11:00 a.m. Morning service

Subject: Celebrating Christ’s birth heaven’s way
Text: Luke 2:13-14, 20

6:30 p.m. Evening service

Subject: Waiting for Christ’s advent
Text: Luke 2:25, 38

Preacher at all services: Rev.Andy Foster

All are very welcome!

Apostasy is departure from God, Malachi 3:7—…ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them… In Malachi’s day this apostasy had affected every level of society and profoundly impacted the thinking of the nation about spiritual matters. He particularly addresses the priests who had become corrupt and were leading the nation astray as far as the right worship of God was concerned, Malachi 1:6, 2:7-9.

Departure from God carries with it a blindness to its existence, Malachi 3:7, 8, 13 etc. The people the prophet addresses can see no need to repent or return to the Lord! We may sin seriously and not see it! Many Christians justify sin on the grounds that they have ‘no conscience’ about it! The scene is set for some plain speaking by God’s messenger in order to make them see what they are blind to.

Spiritual matters must be dealt with plainly and honestly by the preacher. Malachi forthrightly condemns sin and yet has a word of promise to the repentant. One of the issues that Malachi deals with in this context is to highlight the sin of the people in relation to their giving to God, Malachi 1:13, 8. Here is a specific aspect of right worship that had been affected by the apostasy of the day. It is a matter that, to this day, suffers from the effects of disobedience within the ranks of the Church.

I GOD REQUIRES A TITHE.

1. The tithe is the tenth part. This is the portion that God has instituted as being due to Him. It is His part. It is described in Scripture as the holy portion, Leviticus 27:30-32; a portion that is not to be tampered with or used in any other way. The tithe of our income is the basic, mandatory portion that is to be given to God. See how He also speaks of offerings – an additional, voluntary portion.

2. Is tithing relevant to the New Testament believer? The most important issue that needs to be dealt with at this point is whether or not the principle of tithing relates to the New Testament people of God. Or, is it a requirement that passed away with the Levitical economy? As with many of the ceremonial aspects of the Law that was binding on Israel, the aspects of tithing that was part of the Levitical code have been set aside, but the principle remains. You can see an illustration of this in the various kinds of Sabbaths/rest days enacted for Israel that were set aside (Colossians 2:16), but the principle of a weekly Sabbath, instituted at Creation and perpetuated in the Moral law, still remains in effect.

It is important for us to recognize that the principle of tithing is not limited to the Mosaic economy. The Levitical code simply developed a principle already in place and applied it to the nation of Israel.

• Abraham paid tithes. “And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them (i.e. Christ) received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth”, Hebrews 7:5-8. The tithing principle was in effect before Israel existed as a nation and, in Abraham’s case, more than four centuries before the Levitical code was instituted for Israel at Sinai (Genesis 15:13, Galatians 3:17).

It is striking to see that Abraham paid tithes to Christ in the context of meeting Him as Melchisedec, the King of righteousness and peace (Genesis 14:20, Hebrews 7:2). He did so as he ate and drank with Him. His fellowship with the Saviour involved the willing payment of a tithe.

• Jacob paid tithes. “And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” (Genesis 28:22) In this case, Jacob made a vow to pay tithes from that point forward in life. He did so in the wake of having a vision of God at Bethel in which Christ is seen in type as the ladder that reached to Heaven from earth. Such a view of Christ will ever produce a a spirit of consecrated giving God His portion.

• The Saviour on tithing. The principle of tithing is one that is directly endorsed by the Saviour Himself. Not only did He receive tithes from Abraham prior to the institution of Levitical practice; but in His own ministry He commanded them as a duty to accompany faith,

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other (i.e. The tithing) undone”. Matthew 23:23

“…Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”, Matthew 22:21. Here the Saviour is obviously indicating that we have an obligation in financial matters to give God that which belongs to Him as legitimately as taxes belong to the Emperor.

3. The purpose of this giving is two-fold.

Tithing honours God. This is suggested by the fact that withholding the tithe is an affront to God, Malachi 3:8 and an outrage against His person. The practice of tithing gives to Him the place He rightly holds as Sovereign Lord. Tithing is the recognition of the place that God holds over us, to deal with us as He pleases. The tenor of these words in Malachi is found again in Proverbs 3:9-10: “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine”. Notice that the duty of giving is described as honouring God.

Tithing is God’s instituted means of providing for the temporal requirements of His work. In Old Testament times the priests and their families, as well as the poor of the land (Deut 14:28-29) were sustained by the giving of God’s people. The temporal requirements of every aspect of God’s work was met by the giving of saints. The cause of God suffers when there is a failure to give to Him what He demands. This funding arrangement carries over into the New Testament as is clear from 1 Corinthians 9:13-14.

II WITHHOLDING THE TITHE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

To retain that which rightly belongs to the Lord is an audacious act of robbery. The prophet expresses surprise in his question, Malachi 3:8. “Will a man”—the Hebrew term here gives us the name Adam, a man made from dust—”rob God”, who is omnipotent? This is daylight robbery indeed. To ‘rob’ has the idea of subterfuge and stealth – but nothing can be hidden from God! Here is robbery that occurs in the full sight of God—however men may attempt to do it under cover. This is bold and foolish action indeed for God cannot be deceived by attempts to defraud Him.

The consequences of such action are serious.

• The censure of God. See Malachi 3:9. Obviously this is a curse that comes upon them for disobedience and is to be lifted again when obedience is seen and replaced with blessing. In this limited sense the people of God may bring His curse upon them. They bring bitterness and ruin into their lives by defiance of God. Cp 1 Corinthians 11:29.

• Nature itself is affected. See Malachi 3:11. God makes a direct link between tithing and the productivity of the land! Here is something that many wish to ignore. God can give or withhold such natural blessings as it pleases Him. Here, because the people were robbing Him of the tithe He simply withheld His blessing from the work of their hands. Such things suffer when we abuse God in this way.

• Political consequences. See Malachi 3:11. Some enemy had already risen to be a devourer in the land. The land was being eaten up!

The lesson of this is clearly that, by withholding that which rightfully belongs to the Lord we are the poorer for it. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. It never pays to rob God! Though natural reason would dictate that by sparing ourselves the ‘expense’ of paying God His due we will be better off, this is never the case.

III THE BLESSINGS OF TITHING IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

1. The prophet speaks words of comfort to those who will obey God. The sin that he has been speaking of can be reversed. There is to be a turning in repentance; restitution made where possible; and a determination to go on in obedience. For those who do so, there is forgiveness and a promise of renewed blessing. The blood of Christ avails for our sins as we confess them, I John 1:7, 9. The guilt of robbery from God may be put away for Jesus sake! It is striking to remember that the Saviour died as a thief—crucified between two thieves and identified with them—perhaps to emphasize that this sin is one of the most common we are guilty of – withholding from God what is His. His death pays the price of this sin.

2. A wonderful promise. To those who repent and obey Him in this matter, God has clearly promised certain blessings. He will open the floodgates of heaven. This expression appears in Genesis 7:11 to describe the deluge that brought Noah’s flood on the earth! Here is the measure of the blessing that God promises. Heaven will be emptied of a blessing that cannot be contained within finite limitations.

3. A promise backed by Divine power. The fact that the Lord speaks here as the Lord of Hosts, v10, 11, 12, emphasizes His power to do as He has said. He does not promise more than He can fulfil.

4. A challenge. He further emphasizes His promise by issuing a challenge – Prove me I pray you! God makes the blessings that follow tithing to be a challenge – one to which He must respond or fail to be God! Is it a challenge that you are prepared to take up? Will you prove God in this matter?

A fuller experience of the love of God belongs to those who cheerfully comply with this duty. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver, 2 Corinthians 9:7.

Conclusion.

Persisting in not tithing clearly implies:

• Disobedience. Obviously the one who will not tithe doesn’t care what God says on this matter.

• Unbelief. Refusal to tithe indicates the mindset that God cannot bless me enough to outweigh the sacrifice of giving a tenth to Him. To tithe is an act of faith. All obedience springs from faith; disobedience from unbelief.

Perhaps you would say that you had given your money to good causes, that you had gone to church or chapel regularly, and that you had been an exemplary neighbor. Or would you tell God that He should let you into heaven because you had responded to an altar call, that you had signed a decision card, and had been baptized and had been a faithful member of your church?

What would you say if I told you that, based on responses like these, God would not and could not let you into Heaven? All of these answers — and many more like them — reveal one very sad and important thing about those who believe that these things will see them through the gates of heaven — they believe that good works will save them from hell. But what does the Bible say?

God’s Word says that it is “not by works of righteousness that we have done” that we are saved from the judgment of God (Titus 3:5). Salvation from sin and hell can never be obtained by trying to live a good life or keep the Ten Commandments. God’s law can only condemn you; it cannot save you. It demands perfect obedience which neither you nor anyone else can give because every man is born into this world a sinner, without any power to meet the demands of God’s holy law.

Remember, it only takes the breaking of one of God’s commandments to condemn a man to hell forever. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Tragically, many people imagine that God is just going to “wink” at all their sins and let them into heaven. After all, it is argued, He is a God of love and mercy and would never condemn anyone to hell who had tried to do their best.

But while God is certainly One who is “full of compassion”, yet He is also a God who is full of justice. “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity….” (Isaiah 13:11) His own holy nature demands that every sin be punished. The Bible says that, in the eyes of God, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Therefore, if your present hope for heaven is your “good life”, you have no ground for hope at all.

But there is good news! God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, left heaven and came into this world to save those could never save themselves. He was crucified on the Cross in order to take the wrath of God in the place of sinners like you. God the Father punished sin in Christ on Calvary…not for sin that He had committed, but for the sins of others. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Not only do you need someone who can take away the punishment of God for your sin, but you also need someone who can make you perfectly righteousness in the eyes of a holy and just God. This is why CHRIST is the only Savior of sinners. As the God-Man, He kept perfectly that law of God that you could not keep. And if you will lean your whole weight on what He has done for your salvation and on His righteousness, God will accept you as righteous for Christ’s sake. He will save you.

