There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.
PSALM 140:13
There should be a holy quality, a mysterious and holy Presence within the fellowship of Christian believers! If we are what we ought to be in Christ and by His Spirit, if the whole sum of our lives beginning with the inner life is becoming more Godlike and Christlike, I believe something of God’s divine and mysterious quality and Presence will be upon us!
I have met a few of God’s saints who appeared to have this holy brightness upon them, but they did not know it because of their humility and gentleness of spirit. I do not hesitate to confess that my fellowship with them has meant more to me than all of the teaching I have ever received. I do stand deeply indebted to every Bible teacher I have had through the years, but they did little but instruct my head. The brethren I have known who had this strange and mysterious quality and awareness of God’s Person and Presence instructed my heart!
Do we understand what a gracious thing it is to be able to say of a man, a brother in the Lord, “He is truly a man of God”? He does not have to tell us that, but he lives quietly and confidently day by day with the sense of this awe-inspiring Presence that comes down on some people and means more than all the glib tongues in the world!
Oh, that we might yearn for the knowledge and Presence of God in our lives from moment to moment!1
Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that which is unseen, is fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are firm it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah’s work everything is of a piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean. The deep foundations of the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able to measure their glory. We build upon the covenant of grace, which is firmer than adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain. Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout the lifetime of the Almighty. Another foundation is the person of the Lord Jesus, which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire; blending in one the deep blue of earth’s ever rolling ocean and the azure of its all embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby as he stood covered with his own blood, but now we see him radiant with the soft blue of love, love abounding, deep, eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon the justice and the faithfulness of God, which are clear and cloudless as the sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law suspending its operations; no, we defy the eagle’s eye to detect a flaw in the groundwork of our confidence—our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure the fire.
The Lord himself has laid the foundation of his people’s hopes. It is matter for grave enquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis. Good works and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and stubble; neither are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations will all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come down with a crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built on sapphires may await storm or fire with equanimity, for he shall abide the test.1
THIS was probably written by that apostle who has been surnamed The Just, who presided over the council at Jerusalem. His epistle is practical rather than doctrinal. Alford remarks,—“The brother of him who opened his teaching with the Sermon on the Mount, seems to have deeply imbibed the words and maxims of it, as the law of Christian morals.”
Chapter 1
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2–4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (or trials); Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (And patience will be a crown of honour to you; therefore, viewing trial as an opportunity for proving your graces, you may rejoice in it.) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
9–11 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13–15 Let no man say when he is tempted (or enticed to sin), I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17, 18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
All our good is from God, but all our evil is from ourselves and Satan; let us always impute things to their true causes.
19, 21 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22–24 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (These are the best externals of worship—the rubrics of the only divine ritual. The more of daily prayers at sick beds, and offertories received by orphans, the better. Can we not, as a family, remember the orphans to-day and help to support them?)
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!”
However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” (10:11–18)
Paul next explains the parameters, the extent, of salvation.
Because most Jews strongly rejected the idea that God’s grace extended to Gentiles, they were willingly ignorant of the full measure and extent of His provision for redemption. Because they were God’s specially chosen people, they believed they were also His only saved people. They knew, of course, that Ruth, a Moabite, was the great-grandmother of David and therefore in the line of the Messiah. But they insisted that such Gentiles who converted to Judaism and were blessed by God were exceptions that proved the rule.
Consequently, just as they had rejected Jesus and His teaching, they also vehemently rejected the teaching of Paul, a former zealous Pharisee and persecutor of the church, who now not only claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, but that Christ had appointed him to be “a chosen instrument … to bear [His] name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15; cf. Gal. 1:16).
But Paul declares that God’s extending His salvation to all Gentiles was nothing new. That gracious offer did not begin with the all-inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ, which Christians, most of whom were Jews, were then proclaiming to everyone who would hear. To the contrary, as Paul had already cited (9:33), The Scripture says through Isaiah, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed” (cf. Isa. 28:16). God had always been calling to Gentiles (whoever). In fact, Israel was to have been His witness nation, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6), to preach salvation in the true God to the rest of the world.
The Old Testament Scripture, as “witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,” had long testified that “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ [is] for all those who believe; for there is no distinction” (Rom. 3:21–22, emphasis added). In other words, salvation through faith in Him for anyone (whoever believes) has always been God’s plan. As Paul declared earlier, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16, emphasis added). And as he assured the believers at Corinth, many of whom were Gentiles, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17, emphasis added). From eternity past, God’s Word invariably has accomplished His divine goal, which has always included His loving and gracious desire that no human being would perish but that “all [would] come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
That wondrous truth is a balance to the great emphasis Paul has been placing on God’s sovereignty (see, e.g., Rom. 9:6–26). Although the two truths seem mutually exclusive to our finite minds, God’s sovereign choice of every person who is saved is, in His infinite mind, perfectly consistent with His promise that whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. Both the Old and the New Testaments make clear that salvation is granted only to those who trust in God and that He offers His gracious redemption to all mankind, Jew and Gentile. No one who believes in Him will ever be disappointed by the salvation that He so graciously and universally offers.
The barrier to salvation, therefore, is not racial or cultural but personal rejection of the God who offers it. People perish because they refuse to “receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). Yet it was that very universal aspect of the gospel that many Jews resented. The classic biblical example of Jewish religious and racial pride and reluctance to reach Gentiles is found in the prophet Jonah when he responded to the Lord’s call to preach to Nineveh.
Jonah lived in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, who ruled from 793 to 753 b.c. It was a prosperous time for the nation, which had expanded its boundaries northeastward to include Damascus. Because the Assyrians periodically made raids into Israel, Jews developed a special hatred for Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
That immense city of perhaps 600,000 inhabitants is said to have taken three days to traverse on foot. Ninevites, like all other Assyrians, were noted for their immorality and idolatry, and Assyrian soldiers were infamous for their merciless brutality. Nahum spoke of Nineveh as “the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs” (Nah. 3:1).
Therefore, when the Lord called Jonah to preach to that wicked Gentile city, the prophet immediately took ship to travel in the opposite direction. Because of the hatred of Assyrians that he shared with his fellow Israelites, Jonah’s concern was not that his preaching might fail but that it would surely succeed. It is not surprising, therefore, that the remarkable repentance of the Ninevites, from the king to the lowest servant, “greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity’ ” (Jonah 4:1–2). At the very time he was forced to testify to God’s grace and compassion, he disdainfully refused to emulate those virtues himself.
