New Thoughts (6/8/03-6/12/03)
It occurs to me that there are two class of rebels considered here, although the concerns are the same in both cases; that they not be given opportunity to corrupt the faithful. The latter mentioned of these two types is the deceiver. These are the actively and angrily rebellious ones. They have no other motivation than to serve their father, the devil. They come, as he comes, seeking only to destroy. The works they do, they learned from their father, and they have learned their lessons well. They don't come denying Christ outright. They know that such an attack is doomed to failure from the outset. Rather, they come with seemingly innocuous omissions and additions, a word here, a word there; and upon these words they focus, rather than on the truth of Scripture. In this way, they are able to lead the less careful amongst the church into egregious error. Things haven't changed all that much since Eden.
The second class of rebels with which we must be concerned are the empty talkers. Their issue is not so obvious, and therefore is perhaps all the more dangerous. Their works of deception may not be intentional, yet the results of their efforts are just as destructive to the faithful. What is it they do? They shift their focus from the clear message of the Gospel to technicalities. They are reason unguided by faith. They are enthralled with worldly wisdom, giving it higher place than godly wisdom. Thus, where there is conflict, they will use all their powers to refute the clear wisdom of God in favor of the muddled message of man. This, in large part, has been the great terror of the Church throughout recent centuries. We have not had so much difficulty with the outright heretic. The Destroyer has seen that too many are trained and ready to deflect such attacks. So, he has changed his tactics. He comes at the church with good sounding philosophies. He infiltrates the house of God by means of the godless philosopher.
No, these godless ones don't come to the altar directly, seeking to preach the atheist gospel. Their lord is to wise for that. The message has been delivered by other means, by every other means. The altar has been left alone, because so many other places exist from which to declare the deceptive word. Television, radio, print - every avenue of the marketplace, every form of media has been put to work disseminating this message. In large part, this attack has enjoyed success. The incursions of rationalism and liberalism into the Church have done great damage. Who could have imagined that schools established for the training up of ministers of the Gospel would instead churn out such 'teachers' as have gone to form the Jesus Seminar? Here are a bunch of wolves who seek to destroy every facet of the record of Scripture, all the while disguising their efforts as promoting faith. How did this begin? It began with people who were more concerned with linguistic cleverness than with spiritual truth. It began with men who were more impressed with their own mental faculties than the perfect wisdom of God.
It has resulted in generations of church goers who are, as Mr. Barnes puts it, 'more given to talk than to the duties of practical religion.' Why should this surprise us? The seminaries spent years churning out teachers who were themselves more given to talk than practical application and duty. Duty was a dirty word. Their god made no demands of his people, only offered suggestions. His was a 'nice guy' theology. Where the teachers were trained to value their clever speech over clear message, is it any wonder that those these teachers have taught came to have the same values? This is precisely the danger Paul saw. If the teachers are subverted, what hope for the students? If the attack comes against the Church, and it is inevitable that it should come, where better to attack than at the roots.
How should we, as students of gospel faith, react to this situation? I'll tell you this: in spite of the recent history of the Church and its leadership, we are not called to become skeptics and cynics. Neither, however, are we called to be blindly accepting of every message delivered by some claimant to the role of teacher. We are called to be wise as serpents, and yet as innocent as doves (Mt 10:16). We don't treat everybody with suspicion, but neither do we place our trust in their words without reason. We reserve a place for reason in our understanding of Scripture. We also give way to the Spirit to make clear the truth in every lesson. We study to show ourselves approved (2Ti 2:15). We search the Scriptures for ourselves, to see if the things we have been told are true (Ac 17:11). Notice the attitude, though: We should be searching with eagerness. Why? Because the real message will ever be a message of hope, and our hope is ignited by that message - Oh! If only these things are right and true! There is hope! And presented with that hope, what cost is there that we shall not pay to know it for ourselves!