Christ states the matter very plainly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Read those words again…”the way.” Jesus Christ is not one of many ways to God the Father and heaven; He is the one and only way. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). If you do not go to Him and take the salvation that He — even now — freely offers you, then you must, upon your death, personally bear the wrath of God in hell forever. The factor that determines where you will spend eternity depends on whether or not you have trusted in Christ alone to save you.

Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ right now where you are. Confess to Him that you are indeed a sinner that deserves to be punished, that you have no good works that could ever make you acceptable, and that you have no power whatsoever to save yourself. But then plead the gospel truth that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save those who could not save themselves. Ask Christ to save you from your sin and the judgment to come. Go to Him even now for He said, “…him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy Blood was shed for me,

And that thou bidd’st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because Thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God I come, I come.”

Published by: Lifeline Publications, 1600 Neilson Road, Scarborough, Ontario Canada M1X 1S3

From the Free Presbyterian Tract Society

What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD (Jeremiah 23:28). Just as the chaff was to be sifted, separated and rejected so false gospels are to be discerned and refused as worthless. This leaflet is a brief examination of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is revealed to us in Scripture and how the chaff of a counterfeit message may be known.

Whatever is of value is at risk of being counterfeited. The greater the value, the greater the likelihood that an inferior copy will be substituted for the genuine valuable. There is nothing more precious than the revelation to a sinful world of a message of salvation and restoration to favour with God. That message, stated clearly and authoritatively in the Word of God has been the subject of innumerable attempts at forgery and counterfeit. In every age there have been attempts to substitute an inferior gospel of human manufacture in the place of the message that God Himself has revealed. It is a marked feature of the last days that the counterfeits of God’s truth will become more numerous and more subtle. What is presented as being “the gospel” may not necessarily be so. Just as we are warned from time to time to examine the paper money we receive lest we are the unwitting victim of a forger, so we are called upon by the Lord Himself to examine every message that claims to be “the gospel” and every messenger who claims to be the servant of God. Such testing is Scriptural — Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world (I John 4:1). It is striking to see the Apostle use the word Beloved here — it is a mark of his love and care for them that he urges them to such action. To some it may appear judgmental and critical, but it is in fact the loving counsel of the Spirit of God to His people.

The question will arise, By what standard should we examine those who claim to be of God and to preach His Word? The answer is simple for there is ONE authoritative standard — what God Himself has said and preserved in written form in His Word, the Bible. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20). It is recorded as a commendation of those in Berea that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). If Paul did not object to such critical analysis of his preaching and comparison of it to the standard of Scripture no true servant of God should object either — rather he should encourage it. A claim to be a servant of God and to be preaching the truth of God will only stand up when, on careful evaluation that claim measures up with the consistent teaching of Scripture. It takes more than a few Scriptural phrases wrenched out of their context and twisted to mean what God never meant, to make a man or a message Scriptural and worthy of acceptance as from God.

What is the Gospel?

In order to be consistent with what has already been said above we must let the Bible speak for itself. What does the Bible say about the Gospel? Paul the Apostle gives one Scriptural definition of the gospel in I Corinthians 15:1-4.

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…

1. The Gospel is a revealed message. It is not a message of human manufacture, either by an individual or by the Church. It is the product of God and He has revealed it to men in His Word. Note carefully how Paul uses the words here, according to the Scriptures v3-4.  The gospel which Paul preached was a message which he had received, v3. See also Galatians 1:11-12. The gospel therefore is a message that can only be understood with the help of the Spirit of God. It is a message that will be despised as foolish by the natural mind. Paul states this in I Corinthians 2:14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Man in his natural sinful state cannot understand the gospel — it is a heavenly message with a Divine origin, it is the gospel of God (Romans 1:1).

2. The Gospel message exposes and condemns sin. Paul speaks here of our sins, v3. Sin is defined in Scripture as the transgression of the law (I John 3:4). Sin is a breaking of God’s holy Law by either doing what it prohibits or coming short of what it requires. Paul also refers to our sin as deserving death — Christ died for our sins; the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). All have sinned (Romans 3:23) and therefore all men deserve the penal consequence of sin — death. Sin brings a death that is three-fold —

• it is spiritual — The sinner has no spiritual life but is as a corpse as far as any relationship with God is concerned — dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1).
• it is physical — Death entered the world because of sin, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12).
• it is eternal — There are eternal consequences to sin. There is eternal death. This is not annihilation but is eternal existence in a state of dying because of sin. Eternal death is just one of the ways of describing the horrors of a lost sinner’s Hell. Because all mankind are sinners by nature and by daily practice, all by nature are spiritually dead, will die physically and are destined to eternal death.

3. The gospel reveals the hopelessness of the sinner. The word of God does not promote self-esteem, it destroys it. The very first lesson  mankind must learn is that each is a sinner, guilty and condemned before God with no hope in ourselves or in any other apart from the free grace of God. The gospel reveals the doom of the sinner. It is a message that first makes a man hopeless because it reveals the curse of God’s Law on sin and consequently upon the sinner. Consider Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:12, speaking of the state of those believers before their conversion — That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

4. The Gospel reveals God’s Plan of redemption. Hopeless sinners are given hope by the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is their only hope. God in mercy has devised a means of salvation whereby He is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Romans 3:26). In other words, He has devised a way to satisfy the demands of His inflexible Holy justice and yet also extend mercy to the guilty hell-deserving sinner. That plan revealed in the gospel is the provision of Christ the Son of God as the sinner’s substitute. This is what Paul refers to here in I Cor 15:3, Christ died for our sins, He had died in the place of those he is referring to! This is the ONE way to God — Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6); Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

The death of Christ is the cornerstone of the gospel. Death is the penalty of sin but for sinners to escape the penalty they deserve that sin has to be punished in a substitute. God cannot just ignore sin! It must be punished — if not in the sinner then in someone else. Yet only a sinless substitute could satisfy the wrath of God. Since no man is sinless, no man could pay the price of sin either for himself or for any other. Christ was the sinless Lamb of God Who came to bear away the sin of a world of guilty sinners (John 1:29). On Calvary’s cross Christ died the just for [i.e. in the place of] the unjust that He might bring us to God (I Peter 3:18). Christ became sin in the place of sinners — in other words He stepped in as the substitute and God dealt with Him as the sinners He was representing deserved. Because of His sinless life and substitutionary death sinners can be just or righteous in the sight of God. When the righteousness of Christ’s life and the pardoning effect of His blood are counted as belonging to the believing sinner they secure for him a justified standing before God. In effect, through the work of Christ, sinners who trust in Him stand before God as if they had never sinned! For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (II Corinthians 5:21). This is the great doctrine of Justification.

The Gospel reveals that this work of Christ was a finished and completed work. Paul states this very clearly here — He rose again the third day v4. The resurrection of Christ proves the veracity of His dying words on Calvary — It is finished (John 19:30). His work provides a full and final salvation that secures peace with God forever on the behalf of the believing sinner. The resurrection also proves that those who benefit from the death of Christ will have new life. Though formerly dead in sin, by Him they have spiritual and eternal life.

5. The Gospel reveals how the perfect provision of Christ for sinners may be obtained. Again Paul deals with this in I Corinthians 15:1-4. He is writing to those who were once in sin but are no longer guilty before God. They are those who are saved, those who have a standing before God and are no longer regarded by Him as fallen sinners. But what has brought this change?

a) The fact that they heard the gospel preached to them, v1, 3.

b) The fact that they received what was preached, v1. They welcomed the gospel message and received it into their minds.

c) They believed what was preached to them — ye have believed (v3). The benefits of Christ’s death for sinners is only made personal to the individual sinner as he trusts Christ, as he believes in Him. This is an important matter and we must be sure what faith is. It has to be noted that Paul speaks here of the possibility of believing in vain. There is such a thing as an empty faith, a kind of faith that does not save! Even the devil has faith of a kind — he believes there is one God and trembles (James 2:19) but the devil is not saved. It is not enough to say I have faith, the question is, Is it saving faith?

Saving faith is a wholehearted agreement with the truth of the Gospel as it is revealed in Scripture — that I am a sinner guilty and without hope unless God has mercy on me for Jesus’ sake.

Faith produces repentance — a change of mind regarding sin. It is sorrow over sin, shame at sin, hatred of what God condemns as sinful; it involves a confession of sin to God. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). Here, to confess sin is ‘to speak the same language’ as God about sin, to agree with His view of sin.

Faith comes to Christ to accept and embrace Him as He is freely offered in the gospel. Faith accepts Christ on His own terms — as Saviour and Lord. Faith does not try to make bargains with God, it rather recognizes the hopeless position the sinner is in and that Christ’s finished work as Redeemer is all the guilty sinner needs.

Salvation is by faith alone. The exhortation of Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer who asked Sirs, what must I do to be saved? was simply Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:30-31). The salvation which he and these Corinthians had experienced was as a result of genuine faith alone in Christ alone.

The Gospel has been the subject of many counterfeits.

Consider the words of Paul in Galatians 1:6-9. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Paul speaks here of another gospel (v6). Paul uses two different Greek words here both translated as another. The literal force of what Paul says here is —  ye are so soon removed…unto another gospel [of a different kind]: Which is not another[of the same kind]. While this new message claimed to be the gospel and called itself by that name it was different, it was not the same. It was in fact the product of those who pervert the gospel of Christ. This perversion is the deceptive work of the Devil. Consider carefully the words of II Corinthians 11:3-4 — But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

How may the Gospel of Jesus Christ be perverted or counterfeited?

