some
point of their own, and in fact they may have nothing whatsoever to do with
what YOU have in mind; and hence are irrelevant to your seeking, and either
intentionally or unintentionally misleading.
Hence
you would need to find a church which, like many, to start with, actually SAYS
it is concerned to believe in God according to His word, His Christ, His
declared salvation, unchanged and unchangeable (Galatians 1), not according to
some other criterion, or criteria (cf. The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 7).
‘God’
WITHOUT a SON, without a WORD sent incarnate to die for sin, is not the God of
the Bible. Some god sending somebody NOT to die as a ransom for judgment, to
grant fellowship with God by His own gift and eternal life by GRACE without
works, is another club, church, body. It has nothing to do with Christ, since
HE made it clear firstly, that unless you believe that He is the Messiah, you
shall die in your sin (John 8:24), and secondly, that He is the only way to His
Father (John 14:6), for the good and sufficient reason that He only has been
sent to expose and constitute the salvation of God, according to the millennia
or so of prophecies (Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17). As Isaiah 48:16 with 52-53 and Psalm 2,
45 shows, He was sent, being in the form
of God, for the purposes of God, as God in human form, to fulfil His great
mission of redemption.
Again,
it would not need to be a church which followed what Christ abhorred, its own
nose (Mark 7:7-9), under the descriptive title of ‘tradition’, one that binds
its own will and falls foul of the
Biblical word of Christ, “one is your Master, even
Christ, and all of you are brethren” (Matthew 23:8). If God speaks, what
has man to say! Nor do you need those who are their own authorities (I
Peter 5:3-4). This is forbidden. The
church is the candlestick, not the light: it shines by reflection (Revelation
1:12).
ELIJAH and JOB
It
is BECAUSE God speaks that man needs to follow, even if as in the case of
Elijah, it seemed almost as if no one else were there. In fact, at that time, God advised Elijah
that there were still 7000 who had not bowed the knee to ‘Baal’, the then
current so brilliant theological errantcy. Whatever the human company, Elijah
knew God. He was in the beautiful company of people like Job. “Though He slay me,” said Job, “yet shall I trust Him!”
In
that case, the test was on, so that the
Satan was given opportunity to PROVE by
his own evil thoughts, if he could, that Job was a self-righteous, or a
self-satisfied, or worse, a scheming
theological hedonist, just in it for what he could get out of it. If then
calamity struck ? would he then be still reliant on, and a worshipper of the
true and living God ? To the test: then check it out, came the permission; but
not with his life. Satan could attack, but the life of the subject was not to
be taken. It was a living test, not an assignment with a corpse. Later, when Job
had been, while at first under test, a perfect example, Satan sought more: Would not a man be content with his health ?
Just touch that and see where you get
with your sincere man of God.
Job’s
health was then attacked. When that happened, and Job was given the added test
of ‘comforting’ friends who assumed that his plight was a function of his sin,
and allowed him the ‘grace’ of their tongues, Job had tremors, It was not easy, to be sure, under
that test, but the tried man of God came out with Job 19:23-29, still sung at
Christmas season in the Messiah of Handel, This, it is one of the most
burningly purified declarations of faith in the Lord, the Redeemer, that you
could find; yes and Job was confident, indeed flamingly, blazingly confident in
the midst of his trials (and they literally were just that), that His very own
Redeemer, God Himself, was the One whom Job would see with his own eyes, when
at last He came to stand upon the earth, and this, even though temporarily
death could dismiss his then current body! “Whom I
shall see for Myself, and not another”.
Yes,
tests are definitely on, and it is wise, as in any exam, to recognise them for
what they are.
If
you believe in the Lord, then you accept them and seek the best way of handling
them, again as in any other exam, whether it be a question of others, in
churches, or on the other hand, of sanctity in one’s own life. You do this by
faith and the result may be humbling, impoverishing, bearing with
misunderstandings: but the result is rewarding and enriching, when spiritual
purity is the goal in God. What really
does it matter ? So long as God is with one, it does not matter if all hell is
of a contrary motivation. It has its destiny; I have mine. I am sad for those
addicted to its ways, and seek with all my heart to deliver them; but in the
end, it is only the Lord who can reach them, and His is not a dictatorial role.
