John Piper - Believing is the Evidence of the New Birth

Awakening to the De-population Bomb

South Korea laments birthrate drop from anti-child emphasis
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (BP)--South Korean officials are searching for ways to reverse a decline in the country's birthrate, concluding that a policy of denouncing more than two children per couple as "unpatriotic" has had adverse effects.

The push for a higher birthrate comes as some of South Korea's doctors have asked for forgiveness for performing illegal abortions for years and are working to cut the number of the abortions in the Asian country....More

No Logical Barrier from Tyranny

New at Polemos
Some Good Quotes
Law, Civil

"The source of moral authority and law within a society will either be theistic or political; when the former is repudiated, the latter allows no logical barrier from tyranny."

Greg Bahnsen in Theonomy in Christian Ethics

The Salt of the Earth?

New at Polemos
Some Good Quotes
Law, Civil

"The church is called to function as a preservative in society ("the salt of the earth") (Matthew 5:13), and thus the early church and Reformers main­lined, among other things, that the civil "magistrate" is also a "minister" if God (Romans 13:4,6) and as such responsible to His authority and law. Previously the autonomous polis and natural reason, taken to be the source and authority for political law, were challenged by the church, but today the church has largely succumbed to the idea that God's law is extraneous, not only to personal morality, but to matters of statesmanship and civil government. The theologians of this century have offered no serious alternative to the world, giving the impression that "the salt has lost its saltiness." For instance, in a book on the very topic of The Christian in Politics we read these words by Walter James:

The Christian is called upon to act beside other men and no assurance is given him that he will sense God's purpose better than they. He can no more aim to be a Christian statesman than a Christian engineer. . . . He stands on a par with the non-Christian. . . . His religion will give him no special guid­ance in his public task. . .

In addition to not having anything to speak before kings (Psalm119:46) because of its endorsement of neutralism in civil affairs, the modern church has shown itself to be as antinomian in its theory of ethics as the autono­mous secular man. As a result the church fails to challenge "the powers that be" with the "power (authority)" of Christ (Romans 13:1 with 28:18) or to offer restor­ative guidance to its society...."

Greg Bahnsen in Theonomy in Christian Ethics

The General Resurrection Part 2

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION
Samuel Davies (1723-1761)

My brethren, realize the majesty and terror of this universal alarm. When the dead are sleeping in the silent grave; when the living are thoughtless and unapprehensive of the grand event or intent on other pursuits—some of them asleep in the dead of night, some of them dissolved in sensual pleasures: eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, some of them planning or executing schemes for riches or honors, some in the very act of sin—the generality stupid and careless about the concerns of eternity and the dreadful Day just at hand, and a few here and there conversing with their God and "looking for the glorious appearance of their Lord and Saviour" (Ti 2:14); when the course of nature runs on uniform and regular as usual and infidel scoffers are taking umbrage from thence to ask, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2Pe 3:4)—in short, when there are no more visible appearances of this approaching Day than of the destruction of Sodom on that fine clear morning in which Lot fled away, or of the deluge, when Noah entered into the ark—then in that hour of unapprehensive security, then suddenly shall the heavens open over the astonished world; then shall the all alarming clangor break over their heads like a clap of thunder in a clear sky! Immediately the living turn their gazing eyes upon the amazing phenomenon: a few hear the long-expected sound with rapture and lift up their heads with joy, assured that the day of their redemption is come, while the thoughtless world is struck with the wild est horror and consternation.

In the same instant, the sound reaches all the mansions of the dead. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they are raised and the living are changed! This call will be as animating to all the sons of men as that call to a single person, "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43). Oh, what a surprise will this be to a thoughtless world! Should this alarm burst over our heads this moment, into what a terror would it strike many!...Such will be the terror, such the consternation, when it actually comes to pass. Sinners will be the same timorous, self-condemned creatures then as they are now. Then, they who are deaf to all the gentler calls of the Gospel now will not be able to stop their ears. Then, the trump of God will constrain the—to whom the ministers of Christ now preach in vain—to hear and fear. Then they must all hear, for

MY TEXT TELLS YOU: ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES, ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION, SHALL HEAR HIS VOICE. Now the voice of mercy calls, reason pleads, conscience warns—but multitudes will not hear. But this is a voice that shall, that must reach every one of the millions of mankind, and not one of them will be able to stop his ears. Infants and giants, kings and subjects, all ranks, all ages of mankind shall hear the call. The living shall start and be changed, and the dead rise at the sound! The dust that was once alive and formed a human body, whether it flies in the air, floats in [the] ocean, or vegetates on earth, shall hear the new-creating fiat. Wherever the fragments of the hu man frame are scattered, this all-penetrating call shall reach and speak them into life. We may consider this voice as a summons, not only to dead bodies to rise, but to the souls that once animated them to appear and be reunited to them, whether in heaven or hell. To the grave, the call will be, "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" To heaven, "Ye spirits of just men made perfect, descend to the world whence you originally came, and assume your new-formed bodies!" To hell, "Come forth and appear, ye damned ghosts, ye prisoners of darkness, and be again united to the bodies in which you once sinned, that in them ye may now suffer!" Thus will this summons spread through every corner of the universe. Heaven, earth, hell, and all their inhabitants shall hear and obey. Devils, as well as sinners of our race, will tremble at the sound: for now they know they can plead no more as they once did, "Torment us not before the time" (cf. Mat 8:29). For the time is come, and they must mingle with the prisoners at the bar.

The General Resurrection Part 1

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION
Samuel Davies (1723-1761)

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,unto the resurrection of damnation."—John 5:28-29

EVER since sin entered into the world and death by sin, this earth has been a vast graveyard or burying place for her children. In every age and in every country, that sentence has been executing, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen 3:19). The earth has been arched with graves, the last lodgings of mortals, and the bottom of the ocean paved with the bones of men. Human nature was at first confined to one pair, but how soon and how wide did it spread! How inconceivably numerous are the sons of Adam! How many different nations on our globe contain many millions of men even in one generation! And how many generations have succeeded one another in the long run of nearly six thousand years!

LET IMAGINATION CALL UP THIS VAST ARMY: Children that just light upon our globe and then wing their flight into an unknown world; the gray-headed that have had a long journey through life; the blooming youth and the middle-aged—let them pass in review before us from all countries and from all ages. How vast and astonishing the multitude! If the posterity of one man (Abraham) by one son was, according to the divine promise, as the stars of heaven or as the sand by the seashore innumerable, what numbers can compute the multitudes that have sprung from all the patriarchs, the sons of Adam and Noah? But what is become of them all? Alas! They are turned into earth, their original element. They are all imprisoned in the grave, except the present generation, and we are dropping one after another in quick succession into that place appointed for all living. There has not been perhaps a moment of time for five thousand years, but what someone or other has sunk into the mansions of the dead. In some fatal hours, by the sword of war or the devouring jaws of earthquakes, thousands have been cut off, swept away at once, and left in one huge promiscuous carnage.

The greatest number of mankind beyond comparison is sleeping under ground. There lies beauty moldering into dust, rotting into stench and loathsomeness, and feeding the vilest worms. There lies the head that once wore a crown, as low and contemptible as the meanest beggar. There lie the mighty giants, the heroes and conquerors, the Samsons, the Ajaxes, the Alexanders, and the Caesars of the world! There they lie—stupid, senseless, inactive, and unable to drive off the worms that riot on their marrow and make their houses in those sockets where the eyes sparkled with living luster. There lie the wise and the learned, as rotten, as helpless as the fool does. There lie some that we once conversed with, some that were our friends, our companions. There lie our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters.

And shall they lie there always? Shall this body, this curious workmanship of heaven so wonderfully and fearfully made, always lie in ruins and never be repaired? Shall the wide-extended valleys of dry bones never more live? This we know, that it is not a thing impossible with God to raise the dead (Act 26:8). He that could first form our bodies out of nothing is certainly able to form them anew and repair the wastes of time and death. But what is His declared will in this case? On this the matter turns, and this is fully revealed in my text. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves," all that are dead, without exception, "shall hear his voice, And shall come forth" (Joh 5:28-29). And for what end shall they come forth? Oh! For very different purposes: some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation..."All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

THEY THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES SHALL HEAR HIS VOICE. The voice of the Son of God here probably means the sound of the archangel's trumpet, which is called His "voice" because [it is] sounded by His orders and attended with His all-quickening power. This all-wakening call to the tenants of the grave we frequently find foretold in Scripture. I shall refer you to two plain passages. "Behold," says St. Paul, "I show you a mystery," an important and astonishing secret, "we shall not all sleep" (1 Co 15:51); that is, mankind will not all be sleeping in death when that Day comes. There will be a generation then alive upon the earth. Though they cannot have a proper resurrection, yet they shall pass through a change equivalent to it. "We shall all be changed," says he, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound" (ICo 15:52). It shall give the alarm! No sooner is the awful clangor heard than all the living shall be transformed into immortals, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. We, who are then alive, shall be changed (1 Co 15:52). This is all the difference: they shall be raised, and we shall be changed. This awful prelude of the trumpet is also mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16: "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep," that is, we shall not be beforehand with them in meeting our descending Lord. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God," that is, with a godlike trump, such as it becomes His majesty to sound. The dead in Christ shall rise first, that is, before the living shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. When they are risen and the living transformed, they shall ascend together to the place of judgment.

