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CHAPTER ONE
The WORD OF GOD
INTERPRETATION, INTERFUSION, CONFUSION
AND DYNAMIC DELIVERY LEADING TO DECISIVE DELIVERANCE
THE IDOLATRISING OPERAS OF MAN
CAN BE AS FANCIFUL AS ANY MUSICIAN'S COMPOSITION
British Bishops of Rome Show their True Colours
But what are these ?
News 359
LET ME SPEAK!
Let me SPEAK! says the judge in one of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas. He shrieks it, he cries, he demands and the people in the court in their singing mode and mood, echo him, as if to reinforce him in his plaint and desire to be given the floor; but of course their reiteration of his desires in their many voiced songs merely prevents his speaking for quite some time. Hence there is his irritable demand: LET ME SPEAK! It is, after all, his court, or he is the judge in it, and to impart judgments you need two things: to speak and to be heard.
Of course, if you are not listened to, you can still GIVE the judgment, but if you are concerned for the people then you will want them to hear also; and we should remember, too, that judgments are not ALWAYS condign, but may be merciful.
When we come to the issue of the divine speech, many seem to think that as with the comic opera judge, so they can make a to-do about his speaking, say how important it is that he should speak, or with Hacker in 'Yes, Minister', declare that it is an important QUESTION, one that needs an answer, this matter of God speaking, and set up committees to consider what on earth this strange thing, which they make it to appear, may be. They invent theologies expressly devised to make difficulty out of simplicity, as if it were some kind of reverence to be irreverent, and their endless mimicking of the idea Let Me Speak, were in some sense, helpful, and not stark rebelliousness.
They may alternatively, start giving reverence to their varied and long-term utterances about divine utterances, and make these level with the word of the Lord itself, as if the comic chorus could have in some way, its personal responses, incorporated in the speech, which is better even than Gilbert and Sullivan made it, in the irony of the thing! That is the traditionalist manner, first of the Pharisees which Christ condemned with such incandescent vigour in Matthew 23, and to the point here, Mark 7:7ff.. You merely NULLIFY the word of God by such actions, He declared.
That of course is so. You can have some kind of interfusion, intimate correlation and co-operation, co-ordination, as if to interfold the word of man and the word of God, or combine it in some kind of synthesis: but that has no more to do with the word of God that any other combination, as if some recipient in a will were to combine his words with those of the testator, during the reading of the will. Its absurdity would be a virtual triumph in advance for comic opera! That comedy is comparable to what sometimes passes as theology*1A,
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whether in Romanist graspings to subjugate
the word of God to the word of a man, not the Christ (Matthew 23:8-10), |
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or "Protestant" vices where the word instead of being freed
from the clammy clutches of traditional reverences to the thoughts of man, and
so actually HEARD as it is, at last, becomes subject to new innovative actions,
so that this or that 'school' captures it and subordinates it to its visions,
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Calvinism, by contrast, has much that is indeed elicitive of what is in the word of God, but as shown*1, it also has a defective point of great magnitude concerning the love of God, in direct contradiction of scripture. This error cannot be compared to the above, in that though it is serious, it creates a flaw, not a new gospel; yet it must be realised that I Corinthians WARNS us about this segmentalisation, this use of somebody's NAME, other than that of Christ, to characterise your doctrine. Wise are they who follow the word of God in this, as in all things!
The answer of course is to LET GOD SPEAK! for He has indeed spoken, and the choruses of human contrivance merely make a disturbing noise, as if many should be overtaken with the arrogance, presumption or confusion. Thus, we can be grateful for Augustine or Calvin or Luther, and see their major contributions in opening our minds to this or that, but we NEVER should BE a Calvinist or Lutheran, since this puts man where only God is, and tends to perpetuate in the interests of merely human loyalty (however outstanding the person concerned), the errors as well as the excellencies, and moreover to make for partisanship as expressly condemned in I Corinthians 3.
After all, this word of the apostle FORBIDS being 'I of ...' this one of that, such as I of Calvin, or I of Wesley, or I of Luther; but it does not condemn profiting from what men say, while giving AUTHORITY ONLY to what God has said. Of course you CANNOT profit when the source of your perspective is some self-declared master of doctrine, whose mouth can command what is not in the word of God, defined for millenia by the Christian Church; for any such master is in collision with Matthew 23, I Peter 5 and Proverbs 30:6, merely to begin. Whether however it is commanded submission to some rebellious 'head' in the church, because of the arrogant self-declaration, or instead voluntary to some leader whose mouth becomes in effect determinative, the thing is forbidden.
When we come to II Peter 1:19-21, we see a classic case of seeking or acting to subvert the repeated divine insistences on NOT adding tradition or tyrant, popularity focus or other to the word of God, lest it be nullified. The human tendency to idolatrise the creation as in Romans 1:17ff., instead of giving full scope to the unique and untouchable place of the Creator, can be seen in cases so remarkable that it almost staggers the imagination. However that is how this world is. Thus one case was that of misusing idolatrously the very brass serpent prescribed as a symbol for faith in healing, so that it had to be destroyed (Numbers 21:4ff., II Kings 18:4); another is seeking to worship Paul as 'Jupiter' in Acts (Acts 14:12), or making the cult of the Pharisee the very mind of God as in Matthew 23, so remarkably condemned as to remind us that indeed "our God is a consuming fire" as Hebrews declares.
Let us then examine this text to find its conformity with all other scripture on this point.
First, however, it would be well to update our awareness of Romanism in two respects.
The first aspect is this. It is its growing likeness to the broken idol of Protestant Liberalism, that disease of the roots, which made of Christianity a mockery of God, an expression in anti-biblical terms of the message of the bible, in some ludicrous way supposedly maintained, though its basic ingredients were removed. This is exhibited in references in a newspaper report below; but it is almost a phrase for phrase equivalence to the Protestant follies adopted by a fair percentage of this reformist body.
Although their furore in Protestantism is long dead, and the corpse of this corruption has merely occasional twitches, it is still evidently attractive to some in this other camp of fallen traditionalism, the older variety. The single perspective of radical unbelief, wolves' work from the barking yap of bodies in sheep's clothing, from these two fallen sources, is thus becoming more and more united in its rejection of thrall to the Lord of all, and its insistence on thrall to its own yapping. This is what had to be, in principle at least, for the false prophet (Revelation 19), to have some sort of singularity in his coming message. So does the steam of the departing train to be derailed by the coming Christ, find its outlet, surging upward on this fatal journey, the most dangerous rail journey in the world.