After
all, if you do not believe, what is the point of seeking the fruits of faith,
before it exists ? The absence of God as your friend, helper and strengthener
is rather like that of an engine: you have a car, no engine, and wonder what is
wrong with this car sort of thing! When you have an engine, you go places and
find things.
CHRISTIANS
are tested, and it is good (I Peter 1:6-7), and comparative ‘heaviness’, says Peter, may come ‘for a season’
so that the purity of your faith may be tested, indeed that refinement occur.
Motives need simplification, love needs its singleness of heart. Vision needs
to be unclouded. One of the tests MAY relate
to a church, and if so, one has to be willing to correct, and to be corrected, and to be certain NOT TO BE where the Bible does not have its place
as the word of God, subject to nothing; just as one needs to be a man of God,
subject to none else. With the brethren, of course, one must be willing and
ready for the fellowship of function in Christ, like any other team; but not to
be taken for a ride into some other
…society, for its own
convenience, anomalously retaining the name of a church.
TESTING and
CHURCHES
Further,
Paul made it clear that any OTHER Gospel than what had then been preached is
merely a false intrusion. It is in fact plagiarism. Why USE the term “Gospel” in a context where
its famous and historical basis in Christ is in view, and mean something else ?
For deliberate confusion ?
So
you have first to find yourself a believer IN JESUS CHRIST, not someone who
would redraft him according to some criteria, before you are likely to find any
church which does the same with the prescribed platform of Christ. Even in a
bank, you have a prescribed platform, with your name, address, signature
and record. It is not especially
horrible to answer to that. When God is
concerned, it is not a word for fun any more than your name or mine is this: it
is a signal of a personal being, who is what He is, and is not available for
re-draft any more than are you, or am I!
The
opposite to that, it is intensely horrible. Paul specialises on that topic in
II Corinthians 10-11, on those who make themselves their own criterion for drafting God, instead of following His. It is
as if a bank decided that someone of your name, or my own, should now have some
designated address in
Let us hear
the prophet in 8:11-13:
Ø
“Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
They have become for him altars for sinning.
I have written for him the
great things of My law,
But they were considered a strange thing.
For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it,
But the Lord does not
accept them.
Now He will remember their
iniquity and punish their sins.”
The
bold print is added to bring home the point in view for us here.
They
were AUTHORISED to make an altar; but they made many. They were authorised to
worship the God who is there; they added the ones who are not there (cf.
Deuteronomy 32:16-19). They had names for their gods to which they gave
worship, and one name, that of Baal, simply meant ‘Lord’, just to make the
confusion more confounding.
They
used the thing meant for intimacy, for alienation. The very ALTAR for
sacrifice, became a place for other gods, other words, other desires, or even
confusing verbal duplication; and God was made into what they would do to a
prostitute: merely an object for use along with the other paramours. Ezekiel 16
pursues that theme, as does Hosea in the very structure of the book!
It
was hideous, and still is, when men use the term ‘Lord’ or ‘God’ to impose
their wishes for the identity of the Almighty. He can be changed not at all. He
has said all He intends (Revelation 22 makes it clear that the very THINGS
given are complete, with no more, none at all). He has done all He plans in
redemption; it is finished (Romans 3:23ff., Ephesians 1:10ff., Hebrews 9:12).
He does not plan to come in another body as some other person; or to entertain
man with antics for his taste, as if He were some kind of vaudeville. It is
there. If you leave it, you leave God, and your own destiny is then, like a
sunset, perhaps colourful, but destined for that darkness which PREFERS
darkness to light (cf. John
God
is not mocked, is merciful, and is Himself. This, it is not very hard when you
consider it.
Again,
notice this in the cited Hosea passages, that “I have written
for him the great things of My law.” Here God exhibits the fact that man
does not manufacture God’s law. Man naturally responds to the word of the One
who wrote his own DNA, and gave him spirit; but it is not his law. When man
opens his thoughts, it is his law; when God opens His thoughts, it is His law.
We do not become so confused among each other; there is no excuse for doing so
when God is concerned!
Man
may want to expand or limit it in some way, and very frequently does just this,
either with false prophets or simply in his own mind or heart. The man I
mentioned who thought he was just about sinless, found that he would take
perhaps a little of this religion, a little of that, and making up for his own
pleasure his own standards, would then assess himself. You could do that in
mathematics too! and get 100% and be useless at it (cf. Deliverance from Disorientation
Chs. 8 and 10).
