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BARBS, ARROWS AND BALMS
 
 

Alerts,
Warnings and Blessings

 
 
 
 
 
 

Rev. Dr. Robert Donaldson
 

©

ISBN 0-9587235-5-9
 
 

Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.

June 1998

ITEMS

 

ONE - Noah Mark 2!

TWO - He who is Lost, Hesitates

THREE - The Proud Grain of Wheat

FOUR - The Road to Hell is Studded

FIVE - When the World reclines
in the Church ...

SIX - God can do anything He pleases ?

SEVEN - Can you be Absolutely Sure?

EIGHT - Easter Alert!

NINE - Australian Government for Sale...

TEN - Important Guest at the Party ...

ELEVEN- Time for us to Examine Time ...

TWELVE - Israel tells the U.S. ...

THIRTEEN- The Wonder of the Will of God and the Gracious Power for His work (while it is still day)

FOURTEEN - From Doubt to Delight

FIFTEEN - LET THERE BE LIGHT!

SIXTEEN - RAIN:

The SOUL of Refreshing and

The Refreshing of the SOUL

SEVENTEEN -

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
A Bible-Wide Survey and Exposition
Later in this, in particular,we have a special task.

 


We are going to look at Psalm 22 to see
not only the excruciating pain,
the meaning of the sorrow,
but the scope of the salvation
and the meaning of its accomplishment to the world at large.

 


With this, we shall see that NOT ONLY is it to
ALL races, but it has been, since sin, FOR ALL TIME.

ONE EVERLASTING GOSPEL .
 

EIGHTEEN

THE ASPIRATION TO ASCEND, THE DESPERATION TO DESCEND AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO AMEND

NINETEEN

MISSILES, MEANING AND FAITH

HOW do you escape 'meaningitis', the mere wafting in miserable profusion of thought;
missiles - the just vulnerability to evil;
and find faith, faith with an object worthy of it ?

TWENTY

RELIGION IN ISRAEL -

Unity only from a Former Sale

Adversities and adversatives to come,

in what for the time seems incapable of resolution:
before for many, the holy communion of Christ.

It is one of His prerogatives to render possible, yes even to perform what to man is without hope. God, the Lord, is like that.
 
 

TWENTY ONE

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Verse to attest what is best

TWENTY TWO

THE JUST SHALL LIVE
BY FAITH -

The BOLD WONDER OF HABAKKUK
CONTINUES TO THIS DAY
AN INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
AND IN SALVATION.
 
 

TWENTY THREE

THE TEACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
 
 

 TWENTY FOUR

CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER
 
 

TWENTY FIVE

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

TWENTY SIX

EVERY WAVE THAT STRIKES THE

SHORE ...

TWENTY SEVEN

PROVERBS 8, PROVERBS 30,
PSALM 2 and EZEKIEL 17,
MAKE A STUNNING FOURSOME

TWENTY EIGHT

SIN is MULTIFORM:

It is a THREE-LETTER WORD CONNOTATING A FACT, NOT AN EIGHT-VOLUME TREATISE CONNOTATING A MYTH
 

TWENTY NINE

NOTHING DOING FROM NOTHING
 

THIRTY

HIGHWAY TO HELL

IT IS MATTER FOR PRAISE TO THE LORD,

THAT THERE ARE EXITS
 

THIRTY ONE

BITTER WISDOM OR UNABASHED CONFESSION ?

Solomon's Ecclesiastes in focus - depth
without a bathyscope, and scope for bathing
 
 

APPENDIX I

THE GENERATION OF THE DISPOSSESSED
Who are they? Where are they going? What do they need?
Lost from His life, they are still eligible
through the Cross of Christ
 

APPENDIX 11

SINNERS ONLY
exclusive, elusive ?
NO! But it still eludes many!
 

APPENDIX III
THE LIVING GOD -
LIVING IN HIS LIFE
The Balm of His Blessing is no mere theory
but a vitality energised from eternity,
not hidden in thought but manifest in Christ .
 
