Things New and Old

Ancient truths revealed in the Scriptures are often forgotten, disbelieved or distorted, and therefore lost in the passage of time. Such ancient truths when rediscovered and relearned are 'new' additions to the treasury of ancient truths.

Christ showed many new things to the disciples, things prophesied by the prophets of old but hijacked and perverted by the elders and their traditions, but which Christ reclaimed and returned to His people.

Many things taught by the Apostles of Christ have been perverted or substituted over the centuries. Such fundamental doctrines like salvation by grace and justification have been hijacked and perverted and repudiated by sincere Christians. These doctrines need to be reclaimed and restored to God's people.

There are things both new and old here. "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things" 2Ti 2:7.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

A Few Questions for Arminians


  
 A Few Questions for Arminians

Introduction:
1. An Arminian more or less believes the synergistic, semi-Pelagian doctrine of James Arminius (1560-1609).

2. In recent years, they are the followers of Charles Finney, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, and Jack Hyles among many others currently enjoying widespread popularity in 2013 e.g. Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn.

3. Historical Arminians were more learned, honest, and consistent than today’s decisionalists, but the name fits.

4. Arminianism should make you sick for its Bible corruption, pitiful God and Jesus, compromise, methods, etc.

5. These sermons are to review our doctrine of salvation and explain why we interpret Romans the way we do.

6. You cannot rightly interpret a text without knowing the rest of the Bible on that topic (II Pet 1:20; I Cor 2:13).

7. God is perfectly logical and consistent and appeals to reason, which is how truth is preached (Is 1:18; 41:21; Gen 18:25; Acts 17:2-3; Rom 3:1-8), so our questions are to expose absurdities and heresies of Arminianism.

8. Of course, these questions could be multiplied indefinitely, but the purpose can be obtained by a good sample.

9. Some of the questions fit Calvinists as well, for if you scratch a Calvinist, you will often find an Arminian.

10. If Arminians could ask good and hard questions in reverse, we must answer consistently with scripture only.

11. In ourselves we are nothing and less than nothing, pertaining both to salvation and the correct doctrine of it.

12. Any sarcasm is intended! But if it is too much for you, forgive us for being like Elijah (I Kgs 18:27; Jas 5:17)!

13. Any anger is intended! If it is too much for you, forgive us for copying Moses and Jesus (Nu 16:15; Mk 3:5)!

14. Recall Paul’s dogmatic ministry against Jewish legalists adding to Christ (Gal 1:6-9; 3:1; 5:1-4,12; Phil 3:2)!

Read the rest of the article here:
www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/questions-for-arminians.pdf