God’s miraculous work in the hearts of the Ninevites was an object lesson to Israel in several ways. First of all, it demonstrated that great power for salvation was in God and His proclaimed Word, not in the prophet who proclaimed that word. Second, it doubtless was also intended to shame Jonah and all other self-righteous, hardhearted Israelites. One extremely reluctant prophet went one time to preach one message and God caused the entire city to repent!
By tragic contrast, despite all the blessings in being God’s called people, with whom He made covenant and to whom He gave His law and sent His prophets, Israel repeatedly turned away from Him into idolatry and every other form of ungodliness. Yet Nineveh, which was thoroughly pagan and had no such advantages, in one day “believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5).
Some eight centuries later, Jews still held unabated disdain for Gentiles. When returning to Israel from another country, Jews would shake the dust from their robes and feet, lest they carry any defiled earth into their land. They would not enter a Gentile house, eat or drink from a Gentile vessel, or so much as touch a Gentile hand. Every morning many Jewish men would pray, “I thank God that I am not a woman, a slave, or a Gentile.” Jews were reluctant to have any dealings with Gentiles, and were especially loath to share the redemptive truth of their God, lest, as Jonah feared, their “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness,” would cause even pagans to repent and be saved.
Paul knew that it was the Lord’s plan for the gospel to be preached first “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), making “disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). As already noted, Paul had testified at the beginning of Romans that “the gospel … is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16, emphasis added). But it was doubtless also for another reason that Paul always witnessed first in a synagogue or other place of Jewish worship. Had he preached first to Gentiles, Jewish indignation would have been so strong that they would never have listened to him.
As more and more Jews believed in Jesus and were saved, many more turned more fiercely against Him and His Jewish followers. Just as Jesus had warned, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” (John 16:1–2). When Paul took four Jewish men who were under a vow into the temple for ritual purification, “Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, ‘Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people, and the Law, and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.’ For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple” (Acts 21:27–29).
In the modern state of Israel, most Jews, including many who are not religious, still strongly resent and oppose Christian missionary work in their country. Although Jews consider all other religions to be false, they are particularly fervent in their opposition to Christianity. Like the Jews in Jerusalem who decried Paul’s visit to the temple, they view Christianity as a Gentile religion that is specifically “against [their] people, and the Law” (Acts 21:28). And they make little or no effort to convert Gentiles to Judaism.
Nothing could have been more devastating to Jews than to be reminded that God makes no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him. Those whose greatest pride was in the belief that they were far superior to all other peoples could not tolerate that humbling truth.
Proclaiming the same message to the Galatian church, Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Not only that, but shockingly he went on to say that believing Gentiles, just as much as believing Jews, “are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:28–29).
To Gentile believers in the church at Ephesus Paul declared, “Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision,’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:11–13). Later in that letter he said, “I, Paul, [am] the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles” (3:1). The great “mystery of Christ,” which Jews so intensely hated, is that “Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (see vv. 4–6).
The same Lord who called out Abraham and his descendants to be His chosen people, is Lord of all who believe in Him. But because most Jews were looking for a national deliverer rather than a universal Savior, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which He extends to all who call upon Him, was unacceptable.
Not only is Christ the Savior and Lord of all who believe but He is also abounding in riches for all who call upon Him. Gentile believers have God’s equal blessing as well as His equal salvation. And just as God sovereignly calls all believers to Himself, all must call upon Him in faith.
To further emphasize the universal outreach of the salvation message, Paul quotes another prophet, Joel, who centuries earlier had declared to Israel the extent of saving grace when he said that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved (see Joel 2:32).
In the Old Testament, the phrase call upon the name of the Lord was especially associated with right worship of the true God. It carried the connotations of worship, adoration, and praise and extolled God’s majesty, power, and holiness. Emphasizing the negative side of that phrase, the imprecatory psalmist cried to God, “How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou be angry forever? Will Thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations which do not know Thee, and upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Thy name” (Ps. 79:5–6, emphasis added). Again the psalmist exulted, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples” (105:1, emphasis added). Still another time in the Psalms we read that he “called upon the name of the Lord,” praying, “ ‘O Lord, I beseech Thee, save my life!’ Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate” (116:4–5, emphasis added).
In the four references just cited from Joel and the Psalms, the word Lord represents God’s covenant name, Yahweh, or Jehovah—which is rendered in many translations in large and small capital letters (Lord). Therefore to call upon the name of the Lord was not a desperate cry to just any deity—whoever, whatever, and wherever he or she might be—but a cry to the one true God, the Creator-Lord of all men and all things. As Paul has just stated, it is by the confession of “Jesus as Lord” and belief in one’s “heart that God raised Him from the dead” that any person “shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9). He is the one true Lord on whom faithful Jews had always called in penitence, adoration, and worship. To call upon the name of Jesus as Lord is to recognize and submit to His deity, His authority, His sovereignty, His power, His majesty, His Word, and His grace. Everyone, Jew or Gentile, who does so will be saved.
Forms of the Hebrew word yasha, most commonly translated save, is found some 160 times in the Old Testament, and forms of the corresponding Greek term sōzō (saved) are found well over a hundred times in the New Testament. Paul alone uses the term forty-five times.
To further explain the universal extent, or parameters, of God’s saving grace, the apostle asks rhetorically, How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
With simple, progressive logic Paul establishes that only those who call upon the name of the Lord can be saved, only those who have believed in Him can call upon Him, only those who have heard of Him can believe in Him, only those who have a preacher can rightly hear of Him, and finally, no preacher can preach the true gospel who has not been sent by God. Viewed from the other direction, Paul is saying that if God did not send preachers no one could hear, if no one could hear no one could believe, if no one could believe no one could call on the Lord, and if no one could call on Him no one could be saved.
The capstone of Paul’s argument in this passage is that a clear message which gives understanding of the truth must precede saving faith. He reminds his Jewish readers that God called Abraham and His descendants in order that “the whole earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3) and that He called those descendants (Israel) to be His witnesses before the whole earth, as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5–6). Just as He did in the Old Testament, God stills sends His preachers to witness to the farthest corners of the earth.
Again gathering Old Testament support, Paul quotes from Isaiah, Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those whobring glad tidings of good things!” (see Isa. 52:7). It is not the physical feet of God’s preachers that are beautiful, but the wondrous glad tidings of good things that those feet carry to the ends of the earth.