This can be done quite easily by taking any, some or all of the essential points of the gospel  and modifying them. Usually the motive in such modification is to make the gospel message more appealing and attractive to the sinner who by nature hates God and His ways. Often to validate a perverted gospel other sources of authority are cited. Church authority or tradition, human writings, dreams and visions are often elevated to a position of equality or even superior to, the Bible. Such action is always the mark of a counterfeit gospel!

A counterfeit Gospel will modify the Scriptural concept of God. A human concept of God — what men think about God, feel about God, what they would like God to be, tailoring His Person and attributes to fit in with their own philosophy of God, is substituted in the place of what Word of God says. All this is folly. To do so is to have another god! The god of human concept may well be spoken of as God, referred to in Scriptural terminology but a message that departs from the truth that God has revealed about Himself that message is a fraud, it does not promote worship but idolatry.

A counterfeit message will bring in an unscriptural idea of sin. Sin is no longer spoken of as God defines it. The condemnatory language of the Bible is replaced with a modified definition of sin and guilt. Poverty, low self-esteem, emptiness of heart, social failure etc. are all popular counterfeits of God’s view of sin. The concept of guilt is set aside as being unpalatable, the Biblical doctrine of human responsibility is replaced with the idea that the sinner is really a victim of circumstances and that somehow it is not his fault that he is the way he is. The idea that there is some good in all men and it just needs to be nurtured is a common perversion of the gospel. Consequently there is a modification of what Scripture has to say about repentance and confession of sin. The need for repentance is often completely missing from the counterfeit gospel even though God now commandeth all men every where to repent (Acts 17:30). The counterfeit message will often be, God takes you the way you are. Just make a commitment and every thing will be fine.

The gospel doctrine of Redemption through Christ’s death alone has also been frequently modified. Some teach salvation is by works, by baptism, by partaking in the sacraments, a charismatic experience, or a mixture of these with faith. The absolute necessity of the death of Christ alone as the basis of acceptance with God is denied or changed and other ways to God are accepted as legitimate.

The faith that the gospel requires for salvation also comes in for change. It is reduced to a decision, often just a whim of the individual to decide to be a Christian. This is not saving faith. In most cases such a decision is made when there has been no real presentation of the gospel, no real dealing with sin to produce a conviction of guilt and no presentation of Christ as the only Saviour. These things are the basis of saving faith and where they are absent faith cannot be at work. Whatever prompts that decision it is not Biblical saving faith! It may well be emotion, or a desire to conform to peer pressure — but it is not saving faith.

The concept of what a Christian is to be is also modified. The gospel makes it clear that a Christian is one has been given a new nature — partakers of the Divine nature (II Peter 1:4) — they have been born again and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17). Many counterfeit gospels remove the Scriptural teachings of distinction from the world, likeness to Christ, separation from sin in all its forms and public identification with Christ and promote the idea that a Christian can live as he pleases.

There is absolutely no doubt that many of the counterfeits of the gospel are cleverly done. Paul’s words to the Galatians and to the Corinthians cited above make it clear that even though they were truly saved by embracing the truth they had later been deceived by a counterfeit message. Paul is writing to get them back to the truth of God. Some false gospels involve more change than others, but any message that is not identical to the message of the gospel as it is taught in Scripture is a perverted, counterfeit message and is to be rejected as such.

The tragedy of a counterfeit gospel.

The promotion and acceptance of a modified gospel is a great tragedy for all involved. Just as a man is a loser by accepting counterfeit money so the man who accepts a fake gospel is the poorer for it. The one who passes off a fraudulent message as the truth of God has committed a monumental crime and will be held accountable by God.

A perverted gospel carries the curse of God. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8). Note carefully that Paul instantly repeats this fact in v9. The anathema of God is upon those who promote a gospel that is different to His truth. The Scripture is full of denunciations of those who are termed false prophets (Cp Jeremiah 23:30-32). God hates the promotion of a lie as His truth and curses those who do so!

Those who receive and believe a counterfeit gospel place their trust in something God has cursed. It is a message that cannot bless their souls, a message that cannot save no matter how sincerely they accept it. There is no salvation in a counterfeit gospel — just a curse. Note very carefully that Paul says in Galatians 1:6 that another gospel removes its adherents from Christ. Consequently the false message that is presented as the gospel can only bring eternal misery and ruin. It will bring eternal disappointment to those who in trusting to it fully expected to enter Heaven but will be refused admission. Those who doubt that God could close Heaven against those who are sincere followers of a counterfeit gospel should carefully consider Matt 7:22-23  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Here are preachers and others who claim a legitimate right to Heaven — yet they are strangers to Christ and closed out of Heaven into Hell.

The awful consequences of being deceived about the well-being of our soul should prompt obedience of the command of the Apostle to Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves, (II Corinthians 13:5). This is a serious matter. We must be sure that we have Christ and have received the truth of God and have not been the victims of a religious fraud. Make sure your hope of Heaven rests on what God has said! In a parable (Matthew 7:24-27) the Lord Jesus commended the wisdom of the man who dug down to the rock and made that his foundation.This man was like those who heard and obeyed Christ’s word. It is striking to see in the context that Christ had warned of those who were false prophets (v15). Be sure you are on the rock of Christ’s word for then you will never fall.

For those who are truly saved and trusting Christ as He is revealed in Scripture nothing should be so hateful and abhorrent as to see the promotion of a forged Gospel. Society rightly reacts against forgers and scam artists as they practice their deceitful business of ripping off the unsuspecting. How much more should the Church of Jesus Christ react in holy and righteous indignation against those religious scam artists who are defrauding sinners of Heaven and damning them in Hell with their perverted gospel. The abundance of counterfeit gospels of today should make us all the more anxious to spread the truth of God’s Word and snatch men as brands from the burning.

A brief outline of the nature of the Ecumenical movement and what the Christian’s response to it should be.

The term ecumenical is derived from a Greek word that means “earth” or “world”. The term simply indicates that the intention of those who are engaged in ecumenical activity is to build one world-wide Church. The ecumenical movement is a movement that has Church unity as its goal.

The twentieth century has seen great advances in this direction. The establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948 was a quantum leap toward church unity. Since then there has been a steady increase in ecumenical activity both in a national and international sense. In recent times the evidence of the progressive strides that ecumenism has made is alarming. For example, the sixty four Lutheran denominations around the world are on the verge of accepting a joint statement with the Roman Catholic Church on the doctrine of Justification. When we think that Luther, the man from who this Church derives its name, broke from Roman Catholicism over this very issue, we see that the ecumenical movement is perilously close to success. The production of joint statements in 1994 and again in 1997 by Evangelicals and Catholics Together further shows how successful this movement has been. This group includes high ranking ‘evangelicals’ from the North American religious scene led by Charles Colson. The joint statement was then endorsed by other evangelicals including J. I. Packer and Bill Bright. Evangelical leaders like Dr Billy Graham are in the forefront of this ecumenical drive for religious unity and promote numerous inter-church activities. These are men that vast numbers of Christians listen to, support and follow. Many are carried along on this tide of ecumenism without understanding what it is and where it will take them. Ignorance has always been the Devil’s chief weapon in his destructive attacks on the cause of Jesus Christ. It is necessary that every one who is truly born of God examine the ecumenical movement in the light of Scripture, not in the light of popular opinion and obey what God has to say about it.

Roman Catholicism and the Ecumenical Movement.

It has long been the goal of the Roman Catholic Church to bring the “separated brethren” in the Protestant denominations back into fellowship with itself and so undo the work of the great Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. As part of the Second Vatican Council a Decree on Ecumenism was issued by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964. This decree is the authoritative statement of the Roman Catholic Church on ecumenical activity and on her involvement in it.

In this decree it is made abundantly clear that all ecumenical activity that the Roman Catholic Church endorses and participates in is designed solely to promote reunion with Rome. The Roman Catholic Church claims that she is the true Church and that nothing can ever change that fact. All who have ever separated from her are therefore in error and heresy. Roman Catholic doctrine insists that in order for church union to take place and the ecumenical goal of one world church to be reached there must be a return to the Roman Catholic fold. This teaching is clearly stated in the Decree on Ecumenism:—

“…it is only through Christ’s Catholic Church, which is ‘the all-embracing means of salvation,’ that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation. We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God.” (Paragraph 3)

“…when the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion have been gradually overcome, all Christians will at last, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, be gathered into the one and only Church in that unity which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. We believe that this unity subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose…” (Paragraph 4)

From this it will be very obvious that when ecumenism has the support of the Roman Catholic Church its direction is back to Rome and back to the Mass. The one Church envisaged by the ecumenists is a Roman Catholic Church. The use of deceitful words by modem clerics cannot hide the fact that the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that this is the direction ecumenical activity must take — back to the shackles of Papal darkness and superstition that the Reformation threw off.

The Charismatic Connection.

Ecumenism requires the help of numerous participants. One key participant in the march back to Rome is the Charismatic movement. This movement has an important role to play since it is very largely non-denominational and so very easily becomes inter-denominational. The charismatic movement has always emphasized personal feeling and experience above the written doctrines of Scripture. This has made it a very useful tool in the hand of the Devil. When the written doctrines of God’s Word are departed from or weakened error creeps in undetected — indeed error is welcomed by those ignorant of truth! The cardinal Scriptural doctrines of sin, justification and the once for all redeeming work of Christ became less important than the “charismatic experience” and so they were largely set aside and ignored. When the charismatic movement began to make inroads into the Roman Catholic Church the door was opened wide for a return to Rome. Those who believed in the charismatic experience could not avoid the conclusion that their fellow charismatics in the Catholic Church were motivated by the same spirit. Even though Charismatic Roman-Catholics openly claimed that their charismatic experience made them better Roman Catholics there was no logical reason for continued separation because their charismatic experience was identical. In recent times the emergence of groups such as Promise Keepers has proved again that the Charismatic movement is a Rome-ward movement. Promise Keepers is an interdenominational organization that openly promotes Roman Catholicism and has made Church unity a priority.