Another tool we have at our disposal is that we are given to know our teachers. We can see in them what it is that motivates them. What force drives them? Why do they teach? The teacher may never offer us the answer to this question by his words, but we will assuredly be able to discern the truth of the matter in his actions. If his motive is sound, we will see that his life reflects his teaching, and we will see that both life and teaching reflect the Gospel of Christ. Think of it. This is the claim Paul was able to make for his teaching. In Romans 1:1, he declares himself a servant of that gospel, identifying it as the gospel of God. He is motivated, he writes, by the desire of a harvest for the kingdom, and by an obligation felt on his part towards every man, regardless of nation or station (Ro 1:13-14). As a good teacher, when he could not be present himself to further the training of his students, he made certain that other solid teachers were there to fill the gap. That is exactly what he is doing here with Titus. The same thing can be seen with Timothy. In 1Thessalonians 3:2, he identifies Timothy as his fellow worker in the Gospel of Christ. He tells the Thessalonians that Timothy is being sent to strengthen and encourage their faith. This is the motivation of every sound teacher of true faith, to strengthen and encourage that same true faith in their hearers.
There are other teachers, though, motivated by different motives. The problem is no less today than it was then, perhaps it's even worse. In this age of mass media, preaching for profit is somewhat of an epidemic. These teachers on the airwaves cannot know their students, cannot be aware of the specific needs and weaknesses of those they teach. Some among them recognize this basic truth. Some among them continue to strive in their teaching for all the right reasons, and as such, make certain that their students are not so foolish as to take what can only be a supplementary ministry as being sufficient to replace local body membership. Others, however, feel no such concern. Their concern is not the welfare of their students, not the accuracy and soundness of their message, and not the applying of their lessons to their own lives. Why should they worry about self-application? Who can get near enough to them to discern their deceit? No, the motivation for their ministry is nothing more than to make a living, to turn a profit, to make a name for themselves. Since when is this a proper aim for a servant? The servant's primary goal should ever be to make a name for his master. A servant is nothing in his own eyes, and wouldn't seek to be anything in yours, either. He is about his master's business, and his care is for his master's reputation. Truly, when we see a teacher whose motivation is stature or profit, we should flee as quickly as we can! That teacher has already been subverted, and the student that remains under him long cannot but be subverted as well.
Jason Upton, preaching at our church a few weeks ago, commented on this sad truth of modern Christianity, and sadly, it is the truth. Much of Christianity has been swallowed up in the modern mass-media mindset. Just go to your local Christian book store. How much of their space is taken up with books at all? And what proportion of those books really have anything to do with sound teaching, with sound doctrine? I know the case at our local store is a sad example. I would say at least fifty percent of the store is given over to cheesy gift-shop items, trinkets one could easily find at any souvenir shop, but rather than a place name, they have 'God' and 'Jesus' written somewhere upon them. Pens and pencils, coffee cups and candles, plaques and statues, T-shirts and ties; you name it, they've got it. Why, you can even pick up some Christian breath mints at the counter! What, I ask, does Christian breath smell like? But the space for books is less than what remains, perhaps thirty percent of the floor. And, of that, a third is given over to fiction, children's mysteries, romance novels, and the like, but all with a Christian theme, we assure you!
Look, I have no problem with fiction, I have no problem with T-shirts. I don't even mind people trying to keep their breath fresh, but this is sad. We've fallen for the idea that a brief mention of God, church, or some other religious imagery somehow sanctifies the product. I'm sorry, but that coffee cup is no more holy for having a fish on it. The candle will not spread God's grace about in its scents just because there's a cross etched on the surface. The music, be it worship or simply Christian art, will not save in and of itself. All of these can, I suppose, be tools in the spread of the Gospel, but that's not what we use them for. We use them to amuse ourselves, to distract ourselves.
What bothers me most is that I have to search high and low to find any solid book in that place. Few if any of the real classics and nuggets of Christian writing are there to be had. Sure, there are a few good modern authors who are given a relatively huge presence amongst the meager shelves, and absolutely, you can have the Bible in any flavor, size, print, color, and language you care to have it in, so long as it's popular enough. But seek out anything from the great Christian writers of the past, try to seek the wisdom God has blessed previous ages of faith with. Perhaps these tomes are hidden in some vault out back, but you won't find them on the shelves.