 

APPENDIX IV:
 

THE AVIARY OF IDOLATRY

Note: References to SMR throughout, are to the trilogy, The Shadow of a Mighty Rock.
 
 

References to SMR are to The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, a trilogy.
 
 

  Introduction: This volume is indeed concerned with alerts, warnings and blessings: alerts to woes and wounds needing attention, warnings of results, and blessings to be found in the midst of the will of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. Some of the material is stringently personal, some national or international; and the balm that is found in faith in Christ appears wherever one has eyes to see, hands to take and faith to appreciate.
 
 

1.

NOAH MARK II

Just imagine if NOAH - YEARS before the flood, with no known ground for a flotation, continued to build his nautical wonder. The capital cost would be daunting, but as is now the habit of Christians: SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The SOCIAL cost however could be great. What folly! What a zealot/bigot/freak! Some flood to come? Tell me another. The amusing thing is this: It is EXACTLY what the unbelieving and ungrateful world would be saying NOW to Christians who look with expectation for Christ's return (to judge of course, and to manifest the righteous power of the God who is patient, but not dismissive)! (Cf. II Peter 3:4-7.)

Can you imagine the ridicule. We who are Christians do not NEED to imagine, for our eyes being set on the Lord, who is invisible but effectual, the blind wonder at what we speak! Ridicule or not Noah went right on building, as we in the churches must do.

MARK II Noah however exists only in the imagination. IMAGINE if he had cracked, saying, Well, enough it enough! They ALL tell me I am crazy, although the God whom I know is trustworthy. Yet... maybe I'll take a break, reduce the pressure, allow myself some living room!

Soon the floods come and Noah Mark II goes with them, being unprotected when the searching times come. Churchill warned Britain, not very interested in hearing him. We warn the WORLD, and whether or not its inhabitants listen will not affect the judgment to come, the return of Christ, the vindication of God's justice and majesty. It will however this time not be wet (II Thessalonians 1, II Peter 3:5-13)...

 

NOAH MARK III

THIS Noah is another imaginary variation. After years of building, his ark became nearer and nearer to its completion. One day, torn and tormented by the mosquito bites of his critics - could not this money have been put to some practical use instead of going on ego trips of arrogant disdain for lost causes, and so on - he decided to put it to the test. If GOD had ordered the ark, then GOD could make it float. Carefully taking the ark to a nearby lake, he opens up the shute and down it goes. Unfortunately, this was not at the command of the God who authorised the building, nor was it in accord with the purpose given to Noah. Hence there was no action! The ark became stuck in the shallows, leading not to floating but gloating on the part of impenitent enemies of God. When the flood came, the ark was not available for boarding, and Noah Mark III like Noah Mark II simply drowned.

JUDGE NOTHING before the time! says Paul in I Corinthians 4:5. "He who plants and he who waters are one; and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God..." (from I Cor.3:8-9). THIS however judge, that if we are NOT in the NEW TESTAMENT ARK, which is Jesus Christ, and hang about the door, or ignore it, then not flooding but judgment more intense is the only righteous answer! (John 3:16-20).

Let us not therefore experiment with cults and personality twisters, word polluters, "liberal" Christianity and its whole worldly synthesis of man and God, truth and liar, as if to try out in this PRESENT world the day of judgment. It will come soon enough, so be sure you are in our AMPLE ARK (I Peter 3:18-22). He is ALL-SUFFICIENT.

The millenial reign of Jesus Christ is NOT YET (Revelation 20, Isaiah 65:20ff.), and all endeavours to meld with the mildewed philosophers of this world, a modus vivendi, an apt vehicle for world peace, personal tranquillity or social serenity are premature. It will come (Revelation 11:15), when HE reigns, and as to that, He is like a nobleman who has gone to receive a kingdom. On his return, there will be no ... ambiguity. The unfaithful will have good reason to be aware of His presence (Luke 19:12ff., and verse 27). He shall indeed reign for all eternity, being vindicated, glorified and manifest to all (cf. Psalm 72:5-13). In the meantime efforts for goodwill and peaceableness, for justice and equity are worthy; festering efforts to heal the world without Christ are presumption. They stick ... in the mud of the shallows. There is no haulage to move them; for they are not built on the foundation that never sinks (I Corinthians 3:10-12, Daniel 7:13, Revelation 5:13, 22:3, 21:23).