The Neo-evangelical factor.

There are many involved in the ecumenical movement who claim to be “evangelical”. The term “evangelical” is derived from the Greek word translated “Gospel” in the New Testament. An evangelical therefore is someone who preaches and believes the gospel of the Bible. Those in the ecumenical movement who claim to be evangelical are deceivers because they no longer believe or preach the gospel as it is recorded in Scripture. They have departed from the faith and although they may still use Biblical terminology in reality they preach another gospel. Many of the populist preachers of our day fall into this category. Dr Billy Graham is a case in point and there are many following in his wake who have abandoned the truths of God’s Word for a popular message that has no sin, no guilt, no Hell and no salvation in it. These modernists have openly embraced Roman Catholicism and are leading their followers back to union with Rome. Dr Graham is on record eulogizing the Pope as the greatest Christian on earth. His crusades have for many years involved Roman Catholic priests as counselors and he has encouraged his Roman Catholic “converts” to return to their Church. Such cooperation with Roman Catholicism by those who profess to be evangelical has done much to advance the ecumenical march back to Roman darkness.

What does God say?

God in His Word condemns any teaching that is not consistent with Scripture — to the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20). It is our solemn responsibility to examine all spiritual teaching by the Word of God. If what is said does not agree with Scripture it is to be rejected as false. It is for this reason that we must utterly reject the Church of Rome’s claim to be a Christian Church. That claim is nullified by Rome’s adherence to, the Mass as a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ; the unscriptural veneration of Mary and the saints; the promotion of Mary as a mediatrix between sinners and God; the erasing of original sin in baptism; and a multitude of other unscriptural teachings.

The whole direction of the ecumenical movement towards Rome is therefore wrong. Those involved are seeking union with a Church that God has cursed because of its error—If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him he accursed (Galatians 1:9). Ecumenical activity is manifestly wrong because it requires the abandoning Scriptural truth in order to facilitate progress towards union with Rome.

The call of God to His children is unmistakably clear — Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk In them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. (II Corinthians 6:14-17) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them (Ephesians 5:11)

The objection may well be raised, Does God not promote unity? John 17:21, where Christ prays that they all may be one, is often cited as a Scriptural mandate for ecumenism and Church unity. God in His Word calls for the unity of His people with Himself around the standard of revealed truth. Scriptural unity is unity on the unshakable foundation of Divine truth in Scripture not on the basis of error and false teaching that modern Church unity is founded upon.

God calls His people to separate and to resist the wicked trends of today. It is always easier to go with the crowd and therefore resistance to popular ecumenical activity carries a price. It will mean unpopularity; it will mean shame and the scorn of the crowd. Faithfulness to God, however, always means, the well done of God. Which will it be for you? The reward of popularity here on earth or the well done of God? John 12:42-43 records that among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Let us not follow this cowardly and shameful example in our day when an uncompromising stand for God is unquestionably called for!

[Re-printed from Watching and Waiting]

Download and print a PDF version of this article here.

(This article was written approximately 100 years ago, and it was a necessary warning at that time, but it is also very relevant to the present situation. Mr. Brown is probably known because of his association with Mr. Spurgeon. Both these men, with James Stephens and Frank H White, were amongst the original seven who, in 1891, signed the statement against the downgrade)Different days demand their own special testimony. The watchman who would be faithful to his Lord and the city of his God has need to carefully note the signs of the times and emphasize his witness accordingly. Concerning the testimony needed now, there can be little, if any, doubt. An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross, so brazen in its impudence, that the most shortsighted of spiritual men can hardly fail to notice it.

During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, ever for evil. It has worked like leaven, until now the whole lump ferments. Look which way you may, its presence makes itself manifest. There is little, if anything, to choose between Church, Chapel, or Mission Hall. However these may differ in some respects, they bear a striking likeness in the posters that figure upon and disfigure their notice boards. Amusement for the people is the leading article advertised by each. If my readers doubt my statement, or think my utterance too sweeping, let them take a tour of inspection and study ‘the announcements for the week’ at the doors of the sanctuaries of their neighbourhood; or let them read the religious advertisements in their local papers. I have done this again and again, until the hideous fact has been proved up to the hilt, that ‘amusement’ is ousting ‘the preaching of the gospel’ as the great attraction. ‘Concerts,’ ‘Entertainments,’ ,’Fancy Fairs,’ ‘Smoking Conferences,’ ‘Dramatic Performances,’ are the words honoured with biggest type and most startling colours. The Concert is fast becoming as much a recognised part of church life as the Prayer Meeting, and is already, in most places, far better attended.

‘Providing recreation for the people’ will soon be looked upon as a necessary part of Christian work and as binding upon the Church of God, as though it were a Divine command, unless some strong voices be raised which will make themselves heard. I do not presume to possess such a voice, but I do entertain the hope that I may awaken some louder echoes. Anyway, the burden of the Lord is upon me in this matter, and I leave it with Him to give my testimony ringing tone, or to let it die away in silence. I shall have delivered my soul in either case. Yet the conviction fills my mind that in all parts of the country there are faithful men and women who see the danger and deplore it and will endorse my witness and my warning.

It is only during the past few years that ‘amusement’ has become a recognised weapon of our warfare and developed into a mission. There has been a steady ‘down grade’ in this respect. From ‘speaking out,’ as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony; then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she has tolerated them in her borders, and now she has adopted them and provided a home for them under the plea of ‘reaching the masses and getting the ear of the people. ‘ The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church of Christ that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them into her ranks. The human nature that lies in every heart has risen to the bait. Here, now, is an opportunity of gratifying the flesh and yet retaining a comfortable conscience. We can now please ourselves in order to do good to others. The rough old cross can be exchanged for a ‘costume,’ and the exchange can be made with the benevolent purpose of elevating the people.

All this is terribly sad, and the more so because truly gracious souls are being led away by the specious pretext that it is a form of Christian work. They forget that a seemingly beautiful angel may be the devil himself, ‘for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Not in Holy Scripture

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in Holy Scripture as one of the functions of the Church. What her duties are will come under our notice later on. At present it is the negative side of the question that we are dealing with. Now, surely, if our Lord had intended His Church to be the caterer of entertainment, and so counteract the god of this world, He would hardly have left so important a branch of service unmentioned. If it is Christian work, why did not Christ at least hint it? ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,’ is clear enough. So would it have been if He had added, ‘and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.’ No such addendum, however, is to be found, nor even an equivalent for such, in anyone of our Lord’s utterances. This style of work did not seem to occur to His mind. Then again, Christ, as an ascended Lord, gives to His Church specially qualified men for the carrying on of His work, but no mention of any gift for this branch of service occurs in the list. ‘He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:11-12). Where do the ‘public entertainers’ come in? The Holy Ghost is silent concerning them, and His silence is eloquence.

If ‘providing recreation’ be a part of the Church’s work, surely we may look for some promise to encourage her in the toilsome task. Where is it? There is a promise for ‘My Word:’ ‘it shall not return unto Me void’ (Isaiah 55:11). There is the heart-rejoicing declaration concerning the gospel: ‘It is the power of God’ (Romans 1: 16). There is the sweet assurance for the preacher of Christ that, whether he be successful or no -as the world judges success -he is a ‘sweet savour unto God’ (2 Corinthians 2:15). There is the glorious benediction for those whose testimony, so far from amusing the world, rouses its wrath: ‘Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you’ (Matthew 5:11-12). Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people, or because they refused to? The gospel of amusement has no martyrology. In vain does one look for a promise from God for providing recreation for a godless world. That which has no authority from Christ, no provision made for it by the Spirit, no promise attached to it by God, can only be a lying hypocrite when it lays claim to be ‘a branch of the work of the Lord.

Antagonism to the Teaching of Christ

But again, providing amusement for the people is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What is to be the attitude of the Church towards the world according to our Lord’s teaching? Strict separation and uncompromising hostility. While no hint ever passed His lips of winning the world by pleasing it, or accommodating methods to its taste, His demand for unworldliness was constant and emphatic. He sets forth in one short sentence what He would have His disciples to be: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth’ (Matthew 5:13). Yes, the salt: not the sugar-candy nor a ‘lump of delight.’ Something the world will be more inclined to spit out than swallow with a smile. Something more calculated to bring water to the eye than laughter to the lip.

Short and sharp is the utterance, ‘Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:60). ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you’ (John 15:19). ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:23). ’1 have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world’ (John 17:14). ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ (John 18:36).

These passages are hard to reconcile with the modern idea of the Church providing recreation for those who have no taste for more serious things—in other words, of conciliating the world. If they teach anything at all, it is that fidelity to Christ will bring down the world’s wrath, and that Christ intended His disciples to share with Him the world’s scorn and rejection. How did Jesus act? What were the methods of the only perfectly ‘faithful witness’ the Father has ever had?

As none will question that He is to be the worker’s model, let us gaze upon Him. How significant the introductory account given by Mark, ‘Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel’ (1:14-15). And again, in the same chapter, I find Him saying, in answer to the announcement of His disciples that all men were seeking for Him, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth’ (1:38).

Matthew tells us, ‘And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and preach in their cities’ (11:1). In answer to John’s question, ‘Art Thou He that should come?’ He replies, ‘Go and show John those things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them’ (11:5). There is no item in the catalogue after this sort, And the careless are amused, and the perishing are provided with innocent recreation.