It's a deception! It's marketing with no concern for feeding. Teaching has gone by the wayside in favor of product placement. Truly, much of what is offered the Christian today in these storehouses of learning is nothing but empty talk for sordid gain. Why does it work? It works precisely because we are willing to be deceived. We've bought into more of the philosophy of modern man than we care to realize. We are part of the entertainment generation. We would really prefer our videos, our stories, our games, just about anything really, to facing the reality of ourselves and our surroundings. We've been trained to be this way. Where are the teachers who will train us in real faith?
Barnes wrote that "Religion is the most powerful principle that ever governs the mind; and if a man has the control of that, it is no difficult thing to induce men to give up their worldly possessions." The masters of marketing have learned this lesson in a big way. They know that the average Christian today will cheerfully buy whatever product they have to sell if they can only get some sort of Christian logo on it. We even have free directories offered to us, identifying 'Christian' businesses. Certainly, some, perhaps even most, of these are legitimate enterprises run by legitimate Christians. Just as certainly, there are those whose sole purpose in being in that listing is to attract a few more suckers.
There are pastorates that suffer from the same mentality. The concern is for numbers. The concern is not for membership in God's kingdom, the concern is not for matters eternal. The concern is simply for church membership in this particular body. The concern is that your donations and tithes be given to this particular church, that their leadership can make its living off of your labor. If lives are truly saved along the way, that's just accident. It's nothing to do with them. If lives are destroyed along the way, that's just the way it is.
The problem is everywhere. It's not just in the leadership, and it's not just in the marketers. The problem is just as bad in us. It's our own mindset that allows these things to prosper. We have lost our vigilance. We have allowed ourselves to become weak and sloppy in our own learning, in our own thinking. We have taken all the nice labels as sufficient guarantee of content. We've been lulled into a false sense of security by all our Christian possessions. But they're just possessions. They'll burn up in the end, just like all our other possessions. They're no better and no worse. The problem is not so much in the things, but in we who buy the things, in the reasons for which we buy the things.
Once, the Church had a great problem with works salvation. Paul is dealing with that here, with those who added to the Gospel their own requirements, who missed the message of grace, and insisted on ritual observations as a necessary precursor of salvation. God requires no such thing of us, and He will not tolerate the teaching of such things. Today, we understand this. We don't seek salvation by works. No. Instead, we have decided to seek salvation by purchase. Why, it's a whole lot easier than working, anyway! Just buy this thing and that, and surely God will be pleased with us. Who cares if our lives are a mess! We've surrounded ourselves with sufficient paraphernalia, we've got all our little household idols out; surely, He'll see them, see our devotion to them, and be pleased with us! Surely, He'll pass over us in His day of judgment because we've been so profligate in our Christian spending.
Wake up! These things cannot save. Our spending patterns cannot save! Our houses choked with trinkets cannot save! If church membership is not a guarantee against deception, how can we think the marketplace is? Away with all these toys and distractions! Our strength is in the Lord. To the Law and the Testimony! Feed yourself on His word, don't just gulp it down, chew on it awhile. Savor it in every nuance of it's flavor, the bitter and the sweet, the tough and the tender. Read the Bible in a year, if you feel so led, but read it with understanding, not with some misguided goal of achieving holiness through slavish devotion to your schedule. Don't make what is a good thing evil by your motivations, and don't be fooled into thinking you can make an evil thing good by calling it something else, or by hiding it inside some Christianese wrapper.
The flesh is ever ready to fall, yours and mine alike. The flesh is ever weak, and incapable of resisting Satan's games. He knows this well, but we seem to be forever forgetting it. If we are not busy about strengthening our spiritual defenses, we will have no defenses at all. In this day and age when corporate Christianity no longer speaks of the communion of the saints, but only of the business of religious marketing, it is incumbent upon us to stand up and resist. It is incumbent upon us to arm ourselves with the shield of faith and the sword of truth and take our stand. Count it all loss. All these things that are no more than things, no matter the decorations upon them, consider them all rubbish in order that you may gain Christ and be found in Him. Seek no righteousness that comes by works or by possessions, but only that righteousness which is found through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith! Seek to know Him and the power of His resurrection. Seek also the fellowship of His sufferings, and conform yourself to His death, so that you, too, may know the resurrection from the dead (Php 3:8-11)!