That verse from Isaiah was written in celebration of Israel’s deliverance from years of captivity and bondage, first in Assyria and then in Babylon. But for Paul’s purpose, an even greater fitness of that verse is seen in Isaiah’s subsequent declaration of a future day when “The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:10, emphasis added). In that day, we learn from John, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders [will fall] down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they [will sing] a new song, saying, ‘Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation’ ” (Rev. 5:8–9, emphasis added).
Changing from a note of great rejoicing to one of great sorrow, Paul reminds his Jewish readers that They did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” (see Isa. 53:1). Heed translates hupakouō, which has the basic meaning of listening attentively and the derived meaning of submission or obedience. Tragically, the offer of salvation that is proclaimed to all men is not heeded by all men.
As do many other passages of Scripture, this verse makes clear that, even in His omnipotent sovereignty, God chooses not to exercise absolute control over human affairs. Contrary to the idea of a divine determinism, such as that of ultra-Calvinism, God’s glad tidings must be received in faith by those who hear it. Only lopsided and unbiblical theologies put everything on God’s side or everything on man’s side. In order to produce salvation, God’s unmerited grace demands man’s positive response. Inherent in God’s eternal plan of salvation is man’s obedient faith. In perhaps the most concise and beautiful statement of the gospel, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16, emphasis added).
Luke reports that in the very early church, “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). The phrase “obedient to the faith” is here a synonym for becoming saved. Near the opening to his letter to Rome, Paul declared that “through Jesus Christ our Lord … we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:4–6). Here again we see both sides of salvation. Those who are “obedient to the faith” are believers who have been “called of Jesus Christ.” Later in the letter, Paul declares the corollary truth: “To those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, [God’s] wrath and indignation” (2:8). Later still, the apostle says, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (6:16–17).
Paul assured the church at Thessalonica that, “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, [he will deal] out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:7–8). Similarly, the writer of Hebrews speaks of Christ as having become “to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:9). Scripture makes clear that saving faith is marked by submissive obedience to God’s righteous truth, and that unbelief is marked by disobedience to that truth (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10–12).
John declares that “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6–7). As the apostle goes on to say, true salvation does not bring sinless perfection in this life. “If we say that we have no sin,” he explains, “we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1:8–10). When they fall into sin, genuine believers go to the Lord to seek and receive the forgiveness He continually offers to those who are His.
To be saved is to submit oneself to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus will not and cannot be Savior of those who will not receive Him as Lord. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus attested; “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). On another occasion Jesus declared to a group of Jews who claimed to believe in Him: “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32). When they claimed to be free already, “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin’ ” (v. 34). To their claim to be Abraham’s offspring, He said, “I know that you are Abraham’s offspring; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you” (v. 37). To their claim that Abraham was their father, He said, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do” (vv. 39–40). And to their claim that God was their Father, He responded, “If God were your Father, you would love Me; for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.… You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him” (8:41–42, 44).
To have one spiritual father is to have one spiritual lord. Those relationships are inseparable. There is no such thing as partial fatherhood or partial lordship. In the same way, to have Christ as Savior is to have Him as Lord. Christ does not exist in parts and cannot be accepted in parts. Those to whom Christ is not both Savior and Lord, He is neither Savior nor Lord. Those who have not accepted Him as Lord have not accepted Him as Savior. Those who have not accepted the Son as Lord have no claim on the Father but are still slaves to sin and are still under the fatherhood and lordship of Satan.
When Isaiah wrote the words quoted by Paul in Romans 10:16, the prophet was speaking of the suffering, dying, substitutionary Savior, who “was pierced through for our transgressions, [and] was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). The report of which Isaiah and Paul speak is the glad tidings of the gospel, the good news of Christ’s dying that we might live, the glorious truth that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:16–17). But because Jews as well as Gentiles did not all heed the glad tidings, Jesus went on to declare that “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Later in his gospel account John reported that Jesus “had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him; that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ ” (12:37–38).
As Paul and Barnabas explained to unbelieving Jews in Antioch of Pisidia, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; [but] since you repudiate it,” that is, reject the glad tidings “and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46).
Summarizing what he had said in verses 1–16, Paul declared, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Salvation does not come by intuition, mystical experience, meditation, speculation, philosophizing, or consensus but by hearing and having faith in the word of Christ. To proclaim the saving word of Christ is therefore the central and essential purpose of evangelism to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). Paul reminded the elders of the church at Ephesus that, in obedience to that commission, he solemnly testified “to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
The purpose of evangelism is not to use human persuasion and clever devices to manipulate confessions of faith in Christ but to faithfully proclaim the gospel of Christ, through which the Holy Spirit will bring conviction and salvation to those who hear and accept the word of Christ. It is tragic that many appeals to salvation are a call for trust in someone and something they know nothing about. Positive responses to such empty appeals amount to nothing more than faith in faith—a blind, unrepentant, unsubmissive trust in a contentless message that results in a false sense of spiritual security. Such false evangelism cruelly leads the unsaved to believe they are saved, and leaves them still in their sin, without a Savior and without salvation.
Paul next asks rhetorically, But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? and then answers by quoting from the Septuagint (Greek) version of Psalm 19:4, Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” In other words, even David understood the universal parameters of God’s offer of salvation, which already has gone out (a past tense) into all the earth. David opens that psalm with the declaration that “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard” (vv. 1–3). Their voice and their words refer to God’s revelation of Himself that has gone out into all the earth and has been proclaimed to the ends of the world—to all men and women who have ever or will ever live.
That is the same truth Paul emphasizes so strongly in the first chapter of Romans. For “those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness … that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they [unbelievers] are without excuse” (1:18–20). All men have both internal and external evidence of God. Just as the heavenly bodies touch all the earth and extend to the ends of the world with God’s natural revelation, so His gospel touches all the earth and extends to the ends of the world with His special revelation. God cannot be unfair or unjust. Those who refuse to trust in Him do so because they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (v. 18).
The way of salvation has always been offered to all men everywhere. As the Lord graciously promised through Jeremiah, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). God’s absolute and universal assurance to all men is that no person who sincerely seeks for Him will fail to find Him. The incarnate Christ “was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9, emphasis added), and the incarnate Christ Himself declared that “this gospel of [His] kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations” (Matt. 24:14). Even in the first century Paul could therefore declare, “the word of truth, the gospel … has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing” (Col. 1:5–6). Although the apostle was probably speaking here only of the part of “the world” to which the full gospel had been proclaimed, the benefit of the gospel was available to all the earth and the ends of the world.