The second aspect of note now comes to mind. It is not merely the catch-down relationship to the fallen liberal segment of Protestantism, which Rome is finding in its the ludicrous adoption of Darwin after his more obvious downfall recently, by the hand of the prior pope
(cf. Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Ch. 8, Dancers ... Ch. 6,
Beyond the Crypt ... Ch. 8, *8, History, Review and Overview Ch. 5,
Delusive Drift ... Ch. 4, Overflight ... Ch. 7,
The Grating Grandeur Ch. 3).
It is found also in this latest British exploit of Romanist rebellion, one of its most blatant assaults even made, directly on the Bible. Now we shall see how this combination of irrationalistic fervours is becoming unified with more aggressive fearlessness towards the word of God, and more communing comradeship in the unhallowed unity of increasingly God-forsaking man (cf. Of the Earth, Earthy ... Ch. 4, esp. *2, It Bubbles ..., Ch. 11, SMR pp. 292ff., 307ff., 1074ff., 1086ff., Dastardly Dynamics ... Ch. 10) who invents his gods, whatever he may call them.
This he does whether by opining prelates, imaginary biological processes, never seeing the light of day, or other anti-verified and vacuous substitutes for the action of the living God in creation and in the Bible, in Jesus Christ and in history, which alone meets the logical and empirical specifications of rationality (cf. SMR Ch. 1, with pp. 140ff., and REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER).
Before pondering the wisdom from Peter, then, in the next Chapter, we shall update our awareness of this recent delusive combination and conglomeration, in particular, of the arrogance of Rome with that of the fallen sector of Protestantism.
EXCURSION on a New Romanist Decadence,
Linking Liberal Protestantism with Direct Assault
on the Bible by Rome
In The Australian, Thursday, October 6, we find the heading, "Catholic Church's warning: the Bible is not all gospel".
This is now the other side. Just as the Romanist body wants to make INCREMENT to what has the authority of the word of God, as forbidden in the Bible, and denounced by Christ and prophet alike, so now it proceeds to make DECREMENT, to decrease what it is to be.
What is left is the lifeless corpse of a slain word. Israel did much the same with the body of Christ, both adding the imprint of lashes, and subtracting parts of the skin with the nails' bite.
While these are two classic cases, the sin is now endemic to much of the race, and threatens to become pandemic, as just ONE of the many ways in which the Evil One is trying to confuse the simplicity of the Gospel, remove credence in it, and place the word of God, like some prisoner, in the hands of man. This allows the State, the Beast that we have seen in the preceding volume (Deserts and Desserts ... Ch. 9 and Epilogue), to have access to the ultimate authority.
Precisely as foretold in Revelation 13, and shown in these references in some little detail, this then becomes a heady thing, filled with its own lusts and desires, seeking to direct the spirits of man in abstraction from the word of the Lord; and hence as we see in Revelation 12:11, many saints give their lives for the word of God, and overcome in the process, though they die to this earth for the time. We read: "And they overcame him (from the preceding context, the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."
The word they love is that of Christ, who declared that man is to live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. He did this in His own personal dealings with the devil, who directly or indirectly at that time, in the temptation of the Messiah, sought both to add to and subtract from the word written; but that proud spirit, being roundly rebuked and exposed for his treacherous deviousness, soon left.
This world however, as predicted by Jesus the Christ, comes to the day of the prince of this world, of him who has NOTHING in Christ. Now it flowers with the evil-smelling metre-wide parasitic flower, the largest in this world we are told, which stinks, literally! This does so metaphorically, for it replaces the savour and the fragrance of those who refuse to mishandle the word of God, and have it abide in them as it is, unpolluted (II Corinthians 2:14, Philippians 2:15-16, I Corinthians 2:9-13 cf. SMR Appendix D).
The actual Romanist declaration of division, noted in The Australian, is essentially this as follows. The report attests that the hierarchy of the RC body has "published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true."
It is, we find, "the Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland" who "are warning their 5 million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect "total accuracy" from the Bible." The correct answer of course, to be made to that assault, is this: to warn ANY drawn to the study of the Bible, the search for salvation or the service of God, that this is precisely that form of heresy which is biblically predicted, illustrated throughout history, times all but without number, and deadly. It is man's word and culture in supervisory authority over the word of the living God, which is by definition a transfusion which is idolatry at the outset.
Whereas the pope was idolatrised in having aspects of what is exclusively and uniquely divine, the power to declare and enforce the meaning of God (cf. I John 2:17ff.), as Master (cf. Matthew 23:8-10), in flamboyant contradiction of the scripture, and excess of power in the line of becoming as gods (cf. SMR pp. 912ff.): now this wider church body of bishops, presumably with the papal blessing, but in any case with their own reported mouths, have taken over from the Lord the care, nurture and estimation of His word to this extent. The word of the Bible ? Much of it is false, they say, with an appeal to 'truth' which now lacks any basis.
As they speak, what is it that is done ? It becomes the word of some, without any objective authority, against the word of some in the same plight. Man is chattering; but God has spoken. They seek to bind not WITH the word of God, but the word of God itself; just as authorities in ancient Israel sought to bind, not righteousness, but Christ.
The word of God however is not BOUND (as Paul declares, in II Timothy 2:9). Paul the apostle, he freely confessed, was indeed bound with a prisoner's shackles; but by contrast the word of God is FREE, it is not manipulable, open to pollution, as said the apostle, is the practice of some (II Corinthians 4:2)! The devious example given by Satan when dealing with Christ, was not received, nor was the demeaning offer made (Matthew 4:9-10); but instead, Christ SIMPLY APPLIED WHAT WAS WRITTEN as the criterion, and VOICED IT as such, at the same time! Proverbs 30:6 and Matthew 4:4 indict such provocative arrogance, so that to add to or subtract from the word of God, EVERY word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, citable, quotable, and adding nothing, is the example set and the principle imparted.
It stands and speaks for itself; for when God speaks, it breaks rock, as a hammer, and is not broken by things spoken by the clay of flesh (Jeremiah 23:23-29).
Indeed, we need to hear this from God, about the word of God:
"Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord,
"And not a God afar off?
Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?" says the Lord;
"Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord.
"I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying,
‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’
"How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies?
Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal."The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the Lord.
"Is not My word like a fire?" says the Lord,
"And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the Lord,
"who steal My words every one from his neighbor.