The Parental Rights Amendment

Parentalrights.org

From Parentalrights.org

Leading the Fight against the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• 20 Things you need to know about the CRC
• Understanding the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child

In Thy Presence is Fullness of Joy Part 2

In Thy Presence is Fullness of Joy
Isaac Ambrose (1604-1664)

4. CHRIST WELCOMES THEM INTO HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE.

If the father could receive his prodigal but repenting son with hugs and kisses, how will Christ now receive His saints, when they come as a bride to the solemnization of the marriage? His very heart springs (as I may say) at the sight of His Bride! No sooner [does] He see her and salute her, but He welcomes her with such words as these: "O my love, my dove, my fair one—come now and enjoy thy Husband! Many a thought I have had of thee: before I made the world, I spent my infinite eternal thoughts on thy salvation. When the world began, I gave thee a promise that I would betroth thee unto me in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, in mercy, and in faithfulness (Hos 2:19-20). [For thy sake I] was incarnate, lived, died, rose again, and ascended. And since My ascension, [I] have been interceding for thee and making ready the bride-chamber, where thou and I must live forever and ever. Now I come hither into the clouds to meet thee more than half the way. My meaning is to take thee by the hand and to bring thee to My Father. Now do I take thee for My own—O My sister, My spouse, thou art as dear to Me as My own dear heart! Come, see into My bosom, and see here love written in the golden letters of free grace. Come near, for I must have thee with Me...Sometimes thy sins have made a wall of partition between Me and thee. Sometimes I withdrew and was gone; I hid Myself beyond the curtains. And for a time, thou hast lain hid in the closet of the grave. But now we will never part more: Anon, I will bring thee to My Father, and I will say to Him, 'Father, behold! Here [is] My spouse that I have carried unto Myself.' In the meantime, welcome to thy Jesus. I have purchased thee with My blood, I have paid dear for thee, and now I will wear thee as a crown and ornament forever."

5.CHRIST SETS THEM ON HIS RIGHT HAND...

This is the sign of Christ's love and respect to His saints: when He Himself ascended up into heaven, then said the Father to Him, "Son, sit Thou down at My right hand." No sooner are the saints ascended up to Christ, but He speaks the same to them, "Sit thou down at My right hand." Christ entertains them, as God the Father entertained Him—He at the right hand of God, and they at the right hand of Christ. And herein is set forth the great exaltation of the saints: Christ being set at God's right hand, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name. So now are the saints highly exalted by Jesus Christ, now are they filled with unmatchable perfection, now is the fullness of perfection, [the] fullness of honor and glory conferred upon them. "Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir" (Psa 45:9), i.e., in the best, richest, finest gold. The Lord now puts upon His saints heaven's glory. He adorns them with all His ornaments fit for the marriage day...All the glory of this day is for nothing else but to set out the solemnity of the marriage. As the bridegroom on the day of nuptials comes forth in his glory; as the bride on the marriage day comes forth in her best array; and as the servants, parents, friends, and all appear on the marriage day in as much glory as they can, so Christ on this day comes forth in His glory with all His angels in their glory and the saints, the Lamb's wife! The King's daughter is all glorious without and within (Psa 45:13). Though stars may lose their shining when the sun ariseth, yet the glory of the saints shall be no less because of the Sun of Righteousness, but rather more.

This is the day that Christ shall honor His saints before all the world. "Come," He will say, "and sit you down at my right hand. As a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, so will I separate you from wicked reprobates. Why, you are they for whom the eternal counsels of My Father did work. You are they in whom I am now to be glorified forever. Therefore, now will I exalt, advance, and honor you. Sit here or stand here on My right hand. O come! Come hither to the right hand of your Savior!"

6. HEREUPON CHRIST FULLY AND ACTUALLY JOYS IN THEM AND THEY IN HIM.

He joys in them because now He sees of the travail of His soul (Isa 53:11). He sees the issue of all His doings and sufferings here on earth. He sees now the great work He hath brought about, to wit, the glory of His saints; and He cannot but rejoice therein. As a man that makes a work that is very curious and glorious, He takes abundance of delight to look upon it. When God made the world, He looked upon what He had made, He saw it was good, and He delighted in it. So Christ looks on His saints, and when He sees what He hath done in raising so poor a worm to so high an excellence, He takes infinite delight therein. Now He sees that He hath attained His end in the great design and deepest counsels that He had before the world! He was then resolved to save a number of sinners and to bring them at last to Himself that they might behold Him in His glory and manifest the riches of His grace. To that purpose hath He still been carrying on the great work of souls' salvation...and now that He sees it accomplished and fulfilled in them, He must needs delight: "In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing" (Zep 3:16-17).

And as He joys in them, so they cannot but rejoice in Him; as He delights in their glory, so they cannot but delight in His glory. Are they not at Christ's right hand? Is not that the place of pleasure, the Paradise of God? "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psa 16:11). The very setting of them on Christ's right hand is the beginning of heaven's joy. The presence of Christ makes joy, "exceeding joy" Qude 24). Oh! But what joy? What fullness of joy? What exceeding joy will it be to be set at Christ's right hand? Now begins that joy that never, never shall have an end! O the complacency that the blessed feel in their seeing, knowing, loving, and being loved of Jesus Christ! "O my Christ! Let me have tribulation here, let me here spend my days in sorrow, and my breath in sighings; punish me here, cut me in pieces here, burn me here, so that I might there be placed at Thy right hand." For then will joy come and sorrow will vanish; sorrow is but for a night, this night of life. But joy will come in this morning of the resurrection, and it never shall be night again.

Global Warming: much colder than you thought it would be

Wondering how the proponents of Global Warming are going to explain the abnormally cold weather here in the United States? Wait no longer, here's the big answer: a 30 year cooling "blip"

Now seriously, if they couldn't see this coming a few months ago why should we believe they know anything about the weather that's coming our way in the future?

30 Years of Global Cooling Are Coming, Leading Scientist Says
FOXNews.com

"From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.'s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.

Oranges are freezing and millions of tropical fish are dying in Florida, and it could be just the beginning of a decades-long deep freeze, says Professor Mojib Latif, one of the world's leading climate modelers.

Latif thinks the cold snap Americans have been suffering through is only the beginning. He says we're in for 30 years of cooler temperatures -- a mini ice age, he calls it, basing his theory on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the world's oceans.

Latif, a professor at the Leibniz Institute at Germany's Kiel University and an author of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, believes the lengthy cold weather is merely a pause -- a 30-years-long blip -- in the larger cycle of global warming, which postulates that temperatures will rise rapidly over the coming years. More....

Global Warming; much colder than you thought it would be

A Case Against Youth Ministry Part 7

New at Polemos
Family Worship at Church
Sunday School/ Youth Groups

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 7: Discipline, Youth Culture and Generational Isolation

We are born in iniquity (Ps. 51:5). We go astray from the womb (Ps. 58:3) and we are liars from birth (Ps. 58:3). Youth are prone toward the lusts of the flesh (2 Tim. 2:22) and foolishness is bound up in the heart of children (Prov. 22:15). If they are left to themselves, without proper discipline, they will do foolish things that will (or at least should) bring shame and embarrassment to their parents (Prov. 29:15) and will ultimately cast their own souls into Hell (Prov. 23:14).

So what is God’s remedy for the foolish hearts of children? Parents, and the biblical use of the means of grace. The biblical use of the rod (Prov. 22:15, Prov. 29:15), rebuke (Prov. 27:5, 6; 29:15), training and admonition (Eph. 6:4) will drive foolishness from their hearts (Prov. 22:15) and deliver their souls from Hell (Prov. 23:14).

These things are the jobs of parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to know what their children are doing. It is the parents’ responsibility to know what the children are learning. It is the parents’ job to know what their children are saying and doing. It is the parents’ responsibility to know when their children need the rod and to administer it. It is the parents’ responsibility to know when their children need reproof, rebuke, instruction and then to give it. And it is the parents’ responsibility to know what their children need prayer for and to pray it. God designed the role of parent to meet many vital needs in the life of every child!

Question: So what happens when foolish children are removed from their parents and grouped with their foolish peers for most of their waking hours?

Answer: Youth culture.

You end up with children who do things that their parents do not know about. You end up with children who do not receive the rod when they need it (Prov. 13:24, 22:15, 29:15). Children who walk with those that they should not walk with (Prov. 13:20; 14:7). Children who do not receive the discipline, instruction and prayer that they desperately need. Children who are not brought up in the way that they should go (Prov. 22:6). You end up with fools feeding off fools to do ever more foolish things.

You end up with children who love and value their peers. Children who love and value what their peers love and value. Children who seek the approval of their peers and try to please their peers. Children who are raised by their peers and think that life is all about having youthful fun with their youthful friends feeding their youthful lusts at their parents’ expense.

You end up with children who throw fits when they don’t get their own way. Children who resent authority. Children who resent being told what to do. Children who disobey their parents (2 Tim. 3:2). Children who are insolent toward those that they should honor (Is. 3:4, 5) and children who grow up to be big children and oppressors of society (Is. 3:4, 5, Ecc. 10:16).

You end up with youth gangs and lawless self-centered brats, many of whom take these attitudes into adulthood and raise a generation far worse than their own.

You end up with generational gaps in which the different ages hardly know each other nor enjoy each others company. You end up with the various age groups looking at each other from a distance each one thinking the other is strange and out of touch. You end up with youth whom are very much isolated from the potential wisdom of their elders. Again, even the secular observer can see the foolishness of the peer segregation that we practice

“It is absurd and anti-life to be part of a system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does.”
-John Taylor Gotto Dumbing Us Down p.27

“By isolating young and old from the working life of places, and by isolating the working population from the lives of young and old, a fundamental disconnection of the genera­tions has occurred. The griefs that arise from this have no synthetic remedy, and no vibrant, satisfying communities can come into being where young and old are locked away.”
-John Taylor Gotto Dumbing Us Down p.62-63

Admittedly this applies much more to public schools and even to Christian schools than to many church youth ministries, but what is the average youth ministry than a mimicking and a continuation of the unbiblical principles of education which form the basis for most public and Christian schools? Why should the church give momentum to these destructive practices?

Parents can not possibly carry out the biblical instuctions they are given concerning the discipline of their children if their children are always somewhere else being dicsipled by someone else. And neither will their children learn to enjoy the company of widely diverse age groups if they are trained to frolic with their own age group.

So how in the world can the church reverse the tide of these destructive practices if the church practices them whenever it meets?

Some bone-jarring fun!

When the kids and I found our sledding hill to be part of a public school construction site this past week we were forced to find a another one. When we pulled up to this one and found pieces of broken sleds scattered about and people sliding down the hill wrapped in plastic bags we knew right away that this was going to be some fun.

