Invasive Species

A local media story headlined “Invasive New Zealand mud snails lead to closure,” noted that access to a popular creek area was closed after the discovery of that invasive species in the creek. The mud snails are about the size of a grain of rice and one can produce a colony of 40 million snails in a year because of their ability to rapidly reproduce through cloning, disrupting aquatic ecosystems, harming fish populations, and displacing native insects. The species can easily move from one body of water to another by attaching to things like an animal or fishing equipment. The parks department, struggling with how to manage the presence of the species, urged people to avoid accessing streams or creeks where the snails have been found, to thoroughly clean waders and fishing equipment, and to brush dogs to make sure that they are not carrying any of the snails. Invasive species like this tiny mud snail can bring great harm.

Our nation is currently in turmoil and in great danger. Our constitutional republic has seemingly become an oligarchy, ruled by a small Leftist elite. “Patriot” has become a word considered to be almost hate speech. Virtue is mocked while immorality is rampant and accepted. Christianity has largely been abandoned. This did not happen instantly; it began with small steps that over time grew and ultimately brought about the perilous state in which we find ourselves.

The history of the church is marked by the presence of “invasive species.” The New Testament writers observed that this was happening and wrote against it. Theological error was present very early in church history and is addressed in the New Testament. False teachers and unworthy leaders, full of pride and bad character, were already present before the closing of the writing of the New Testament. Immorality infected the early church and is denounced by the New Testament writers. Paul, Peter, and Jude in their writings clearly warned against these “invasive species” and gave instruction to be diligent and to deal with these and other issues.

This has continued through the centuries. By the nineteenth century, rationalism and liberalism began to invade many denominations and churches and eventually drove out gospel truth. In the twentieth century, as theological liberalism continued its destructive path and theological error became widespread, the sins against which the New Testament authors warned became accepted, and by the twenty-first century even unspeakable immorality has become accepted and celebrated. Slowly at first, in almost imperceptible steps, “invasive species” have infected churches and institutions, diverting them away from truth and true gospel ministry.

Often there is not much we as individuals can do about these things. But perhaps more importantly we need to be vigilant about “invasive species” in our own lives, things that distract us, things that will sideline and ultimately do great harm to us. Anger can become destructive if we nurture it and allow it to grow in our life. In Ephesians 4:3, Paul instructed, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” Fear and anxiety can grow and sometimes paralyze us, especially when we focus on difficult or disagreeable circumstances. The Psalmist wrote in the 118^th Psalm, “I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Envy and jealousy can become poisonous. Immorality may start out in small, almost imperceptible ways and grow into something that brings disaster. In the Ten Commandments, there is a prohibition against idolatry and having any sort of other god before God, and this is repeated throughout the Bible. All sorts of attitudes and actions can grow and become idols and take us away from devotion to the Savior. Further, in the Commandments we are forbidden to murder, commit adultery, steal or even covet, bear false witness, or dishonor parents. These forbidden things can become introduced into our lives in small ways.

Philippians 4:8 reminds, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” The closing of churches in response to the virus disrupted the church life of American believers, and it has become too easy for some to continue to stay away from church and the discipleship and fellowship that is so vital to assist us in the task of “meditate on these things.” Diligence is required. Nations – churches – families – individuals – are brought down slowly by the “invasive species” that are everywhere.

Proverbs 4:3 reminds, “Keep your heart with diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”

Preaching and Teaching Doctrine

I was “blown away,” as they say, by his lesson.

I recently attended a relatively large Baptist church’s Sunday night service. The church is, in my estimation, very healthy. The pastor didn’t so much preach but taught, and I was “blown away,” as they say, by his lesson.

A solid expository preacher on Sunday mornings, the pastor taught this night on a doctrinal subject related to the doctrine of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), as part of a Sunday night series on doctrinal subjects. My first reaction was that the subject matter (pertaining to the precedence faith as opposed to regeneration) might be over the head of most of the people in my circle of family and friends, though I personally was very interested in listening to his approach to the subject matter as well as his conclusion.