That
is Paul’s point about measuring themselves BY themselves, and SO not being
wise! (II Corinthians 10:12). So it is partly right to have absolute standards
for assessing religion, and partly wrong if you make them up yourself, either
by original design, or by selection processes on what is around, or simply appeals.
In fact, as noted, our standards in many Western countries are not a little
affected by the immense Biblical provisions in law, in religion, in morals,
which have for so long, from so many
hands and in so many dynamics influenced our perception. When however we select
from this, and make our own preferred definitions of assessment, we merely
elevate ourselves into the criterion of religious truth, manifestly impossible,
as we are examples constructed by another. Logic is to be met, since God gave us
minds; but we learn with them, from what He has done and what He has said: we
do not impose. There is but one God.
On
the other hand, when we SAY we believe
in God, who gave His Son, Jesus Christ
to manifest Himself, His power over death and disease, His pardon and His way,
it is equally astray to act as if the GREAT THINGS of the law, mercy and
justice, were not just that – great!
Mercy ? but whose. Given by us ? No, by Him. On our standards ? no, whoever heard of an imposed
mercy! By His. The profound simplicity
of this should not be permitted to obscure the feints of many who want to seem
good, but are wickedly corrupt, imposing their own words on those of God’s,
ignoring the great things while swallowing camels (Matthew 23:24). These are “blind guides”, said Christ.
There
is, let us be frank, not only much subtlety abroad, but it is predicted (cf.
Matthew 24:24). Christ put it strongly of the time (cf. Answers to Questions Ch.
5) when His return draws near.
SO
great would be the insidious redrafting and craft, that IF IT WERE POSSIBLE
even His chosen people would be tricked by it, as the time of His return drew
near. That is precisely what He declared (Matthew 24). Thus, God being God,
there is nothing He cannot do, and faith in Christ being faith in the effectual
working of God according to His plan, program and person, HIS people CANNOT be
so deceived. They WOULD be deceived, without Him; but then, without Him, the
very world itself would not exist. It is so very important not only to THINK
but to REALISE and act on the realisation, that God is alive and available in
Christ, and it is necessary to ASK for what is needed for godly living, and of
course, EXPECT to get it.
It
is, after all, for His people who trust in Him, a promise (II Peter 1:4). When
faith arrives in one’s heart, one finds that the promises work; which is not so
surprising, since the matter is this, “faith which
works by love” (Galatians 5:6, with Hebrews 11:6). Love is the greatest;
but without faith, you see here, you miss the bus entirely. You are then not
where this great phenomenon occurs. If love is the way faith works, then
without faith, there is no working of it. Without God who is love, you do not
have love; without faith, you do not have God (Hebrews 11:6).
If
those in view are His, and if, like
Sampson, they begin to go astray, then at the end, they are set straight (as he
was, when he did in fact at last finish his appointed task with flying colours
– but what sadness he might have avoided if he had kept to the will of God from
the first!). Sometimes, they merely think they are His, HOPING but not
believing. In that case, the end may bring them to the faith which first they
wrongly professed. Then action.
Churches
too, as you see so very clearly in Revelation 2-3, may follow some such lines.
One therefore has first to believe in God, since it is about Him altogether.
When one does so, then the shameless shambles of false churches, prophets and
philosophies, merging, like hills distantly on the disappearing horizon, can be
seen as when one is overhead in a helicopter. The Lord enables both the finding
and the participation.
OTHER
Jesus creations, of man, not the gift of God
from eternity, these were flourishing even in Paul’s own day (II Corinthians
10:12-11:15). They USED His name shamelessly for their own unimpressive,
unverified, unpredicted SHAM! It is to be more awful now than then, and it is
(cf. News
121, 122).
It
does of course matter who God is. If I wrote to Lawrence, and did not really
mind which of 500 I thought I was writing to him, I would be less than
personal, dutiful and responsible. We do
not have such qualities in a vacuum. They are derivative, and capable of
considerable oversight, as when men often exploit others for their own gain,
and ignore them. Yet they know well enough that they are there.
It
does matter who is who. There may be someone of your name who is absurdly rich,
absurdly immoral, amazingly delightful, of great fame, of great infamy. There
would be many. Hence it MATTERS exceedingly much that I write to the ONE WHOM I
KNOW, not generally to anyone bearing this name, as if NOTHING MATTERED!