"Behold, I am against the prophets," says the Lord, "who use their tongues
and say, ‘He says.’"Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the Lord,
"and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness.
Yet I did not send them or command them;
therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the Lord."So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying,
‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them,
‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you," says the Lord."And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say,
‘The oracle of the Lord!’ I will even punish that man and his house."Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother,
‘What has the Lord answered?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’
And the oracle of the Lord you shall mention no more."For every man’s word will be his oracle,
for you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God."Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and,
‘What has the Lord spoken?’"But since you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Because you say this word, "The oracle of the Lord!" and I have sent to you, saying, "Do not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ therefore behold,
I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you,
and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence."And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame,
which shall not be forgotten.’ "
Here we see with the utmost perspicuity that when the Lord has something to say, it is not a 'burden' in the sense of some psychological opening of the maw of the prophet's spirit, to declare something that gushes out. It is, to the contrary, a direct depiction and declaration from the mind of God, as distinct from man's speech as rock from sand, a veritable hammer, a despatcher of any resistance, a revealer of chaff as its opposite. It is the wheat which nourishes, not the blown rubbish of man's imagination, in futile rebellion set as if thrust his own words into the very mouth of God!
NO MAN is to be an oracle, in the sense of a spout for the word of God; it is GOD who speaks and it is THIS FACT which makes anything to have oracular significance; and this is as distinct and distinctive a phenomenon for man as any that exists. The result of defiling the word of God, manipulating it, as seen in the references noted above, is here shown to be this, "a perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten." This is the reward of such intrusively pompous, arrogantly seditious an act as to mingle the authority of man with that of God, the speech of man with that of God, the estimates of man with the outrushings from the Lord.
Such an estimate, definitionally, is that given by the bishops of Rome, in England, Scotland and Wales, noted above.
They do not stop there, but seem almost to be reading from a Liberal Protestant text of the last century as they proceed, using all the abolished results of useless attacks which have been exhibited as shameful confusion and ignorance, for so long evidentially, by so many.
We have seen in Deserts and Desserts ... Epilogue, as in Highway of Holiness Ch. 8, the destruction of the ludicrous assaults on Daniel, logically and philologically and indeed archeologically; and much the same was the fate with some of the earlier assaults on the Pentateuch (e.g. SMR 68ff., 377ff., and see Archer's Survey of Old Testament Introduction with E.J. Young's Introduction to the Old Testament and relevant works such as those of McDowell). These were even made the more ludicrous with the discoveries and excavations at Ebla exhibiting great advancement in law and learning, all stored in library containment, centuries before Moses! It had been an idea to seek to discredit the books of Moses by saying man could not know so much then! Here many centuries before him, is the most sophisticated of law, commerce and mathematics, that one might well find in such an era, a very glut of knowledge!
So goes the flow of fashion, but the word of God alone abides. The reason: it is that it is WHAT HE HAD TO SAY. He does not change, nor does His word (cf. Barbs ... 17, TMR Ch. 3). This endures, word by word, for ever.
Despite the facts, however, the bishops have more to say. Let it be heard.
"We should not expect to find in scripture full scientific accuracy" makes this pundit-proliferation's next assertion. Does not the Creator understand, then what He has done ? Or was He so sorry for man that He decided to tell what He knew to be false, while insisting that every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is to be lived by ? that it is given by inspiration and the words are taught by the Holy Spirit! that the very words of the prophets were inspired by God (I Corinthians 2:9ff., I Peter 1:25, II Peter 3:2)!
This is the dream of the moment (a long moment of unbelief, refuted meticulously in logic, in philology, in archeology for a generation cf. *1 of Deserts and Desserts ... Ch. 2).
Thus there is an assumption, explicit or not, realised or not, of corruption. God did not know how to manage man, though he is statedly made in His image, and He failed to find a rapport which could contain truth, even though Christ IS the truth, and His word IS truth, so by implication, made to appear as if contradicting Himself. All however He is really contradicting is the word of such liberals, be they Romanist, Protestant or lunar.
Why it is imagined that the One on whom all depends should have to make a travesty of His own power and principles, nature and thought, in order to communicate it to one made by Himself in His own image, to whom He could speak; or why He should so botch the job that He had to tell what is false, while calling it truth, and challenging anyone to falsify it in any point (cf. Isaiah 41,48), and claiming every jot and tittle would be fulfilled: this is not at all clear. It is quite clear however when one takes it that this gratuitous assault on the word and ways and wisdom of God is simply one of the offences being set up, like hurdles in a horse race, that if it were possible, the very elect might be deceived (Matthew 24:24). After all, if SUCH things as this did not happen, the word of God would be wrong; and in their HAPPENING, it is verified. Such is always the way; but this part of it is especially ironic. In their delusive division from the word of God, they but verify it.
This is not God, but a monster! The evidence shows however that all that is monstrous is the daring to make such inane assertions about the dealings of deity when He makes any statement about anything.
How He could fulfil every jot and tittle (Matthew 5:17-20), without having total control of His own speech and of history, is unknowable; which does not matter since it is not the case, the precise opposite being verified continually in the 112 books of this set in Biblical Christian Apologetics. Nor is this all. It is the case that the predictions are so astonishingly bold, so marvellously meticulous and so staggeringly fulfilled that all talk as if God either could not control His speech, or would not - because man was too dumb or whatever else, the man He made: it is mere mirage. It is not the case.
This god is not God, and merely one of those who come newly up, gods the fathers did not know, as Moses put it to the parallel phenomenon of unbelief which surfaced in his own Age (cf. Deuteronomy 32:17ff.). Of the Rock which begat Israel, they had become ignorant.
This is part of the entire history for millenia, of man. This new announcement is part of the litany of licence with the word of God which has literally marred Christ (Isaiah 50:6, 52:13-15), marked man's life, and brings judgment. That it also brought salvation by the majestic mercy of the all-knowing God, precisely as He predicted, is simply one more testimony of His power and reliability, of the scope of His love and the brilliance of His plan of salvation (cf. Isaiah 53:5,10-11, I Peter 1-2).
If God is not to be believed because some philosophy based on nothing says so, while the evidence of testing says the precise opposite, then it is clear that this is nothing more nor less than a gratuitous assault on the word of God, of the order of rebellious renegacy: and it is judged BY the word of God, which changes not (cf. Hebrews 12:1-3). It is He who "endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself" . We need only look to Isaiah 8:20 for the principle exposing its earlier exhibits, and Jeremiah 20, to see the thing presented in drama, with assignable consequences!