We are not left in doubt as to the matter of His preaching, for when many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door, He preached the Word unto them (Mark 2:2). There was no change of method adopted by the Lord during His course of ministry; no learning by experience of a better plan. His first word of command to His evangelists. was, ‘As ye go, preach’ (Matthew 10:7). His last, ‘Preach the gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15). Not an evangelist suggests that, at any time during His ministry, He turned aside from preaching to entertain, and so attract the people. He was in awful earnestness, and His ministry was like Himself. Had He been less uncompromising, and introduced more of the ‘bright and pleasant’ element into His mission, He would have been more popular.

Yet, when many of His disciples went back, because of the searching nature of His preaching, I do not find there was any attempt to increase a diminished congregation by resorting to something more pleasant to the flesh. I do not hear Him saying, ‘We must keep up the gatherings anyway, so run after those friends, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service to-morrow -something very short and attractive, with little, if any, preaching. Today was a service for God, but tomorrow we will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it, and have a happy hour. Be quick, Peter; we must get the people somehow; if not by gospel, then by nonsense.’ No, this was not how He argued. Gazing in sorrow on those who would not hear the Word, He simply turns to the twelve, and asks, ‘Will ye also go away?’ (John 6:67).

Jesus pitied sinners, pleaded with them, sighed over them, warned them, and wept over them; but never sought to amuse them. When the evening shadows of His consecrated life were deepening into the night of death, He reviewed His holy ministry, and found comfort and sweet solace in the thought, ‘I have given them Thy Word’ (John 17:14).

Antagonism to the Teaching of the Apostles

As with the Master, so with His apostles—their teaching is the echo of His. In vain will the epistles be searched to discover any trace of a gospel of amusement. The same call for separation from the world rings in every one. ‘Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed,’ is the word of command in the Romans (12:2).

‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing, , is the trumpet call in the Corinthians (2- 6:17). In other words it is COME OUT—KEEP OUT—KEEP CLEAN OUT—for ‘what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?’ (verses 14-15).

‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by (through) whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’ Here is the true relationship between the Church and the world according to the Epistle to the Galatians (6:14). ‘Be not ye, therefore, partakers with them …Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,’ is the attitude enjoined in Ephesians (5:7,11). ‘Sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world: holding forth the Word of life,’ is the word in Philippians (2:15). ‘Dead with Christ from the rudiments (elements) of the world,’ says the Epistle to the Colossians (2:20). ‘ Abstain from all appearance (every form) of evil’ is the demand in Thessalonians (1-5:22). ‘If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use,’ is the word to Timothy (2-2:21). ‘Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach,’ is the heroic summons of the Hebrews (13:13).

James, with holy severity, declares that ‘The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God’ (4:4). Peter writes: ‘Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (living)’ (1-1:14-15). John writes a whole epistle, the gist of which is, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever’ (1-2:15-17).

Here are the teachings of the apostles concerning the relationship of the Church and the world. And yet, in the face of them, what do we see and hear? A friendly compromise between the two, and an insane effort to work in partnership for the good of the people. God help us, and dispel the strong delusion. How did the apostles carry on their mission work? Was it in harmony with their teaching? Let the Acts of the Apostles give the answer.

Anything approaching the worldly fooling of today is conspicuous by its absence. The early evangelists had boundless confidence in the power of the gospel, and employed no other weapon. Pentecost followed plain preaching. When Peter and John had been locked up for the night for preaching the resurrection, the early Church had a prayer meeting directly they returned, and the petition offered for the two was, And now, Lord …grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word’ (4:29). They had no thought of praying, ‘Grant unto Thy servants more policy, that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation they may avoid the offence of the cross, and sweetly show this people how happy and merry a lot we are.’

The charge brought against the apostles by the members of the Council was, ‘Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine’ (5:28). Not much chance of this charge being brought against modem methods. The description of their work is, And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ (5:42). Then, if they ‘ceased not’ from this, they had no time for arranging for entertainments; they gave themselves continually ‘to the ministry of the word’ (6:4). Scattered by persecution, the early disciples ‘went every where preaching the word’ (8:4).

When Philip went to Samaria, and was the means of bringing ‘great joy in that city’ (8:8), the only recorded method is, He ‘preached Christ unto them’ (8:5). When the apostles went to visit the scene of his labours it is stated, , And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans’ (8:25). As they went back to Jerusalem directly they had finished their preaching, it is evident they did not think it their mission to stay and organise some ‘pleasant evenings’ for the people who did not believe.

The congregations in those days did not expect anything but the Word of the Lord, for Cornelius says to Peter, ‘We are all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God’ (10:33). The message given was, ‘Words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved’ (11:4). Cause and effect are closely linked in the statement, ‘Men of …Cyrene …spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus; and the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord’ (11:20-21). Here you have (1) their method—they preached; (2) their matter—the Lord Jesus; (3) their power—the hand of the Lord was with them; and (4) their success—many believed. What more does the Church of God require today?

When Paul and Barnabas worked together, the record is, ‘The Lord gave testimony unto the word of His grace’ (14:3). When Paul, in a vision, hears a man of Macedonia saying, ‘Come over …and help us,’ he assuredly gathers that the Lord had called him to preach the gospel unto them (16:9-10). Why so? How did he know but that the help needed was the brightening of their lives by a little amusement, or the refining of their manners by a collection of paintings? He never thought of such things. ‘Come and help us’ meant to him, ‘Preach the Gospel.’ And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures’ (17:2), not about the Scriptures, mark, but out of them ‘opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead’ (17:3). That was the ‘manner’ of evangelistic work in those days, and it seems to have been wonderfully powerful; for the verdict of the people is, ‘These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also’ (17:6). Just now the world is turning the Church upside down; that is the only difference.

When God told Paul that He had much people in Corinth, I read, And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them’ (18:11). Evidently then, he judged that the only way to bring them out was by the Word. A year and a-half, and only one method adopted. Wonderful! We should have had a dozen in that time! But then Paul never reckoned that providing something pleasant for the ungodly was part of his ministry; for, on his way to Jerusalem and martyrdom, he says, ‘Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God’ (20:24). This was all the ministry he knew. The last description we have of the methods of this prince of evangelists is of a piece with all that has gone before, ‘He expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening …preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus’ (28:23,31). What a contrast to all the rot and nonsense now being perpetrated in the holy name of Christ! The Lord clear the Church of all the rubbish that the devil has imposed upon her, and bring us back again to apostolic methods!

Fails to Effect Desired End

Lastly, the mission of amusement utterly fails to effect the desired end among the lost; but it works havoc among young converts. Were it a success, it would be none the less wrong. Success belongs to God; faithfulness to His instructions to me. But it is not. Test it even by this, and it is a contemptible failure: Let that be the method which is answered by fire, and the verdict will be, ‘The preaching of the Word, that is the power.’

Let us see the converts who have been first won by amusement. Let the harlots and the drunkards to whom a dramatic entertainment has been God’s first link in the chain of their conversion stand forth. Let the careless and the scoffers who have cause to thank God that the Church has relaxed her spirit of separation and met them half-way in their worldliness, speak and testify. Let the husbands, wives, and children, who rejoice in a new and holy home through ‘Sunday Evening Lectures on Social Questions’ tell out their joy. Let the weary, heavy-laden souls who have found peace through a concert, no longer keep silence. Let the men and women who have found Christ through the reversal of apostolic methods declare the same, and show the greatness of Paul’s blunder when he said, ’1 determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified’ (I Corinthians 2:2). There is neither voice nor any to answer. The failure is on a par with the folly, and as huge as the sin. Out of thousands with whom I have personally conversed, the mission of amusement has claimed no convert.

Now let the appeal be made to those who, repudiating every other method, have staked everything on THE BOOK AND THE HOLY GHOST. Let them be challenged to produce results. There is no need. Blazing sacrifices on every hand attest the answer by fire. Ten thousand times ten thousand voices are ready to declare that the plain preaching of the Word was, first and last, the cause of their salvation.

But how about the other side of this matter—what are the baneful effects? Are they also nil? I will here solemnly, as before the Lord, give my personal testimony. Though I have never seen a sinner saved, I have seen any number of backsliders manufactured by this new departure. Over and over again have young Christians, and sometimes Christians who are not young, come to me in tears, and asked what they were to do, as they had lost all their peace and fallen into evil. Over and over again has the confession been made, ‘I began to go wrong by attending worldly amusements that Christians patronised.’ It is not very long since that a young man, in an agony of soul, said to me, ‘I never thought of going to the theatre until my minister put it into my head by preaching that there was no harm in it. I went, and it has led me from bad to worse and now I am a miserable backslider; and he is responsible for it.

When young converts begin to ‘damp off,’ forsake the gatherings for prayer, and grow worldly, I almost always find that worldly Christianity is responsible for the first downward step. The mission of amusement is the devil’s half-way house to the world. It is because of what I have seen that I feel deeply, and would fain write strongly. This thing is working rottenness in the Church of God, and blasting her service for the King. In the guise of Christianity, it is accomplishing the devil’s own work. Under the pretence of going out to reach the world, it is carrying our sons and daughters into the world. With the plea of ‘Do not alienate the masses by your strictness,’ it is seducing the young disciples from ‘the simplicity (and the purity) that is in (toward) Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:3). Professing to win the world, it is turning the garden of the Lord into a public recreation ground. To fill the temple with those who see no beauty in Christ, a grinning Dagon is put over the doorway.

It will be no wonder if the Holy Ghost, grieved and insulted, withdraws His presence; for ‘what concord hath Christ with Belial? and what agreement hath the temple of the Living God with idols?’ (2 Corinthians 6:15-16). ‘COME OUT!’ is the call for today. Sanctify yourselves. Put away the evil from among you. Cast down the world’s altars and cut down her groves. Spurn her offered assistance. Decline her help, as your Master did the testimony of devils, for He ‘suffered them not to speak, because they knew Him’ (Luke 4:41). Renounce all the policy of the age. Trample upon Saul’s armour. Grasp the Book of God. Trust the Spirit Who wrote its pages. Fight with this weapon only and always. Cease to amuse, and seek to arouse. Shun the clap of a delighted audience, and listen for the sobs of a convicted one. Give up trying to please men who have only the thickness of their ribs between their souls and hell; and warn, and plead, and intreat, as those who feel the waters of eternity creeping upon them.

