A Grave Heresy

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Some Good Quotes

"In this present day there is a grave heresy which has permeated large areas of the Christian Church; it claims that the Christian life of victory is produced solely by an inward guidance of the Holy Spirit. In matters of Christian ethics, whether it be in reference to how to love one's neighbor or to deciding if any particular activity is wrong, many Christians claim that for moral authority they depend only upon the guidance of the Spirit. Whichever way the Spirit "moves" them is the way which they trust to be right. Now even the most elementary biblical doctrine should dissuade these subjective moralists, for who among sinfully depraved men can trust his inner inclinations? On such a basis as has been described how could one possibly test the spirits to see if they be from God or Beelzebub? Does such a way of life affirm the sufficiency of God's canonical word? Does Scripture describe the work of the Spirit as that of mystical guidance? All these questions are fundamental and to be answered negatively."

Greg Bahnsen in Theonomy in Christian Ethics

No Logical Barrier from Tyranny

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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?

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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

R.J. Rushdoony and the Institutes of Biblical Law

Institutes of Biblical Law
By Rousas J. Rushdoony / P & R Publishing

I finally did it!!! After nearly 3 years of reading it on and off I finally finished Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law; all 850 pages (well almost, I have a few more pages of Appendices to go but I’m pretty much done).

While there have naturally been a few things that I’m not really sure I agree with overall I have to say it has been very profitable and one of the most thought provoking books I’ve read in a while. He was definitely a gifted teacher with some brilliant insights into Scripture.

In the formative years of my Christian life I spent a great deal of time in Dispensational churches that warned me to stay away from Reformed doctrines or I would get sucked into their many errors. When I finally got the biblical guts to study Reformed teachings for myself (instead of only listening to one side of the story) and compare them to Scripture I found much to my surprise that a great deal of what I had been told about them was skewed, distorted and often taken out of context. I must say I see a similar thing happening to many of the Theonomists. While I can see why some of the criticisms that I have heard of Rushdoony were leveled against Him (he says a few things that no doubt seem strange to modern “Evangelical” ears) I have found that many of these criticisms are outright lies based on statements taken completely out of context.

While a few of those in the Theonomy camp have notoriously big mouths, and some of them would probably disown me because I’m a Baptist and hold a little more of an Amillennial view of Eschatology, and while I’m not entirely sure I agree with a few of the things that I have heard from some of them, I have to say that I agree completely and wholeheartedly with their fundamental starting point; God made everything, God owns everything and we must arrange every aspect of this earthly existence according to His Word which addresses every aspect of life. We owe this to Him as His creatures. There’s no way around it, this is the undeniable teaching of Scripture and the core belief of almost all of the Reformers and Puritans.

I find it amusing that many of those who seem to revel and glory in the Reformers and Puritans will quickly condemn the Theonomists when the Theonomists and the Puritans are virtually identical in many of their beliefs and practices. There seems to be a great deal of ignorance of what the Reformers and Puritans were really like. Many in our day seem to read a few quotes or maybe a small book or two and conclude that these great men only concerned themselves with “spiritual,” “heavenly” matters when the truth of the matter is that while they kept their hope fixed on Christ and the glory of the age to come, they brought the Word and the Law of God to bear on everything, much like Mr. Rushdoony has tried to do in this book.

So if you’re interested in some serious thought provoking I would very highly recommend this book to you. I often found it very hard to put down.

Drawing the silken thread of comfort and salvation

“When God means to save a man, He usually begins by making him sorrow on account of his evil ways. It is the sharp steel needle of the Law of God that goes through the convicted heart and draws the silken thread of comfort and salvation after it!”

-C.H. Spurgeon

Preaching the Law -Part 2

Preaching the Law
By A.W. Pink
(Studies in the Scriptures, March 1934)

There is a threefold knowledge of sin and the law. First, a speculative knowledge. Men may have, to a con­siderable degree, clear and sound intellectual views with respect to the Law of God and to sin. They may per­ceive the reasonableness of God's Law, the obligation they are under to obey it, their great lack of conformity thereto, and the infinite evil there is in all sin. They may reason accurately about these things, and yet their hearts remain quite unaffected by them. They may live at the greatest ease, trouble not themselves about their disobedience, and continue sin­ning with a high hand. So it was with Israel of old; so it is with many today who are familiar with he letter of God's Law.

Second, there is a convicting knowledge. Unregenerate persons may have their consciences awakened, so as to attend to these things in some mea­sure as solemn realities, and with par­ticular application to themselves. They may feel themselves condemned by the law and under the curse of Him against whom they have so grievously rebelled. They may have such a sense of majesty, holiness, and power of God, the dreadfulness of His anger and their constant exposedness to be cast into Hell, as to fill them with sore dis­tress and horror. Self-interest, the instinct of self-preservation, and the movings of self-love may cause them to be greatly concerned how they shall escape the wrath to come. Later, their convictions fade and disappear.

Third, there is a regenerative knowledge. Those who have been born again have a heart-realization of the superlative excellence and glory of the Divine character, by which He is infi­nitely distinguished from all other beings, and they feel the deep obliga­tions they are under to love Him per­fectly with all their hearts forever. They discern reasonableness, the spirituality, and extent of the law in such a manner and degree as produces heart approba­tion and love to it, and their souls exclaim, "The law is holy, just and good." Hence they perceive what sin is. It appears to them infinitely odious and ill-deserving, a dreadful opposition to the Divine character and Law, and they hate and abhor sin, and wish to be done with it forever.

Preaching the Law

Preaching the Law
By A.W. Pink
(Studies in the Scriptures, March 1934)

The fairest face on earth, which was endowed with the most comely features, would soon become ugly and unsightly if one feature continued to grow while all the others remained undeveloped. No matter how well formed or beautiful the mouth, if it became ten times the size of the eyes or ears, how repulsive would it appear. Beauty is principally a matter of proportion. So it is with the Word of God: its beauty and blessedness are best perceived when it is presented in its true proportions. To be all the time dwelling on the love of God and be silent about His wrath, or to be constantly expounding His righteousness and say little or nothing about His mercy, is to present a caricature of the Divine perfections. So also to preach ten sermons on the Gospel of God's grace to one upon God's Law, is to lose the balance of truth, and to present the truth disproportionately.