Thus, when He was here in the flesh, the case was not essentially different; but in that case, protoplasm can be treated more decisively.In that case, also, God treated it even more decisively, by the resurrection of the body of Christ, as Peter declared (Acts 2:22ff.). God did not fail, or foul the thing up; but, said Peter, just as David's flesh did rot, so that of the Messiah did not, for He was raised up. The spurious is ever furious, but its result is not altered by the tempest of words. What God has spoken, being His, simply rules.
Again, the bishops try to imagine there is some conflict in Genesis in two accounts of creation, but the fact is that first in Genesis 1 there is a classic debriefing to Moses, so that he is shown in elegant simplicity, the scope of the creation, its sequence, the evening and morning intervals, the significance of which is given elsewhere*2, the types of creation, the phenomena of kinds*2, the whole a spread sheet of action, deliberate, weighed, worked, with time schedule included and result outcome in focus. It is just like a well-written laboratory account.
In Genesis Ch. 2, there is reference to this matter in terms of the generations of the heaven and the earth, stating decidedly that THIS is how the whole thing was done, and then it proceeds to the part of the program which sets up for man the test situation on which the nature of his spiritual existence depends. God the Creator engendered, brought to being as a product, the entire universe, and says 2:1-4, He did it in precisely the way articulated before ( Genesis Ch. 1).
We move then to the intimate, exactly as any good lecturer might do, first setting up the scope and sweep, the style and the overview, then moving to the precise points of relevance, artticulating advisedly, to integrate the total with the specific, the specialised with the generic. This is precisely what is done. What is the outcome, the relevant one for man, the point of the program, the issuance from the action, the shaping to the point. THERE is the laboratory: WHERE is the test. There is the scope of things; where is the purpose.
Thus then, to make the point even more emphatic, we hear of the generations of this or that person or entity, such as Adam, or Noah, and so the work of generation from the first, the heavens and the earth, from God through His Spirit and word, to the last, Abraham and on, proceeds. The last named leads to the seed in whom ALL this same earth will be blessed, and so we are launched from such a programmatic base, to the procedural basis; and from this to the pith in the Messiah to come.
Genesis 1 and 2, indeed all of Genesis ? Anything more uncontradictory would be hard to imagine, except perhaps, some endeavour to say that the two times table contradicts the one times table, whereas in fact it is an application of the underlying principles of both, and each is intimately correlative to the other.
Such confusion is too great to attribute to mere intellectual dyspepsia, since it is disastrous; but this is precisely what God says of the one who rejects His word, as the religious phenomena of "mass" does (cf. SMR pp. 1088Dff.), as likewise that of the papal infallibility (cf. SMR pp. 1042ff.), and in former times, that of the papal Inquisitions (cf. Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 14), which misused force NOT for Christian purposes, but in persecution of Christians by those befouling in that day, as they do now in diverse ways in this, and not they alone, what is clearly written.
The word of God, as if to be placed under the dominance and dominion of man who is NOT God, when God who became MAN has come and declared Himself Master of the brethren, themselves thus, He the other: it is so ludicrous that one might all but weep. This is just what Jeremiah did, because of the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:9ff., cf. 9:1ff.), who befouled the pastures (as in Ezekiel 34); for it is the world which man has (Psalm 8), and it is God who has man; and the confusion of the two domains is crucial to man's condemnation. The startling clarity on this point is not dissimilar to that of a child, realising after a little while, that though he can talk to daddy, he does not run the house, and his interpretations of daddy's words have to be filtered by daddy's view of the matter, so that the speaker and the doer being one, the child must learn that he has a PLACE. He does not declare which of dad's words are wrong when being taught elementary mathematics! It would be a farce bordering on backwardness.
Of the Rock that begat you, you are unmindful, Moses charged, for the parallel performance in his own day! (Deuteronomy 32:18). Thus here, in this manufacture of a new Bible to be believed in this (for some philosophy based on nothing but unreason, says so), not in that, we have a parallel manufacture. Since Christ expressed a different view, we have here the manufacture of one of the new christs, another Christ, of which Paul speaks in II Corinthians 11, in terms of works of deceit.
Indeed, the actual and historic Christ believed to the jot and tittle FULFILMENT of all predicted; whereas if God was a bit fuzzy about facts, or made things for a fuzzy little miscreant whom He made too dumb to treat otherwise than to foul up non-truth, foisting error on him, put out in the very name of truth: then this is so far from the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who IS the truth and who told the truth (John 8, 14); and from His statements on fulfilments, that it is an act of mental creation, and creating christs is from Paul's declaration, a work of the devil (II Corinthians 11). This practice, as reported, then departs so far from the historic original as to make of Him a different person, one foisted moreover with a mass instead of the Gospel clearly spelled out, as if He broke His own body in two when He broke the bread, and then again, yet survived the experience.
However, in fact, He declared that the Supper was for remembrance, not duplication or virtual performance of the same thing. Adding to the word of God is prescribed if you want to be found a liar! It is proscribed if you don't! That is the way of it, in the word of God, which after all, IS what GOD has to say. It is wiser to listen, petition and proceed, than to contest, conjecture and create your Creator by inventing His word for Him.
That is the way to it (Proverbs 30:6).
On this error concerning, then, relative to the facts of Genesis, see
The Biblical Workman Ch. 7 , A Spiritual Potpourri 9;
Gracious Goodness Ch. 6; Answers to Questions 8; The Bright Light Ch. 9see also Index: Beginnings.
Then the bishops proceed. They, in the report, are not yet at all done. They move to the concepts that Darwinism is in some way to be received. They seem to imagine that it is not deader than a rotten body. They amazingly continue to act as if facts, facts and more facts had not long ago made of his theory such a mockery of scientific method, and in turn, something so derisible before its purity, that to hold it is like holding on to a rainbow when your plane is nose-diving, and expecting to arrest its movement.
This has been shown in many ways and places before on this site, but we provide for inspection - and all things must be tested, one of the joys for Christians who believe God knows what He is doing, saying and that when He says He IS the truth, He does not mean that man is its criterion. Indeed, God invites us to check up on Him, in a derisory challenge to man's lack of integrity, in Isaiah 41,43,48, just as Christ insisted that in fact EVERY jot and tittle would be fulfilled. In view of the constant departure from the Bible, that comes to a direct contradiction and rubbishing of one sector, it is apparent then that the god of the bishops, or at least the one they depict, is nothing to do whatsoever with the God of the Bible, and is as far from Him, as twilight from noon-day sun. As Paul declares in I Corinthians 2, the REALITIES are revealed by God, and the WORDS are provided to enable them to be declared. SUCH is the way of the declaration of God, as seen or implied likewise in Matthew 4:4, I Peter 1:25, II Peter 3:2,16.