In Romans 10:11–18, Paul affirms that the gospel is not just one more local invention or one more pagan mystery religion but is the good news of salvation that God always has sought to be proclaimed to every nation and to every person, Jew and Gentile alike.
It is that universal extent of the gospel that caused many Jews to reject Jesus as their Messiah. The Pharisees reprimanded the officers who reported Jesus’ authoritative teaching and work, arrogantly saying, “No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?” (John 7:48). In other words, an ordinary Jew was presumptuous to believe and trust in a Messiah who was not recognized by their religious leaders. Tragically, many Jews today reject Jesus as their Messiah for the same foolish reason.
When Galileo was summoned before the Roman Catholic inquisition for teaching that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the sun around the earth, he was charged with heresy. When he offered to demonstrate the truth of his findings by having them look through his telescope, they refused. Their minds were already made up, and they refused even to consider evidence to the contrary. With that same obstinacy, most of Israel, from New Testament times to the present, have refused even to consider the claims of the gospel. Consequently, they have failed to know God, Jesus Christ, and saving faith.1
A Plea for Missions
Romans 10:14–15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?…
When young William Carey, the acknowledged founder of the modern missionary movement, first applied to his church board to be sent to India, he received a classic reply. “Young man,” said one of the older church leaders, “when God chooses to save the heathen of India, he will do so without your help.” Fortunately, Carey knew better than that. He knew that when God determines that something is to happen he also determines the means to make it happen, and, in this case, the first step to the evangelization of India was the pioneer work of William Carey. Carey persevered, and the rest, as they say, is history.
No Conversions in a Vacuum
I think of that story as I come to Romans 10:14–15, mainly because of the placing of these verses in Romans. The verses themselves are a stirring plea for missions, one of the most important in the Bible. But much of their force comes from their setting in Paul’s argument.
Think of the preceding verse: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 13). That is a wonderful statement of the universal application of the gospel. It is for everybody. Anyone who calls on Jesus Christ as Savior will be saved. But how can people do that unless they know about him? And how can they know about Jesus unless someone goes to them to teach them about him? Those are precisely the questions Paul has in mind as he begins this new section, asking: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?”
The answer is obvious: A person cannot hear the gospel and believe on Christ unless someone takes the gospel to him or her.
However, not only are these verses related to what has gone before, to verse 13. They are also related to what follows, to verses 16–21. For Paul, in this entire section (Romans 9–11), is dealing with Jewish unbelief, and he is going to show in the latter half of chapter 10 that the unbelief of Israel is not God’s fault, since God had sent messengers to the Jewish people. Paul himself was one. He had preached the gospel, and he had done so clearly. If the Jews did not believe, it was not because they could not, since they had both heard and understood the message.
While we are at it, we should note that verses 14 and 15 are also related to the letter as a whole. One commentator on Romans, E. F. Scott, remarks, “This passage might seem to be only a digression, but it is central to the whole Epistle. More plainly than anywhere else Paul here discloses his purpose in writing as he does to the Roman church. He is coming to Rome in order to make it his starting-point for a new mission, and he needs the co-operation of the Christians in the capital.”
Says John Murray, “The main point is that the saving relation to Christ involved in calling upon his name is not something that can occur in a vacuum; it occurs only in a context created by proclamation of the gospel on the part of those commissioned to proclaim it.”
In these verses Paul proves this point by giving us a series of linked statements, leading from an individual’s calling on Christ in faith, backward through the mandatory intervening steps of belief in Christ, hearing Christ and preaching about Christ, to a preacher’s being sent to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to those who need to hear him. In other words, the text is a classic statement of the need for Christian preaching and for the expanding worldwide missionary enterprise.
The First Necessity: Calling on Christ
The first thing that is necessary if a person is to be saved, as verse 13 has already said, is that he or she “call on” Christ. This verse alone proves the point, which I have already stressed many times in these studies, that saving faith, a faith that saves, is more than mere intellectual assent to certain truths about Jesus.
This is because the statement in verse 13 flatly distinguishes between “believing” (the Greek word is “faith”) in Christ and “calling on” Christ for salvation: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?” Many people know about Christ. A significant number of these also probably believe that he is the Son of God and the world’s Savior, as the Bible teaches. But they have never called on him in personal trust, and so they are not Christians. They are not saved. Saving faith, as I have said many times, has three elements: (1) intellectual content or knowledge, (2) personal assent to or agreement with that content, and (3) trust or commitment. The Latin words are: notitia, assensus, and fiducia. In this verse “calling on” Christ means the last of those three elements.
Let me make this personal.
It is not enough for you to sit under the preaching of the Word of God to be a Christian, important as that is. It is not enough for you to know theology or even to be a student of the Bible. I commend all those things to you, but they alone do not make you a Christian. To be a Christian you must call on the Lord Jesus Christ personally, saying, “Lord Jesus Christ, I confess that I am a sinner. I cannot save myself, and I call on you to save me. Help me. Save me from my sin.”
If you will do that and really mean it, Jesus will save you. In fact, he already has, because it is his work in you that leads to that confession. But I repeat: Intellectual belief is not enough; you must commit yourself to Jesus as your own personal Lord and Savior to be saved.
The Second Necessity: Belief in Christ
The second step in Paul’s linked series of statements is that a person must believe in Christ in order to call upon him. Isn’t that interesting? I have just said that mere intellectual belief is not enough. There must be personal trust or commitment to him as Lord and Savior. Yet this does not mean that the other part, intellectual belief or content, is unimportant. On the contrary, it is essential. For how can you call upon one you do not know? How can you ask Jesus to save you from your sin unless you understand and believe that he is the Savior?
Intellectual understanding without commitment is not true faith, but neither is commitment without intellectual understanding. If you must believe on Jesus in order to call on him, then your mind must be engaged in knowing who he is and what he has done for you.
The late Ray Stedman, who was a good friend and former pastor of the Peninsula Bible Church in California, knew Harry A. Ironside when he was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. He remembered Ironside describing a visit to Chicago by the flamboyant evangelist Gypsy Smith. Gypsy Smith got his name because he really did have a gypsy background, and he told many fascinating stories about growing up in a gypsy camp. On this occasion the message was made up almost entirely of these stories. At the end of the meeting, Gypsy Smith gave an altar call, and hundreds of people surged forward. Ironside used to say that he wondered what they were coming forward for. “Perhaps,” he said, “they wanted to become gypsies.”