It has long appeared to the writer that the greatest and most deplorable defect in modern "evangelism" is the almost total absence of the preaching of God's Law. And as this little magazine is sent to a considerable number of preachers and mis¬sionaries, the editor feels it laid upon him to write a short article thereon. Before a servant of God is warranted in setting before the unsaved the Divine way of sal¬vation, he needs to make very clear wherein lies the need of salvation. This is the order of Scripture throughout. The Old Testament precedes the New. The ministry of John the Baptist comes before that of the Lord Jesus: and the former came "in the way of righteousness" (Matt. 21:32), calling to repentance. Romans 3:10-20 (read it!) precedes Romans 3:21-26, and so it should be in all preaching.

"By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20): then why not preach God's Law! Does not the Apostle to the Gentiles tell us, in that wondrous and blessed biographical passage of Romans 7, "I had not known sin, but by the law" (v. 7)! Fellow-preachers., the knowledge of God's Law is absolutely necessary in cider to a true knowledge of sin. Because God's Law is the rule of man's conduct, of a.11 his heart exercises and outward actions, so that he is sinful, or not, just in proportion as he conforms to the law, or does not conform thereto, it necessarily follows that he cannot possibly judge of his own char¬acter and determine whether he be a sinner or no, if he is completely igno¬rant of the law; and he must be igno¬rant of his own sinfulness, however great a sinner he be, just in proportion to the degree of his ignorance of the law he is under.

"Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4): therefore, where there is no law, there is no sin; and he who has no idea, no apprehension or knowledge of the law, has no real idea of sin; it is impossible that he should have, for every person's notion of sin will be according to his notion of the law. If he thinks God's Law requires that which it does not, then he will judge that to be sin which in truth is not so. If he thinks the law he is under does not require what it does (for example, heart-purity), then he will look upon that to be no sin, which in truth is so; and so far as he sees not, the ground and reasonableness of the law he will be ignorant of the crime or real sinfulness in transgressing it. While he is ignorant of the excellency of the law, and the authority of its Giver, and so sees not the glory of the law, he must be blind to the turpitude of sin, and can have no true idea of it.

Freedom must not be absolute

"Whenever freedom is made into the absolute, the result is not freedom but anarchism. Freedom must be under law, or it is not freedom. The removal of all law does not produce freedom but rather anarchy and a murderer's paradise. The Marquis de Sade demanded such a world; the liberty he required made a potential victim of all godly men and assured only the freedom for murder, robbery, and sexual violence. Only a law-order which holds to the primacy of God's law can bring forth true freedom, freedom for justice, truth, and godly life.

Freedom as an absolute is simply an assertion of man's "right" to be his own god; this means a radical denial of God's law-order. "Free­dom" thus is another name for the claim by man to divinity and autonomy. It means that man becomes his own absolute. The word "freedom" is thus a pretext used by humanists of every variety— Marxist, Fabian, existentialist, pragmatist, and all others—to disguise man's claim to be his own absolute.

Freedom, in itself means freedom for something in particular. If all men are "free" to murder, then there is no freedom for godly living; no peace or order is then possible. Men are then no longer free to walk tie streets in safety. If men are "free" to steal without penalty, then there is no freedom for private ownership of properly. If men lave unrestricted free speech and free press, then there is no freedom for truth, in that no standard is permitted whereby the promulgation or pub­lication, of a lie can be judged and punished. False witness is then, favored and the importance of truth is denied. The commandment of James was this: "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty" (James 2:12). There is a law of liberty; without law, there is no liberty."

-R.J. Rushdoony in Institutes of Biblical Law

The Law of God in Light of the Kingdom

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Audio Links
Dispensationalism
Law of God
New Covenant Theology

Another good and sound message from Voddie Baucham:

• The Law of God in Light of the Kingdom
  Voddie Baucham
  

Gods Standard of Righteousness Part 2

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Law of God

The Law: Gods Standard of Righteousness Part 2
Jonathan Bunnett

Someone will always reply “we’re not under Law but under grace!” (Romans 6:14) I agree, but what does Paul mean when he says that we are not “under Law”? When Paul says that we are “not under Law” is he saying that we should no longer desire to keep the Law? Does he mean that being "under grace" is somehow opposed to obeying God's Law? Does he mean that those who are "under grace" should not desire to keep the Law? Such conclusions are untenable.

Take Moses for instance. Moses was saved in the same manner we are; by grace alone through faith alone in the Messiah alone. Whatever Paul means by “under Law” and “under grace” they are clearly opposed to each other, the unregenerate person being “under Law” and the regenerate person being “under grace”. Moses, therefore, as a regenerate child of God would have been “under grace”, yet he was given the Law and told to obey it. Moses was under grace yet he sought to obey God’s Law.

The same could be said of King David. He was a regenerate child of God, he was “under grace”, but yet he loved God’s Law and sought to obey it. Grant it they lived under the Old Covenant and some aspects of that Covenant have been done away with along with the Covenant itself, but the point is this: they were “under grace” but yet kept the Law and for this reason these two things (being “under grace” and desiring to keep the God’s Law) cannot be opposed to each other.

Clearly, being “under Law” does not speak of a person as being obliged to follow the Law but rather it speaks of how that person stands relationally to God. They relate to God by means of His Law or they relate to God by means of His grace. You are “under” Law or you are “under” grace. You relate to God based on your own deeds and merits (according to Law) and and stand condemned before Him for “there are none righteous…..” Romans 3:10-20. Or you relate to God in terms Christ's merits and finished work (according to Grace) and have Christ’s righteousness credited to your account, your sin forgiven and nothing to bar you from Gods favor and fellowship.