On the error concerning the fallen facade of Darwinism, see:
Delusive Drift Ch. 3 (shrieking for their idols, but in vain), 7 , The Bright Light Ch. 5, (myths and 'nature', and religion),
Delusive Drift ... Ch. 4 (and Darwin dead);
News 84 (broad setting, as in REFRESHINGS 13, AWME 9, CK 3 );
Delusive Drift... Ch. 2 (drifting doesn't do it);
Earth Spasm ... Ch. 7; 1; 3 ; Of the Earth, Earthy ... Ch. 4 esp. *1 and *2;
Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Ch. 8, 7
Beauty for Ashes Ch. 3, 172ff., 419ff.
(Myths and Smugglers) ;
Secular Myths and Sacred Truth, Ch. 3 (and post-naturalism);
Sparkling Spiritual Life ... Ch. 8, News 57, 59 (and principles).On the movement of the last pope, to acclaim what is already in the post-mortem stage, concerning the duplicitous confusion in Darwinism, see Sparkling Spiritual Life ... Ch. 8 .
The Romanist Britons however even proceed further, in what seems a perfected ferment of disfavour for things divine, biblically defined. They not merely seek to resurrect the body of Darwinian doctrine, of the one whose grotesque follies are confronted with more designs present in supposedly very early Cambrian eras, according to current theories in vogue, than even exist now - and far more at that
(cf. Wake Up World! ... Chs. 4, 6; 5, End-note 1A, cf. Wake 6 at pp. 109ff., with QAA 3 at pp. 32ff., TMR 1; SMR Index - Cambrian; Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Chs. 8, 6,
Beauty for Ashes Ch. 3 ).They are not satisfied with this foozle.
They move in the very face of what is, evidentially, a perfect triumph for NON-GRADUALISM, which laughs to scorn the idea that time is clever, and that invention proceeds naturally from non-creativeness, code from non-coders and contrivance from non-wisdom. They act as if data were withheld from them, and verification was not applicable. Yet cloudy as were Darwin's ideas, data must come first, and if anything was ever scorned by derisory data, it is just those.
Time is not really so clever; for give to a moron any amount of it, and no brilliance will ever come, though he work for fifty thousand trillions of years. HE does not have what it takes, and matter never manages to show either the equipment to do these things, or the performance of them; and the confusion of mental, spiritual and material things, as if the base built the tower, is a concept fatuous in the extreme. Its empirical rough-housing is one of the glories of the divine contempt for such follies. Ignoring the dat: It is all part of the texture of irrationalism (cf. CELEARTH 4 News, 94, Repent or Perish Ch. 7).
Not then content with this voyage to mythology, they even appear to disdain the concept of 'intelligent design', as a 'plausible theory' for reasons wholly obscure. Intelligent design is the only sort there can be, if you do not believe in magic; for design is a contrivance of materials, schema, considerations, concepts, beauty or at least integral work in various milieu resulting in a unitary significance; and the human body is the most intricate, complex and amazing example of it, at the technical level, in existence. If this is not design, then the term would need re-definition (cf. SMR pp. 211). It is like the joke about not at first succeeding ... if you do not at first succeed, re-define the terms. In fact, ONE non-verification is the death-knell, once duly tested, for ANY scientific theory; and here there is TOTAL CONTRARINESS in the data! Is it because the joke is too choice, that they do not laugh ? As Denton put it, CONTINUITY (between the mass of contrived unitary beings called living things), exists only in the mind of man. DIS-continuity exists in the empirical world (cf. his Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 353).
Yet this is merely, comparatively a minor point of the confusion of the Bible-attacking Romanist British Bishops. There is not less than intelligent design manifest in creation; there is far more (cf. Stepping Out for Christ, Ch. 9, Repent or Perish Ch. 7).
Again, if averse, as is this author, to magic in science, you have to find what meets all the criteria for all the products which jointly and severally exist. In order to do so, you do not, in scientific method, postulate what lacks all the powers, both logically and experimentally, for such a performance and imagine you are not descending into mythology. Quite to the contrary you seek to find what HAS precisely what is required. You do not say - Ah! law, we need non-law for this; or Ah! mathematical prodigies of brilliance, we need not mind for this. That is the nadir of science. Faced with growth in plants, you do not say, Ah! what is irrelevant or even explicitly NEVER shows such powers of production, this it is that we need here!
You would perhaps be regarded as somewhat deficient in mind, let alone scientific ability, if you so acted. Yet when it comes to the meta-scale, unbelieving man suddenly decides, effectually, to disbelieve in logic as well, and to make of himself a cartoon drawer, even in science.
The dignity of actual science is that it thoroughly investigates what is there and finds, from correlative considerations and observations and formulations WHICH WORK, and accord with all known DATA, what might be the origin, ground, causative interface or world which operationally COULD cause them. You do NOT limit what these might be; you merely insist that there be a realm of evidence to attest what you suggest, and that the correlation is meaningful and pregnant with possibility.
You then check if this clashes with other data, if it works out in all implications which are where possible experimentally tested, and the INSTANT you find a negative verification, as Darwin does constantly for the scope of his theory, you just drop it, and find something which has NO negative results at the level of verifications, which is of course Creation (as demonstrated often enough on this site, but which may be seen succinctly in SMR pp. 140ff..).
It is not merely intelligent design, then: it is far more. It is the institution of matter, of system, of integral realites which can be correlative, which can synthesise, without confusion, and the erection of life with its peculiarities, of mind with its rationalities and of spirit with its will and formulative capacities, so that it can even think of thinking: it is all this and far more. This however is shown step by step in Ch. 1 of SMR, just as the data in fact on life are systematised, for the purpose of origins, in SMR Ch. 2 and the nature of life is displayed in Life, What is it ?
On scientific method, that great omission in this field, as to its dignity and discipline, see:
Earth Spasm ... Chs. 1, 7, Deliverance from Disorientation Ch. 7,
Delusive Drift ... Ch. 7
Secular Myth... Ch. 7
Cascade ... Ch. 3. and of course the volume on that topic:SCIENTIFIC METHOD, SATANIC METHOD
AND THE MODEL OF SALVATION
All of these things are covered in great detail in The gods of naturalism have no go! a trilogy.