Is
God the God of the destroyer, who blows up people and seeks to run this world ?
On the contrary, the Destroyer is one of the Biblical names for Satan, the
adversary. Did Jesus seek to run this world ? On the contrary, He said “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of
this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the
Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here. “ Asked if He were then a
King, by Pilate, the judge, He replied: “You say
rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I cam
into this world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of
the truth hears My voice.”
Interestingly
He said a parallel thing, as seen in John 7:17: “If
anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it
is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”
IN ADDRESSING GOD,
USE THE RIGHT ADDRESS
Like
you and me, Lawrence, He is what He is. He is not something diverse, divergent,
manipulable, conditioned by the thought of this or that person. If anyone wants
to make some religious puppet and call it god or some similar name (as some
political regimes, for convenience may want to do), then that is part of the
scheme and schema of this world. It is not admirable, being merely manipulation.
However if anyone wants to make a Christ of his own, then that is far worse. It
is to court confusion and to latch onto the trailer of the truck ahead, which
has its own performance characteristics.
What
then is God ? He is a Spirit, eternal, just and loving, with His own will and
ways, whose goodness never fails, whose compassion reaches the zenith of coming
in the very format which He created in His own image, to undo the mess man made
of freedom ? How did man do so ? by using it to abuse, not to fulfil the wonder
which the Almighty had planted in him. To use what I have drawn concisely from
the Bible, on p. 479 of SMR:
GOD
Is that almighty, omniscient, compassionate, independent, immaterial Being whose justice is never compromised, who gives love its name, mercy its source and fatherhood its basis; to the Church its centre and sovereign, to sin its answer, and to wickedness in His time, its results; who takes no pleasure, however, in the death of the wicked, and does not lightly afflict the children of men; of whom, to whom and through whom are all things; in whom is no iniquity or shadow of turning, who changes not; alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of all creation, Creator ex nihilo, by Himself; alone eternal, King beyond all dominion. He is triune: one in Being, consisting in, but not of, three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all of one nature, but distinct.
This
is a Biblical summary of some substance. There so happens to be NOTHING
validatable, verifiable, satisfactory to scientific method, illustrated in life
(Christ), persistent over millennia (the fact-verifiable prophets), meeting the
demands of logic in existence, except this. Men may make vapid gods: that is
one of the results of their being in His image, and having such powers of
creation. It is abuse of power, and it is potentially deadly, as are many other
abuses. It is however a facility which, however great the presumption, arrogance
and absurdity of the process, has one great limit. They do not succeed. They
make mere mockeries, puppets to their power and fulfillments of their desire or
their fear. You might as well try to make a play by having it in your mind. The
drama has to be STAGED and to SHOW itself for what it is.
Thus
it matters INFINITELY who God is; and it matters INFINITELY in whom one
believes,
v
convenient or (for the sense of clamant
duty), inconvenient abstractions,
v
or the active and attested God of
glory, Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
WHEN
one has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone among men is without sin
(Romans 5:12, I Peter 2:22ff.), with the very power of God and whose words to
this day rule history, then, and then only can one hope to find a church, for
example, which follows Him. Oh to be sure, HE MAY in what is called His
prevenient grace (that is His affair), allow you to find one; but would you
recognise it ? You see while it is true that LOVE is paramount, and what
vilifies or defiles it is not of God, and indeed that God is love (which is
logically not the same proposition as this, that love is God*1), it is equally true that this is a Christian
position. It is one which is DEFINED in and by Christ and the prophets in
entire accord, over the millennia, into and beyond the milieu of the cross, as
into the triumph resurrection and the coming Return. That is what love is like;
there is the work of its original.
Some
SAY they love a girl, when they love their own pleasure in her company. Others
regard her with joy and delight, and have the richest joy in making life
pleasant for her, and helping her to join in a partnership which is beautiful
in its grace and eloquent in its sincerity. The word ‘love’ is capable of
almost any distortion. Thus, ‘harm’ might by some school-boys be seen in ANY
discipline; whereas in fact, without it they might fatally harm themselves! It
is necessary in any attempt to define love,
to be frank and clear. Does it
mean mere indulgence ? Does it mean ensuring that what protects is in place
before it is too late ?