As I listened, several things struck me. Most Christians I know, including most pastors I have known, probably couldn’t intelligently even discuss the subject. This pastor (who is personable and engaging) is both a theologian and student of Scripture and is willing to do the hard work of taking an important, detailed, and difficult subject and preparing a lesson that is understandable to his congregation. He has, as an able teacher of Scripture, put his congregation in a place where they can listen to such teaching. He understands the primacy of Scripture and the importance of teaching the Bible and doctrine to his people. He is systematically “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” as Ephesians 4:12 tells us. They are being built up in their faith, growing in their understanding of the teachings of the Bible, gaining the ability to live out their faith and answer the questions of those in their circles of influence.

This Sunday evening gathering wasn’t the sort of low energy afterthought that helped kill off Sunday evening services in many churches. It wasn’t a small group meeting devoted to chit-chat and sharing of opinions, or an entertaining video presentation. It wasn’t a silly motivational talk; it was solid, vital teaching. The pastor was not overly dogmatic or riding any sort of “hobby horse” in his presentation, but he discussed the clear teaching of Scripture as well as leaving room for disagreement on finer points, even charitably pointing out opposing views on some of the details of the issue. He was teaching people to study the Word. The minds of people were engaged as students of the Word.

Days earlier, I had been in a conversation with a person who had grown up in church and been in church for many years, but who seldom has heard solid preaching and teaching. The conversation broadly pertained to confusion and questions related to soteriology. Reflecting on the Sunday night lesson, I wonder if this person might have profited from hearing what that pastor said that night, and more importantly, hearing such solid teaching on a weekly basis. There is no substitute for preaching and teaching Scripture and doctrinal truth from Scripture.

On another recent occasion at the same church, I heard a speaker who had emigrated from China. As a youth in China, as well as after coming to North America, he had struggled with the question of “what is the meaning of life?” Post-modern Americans, at least when they allow themselves to think, struggle with the same question. Christianity has the Answer to that question! And so many other vital questions! But, churches will not help people find that Answer without an emphasis on content. Jesus said, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17).”

Church as a Corporate Event

An internet Christian-themed video streaming provider recently sent out an invitation for a series from a well-known megachurch pastor. I decided to watch at least the first session.

The series was recorded as the sermons at the Sunday service at the speaker’s megachurch, reportedly one of the largest evangelical churches in America. In his introduction to the week one lecture that introduced his theme, the pastor invited hearers to put aside any skepticism about the Bible, and spoke of the conversion of Saul and his transformation to the Apostle Paul in Acts. The speaker noted, “You don’t have to accept any of this,” “This has nothing to do with believing the Bible,” and “Take this question seriously, even if you are not a Christian.” He displayed Ephesians 5:15-17, noting that Ephesians was a letter written telling Christians how to live, and introduced his theme for the series, “What’s the Wise Thing to Do?” Using words from the Ephesians passage as a sort of springboard, he exhorted hearers not to be “unwise,” or careless, but to be “wise,” or careful, and that “the days are evil”, so “don’t let the flow of culture take you where you don’t want to be.”

He then introduced three questions as a formula for making wise decisions. With the first, “In light of my past experience, what’s the wise thing to do?”, he emphasized that what is ok for one person may not be ok for another because of differing past experiences. The second question was, “In light of my current circumstances, what’s the wise thing to do?”, and the third, “In light of my future hopes and dreams, what’s the wise thing to do?”, noting that personal vision is often a catalyst for wise decisions. At the end of the talk, he assigned homework – “Ask it,” noting that in so doing one might learn something about oneself, and that perhaps people don’t always have their own best interests in mind, but maybe God does.

What hit me as I listened was not anything negative about this megachurch pastor’s formula. He could make a mint as a corporate motivational speaker. What really hit me was the thought that many hundreds of people had come to this church and its various satellite locations that week, and heard nothing of the gospel, had heard nothing of grace, nothing of faith and repentance, had heard the word “Jesus” mentioned in passing once or twice, had heard nothing from the Bible. The attenders likely heard a rousing contemporary music concert before this lecture, but at the end of the day they had not in any way worshipped God and had heard nothing from scripture that would impact their lives. Perhaps subsequent lectures in this series might have clearly included something like scriptural principles for decision-making or the Christian life or even included a clear explanation the gospel, but not this lecture. I listened to most of the second and last sermons in the series, but never heard anything of sin, salvation, grace, faith, or doctrine, and barely a mention Jesus.