We shall find more from the anti-scientific opinings revealed in the report on British Romanism before us, as anti-biblical as that, in line with the common policy. It impacts negatively, one must acknowledge , properly forsooth, both on the word of God and to its human dimension.
What is this human dimension ? When Christ became man, did He leave His truth behind in order to tell them that He was a man who told them the truth, and indeed WAS IT ? Is BEING the truth another way of saying that you are ignorant, misled or misleading, and that the answers to supreme questions which you present unequivocally and often with severe censure and criticism, are in fact the fuzzy functions of an addled mind, or a blurred vision, or even a do-good concept of meeting a mismatched creation, mankind, with what he cannot take, truth! All of this makes of God a self-obliterating monster, unprincipled, changeable and incapable. This is the result when the approach of prelacy is even to RE-WRITE was is written!
In fact, the word of God challenges to precisely the opposite approach, in Isaiah 41,43,48, making it clear that God STAKES HIS NAME on the fact that NOT ONLY does He pronounce future facts and hold discourse on facts in an incomparable fashion, but that there is NO COMPETITION form any man or religion, faith resource with His accuracy and performance on this stated basis! His RESULTS are factual, impregnable, assured, unrelenting, empirical and secured (cf. Ephesians 1:11, Isaiah 44:25ff.); and the Divine Being goes to the point of deliberately exploding the myths which pretentiously seek to contest with the truth, as you see there in Isaiah - for
 |
"He
frustrates the tokens of the liars, and makes the diviners mad" |
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"confirms the
word of His servant" while |
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"He turns
wise men backwards and makes their knowledge foolish", |
So does this sad betrayal of the Christian faith come from this Romanist source; and it is scarcely surprising since Rome has been in this milieu of error, as error, for centuries (cf. SMR pp. 912ff., 950ff., 1032ff., 1042ff.).
They even dare to befuddle the point of terrorism, as if the fact that some who follow a false prophet called Muhammad, whose work in Mecca was forged with force, and whose words often confuse faith and force in elaborate duos*3, an action which makes faith meaningless (cf. SMR pp. 65ff., 1186Aff., at *3), must be the key to those who utterly and entirely reject him as a false prophet, as an assailant on Christ without ground, who without confirmation empirically, has vexed the world and wrought invasions innumerable to use conquest for the extension of religion. In what way is this confusion to be wrought, which is the grossest of contradictions of the contrary words of Christ and Muhammad!
The fact of the entire contradiction between Christ and Muhammad is so intense at this point, leaves us free to depict it. That some have a component which use violence in the arena of faith, means that we can distil something from this.
It goes like this:
Some people who believe in one God who says what He means, have a book which gives some sanction to some use of force in this realm; and some of these people use it, with vast dangers.
Hence all people who believe in one God, who says what He means, even if the book is wholly contrary in spirit, to the other, even to the point of explicit prohibition of the use of force in the faith realm, are somewhat similar and dangerous.
If one faith has its centre in One crucified, not in occupying Mecca for Allah, a centre indeed who told Peter to put up His sword, and spoke of His followers that they did not fight for Him, since His kingdom was not of this world: they are dangerous. This is then very much the same as using force to implement religious ideas and rule.
This is not mere disparity; it is contradiction. This is not to compare the incomparable merely; it is to call black white, yes no, affirmation negation and restraint force.
It is a manifest and mammoth mockery OF FACT!
Indeed, it is like saying this. There is a red book from the USSR government, and it says that it must be obeyed and the results were horrible. Therefore every government or other body which has a book, with some allowance for colour change, since one cannot be too careful, which says it must be obeyed, are to be expected to have horrible results.
It is the same to say this: A woman had one husband who was head of the house, and he committed murder and adultery; and so she concludes that all husbands to come are of this type, and as to husbands in general, especially when they are head of the house, they should be treated with a sense of their perilous natures, and one cannot take too many precautions against this predatory tribe.
Such confused mis-generalisation is tribute to the deception which governs so many, when the word of God and its peace and love, are confused with the direct opposite, as if all gods are the same, and the true God who discredits the precise things of which the people speak, is the same as they are. This is the essence not only of irreverence, but of irrationality and cannot be too strongly condemned logically, scholastically and in terms of the travesty of God's word which it includes.
On this, see
The Biblical Workman Appendix 3, LIGHT 2,
Impossible to Man ... Chs. 2, 3;
Lord of Life Ch. 3, 8, 9
More Marvels Ch. 4, *6
One of the most impressive attacks on the Bible which they make, comes last in this article in The Australian. They claim that Matthew 27:25, which is a JEWISH request, to have the blood of Christ on themselves and on their children, a report, is "dramatic exaggeration". What is exaggerated, however ? Is it the desire to kill Christ ? Yes, that was, just as is this present attempt to kill parts of the Bible for no reason but that of human desire. But how do you change history's report, and call it dramatic exaggeration, if this was said ? If it was not said, that is the place to act. To censure something done, in its report, is strange indeed. Perhaps it should have been reported that Australia kept the Ashes ? since the REPORT that they lost was too dramatic, this too ?
This is mere mouthing of folly. The attitude that WE should hurt Jews because they made that mistake, and said whatever they said, alas unwise, this is nothing to do with the question of what they said then. God is the great disciplinarian, and forgiveness is freely available for this or any other murder from His presence on the basis of repentance, faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice and reception of His gift of eternal life, according to the Gospel, given freely in His word (cf. Romans 6:23, 10:9).
Man does not replace God, as if mortal man were the disciplinarian. Christ did not even let Peter use his sword in His own defence! Admission of guilt is not at all the same as compulsion, let alone obsessive compulsion as appeared in the days of the Romanist Inquisition against Christians and Jews in large measure, in just such a horror of evil. It is opportunity for forgiveness. Being judge for God is not to the point, since VENGEANCE IS MINE! says the Lord. Is the requirement NOT to avenge yourself (Romans 12:18), then, the same as a command to do so ?
Is there no limit to this contradictory, fiction-like document and dogma!
The measure of confusion in this document is eloquent testimony to the nature of its wares. This appears merely one more case of what Paul calls deceitful work, in a chapter where he is dealing with devilish sources of deception being able to transform themselves, as he declares, as if they were angels of light.