Where glory abides, THE LAMB IS ITS LIGHT, AND INDEED, ITS TEMPLE (Revelation 21:22-23), just as He is the ROCK (see No.5 below, and ROCK in SMR Index).
 
 

2.

He who is lost hesitates...

A person on this sinful earth is either in Christ or not, either in captivity to conditions and cultures or psychic forces of this debased kind or other, in which case, being lost, he/she may well hesitate on the brink of insoluble uncertainties. Without absolute truth, many will affirm it absolutely true that there is no absolute truth; while others, making themselves cogs in a meaning-free architecture which is unhappily for all its skill, architect-free, happily declare what is the architecture of all things, the cosmology to which it belongs. Others, affirming it is all from nothing, torture the poor unoffending non-creature, non-existent nonenity into confessing that if it were something, it would be just fine, and then seemingly unaware of the definitional duress, proceed to base themselves on it, and with that, all they say, which like the origin they attest, amounts to nothing. (See SMR Chs.1,3, pp. S1-S32, 422Eff., That Magnificent Rock, Chs.5,7.)

This leads to false assurance which being baseless, can erode stability; or to hopelessness which being warranted when the light of Christ is wilfully despised (John 9:39-41), can produce fruitless oscillation, spiritual fibrillation or downright apprehension, no friend of wise decision.

The writhing, erratic disillusion or even neurotic wanderings in perennial dimness can readily lead to hesitation, then precipitate bungling, because as the one may frustrate, the other does not resolve, in the dark. Hence our aphorism at the outset, conveys an important meaning, a highly significant trend...

In Christ, on the contrary, there is no darkness to subdue: the one who walks in Him has the light of life (John 8:12). There is no need to hesitate on the paths of righteousness, beside the still waters. Nor is there need for hastiness (Isaiah 32:16-17, 28:16), as if the world were without guide, governor or creator; for wisdom knows values, relishes truth and has no taste for selling the truth. It buys it, but does not sell; and keeping, does not trade in it. (Cf. I Corinthians 1:20-25, Proverbs 23:23.)
 
 

3.

The Proud Grain of Wheat...

Mark 1

There is a saying of Jesus Christ found in John 12:24 - Let us hear it and consider its thrust. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He who loves his life shall lose it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal."

Once there was a very well-formed and sweetly rounded grain of wheat. It had heard of the cries of other grains, about the time they fell to the ground and having lain there long enough, began to crack and open, losing their precious rounded form. "Ah! he had heard one say. I am undone! Literally! My sides are bursting and I cannot any longer call my life my own! This is a most rending and breaching thing, and hard to bear."

Fired by this thought, he resolved never to be duped by this dying business (II Corinthians 4:10-11, Romans 8:10-13, Galatians 2:20). Not for him, the woes and the throes of such enormous change! I am reminded of a foreign student of mine, whom I taught years ago. One day he called me up: Should he lie for a certain purpose! He could see no other option. At once I told him NOT to do so! To lie! It hurts the heart, the conscience, the life, the mind! It becomes a ruin, and if you lie and stay that way, rather than coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, and finding in Him the solution to the problem in the TRUTH, why then it is a matter of dying in lies, in the end.

I was right. You are right, my Teacher, he said; BUT EXCUSE ME! He went on to say it was out of the question. In such a world as this, where all is not what it should be, if one is wrongly accused and so forth, it may be that the only way to meet a liar is to lie! Such was the sad story! I urged him to consider the power of Christ, told of another who had been helped when in crisis, and urged him to call me again.

Alas! whatever may have been the eventual outcome in this case, the nature of the case is all too clear. GOD is fine on a fine day, but in the storms, one has to "paddle one's own canoe", be canny in the ways of the world, join the rats in their race and ... go for it! Not so! I told him, in effect (Romans 6:1-3). The CHRISTIAN...