Let the Church again confront the world; testify against it; meet it only behind the cross; and, like her Lord, she shall overcome, and with Him share the victory.

‘O SPIRIT OF THE LORD, BLESS THIS WITNESS!

The ancient and tragic history of the life of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, that is a lesson to every Christian in this modern age of ecumenical compromise.

“…whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom 15:4).

King Jehoshaphat came to the throne of Judah in the fourth year of King Ahab’s reign in Israel. Ahab’s spiritual character is given in I Kings 16:30-33 —And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he…went and served Baal, and worshipped him….Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. He was a promoter of false religion on a grand scale and oversaw the systematic destruction of the prophets of the Lord by Jezebel his wife (1 Kings 18:4 ).

In contrast with Ahab, we read that Jehoshaphat lived doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD (I Kings 22:43 ). For a time he exercised a godly influence in the land, teaching his people the ways of God (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). Soon however, he was faced with a decision on what his relationship with Ahab would be. Every believer must decide what his relationship with the world and the false religion of his day will be. Like so many today, Jehoshaphat’s response to the dilemma was to compromise. It was the easy thing to do! Because taking a faithful stand for God and His ways incurs the scorn of the wicked and means walking a lonely road it seems easier to compromise. Had he known beforehand the future implications of his decision he might have acted differently. The ruin and loss that ultimately follows a disobedient alliance with the enemies of God should cause us to beware of even the slightest deviance from the principles of God’s Word. This is a day of widespread ecumenical compromise, but for the Christian who engages in it there is a terrible price to pay.

Jehoshaphat comes to Ahab in II Chronicles 18:1 — Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab. He entered into a union with this wicked king, perhaps justifying his action on social grounds. Being now wealthy and prosperous it would be fitting to have social contact with his neighbour to the north. How often truth and righteousness are sacrificed for the sake of social respectability! This relationship with Ahab and his wicked household develops in II Chronicles 18:2-3 —And after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead. And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah. Wilt thou go with me to Ramothgilead? And he answered him. I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war. The process of compromise may take years but it does develop. The result of this visit is that Jehoshaphat becomes deeply embroiled and implicated with Ahab.

One step of compromise will always lead to another. Having got to Ahab’s court, this godly man finds himself persuaded to become part of an army led by wicked Ahab. The ‘social call’ has led to him joining forces with the ungodly, ready to fight in their cause.

Another dimension is soon added to Jehoshaphat’s affinity with Ahab as four hundred false prophets arrive on the scene. Unchecked compromise with sin and worldliness always leads to spiritual retreat. Jehoshaphat is now found listening to these liars who profess to speak in the name of the Lord. It is true that he shows some evidence of a desire to hear the truth by prompting Ahab to send for a man of God with a real word from the Lord. Micaiah the prophet is sent for, a preacher whom Ahab hates bitterly (I Kings 22:8).

It is at this point that we begin to notice a sad change in Jehoshaphat. He has asked for a word from the Lord but his association with Ahab the hater of God’s word has had a subtle effect. Jehoshaphat requests a word from the Lord after he has pledged his support to Ahab. It is already obvious that he is placing a lesser value upon the guidance of God than he should have done. Had he truly valued the leading of the Lord he would have asked God before he committed himself to Ahab. As it is, he hears Micaiah’s plain warning that this battle will end in defeat and the death of Ahab but sadly he does not heed it. He persists in allying himself with a cause that God has appointed to defeat. This in effect means that he dismisses what God has to say and gives preference to the message of the false prophets! It is never too long until compromise destroys any residual desire to know and obey God’s will.

A further evidence of the change in Jehoshaphat is his lack of discernment. He becomes so dull that he co-operates with Ahab’s battle plan that involves him placing himself in grave risk of death. Only the intervention of God saves him. The Syrians compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him; and God moved them to depart from him (II Chronicles 18:31). Those who compromise with the world and its false religion become the helpless dupes of the Devil, blindly stumbling from one danger to another!

By far the most serious consequence of his sinful allegiance with Ahab is that he comes under the displeasure of God. As he returns to Jerusalem after the battle Jehu…the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD (II Chronicles 19:2). These strong words show what God thinks of believers who act as Jehoshaphat acted.

Mercifully, Jehoshaphat took heed to this word from God and repented. However, only a short time after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah [Ahab's son] king of Israel, who did very wickedly (II Chronicles 20:35). Later he yet again aligns himself with God’s enemies — with Jehoram, Ahab’s son who succeeded Ahaziah. And king Jehoram…sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying…wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses (II Kings 3:6-7). Only the merciful intervention of God to miraculously supply water in the desert saves him from death and defeat. Again we are faced with the lesson that once one step down the path of compromise has been taken it is all too easy to take another. Once more this foolish harmony with the wicked results in the displeasure of God for then Eliezer…prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying. Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works (II Chronicles 20:37).

The consequences of Jehoshaphat’s sinful compromise with the enemies of God were felt for many a long day. It is a sobering truth that forging a harmonious relationship with the enemies of God affects generations as yet unborn. The catalog of misery that comes directly from Jehoshaphat’s affinity with Ahab and his wicked dynasty makes for sad reading.

As direct result of his sin many of his children were killed. Now when Jehoram [i.e. the son and heir of Jehoshaphat] was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel (II Chronicles 21:4 ). Jehoram — and surely it can be no accident that he bears the same name as Ahab’s son — was a godless wretch. Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah…walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD (II Kings 8:16, 18). God was later to smite Jehoram for his sin — the LORD smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. And it came to pass…after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases (II Chron 21:18-19). Surely no Christian can relish the thought of seeing his children perish under Divine wrath, yet that is the price of compromise with the world and false religion.

Many of his grand-children were also killed including all the males except one. There was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz [also called Ahaziah], the youngest of his sons (II Chronicles 21:17). Ahaziah’s spiritual character bears testimony to the harm done by the association forged by his grandfather with Ahab. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign…and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab (II Kings 2:26-27). He too develops an affinity with Ahab’s wicked house that ultimately leads to his death (II Kings 9:27).

Even Jehoshaphat’s great-grand-children felt the impact of his sin. All the males except one, Joash, were killed by Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and wife of Jehoram his son (II Chronicles 22:10). Others of his great-grand-children were killed by Jehu whom God used to judge Ahab’s house. And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah [i.e. the great-grand- children of Jehoshaphat], that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them (II Chronicles 22:8-9). Jehoshaphat’s sin introduced the evil forces of destruction into his home and family.

There were national consequences as well. The nation suffered for about 15 years under the wicked reigns of Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah — Jehoshaphat’s son, grandson and daughter-in-law. Nations formerly subject to Judah rebelled. (II Chron 21:10, 16). Society is always affected when God’s people ally themselves with the wickedness of sin and apostasy.

All this personal and national tragedy can be traced back to a godly man’s desire to have fellowship with the wicked. Compromise is dangerous and its effects are real. Many a believer has reaped a similar harvest to Jehoshaphat. Their offspring grow up in ignorance of God and in the absence of the gospel light which their forefathers had but gave up in order to have fellowship with the world.

In Ephesians 5:1-14 Paul makes it abundantly clear what the Christian’s relationship with the world is to be. Since we are children of God we are to follow or imitate Him, verse 1. This will mean that we will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, verse 11. The instruction to those who are already caught up in compromise is Awake thou that steepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light verse 14. Awake, come out from among the dead to the light of the Gospel! There is a terrible price to pay for staying among the dead. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Learn from Jehoshaphat and never compromise the truth for the sake of harmony with the enemies of God and their wicked ecumenical apostasy!

The writings of C.S. Lewis have again come into prominence with the release of the Hollywood version of The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Many evangelicals see this as a tremendous opportunity to present gospel truth. The claim is made that C.S. Lewis’ fictional writings are saturated with Biblical truth and even are a sort of parable-like repetition of Scriptural doctrine.

C. S. Lewis attempted to present Scriptural truth under a cloak of pagan mythology in order to give it popular appeal. Such an approach to Scripture is really just tampering with the word of God in an unacceptable fashion. The article below sets out some reasons why the Bible-believing Christian should have little to do with C.S. Lewis’ literature.

Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, N. Ireland in 1898 and for most of his adult life lectured in English literature at Oxford University. He wrote more than thirty books and his most popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. At age 32, through the encouragement of his devout Roman Catholic friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), he apparently converted to Christianity from atheism on route to the zoo in a motorcycle sidecar. Later that year, Lewis decided to become a practising Christian. He died in 1963.

C.S. Lewis has received much acclaim for his fictional works. Recently, his fantasy novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has been made into a movie.  According to Lewis, this is a “Christian” allegory. What does he mean by that? His definition of what he meant by “Christian” is clear – not in his fictional works – but in his theological works which provide ample evidence of his religious persuasion.

Quoting C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’s personal religious beliefs are readily available to anyone who cares to know them. Therefore, it is assumed that anyone quoting him in a positive light is aware of these beliefs and by extension concurs with them.  Similarly, fundamental Christians freely quote from the writings of C.H. Spurgeon or Matthew Henry because they agree with their faithful Biblical positions and are not ashamed to identify with them. The simple old adage is still true: you are known by the company you keep. The same applies in the realm of citation.  Quoting C.S. Lewis has become a sort of phenomenon in the evangelical world.  One wonders if the purpose is to enjoy some sort of academic credibility? On the contrary, it only reveals ignorance: either of the man and what he believed or of the Scriptures of Truth.