Father God, I know that in this, You are speaking to me, as much as anybody. In my own ways, I'm as guilty as the next of chasing after the 'things' of Christianity. I've my books and my CDs, and why? Have they any power to save? Are You pleased by my collection? I know You're not. My collection has no meaning. Forgive me, my God, if by my things and my efforts I have sought in any way to buy Your love, to earn what You have already given so freely. Help me to get my focus on this heart of mine, on the work You seek to do in and through me. Free me of this consumer mentality, Lord. Show me the things that need changing, show me the things You have prepared for me to do. Find me, my Lord, a willing servant, ever answering to Your call.
"If the children of this world, when dangers arise, increase their solicitude and watchfulness, it would be disgraceful for us, when Satan is using his utmost efforts, to remain careless and inactive, as if we were in a state of peace." So writes Calvin in his comments on this passage. Indeed, we watch it going on around us in America today. Since the attack in 2001, there's been a heightened sense of our vulnerability here, and a suspicious eye is cast on those whose appearance marks them as possibly being from the same region as the attackers. News of outbreaks of this new disease and that cause yet another heightening of concern, and planes are quarantined at the airport because a passenger has the sniffles. A cow in Canada falls ill, and entire herds are butchered, while we refuse to buy their meat. We see the worldly dangers about us, and indeed, our watchfulness and concern are heightened.
But what of the spiritual dangers surrounding us? We have allowed the social and intellectual norms of the day to convince us, in spite of our professions of faith, that these spiritual evils are no more than myths and stories from the past. We forcefully assert our right to hold to faith in the goodness of God, which they also think to be no more than myth, but we're more than willing to set aside belief in the enemy He warns us about. We'd be glad indeed to find that this enemy is not roaming about the world, seeking whom he may devour. We're not keen on facing a roaring lion when we seem to have no weapons at hand. But he's there. The God we worship, the God we profess, has warned us of him, and of his ways. He has warned us that this enemy's soldiers even go so far as to disguise themselves as angels of light, they masquerade as servants of the Most High God, in their efforts to deceive. Why will we not hear His warnings?
Why do we insist on continuing to hold on to the fantasy that every speaker that claims to speak in God's name, or in support of His kingdom, is earnest in their claim? When will we wake up to the danger around us, and follow the course of defense which He has provided for us? We cannot come against these enemies by force, for this is not the way of our God. It is not the plan He has given us. No, our weapon is the truth. Our weapon is to be wielded by arms of sound argument, providing the truth in terms understandable and undeniable as a counter to the false messages that assault our ears. This is not a battle for sleeping minds. This is not a battle for those who refuse to think about what it is they believe. Belief is to be a matter of a convinced mind. That's what real faith is about. It's not a question of blind acceptance, it's a matter of having been confronted by the truth, having thought about it long and hard, and having found oneself fully convinced of the truth.
What is the definition of unbelief that we find? It is refusing to be convinced of the truth. Notice that it is not the simple fact of being unconvinced, it's the fact that - faced with undeniable, thoroughly reasonable, well-ordered arguments for the truth, the unbeliever has stubbornly refused to accept the overwhelming evidence. He has chosen to trade the truth for a lie. If we accept God, but refuse to accept His declarations concerning the enemy, have we done any less? We cannot choose to accept parts of the message of Scripture, and set aside other parts. It's an all or nothing proposition. Either we believe that it is the very word of God, and therefore absolutely true in all it declares, or we don't. God declares His love and His mercy. We believe it. God declares His justice. We believe it, though we may not always comprehend it. God declares that there is a powerful enemy in our midst, with the potential to turn us away from the purpose He has set before us. Do we believe it? If we don't, then we don't really believe God in anything else, either.