"Ah yes!" he said, in effect, "but Christians will tell the truth!" This, it seems, was a luxury which would not fit into his current crisis. But where does it go? I asked. You go from lie to lie, from error to error, until the while thing is evil, wrong!

So our grain of wheat found that this new life sort of business that some of the grains he had known, opted for, was too much. It is "too much altogether!", he thought. So he chose to remain, beautifully rounded, unconfounded until he rotted and being dead, turned to dust.

 

Mark II

Our grain of wheat this time is merely in trouble. He finds a profound change is beginning to occur in him. Lying on the dirt, he has some tremblings as if of germination. He feels certain loosenings, tearings, stresses and strains. He is discomforted, experiences hyper-angst, wondering whether to see his village priest, Anglican clergyman, Presbyterian Minister or Baptist pastor; goes to each of these. The resultant fabric in his mind is turmoil. Neither does baptism nor mass nor predestination nor any other combination or development of these seem to help him (I Peter 3:21, Hebrews 9:12,22,28, John 6:63, II Peter 1:5-10). One spoke of being repentant, regenerated and - but it appeared impossible (Luke 13:1-3, John 5:24, 10:9, 3:1-20, I Peter 1:1-5). HOW could he successfully live - so he went to the charismatics. Yet their power seemed puny, and where it seemed different it appeared in the grip of sensationalism (I Corinthians 14:8-12:28-38, 1:1-2).

Neither sacrament nor sensation appealed. He went into the deepest recesses of his mind. WHY should he do ANYTHING? The Bible? One of the religious people had recommended this, even saying that if it was not according to this word, there was no truth in it. But the Bible? He did not want to soil his soul with someone else's opinions. So no! He WOULD NOT yield to this strange movement in his seed. He wanted to stay a seed forever, to be ... seedy! So he did.

Oh the depths of heart, the spiritual grief, the loosenings of old views; but no! he would forever be a seed. The "germinations" were mere miasmas, dreams. He took up yoga and transcendental meditation, and so gained a good post in a large company. Soon he had it all pat - terrific potentials" became the watchword.

But he never germinated.

And so he died, captive of the life that he summoned to his throne, subject of death, shallow to the end; an idolater of form, not believing in the power of God.

It is sad that being seedy is so in vogue: how many millions will share the fate of this seed!

 

DYING AND LIVING -

Matters of LIFE and DEATH

(cf. Questions and Answers - The Word that Speaks, pp. 120ff.).

But what is the kernel and essence of "dying daily" (I Corinthians 15:31, II Cor.4:11, cf..Galatians 2:20) ? It is a daily event, first; then a daily condition, second; then a continual estate, being crucified in Christ - with the sense, in a permanent state of this kind in and with Christ, from Gal.2:20, where the perfect tense indicates just this.

It means, we find in a multitude of places, this:

1) that your perspective is now newly oriented, embracive of new dimensions (cf. II Corinthians 4:16 - 5:1).

2) "Temporal things" appear as trivial, not unimportant, but altogether not comparable with their source, purpose and base!

3) You are now sensitised to a new series of values, to new spiritual things indeed to value, to God and His works, His Son, His words and His ways: as those of your source and original, your salvation and your strength (Colossians 1:16-23, John 14:21-23).

4) The desires of or for autonomy now seem mystic folly; dependence on God appears as mere reality; and delighted obedience and dependence, so far from suppressing the image of God in us, expresses it. Even a large oak branch on the tree, is not more an oak branch because deluded into conceiving itself the essence of the tree, of trees, or unrelated to any tree. Dependence in heart is merely expressive of what has been the case since and indeed, before birth! Or existence.

SINCE we who come to the Lord on His terms are RENEWED in His image, then the magnitude of the grace is paralleled by the magnificence of SUCH a gift as this, eternal life as a child of God.