You just can't beat several inches of ice covered by another three or four inches of new snow for for some good sledding.

I went down the steepest slope with my 6 year old daughter only to find a bunch of moguls on the hillside that I couldn't see from the top, talk about a beating! Ironically, after several bone-jarring trips down to the bottom, I saw the sign at the end of the hill. We were sledding at the Cleveland Chiropractic College.

In Thy Presence is Fullness of Joy Part 1

In Thy Presence is Fullness of Joy
Isaac Ambrose (1604-1664)

For Christ and the saints meeting at the Judgment Day: No sooner are the saints lifted up and set before the Judge, but these things follow,

1. THEY LOOK, GAZE, DART THEIR BEAMS,' AND REFLECT THEIR GLORIES ON EACH OTHER.

Oh, the communications! Oh, the darlings of beams between Christ and His saints! When two admirable persons, two lovers meet together, their eyes sparkle! They look on as if they would look through one another. So Christ and His saints at first meeting: they look on as if they would look through one another. Such is the effect of these looks that they give a luster to each other...Did not Moses' face shine when he had been with God? And shall not the faces of the elect glitter and shine when Christ also looks on them?...As they shine by Christ, so shall their shine reflect on Christ and give all glory to Christ! This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle [Paul], "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints" (2Th 1:10). Not only in Himself, but in His saints also, whose glory, as it comes from Him, redounds also to Him. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things" (Rom 11:36).

2. THEY ADMIRE THE INFINITE GLORY, BEAUTY, DIGNITY, AND EXCELLENCE THAT IS IN CHRIST.

The glory they reflect on Him is nothing to the glory that is in Him. Oh! When these stars—the saints—shall but look upon Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, they exceedingly admire [Him]. So the Apostle: "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" (2Th 1:10). All that believe shall break out into admiration of Jesus Christ. At the first sight, they shall observe such excellence in Jesus Christ that they shall be infinitely taken with it. Here [on earth] we speak of Christ, and in speaking, we admire. But how they will admire [Him] when they shall not only speak or hear, but also see and behold Him, Who is the express image of God, and the brightness of his Father's glory (Heb 1:3)! O the luster that He casts forth each way! Is not His very body more sparkling than the diamond before the sun? Yea, more" than the sun itself now shining at noonday? How should the saints but wonder at this sight? Oh! There is more beauty and glory in Jesus Christ than ever their thoughts or imaginations could possibly reach! There is more weight of sweetness, joy, and delight in Jesus Christ than either the seeing eye, hearing ear, or the vast understanding heart (which can multiply and add still to any former thoughts) can possibly conceive (ICo 2: 9)! Every soul will cry out then, "I believed [I would] see much glory in Jesus Christ when I saw Him. I had some twilight or moonlight glances of Christ on earth: but—O blind I! O narrow I!—[I] could never have faith, opinion, thought, or imagination to fathom the thousand thousandth part of the worth and incomparable excellence that I now see in Him!"

Why, when we see more than ever we could expect, this causeth admiration. The saints shall then cry out and say, "I see more, ten thousand times more than ever I expected! I see all the beauty of God put forth in Christ, I see the substantial reflection of the Father's light and glory in Jesus Christ, I see thousands of excellencies in Jesus Christ that never were revealed to me before!"...The glory of Christ will then exceed all former apprehension. O they admire to see the King in such a beauty! They admire to see the Judge in such a glittering and glorious robe of majesty! They admire, and they cannot but admire.

3. THEY ADORE AND MAGNIFY THE GRACE AND GLORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

As it is said of the twenty-four elders that they fell down "before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev 4:10-11). So all the saints, [who have] now advanced to come up to Christ and to stand before the throne, fall down before Christ. They worship Him that lives forever, shouting and singing about Jesus Christ, setting out His glory, grace, and goodness! "After this I beheld," saith John, "and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen" (Rev 7:9-12). Saints and angels will both give glory to Jesus Christ that day. Every elect man will then acknowledge, "Here is Christ that shed His blood for me! Here is the Savior that laid down His life for me! Here is the sacrifice that gave Himself a propitiation3 for me! Here is the Person that mediated, interceded, and made peace for me! Here is the Redeemer that delivered and redeemed me from the wrath to come!" Then they begin those hallelujahs that never, never shall have an end: "Hallelujah!" And again, "Hallelujah! Amen, Hallelujah!"—"for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" (Rev 19: 7).

Wheat or Chaff: No Middle Class

Wheat or Chaff?
J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

I know well the world dislikes this way of dividing professing Christians. The world tries hard to fancy there are three sorts of people and not two. To be very good and very strict does not suit the world: they cannot, will not be saints. To have no religion at all does not suit the world: it would not be respectable. "Thank God," they will say, "we are not as bad as that." But to have religion enough to be saved, and yet not go into extremes; to be sufficiently good, and yet not be peculiar; to have a quiet, easy-going, moderate kind of Christianity and go comfortably to heaven after all—this is the world's favorite idea. There is a third class, the world fancies—a safe middle class—and in this middle class, the majority of men persuade them¬selves they will be found.

I denounce this notion of a middle class as an immense and soul-ruining delusion...It is a refuge of lies, a castle in the air, a vast unreality, an empty dream. This middle class is a class of Christians nowhere spoken of in the Bible.

There were two classes in the day of Noah's flood: those who were inside the ark, and those who were without; two in the parable of the Gospel net: those who are called the good fish, and those who are called the bad; two in the parable of the ten virgins: those who are described as wise, and those who are described as foolish; two in the account of the Judgment Day: the sheep and the goats; two sides of the throne: the right hand and the left; two abodes when the last sentence has been passed: heaven and hell.

And just so, there are only two classes in the [churches] on earth: those who are in the state of grace, and those who are in the state of nature; those who are in the narrow way, and those who are in the broad; those who have faith, and those who have not faith; those who have been converted, and those who have not been converted; those who are with Christ, and those who are against Him; those who gather with Him, and those who scatter abroad; those who are "wheat," and those who are "chaff...Beside these two classes, there is none.

See now what cause there is for self-inquiry. Are you among the wheat or among the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class or in the other. Which is it of the two?

You attend church, perhaps. You go to the Lord's Table. You like good people. You can distinguish between good preaching and bad...You subscribe to religious societies. You attend religious meetings. You sometimes read religious books. It is well: it is very well. It is good: it is all very good. It is more than can be said of many. Still, this is not a straightforward answer to my question. Are you wheat or a re you chaff?

Have you been born again? Are you a new creature? Have you put off the old man and put on the new? Have you ever felt your sins and repented of them? Are you looking simply to Christ for pardon and life eternal? Do you love Christ? Do you serve Christ? Do you loathe heart-sins and fight against them? Do you long for perfect holiness and follow hard after it? Have you come out from the world? Do you delight in the Bible? Do you wrestle in prayer? Do you love Christ's people? Do you try to do good to the world? Are you vile in your own eyes and willing to take the lowest place? Are you a Christian in business, on weekdays, and by your own fireside? Oh, think, think, think on these things, and then perhaps you will be better able to tell the state of your soul.

I beseech you not to turn away from my question, however unpleasant it may be. Answer it, though it may prick your conscience and cut you to the heart. Answer it, though it may prove you in the wrong and expose your fearful danger. Rest not, rest not until you know how it is between you and God. Better a thousand times find out that you are in an evil case and repent betimes, than live on in uncertainty and be lost eternally.

Iceberg Right Ahead!

We may only have a couple of years left before the polar ice caps are gone (according to Al Gore) but I came home this past week to find an iceberg right at the end of my driveway thanks to the city snow plows.

With a little help from my oldest son we did manage to move it over about 6 feet and now we have an iceberg on our front lawn that will probably be there till June.

So how exactly do we blame record snow fall and dangerously cold temperatures and on Global warming? I have no idea but the kids sure had fun making Root-beer snow cones out of real snow.

Wheat or Chaff: The Chaff

Wheat or Chaff?
J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

WHO ARE THE CHAFF IN THE WORLD? This again is a point that demands special attention. The chaff means all men and women who have no saving faith in Christ and no sanctification of the Spirit, whosoever they may be. Some of them perhaps are infidels, and some are formal Christians. Some are sneering Sadducees, and some self-righteous Pharisees. Some of them make a point of keeping up a kind of Sunday religion, and others are utterly careless of everything ex¬cept their own pleasure and the world. But all alike, who have the two great marks already mentioned—no faith and no sanctification—all such are "chaff'...They bring no glory to God the Father. They honor not the Son, and so do not honor the Father that sent Him (John 5:23.) They neglect that mighty salvation that countless millions of angels admire. They disobey that Word that was graciously written for their learning. They listen not to the voice of Him Who condescended to leave heaven and die for [sinners]. They pay no tribute of service and affection to Him Who gave them "life, and breath, and all things" (Act 17:25).

Therefore, God takes no pleasure in them. He pities them, but He reckons them no better than "chaff." Yes, you may have rare intellec¬tual gifts and high mental attainments. You may sway kingdoms by your counsel, move millions by your pen, or keep crowds in breath¬less attention by your tongue; but if you have never submitted your¬self to the yoke of Christ and never honored His Gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you are nothing in His sight...The meanest insect that crawls is a nobler being than you are: it fills its place in creation and glorifies its Maker with all its power—-you do not. You do not honor God with heart, will, intellect, and members, which are all His. You invert His order and arrangement and live as if time was of more im¬portance than eternity and body better than soul. You dare to neglect God's greatest gift—His own incarnate Son. You are cold about that subject that fills all heaven with hallelujahs. And so long as this is the case, you belong to the worthless part of mankind. You are the "chaff of the earth.
Let this thought be graven deeply in the mind of every reader of this paper, whatever else he forgets. Remember there are only two sorts of people in the world. There are wheat, and there are chaff.