Being “under Law” has to do with being under its condemnation, under its curse and under its wrath. It speaks of the unregenerate heart which is provoked by the Law to commit further acts of sin. (Romans 7:7-12) The Law has a claim on those who are “under” it. It has something against them. They owe it a debt.

True Christians, on the other hand, are those who have been delivered from the Law. Their “certificate of debt” has been wiped out upon the cross (Colossians 2:14) and they no longer owe the Law anything; it has no claim on them! “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) They are under grace, they relate to God in terms of grace but that does not mean that the Law no longer reveals sin and righteousness to them.

Someone else will respond: “But we have died to the Law.” (Romans 7:4) Again we have to ask, what does it mean to die to the Law? Does that mean we should no longer desire to keep it? Once again we could look at both Moses and David; both were regenerate children of God, both were saved just as we were and both loved the Law of God and desired to keep it. They too were “dead to the Law through the body of Christ”. (Romans 7:4) They were no longer in the flesh having their sinful passions aroused by the Law to bear fruit to death (Romans 7:5), but rather they were united to the Messiah. You are either in Adam or in Christ (Romans 5:14-19) and they were in Christ, yet at the same time they loved the Law of God and desired to keep it.

So what does it mean to “die to the Law”? Romans 7:6 tells us that it means to be delivered from the Law; we are removed from the former relationship that we had to it. We are delivered from its wrath, we are delivered from its curse, we are delivered from all the claims it had upon us and we are delivered from all the charges it had against us. It can no longer demand payment of debt because Christ satisfied it in full; our relationship to the Law has been radically altered.

Paul compares our relationship with the Law of God to the marriage relationship. When I die, the relationship I have with my wife will be radically altered. The relationship will not be over, but it will be different. We will see each other again and we will still love each other but the mutual obligations and the claims we had upon each other through marriage will be over with. Just so, when we die to the Law the claims that it rightly had upon us are over with and we are justified, or literally declared Just by God.

Christians are those who can stand guiltless before the Law and owe it nothing at all. And while the unbeliever’s relationship to God is contingent upon his Law keeping (but they cannot keep the Law so they stand condemned) the Christians relationship to his God is contingent upon grace for “we are not under Law but under grace.” But now, by the grace of God, we see the goodness and character of God reflected in His Law and we long to conform to it.

Brethren, while we Christians no longer relate to God on the basis of our own law keeping the Law is still a light to our feet and we should love to keep it!

The Precepts and Liberty

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The Law of God

THE PRECEPTS AND LIBERTY
A.W. Pink
From Studies in the Scriptures December 1946

"So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts" (Psa 119:44-45). But do not men at large—at least in the 'civilized' world—"walk at liberty"? The great majority think so, but they are much mistaken. The fact is that sin has thoroughly perverted the judgment of the natural man, so that he is wanting in any true sense of values; and hence, it is that the Word of truth says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa 5:20). So completely has sin blinded the unregenerate that they suppose that bondage is freedom; and freedom, bondage. The sinner imagines that he can only enjoy liberty while he is lord of himself, and that to surrender unto the claims of Christ and take His yoke upon him would be bringing him into captivity. That is why he sees in the Lord Jesus "no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa 53:2)!

A false notion of liberty possesses all of our hearts. Until the Holy Spirit takes us in hand, we want to be at our own disposal and do whatever we please, without any one to call us to account. Yet the impracticability of such a notion appears in the outworking of it in the natural world. If there were not government in the human sphere, every man doing that which was right in his own eyes, there would be a state of utter lawlessness—anarchy. Still more evident, to those with anointed eyes, is the untenability and wickedness of such a notion when applied to the spiritual realm. Since God be our Creator, since we are wholly dependent upon Him—even for every breath that we draw—it becomes us to be in subjection to Him, for to Him we are accountable for all of our actions. Manifestly, it is our duty both to will and to do that which is pleasing to our Maker, our Benefactor, our Judge.

"I will walk at liberty" (Psa 119:45). Note well, that statement is preceded by "I keep thy law continually," and is followed by "for I seek thy precepts." Rightly did Thomas Scott (1747-1821) point out, "The service of God is perfect freedom, and every deviation is proportional slavery to sin and Satan." Only in the path of God's precepts does the soul find true liberty—that is why God's Law (the expression of His will) is called "the perfect law of liberty" (Jam 1:25; 2:12)! By the Fall, we have come under the law of sin and death; and consequently, we are fettered by our corruptions and bound over to eternal misery. But God's Word makes known to us the way of deliverance from that bondage. Sin destroys man's liberty, for it prevents him prosecuting his chief end—which is to glorify God—as it equally hinders him from attaining his highest good, which is to be holy and happy. Only by heeding the Law of the Lord can emancipation be obtained.

License is not liberty, for true liberty is not the opportunity to do what we want, but it is the power to do what we ought. Freedom of heart lies in a course of obedience to God, for there is no satisfaction to the heart until it finds its satisfaction in the "good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Rom 12:2). The difference between the license of the natural man and the liberty of the spiritual man is that of being the bond-slave of sin and "the Lord's freeman" (ICo 7:22); and that is determined by the chains of darkness being displaced by the cords of duty, the fetters of sin by the yoke of Christ. And Christ's yoke is "easy" (Mat 11:30), for it is lined with love. God's commandments "are not grievous" (Uo 5:3), for they are dictated by infinite wisdom and are designed for our highest good. Loving, pleasing, enjoying, praising God is the only real freedom and blessedness. God's precepts must be sought—desired and attended to—if we are to "walk at liberty."

The more whole-heartedly and constantly we "seek" God's precepts and order our lives by them, the more will we "walk at liberty."