5) What appeals to such eroded thoughts as autonomy is appealing to what is dead, morbid, moribund, useless, fantasy, and pathological fantasy at that. There is therefore

a) a pathological place accorded to worldly or naturalistic pathology as to the nature of things.

b) a dead or funereal place given to psychic or dynamic concepts which appeal to this, whether for the outer world as natural, or as political, or to the inner world as personal in the psychic dimension. How would you react and respond to tarnished triviality,

to cultivated blindness,

reinforced by glamour,

expressed in numbness and

fussed about with the delusive driving of false witness,

commercially, politically and socially enforced

by the outgoing tide of ruin

which has invaded the land in its tsunami historical force!

Now? As it deserves...

 

6) A death without honour to PLANS and PROGRAMS which seek to beautify the corpse social, political, psychic or moral, of sanctified rebellion, even if it is found in churches, even it is speaks like a Goebbels.

7) A LIFE to God, to His witness, ways and wonder, which so overshadows and overarches the petty philosophies of the ground, the subterranean fiascos of this earth, that it leaves no room for the devitalised rags and remnants of the naturalistic fantasies in earth, body, mind or spirit (cf. Colossians 2:8,20, II Corinthians 4:2-4). Will you look at chalk scribbles when Raphael is surpassed, as if himself a child! Will you regard puddles when the ocean is dwarfed...?

8) A LIFE in Christ the Saviour, Redeemer, Victor who made death passé through His simple biological testimony that it could not control His body, which rose (I Corinthians 15:1-3, Luke 24, Acts 2), and continued to attest life to His disciples, all according to plans long exposed and which neither man nor State nor devil could abort! (Cf. The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, 'SMR', Ch.6, and pp. 931-943, I Corinthians 2:8.) The objective failure to overthrow the testimony of God standing clear 1000 years before Christ rose, whether by misled religion or pompous State is one of the greatest pieces of mirth in history! (Cf. Psalm 2:3-7), Christ becoming the first-begotten in God's immediate agency, from the womb of death.

9) A strengthening of talent and gift by His Spirit who abides, convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment, and then constraining, enabling, refreshing and always focussing on Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father (John 16:13-16,20-22, 14:15-24, II Cor. 3:17, Philippians 4:13,7.

10) An exuberant expectation allied with patient perseverance, awaiting the return of the effectual Saviour, to His own place, after so long a time while the Gospel has spread (Matthew 25:1-13, Hebrews 9:28, II Peter 3:9, Acts 1:6-11, 2:38-39, 3:19-21, Romans 5:1-11, John 10:9, 27-28).

Death? Yes, and life. Thus: "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" - II Corinthians 5:14-15. With respect to one avenue, death; to the other, life!

And those who are the "all" - these are those who live, and live forever. Like those in Isaiah 53:6, the "all" are "us all"' and "we" there? It is those who are HEALED by His stripes, since He was wounded for our transgressions.

Alas, those who remain of and in this world, the naturalistic neophytes, these do not die with Christ, nor do they live with Him; but doubly dying, die first for their sins, and second for their rejection of their remedy (John 15:21-23, 3:15-20, 12:48, 9:39-41). Coming first to save, Christ leaves words which to those preferring darkness, constitute the grounds of eventual judgment; indeed, unless there be repentance, they are "condemned already" (John 3:18).

But the death prescribed, supernaturally wrought, in those who die with Christ?

THIS is the ONE death that is lovely, for LIFE is its outcome, in vastly more exuberant reality than anything which preceded! (John 10:10).
 
 

4.

The road to hell is studded with good intentions and honourable mentions (LUKE 16:15, EZEKIEL 33:32, MATTHEW 7:22-23).

The 4-lane highway is illuminated with darkness, propagated by black-lights of self-made philosophy, powered with the honour of men, surfaced by the acrid asphalt from the mine of false hope.

There is no need of white lines, since it is declared a moral-free zone, and goes only one way. Occasionally some notice that it is downward in direction, despite the height of false hopes, but the difference is accounted for by the law of topsy-turvy, which teaches that going down is really an relativistic illusion, based on the surrounding trend of the universe to go up, so that in fact it is an upward climb, too dizzying in its intensity to allow normal faculties to work.