There are many nations in Europe. Each differs from the rest. Each has its own language, its own laws, its own peculiar customs. But God's eye divides Europe into two great parties—the wheat and the chaff. There are many classes in England. There are peers and commoners, farmers and shopkeepers, masters and servants, rich and poor. But God's eye only takes account of two orders—the wheat and the chaff. There are many and various minds in every congregation that meets for religious "worship. There are some who attend for a mere form, and some who really desire to meet Christ; some who come there to please others, and some who come to please God; some who bring their hearts with them and are not soon tired, and some who leave their hearts behind them and reckon the whole service weary work. But the eye of the Lord Jesus only sees two divisions in the congregation—the wheat and the chaff.

Wheat or Chaff: The Wheat

Wheat or Chaff?
J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

"Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."—Matthew 3:12

VIEWED with the eye of man, the earth contains many different sorts of inhabitants. Viewed with the eye of God, it only con¬tains two. Man's eye looks at the outward appearance: this is all he thinks of. The eye of God looks at the heart: this is the only part of which He takes any account. And tried by the state of their hearts, there are but two classes into which people can be divided: either they are wheat or they are chaff.

WHO ARE THE WHEAT IN THE WORLD? This is a point that demands special consideration. The wheat means all men and women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; all who are led by the Holy Spirit; all who have felt themselves sinners and fled for refuge to the salva¬tion [preached] in the Gospel; all who love the Lord Jesus, live to the Lord Jesus, and serve the Lord Jesus; all who have taken Christ for their only confidence and the Bible for their only guide; [all who] regard sin as their deadliest enemy and look to heaven as their only home. All such—of every church, name, nation, people, and tongue; of every rank, station, condition, and degree—all such are God's "wheat."

Show me people of this kind anywhere and I know what they are. I know not that they and I may agree in all particulars, but I see in them the handiwork of the King of kings, and I ask no more. I know not whence they came and where they found their religion. But I know where they are going, and that is enough for me. They are the children of my Father in heaven. They are part of His "wheat."

All such, though sinful, vile, and unworthy in their own eyes, are the precious part of mankind. They are the sons and daughters of God the Father. They are the delight of God the Son. They are the habitation of God the Spirit. The Father beholds no iniquity in them. They are the members of His dear Son's mystical body: in Him He sees them and is well pleased. The Lord Jesus discerns in them the fruit of His own travail and work upon the cross and is well satisfied. The Holy Ghost regards them as spiritual temples that He Himself has reared and rejoices over them. In a word, they are the "wheat" of the earth.

At the Price of Posterity's Liberty!

“Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expense at the price of their own posterity's liberty!” -Samuel Adams

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -Samuel Adams

“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.” -Samuel Adams

A Case Against Youth Ministry Part 6

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Family Worship at Church
Sunday School/ Youth Groups

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 6: Just Killing Time

Strong relationships with our children are built by the biblical use of a great deal of time together; walking with each other, talking with each other, listening to each other, worshiping together, working together, working through problems together, being close to each other, etc.

By the biblical use of time together, we can get to know our children like we ought to. We can get to know their strengths, their weaknesses, their fears, their worries, where they need discipleship, where they need discipline, where they need instruction, when they need reproof and rebuke and what they need prayer for. We can show them that we love them, care for them and that we have their best interests at heart. We can show them that we are here to help them, guide them and instruct them. We can show them that we are here to protect them and we can give them a consistent biblical example to follow. In short we can win their hearts! But take away the time and the relationships will necessarily wither.

Generally speaking, what consumes our time will capture our heart and “where our heart is, there our treasure will be also” (Matthew 6:21). In other words, what we focus our children’s time and energy upon will likely become their heart’s treasure. Focus your son’s time and energy on football and it is highly likely that he will begin to love and treasure football, focus his time and energy away from football and it is highly unlikely that he will come to love and treasure football. Focus your daughter’s time and energy on a career outside the home and she will likely come to love and treasure the idea of having a successful career outside the home. Time must be used carefully and thoughtfully.

For this reason it is nearly impossible for most of today’s parents to truly win the hearts of their children. Today’s families spend no time together. The average family’s week begins by father running off to his career, mother running off to her career and the children being left to be raised by emotionally disconnected strangers in daycare and school. While there is nothing inherently wrong with family members spending some time away from each other, the fact of the matter is that most families are almost constantly separated. Work, daycare and school separate families by day; while sports, extracurricular activities, hobbies and friends eat up the evenings. Nursery, Sunday school, children’s church and youth groups then separate the family on Sundays.

The most fundamental aspects of family relationships have been virtually destroyed in our day. The responsibility of teaching children has been taken away from the parents and given to “specialists” removed from the parents’ presence and now the parents no longer feel competent to teach their own children. Children are no longer instructed by their parents, or even in the presence of their parents, with the result that most children no longer view their own parents as competent instructors or even trustworthy counselors.

In addition to this, we have trained our young people to believe that they are here on Earth to be off having fun with their peer groups, doing whatever they happen to be interested in and that the family’s schedule is to revolve around their activities. The time and duties that God built into the family structure have been removed and/or parceled out to others with devastating consequences.

Most families have become little more than a group of individuals each doing their own thing that happen to sleep in the same house. The covenantal family structure, as God created it, has been disassembled and the members alienated from each other. The family has been shattered into a kind of lawless individualism and, sadly, we have come to view this as normal. But there are consequences to tearing apart God’s created order and there is an undeniable connection between the dismembering of the biblical family and the decay of society.

It is the family that supplies the members of the Church and the members of the State. It is the family which supplies the finances of the Church and the finances of the State. Strong godly families will bless the Church and State, while corrupt families will hurt both the Church and the State; fill the family full of problems and the Church and the State will suffer the fallout and will have to expend time, energy and resources in dealing with those problems. Listen to the words of Richard Baxter(1615-1691):

“A holy, well-governed family is the pre­parative to a holy and well-governed church. If masters of families did their parts, and sent such polished materials to the churches, as they ought to do, the work and life of the pastors of the church would be unspeakably more easy and delightful; it would do one good to preach to such an auditory, and to catechise them, and instruct them, and examine them, and watch over them, who are prepared by a wise and holy education, and understand and love the doctrine which they hear. To lay such polished stones in the building is an easy and delightful work…

Well-governed families tend to make a happy state and commonwealth; a good education is the first and greatest work to make good magis­trates and good subjects, because it tends to make good men. Though a good man may be a bad magistrate, yet a bad man cannot be a very good magistrate. The ignorance, or worldliness, or sensuality, or enmity to godliness, which grew up with them in their youth, will show itself in all the places and relations that ever they shall come into.”

-Richard Baxter A Christian Directory

What better way is there to destroy the family than to dissolve their God-ordained relationships? Separate them, take away their time together and they cannot function as a family was intended to function. Separate them and then they cannot accomplish what God meant for families to accomplish in the lives of each other. Cause one generation to neglect their duties and the next will hardly know that those duties exist.

So what does all this have to do with Youth Ministries? Am I blaming all of societies problems on Youth Ministries? Not at all. The problem is much deeper than that, what I am saying is that the solution needs to begin with the church; the church should quit validating family dismemberment by mimicking the world’s family divisive ways.

Our children hardly make it out of the womb and we start stuffing them in the church nursery! The world has daycare; we have sanctified Sunday daycare. The world has segregated schools; we have segregated Sunday schools. The world has high school; we have youth groups etc, etc, etc. We mimic the world like a little boy who wants to do everything his big brother does.

Shouldn’t the church be leading the charge to put families back together? Shouldn’t the church counter the direction of the world rather than walking in the way with it? How can we keep segregating families and then bemoan the fact that they are falling apart? How can the church make families stronger if it keeps separating them? And if the church does not start bringing families back together and teaching them to fulfill their God given tasks and duties towards each other, who exactly is going to do it?

• In Conclusion

Dear brethren, you don’t have to be exceptionally observant to recognize that the family is languishing in our day. It is interesting to note that even some secular writers are beginning to understand what much of the church does not: that constantly separating families in the name of education is disastrous. John Taylor Gotto in his book Dumbing Us Down writes

“But no large-scale reform is ever going to work to repair our damaged children and our damaged society until we force open the idea of "school" to include family as the main engine of education. If we use schooling to break children away from parents—and make no mistake, that has been the central function of schools since John Cotton announced it as the purpose of the Bay Colony schools in 1650 and Horace Mann announced it as the purpose of Massachusetts schools in 1850 - we're going to continue to have the horror show we have right now.

The "Curriculum of Family" is at the heart of any good life. We've gotten away from that curriculum; it's time to return to it…”
Dumbing Us Down p.37

And again

“Yet it appears to me as a schoolteacher that schools are already a major cause of weak families and weak communities. They separate parents and children from vital interaction with each other and from true curiosity about each other's lives. Schools stifle family originality by appropriating the critical time needed for any sound idea of family to develop—then they blame the family for its failure to be a family. It's like a malicious person lifting a photograph from the developing chemicals too early, then pronouncing the photographer incompetent.”
Dumbing Us Down p.74

The constant separation is making family relationships very shallow at best. It is dissolving the very bonds that could potentially make it strong. We focus all of our children’s time and energy away from the family and then wonder why we don’t have their hearts as they get older? The family is divided and then we wonder why it has been conquered (Matthew 12:25)? We focus their hearts on everything but family and then wonder why they do not treasure it?

Why should the church give its stamp of approval to the world’s separation of families by having more separation? Why do that when there are other, more biblical ways to carry out discipleship? Shouldn’t families be together in the household of the Lord? Isn’t further separation about the last thing that most families need right now?

The Final Judgment

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Judgment, The
Articles, Sermons and Other Writings

• The Day of Judgment
  Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)
• The General Judgment
  Eschatology Lecture Notes
  Sam Waldron
• The Day For Which All Others Were Made
  William S. Plumer (1802-1880)
• The Final Judgment
  or The World Judged Righteously by Jesus Christ
  by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

A case against youth ministry Part 5

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Family Worship at Church
Sunday School/ Youth Groups

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 5: An Unbiblical View of Education

Many of the methodologies implemented in youth ministry and education exhibit an unbiblical view of education and discipleship on the part of those leading the ministries. More specifically I am speaking of the peer orientation, peer segregation, special interest groupings, family dismemberment and the classroom setting it often seems to be limited to.