1. Thereby we shall be delivered from the darkness of a sin-blinded understanding. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psa 119:130). "Simple" there does not mean dull-witted, weak-minded, or illiterate, but one who is plain-hearted, sincere, and with an eye single to God's glory (compare 2Co 1:12). It is the words of God being received into an honest and good heart which dispels the mists of error, disperses the clouds of prejudice, exposes the lies of Satan, and illuminates the soul. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments" (Psa 111:10). The more we walk the path of obedience, the sounder becomes our judgment, and the keener our discernment in perceiving what would pro­mote or what would make against our best interests.

2. Thereby we are delivered from the bondage of our lusts. No man can serve two masters. In our unregenerate days, we were entirely dominated by our corruptions, for God had no place in our hearts and lives. But the more He possesses our hearts, and the more we are governed by His precepts, the less will sin tyrannize us. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal 5:16). To "walk in the Spirit" is to be governed by that Word of Truth which he dictated for us. Therefore, our daily prayer needs to be "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Psa 119:133). If some iniquity has "dominion" over me, it is because my steps are not ordered by the Word in all things.

3. Thereby we are delivered from a sin-enslaved will. We do not propose to enter here into a philosophical disquisition on the nature and exercises of the will. The natural man's will is quite free to choose, but what determines his choice? His inclinations: he always chooses that which, everything considered, is most agreeable to him. Being fallen, he prefers to serve self rather than God, the world more than Christ, the pleasures of sin above holiness; and therefore, always chooses the former. God makes His people willing in the day of His power to choose Christ by bringing them to feel their need of Him and giving them a desire for Him. The will of the sinner is "free from righteousness"; of
the saint, "free from sin" (Rom 6:18, 20)! The more we love God's law and the pleasanter obedience becomes to us, the more the will is emancipated from the power of our corruptions.

4. Thereby are we delivered from the accusations of a guilty conscience. Just so long as we lived in rebellion against God, that inward monitor condemned us; and though at times we succeeded in drowning its voice, there were moments and seasons when our rest was disturbed. But "great peace have they which love thy law" (Psa 119:165). The more we love God's law and the more we seek His precepts, the more freedom have we from convictions of guilt.

5. Thereby are we delivered from the snares of the Fowler. The unregenerate "are taken captive by him at his will" (2Ti 2:26), so that it is his behests they perform (Job 8:44). But "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (Joh 8:36).

6. Thereby we are freed from the disapprobation of God. If we be truly seeking His precepts, we shall enjoy the quickenings and comforts of the Spirit; it is our self-will which "grieves" Him and restrains His gracious operations within us. So too we shall escape God's chastenings, for it is when we forsake His Law and keep not His commandments that He visits our transgressions with the rod and His providences are against us (Psa 89:30-32).

7. Thereby are we delivered from the bondage of human opinions and customs. There are not a few professing Christians whose freedom is circumscribed by "the commandments and doctrines of men" with their "Touch not; taste not; handle not"
(Col 2:20-22), but the one who is regulated only by God's precepts will walk at liberty from such impositions.

The Moral Law of God -Part 11

Law of God
Audio Links

• The Moral Law of God -Part 11
  Albert N. Martin

The Moral Law of God -Part 10

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Audio Links
Law of God
Dispensationalism
New Covenant Theology

• The Moral Law of God -Part 10
  Albert N. Martin

Guerilla Apologetics

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Evangelism

While I must confess that I don't really appreciate some of Ray Comfort's evangelism tactics, you gotta love anyone with such a heart for evangelism!

My children and I just finished watching the "Guerrilla Apologetics for the Glory of God" DVD put out by Vision Forum and it was awesome! A must hear message for anyone who longs to lead others to Christ, something that is certainly true of any true Christian.

Guerilla Apologetics for the Glory of God DVD
By Ray Comfort / The Vision Forum, Inc

" Evangelism today uses modern techniques that are often contrary to Scripture. While such outreach may lead to many "decisions", true conversions don't always follow in the same numbers. Ray Comfort has seen the power of evangelizing as Jesus did-by emphasizing that all believers have broken God's laws, are enemies of God, that God's judgment is directly tied to lawbreaking, and as sinners, they're desperately in need of repentance. Discover what Guerilla Apologetics are really all about! 1 DVD, 1 hr. 20 minutes."

The Law: Gods Standard of Righteousness Part 1

Sin is the transgression of the Law. 1 John 3:4
Sin is living your life without the Law. Matthew 7:23
Sin is refusing to subject yourself to the Law. Romans 8:7
Sin does not exist apart from the Law. Romans 4:15 and
Sin can only be known through the Law. Romans 3:20

The Gospel message in brief is this:

We have broken the Law of God and have incurred the penalty of condemnation. We now live under the Law’s curse (Galatians 3:10). We cannot now undo or erase what we have done, nor can we atone for it. The Law demands a flawlessly perfect life or an eternal death in payment for breaking it, and being imperfect and finite we are helpless to do either. This is the cursed and pathetic condition of mankind.

We need a savior. One who has lived a perfectly righteous life in obedience to the Law. One who is infinite and can pay an infinite penalty. And one who is willing to do these things in our place as a substitute; One who can satisfy the just demands of God’s Law.

Jesus Christ alone meets these conditions. He alone lived a perfectly holy life in obedience to the Law. He took on human flesh that He might die and yet He was God and could pay the infinite price that the Law demands must be paid. He is able to meet the Law’s demands and He was willing to do so as a substitute in His people’s stead.

Our human “righteousness” cannot meet the infinitely high demands of God’s Law and we must not trust in it to do so. Christ’s righteousness alone can satisfy the demands of God’s Law and it alone must be trusted in.

For the most part, Reformed Christians, those of the “New Covenant” persuasion and even many Dispensationalists believe that the Law of God must be used in evangelism “For by the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). We must use the Law to show people their sinful lost condition before we can point them to the Savior. People must know why they need salvation before they will seek salvation.