Indeed,
is it seen in a world where ANYTHING can happen, and so divorced from God at
the outset, a mere act of rebellion using a code word, as a flag ? (cf. Ancient
Words, Modern Deeds Chs. 9, 13). Or is it seen in a world where GOD
is the AUTHOR and the CODE giver and the MORAL resource, giving that the design
called ‘man’ its gospel needs, not in order to delete his spirit, but to enable
its beautiful and intimate co-existence with Himself, and the true path to its
meaning ?
When
one is consistent, and adopts this, then one begins to realise that the love of
God in the Bible is no more amorphous than is yours or my own. It is
particular, personal and with Him at least, realistic. Love is not interested
in making indulgence to be its god, any more than violence or vileness. God does not interest Himself in creating
God-makers because, first of all, it is impossible. The ONE who was always
there, cannot now be put there.
WE
have to find what He declares in His word, just as our bodies relate to what He
has put in the DNA (cf. Repent or Perish Ch. 7, Little Things Ch.
5). We can no more invent His words or criteria or priorities, than we can
for each other; and indeed, infinitely less! You or I can imagine what some
person is like, but that is what it is, unless we have their curriculum vitae,
or better, their voice and word, or best of all, meet them and discourse with
them, and walk with them and perceive them in motion, action and even in
deliberation.
What
is SO marvellous is this, that if there is anything fully kind, it is found in
Him; if there is any impenetrably pure pity, it is from His source, if any
holiness, without pollution, it is in Him, if any wisdom to redeem a foul and
fallen race (as it is in all, in this, that it does not start with Him, but
with itself), then it is in Him.
HIS
love is not to indulge our impenitent desires, but
v
to enable our coming home to our
Source, the Architect, the Strategist, the Creator, the Inventor, the Author of
Integrity in Jesus Christ (whom He embodied to display it and enact what it
REQUIRED), The Speaker of Life into existence, the Redeemer and Salvation,
v
in giving us access.
It
is exceedingly wonderful that He does, this being the nature of love which
engenders man and his deliverance (Colossians 1:19ff.); and of course, He
likewise gives access
v
to the clearly displayed WORD OF GOD,
the Bible, on show for nearly three and one half millennia from its earlier
works, to the present. It is not a
ticket for the illicit; it is a mercy for malady, and a stimulus to function,
all in faith, all for Him who is called Lord, not for something to do!
At
all times since the Fall, as when Christ came, it has been a matter of action,
of word, of speech, of history, and leading, of God as Lord and Saviour (cf.
John 3:11, Acts 4:19-20). There
we can rove, look and see. His love is like this: we are not what we could and
should be, and He is not prepared just to blast us (like putting a second rate
plan in our own waste paper bins in our offices), since we are not mere paper!
(though many seem to act like it, being written on by every foul and foolish
philosophy as if it were a duty!).
Hence
He has become man to show, exhibit and construct the pathway back, filled with
justice (Romans 3:25-26, Galatians 3:1-10), requiring therefore redemption,
providing the same since no mere man, only His incarnate Word was sufficient
(Psalm 49:7,15). In this excursion to man. In this, God was exacting in
suffering, indicative of limitless power, but neither dictatorial nor loose. He
is what He is. He mourned for
We
come to Him AS HE IS or we deal with myths, illusions (cf. Secular Myth
and Sacred Truth). There is an end to sin, and it is what you would
expect when those who engage in it, refusing repentance, dismiss the plan of
God, and want to enter heaven by some other door (as denounced in John
10:1ff.). God will not suffer eternity to become a mess because some want to
play God without having the power, purity or resources, yes or the truth! (SMR Ch. 3).
There is no other. God is what He is, says what He means. Do you blame the
government if the orphanage has only one door ?
Only if there is congestion. There is none here!
There
is nothing absolute but God (cf. SMR 99-100, Ch. 3), nor can anything be known truly except
in Him, whose is the perspective, the purpose and the power; but His
absoluteness DEMANDS love without which there is neither meaning nor merit,
place or power of any kind (I Corinthians 13). He has nothing to gain,
everything to give, except being GOD, for you cannot exist from eternity,
starting now! (cf. AAA Ch. 8). Many want to over-ride that; but
there is but One who knows all and everyone, utterly. He gives. However the
love is from Him, and to HIM and to ONE ANOTHER, and it is as defined by Him.