It is subject to the law of disfaith, which teaches that the only real progress is regress, the only important construction is destruction, and such that it is essential to have a belief in the impossible, as foundational to amorals, which in turn teach that if one thing it is wrong, it is morals; and if one thing is right, it is to condemn them.

Let us return to the intentions and honours of the road to hell (John 8:44-45).

It is time that the gnawing uncertainties of psychological, sociological and monistic surmisings, ever engineering lifeless mirages of reality, listless reductionisms of life, were left forever in the ditch to which they so properly belong. (See SMR Ch.4; and pp. 269-270, 101, 112-113, 348ff., 79ff., 251-252N, S1-S34, 413ff., 419ff., 422E-W, 329-332H, 934, 999-1002C.) Good intentions in such inventions do not make them structurally sound, directionally apt; nor do mutual honours arrest the truth, which in fact has already been crucified, without noticeable impact on its power, except to confirm it in the resurrection. (Cf. SMR Ch.6, pp. 931-943.)
 

Without light, the light of Christ,

the light of the world -

in what then becomes the environmentally unfriendly situation

of walking in darkness -

for the many so occupied, there are

many things which are not merely systematically unclear,

but genuinely insoluble.

There is no solvent to subdue them in the dark.

In Him, on the contrary, there is no darkness to subdue the light . Its brilliance explains all.

Good intentions then are displaced by divine inventions, one of which for man is peace

 

wrought for abysmal ill-desert by a magnificent presentation of pardon and acceptance in Jesus Christ, the righteous (II Corinthians 5:19-21).

(Cf. Chs.5,10 SMR; Predestination and Freewill, and That Magnificent Rock, Ch.3 and Ch.2.)
 
 

5.

When the world reclines in the Church and the Church reclines in the world, where in the world is the Church!

(II Peter 2:1-3, I Timothy 3:5, II Thessalonians 2:3, Matthew 24:5,24).


(I Corinthians 3:11; Psalm 62:1-3, Isaiah 51:1, 44:6, Psalm 18:31, Deuteronomy 32:4,15,18,30-31,37; and see SMR pp. 1042-1088G, 986-994, 1086 ff.).
 

Yet increasingly the Church is as at the first, a place without pomp, pretension or worldly power. The world? Christ said -

James:

Where is it, then the Church ? NOT of the world, not in the pocket of the world, NOT following the precepts of this world, NOT cozily co-operating with joint ventures with this world. The Church? It is where ? It is IN CHRIST, as always. Its grace is not for the purpose of ingratiating itself into and for the world, far less collaborating with it. It is for the testimony of Christ TO the world, and IN the world, without the infections and the confections of this world.

His Church ? It has a characteristic savour, as well as a characterising saviour (II Corinthians 3:3, II Cor. 2:14-17, Matthew 5:13).

See also Item 25, pp. 191-200.
 
 

6.

 

GOD CAN DO ANYTHING HE PLEASES;
YOU CANNOT DO ANYTHING YOU PLEASE,

UNLESS IT ALSO PLEASES GOD TO LET YOU,
ON YOUR WAY TO GLORY OR TO SHAME

A)

THERE LIES A DIFFERENCE :

PARALLEL TO THAT BETWEEN CREATOR AND CREATURE.

It is interesting that men as "animals" appeal to those who show they are not so, by their capacity to discuss the difference. You might as well call a Volkswagen a type of Boeing 737 because both have wheels, metal and motion as an aim. The difference is so crucial operationally, that any such nomenclature would at once suggest the speaker to be

a) incompetent

b) insane or

c) humorous - unless, of course he/she had an axe to grind which temporarily blinded to simple fact. No system of names which makes no difference for things as important as the similarity is likely to be of use, except for barbaric prejudice.

Man therefore is

not an animal, if words-and-systems are to retain meaning and value.

Man is a spiritual being. That is the functional nature of his capacities.