One pastor, in defense of Sunday school programs, insisted that “children must learn according to their level of understanding and common life experiences”. While there are obviously some times and instances in which it is proper teach children “according to their level of understanding”, statements such as these often presuppose that efficiency of factual intake should structure our educational methods (and that peer segregation is conducive to factual intake).

Such a view of education would seem to be primarily concerned with the shortest, most efficient route to acquire the optimum amount of knowledge, for this reason the differing ages must be separated from each other. If we teach at a ten-year old level, the five-year olds won’t get it, and if we teach at a five-year old level, the ten-year olds won’t learn as much. If we mix the two, it will slow everybody down and somebody might (perish the thought!) get bored.

This view of education is very often taken another step further in the use of nurseries and children’s church. Children are viewed as a distraction to learning efficiency so they are removed from the adults. They are seen more as a nuisance to be removed than a blessing to be trained.

Scriptural education, however, is covenantal in nature. It is relationship oriented. It is not structured by efficiency, but by what will produce the most intimate and harmonious relationship with God first and then with men (Jer. 9:23; Matt. 22:36-40; 2 Peter 1:5-9).

God did not establish schools with special classrooms and special teachers to deal with groups of children severed from their family relationships. God established covenantal families in which the parents could walk with, talk with, live with, love, train, and gain the hearts of their age-integrated children. It is in this atmosphere, where the parents have the hearts of children, that biblical education can be most truly carried out. It’s my contention here that our unbiblical view of education and our unbiblical methods of carrying it out are destroying the family as God intended it to function.

The responsibility of biblical education is placed on the parents, and more specifically, the father (Gen. 18:19; Deut. 4:9-10; 6:7; 11:19; Prov. 1:8, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 10, 20; 5:1, 7; 6:1, 20; Eph. 6:4 for a few examples) and is based in everyday family life, as most clearly brought out in Deuteronomy 6. It is aimed at winning the hearts of the children to the parents, that the parents might direct their hearts to God (Prov. 23:26).

By removing children from their parents to be taught by “experts”, the State has created the illusion in the minds of most parents (and children) that parents are not able to properly educate their own children and that it is not really their responsibility anyway. This taking away of responsibility has promoted the further abdication of responsibility. The burden of educating has been removed from the parents and now they rarely think about it anymore. Fathers don’t even seem to remember that they were the ones given responsibility for the education of their children by God; responsibility was taken away from fathers and now fathers don’t know that they are responsible, are we supposed to think that this is only a coincidence? Isn’t this just another twist to the welfare mentality so prevalent in our day? You start giving people hand-outs and soon they will forget their own responsibilities and expect them as an unalienable right.

The State has sold parents the very attractive lie that they can relax, someone else will educate their children for them and that they really couldn’t do a very good job anyway. They have been made to feel inadequate and incompetent to teach and counsel their own children! Parents no longer teach their children or are even present when their children are being taught, and children no longer look to their parents for answers. The State has severed one of the main arteries of family life and dealt a diabolical blow to the family by means of “education”. And rather than stitching the family back together, churches are adding more segregating programs in a vain attempt to prop the ailing family up. Meanwhile the family is still bleeding to death!

Rather than confronting and refuting the lies of the State, the church is giving them the “amen” byway of mimicking the State. Many aspects of youth ministry and education have simply become a continuation of the State’s educational methods and family divisiveness. The State removes children from their parental supervision; the Church removes children from their parental supervision. The State segregates by peer groupings; the Church segregates by peer groupings. The State has special teachers severed from the context of family; the Church has special teachers severed from the context of family. What are we doing?

• In Conclusion

Please do not misunderstand; I am NOT saying that other people should not be able to teach our children. I am NOT saying that parents are the only suitable teachers. God gave the gift of teaching to the church and our children need that gift of teaching as much as the parents. I love to have my children exposed to a great variety of teachers! But this does not mean that it has to be in a context severed from family relationships. Exposure to various teachers does not have to remove father and mother from their roles and responsibilities by completely breaking apart the family structure.

Once again brethren, where do we learn such a view of education in the Bible? Where does the Bible even hint that it is wise to remove children from both parents and parents from their children in order to get a proper education? Where does the Bible even hint that it is wise to separate children into peer groups in order to teach them? Where does Scripture teach us that efficiency should structure our educational methods? Where does the Bible tell us that education is all about grade point averages and good jobs? Where is it??? Such a view of education is built more upon the logic of man than the wisdom of Scripture.

If education is really all about the efficient learning of facts, then let’s get rid of the kids and segregate everybody, we’re holding each other back. But if education is all about glorifying God through relationships with Him and with each other then perhaps we should find a better and more biblical way to do things. If the church does not turn things around, who’s going to do it?

The Dying Experience of Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley

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Death
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The Dying Experience of Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley as found in Thoughts on Religious Experience by J.A. Alexander (1809-1860)
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The Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley, who had been for some time President of New Jersey College, upon being informed by his physicians that his disease was incurable, expressed his entire resignation, and exclaimed, 'Welcome, Lord Jesus.' On the Sabbath preceding his death, Dr. Clarkson, one of his physicians, told him that he observed a manifest alteration, and that he could not live many days. He said, 'May the Lord bring me near Himself! I have been waiting with a Canaan hunger for the Promised Land. I have often wondered that God suffered me to live. I have more wondered that He ever called me to be a minister of His Word. He has often afforded me much strength which I have abused. He has returned in mercy. O how faithful are the promises of God! O that I could see Him as I have seen Him before in His sanctuary! Although I have as earnestly desired death as the hireling pants for the evening shade, yet will I wait all the days of my appointed time. I have often struggled with principalities and powers, and have been brought to the borders of despair. Lord, let it suffice.' He then closed his eyes and sat up and prayed fervently that God would show him His glory before he departed hence; that He would enable him to endure patiently to the end—and, particularly, that he might be kept from dishonouring the ministry. He then resumed his dis­course, and said, 'I can truly say that I have loved the service of God. I know not in what language to speak of my own un-worthiness—I have been undutiful—I have honestly endeavoured to act for God, but with much weakness and corruption.' Then lying down again, he said, 'A Christian's death is the best part of his experience. The Lord has made provision for the whole way; provision for the soul, and provision for the body. The Lord has given me many souls as the crown of my rejoicing. Blessed be God—eternal rest is at hand. Eternity is but long enough to enjoy my God. This, this has animated me in my severest studies. I was ashamed to take rest here. O! that I could be filled with the fulness of God, that fulness which fills heaven!' Being asked whether he would choose to live or die, he said, 'To die, though I cannot but feel the same strait that Paul did when he knew not which to choose. "For me to live is Christ—and to die is gain." But should God, by a miracle, prolong my life, I would still continue to serve Him. His service has been sweet to me. I have loved it much. I have tried my Master's yoke, and will never shrink my neck from it. His yoke is easy, and His burden is lightl' One said to him, 'You are more cheerful and vigorous, sir.' 'Yes, I rise or fall, as eternal life seems nearer or further off.' It being remarked that he always used the appellation, 'dear Lord', in his prayers, he answered, 'O! He is very dear! very precious, indeed 1 How pretty is it for a minister to die on the Sabbath! I expect to spend the remainder of this Sabbath in heaven.' One said, 'You will soon join the blessed society of heaven—you will for ever hold converse with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with the spirits of the just made perfect—with old friends, and many old-fashioned people.' 'Yes, sir,' he replied with a smile, 'but they are a most polite people now.'

He expressed great gratitude to his friends around him, and said, 'May the Lord repay you for your tenderness to me! may He bless you abundantly, not only with temporal, but with spiritual blessings!' Turning to his wife, he said, 'My dear, I expect to see you shortly in glory.' Seeing a member of the Second Presbyterian Church present, he said, 'I have often preached and prayed among you, my dear sir, and the doctrines I preached are now my support, and blessed be God, they are without a flaw. May the Lord bless and preserve your church! He designs good for it yet, I trust.' To a person from Princeton he said, 'Give my love to the people of Princeton, and tell them that I am going to die, and that I am not afraid to die.'

He would sometimes cry out, 'The Lord Jesus will take care of His cause in the world.' Upon waking next morning, he ex­claimed, 'O what a disappointment I have met with—I expected this morning to have been in heaven.' On account of his extreme weakness, he was unable to speak much during the day, but all that he said was in the language of triumph. Next morning, with a pleasing smile on his countenance, he cried out, 'O I shall triumph over every foe—the Lord has given me the victory. Now I know that it is impossible that faith should not triumph over earth and hell—I exult—I triumph. O that I could see untainted purity! I think I have nothing to do but die—yet perhaps I have —Lord, show me my task. He then said, 'Lord Jesus, into Thy hands I commit my spirit—I do it with confidence—I do it with full assurance. I know that Thou wilt keep that which I have committed to Thee. I have been dreaming too fast of the time of my departure, for I find it does not yet come—but the Lord is faithful, and will not tarry beyond the appointed time.'

In the afternoon, the Rev. Mr. Spencer came to see him, and said, I have come, dear sir, to see you confirm by facts the Gospel you have been preaching. Pray, sir, how do you feel?' To which he replied, 'Full of triumph—I triumph through Christ. Nothing clips my wings but the thoughts of my dissolution being pro­longed—O that it were tonight! My very soul thirsts for eternal rest.' Mr. Spencer asked him what he saw in eternity to excite such vehement desires in his soul. He said, 'I see the eternal love and goodness of God. I see the fullness of the Mediator. I see the love of Jesus. O to be dissolved and to be with Him! I long to be clothed with the complete righteousness of Christ.' He then re­quested Mr. Spencer to pray with him before they parted, and said, 'I have gained the victory over the devil; pray to God to preserve me from evil, to keep me from evil in this critical hour and to support me with His presence through the valley of the shadow of death.'

He spent the remainder of the day in taking an affectionate and solemn leave of his friends, and exhorting such of his chil­dren as were with him.