Several weeks earlier, the same megachurch pastor was featured on a nationally syndicated Christian radio broadcast that I passively listen to on occasion. The two-part broadcast that aired around July 4 featured a sermon delivered at the megachurch, likely delivered the previous year in conjunction with July 4. He delivered a good lecture concerning American history, the founders, and patriotic themes. I recall agreeing with what he said almost in total. But at the time I remember thinking how tragic it was that a few thousand people had attended this man’s megachurch services that week and heard nothing of the gospel, nothing of Christ, nothing really from the Bible. They went to an event at what was billed as church, but it was devoid of worship and anything distinctly Christian. It was essentially a corporate event.

We are told that this is the way to “do church” today. It is surely a road to destruction. The New Testament book of Jude, verse 4 reminds us, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verses 12-13 remind, “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Impressive clouds, but empty.

Jonathan Edwards and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Shortly before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus observed the Passover meal with His disciples. As He spoke to them and explained what was to come, He told them,

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:25-26, NKJV).

As one person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit was of course always present in the world. Jesus promised the disciples in this passage that the Spirit was to come in a new and fuller sense. Jesus told them that, when He was gone and the Spirit came, the Spirit would teach them, help them to understand what they had seen in Jesus, help them to see Christ as the fulfillment of the messianic anticipation and prophecies in the Old Testament. And the Spirit would “bring to (their) remembrance” the events they had seen and experienced in their time with Jesus. In John 20:22, after the resurrection, “He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The eyewitnesses, as they later recorded the gospels and the writings of the New Testament, wrote not just as witnesses with fading memories. They wrote as eyewitnesses under the teaching, guidance, and inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

Peter later wrote, “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21, NKJV). The Old Testament writings were from men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament writings are from those who were both witnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and were under the inspiration of the Spirit. The authors of the Bible wrote the objective message of God that He wanted to convey to mankind. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1751) is regarded as perhaps America’s foremost early theologian. He was a brilliant man who spoke and wrote extensively of the sovereignty and holiness of God. He understood this principle of the sufficiency of scripture. Edwards wrote,

“And yet some people actually imagine that the revelation in God’s Word is not enough to meet our needs. They think that God from time to time carries on an actual conversation with them, chatting with them, satisfying their doubts, testifying to His love for them, promising them support and blessings. As a result, their emotions soar; they are full of bubbling joy that is mixed with self-confidence and a high opinion of themselves. The foundation for these feelings, however, does not lie within the Bible itself, but instead rests on the sudden creations of their imaginations. These people are clearly deluded. God’s Word is for all of us and each of us; He does not need to give particular messages to particular people.”

The Spirit gave us the Word, and it is that written Word that tells us all we need to know. The written Word communicates the gospel to us, the gospel that coupled with the ministry of the Spirit brings us salvation. His continuing ministry to us is to illuminate the written Word. He does not give us, and we do not need, new revelation outside of the Bible. It is the Bible that teaches us what the Savior did and taught. Learning to hear the Spirit in the Bible is our lifelong assignment. Through our prayerful and careful study of Bible, the Spirit develops our ability to discern truth from error, make decisions, and live the life He has for us.

We don’t need dreams, visions, voices, or impressions. We don’t need to seek continuing revelation, and we can and should be skeptical of the claims of others that they have received such direct communication from God apart from the written Word. We need the Spirit’s ministry through the Word. Reading and studying the Bible, however, might be the easy part. Obeying it and putting it into practice, well, that is sometimes the real challenge.

Amazing Grace?

Recently, I attended a service at a church where the projector in the room wasn’t working properly, and a printed sheet was handed out with the words to the songs that were to be used. I kept the sheet and looked at it later. I think the projector failure that caused me to look at the words of the songs may have been providential.