How, then, are we to be convinced? God's word tells us that faith (being fully convinced) comes by hearing His word, and that He has provided teachers as the means of our hearing, and hearing well (Ro 10:14, Ro 10:17). Where there is belief, the role of the teacher is to fan the flames of faith by the wind of the Word. Without falling into the trap of placing our reason above the Scriptures as the final arbiter of truth, yet, as rational beings, it is (or ought to be) rational argument that convinces us of the truth. The teacher who does no more than appeal to our emotions is not in reality a teacher at all. He is not seeking to convince us, but simply to manipulate us into a momentary frenzy. His efforts cannot bring about permanent change, because they have not convinced us of anything. They have only engaged the emotions, without capturing the mind, and the mind will eventually reassert itself when this manipulator's influences are removed.
Teaching is not an emotional appeal, although we may find the message emotionally appealing. The real teaching engages the mind, leads it through paths of sound argument, such that it can see the truths being laid before it. This is precisely what Jesus did with His parables. He wasn't making emotional appeals, He wasn't 'working the crowds.' He appealed to their plain reason, to their common sense. He pointed them to the basic facts of life as they knew them, taking His examples from the very real, very physical surroundings in which He taught. Using these examples which all could perceive, and in which all knew the only proper course of action, He was able to turn their attention to higher matters which followed similar laws of reason. If it is true here, in this common environment, how much moreso in the higher order of the Creator? As creatures created in His image, surely we can see that what applies to us on our most basic and instinctive level does so because it is a reflection of His own order of things.
Teaching, then, is a matter of promoting those things we already know, of showing us how these apply on a higher level. It is also a matter of showing us the error of those things in which we are mistaken. Where we insist on standing opposed to God's ways, it is the teacher's task to make clear to us our own error. This is his role in the face of unbelief. We can't simply club unbelief over the head and insist on change. We can't bully unbelief into belief. We may be able to coerce them into an appearance of belief, into conforming their actions to ours while in our presence, but we have not changed the heart of the matter, we have not convinced them that they are wrong, only that we are either weak, rude, or both.
Every teacher, then, is given also to be an apologist. Indeed, I'm not sure the two can be separated, although we tend to consider these two different categories. The job is the same for both - strengthening what is correct, and correcting what is wrong in our beliefs. The teacher is given one means of doing these two tasks: the presenting of God's evidence. His only tool is the word of God. His only means of using the tool is to apply that word to the lesson at hand in a way that makes its message plainly clear to his hearers. Again, we need look no further than Jesus to see the proper method. His parables are the prime example of the tool being used to best effect. He presented the truths of God in a fashion easily grasped by those He taught. He gave it to them in their own terms, in terms of the situations of their daily life. Thus, they could easily see the proper course. All that remained was to point out that this same propriety applied on the spiritual level as well. It is the same method Nathan used with David, giving him a legal case to ponder, one which David could not but reach the right conclusion in, and then showing how it applied to his own error.
In this way, the evidence of God's truth is presented in such a way that no room is left for argument. That's the apologist's job. That's the teacher's mission. All argument must be answered by inescapable truth. All excuse for being dissuaded must be removed. Only one choice can be left to their student: whether to accept what his own reason plainly understands, or to refuse in spite of it. Where refusal remains, know that no excuse remains. It can be no act of ignorance anymore. It can only be an act of willful rejection. It can only be an insistence on disagreeing in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Indeed, we will encounter those who do just this. Mankind has a perverse ability to hold fast to a course even when the course has shown itself most clearly wrong, even exceedingly dangerous. In our pride, we are thoroughly capable of insisting on our point long after our point is lost. We will argue on, even when we know deep down that we were wrong, in hopes of bullying our way to winning the argument. As often as not, our arguments are not so much about being right as about being victorious. However, when we argue with God's word, when once that word has been clearly presented to us and shown our argument to be wrong, anything we have left to say is empty wind. Calvin puts it this way: "He who is convicted by the word of God, however he may chatter, has nothing to say."