The point was a good one, since one of the things that sets Christianity off from other world religions is that it deals with objective truth and with the facts of history.
Unless the facts are proclaimed, the message is not Christianity.
Unless the facts are understood and believed, the faith that follows is not true faith, regardless of its intensity.
The Third Necessity: Hearing Christ
The third of Paul’s statements is that in order to believe in Christ a person must hear Christ. I repeat the last two words, “hear Christ,” because that is what the verse literally says. The New International Version is mistaken when it adds the word “of” so the text reads, “believe in the one of whom they have not heard.” What it actually says is: “believe in the one whom they have not heard.”
The point is that it is Christ himself who speaks to the individual, and that it is hearing him that leads first to belief and then to calling on his name in salvation.
This should not surprise us, of course, because this is exactly what Jesus taught. John 10 is a clear example. In that chapter, Jesus was speaking about himself as “the good shepherd,” and he was explaining how his sheep know him and respond to his voice:
The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice … I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:2–5, 14–16
There is a danger that some will use this emphasis on hearing Christ himself as an excuse for subjectivity. This happens when people say, “God told me so-and-so,” and then follow it with something entirely unrelated to Scripture. Or when they say, “The Holy Spirit said …” and then add some personal desire or utterly unbiblical whim. We all know Christians who have used statements like this to justify behavior that is blatantly contrary to the Word of God.
But our passage provides two entirely adequate safeguards, even while stressing the need for us to “hear” Christ personally. The first safeguard is the step that has gone immediately before this, where Paul stressed the need for intellectual content or belief. This has to do with Bible truths and with the facts of Bible history. There is nothing subjective here. On the contrary, this is soundly objective. By linking the facts of the message to hearing Christ, Paul is saying that although Jesus speaks personally and individually to the one he is calling to faith, he does not do so apart from the truths of Scripture. He speaks to us not by leading us away from Scripture, but by leading us to Scripture and by speaking through Scripture. The subjective word is based on the objective revelation.
The second safeguard is found in the step that follows, namely, the “preaching” of God’s Word by God’s messengers. This means that the “word” of Christ is not whatever you might choose to make it. Rather it is the content of Christian doctrine as taught by qualified and appointed preachers. “The point,” says Morris, “is that Christ is present in the preachers; to hear them is to hear him.”
Jesus taught this, too, of course. When he sent seventy-two disciples ahead of him to preach in his name and prepare people for his coming, he encouraged them, saying, “He who listens to you listens to me,” and “he who rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16). It is the same today. When I (or any other minister) stands up to teach the Bible, if I do it rightly, it is not my word you are hearing. It is the Word of God, and the voice you hear in your heart is the voice of Christ. So, if you do not like what I am saying, do not get angry with me. I am only the postman. My job is just to deliver the letters. And when you respond, do not think that you are responding to me. You are responding to Jesus, who is calling you through the appointed channel of sound preaching.
The Fourth Necessity: Preaching Christ
In speaking of this passage’s second safeguard against subjectivity in hearing the voice of Christ, I have already moved on to the fourth step in Paul’s series of linked statements, which are in the last analysis a great plea for missions. It is that for a person to hear Christ, someone must proclaim Christ to him or her. This is a strong statement for the necessity of preaching.
In his excellent commentary, Leon Morris emphasizes that “hearing” is a reflection of first-century life, when few people could read and communication was largely through the spoken word. He suggests that this does not exclude other valid forms of communication today, print media, for instance. That is true enough, of course. The gospel can be taught by qualified and appointed writers—Leon Morris is one—as well as by qualified preachers. But that aside, there is still something special and necessary about verbalized communication, particularly preaching, since it is through such preaching that God most often chooses to make the gospel known.
This was true of apostolic preaching. John Calvin wrote, “By this very statement … he [Paul] has made it clear that the apostolic ministry … by which the message of eternal life is brought to us, is valued equally with the Word.”
It is true of preaching today, too, though in a lesser sense. Today’s preaching is not valued equally with the Word, but it is through preaching that the Word is most regularly made known and blessed by God to the saving of men and women. J. I. Packer is right on this point when he says, “A true sermon is an act of God, and not a mere performance by man. In real preaching the speaker is the servant of the Word and God speaks and works by the Word through his servant’s lips.… The sermon … is God’s ordained means of speaking and working. The divine commission to ministers is a commission to preach and teach, and the accompanying promise is that, if they preach the word faithfully, they will not preach in vain.”
The Fifth Necessity: Sending Christ’s Messengers
This brings us to the fifth and last step in Paul’s linked statements about the way people are brought to call on Jesus Christ for salvation. It is his bottom line. He has indicated that people must believe in Christ before they can call on him. They must hear Christ before they can believe. There must be preachers of the Word if people are to hear Christ. Now he concludes that for Christ to be proclaimed to such people, preachers must be sent to them.
By whom? By God, of course. This is God’s work; no one can take it lightly upon himself. It is why Jesus said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt. 9:38). If God does not send the messenger, the message will not be blessed by him, and those who hear will not be saved. As Leon Morris says, “A self-appointed herald is a contradiction in terms.”
But it is also true that messengers must be sent by the churches, just as Paul and Barnabas were sent on their missionary journeys by the Gentile church at Antioch (Acts 13:1–3). In fact, one of the objectives Paul had in writing Romans was to enlist the support of the Roman church in his plan to take the gospel beyond Rome to Spain and other places to the west (Rom. 15:23–29). The application for us is that if people today in unreached areas of the world are to hear the gospel and have the opportunity to believe on Jesus Christ, those who know Christ must pool their resources to send God’s messengers to them. We must do it. A strong missions program is mandatory for an obedient church.
Four Applications
This has been a five-point study of Paul’s text (one point more than was common even for Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great “four-point” preacher). Five points is a lot to remember. Nevertheless, here are four more quick points in conclusion. Each is a verse of Scripture.
1. Matthew 9:37–38. [Jesus said,] “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” These are our Lord’s own words about praying for Christian missionaries. It is a recognition that God must call and send them. But I ask, “When God calls, will we be prepared to send them, too? Will we give our money to help make the gospel of salvation widely known?”