On the next day, July 16, the conflict was terminated. He was no longer able to speak, but a friend having desired him to give a token by which his friends might know whether he still con­tinued to triumph, he lifted up his hand and uttered the word 'Yes.' About nine o’clock he fell into a sound sleep, and appeared much more free from pain than he had been for many days before. He continued to sleep, without changing his position, till about one o'clock, when he expired without a groan or a sigh. During his whole sickness he was never heard to utter a repining word; and in taking leave of his dearest friends he was never seen to shed a tear, or exhibit any sign of sorrow.
His remains were interred in the Second Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Mulberry or Arch and Third Streets; by the side of his dear friend, the Rev. Gilbert Tennent.

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Systematic Theology Links

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Systematic Theology

• Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol. 1-4
  by John Calvin

• SystematicTheology
  by Louis Berkhof

• A Body of Doctrinal Divinity
  by John Gill

• Systematic Theology
  by R.L. Dabney

• Dogmatic Theology
  by W.G.T. Shedd

• Manual of Theology
  by J.L. Dagg

• A Body of Divinity
  by Thomas Watson

The Day For Which All Others Were Made Part 3

The Day For Which All Others Were Made
William S. Plumer (1802-1880)

To Christ, His saints, and angels, the Day of Judgment will be a day of triumph. The Lord will then make a show of His enemies openly. They that would not kiss the Son shall be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. In His triumph, all His saints and angels shall share and glory!

To the wicked, the same day will be full of despair. They will cry to the rocks and to the mountains, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev 6:16-17). Was more dreadful despair ever portrayed?...

Reader, are you prepared for your last account? Have you made peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? Is all your hope in the precious blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ? Nothing of your own can save you in that day. It will burn as an oven. It will try your works and your hopes as by fire. If you have built on Christ and on Him only, then hold fast your confidence, which hath great recom¬pense of reward.

But if you are yet in your sins, then be persuaded to flee for refuge to the hope set before you in the Gospel (Heb 6:18). "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Nor can you be in too much haste or too much in earnest in this weighty matter. It is your life. "Behold, the judge standeth before the door" (Jam 5:9); and He says, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev 22:12)...

To some minds, the greatest wonder of the Last Day will be the composure and calmness with which that day will be met by the right¬eous. John says, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment" (I Jo 4:17). I never should have thought of boldness at such a time, but there I find it in God's Word. It is attained by love to Him, Who on that day will be our Advocate, the Lord our righteousness (I Jo 2:1).

The Day For Which All Others Were Made Part 2

The Day of Judgment will also be a day of great surprise, both to saints and sinners. So Christ expressly informs us: "Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?" (Mat 25:37-39). In like manner also shall the wicked say unto Him, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in pris­on, and did not minister unto thee?" (Mat 25:44). If the sentences of the just and unjust were reversed at the Day of Judgment, the sur­prise would not be half so great. Jesus said, "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" (Mat 7:22-23). Many will be saved, and many will be lost, contrary to the judgments formed of them by their neighbors. But more will be saved, and more will be lost con­trary to the opinions they had of themselves.. .Many doubts, mysteries, and perplexities will be removed fully and forever in that great day. Things, which in this life were full of grievous darkness, will then be satisfactorily cleared up. God's providence, which is now accompa­nied by a thousand inexplicable things, will then be made plain. Now the wicked are exalted; then they shall be brought down to hell. Now the righteous are forsaken, afflicted, tormented; then the Lord will bring forth their righteousness as the light and their judgment as the noonday. That Day will wipe off all aspersions from the innocent and fix guilt where it belongs, though never suspected before. God's truth, wisdom, holiness, justice, and mercy will shine brighter than the sun on that day. The slandered, injured, and abused will then be vindicated. The oppressed will rise up and clank the chains with which tyrants had bound them to the eternal confusion of wrong­doers. Many a righteous man, judicially murdered, will then face his corrupt judge with the suborned witnesses and perjured jurors who were at his trial. There will be a wonderful clearing up on that day.

It will also be a day of exposure. "Some men's sins are open befo­rehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after" (I Tim. 5:24). The fraud, cunning, hypocrisy, and deceit of wicked men will then appear. All those dark designs and plots, which meditated ruin to individuals, distress to families, perplexity to nations, or dis­honor to God, shall be held up to reprobation. The light of that day will shine through and through the thickest web of iniquity and show-all its foul intricacies...

The Day of Judgment will also be a day of separations. Here, saints and sinners are strangely mixed together; there, it will be very differ­ent. Christ says, "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn" (Mat 13:30). "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left" (Mat 25:31-33). This separation shall be fi­nal. The righteous and the wicked shall that day part to meet no more.

The Day For Which All Others Were Made Part 1

The Day For Which All Others Were Made
William S. Plumer (1802-1880)


The Day of Judgment will be the Great Day—so inspired writers often and properly style it. It will exceed all other days for the brightness of its beginning. Other days had their dim twilight, but this will begin in ineffable effulgence. Their light was from the sun; the light of this shall be from Him Who made all things. Other days dawn with general quiet, but this shall begin with great and unusual noises. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people" (Psa 50:3-4). Jesus shall come in like manner as He went up on high: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God" (I Th 4:16). On that day, men will see sights and hear sounds unlike all that ever struck their senses before. The brightness of Immanuel's coming will extinguish the light of the heavenly bodies; and the sounds that shall be heard shall make the earth reel and stagger like a drunken man! This day will be crowded full of wonders. It will be begun, carried on, and closed with such displays of miracles as the world has never seen before. The results accomplished by it will be as wonderful4 as the progress of its events. Every way of God to man shall then be justified. All wickedness shall be put down. All cavil5 shall be forever silenced. All judgment shall then be executed...

The Day of Judgment is a day fixed. The time for it is set by God Himself: "He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained" (Act 17:31). To God that day is known; to us it is unknown. To Him it is certain; to us it is doubtful. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mat 24:36). It will come as a thief in the night, as the flood came on the old world, as the tempest of wrath came on the cities of the plain. Yet it is unchangeably determined by God. Men may not be looking for it, but God sees it afar off. As nothing can hasten it, so that it shall come before God's purposes respecting the world are accomplished, so nothing can delay it one moment beyond the time fixed in God's eternal counsels for its coming.

Frequently the Day of Judgment is called "the day of the Lord." It will be the day when the Lord Christ shall appear in glory, display the wonders of His mediation6 and the perfection of His government, and will publicly be owned and crowned as Lord of all. There will be no disputes concerning the divinity of Christ, on or after the Day of Judgment, which will be His day..."For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22). That day will be the Day of the Lord Jesus.

The Day of Judgment will be above all others a day of convocation. The heavens and the earth shall furnish the assembly. The chariots of God, which are twenty thousand, shall roll down the skies, bearing in them ten thousand times ten thousand, an innumerable company of angels. Fallen angels too shall be there, and them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him. All that died in their sins shall be there. All that are alive on the earth shall stand before God. Not one of all God's rational creatures shall be missing. Prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, saints, sinners, liars, hypocrites, infidels, blasphemers, haters of God shall all be present. The assizes of the universe shall then be held. Millions on millions shall crowd this greatest of all congregations. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2Co 5:10). This will be the first and the last gathering of all the denizens of the universe...

Global Hypocrisy

Please Pass the Psalter

I recently started reading The Songs of Zion: A Contemporary case for Exclusive Psalmody by Michael Bushell defending the position of exclusive psalmody. For those who might not be familiar with exclusive psalmody it is the belief that only the Biblical Psalms are to be sung in the corporate worship of Gods church as opposed to the hymns, songs and little ditties of human composition. And before anyone writes this off as totally bizarre or “way out there” this has been the historical position of a great deal of the church throughout history (and the practice of many more), especially those of the reformed and puritan persuasion.

I have to say up front that I do not presently hold this position but I also have to say that I do not reject it either. I honestly have not studied the matter out and if there is anything I cannot stand its professing Christians rejecting another point of view without both hearing it out and searching it out in the Scriptures first.

But even if you don’t agree with exclusive Psalmody or don’t know anything about the controversy, if you’re a professing Christian you ought to be familiar with the Psalter and a singer of Psalms. Why you ask? Because the New Testament Scriptures command the Church to sing Psalms!

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…” Ephesians 5: 19

“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

Singing the Psalms is not just an option for the children of God, it’s commanded of them. It is a sad commentary on the modern Church indeed that most of them never sing Psalms at all and if they do it’s usually a humanly composed hymn loosely based on a few words found in one of them. I’m guessing that a great many modern day Christians have probably never even seen a Psalter and probably think that it’s something that sits on the kitchen table next to the pepper. I’ve been a Christian for about 20 years now and I’d have to confess that until recently I don’t really recall using one before.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Psalter I would urge you to get one and see what you’ve been missing. This, brethren, is the Word of God meant to be sung by His Church! No bad theology accidentally creeping into the songs. No super polished human emotional gloss-overs of life but a comprehensive, divinely inspired hymn book dealing with every matter of Christian theology and with our every aspect of our everyday relationship with God. This is some great stuff to sing!

For instance, we sang Psalm 58 in Church this morning:

Do ye, O congregation, indeed speak righteousness? O ye that are the sons of men, judge ye with uprightness?

² Yea, ev’n within your very hearts ye wickedness have done; And ye the vi’lence of your hands do weigh the earth upon.

³ The wicked men estranged are, ev’n from the very womb; They, speaking lies, do stray as soon as to the world they come.

⁴ Unto a serpent’s poison like their poison doth appear; Yea, they are like the adder deaf, that closely stops her ear;

⁵ That so she may not hear the voice of one that charm her would, No, not though he most cunning were, and charm most wisely could.

⁶ Their teeth, O God, within their mouth break thou in pieces small; The great teeth break thou out, O Lord, of these young lions all.

⁷ Let them like waters melt away, which downward still do flow: In pieces cut his arrows all, when he shall bend his bow.

⁸ Like to a snail that melts away, let each of them be gone; Like woman’s birth untimely, that they never see the sun.

⁹ He shall them take away before your pots the thorns can find, Both living, and in fury great, as with a stormy wind.

¹⁰ The righteous, when he vengeance sees, he shall be joyful then; The righteous one shall wash his feet in blood of wicked men.