Perhaps some would like to call this dramatic exaggeration ? Alas, history reeks with it, the deceptions, the slow tortures of those who are supposedly to love their enemies, go good to those who persecute them. Of them ? Alas, often it is BY them! Anything more contradictory of the biblical pith, essence, commands, text, and of logic, it is hard to imagine, than this statement of the bishops.
It is not alone. It is a rock in a large reef, sitting there in treachery to the Gospel for centuries. Whatever the intention, this is the result, the word of God as written itself the criterion.
This however is not at all amazing. Things are to get worse in evil dimensions, Christ said, and here we see it fulfilled, for this looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon indeed; and this is not merely similar to the statement in Matthew 7:15ff., but to that in Revelation 13, said of the SECOND BEAST.
Warnings are in vogue ? Then let this be one of them (cf. Acts 20:28ff.). One has no option but so to disclose the things, for Paul makes it clear that this is part of being faithful (cf. II Timothy 4:1-4 - there in this very roaming realm; and indeed, to fail to warn here, would be to fail as a minister of Christ!).
BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS
In terms of biblical Christian Apologetics, this development is singularly significant, since it means that there is increasing unification of unbelief between the underlying revisionism of Rome and that of some Protestants; for after all, if strychnine is poisonous, it does not mean that the only poison is this one! With one result, you can use different chemicals, as far as life is concerned. Protestant and Romanist revisionism and biblical assault are beginning to show the more clearly now the unity of their contempt for the truth of the word of God. It is wrought in confusion, published in profusion and unclean in concept as irrational in content.
It is important that there is now a vast concord between old-fashioned liberal evolutionism and relativism and scriptural assault, and that of Rome, which is beginning in this field of direct attack on the Bible, and passages in it, just where the liberals when last heard of in their dismal failures in fallacy and folly, were beginning to END!
Thus, firstly the UNITY which this discloses, with the other unities being unveiled (cf. News 121, 122), is testimony to the movement to the precise biblical depiction of ONE second beast, the religious ranter, which is to impose the power and philosophy of the FIRST beast (the political, economic, social one). We move to that point; and at the same time, the FALSE PROPHET of Revelation 19 is now being more and more visible, in that the speech writing for his time, is now well advanced. To be sure, Romanism is not to be the second beast, since the beast itself is to rid itself of her (cf. Revelation 17, SMR pp. 946ff.); but this tie-up of concepts is a movement of spirit which will have its evil flower in due course, in the one for whom all of this is but preparation (cf. Moon Soon, a novel which presents it in dramatic form, a fiction to enable a better understanding of the truth; and Biblical Blessings Ch. 2, which presents the phenomena direct).
While man thus plays with fire, what of that consuming fire who is the God of the Bible and of truth (Hebrews 12:25-29, John 14:6, Matthew 5:17-20), whose is validity alone*4, whose word alone is verified as that of deity (cf. SMR Chs. 5, 8-10),! He has not changed what He has to say. Test Me, try Me is His challenge in Isaiah 43,48, and SEE if EMPIRICALLY you can match the word of God in its prediction, precision and truth! Such test and exhibition of fact we have sought, over 112 volumes, and been at pains to show, demonstrate, illustrate and concatenate: and the eminent and majestic position of the Bible in this, is not merely evident, but incomparable. This is simply a fact. Neither could any other have written it, nor is there anything comparable even in measure, even in degree.
As to people 'interpreting' by contradiction, like the above Romanist bishops, like Romanism in general (cf. SMR pp. 1042ff.), like the Liberals, this is a work so deadened to all enlightenment as to make of itself a mockery, though one would not wish those concerned to reach such a destiny, and for this reason, not least, like any true witness, speaks and must speak. Even an OC or CEO does not expect to be 'interpreted' by contradiction, 'essentialised' by other minds or invented by innovative Staff.
To talk of God having something to say which must be vetted by His creatures, though His claims are that of the authenticity which is deity's ALONE, as also the accuracy (cf. SMR Appendix D), is mere charade. NOTHING is secure from a Being who declares, as God, what man adjusts by contradiction, as man.
It is not fundamentalism which says so, but logic. The word of God is GOD's word, and when God speaks, WHO can prevent it! as He declaims (Isaiah 14:27); and who can believe in a Christ who declares to the last smidgeon all the word of God will be CARRIED OUT, exemplifies it with passion in His own life (cf. Matthew 26:56), but who is then adjusted, revitamised by philosophers in the clothes of prelacy, who tell us what to excise! That is but a ragged relic, and a human innovation, misusing the name, precisely what Paul exposes as "another Jesus".
On the topic of fundamentalism, meanwhile, an unfortunate name far less precise than the correct one, "plenary inspiration", see
The Biblical Workman, Appendix 3,
Light of Dawn Ch. 2,
Impossible to Men, Open to God Chs. 2, 3;
Lord of Life Ch. 3, 8, 9
More Marvels ... Ch. 4, *6.
It is in this context especially, of interest to see what, in addition to I John 2:27, God says on the subject of 'interpretation' of His word. As to that ? It is this:
"But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."
This makes it clear that while (as in Romans 12), we assemble and co-operate in understanding, we are not lorded over by the prelacy (cf. I Peter 5, who excludes such action), nor is there any Master but Christ (Matthew 23:8-10), so that any 'helpfulness' which is merely intrusive is excluded from the outset.
It is precisely in this vein that God objects in Jeremiah 23, to false prophets whom He did not send, who depict a vision of their own heart in HIS name! Jesus Christ Himself goes so far as to decree that the traditions of men are being used to nullify the word of God (Mark 7:7ff.). It is clear that the desirable thing is by faith to LET GOD SPEAK, adding nothing (cf. Proverbs 30:6), subtracting nothing (cf. Revelation 22, Deuteronomy 3, 12), and abiding in His words (John 15), which brings much power and beauty, felicity and peace. Speaking great or pompous words, being your own master, or having your church its own master, or the master of others, and so on, this is for the antichrist, and for false teachers, who have indeed come as predicted (II Peter 2:1ff., 2:18, Daniel 7:8, I Timothy 4:1ff., II Timothy 3:1ff., 4:1ff).
Such practice or trend is subject to a biblical exclusion on multiple grounds, and as to those who exclude the exclusion, in one more rebellion against the word of God: they merely make war on God as does all carrying on, in His name. It is, after all, precisely the polluted professionalism of the Pharisees with their traditions nullifying the word of God (Matthew 23, Mark 7) which also apparently made this 'interpretation' - that it did not matter, WHAT Christ did, HE MUST GO. It did not matter what the Bible said, He must go; and it did not matter what demonstration of His own authentic character as the Messiah, He gave, HE MUST GO! (cf. John 11:49ff., Luke 11, Mark 2). Indeed, it went further as you see in John 11: the MORE certain His claims, as verified, the more necessary His murder!