The Law reveals how short we have fallen from God’s standard of righteousness; that we have “all fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It draws the line between sin and righteousness showing us that we are sinful. On the one side of the Law is sin and on the other side is righteousness. Breaking the Law is sin, keeping the Law is righteousness. There is no in between, there is no Grey area. There is nothing worse than sin and there is nothing better than righteousness. If we keep the law perfectly we are righteous and do not need to be saved but if we have broken the law at even the slightest point we are condemned as lawbreakers and stand in need of salvation.

Now while we all agree that the Law is to be used to define sin and righteousness in evangelism, many professing Christians in turn say that we Christians do not need to obey the Law. But brethren, how can we draw such a conclusion? If the Law defines sin it necessarily defines righteousness, for all that is not sin is righteous. If sin is breaking the Law, righteousness is keeping the Law. If the Law still defines sin in our day, then it still defines righteousness in our day. And if the Law defines righteousness in our day, it defines how we Christians are to live.

Scripture tells us that Christians are those who seek to live righteously in this present age (Titus 2:12). And if Christians are those who desire to live righteously, they are those who desire to keep God’s Law. And If Christians are those who love righteousness, they are those who love God’s Law (Psalms 119:97, Romans 7:22). While the unregenerate are lawless and live in disobedience to the Law, the regenerate are lawful and seek to live in obedience to the Law. We could put what we have said so far in the form of a syllogism:

Major premise – The Law defines sin and righteousness.
Minor premise – Christians are to live righteously.
Conclusion – Christians are to be law keepers.

Christians are those who love the Law of God and desire to keep it. NOT to be justified but because they have been born again and now want to be like their Father.

Such a conclusion is biblical, scriptural, logical and unavoidable.

The New Covenant Constitution of the Church

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New Covenant Theology
Dispensationalism

Here's another good message by a former pastor of mine, Pastor Sam Waldron. This message is part two of a four part series on the New Covenant Constitution of the Church which, if I'm not mistaken, was also compiled into a book entitled A Reformed Baptist Manifesto. It's a good message for those who wish to cross examine the recent theological phenomena of both Dispensationalism and the even more recent New Covenant Theology.

• The New Covenant Constitution of the Church #2
  The New Covenant and Antinomianism
  A Reformed Baptist Manifesto
  Sam E. Waldron

The Gospel Establishes the Law

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Dispensationalism
New Covenant Theology
Law of God

The anti-law wing of the Church has produced many things over the years, things such as: Easy Believism, "Carnal Christianity", a mystical Spirit-led Intuitionism and thousands of people who think they are Christians when they are not.

In this message from Romans 3:23 ("Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.") pastor Mark Chanski tries to clear up some of the fuzzy thinking out there. He brings us some good exposition and some awesome lines of application showing us the Laws relationship to the knowledge sin and righteousness, and the Laws relationship to the assurance of salvation.

• The Gospel Establishes the Law
  Mark Chanski
  

The Unjust Justice of Autonomous Man

“More than one in a hundred adult Americans are in prison, a higher rate of incarceration than at any time in US history that is pushing the budgets of several states to breaking point, a report warns…..” (Click here to read the rest of the story)

I’ve spent a number of years as a Christian preaching and teaching in our prisons, jails and other various parts of our nations “correctional” system and it is the same everywhere that I’ve been; overcrowded. Literally everywhere that I’ve been they’ve been building more prison space but they can never seem to keep up with the demand.

I find it extremely interesting that when God invented an entire society (the nation Israel) He did not invent or sanction any sort of prison system. Search the entire Old Testament, you will not find one. Why not? because Gods system of law is based on justice. If the criminal was not put to death for his crime he was always obligated to make restitution for it, things where made right again as far as they could be in the Old Testament system.

Compare that to the miscarriage of justice we see in our present “Correctional” system. Many criminals commit a crime and are never made to make any sort of restitution to the ones that they have sinned against. Instead we give the criminal a bed, three meals a day, a place to live where he doesn’t even have to work along with many other amenities and we make the victims of his criminal activities foot the bill for it all. Thus our “justice system” compounds the injustices committed. The criminals commit the crimes and the law abiding citizens are burdened with the debt in direct proportion to the crimes committed. Doesn’t anybody see anything wrong with such insanity?

This, my friends, is what happens when men reject the wisdom of God, build an autonomous society on their own terms and come up with their own ideas of justice.

“…the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live…” (Ecclesiastes 9:3)

The Perpetuity of the Sabbath

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Lord's Day, The
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While riding the subway too and fro far beneath the crowded streets of New York City I had time to listen to a number of good sermons on my mp3 player. One of them was this message on the perpetuity of the Christian sabbath in the observance of the Lord's day by an old acquaintance of mine, pastor Mark Chanski.

For the life of me I cant understand all the confusion on this subject or why so many professing Christians would be reluctant to dedicate one day of seven wholly unto the Lord. The Church at large aught to give this subject a little more serious thought before flippantly throwing out the prevailing historic view of the protestant Church.

• 1689 Confession Ch. 22: Perpetuity of the Sabbath
  Mark Chanski
  

Sharpening Our Sabbath Convictions

Lord's Day, The
Audio Links

• Sharpening Our Sabbath Convictions
  Earl Shetler

The Sabbath Day Genesis 2:1-3

Lord's Day, The
Audio Links

• The Sabbath Day Genesis 2:1-3
  Earl Shetler

The Law of God Part 1: The Covenantal Nature of Law

The Covenantal Nature of Law

Law defines the parameters of a relationship.

For instance, United States law defines ones relationship to the United States. If we as citizens begin to break the law and live outside the law, our privileges as citizens will be negatively affected; the law will have something against us. Citizens are those who agree to, and conform to, the Law. When a citizen breaks the law he is breaking the terms of his citizenship and must then suffer the consequences. For this reason men, like R. J. Rushdoony for instance, will sometimes speak of the law as a form of warfare; it guards and protects the State by defining a legitimate relationship to the state and the consequences of violating that relationship.