¹¹ So men shall say, The righteous man reward shall never miss: And verily upon the earth a God to judge there is.

Now when was the last time you sang something like that in Church?

Calvin And Hobbes'

John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes

You gotta love this art work!

A case against youth ministry Part 4

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 4: Keeping and Losing the Heart

In 2 Samuel 15, we have recorded for us the sad account of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, King David.

In verse 6, we are told that Absalom “stole the hearts of the men of Israel” away from his father. In this simple statement we learn at least three things. First, a person can “have” the heart of another or even of a multitude. Secondly, a person can lose the heart of another or even of a multitude. And thirdly, someone can steal the heart of a person or even a multitude away from another.

We also learn in this passage that when David had the hearts of the people they loved him and willingly followed him, but when Absalom took their hearts they followed Absalom and rebelled against King David.

And lastly, for our purposes here, we learn from this passage something about how hearts are won, kept and taken: Absalom talked to the people, sympathized with the people and looked out for the people’s interest (v. 3, 4); he touched the people (v. 5) and spent a great deal of time with the people (v. 6, 7). In this way Absalom gained the hearts of the people and the people in turn began to love and follow him.

By contrast, David was obviously distant and out of touch with both Absalom and the people. He had no idea what was going on right under his own nose for so long a time. Simply by doing nothing much at all, David lost the hearts of the people to someone else.

Brethren, isn’t this passage rich with application to us today? Don’t we see so many parents in our own day who are not spending time with their children in any biblical manner and they’re losing them to someone else or something else? Don’t we see so many children who once seemed to love and follow their parents now loving and following someone or something else? Don’t we see children by the multitude who come to rebel against their own parents? Aren’t we witnessing the countless loss, in our own day, of the children of Christian parents?

This is all the more sad when we consider that it would seem that God has wired their little hearts to naturally be given to us, their parents, in the first place. But just like king David we first lose touch with them and then we lose them. Watch the average young child as it is sat down and left in a daycare or nursery of some sort, watch their little heart break as they watch their parents walk away from them and leave them with a group of strangers; all they want is mom and dad.

But watch that same child as time goes by and they have been repeatedly left at daycare, school, nursery, Sunday school and all the rest. Something changes in their hearts as they are constantly pulled (or pushed) away from mother and father and made to spend their time doing other things with other people. And when this constant separation bears the fruit of alienation in their teenage years we act surprised, cry and wonder why this has happened, but isn’t it obvious when we stop and think about it?

If we are going to have children who willingly follow us, we need to weld their hearts to our own while they are yet young. No wonder David’s other son Solomon cried out to his own child in Proverbs 23:26, “My son, give me your heart….”.

Let’s be honest, brethren. It is often very difficult to make time for our children and pull ourselves away from the many other things we need to do; it’s difficult to even want to spend time with them sometimes and a multitude of family divisive programs at church really doesn’t help matters. What are these programs but one more blow among many at the cohesion of the family structure and the parent-child relationship; another wedge between our hearts.

Please consider this as you continue reading; doesn’t the fact the church is losing children to the world on a massive scale simply exhibit that we the parents, like King David, have lost their hearts on a massive scale?

Well... at least they're honest.

Looking for Authority (In all the wrong places)

As I’ve been listening to all the “conservative” arguments for conservative politics, conservative economics, “Traditional Marriage,” Intelligent Design and all the other conservative points of view two things seem to be conspicuously absent from the rhetoric in virtually all of the books, talk shows and all the rest; 1) Scripture and 2) Jesus Christ.

I frequently hear mention of God, Gods natural law, time tested values, traditional values, conservative values and even Judeo-Christian values but where are the appeals to the authority of Scripture and the Lordship of Jesus Christ? While almost every one of these apologists of conservatism occasionally profess Christianity they also seem to conscientiously avoid any appeal to, or mention of, Jesus Christ and His authoritative Word contained in the Scriptures.

For instance, one professing Christian writer I was recently reading, in the course of making a brief defense of “Traditional Marriage”, made this comment which seemed to sum up his entire argument:

“The traditional view of marriage is based on the common sense moral precepts accepted by thousands of years of generations throughout the world…”

Now seriously, why should anyone listen to an argument like that? Where’s the authority in “moral precepts accepted by thousands of years of generations”? What if all those generations were wrong? What happens if the next couple of thousand "years of generations" accept different moral precepts? Is traditional marriage officially invalidated then?

This whole argument appeals to majority opinion for authority, infers that majority opinion can make a matter right or wrong and argues that majority opinion should be forced on those who disagree with it. But what happens when majority opinion changes?

Why would any professing Christians stoop to such weak and pathetic arguments’ when we have the authority of the living God to appeal too? Why not argue something like this: God made marriage just as He made everything else. He has defined what marriage is and we have no authority or right to redefine it or change anything about it. To do so is a sin, mutiny of the grossest form and just another ever so clear expression of the raging sin and rebellion fomenting in our wicked hearts against the Law of our loving Creator and it is just because of sin like this that we desperately need a Savior to cleans us from who we are by our natural generation into a sinful race.

Here we have some real authority; Gods imperishable revealed Word as found in Scripture. Nothing based on the shifting sands of feeble men’s opinions. No tyrannizing our fellow men by forcing some men’s opinions on all the rest. Just the Law of God resting solidly on His unassailable authority and pointing us to the Savior to whom God has given all authority in Heaven and on Earth.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…” (Matthew 28: 18)

“…And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church…” (Ephesians 1: 19-22)

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist…” (Colossians 1: 16, 17)

Now here's some authority! And it can only be found in the hands of Christ the King who has been given all authority, holds all authority, parcels out all authority and will one day judge our every thought, word and dead. We must obey Him or Perish (Psalm 2).

Climate Change Fraud?

CLIMATE CHANGE 'FRAUD'

Daily Express

THE scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a “load of hot air underpinned by fraud”.

Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as “climate comrades” keeping the “gravy train” going.

In a controversial talk just days before the start of a climate summit attended by world leaders in Copenhagen, Prof Plimer said Governments were treating the public like “fools” and using climate change to increase taxes…more…

A case against youth ministry Part 3

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 3: The Sufficiency of Scripture Part 1

• The Sufficiency of Scripture

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
-2 Timothy 3:16, 17

“The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture…”
-The Westminster Confession of Faith and The1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 1, Paragraph 6

“The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
-The Westminster Confession of Faith and The 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 1, Paragraph 10

Dear Brethren,

The ultimate question in any matter of controversy is this: What do the scriptures reveal about this subject, what does God say to us in His Word? For those who profess to be the children of God this ought to be the only real question of any significance. Ultimately this should be the beginning and end of every conflict.

In the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments we have all that we need for our sanctification (John 17:17). We have all that we need to be “perfect” and “thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). And we have been given “all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him…” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

If we are going to debate methodologies of discipleship and education as they are commonly practiced and whether they are beneficial or harmful to our families, then haven’t we entered into a debate having to do with sanctification, good works, life and godliness? And if that is the case then isn't the Bible sufficient to answer such a debate? Shouldn't we be able to defend our position and practices from scripture?

It’s the premise of the following pages that the Bible is indeed sufficient to answer such a controversy and that it alone can give us an authoritative answer. Those who wish to make the scriptures vague and indifferent to the subject must then still prove the scriptures indifference from the scriptures. As the Westminster confession so aptly put it, the Bible is “The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined…”

“To the Law and to the Testimony…” (Isaiah 8:20)

• Youth Ministry as it is commonly practiced is entirely foreign to Scripture.

It has come to be my understanding over the years that for something to be “biblical” it must have been derived from Scripture in one of three ways:

1. By explicit command.
2. By unavoidable implication (necessary consequence), or
3. By normative example

If a belief or a practice cannot be shown to have been derived from scripture in at least one of these three ways it cannot be said to be biblical.

So with the sufficiency of scripture in mind let me ask you these questions: Where in Scripture do we find the idea of entirely breaking apart the family in order to teach them how to have relationships? Where do we find the idea of removing children from the authority and supervision of their parents in order to group them together according to age, under the supervision of a special teacher for intense periods of “discipleship” in a classroom setting? Where does God ask for such youth ministry programs? Where does He suggest that we have them or where does He hint that we should do such things? Where is it implied in scripture or where can it be deduced “by good and necessary consequence”?

Where do we find the Apostolic Church practicing such a ministries or giving us instructions concerning them? They are given the commission to go and make disciples at the end of the book of Matthew and we see them carry out their commission in the rest of the New Testament, but where do we even see a hint of the modern youth ministry movement?

Not only is there an absence of such commands and examples in the Bible, but families are often spoken of as being together at the hearing and teaching of God’s word (Deut. 29:11; Joshua 8:33-35; 2 Chron. 20:13; Neh. 10:28, 29; Joel 2:15-17; Matt. 14:21; Matt. 15:38; Acts 16:31-34). Paul assumes that children will be with the adults in the worship service (Col. 3:20; Eph. 6:1). Jesus seems to have had children around Him frequently while He was teaching (Matt. 18:2; 19:13-15; 14:21; 15:38) and He was “greatly displeased” when the disciples tried to shoo them away (Mark 10:14).

While we have absolutely no instructions to segregate families or to remove children from their parents’ supervision into peer segregated classes and no examples to follow in scripture, we do have examples of entire families gathered together for the hearing and teaching of God’s Word, we have places where it is assumed that they are together, we have some places where they were commanded to be together and many places where the responsibility of discipleship is laid on the parents, which seems to assume that they would at least be there when it happens.

While making disciples is certainly biblical, peer segregated special interest grouping and the removal of children from their parents for intense periods of education has no basis in scripture at all. So why would we practice something that is contrary to the examples of scripture that we do have?

• Youth Ministry, as it is commonly practiced, both assumes and implies a deficiency in scripture.

Historically, the church has believed that “the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture” (1689 London Confession) and that scripture alone is sufficient to make us “complete” and “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) and that “in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to” the Scriptures (1689 London Confession).