Let me share some facts with you. According to a recent report by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the world’s population is about 5.3 billion people. Roughly one-third (1.7 billion) are people who would call themselves “Christian.” Among the other two-thirds, one-third (1.3 billion) have never heard the gospel, and the other two-thirds (2.3 billion) have heard it but are unconverted. The first group, which includes most of the western nations, accounts for 62% of the world’s wealth. It spends 97% of that on itself. The remaining 3% is divided between secular charities, which get 1% of its resources, and Christian causes of all kinds, which get 2%.
Of that 2% allotted to Christian causes, 99.9% is spent in our own countries to provide for our own churches and Christian institutions. Of the remaining.1%, spent for Christian work abroad, .09% is spent on those who have already heard the gospel but are unconverted, and only .01% on the 1.3 billion persons who have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ.
I am sure I do not have to emphasize that this represents a tremendous challenge for Christians who are serious about wanting to take the gospel to the whole world in obedience to the Great Commission.
2. Second Timothy 4:2. “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” If you are a preacher or Bible teacher, even in a small class, do not be distracted from your primary calling by other useful but secondary things. Many things are important, but nothing is as essential as preaching and teaching God’s Word. Be faithful to that task.
3. Matthew 28:18–20. [Jesus said,] “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.…” These are the words of the Great Commission in its best-known form, and they are for all Christians. So I add this reminder: Although not all Christians are called to be preachers or teachers, all are nevertheless called to be agents of Christ’s commission. Ask God to give you opportunities to speak to others about Jesus and his death for sinners, and then be sure you actually do it.
4. Second Corinthians 6:2b. “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” This is for you, if you have not yet responded to the gospel by believing in and calling on Christ. There are billions of people who have never heard the gospel, but you are not one of them. You have heard it. I have been making it clear to you. What you need to do right now is to turn from your sin and call on Christ.
God’s Beautiful People
Romans 10:15
… As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
The kind of work I do does not bring me into contact with the world’s beautiful people very often. But I have been with them just enough to know that there really are “beautiful people,” and my friends in California, who have far more opportunity to mingle with celebrities than I do, confirm it.
Some years ago a friend of mine from Philadelphia was hosting the then well-known singing star and actor, Pat Boone, and his wife. He called our home to ask if he could bring them by, since they were going to be filming something that evening and needed a place to rest for a few hours in the late afternoon. They were with us from about three in the afternoon until six. Mr. and Mrs. Boone really were beautiful. They had flawless features, perfect skin, immaculate grooming, and were meticulously dressed. They were obviously made (or remade) for the camera. And not only that. They smelled good. They seemed to be unlike other people. They were so perfect that I could only relate them to the poem about Richard Cory, who “glittered when he walked.”
We are surrounded by a cult of beauty in our day, of course. Ever since the fall of the human race, people have valued beauty too much, usually neglecting the more important inner beauty of the soul. But at no time in history has physical beauty been at a higher premium than today. Movies and television are largely responsible, since they have created an entertainment- and beauty-directed age.
How different when we turn to our text! Though speaking of beauty, it is clearly speaking of a nonphysical kind of beauty when it says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom. 10:15).
Inner Beauty and Outer Beauty
A good place to start in trying to understand this text is by admitting that it is not a very attractive statement for most of us, and the reason is clear. We usually look at the outward appearance of things, including people, and we make our judgments on that basis. Moreover, we do not think of feet as beautiful. Regardless of what follows, when the text says, “How beautiful are the feet …” the idea seems quaint at best and probably even a bit repulsive. It becomes even more so when we remember that the feet of an ancient traveler would be dusty and smelly from the unsurfaced and unsanitary roads.
How strange that we think like this. We should know better. One of the things our grandparents used to say to us was: “Beauty is as beauty does.” But instead of thinking about actions, we think of beauty in terms of a perfect figure or a flawless face.
About thirty-five years ago, when I was in high school, I met another “beautiful person,” Eddie Fisher, one of the singing idols of the fifties. It happened behind the scenes at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. I suppose it was because of that meeting that I have always had more than a usual interest in Eddie Fisher’s life and career. He was married to Debbie Reynolds, dumped her to marry Elizabeth Taylor, and then was dumped by Taylor when she had her affair with Richard Burton on the set of the blockbuster movie Cleopatra. That was the way Eddie Fisher’s life went, and it was rather sad. Yet I was pleased to read just a year or so ago that in an interview with a reporter, Eddie Fisher summed up his experience of America’s cult of beauty by saying rather wisely, “I have learned that a pretty face is just a pretty face.” It took him a lifetime to learn it.
What does the Bible say about beauty? You know the answer. In ancient Israel the people favored King Saul because of his large stature and good looks, but God rejected Saul and chose David, explaining, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7b).
Similarly, the apostle Peter wrote to Christian women, saying, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful …” (1 Peter 3:3–5).
The Beauty of God and God’s Works
I do not mean to say by this that beauty is undesirable in itself. The Bible says that God is beautiful. In fact, several chapters before the one in Isaiah from which Paul gets the quotation he uses in Romans 10:15, Isaiah tells the people, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty” (Isa. 33:17), meaning that they would see God.
This was David’s great desire, too:
One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4
God’s creation is also beautiful, and so are the laws that govern it. In fact, when we conform to those laws, we can end up producing something beautiful ourselves.
There is an illustration of this truth in something Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), the world-renowned architect and engineer, once said. A student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked Fuller whether he took aesthetic factors into account when he was tackling a technical problem. “No,” he replied. “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only of how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” I doubt Fuller was thinking of God when he said that, but he was nevertheless unwittingly testifying from his own area of expertise that God, God’s laws, and God’s creation really are beautiful.
Each of the wives of the patriarchs is said to have been beautiful: Sarah (Gen. 12:11, 14), Rebekah (Gen. 24:16; 26:7), and Rachel (Gen. 29:17).
Job’s daughters were beautiful (Job 42:15).
In proportion to its length, the book of the Bible that uses the word beautiful more than any other is Song of Songs. There the husband rightly expresses delight in the beauty of his bride and the bride in the beauty of her husband. This teaches that there is a place for beauty in our lives and a proper appreciation of beauty among Christians.
Yet that is not the whole story. It is true that Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel were beautiful, but their beauty was a danger that led to the compromising behavior of at least two of their husbands, Abraham and Isaac. Bathsheba was beautiful, but her beauty contributed to the fall of King David. In the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is represented by a beautiful tree, but it was cut down (Dan. 4). Proverbs warns that “beauty is fleeting” (Prov. 31:30), and James says that the beauty of the rich and influential person will inevitably “fade away” (James 1:11).