The New Evangelical Perspective

It is not surprising that new evangelicals revere Lewis as a foremost Christian thinker and philosopher. In an article commemorating the 100^th anniversary of Lewis’s birth, J.I. Packer called him “our patron saint.” Christianity Today said Lewis “has come to be the Aquinas, the Augustine, and the Aesop of contemporary Evangelicalism” (Sept. 7, 1998) and “the 20^th century’s greatest Christian apologist” (April 23, 2001). Focus on the Family (November 2001) made a similar claim; however, the late Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones warned that Lewis had a defective view of salvation and was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal view of the atonement (Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963).

C.S. Lewis’s Beliefs

In simple terms, C.S. Lewis was an Anglo-Catholic and though dead, remains a living spokesman for ecumenism – a link to ecclesiastical reunion.  The following documented facts regarding his religious beliefs speak for themselves and raise some disturbing questions about his meaning of “Christian.”

1. Lewis believed in a “Christian” purgatory after death. “Death should not deprive people of a second chance…Lewis frankly admitted believing in purgatory.  To him it was a place for souls already saved but in need of purifying – purging.  Lewis felt that our souls demand purgatory.  Who would want to enter heaven foul and dirty? Lewis thought of the dentist’s chair. ‘I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am coming round, a voice will say, ‘Rinse your mouth out with this’ This will be purgatory.’” (Kathryn Lindskoog.  C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian, 4^th ed. Chicago: Cornerstone Press, 1997, p. 105).

2. Lewis prayed for the dead. “Lewis could never accept the Roman Catholic practice of praying to saints…however, he emphatically believed in praying for the dead.  He believed that his prayers could somehow bless them. One must remember that Lewis believed in a temporary purgatory for the blessed dead as a kind of entryway to heaven”  (Lindskoog 135 based on Lewis’ Letters to Malcolm, London: Collins p. 15, 107-110).

3. Lewis believed in mystical experiences. “Rational though he was, Lewis thoroughly believed in the mystical experience, a way to go out of this world before death … mystics from all kinds of religions have much the same mystical experience” (Lindskoog, p. 197).

4. Lewis did not believe in the total inerrancy of the Bible. “Although Lewis never doubted the historicity of an account because the account was miraculous, he believed that Jonah’s whale, Noah’s ark, and Job’s boils were probably inspired stories rather than factual history” (Lindskoog, p. 199).

5. Lewis believed that Roman Catholicism is a “Christian” religion. Regarding Mere Christianity, Lewis said: “I tried to guard against this [putting forth his Anglican beliefs] by sending the original script of what is now Book II to four clergymen (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic) and asking for their criticism.  The Methodist thought I had not said enough about Faith, and the Roman Catholic thought I had gone rather too far about the comparative unimportance of theories in explanation of the Atonement.  Otherwise all five of us were agreed”  (C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. New Jersey: Fleming Revell, 1982, p. 11).

Continuing this thought, Lewis added that he “did at least succeed in presenting an agreed, or common, or central, or ‘mere’ Christianity” and congratulated himself in having helped to bridge the “chasm” between Protestant denominations and Catholicism: “If I have not directly helped the cause of reunion, I have perhaps made it clear why we ought to be reunited” (Mere Christianity, p. 12).

“You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic.  This omission is intentional.  There is no mystery about my position…the best service I could do was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times” (Mere Christianity, p. 6-7).

“And, whatever you do, do not start quarrelling with other people because they use a different formula from yours” (Mere Christianity, p. 284-5.)

6. Lewis accepted the Mass as being the same as Christian Communion. “There are three things that spread the Christ life to us: baptism, belief, and that mysterious action which different Christians call by different names – Holy Communion, the Mass, the Lord’s Supper …anyone who professes to teach you Christian doctrine will, in fact, tell you to use all three, and that is enough for our present purpose” (Mere Christianity, p. 108-09).

In chapter 19 of his Letters to Malcolm, Lewis suggested that the Roman Catholic conception of the bread and wine becoming the actual body and blood of Christ might be just as valid as the Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper as a memorial.

The conclusion?

By including a so-called “Christian” purgatory in his beliefs, Lewis immediately destroys the Bible doctrine of the sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner’s account in salvation. By including Roman Catholicism under the umbrella of Christianity, and admittedly omitting its doctrines for the sake of unity, Lewis condones the heresies of the Mass, idolatry, Mariolatry, and salvation by works still taught and practised by that institution.  These are not “merely” cosmetic differences between denominations as Lewis would have us believe; these make up the great divide between truth and error. According to the Scriptures, salvation by works sends souls to Hell!  How can such a life and death truth be casually omitted?

Lewis, alcohol, and other questionable issues

“It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotalers; Mohammedanism, not Christianity, is the teetotal religion” (Mere Christianity, p. 132).

While awareness of Lewis’s confused Biblical perspective is of primary importance, one cannot ignore his tobacco addiction (Lindskoog, p. 187), pub frequenting, relationship with life-long mentor Roman Catholic nun, Sister Penelope, and even his questionable marriage of convenience late in life to American author Joy Davidman. Then, there is the use of profanity [including the Lord’s Name] in his allegory The Great Divorce, written fourteen years after his conversion. In addition, his chapter on “Hell” in The Problem of Pain raises some serious doubts as to his belief in a literal Hell.  And there is the constant referral to sexual matters in Mere Christianity, but not one Bible verse is quoted in the first half of the book and only three partial verses in the latter half with no Bible reference in the entire book! With such a lack of supporting evidence, one wonders upon what foundation this “mere Christianity” is built?

So why is Lewis so revered by some evangelicals today?

In 1993, Christianity Today suggested this interesting reason why C.S. Lewis is so popular among some evangelicals. “Lewis’s concentration on the main doctrines of the church [which included Roman Catholic Church] coincided with evangelicals’ concern to avoid ecclesiastical separatism.”

One wonders how serious-minded, discerning evangelical Christians can support a man with such fundamental flaws in his basic theology.  Even Lewis himself admitted his own lack of knowledge in doctrine: “I should have been out of my depth in such waters: more in need of help myself than able to help others” (Mere Christianity 7). So why is Lewis – a man who devoted his life not to the study of theology but to ancient pagan mythology – revered as the greatest Christian apologist in our century? Simple. Many professing Christians have rejected their God-given heritage and are trading in the solid rock of the Word for the shifting sands of man’s intellectual conjecture. One look at the seminaries and Christian bookstores of our lands reveals the very evident shift.  Sadly, even some fundamentalists are beginning to tread the same precarious ground of compromise.

Today, the market is full of writers like Lewis.  If ever we needed discernment, it is now.  Every book needs to be tested on these grounds: “What saith the Scriptures?” If books are not in total agreement with the Scriptures of truth, we should avoid them.  “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

Rev. Ivan Foster (The Burning Bush, May 2001) observed of C.S. Lewis:  “A greater understanding of the man and his theology showed that he was not an advocate of the teachings of Holy Scripture but his own scholarly notions.  It is a foolish glorying in worldly scholarship that makes some admire the man.”

“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…” II Timothy 4:3-4.

J. Saunders, Whitefield Christian Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Canada, December 2005.

A brief analysis of the Greek terms used in Colossians 3:16 especially considering their usage in the LXX

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16

An examination of the Greek terms psalmos, humnos and ode as they are used in the Septuagint version of the Scriptures to see if the practice of the LXX lends support to the concept of exclusive psalmody.

The Septuagint, or LXX (so called because of the story that it was the work of 70 translators), is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures. It appeared about 250 B.C. and was the Bible of Gentile believers and of many of the scattered Jews. One of the claims made in support of the exclusive Psalmody position is that the Greek terms which Paul employs in Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 for , hymns and songs are proved by their use in the Septuagint (LXX) to exclusively refer to the Psalms of David. The use of psalmos (psalm), humnos (hymn), or ode (song) in the LXX translation of the Psalms particularly is triumphantly pointed to as proof that Paul meant the Church of Christ to sing Psalms only. As part of that argument it may be demonstrated that all three terms appear for example in the LXX translation of Ps 65:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm [psalmos] and Song [ode] of David. Praise [humnos] waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion… This is supposed to give conclusive evidence of the case for exclusive psalmody.

However, the mere appearance of these Greek terms, or their derivatives, in the Psalms of the LXX is no proof that Paul is teaching exclusive Psalmody when he uses them in Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16. To get the full picture of the meaning of these three Greek words as they are used in the LXX we must consider their use a little more carefully and especially give attention to the Hebrew equivalents those Greek words translate. When we do this, the use of the LXX as an argument to support exclusive Psalmody is seen to be less than honest.

Psalmos, humnos and ode between them are used by the LXX to translate more than twenty five different Hebrew terms in the Old Testament. This fact alone means that this article will only be a very limited study. However, one does not have to dig very deep into the subject to see that the use of these Greek terms in the LXX does not support the exclusive Psalmody argument. All Scripture references are from the Authorized Version and italicized words in brackets that follow are the English translation of the term under discussion.

A. The use of psalmos (psalms, Eph 5:19, Col 3:16) in the LXX refutes the exclusive Psalmody argument.

Various forms of the Greek word psalmos are used by the LXX to translate eight different Hebrew terms. The verbal form of psalmos is used, in agreement with its root meaning, to refer to the playing of a musical instrument as in I Sam 16:16, 17 (player, play), II Kings 3:15 (played), Amos 5:23 (melody). The noun form is used in Job 21:12, 20:31 (organ). Even when it is only used of simple instrumental music in these references it is clear that psalmos does not discriminate between music that was merely pleasing to the human ear, that which was acceptable to God and that which wasn’t. Even at this very elementary level in its meaning psalmos is not a term used exclusively of that which is mandated by God.