It is rather like a good home. Your mother loves you ? very good, then she tells you to keep your hands out of
the cookie jar between meals. You CANNOT (or will not) believe that any loving
mother could be so cruel (sic) ? Yet
she is being just that: loving and NOT cruel!
A
good caning may occasion HARM to your (possibly inflated) self-respect, but it
may be balm to your life. Discipline should not be to break the will, but to
help to heart to consider, when it is foolish. The ‘good’ is not the pain but
the perception. Of course an utterly rebellious child may then harbour a grudge
and seek to kill his parents. Many seek to kill God (they DID kill Christ; but
they did not prevail, since that was part of the STATED program (see Joyful
Jottings 25), as was the
resurrection.
Many
seek now to remove God no less than did these scheming priests and politicians
of a former era. Their counterparts have not departed! They may do it directly
as did some in the USSR in 1917, telling Him to go with bag and baggage (though
one notices that later, in the 1990s they seemed content to be helped by a
nation still exhibiting masses of worshippers of the God of the Bible); they
may do it implicitly, or even withholding thought about it, through some kind
of theological repression.
Whichever
way they go, in this they do not succeed. Some then decide to become atheists,
because they cannot make God after their own image; INSIST on their own ways, and hence verbally
dispense with God. However, they do not alter anything, except their own
destiny, which they are here shown to be shaping. Proverbs 1*2 is a marvellous goad to thought here! It deserves
the most meticulous and thoughtful pondering, as does Proverbs 8, not least the
end of it (cf. Proverbs 8).
If
a person wants himself as criterion, quality control and judge, then he is at
once occupying a position which he does not have. He is the quality RECEIVER,
not the quality imbuer. What perhaps makes so many so willing to act as if reality depending on them, their
thoughts and feelings is this: that in fact we ARE so made that our wills have
significance, even when our decisions may be against the truth, and by default
make us personally insignificant (biblically, like chaff which the wind blows
away, though this is not the destiny, merely the phase of dispersion – Psalm
1). This brings on for many, the power lust, the irrational grasp to be, if not
in word, then in effect, gods! God is with magnificent irony, unimpressed
(Psalm 82!).
It
is just such a spirit which led the rulers of this world to rebel against the
Lord and His anointed as we find in Psalm 2, which is the birth of this present
world, in its severity; for it lives
by one who is NOT the prince of peace; and so as to peace, it does not
get it (John 14:30). God indicated millennia ago, that there would be an
international development in the LACK OF PEACE which would not merely be
exceedingly intensive, but potentially terminal for man on this earth. Only His
own return would prevent systematic annihilation! (Revelation 6, Matthew 24:21-22).
Men’s hearts accordingly would faint with fear, and there would in the nations,
be “distress… with perplexity” (Luke
However
since the members of our race DO have significance, even if only to consign
themselves away from the truth, it can grow into what is virtually a fetish, as
if reality were just waiting on man, to be given permission to exist. Man’s choices do NOTHING to invent God; only
relating to the prevention of His truth from
entering his soul. As to that, mercifully, His choices are what count,
and whilst in his blindness (to the goodness of God as it IS), man is incapable
of coming in his own will and strength (I Corinthians 2:14, Romans 9:16, John 1:12-13), yet God (by grace you are saved, as Paul interpolates in
Ephesians 2:1-10, before affirming it categorically in the same place) is able
to find His own.
With
the amplitude that His own astonishing liberality, He neither dictates nor
breaks His product man, in order to secure him; but He does find us out beyond
our own control (Romans 9:16, John 1:12, Acts 11:18), so that spiritual birth,
the midwifery department of the divine mercy, is wrought from above : you do
not know where the wind comes from, said Christ (John 3). A broken and a contrite heart, however,
are of great value in the sight of God, BECAUSE this is the PROPER response to
the pathology in the heart of mankind (Isaiah 6:2, 57:15, Psalm 51:6-10,17).
Test ? It is God who tests (Psalm 11), however wise in terms of His word our
tests of what is not God, might be! (I John 4:1ff.).