And because Law defines the basis and parameters of a relationship (its privileges, duties and consequences of violating the relationship) Law is inherently covenantal.

Scripture testifies to this understanding of law in places such as Romans chapter 7. Here Paul asks us:

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Romans 7:1-3

In the context Paul is discussing the Christians relationship to the Law and he uses the analogy of the marriage relationship to teach us about our relationship to the Law of God.

In verse two Paul speaks of the woman who is bound by law to her husband. He then speaks of her being released from the law of her husband and being free from that law if her husband dies. The specific privileges, duties, responsibilities and consequences of violating the terms of that relationship come to an abrupt end upon the death of the husband.

Notice Paul is speaking of the marriage covenant, but he is speaking of it in terms of law. You could just as easily substitute the word covenant for law and it would still make just as much sense:

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the covenant to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the covenant of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that covenant; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

Covenants and law are in many ways similar to each other as they both deal with the parameters and obligations of relationships. Law cannot escape being covenantal in nature.

This is also brought out very clearly in the case of the Ten Commandments. God repeatedly singles out the Ten Commandments (that which we often call the Moral Law) and calls them a Covenant.

In Exodus 34 the Lord recounts the Ten Commandments and then says to Moses:

“…Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

In Deuteronomy 4 Moses is recalling the giving of the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel and says this in verses 12-14:

“And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.”

Again, a chapter later in Deuteronomy 5 Moses refers to the Covenant God made with them at Horeb and proceeds to recall the Ten Commandments once again. He finishes reciting the Commandments and says:

“These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.”

Clearly the Covenant spoken of in verse 2 is the Ten Commandments which follow with nothing else added to them; God spoke no more than that.

And in first Kings 8:9, speaking of the Ark of the Covenant we are told:

“There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.”

And in verse 21

“And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Clearly the Ten Commandments written on the two tables of stone in verse 8 are the same as the Covenant spoken of in verse 21. In all these examples the Ten Commandments, what we often call the “Moral Law”, are clearly singled-out themselves as a covenant.

In these Scriptural examples we see something of the Covenantal nature of law, and this becomes very significant, I believe, as we struggle to obtain a Biblical understanding of Law.

First break and bruise

Some Good Quotes

Law and Evangelism

“Let the power of the law first break and bruise, which is a necessary preparative for the plantation of grace: and then pour in (and spare not) the most precious oil of the sweetest Evangelical comfort. But many, very many, mar all with missing this method; either from want of sanctification in themselves, or skill to manage their Master's business.”

Bolton as quoted in The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges

The concord of human relations

I found this quote in John Murray's book Principles of Conduct. While John Murray can occasionally make the easiest things difficult to understand, at the same time he always manages to come up with some brilliant insights on the subject he’s discussing. In the following he’s discussing personal discord and the Sixth commandment.

"The sixth commandment is but one concrete way of expressing the principle that human life, in all its aspects and in all its re­lationships, must be guarded and promoted. Have we sufficiently appreciated the fact that, in a sinless world, there would have been no 'against'? The essence of sin is comprehended in the word 'against'. Sin is first of all against God and because we are against God we are against our fellowman. It is an eloquent witness to this fact that, after the first sin of our first parents, the first overt sin in the realm of ethics that is brought to our attention in the Scripture is the sin of Cain in slaying his brother Abel. 'Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him' (Genesis 4: 8). The first sin of our first parents was against God; the sin of Cain was 'against' his brother. It is this 'against' that the sixth commandment condemns and its positive counterpart is that we 'take all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others'. The opposite of 'against' is concord, harmony, peace, and love. And the demand of love is no less than that we love our enemies (cf. Matthew 5: 44). We are to love those who are 'against' us. The 'against' on one side does not abrogate the requirement of love on the other; one 'against' does not justify another. It is nothing less than this that Jesus' interpretation and application of the sixth commandment exemplify. Could our Lord's ethic of human relations, summed up in the words, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, have come to more concrete and relevant expression than in his teaching here respecting the sixth commandment? The principle that undergirds the sixth commandment is the sanctity of life. Our Lord shows the endless ramifications of that principle and pushes his analysis to the source and fountain of its preservation and violation. The spring of its preservation is the agreement of love; the root of its violation is the rudimentary feeling of unholy enmity, the disruptive imagina­tion of the thought of the heart whereby the concord of human relations is desecrated. The teaching of our Lord is to the effect that the sixth commandment brings within its purview tin enmity of the heart and all unnecessary and unholy dispute which fans the embers of animosity."

Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain Part 3

III) Thirdly, some ways in which this commandment can be broken.

1) Using the Lord’s name out of anger while cursing or as an exclamation.

While people will often say that they did not mean anything by it that is exactly the point of this commandment; it’s not to be used in a meaningless or careless manner. Such a use of His name exhibits a flippant attitude toward who God is.

2) By using euphemisms meant to convey the words without actually saying the words themselves.

3) By lying or attempting to deceive someone by swearing on the Bible or “by the temple”. (Matthew 23:16-22) In this way and other ways something closely associated with God or “called by His name ” is being used in a vain, empty manner.

4) By saying that you are a Christian, one of those called by His name, when you are not truly one of them.

5) By living in sin while professing to be a Christian. This “pollutes” (Jeremiah 34:16) and dishonors God’s name, giving unbelievers the opportunity to blaspheme against it.

6) By saying “the Lord told me….” or “the Lord said to me….”

Do you really mean to tell us that God spoke to you in an audible voice giving you new and infallible revelation? If not, then why are you saying “the Lord told me…”? Attaching the Lord’s name to your feelings and impressions is dishonest, deceptive and dangerously similar to the sin of the false prophets of old who tried to give their words an authority that they did not have by using the Lord’s name in a vain, empty, deceitful manner. If you did not mean that God actually spoke to you then why are you saying that He did? You are being careless with the name of God.