Of course it is entirely true that he often acts far worse than mere animals; distorting and abusing his special powers. However, even using a Boeing for joy riding over bays would not remove its special features, merely misuse or overlook some of them. The capacity is basic as a criterion for the name which defines the type of being. This capacity may be called forth rarely, misused; but it is still a capacity which is crucial to defining.

So too, in case you think we are exalting the race, rest. It is far from the fact.

Man is ALSO a creature. Not an animal, but a spiritual being; yes. But also: not God but creature, man is that too. He is related as creature FROM the Creator WHO made the race. (See SMR Chs.1-3,10.)

B)

That out of the way, we return to what God can do. ANYTHING HE PLEASES.

That is what He can do.

You try it on: of course you cannot. You do not have that sort of inordinate power. God does. He tells us so often what He will do, and then does it, that any rational doubt is dismissed by the evidence, quite apart from systematics. (See SMR chs.8-9, That Magnificent Rock, pp. 108ff..)

Now however we come to another interesting feature. God CANNOT lie. In SMR pp. 27-36, we go into the reasons why this is so. It is NOT that He is part of some system which inhibits Him, as if He were frustrated any time He would wish to lie. That is not what the Creator, at the least, must be, as shown. Nevertheless it is still true that He cannot do it. In addition to our reasoning on the topic, we READ this in Titus 1:2. He CANNOT LIE!

We can readily understand this if we use the liberty the Lord has given us in making us, to THINK. CAN a surgeon of major moral gentility and immense concern and sympathy for his patients BY CHOICE cut their aortas for the flick of it, the snip of it, the whim of it? You might say 'yes', and it is indeed true that a temporary insanity might affect him and so forth. But TO THE EXTENT he is definable as we started, and stays rational, that is, in character without invasive disorders of the mind subverting his aims, ideals or nature, he might very readily say, OH I COULD NOT DO THAT! We would at once understand what he meant. Many others will say, OH, I COULD NEVER DO A THING LIKE THAT!

With God, there is an unchanging nature as we showed (SMR loc.cit.) and of course, as He affirms; and hence the fact that even the benevolent surgeon might be drugged etc., does not apply as a parallel in this matter. God CANNOT lie. IF He could , He would not be what God as a minimum, must be.

Some people seem at times to have some difficulty in realising that what may be SHOWN NECESSARILY to be the case does not imply that the one to whom it refers is BOUND FROM OUTSIDE, in some sort of forced action. Inability to act may be BECAUSE of what one BOTH IS AND CHOOSES TO BE. When we speak of God, the nature He has is no result of the making of another (who would, in that case, be God if ultimate, while it is of course of GOD that we speaking - that would merely represent a logical 'slide' as it is called). His nature is what He WANTS, always wants: always knowing all things and their ends and being what He wishes without conforming to new criteria since there is nothing new to Him. All this was explained in SMR loc. cit..

God COULD do anything if He wanted to; there are things He does not WANT to do, and as to these, LYING is one which HE CANNOT do, being who He is. It would violate His whole disposition so that if it were not so, this sovereignly ruled non-lying, He would not be. However He IS, and this is NOT. His everlasting vitality cannot abide it. It would contradict what He is, and as to Him, He WILL not be contradicted with a word of power. There is no such word. The ephemeral storm-tossings of little tongues en train to judgment do not alter reality: merely the judgment they are to receive is in view.

Lying would represent a DENYING OF HIMSELF, an intra-divine war on Himself; and this, since He is what He wants to be, is myth-making nonsense. War comes when what is wanted cannot be obtained without it, or a nature at war with itself expresses itself in this way. When there is NOTHING to force or frustrate it is ridiculous, and simply here would postulate contrary to the case.

In mathematical terms, in strict parallel to usage there, we COULD say that asking whether GOD COULD LIE would be a meaningless question. This could be said. I prefer to say that it is a question incorporating a definition of God contrary to fact and hence a misdirected question. It is like asking whether elephants can fly. Of course they could if the hurricane were strong enough, but that is not what is meant. As to what is meant, no, they can't. That is not the way they are.