God
then has not abdicated because some seek to erect him in their own desires (Acme,
Alpha and Omega - Jesus Christ Ch. 8). HE IS
far more loving than anyone has ever suggested in philosophy for anyone or
anything; and it is small wonder as the prophet Isaiah predicted in foretelling
the death of Christ in its meaning and some of its data, that “kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been
told them, they shall see, and what they had not heard, they shall consider”
(Isaiah 52:15). He has indeed “sprinkled”
many nations as there predicted, the blood (the attestation and evidence of His
being poured out to death as a sacrifice for sin, available but not applicable
without faith in Him, as is the case with a check – not cleared till presented)
being that of His redemption (Ephesians 1:6-7).
There
are few nations where this has not occurred for many. This is as it was
indicated it would be; and it is. Nothing can abort, corrode or corrupt God. We
are HIS invention; hence His word stands, like Nelson in
God
declares His will, and if a personal death, wrought in the form of a man, in
the interests of bringing back individual people to Himself is not loving
enough (see the passion of it in prophecy in Ezekiel 34, Isaiah 50), if a
personal severity of experience in which the infinite God, placing Himself in
human form, experienced the blackness of sin in a perfect life not touched by
it, for others: if this is not loving enough, then love is better dead! It
would then become a word which forsakes its integrity. But it is not dead. It
is just that this is its address, a personal, not some socialised pretension
for love, ignorant and foolish, arrogant or intrusive.
Not
that: love that is intimate and fit for man, because it was there when He was
made. Indeed, some merely imagined ‘love’ in comparison with this, would seem
dead on arrival for any who look elsewhere.
But
to the problem of church: If YOU do not believe, then on Christ’s own authority,
you cannot SEE the kingdom of heaven or enter it. It would then be difficult
for you to find what you cannot see (John 3). Even if you could, Christ further
declares, there, that unless you are regenerated by God, you cannot enter the
In
the end, you either believe in the divine testimony of Christ or you believe
Him mad or worse (as in SMR Ch.
6), if thought is to occur at all. However, to make Him a madman whose
words have endured beyond those of all others, coming into effect millennia
after their pronouncement, and not only
were in conformity to what had been given before in predicting HIS coming, but
were fulfilled with power in the face of all opposition, including that of His
enemies who were forewarned what they would do to Him and how useless it would
be, indeed that it was all part of the divine plan: this is a form of
irrationality so profound as to merit no attention. If this is anyone’s
attitude to Him (on due reflection), then so be it. It would trash reason, and
so not enter into its domain.
However,
mercifully, your references to Him do not suggest such an approach: indeed,
they seem far from it.
It
is necessary then to follow HIM, since He is what has been provided. It is far
more necessary when His integrity is His place, and His place is that of
Saviour, and GOD is quite clear that NO saviour from sin is available but
HIMSELF, who came to do it as only He can!
VOIDING REALITY
MAKES UNAVOIDABLE CALAMITY
Christs,
like plastic cars, are two a penny; it is only Jesus the Christ who actually
runs. If then it is not the actual Christ, whatever you want, it is not what is
there; and it cannot equal what is there. If, on the other hand, you do believe, then you CAN seek to find
what is true to Christ and His written word, the objective testimony to which
He refers with such utter authority (cf. Matthew 5:17-19 and SMR
Appendix D). FIRST YOU YOURSELF must be true
to Him, by receiving Him as He is, Saviour, and in Him finding the very word of
God.
That
is the indispensable preliminary to seeking fellowship with His people: to have
fellowship with HIMSELF, intimacy of relation to His word (His mouth is not
torn off) and so to have His Spirit (Romans 8:9).
Many
frauds are the order of the day. Many ‘churches’ as in the case of those
seeking to take over the church at Corinth (II Corinthians 11), buffet, demand,
put in their own traditions, and it is not only the Romanist who does so!
However, to take an illustration: The circumstance that most dogs do not suit a
person, and he does not admire them, this has nothing to do with those
delightful creatures (such as my own old dog) whose tenderness of affection,
thoughtfulness of disposition, loyalty of heart and friendliness of spirit are
their own commendation. There are such. You have to look for them! Such is the
position today, as forecast (II Peter 1, II Tim. 3, I Tim. 4, Matthew 24:24).
This
having been said, however, let us proceed to the more particular. Yes, you will
need patience with others: I even need to have patience with myself! But, if
thus placed in the Lord, you will find:
for everyone who seeks, finds.
Let us take a case that you mention. Yes many both now and in Christ’s day seem to love putting their traditions, their thoug