This doesn't apply only to the unbeliever. We don't cease being human when we are adopted by God, we enter into a training process. During our training, there will be numerous occasions where our old habits shine through, where we begin to insist on our way, where the flesh reasserts its dominance. At those times, our prayers should be for sound teachers, teachers who will confront our error with a loving, clear, comprehensible presentation of God's truth in the matter. We must hope that we are under such teachers as will not allow us to continue in our misunderstanding, in our willfulness. We must seek out teachers who will make plain to us our own errors by making plain to us God's true course. We must also become such teachers in our own right, seeking His truth through our own studies and prayers, building ourselves up upon the clear arguments of His own witness in both Word and creation. The enemy is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He devours with teeth of lies, but, strong as those teeth may be, they cannot penetrate the armor of sound and well-reasoned faith, they cannot rend the soul in which faith and reason are united, in which conviction has its proper foundation.
Now, on a separate issue, I find we are returned once more to the topic of permanent election. What is Paul's concern here? That these deceivers are 'upsetting whole families.' This is not emotional upset that is being discussed. It is a matter of overthrowing, of destruction. Can one really think that Paul is discussing families of unbelievers here? Such are already en route to destruction unless someone turns them from their course. No, this overthrowing must be of those who are already headed in the proper direction. Indeed, what really struck me here is what the commentaries have had to say. Calvin, himself, the one whose name is given to this position of permanent election, looks at this passage and appears to find in it the possibility of salvation lost. Matthew Henry, another staunch defender of Reformed faith, notes that the deceivers may draw believers from true faith into ruin by their lies. He sees in this the cause for Paul's concern that they be stopped and stopped quickly.
Indeed, only the Jaimeson, Fausset & Brown commentators seem to see this as an issue. They solve it by putting faith in quotes in this passage, as well as in 2Timothy 2:18. Their clear implication is that the faith mentioned here is not real faith. On what basis, though, do they make this distinction? Is it well founded, or is it a matter of doctrine dictating the meaning of Scripture? If it is the latter, then it is clearly out of order. Scripture must always determine doctrine. In the passage we are considering, faith is not mentioned directly. At the same time, as I noted above, one can't overthrow what is already on the same side of the battle. Military forces don't seek to destroy their own, but to destroy the opposition. If the force at hand is the force of deception, those it destroys are not likely to be those who share their deception. They seek to destroy those who are holding fast to the truth, and thereby to swell their own ranks. True, in the end they do no more than ensure their own destruction, but this is their own self-deception. They have been the first victims of their own attacks.
What of that passage from 2Timothy? Paul is on the same subject there, the issue of those who argue seemingly for the sake of argument. One could almost see this as a reference to the more modern issue of higher criticism. They wrangle about words, but their arguing is useless, and achieves nothing more than the ruin of their hearers. Paul calls his spiritual son to avoid such empty nonsense, for it cannot promote godliness, but only ungodliness. He continues by saying that such talk spreads 'like gangrene.' Here is a disease that attacks what is healthy, and corrupts it. Applied to the spiritual level, the parallel seems pretty clear. This empty and deceptive talk, if left unchecked, can and will spread into lives with spiritual health, will destroy and corrupt that spiritual health. What is spiritual health, other than faith? Thus, we come to Paul's conclusion on the matter: these corruptive influences upset the faith of some, overthrow and destroy it. Isn't this a deathblow to the idea of permanent election? How could Calvin and Henry have been so blind as to fall into this trap?
Before we toss out this doctrine, though, I suggest we proceed one more verse, to 2Timothy 2:19. Having clearly shown the danger, and the accomplished impact of this false teaching, Paul makes a critical point. "Nevertheless," he says, "the firm foundation of God stands." He places this seal upon the promise of salvation: "The Lord knows those who are His." Further down, in v25, he instructs Timothy to gently correct the opposition, in hopes that God might grant them repentance, and lead them into knowledge of the truth. So, let me clarify this, if I can. Faith can indeed be destroyed in us, if we are careless in our ways. As our teacher last night was saying, if what we do not feed will whither and die. If our diet is not right, we become weakened and more susceptible to disease. It is no different with our spirit. If our spiritual diet is not right, our faith may become weakened and more susceptible to deception. Thank God there is a "nevertheless," though! What word could be more wonderful at this instant!