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Thursday, April 17, 2014


Photo: YOU MAY BEND THE SAPLING, BUT NOT THE TREE. (by C H Spurgeon - "John Ploughman's Pictures" LADDER, and pole, and cord will be of no use to straighten the bent tree; it should have been looked after much earlier. Train trees when they are saplings and young lads before the down comes on their chins. If you want a bullfinch to pipe, whistle to him while he is young; he will scarcely catch the tune after he has learnt the wild bird's note. Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin. Catch them young and you may hope to keep them. Ere your boy has reached to seven, Teach him well the way to heaven : Better still the work will thrive, If he learns before he's five. What is learned young is learned for life. What we hear at the first we remember to the last. The bent twig grows up a crooked tree. Horse-breakers say "The tricks a colt getteth at his first backing, Will whilst he continueth never be lacking." When a boy is rebellious, conquer him, and do it well the first time, that there may be no need to do it again. A child's first lesson should be obedience, and after that you may teach it what you please: yet the young mind must not be laced too tight, or you may hurt its growth and hinder its strength. They say a daft nurse makes a wise child, but I do not believe it: nobody needs so much common sense as a mother or a governess. It does not do to be always thwarting; and yet remember if you give a child his will and a whelp his fill, both will surely turn out ill. A child's back must be made to bend, but it must not be broken. He must be ruled, but not with a rod of iron. His spirit must be conquered, but not crushed. Nature does sometimes overcome nurture, but for the most part the teacher wins the day. Children are what they are made: the pity is that so many are spoiled in the bringing up. A child may be rocked too hard; you may spoil him either by too much cuffing or too much kissing. I knew two boys who had a Christian mother, but she always let them have their own way. The consequence was that when they grew up they took to drinking and low company and soon spent the fortune their father left them. No one controlled them and they had no control over themselves, and so they just rattled along the broad road like butcher boys with runaway horses, and there was no stopping them. A birch or two worn out upon them when they were little would have been a good use of timber. Still, a child can be treated too hardly, and especially he can be shut up too many hours in school, when a good run and a game of play would do him more good. Cows don't give any the more milk for being often milked, nor do children learn any more because of very long hours in a hot room. A boy can be driven to learn till he loses half his wits: forced fruits have little flavor; a man at five is a fool at fifteen. If you make veal of the calf he will never turn to beef. Yet learning may be left so long that the little dunce is always behindhand. There's a medium in everything and he is a good father who hits upon it, so that he governs his family with love, and his family loves to be governed by him. Some are like Eli, who let his sons sin and only chided them a little ; these will turn out to be cruel parents in the long run : others are too strict, and make home miserable, and so drive the youngsters to the wrong road in another way. Tight clothes are very apt to tear, and hard laws are often broken: but loose garments tear too, and where there are no laws at all, things are sure to go amiss. So you see it is easy to err on either side, and hard to dance the tight-rope of wisdom. Depend on it, he who has a wife and bairns [children, sing] will never be short of care to carry. See what we get when we come to marry, yet many there are who will not tarry. In these days children have a deal too much of their own way, and often make their mothers and fathers their slaves. It has come to a fine pass when the goslings teach the geese, and the kittens rule the cat: it is the upsetting of everything, and no parent ought to put up with it. It is as bad for the boys and girls as it is for the grown folk, and it brings out the worst side of their characters. I would sooner be a cat on hot bricks, or a toad under a harrow, than let my own children be my masters. No, the head must be the head, or it will hurt the whole body. For children out of place Are a father's disgrace, If you rule not you'll rue, For they'll quickly rule you.
YOU MAY BEND THE SAPLING,
BUT NOT THE TREE.

   by C H Spurgeon - in "John Ploughman's Pictures"

 LADDER, and pole, and cord will be of no use to straighten the bent tree; it should have been looked after much earlier. Train trees when they are saplings and young lads before the down comes on their chins. If you want a bullfinch to pipe, whistle to him while he is young; he will scarcely catch the tune after he has learnt the wild bird's note. Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin. Catch them young and you may hope to keep them.


Ere your boy has reached to seven,
Teach him well the way to heaven :
Better still the work will thrive,
If he learns before he's five.

What is learned young is learned for life. What we hear at the first we remember to the last. The bent twig grows up a crooked tree. Horse-breakers say


"The tricks a colt getteth at his first backing,
Will whilst he continueth never be lacking."

When a boy is rebellious, conquer him, and do it well the first time, that there may be no need to do it again. A child's first lesson should be obedience, and after that you may teach it what you please: yet the young mind must not be laced too tight, or you may hurt its growth and hinder its strength. They say a daft nurse makes a wise child, but I do not believe it: nobody needs so much common sense as a mother or a governess. It does not do to be always thwarting; and yet remember if you give a child his will and a whelp his fill, both will surely turn out ill. A child's back must be made to bend, but it must not be broken. He must be ruled, but not with a rod of iron. His spirit must be conquered, but not crushed.

Nature does sometimes overcome nurture, but for the most part the teacher wins the day. Children are what they are made: the pity is that so many are spoiled in the bringing up. A child may be rocked too hard; you may spoil him either by too much cuffing or too much kissing. I knew two boys who had a Christian mother, but she always let them have their own way. The consequence was that when they grew up they took to drinking and low company and soon spent the fortune their father left them. No one controlled them and they had no control over themselves, and so they just rattled along the broad road like butcher boys with runaway horses, and there was no stopping them. A birch or two worn out upon them when they were little would have been a good use of timber.