One of the songs that was performed was titled “God in the City.” I observed that the words aren’t really distinctively Christian, at least in a traditional evangelical sense. There is mention of God as “God of this city” (I assumed it to be the city where the song was performed), and some general concepts of God as “King of these people,” “Lord of this nation,” “Creator,” etc., and the phrase “There is no one like our God” is repeated many times. But the words express nothing that could not be used by a Catholic, a Mormon, or any other group in Christendom. There is no mention of anything distinctively doctrinal, no mention of Christ, no mention of the atonement, faith, or repentance, nor is there any expression of true worship.

But the song that really caught my attention was titled “How Sweet the Sound.” This contemporary number borrows the phrase “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound” from John Newton’s words set to music in the classic hymn “Amazing Grace.” Newton’s words are deeply doctrinal and expressive of the nature of grace and explain the reason that the word “grace” might be said to have a sweet sound to a Christian. He wrote that grace “saved a wretch like me,” that “I once was lost, . . . was blind.” He is expressing the truth of being “lost” in sin. Newton knew that there can be no understanding of grace in the biblical sense without understanding that human beings are hopelessly lost in sin. Sin is a pervasive fact of human existence, both personal sin and the sin nature we have as human beings since the Fall. But with the salvation offered to us by grace, God does not treat us with judgement but with mercy. He continues to deal with believers in grace as a principle of life, delivering us from the power of sin and forgiving our sins as we live in a fallen world. With the understanding of God’s grace as the remedy for sin, Newton wrote that he was no longer lost, “but now am found,” and was no longer blind “but now can see.” Newton wrote that grace “taught my heart to fear, ” that is, to know and fear God, “and grace my fears (fears in life) relieved.” He connected the receipt of grace to faith when he wrote “How precious did the grace appear, the hour I first believed!” Newton’s words express something of the depth and meaning of the doctrine of grace and can be sung to God by a believer as an act of worship celebrating His grace in the forgiveness of our sin. The hymn is an expression of gratitude from the heart of a repentant sinner who had been saved by grace.

A later writer in the nineteenth century wrote the words of the classic hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin.” The author wrote of the “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt” in her opening line. Her words speak of Calvary, “There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.” The second verse speaks of “sin and despair” that “threaten the soul with infinite loss,” but grace “points to the refuge, the mighty Cross.” The third verse reminds that the dark stain of sin can be removed by nothing but God’s grace; the fourth verse celebrates that grace is extended to all who believe and pleads, “Will you this moment His grace receive?” Like Newton, this author poetically explained God’s offer of grace as a remedy for sin available to be received by faith, made possible by what Christ did for us. Singing this hymn is a testimony and an act of worship remembering God’s grace in providing Christ as the remedy for sin.

The words of the contemporary “How Sweet the Sound” number on the sheet I received takes a decidedly different tack. The words contain phrases such as “You are always right beside me,” “You’re my rock and strength, You comfort me,” and “Carry me through the waters, Where Your peace clears away all my sorrow.” The chorus begins “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, I hear you singing over me,” and then repeats Newton’s words “I once was lost but now I’m found” before continuing on to say that grace is beautiful, covers every part of me, and has a beautiful sound. Aside from the quote of Newton’s words “I once was lost but now I’m found,” there is no mention of any concept of sin, repentance, or forgiveness. There is no mention of Christ, no mention of His atoning death that made salvation possible and brings His gracious favor and blessings to believers, no mention of faith, just an upbeat celebration that “You” are beside me giving me things like comfort, shelter, and healing in my perceived personal pain. The song uses the words “amazing grace,” but doesn’t in any way connect to the biblical concept of salvation by grace or help understand what “grace” means. The focus is purely on a “grace” that benefits “me” in the present. The tone is almost narcissistic. The concept of grace that might be brought to mind by the words of this song is decidedly different than the grace that was understood by John Newton.

Amazing grace? I’ll stick with John Newton’s version.