If this is true, then where do we find youth minstries as they are commonly practiced in the scriptures? What texts do we “appeal to”? Where do we find the people of God segregating families or separating the children from their parents for educational purposes? Where do we find peer segregated special interest groupings? Where are these things taught? Where are they implied and where are the examples to follow?

If this methodology of discipleship is the best way to disciple our children, then why doesn't the Bible promote it or its component parts? And if it’s not the best way to disciple our children, why is the church promoting it? This question has to be answered by the proponents of such a system.

The fact that there is no biblical basis for these special youth programs as they are commonly practiced combined with the importance placed on it by modern Christians both implies and assumes that the Bible is deficient. How can you escape this conclusion? It implies that if all we had to build and structure our life on was the Bible, we would be missing something important. It implies that while the Bible has some good suggestions, man needed to come up with the really good programs. It implies that the church was lacking something it needed for 1,800 years. It implies that our methodologies do not have to come from scripture and that all that God did say about our methodologies of discipleship were just second rate suggestions that could be ignored and replaced with better ideas.

• In Conclusion

Brethren, where is the biblical support? It would seem that many of our modern ideas of education, and in particular Sunday school, as it is commonly practiced is entirely an invention of man. This seems to be attested to by the fact that Sunday school and other related ministries did not even exist until the 1800s. Even then Sunday school was only for orphans. Most of the historical body of Christ did not even think of doing such things; they didn't see them in scripture.

It is not enough to say “the Bible tells us to make disciples and this is how we are going to do it” for it could be done in many other ways. It must be shown from scripture that it is acceptable and good to do it that way. Can we honestly say, with the full conviction of biblical authority, that God is pleased with such methods of teaching people how to have biblical relationships with God and man? Doesn't the burden of proof lie with those who wish to practice such programs?

Let me ask the question one more time, where is the scriptural justification for these youth ministries as they are commonly practiced in the church today?

The Dying Experience of Rev. Edward Payson

New at Polemos
Death
Articles, Sermons and Other Writings

The Dying Experience of Rev. Edward Payson as found in Thoughts on Religious Experience by J.A. Alexander (1809-1860)

No man in our country has left behind him a higher character for eminent piety than the Rev. Edward Payson, 1783-1827….When this faithful pastor found that his end was approaching, he felt a strong desire to address some advice to his flock. He therefore had it announced from the pulpit, that he would be pleased to see as many of them as could make it convenient to come to his house, and appointed them a time. To them, when assembled, he spoke nearly as follows: 'It has often been remarked that people who have gone to the other world cannot come back to tell us what they have seen; but I am so near the eternal world, that I can see almost as clearly as if I were there; and I see enough to satisfy myself, at least, of the truth of the doctrines which I have preached. I do not know that I should feel at all surer had I been there. It is always interesting to see others in a situation in which we know we must shortly be placed ourselves; and we all know that we must die. And to see a poor creature, when, after an alternation of hopes and fears, he finds that his disease is mortal, and death comes to tear him away from everything he loves, and crowds him to the very verge of the precipice of destruction, and then thrusts him down headlong;—there he is, cast into an unknown world! no friend, no Saviour to receive him! —O! how different is this from the state of a man who is prepared to die! He is not obliged to be crowded along, but the other world comes like a great magnet to draw him away from this; and he knows that he is going to enjoy—and not only knows but begins to taste it— perfect happiness, for ever, for ever, and ever. And now God is in this room. I see Him! and O! how unspeakably lovely and glorious does He appear! worthy of ten thousand hearts, if we had so many. He is here, and hears me pleading with the creatures that He has made, whom He preserves and loads with blessings, to love Him. And how terrible does it appear to me to sin against this God—to set up our wills in opposition to His! It makes my blood run cold to think how miserable I should now be without religion. To lie here and see myself tottering on the verge of destruction—O! I should be distracted. And when I see my fellow creatures in this situation, I am in an agony for them, that they may escape the danger before it be too late. Suppose we should hear the sound of some one pleading earnestly with another, and we should inquire, What is that man pleading for so earnestly? O! He is only pleading with a fellow creature to love his God, his Saviour, his Preserver, his Benefactor. He is only pleading with him not to throw away his immortal soul; not to pull down everlasting wretchedness on his own head. He is only persuading him to avoid eternal misery and accept eternal happiness. "Is it possible," we should exclaim, "that any persuasion can be necessary for this?" And yet it is necessary. 0! my friends! do, do love this glorious Being. Do seek the salvation of your immortal souls. Hear the voice of your dying minister, while he entreats you to care for your souls.'

On another occasion he said, 'I find satisfaction in looking at nothing that I have done. I have not fought, but Christ has fought for me. I have not run, but Christ has carried me. I have not worked, but Christ has wrought in me. Christ has done all.' The perfections of God were to him a well-spring of joy, and the promises were breasts of consolation, whence his soul drew aliment and comfort. 'O!' exclaimed he, 'the loving kindness of God! His loving kindness! This afternoon, while I was meditating, the Lord seemed to pass by and proclaim Himself, 'THE LORD GOD, MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS ! O how gracious! Try to conceive of that—"his loving kindness", as if it were not enough to say kindness, but loving kindness! What must be the loving kindness of the Lord who is Himself infinite in love? It seemed as if Christ had said to me, "You have often wandered, and been impatient of the way by which I have led you; but what do you think of it now?" And I was cut to the heart, when I looked hack and saw the goodness by which I had been guided, that I could ever for a moment distrust His love.'

To a minister who called upon him, he said that the point in which he believed ministers failed most, and in which he had certainly failed most, was in doing duty professionally, and not from the heart. He said also, 'I have never valued as I ought the doctrines which I have preached. The system is great and glorious, and is worthy of our utmost efforts to promote it. The interests depending will justify us in our strongest measures. In every respect we may embark our all upon it; it will sustain us.' 'I was never fit to say a word to a sinner, except when I had a broken heart myself; when I was subdued and melted into penitence, and felt just as if I had received pardon to my own soul; and when my heart was full of tenderness and pity.' He seemed to be greatly affected with a view of the grace of God in saving lost men, and especially, that it should be bestowed on one so ill-deserving as himself. 'O how sovereign! O how sovereign! Grace is the only thing that can make us like God. I might be dragged through heaven, earth, and hell, and I should still be the same sinful, polluted wretch, unless God Himself should renew and cleanse me.'

In conversation with his eldest daughter, being asked whether self-examination was not a very difficult duty for young Christians, 'Yes,' he replied, 'and for old ones, too; because it is displeasing to the pride of the heart, because wandering thoughts are then most apt to intrude, and because of the deceitfulness of the heart. When a Christian first looks into his heart, he sees nothing but confusion—a heap of sins, and very little good, mixed up together; and he knows not how to separate them, or how to begin self-examination. But let him persevere in his efforts, and order will arise out of confusion.' She mentioned to him a passage in the life of Joseph Alleine, 1634-68, which led him to say, 'We never confess any faults that we really think disgraceful. We complain of our hardness of heart, stupidity, etc., but we never confess envy, covetousness, and revenge, or anything that we suppose will lower us in the opinion of others; and this proves that we do not feel ashamed of coldness and stupidity. In short, when young Christians make confessions, unless there is an obvious call for it, it commonly proceeds from one of the following motives: either they wish to be thought very humble, and to possess great knowledge of their own hearts; or they think it is a fault which the other has perceived, and they are willing to have the credit of having discovered and striven against it; or they confess some fault from which they are remarkably free, in order to elicit a compliment.'
Payson's solicitude for the welfare of his people was so great, that though he had given them one solemn address, he was not contented with that, but sent for particular classes of them. On one day, he had the young men of the congregation assembled around him, wheq he delivered to them a peculiarly solemn, tender, and appropriate exhortation. He also sent an affectionate valedictory address to the Association of ministers with whom he had been connected. The substance of it was, 'A hearty assurance of the ardent love with which he remembered them even in death—an exhortation to love one another with a pure heart fervently—to love their work—to be diligent in it—to expect success, and to bear up under discouragements—to be faithful unto death, and to look for their reward in heaven.'

While speaking of the rapturous views which he had of heaven, he was asked if it did not appear like the clear light of vision, rather than that of faith. He said, 'I don't know—it is too much for the poor eyes of my soul to bear—they are almost blinded with the excessive brightness. All I want is to be a mirror, to reflect some of those rays to those around me.'—'My soul, instead of growing weaker and more languishing, as my body does, seems to be endued with an angel's energies, and to be ready to break from the body, and join those around the throne.' When asked whether it was now incredible to him that the martyrs should rejoice in the flames and on the rack, 'No,' said he, 'I can easily believe it. I have suffered twenty times as much as I could in being burnt at the stake, while my joy in God so abounded, as to render my sufferings not only tolerable, but welcome. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' At another time he said. 'God is now literally my all in all. While He is present with me, no event can in the least diminish my happiness; and were the whole world at my feet, trying to minister to my comfort, they could not add one drop to the cup.' 'It seems as if the promise to wipe away all tears is already accomplished, as it relates to tears of sorrow. I have no tears to shed now but tears of love and joy and thankfulness.' Shortly before his decease, he was heard to break forth in a soliloquy, of which the following is a specimen: —'What an assemblage of motives to holiness does the gospel present! I am a Christian; what then? I am a redeemed sinner—a pardoned rebel—all through grace, and by the most wonderful means which infinite wisdom could devise. I am a Christian; what then? Why, I am a temple of God, and surely I ought to be pure and holy! I am a Christian; what then? Why, I am a child of God, and ought to be filled with filial love and reverence and joy and gratitude. I am a Christian; what then? Why, I am a disciple of Christ, and must imitate Him who was meek and lowly of heart, and pleased not Himself. I am a Christian—what then? Why, I am an heir of heaven, and hastening on to the abodes of the blessed.' 'It seems as if my soul had found a pair of new wings, and was so eager to try them, that in her fluttering she would rend the fine network of the body to pieces.' He had the choir to come in and sing for him, and chose the hymn, 'Rise, my soul', etc. Soon afterwards he expired, October 21, 1827.