Still, a child can be treated too hardly, and especially he can be shut up too many hours in school, when a good run and a game of play would do him more good. Cows don't give any the more milk for being often milked, nor do children learn any more because of very long hours in a hot room.

A boy can be driven to learn till he loses half his wits: forced fruits have little flavor; a man at five is a fool at fifteen. If you make veal of the calf he will never turn to beef. Yet learning may be left so long that the little dunce is always behindhand.

There's a medium in everything and he is a good father who hits upon it, so that he governs his family with love, and his family loves to be governed by him. Some are like Eli, who let his sons sin and only chided them a little ; these will turn out to be cruel parents in the long run : others are too strict, and make home miserable, and so drive the youngsters to the wrong road in another way. Tight clothes are very apt to tear, and hard laws are often broken: but loose garments tear too, and where there are no laws at all, things are sure to go amiss. So you see it is easy to err on either side, and hard to dance the tight-rope of wisdom. Depend on it, he who has a wife and bairns [children, sing] will never be short of care to carry. See what we get when we come to marry, yet many there are who will not tarry.

In these days children have a deal too much of their own way, and often make their mothers and fathers their slaves. It has come to a fine pass when the goslings teach the geese, and the kittens rule the cat: it is the upsetting of everything, and no parent ought to put up with it. It is as bad for the boys and girls as it is for the grown folk, and it brings out the worst side of their characters. I would sooner be a cat on hot bricks, or a toad under a harrow, than let my own children be my masters. No, the head must be the head, or it will hurt the whole body.


For children out of place
Are a father's disgrace,
If you rule not you'll rue,
For they'll quickly rule you.

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Not ashamed of the gospel of Christ! Why?



¶ 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Below are 4 translations (N, R, E and K) of Romans 1:16.
Do they read all the same to you? Are these translations saying the same thing?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Niv)

For I am not ahamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Rsv)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Esv)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Kjv)

(note: only Kjv reads "the gospel of Christ".)

Can you discern the STARK differences?
What do you actually believe? Does it matter to you whether you believe the truth or fables?

##1
Why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel?
Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because he is most certain and assured that the gospel, the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ to save His people, will be perceived and received by the believing ones as a message declaring the power of God unto salvation.

The gospel is NOT the power of God unto salvation.
Jesus Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto salvation.

1Co 1:24 "But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

The gospel is the good news. Good news declare the POWER of God, ALREADY exercised, unto salvation of His people; and the gospel is perceived and received as such by the believing ones - those already regenerated by God.

1Co 1:18 "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."

Good news inform and instruct, edify and educate, renew and liberate THOSE who are ALREADY saved by the power of God in Jesus Christ.The gospel of Christ... what about it?
Well, the gospel of Christ PRESUPPOSES the prior the power of God ALREADY EXERCISED in the work of salvation. Otherwise, there would the gospel! The gospel is the good news of what has happened by the power of God. It is not the good news of something good will happen by the power of God on condition that you do something!

To deny this is to leave Paul WITHOUT the gospel of Christ, and how could Paul be ashamed of that which did not exist?

##2
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Niv)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Kjv)

Niv says what the gospel DOES to everyone who believes - the gospel BRINGS salvation to them.

Kjv says what the gospel IS to every believing ones - the gospel IS the power of God unto salvation (i.e. the gospel is good news of God's power unto salvation) to them.

To others the same message is foolishness!
See the VAST difference now???????

##3
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as ...it is written, The just shall live by faith.
======
For in the gospel is proclaimed the great news of the righteousness of God's own provision for the salvation of His people.

The gospel is proclaimed from faith to faith, preached by those who believe to those whom the Spirit of God has worked faith within them.

Why should Paul be ashamed of the gospel when he is assured that the just (those justified freely by the free grace of God while in the state of condemnation and death) shall live by faith???


Sin, the transgression of the law, brought condemnation and death.
Righteousness, the obedience to the law, secured justification and eternal life.
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