Most significant of all, we remember Isaiah’s description of the earthly appearance of Jesus Christ who, he wrote, “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, / nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). If even Jesus Christ was not physically attractive, we should know that beauty is at best a matter of indifference and at times even a snare.
Beauty Is as Beauty Does
All that prepares us to turn back to our text in Romans. For when we are able to get the idea of mere physical beauty out of our heads, at least for a while, we can begin to understand what the text is saying. The first thing we notice is that the kind of beauty we find here is not descriptive beauty but functional beauty. In other words, it is the kind of definition our grandparents were speaking of when they said, “Beauty is as beauty does.” They meant that true beauty is measured by gracious acts or by the gracious and faithful performance of one’s duties.
The former Surgeon General of the United States, C. Everett Koop, has published a book of memoirs that contains an illustration of what I am talking about. At one point in his book, Koop expresses appreciation for the outstanding nurses he worked with during his days as Surgeon-in-Chief of the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Working with a nurse who knows the way you think and can anticipate your moves and needs is one of the most satisfying things about surgery, according to Koop’s testimony. He felt this deeply. So he tells how each Christmas he would hang a long sign over the door to the operating room that said, “Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world.” A few years later, when the Intensive Care Unit had developed to a outstanding degree, he did the same thing there. Now there were two signs at Christmas that read: “Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world.”
Koop wrote, “The nurses knew I wasn’t talking about superficial physical attraction; they knew that I appreciated the beauty of all the things they did to make possible our success in the operating room [and ICU].”
Romans 10:15 is also a functional definition, which means that the beauty it describes is that of someone who is doing something. And that is the second thing to notice: what the beautiful person is doing is bringing the Good News of the gospel to other people.
I said a few paragraphs back that the quotation is taken from Isaiah—Isaiah 52:7 to be exact, though there is a very similar text in Nahum 1:15. In Isaiah’s setting, the passage is speaking of consolation for Israel during the years of Babylonian captivity, picturing a runner appearing on the hills to announce the fall of the people’s enemies and the triumph of God’s king. The image is the same as that of the well-known story of the Greek runner who made his way from the battlefields of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 b.c. The route was generally uphill for a total distance of more than twenty-six miles, and as soon as he arrived in the city and had gasped the word “Victory!” the runner fell dead from his efforts. It was in honor of this welcome messenger that the marathon race was run in ancient Greece and is still run today in many parts of the world.
But, like many Bible texts, there is even more to it than this. For as even the rabbis recognized, the messenger is the herald of the Messiah, which is appropriate since the next chapter (the continuation of the announcement) introduces us to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The salvation of the people from earthly enemies was undoubtedly good news, but a message of deliverance from sin is greater still. John Murray says, “As the prophecy found its climactic fulfillment in the Messiah himself, so it continues to be exemplified in the messengers whom he has appointed to be his ambassadors (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20).”
Paul is right on target when he says that the messengers of the cross are beautiful. They are beautiful because they are bearers of the gospel, which is the most beautiful message in the world.
The Elephantiasis Convert
Donald Grey Barnhouse, one of my predecessors at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, heard a story from a missionary in western Africa that is a moving illustration of what I have been writing. It was about a man who had the disease known as elephantiasis. In this disease the skin becomes thick and hard, and the limbs of the victim become enormously enlarged, much like the leg of an elephant, hence the name elephantiasis. The leg from the knee down to the foot can become as large as twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, and of course it is quite restricting and often painful. I have known at least one American who has this affliction.
But here is the story as Barnhouse tells it:
This poor victim of elephantiasis became a radiant Christian and could do nothing other than tell people of the grace of God which he had shown in sending his Son Jesus Christ to die for them. He lived in an African village and determined that every soul in the village should hear the good news of salvation. It was extremely difficult for him to walk with the monstrous legs which bore him about, but he thought nothing of the pain and toiled on from hut to hut to tell those who dwelt there about the Savior who had come into his life. Each evening he would return to his own hut where he was maintained by the kindness of his relatives. At the end of several months he was able to tell the missionary that he had visited every hut in the village and that he was now starting to take the gospel message to a village that was about two miles away.
Each morning he would start out painfully, walk the two miles to that village, go from hut to hut with the gospel, and return the two miles before sundown to his own hut. Finally, there came the day when he had visited every hut in the neighboring village. His work being done in these two villages, he remained at home for some weeks but began to be more and more restless.
He spoke to the pastor and to the missionary, who was a medical doctor, about a village that lay ten or twelve miles through the jungle, and asked if the gospel were being taken to that village. As a boy, before he had been afflicted, he had traveled the jungle path to that village, and he remembered that it was a large village and that there were many people there, and he knew that they needed the good tidings of the Savior. He was advised not to think of going to that village, but day after day the burden grew upon him. One day his family came to the missionary and said that the man had disappeared before dawn and they had heard him go but supposed that it was but for a moment. He did not return, and the family was concerned about him.
Afterwards, the full story became known. He had started down the path toward the distant village. Step after weary step he dragged his leathery legs and gigantic feet along the path that led to his goal. The people of the village later told how he had come to them when it was already noon; his feet were further swollen, bruised and bleeding. He had been forced to stop and rest again and again, and it was already past mid-day when he came. They offered him food, but before he would eat he began to tell the people about Jesus. Up and down the village he went, even to the very last hut, telling them that the God of all creation was Love and that he had sent his only Son to die that their sins might be removed. He told how the Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead and had come into his heart, bringing such joy and peace.
There was no shelter for him in that village; and even though the sun was low he started on his way down the jungle path toward home. The darkness of Africa is a terrible darkness, and the night can bring forth many creatures from the jungle. The sun went down and the poor man dragged himself along the path in the darkness guided by some insight which kept him from going astray. He told his pastor later that his fear of the night and the animals which might come upon him was more than balanced by the joy that he had in his heart as he realized that he had told a whole village about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Toward midnight the missionary doctor was awakened by a noise on his front porch. He listened, but all seemed still. Somehow he could not go back to sleep, and he went to the door with a light to see what had caused the noise. He recognized at once that the poor neighbor had returned to the village from his long trip, and had come with his wounded and bleeding leg-stumps to the door of the dispensary. The missionary called his helpers and they lifted the man, almost unconscious, and put him on one of the beds in the little hospital. The doctor said that he had seldom seen such a frightful sight as he looked upon those bleeding feet which had come back from such an errand of love and mercy. Unashamedly the doctor told how he had bent over those feet to minister to them, and as he cleaned and dressed them, he told how his own tears had fallen with the ointment upon them. The doctor ended the story by saying, “In all my life I do not know when my heart was more drawn out to another Christian believer. All I could think of was the verse in the Word of God, ‘How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings, that publish peace.’ ”
Here was a man who had been sent by God to tell the story of what Christ had done for him, and although he had to do it at the cost of such personal agony, yet he had not flinched but had gone through to the end to tell needy men the good news of salvation for their souls.