This lack of discrimination and exclusivity in the term itself becomes even more clear in how psalmos is used in the translation of the Hebrew words relating to the verbal expression of praise and song.

Psalmos is used as an equivalent to the Hebrew word mizmor, rendered Psalm in the AV. The word mizmor is confined to the book of Psalms and is a derivative of a Hebrew verb for playing a stringed instrument. mizmor appears very often in the titles of some of the Psalms. It is striking, however, to observe that this Hebrew term does not appear in the Old testament outside the Book of the Psalms even when the songs of that book are in view. While many of the titles to the psalms include the word mizmor, that term is not to be taken as one that identifies every Psalm or is used universally in the Scriptures to exclusively identify the inspired psalms. In fact only 57 of the 150 psalms are so identified. “The Psalms of the Old Testament remarkably enough have no single, well-recognized, universally accepted name by which they are designated in the Hebrew Scriptures” — Delitzsch, cited by Trench, New Testament Synonyms, Chapter 78. In other words, the Psalms of David are nowhere in Scripture exclusively identified by a specific term or name. There is no single term that points to the Psalms and to nothing else.

Psalmos also appears in the LXX as equivalent to the Hebrew word neginah. This Hebrew term is used to describe a wide variety of songs. Neginah is translated by psalmos in Lam 3:14 (song), in Lam 5:14 (music) and in Ps 69:12 (song). It is striking to observe that in the LXX translation of Lam 3:14 and Ps 69:12, psalmos, or its verbal form, is used for songs that are not only uninspired but are in fact the product of the wicked, even drunkards, who mocked God and His word. The Hebrew term neginah is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures of: the songs of the wicked, Job 30:9 (song); the inspired praise of God, Psalm 61 title (Neginah—a song performed on a stringed instrument); and the uninspired praise of the Lord composed by King Hezekiah, Is 38:20 (my songs).

The fact is clear that by their use of psalmos the LXX scholars did not see this term as referring exclusively to the Psalms of David, not even exclusively referring to inspired praise, nor even referring exclusively to the praise of God. It is a common mistake to regard psalmos as only and necessarily referring to the inspired songs of the Book of Psalms, but this is not in fact the case.

B. The use of humnos (hymns, Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16) in the LXX does not support the argument for exclusive Psalmody.

Humnos, or its verbal root, is used to translate nine different Hebrew terms. Humnos is used by the LXX in Ps 65:1 (praise), 148:14 (praise). The Hebrew equivalent here is the word tehillah coming from the Hebrew verb hallal, a word of wide-ranging meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures and it includes within the scope of its meaning: inspired praise of God, Nehemiah 12:46 (praise); uninspired praise of God, Hab 3:3 (the praise of God by His people at Sinai is in view); and the praise of that which is wicked and idolatrous, II Samuel 14:25 (Absalom’s carnality praised), Judges 16:24 (Philistine idols praised). In this breadth of meaning there is a harmony with the classical use of humnos. In classical Greek it had the significance of a song offered in praise of pagan deities but humnos developed in meaning to include the praise of God as is evident from its New Testament use, for example, of the Saviour’s song in Matt 26:30 (hymn).

Humnos is also used as an equivalent to the Hebrew term shir in I Chron 25:6 (song). The same wide range of meaning is seen in shir as in the other words seen thus far. It is used of inspired song outside the book of Psalms, Ex 15:1, Num 21:7, Judges 5:12, Is 5:1, Song of Solomon 1:1. Shir is also used of generic songs of celebration, Gen 31:27 (songs); the songs of the wicked, Ecclesiastes 7:5 (song); uninspired songs of praise to God such as those authored by Solomon, I Kings 4:32 (songs).

The verbal form of humnos appears in Proverbs 1:20 (crieth) as the equivalent of the Hebrew verb ranan, which refers to an exuberant, celebratory shouting for joy. See examples of ranan used in Deut 32:43 (rejoice), Ps 5:11 (shout for joy) and Ps 51:14 (sing aloud). Proverbs 1:20, where there is a joyful declaration of the wisdom of the gospel in its promises of life and its threatenings of judgment (v24-33) may, according to the LXX, be legitimately regarded as a ‘hymn’.

C. The use of ode (songs, Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16) in the LXX does not support exclusive Psalmody.

Ode in its noun and verbal forms is used by the LXX to translate as many as eleven different Hebrew terms including some noted above. Ode appears in the LXX translating the following Hebrew words: shir (Deut 31:19, 21, song); neginah (Hab 3:19, stringed instruments); mizmor (Ps 39:1, Psalm); and tehillah (Ps 65:1, praise). The LXX uses ode to translate the Hebrew word tephillah in Psalm 72:20 (prayers) and one striking use of ode is found in I Chronicles 15:22, 27 (song) where the Hebrew equivalent is massa, more commonly translated by the English word burden, and used extensively of the burden carried by the prophets as they taught the people the word of God. This is an interesting connection to Paul’s exhortation that the odes (songs) of Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 were to have be part of a teaching and admonishing ministry.

This breadth of use demonstrates the flexibility of the Greek word even though in its New Testament and LXX usage ode is “always used of praise to God or Christ” (Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon). In Amos 5:23, however, ode is used, and while the reference is to songs that were ostensibly the Lord’s, because of apostacy and sin they had become wicked blasphemies and hateful to Him. It is evident that the Greek word ode has enough breadth of meaning to warrant Paul adding the adjective spiritual to qualify ode (songs) in Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16. The addition of spiritual has a double effect: it qualifies the word songs thus indicating that there were songs or odes particularly which were unfit for Christian use; and it defines the nature of the song that the Christian is to sing.

The use of ode by the LXX to translate terms that have such breadth of meaning makes it very clear that they did not see this term as exclusively referring to the Psalms of David.

Conclusions

1. The wide range of Hebrew expressions translated by the LXX using the three Greek terms Paul uses in Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16, indicates very clearly that the LXX scholars did not see these terms referring exclusively to the Book of Psalms. Their translation practice gives the lie to the claim that any or all of these terms refers exclusively to the Book of Psalms. Even psalmos when it is used in Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 is not necessarily a reference to the psalms of David, although it is probable that Paul had the book of Psalms in view. Neither humnos (hymns) nor ode (songs) exclusively refer to the book of Psalms either.

2. These three terms are sufficiently flexible in their use so as to be used interchangeably to some degree. All three Greek terms (psalmos, humnos, ode) are variously used to translate both Hebrew terms neginah and shir, while in other instances two of the three terms are interchanged in the translation of identical Hebrew words. One instance of this flexibility of use is seen in Ps 65:1, a text often used as a mainstay argument by the exclusive Psalmist. In this place all three Greek terms occur as indicated above and in a sense therefore this Psalm is also an ode and a hymn. This juxtaposition of psalmos, humnos and ode in the LXX is sometimes presented as infallible proof that Paul was speaking exclusively of the Psalms. But this is not so. This flexibility means that, to some degree, the three Greek terms are synonymous and that what our English Bible refers to as a Psalm may legitimately be called a ‘song’ or a ‘hymn’ and vice versa — indeed has frequently been so called by the LXX by its interchanging of the Greek terms. The flexibility in the use of the Greek words demonstrated by the LXX means that where song or praise is referred to anywhere in the Old Testament it may legitimately be called a psalm, a hymn or a song. This means that there are psalms, hymns and songs to be found everywhere in Scripture and not just in the Book of the Psalms.

3. It is therefore the context, content and the state of the heart that determines whether praise is acceptable to God. As we have seen, the same term, whether in Hebrew, Greek or even English, may be used to describe song that ranges in meaning from the inspired praise of God, to uninspired praise of God by His people, to the derisive songs of drunkards and even to wicked praise of idols by the ungodly. For example, psalmos does not discriminate between the song of the drunkards (Ps 69:12) and a Psalm of David (Ps 3:1) for it is used for both in the LXX; humnos does not discriminate between the Philistines who praised their god (Judges 16:24) and the songs of thanksgiving and praise unto God (Nehemiah 12:46) since it is used for both in the LXX. When these Greek terms, therefore, are used in Scripture it is the context and not the word itself that determines whether it is a song that is acceptable to the Lord. The Greek words alone are not sufficient to indicate the character of truly Christian praise, rather Paul must enlarge on them in the context of Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 to indicate clearly what he means. When applied to the Christian, psalms, hymns and songs will mean praise that is:

a) agreeable with Scripture in content. For this reason he emphasizes that these psalms, hymns and spiritual songs will spring out of the word of Christ dwelling in them. Our song will not be of fleshly or worldly themes but rather, without the need to use inspired songs only, will be thoroughly Scriptural in content. The three Greek terms we have been considering make no such demands as to content, but the Christian must see to it that his psalms, hymns and songs are Scriptural in content.

b) motivated by a Scriptural purpose. Praise will not merely be for self-gratification but for the purpose of edification — teaching and admonishing one another, Col 3:16. Our praise is to be a part of worship activity that is directed to the Lord (Eph 5:19) and not to men. While the Greek terms may not discriminate as far as the purpose and object of praise is concerned the Christian must make such discrimination.

c) offered in spirit and in truth. Even though the Greek words themselves have no specific reference to Christ or the Spirit, Eph 5:19 emphasizes the infilling of the Spirit that is necessary for the Christian to sing psalms, hymns and songs that please God. They are to be from the heart to the Lord. Col 3:16-17 emphasizes that this praise is to be offered in the name of the Lord Jesus.

By these additional instructions Paul qualifies the words psalmos, humnos and ode and indicates what they are to mean for the believer. It is the practice of these inspired qualifications of the Greek terms, and not the exclusive use of a metrical Psalter, that determine whether our praise is truly Christian and in obedience to the commands of the Apostle. These are the factors that will set the psalms, hymns and songs of the Christian apart from their wicked equivalents.