Nevertheless, God knows His own. His foundation stands. What is that foundation, but His election, His choosing? Indeed, our faith may suffer by our neglect, but face it: that faith was never our own doing to begin with, it was a gift to us from our loving heavenly Father. He it is who tells us so plainly that He goes to great length to retrieve one lost sheep. Can't we hear the message in that? Who among us has not wandered off course for a time in this walk of faith? Who among us has not experienced seasons of doubt? Indeed, who among us has not accepted a false doctrine or two at some point, until God sovereignly moved to make clear our mistake? Some of us have doubtless been through periods during which no discernable faith remained in our being. But God. Nevertheless. The foundation remained, though no building stood atop it any longer. We may have suffered our temple to be destroyed, but there amidst the rubble, the cornerstone stands undamaged, the first critical layer of blocks remains undamaged. Our Shepherd remains faithful, though all His sheep be faithless. He seeks us out, calls us back in words our hearts long to hear, even in our unbelief.
The foundation stands. He knows His own, and He will not suffer to lose them. He may allow us our season of suffering and doubt, even as Job knew his time of trials. But Job found God faithful. All who have placed their trust in Him, all in whom He has chosen to begin His work, have found Him faithful to complete what He has started. This is why Calvin could look at this present passage without equivocating. This is why Matthew Henry can look upon it, and accept what it says of faith, without worrying that his doctrine had been overthrown. This is a key to the seeming conundrum of election in Scripture. We mustn't confuse faith with election.
If faith has been lost where election has come, we can be assured it will be restored. Is this any reason, though, to lessen our concern for the faith of those we may have charge over? While we may rest in the assurance of the eventual outcome, what heart of love could possibly sit idly by as sees one it loves entering the paths of danger? Who among us will simply stand aside and watch as a child walks headlong into disaster? If we see that child heading for a busy street, we don't simply trust in the doctors to fix whatever damage might occur should the child be hit by a car. No! We shout out with all that is in us to stop that child in his tracks. If it is within our power and reach, we will surely do everything we can to physically restrain him from his deadly pursuit. Indeed, even if it's not within our reach, we will doubtless do our all to stop him anyway. Can we do any less for those placing themselves in spiritual danger? Of course not! Love demands that we seek by every means at our disposal to stay them from their painful course, to spare them the suffering they would bring upon themselves.
That's the teacher's role: the role of spiritual parent. The good teacher learns the state of his students, knows them sufficiently to see when their course is wandering. The good teacher, seeing a wayward student, will not allow the waywardness to continue unchecked. He will do his utmost to make that student's error clear, and to show him the more excellent way. He will do all that he can to prevent the suffering that must come on the pathways of error.
Lord, I thank You for showing me this distinction, this morning. How wonderfully, indeed, do Your words agree one with another. How beautifully You intertwine Your truths into an unbreakable cord. I thank You, my God, that where You have shown Your truth, we can hold to it unashamedly. I thank You, Holy Spirit, that when we become confused, when the testimony of Scripture seems in conflict with itself, You bring clarity, You show the unity of the message. Oh, Your words are as a symphony to me, Your truths as a pleasant chorus, each piece of Your revelation sweetly harmonizing with the next. Who could earnestly declare such an incredibly interconnected system was devised by the mind of man? God! That men should make such claims, and that of a people that in the next breath they declare primitive in their understanding! It defies the brightest men of this day and age to devise a system that even approaches the perfection of Your governance! Thank You, my Savior, that You have made Your choice of me! Thank You, my God, that Your word is so perfectly preserved to guide me. Thank You, Holy Spirit, that Your teaching of that word makes things so clear!