THEY cannot alter that. GOD DOES not alter what He is; there is nothing to force Him, and He always is precisely what He wants to be, free from any research, development, desired or forced. He HAS His desire, and no force can move Him. Hence He cannot lie and that is the way He wants it. His will and His being are in infinite accord. No one else is like that, except that the children of God grow more and more like that, being however BORN of God into His family, creatures re-created. It is nothing 'new' - just bringing them back to where they ought to be (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10).
 

That is the nature of the case then. GOD CAN DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES. Actually you read it in Psalm 115, Ephesians 1:11, Isaiah 43:13.

God CANNOT LIE. It does not please Him. It is irrelevant to what pleases Him.
 

MAN CANNOT DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES.

Man CAN LIE.
 

God is THE CREATOR. Man is a CREATURE.

Man is NOT an animal. Man is a spiritual being who is answerable.

He is answerable to God. God will judge him.

God is not in alliance with lies, is not conformable to them and does not co-exist without action in their presence, which are a war upon Himself, a venture into His principles, a violation of His will and way, a call for judgment and a requisite therefore for remedy. Remedy is not available from the offended party, for those who have offended, except by His own individual will and pleasure, and this requires articulation since tele-psychiatry of God is mere imagination for a finite being, apart from the presumption.

Hence into such a situation, if it is not annulled altogether (and this world is on schedule to depart - Matthew 24:25, Isaiah 51:6), a speech remedy must be part of the scenario. It is to be found (SMR Ch. 1) in only one place, there being no other divinely announced purging of such a situation. It was pre-announced in prophecy, wrought in fact and practice in Christ, and its results were pre-announced by Christ.

It had to be so, if God is; He is as proved in the reference above;  and it was so, as must therefore be expected and is found. Indeed, it is found without any competition in verification, remedy and salvation and righteous coverage of this world NOW. It involved the death of the Word of God in a fleshly format, forever exhibiting to man the results of being man and in a sinful condition, of which the lie and injustice are merely two obvious aspects. In this way, from the outset (Genesis 3:15), in adumbration, and to the end in execution, God has covered the case by remedy announced and performed, thus clearing the decks for the continuation of man, which was nearly annulled in the flood.

The Bible, the word, and the Christ, the divinity as agent (Isaiah 48:16,Micah 5:1-3) have done it, covered violation in mercy and permitted continuation in view of it. Without that, God would be in contradiction of Himself. With that, His love is known, and His judgment is seen, as by Abraham at a distance. The remedy is available, however, not thrust into the mouth of the offenders!
 

God has already judged Jesus Christ, set forth as a penalty bearer to satisfy justice.

God has already raised Jesus Christ, set forth as a pardon bringer,
having defeated death,

which had no hold on Him, and through Him, will judge (Acts 17:31) all men.
 

What Christ has done is available for the entire human race, so that

instead of being SIN-CLAD CREATURES, they become, on entering His Kingdom,

Spiritual Beings Re-born (II Corinthians 5:19ff.).
 

The re-birth is not a mere experience, but is the work of God in a new creation,

one in addition to that which created the race; and it puts into being persons who

are inhabited by the God who made them - for Himself.
 
 

Among other cans and can'ts, is this:

You can't have it both ways.

You either repent and find the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, or you don't.

If you don't, you are operating like the Boeing in Bay Flights, and of course about to ditch shortly. You should be sitting in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) operating as per creation and in terms of regeneration, salvation and guidance of God. You may of course refuse. You are a spiritual being and this is one of its operating criteria. It is one of the things you CAN do.

 

Meanwhile, let us consider some of the prophecies in their attestation of the all-enveloping power of God. His restraint and purity have nothing whatsoever to do with His power and dominion, for what is not in accord with His purity is not in accord with His desire: He is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity" (Habakkuk 1:13). His power is not merely matter -moving. It is mountain making. Hence there is a difference not only of quality and calibre, for there IS no calibre; there is no limit. He has done whatever He pleases. HIS power is not limited by pre-existing conditions, since ALL things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made that was made (John 1, Colossians 1).