God simply does not leave His word in the hands of men (cf. II Timothy 2:9). There the apostle Paul makes it clear that he may be bound (as he was, physically, with bonds), but "the word of God is not bound!" The only binding man may do is that of the word itself, to insist on it, as we do here. Where however man puts in his own thoughts in the divine milieu, as if revelatory, we have it already on record that this is of the utmost depravity; for, says God, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, My ways." Isaiah 55 also tells us this, that if we wish to make any comparison, very well, this is it: "For as the heavens are above the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts, than your thoughts."
It is from the book of the Lord that one is to seek (Isaiah 8:20), and if there is any departure from this ? The result is that there is to be found no light in them. That follows! Revelation 22 advises that any addition to these THINGS is cursed, or subtraction from these words; while Galatians 1 exhorts that any other Gospel that then one ALREADY preached by Paul renders the preacher accursed, yes though it were Paul Himself. There is a water-tight quality about the word of God. It is rather like the situation in a submarine. Add water and you seek; and the water ? it is the word, the tradition, the forbidden mastery of ... man!
It has its own perspective, celestial and divine, and it is our task and joy to search it out; and when one does, it rings like the tolling of the great bell when World War II ended; it comes with conviction and is manifest*5.
What majesty is in this, that God is God and must be taken as deity,
not suggestion box,
not dialogue partner,
not learner from the massive intellects of little created man
who is always busy changing his erratic ideas,
whether in science or in philosophy, because of his ignorance:and the root cause of the negations, needless and in the end, feckless ?
It is the alienation from the life of God (Ephesians 4:17ff.), which is not lessened by taking over His cheque book and writing either pardons or requirements on one's own account.
What majesty in the Lord Jesus Christ, who applied the written word as exemplar with the devil, as decisive: incisively and without movement! What purity in His discourse, who insisted that EVERY scripture concerning Him MUST be fulfilled (Matthew 26:54ff.)! For here is majesty, not mere power, nor mere august living modes, but reliability, nobility, illimitability, faithfulness, depicted in Christ AS man with humility and assiduity, giving nothing for form, seeking no authority torn vacuously from the skies to advance notoriety or impact. The authentic needs no tearing; it is what it is, as He put it: Before Abraham was, I am!
Instead of such adventurism, He in realism and regality*6, TAKING His duty as given, the word His Father had commanded Him (John 12:48ff.) as binding, and AS the TRUTH, being unbendable, inflexible, intractable, acted with a divine irrepressibility and human humility. This, all of it, He did while yet giving His life for those who were or had been most bendable, most expendable, but were now redeemed.
On such a basis, the word of this God, the way of His wisdom, the promulgation of His wit for man, this is more inviolate than any virgin forest, purer than any rain forest, higher than any skies, more luminous than any light, as Psalm 119 is careful to inform us. It is after THIS word that one must seek with a soul that breaks with longing for it (119:20), as He delivers the truth to us. The divine procedure is not to break that word, by an autonomous soul that grabs authority without regality, or rules as miscreant, whether pope or prelate, whether theologian or political pope, who defines religion as in South Australia, even in Education Department precincts (or those of its new name: they are the same functionaries, after all!).
We turn now to II Peter 1:19-21, and its translation. In its negation, it is illustrative of that evil aspiration for hegemony which so dogs the steps of man, debasing him as he seeks, now in the Old Testament days, now in the New: to be the BOSS! It is this dizzying, dazzling pseudo-post and preposterous presumption against which Peter and indeed Christ so vigorously speak, and which they so explicitly exclude (I Peter 5, Matthew 23:9ff.).
Consensus on the truth is good; dictatorship is forbidden. One of the chief things bound in the Holy Writ is its own inviolable integrity (cf. Isaiah 8:20, Matthew 4:4, 5:17ff.), so that people who use their traditions, HOWEVER obtained, to add and determine, are in the loathing stocks at the word of Christ (Mark 7:7ff.). God simply does not give the power over His word to man, and says so in Matthew, emphasises it in Jeremiah, exacts it in Peter, and declares the point in I John 2.
In our next Chapter, we shall consider the delicious impartation of II Peter 1:17ff., and relish its realism, its perspective and its point.
NOTES
See SMR pp.1042ff., with 686ff., 700ff., 857ff..
Predestination and Freewill Part 2 (Section 4),
To Know God ... Ch. 1, *2, Repent or Perish Ch. 1, *1 ,
The Biblical Workman Ch. 8, esp. pp. 124ff., News, Facts and Forecasts Ch. 4 (News 112),
Cascade of Mercy Ch. 9, The Christian Pilgrimage Ch. 1,
GRACETOFACE 3 (and regeneration, the love of God, Calvinism, Wesley and the nether options, with special attention to John 3), with with Great Execrations ... Ch. 7, and 9,
and The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 4; ; Outrageous Outages ... Ch. 9;
Three Anzas and One Answer Ch. 6;
Light of Dawn Ch. 1, TRUST God ... Ch. 6,
Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 2, End-note 1,
Marvels of Predestination and the Ways of Will Ch. 6,
Anguish, Ecstasy ... Chs. 8, 9
The Pitter-Patter Ch. 8, Lord of LIfe Ch. 7
See The Biblical Workman
Ch. 7,
Dayspring and references therein. See also SMR pp.
174ff..
On 'kinds', see The Defining Drama
Ch. 10, SMR pp.
485ff.,
Trappings for Potpourri.
See Divine Agenda
Ch. 6,
ALERT
10,
*4, 16 , Tender Times for Timely Truth
Ch. 8,
His Wounds ...
Chs.
3 ,
4,
SMR pp. 91,
1080ff.,
987ff.. See also Of the Earth, Earthy ...
Ch. 4, Impossible to Men ...
Ch. 2.
See TMR Ch. 5, SMR Ch. 3, Barbs ... 6 -7, REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER
CELESTIAL HARMONY for the TERRESTRIAL HOST.
See Let God be God! Ch. 4, The Defining Drama Ch. 9, Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 8, SMR Ch. 5.
See Christ Jesus: the Wisdom and the Power of God, Ch. 8.