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 2, 2020

Prejudice is hard to dislodge




Prejudice "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." 
~~ Leo Tolstoy

Initial exchange here:
https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/114144861934720

Sing
It is impossible to teach seemingly intelligent men - who have been taught and firmly believe that dead men must eat and breathe in order to have life - the most basic and obvious fact that life itself must precede the activities of that life!
It is impossible to teach so many preachers of God's word that the gospel ministry - the means ordained by God, and commanded to be employed by His servants (so forget about all the glittering gimmicks and psychological tricks) for the instruction, nourishment, and edification of His children - DOES NOT play any role in the begetting of life in those dead condemned alien sinners.

It is the means ordained by Christ for the conversion, instruction, nourishment, and edification of those whom God Himself has FREELY and sovereignly begotten! - "which WERE born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

When the gospel ministry is brought to them, they WERE ALREADY born of God. Those deluded preachers who think their preaching is instrumental in the regeneration of dead sinners, they ALWAYS arrive at the scene TOO LATE!
Those who will hear them and believe their message WERE - WERE - WERE ALREADY BORN of God, BEFORE they have arrived at the scene, WITHOUT the will of the flesh of the one regenerated, WITHOUT the will of NO human preachers... BUT SOLELY and WHOLLY and FREELY by the holy and sovereign will of God.

Adam
Note here that those "deluded preachers" using "psychological tricks" that Sing refers to above were the likes of Spurgeon, Baxter, Whitefield, Wesley and Paul the apostle!

Sing
Adam, those are your words, not mine.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Don't try reading my mind; just stick to what I have written in black and white. Save yourself some unnecessary embarrassment
The men you mentioned were furthest from my mind. Charles Finney and all his followers and imitators were.
The fact that you would put Whitefield side by side with Wesley is indicative of your ignorance about the great doctrinal difference between them. Just stating a plain fact, and being honest with you.

Sing
Adam, those men you mentioned most certainly did believe in preaching the word of God - they did not resort to glittering gimmicks and psychological tricks... Though it is almost certain that they do not all preach the same gospel. Don't know if you realize this plain fact!

So, even if you want to twist and misrepresent my words, it is plain to see that your effort is most pathetic!

Keith
The interesting thing about what you propose brother Sing is that God gets all the glory. What a concept!

Sing
But that biblical concept is so REPULSIVE to so many... preachers as well as believers despite their vehement denial but their synergistic doctrines necessarily usurp some glory of God unto themselves... even though they too would deny this necessary implications.

So many preachers believe that by their preaching that God regenerates the dead... and so many believers so sincerely believe that it was their hearing and believing that they were given eternal life!

Sing
There were God's children among the Jews in the days of Jesus Christ who rejected Him EVEN THOUGH they were truly and earnestly waiting for the promised Messiah!
What is the simple explanation? These Jews had conceived in their minds that the Messiah promised to them was going to be a political/militaristic Messiah to deliver them from the oppression and domination of the Romans.
Their minds were firmly set upon such a Messiah... hoping for a repeat of something accomplished by Moses for the Israelites in Egypt - they even had a biblical model for their false belief!

Because they were already firmly persuaded that they knew the true nature of the coming Messiah, so when the promised Messiah was present in their very midst, with the most compelling evidence, YET they rejected him and had him murdered instead BECAUSE the true Messiah did not fit their own IMAGINATION!
Their fables did not fit the sound doctrines, so they rejected the sound doctrines of the gospel.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Apostle Paul's warning to Timothy and all NT pastors and teachers.

Adam
Sing, are you trying to run from what you said on my post or are you saying that all that you wrote had nothing to do with the quote from Spurgeon? If so, why did you say it... as I said, what is your point?
Do you honestly think I am unaware of the theological differences between Whitefield/Wesley?

Sing
Adam, you so easily mix up things. No, I am not running away from anything! Read again, and see where you have messed up things again!
Impersonal communication through written words is most certainly not very helpful.
I was dealing with your point of 'go and preach' - your belief that 'go and preached' has anything to do with eternal salvation, to bring about eternal life to a dead condemned man! And that seems [sic] to be the point of Spurgeon, as though his ministry is able to save men from eternal hell! That becomes possible because he lost grip of precious truth.

The only thing what I wrote has anything to do with Spurgeon is this: Spurgeon is most certainly losing grip of the clear distinction between the eternal salvation WITHOUT means and temporal salvation with means - a truth that was expressed clearly and plainly by his predecessors like Benjamin Keach, John Gill and many others early particular Baptists. But of course, I did not state that in black and white... but you imagined and concluded in the most perverse way!

Slowly, people began to think of the gospel ministry as the means of regeneration instead of the means of converting and nourishing God's children. See the radical movement away from the truth... that's the natural tendency.

Putting the two Ws side by side most certainly is indicative [SIC] of something, and leads me to conclude in a particular way! At least I don't conclude out of thin air!

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