7) By making God, His word, His people or anything else closely associated with Him the subject and butt of our jokes.

While humor and laughter are both good in the proper circumstances, making jokes of the things of God trivializes and demeans them. We are dealing with matters of eternal consequence; we’re sinners dealing with a Holy God! How can we make jokes of these matters one minute and then expect the world to take them seriously the next? By our very attitude towards these things we are bleeding them of their weight and importance before the eyes of an on looking world.

8) By having any sort of flippant, careless or trivial attitude toward God.

While there is much more that could be said, this summarizes it all.

The Third Commandment is not about a word or words; it’s about our attitude towards the God of those words. This is about the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “…hallowed be Thy name.” The Lord must be treated as holy by all who would come near Him (Lev. 10:3).

It seems that a trivial, flippant attitude has swept over the church like a flood. It is seen everywhere we look. It’s seen in the blasphemous attitude that speaks of God as being “cool” or views Him as a “buddy”. Those who came closest to the presence of God in Scripture fell down before Him as if dead (Rev. 1:17, Ez. 1:28) , condemned themselves for their sinfulness (Is. 6:5, Luke 5:8, Job 40:4) and trembled with fear (Acts 9:6, Ex. 3:6). Without exception they were awestruck and filled with reverence. No one treated God like their “buddy”.

This attitude is seen in the way people dress to come into the public worship and special presence of God. According to scripture, the Lord is present in a special sense when His people meet corporately to worship Him (Matt. 18:20) and they are to prepare themselves for this meeting (Ex. 19:11). Who would not prepare themselves to meet with a mere earthly ruler, such as a Governor or the President, by dressing cleanly and nicely in order to show honor and respect? But when it comes to meeting with the King of Kings in corporate worship our kids often look like they’re going to play in the dirt, teenagers like they’re going to a rock concert and parents like we’re going to go work in the garden. And even worse than that, many young women come dressed in blatantly immodest clothing (the attire of a harlot Pr. 7:10) in direct violation of God's word (1 Timothy 2:9). While it is true that God looks at the heart, let’s be honest, our attire reflects a great deal of what we think, feel and value in our heart.

Where do we stop? This flippant attitude toward God is seen in the way that professing Christians often treat each other, in the man exalting and God belittling theology embraced by so many, in the funny little pithy sermons meant to draw a crowd and please men while avoiding the offensive and difficult truths of God’s word. It’s seen in the way people do not pay attention to the Word preached, the way people do not sing with the congregational singing, the way people only go to church occasionally. It’s seen in the bad theology sung by so many Christian performers and by the endless multitude of "Christian" rock groups who mimic the world like a little boy who longs to be like his big brother.

Brethren, how can we avoid the conclusion; we have broken this commandment on a massive scale! So much of what we say and do reveals how little we think of our God. We have emptied eternal matters of their gravity, weight and power. We have trivialized the things of God and have made buffoons of ourselves! We have taken His name in vain and Romans 3:18 condemns us; “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” To put it simply we are often irreverent!

Brethren, we should cry to the Lord to give us a heart that we may fear Him, that good may come to us and our children (Jer. 32:39).

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name…”

Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain Part 2

II) Secondly, what is meant by the word “vain”.

This word has numerous shades of meaning in Scripture. It speaks something that is foolish, silly, trivial or insignificant. It speaks of uselessness, emptiness, falsehood and deception. It speaks of something marked by futility and ineffectualness; something which has no value or importance. It is often used in the context of idolatry, idols and false religion for false religion is empty and devoid of substance. It is useless, it has no value and it does not accomplish anything for the one practicing it.

Now when we put these things together it becomes abundantly clear that “taking the name of the Lord in vain” has much less to do with how we use a word and much more to do with our attitude toward the God who is represented by those words.

Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain Part 1

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

Exodus 20:7 -The Third Commandment.

While many have relegated this commandment to those who say a mere word while cursing, it is my own conviction that this commandment is much broader than we normally think and that we who claim to be Christians are often profoundly guilty of breaking it. Far from simply being concerned with what words we use, the Third Commandment is dealing with our hearts attitude toward the God associated with those words. So with that it mind its my intention to show three things:

1. What is meant by “the name” of the Lord.
2. What is meant by “vain”.
3. How this commandment can be broken.

I) What is meant by “the name” of the Lord.

When we turn to Scripture it is quickly apparent that “the name” or “His name” is referring to much more than just a word.

Following are some examples:

• “…then men began to call on the name of the Lord.”
  Genesis 4:26
• “But to you who fear My name the sun of righteousness shall arise…”
  Malachi 4:2

In these verses, as in many others, the “name of the Lord” or “My name” refers to all that God is and often highlights some attribute or another in the context of the passage.

• “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my
  words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.”
  Deuteronomy 18:19
• “But the prophet which shall presume to speak in My name, which I
  have not commanded him to speak, or shall speak in the name of
  other gods, even that prophet shall die.”
  Deuteronomy 18:20

In these verses, as in many others, “in the name of the Lord” is another way of saying “by His authority”, “by His command”, “in His stead”, or “in His place”. It speaks of someone doing or even just claiming to do something by His express command, such as speaking a message from Him.

• “If my people, which are called by My name…”
  2 Chronicles 7:14
• “And all the people of the Earth shall see that thou art called by the
  name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.”
  Deuteronomy 28:10

In these verses the name of the Lord speaks of people who are closely associated with Him.

• “Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers
  in your eyes?….”
• “For the children of Israel have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord:
  they have set their abominations in the house which is called by My
  name, to pollute it.”
  Jeremiah 7:30

In these verses, the name of the Lord speaks of a place closely associate with Him.

• “And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him,
  from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose
  name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth
  between the cherubim.”
  2 Samuel 6:2

In this verse the name of the Lord speaks of a thing closely associated with Him.

These are just some of the ways in which “the name of the Lord”, “His name” or “My name” are often used in Scripture: to encompass all that God is, often highlighting some attribute or another, to speak of someone who does something or even claims to do something by His authority and direct command; and to speak of people, places and things closely associated with Him.

The Work of the Law in Spurgeon’s Conversion Part 3

"Then I remembered that, even if I kept the law perfectly, and kept it for ten, twenty, or thirty years, without a fault, yet if, at the end of that time, I should break it, I must suffer its dread penalty. Those words spoken by the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel came to my mind: "If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it." So I saw that I was, indeed, "kept under the law, shut up." I had hoped to escape this way, or that way, or some other way. Was I not "christened" when I was a child? Had I not been taken to a place of worship? Had I not been brought up to say my prayers regularly? Had I not been an honest, upright, moral youth? Was all this nothing? "Nothing," said the law, as it drew its sword of fire: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." So there was no rest for my spirit, nay, not even for a moment. What was I to do? I was in the hands of one who showed no mercy what­ever, for Moses never said, "Mercy." The law has nothing to do with mercy. That comes from another mouth, and under another dispensa­tion. But before faith came, I was "kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed."

From
Charles Haddon Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years 1834-1860 Volume 1 By Charles Spurgeon / Banner Of Truth

The Work of the Law in Spurgeon’s Conversion Part 2

“The law seemed also to blight all my hopes with its stern sentence, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Only too well did I know that I had not continued in all those things, so I saw myself accursed, turn which way I might. If I had not committed one sin, that made no difference if I had committed another; I was under the curse. What if I had never blasphemed God with my tongue? Yet, if I had coveted, I had broken the law. He who breaks a chain might say, 'I did not break that link, and the other link." No, but if you break one link, you have broken the chain. Ah, me, how I seemed shut up then! I had offended against the justice of God; I was impure and polluted, and I used to say, "If God does not send me to hell, He ought to do it." I sat in judgment upon myself, and pronounced the sentence that I felt would be just. I could not have gone to Heaven with my sin unpardoned, even if I had had the offer to do it, for I knew that it would not be right that I should do so, and I justified God in my own conscience while I condemned myself. The law would not even let me despair. If I thought I would give up all desire to do right, and just go and drown my conscience in sin, the law said, "No, you cannot do that; there is no rest for you in sinning. You know the law too well to be able to sin in the blindness of a seared conscience." So the law worried and troubled me at all points; it shut me up as in an iron cage, and every way of escape was effectually blocked up.”

From
Charles Haddon Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years 1834-1860 Volume 1 By Charles Spurgeon / Banner Of Truth

The Work of the Law in Spurgeon’s Conversion Part 1

“Then there came into my startled conscience the remembrance of the universality of law. I thought of what was said of the old Roman empire that, under the rule of Caesar, if a man once broke the law of Rome, the whole world was one vast prison to him, for he could not get out of the reach of the imperial power. So did it come to be in my aroused conscience. Wherever I went, the law had a demand upon my thoughts, upon my words, upon my rising, upon my resting. What I did, and what I did not do, all came under the cognizance of the law; and then I found that this law so surrounded me that I was always running against it, I was always breaking it. I seemed as if I was a sinner, and nothing else but a sinner. If I opened my mouth, I spoke amiss. If I sat still, there was sin in my silence. I remember that when the Spirit of God was thus dealing with me, I used to feel myself to be a sinner even when I was in the house of God. I thought that when I sang, I was mocking the Lord with a solemn sound upon a false tongue; and if I prayed, I feared that I was sinning in my prayers, insulting Him by uttering confessions which I did not feel, and asking for mercies with a faith that was not true at all, but only another form of unbelief. At the very mention of that word con­viction, I seem to hear my chains rattling anew. Was there ever a bond-slave who had more bitterness of soul than I, five years a captive in the dungeons of the law, till my youth seemed as if it would turn into premature old age, and all the buoyancy of my spirit had vanished? O God of the spirits of all men, most of all ought I to hate sin, for surely most of all have I smarted beneath the lash of Thy law!”

From
Charles Haddon Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years 1834-1860 Volume 1 By Charles Spurgeon / Banner Of Truth

Jesus loves everybody and has a wonderful plan for their lives!

I was reading Pink’s Studies in the Scriptures November, 1943 when I ran across this complaint:

“Few words have been employed more inaccurately and loosely in recent years than has “love”. With a great many people it is but a synonym for moral laxity (and) weakness of character…”

Things certainly haven’t changed much; watch the “Holy Homosexuals” video for example or listen to Minister Carlton Pearson who recently decided that a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. Clearly ‘love’ to these people is “moral laxity (and) weakness of character”

I think we could go further than that and say that the “god” of these people is worse than morally lax and weak in character; such a god is morally corrupt and a lover of unrighteousness. What would we think of a courtroom judge who wouldn’t sentence the worst of criminals because he was a “loving” judge? Who would have any respect for such a judge? Isn’t it interesting how those with no moral anchor in trusting the Word of God can turn things entirely on their heads; “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

While such people have always been around, their numbers seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in our politically correct days. So is there a cure for this diseased view of God? Absolutely! Its called “The Law of God”.

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:19, 20

The Law of God defines righteousness and unrighteousness for us. The Law of God delineates good and evil for us. The Law of God shows us that God is utterly pure and holy, and we by contrast are vile and corrupted. The Law of God convicts people of their sin and shuts their foolish mouths before the verdict of their Maker.

The Law of God imprisons us in our sin, so to speak(Galatians 3:22), showing us that we have no hope of escaping the bar of Gods justice in and of ourselves . The Law of God teaches us to look at ourselves in utter dismay and abandon all hope; but in so doing it also becomes a beloved teacher prodding us to turn away from ourselves and look to Jesus Christ for the salvation that we cannot accomplish (Galatians 3:24).

In a day and age when people have thrown out the Law of God in favor of a lawless “grace”, we should only expect that a perverted view of the love of God will prevail and that true and lasting conversions will be few and far between.