Beautiful Bilney
That is a very moving story, of course, as I said when I introduced it. But it is not unusual. For centuries, ever since the days of Jesus Christ, God’s beautiful people have strategized and sacrificed and gone out of their way to bring the gospel to those they know need it.
Do you know how the gospel came to Hugh Latimer (1400–1555), that great bishop who became one of the brightest lights of the Protestant Reformation in England? Hugh Latimer was a “beautiful” man, strikingly good-looking and brilliant. But he did not know Christ, and he was using his learning to oppose the teachings of the Reformers, especially that of Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s co-worker and friend. Latimer was at Cambridge at this time, and there was at Cambridge a little monk whose name was Thomas Bilney. No one paid much attention to Bilney. But Bilney had discovered the gospel, and he wanted the great Hugh Latimer to come to Christ, too. “What a tremendous influence he would have, if only he would discover the gospel of God’s grace in Christ,” Bilney thought.
So he hit on a plan. One day after Latimer had been preaching, Bilney caught his arm as he was coming out of the church and asked if he would hear his confession. That was a prescribed duty of a priest. So Hugh Latimer listened to Bilney, and the little monk who had found Christ “confessed” the gospel, sharing how it had changed his life. Latimer later said that he was converted by Bilney’s gospel “confession.” As for Latimer, he became a great reformer in England and is best known for his encouragement of Nicholas Ridley as they were being led to the stake in Oxford at the height of the English persecutions in 1555: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.”
Bilney was not a beautiful person as we generally think of beauty. But he was the bearer of the gospel to Hugh Latimer, and that means that he was beautiful in the sight of God, just as are all those are who obeying the Lord Jesus Christ in carrying out the Great Commission.
May I suggest that you start thinking of beauty the way God does. What you think is beautiful now is going to be a thing of the past in just a few short years. Those you think beautiful now will no longer be beautiful in physical terms. But the beauty of the bearers of the gospel will last forever. What is more, they will go on getting more and more beautiful, as they use not only this life but eternity to praise the Lord Jesus Christ more fully.
Beauty really is as beauty does.
I invite you to value others not by their outward appearance, but by their service to Jesus Christ and the gospel. And I invite you to become one of God’s beautiful people yourself. Our text tells you how.2
1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 2, pp. 78–88). Moody Press.
Micah 5:2 — Read through this verse again. A promised ruler in Israel that is from everlasting? Who can that be other than God? This is the promised Messiah! Coming from Bethlehem Ephratah!
People were aware of this prophecy in Jesus’ adult ministry (John 7:42), and this was part of the confusion – Jesus was thought to be from Galilee (John 7:41). The chief priests and scribes knew this when Jesus was born (Matthew 2:6). But when we look at Matthew 2:6, it’s missing the last phrase: “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” That’s the key phrase in the verse; this is no mere created being, but the very Mighty God, Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6).
By the way – let’s compare the prophecies of the contemporaries Micah and Isaiah:
Isaiah 9
Micah 5
“unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6)
“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah… out of thee shall he come forth unto me” (Micah 5:2).
“the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6) “of the increase of his government… there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9:7)
“that is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2)
“his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller (Isaiah 9:6)
“and he shall stand and feed” (Micah 5:4)
“the Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6)
“in the strength of the LORD” (Micah 5:4)
“the Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6)
“whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2)
“the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) “of the increase of his …peace… there shall be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7)
“and this man shall be the peace” (Micah 5:5)
“of the increase of his government … there shall be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7)
“for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth” (Micah 5:4)
Micah 5:5 — Jesus is the peace! He made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). Then we see Micah shifting to the present day challenge of the Assyrians. “After the pattern of the prophets, Micah blended near and distant ages in his prophecy” (EnduringWord.com).
Micah 5:10-14 — Notice how the LORD is cleansing His people by going back to the Law. Horses and chariots (Deuteronomy 17:16), witchcraft (Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10), graven images (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1, Deuteronomy 5:8), groves (Exodus 34:13, Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 12:3).
But why cities? The LORD destroyed cities before Israel (Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 19:25), enlisted Israel in the destruction of the Canaanite cities (Numbers 21:2 and Joshua 6:17 – “accursed/under the ban“), and threatened to destroy rebellious cities (Leviticus 26:31-33). Destruction of cities is a “capital punishment” judgment for egregious sin, and we’ve seen the sins listed already.
Micah 6:8 — Micah has simplified the Old Testament Law – the 613 commands of the Torah and the 10 Commandments of Moses – into three requirements: do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.
Do justly – the “second tablet” of negative commandments – murder, steal, lie, covet, adultery (Exodus 20), not to mention the “divers weights” (Deuteronomy 25:13-14, Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 20:23).
Love mercy – the “positive” second greatest commandment – “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31). Mercy is the word “hesed” (see exposition at Ligonier).
Walk humbly with thy God – the “first tablet” of commandments – no other gods, no graven images, no name in vain, remembering the Sabbath (Exodus 20), not to mention literal “humility before God” (Exodus 10:3, Deuteronomy 8:2, 1 Kings 21:29, 2 Kings 22:29, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 2 Chronicles 12:7, 2 Chronicles 12:12, 2 Chronicles 34:27, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:17, Proverbs 29:23, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 18:4, Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, Luke 18:14, James 4:6, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5-6).
Micah 7:2-3 — The world hasn’t changed much. “There is none upright among men … that they may do evil with both hands.”
Micah 7:6 — Jesus referred to this in Matthew 10:35.
Micah 7:9 — Even for those who have sinned against the LORD, God will hear (Micah 7:7) if we will repent, i.e. if we refuse to avoid the consequences of our sin but bear them. As Micah concludes, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity” (Micah 7:18)? He will have compassion (Micah 7:19) and will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19)! Yes, my sins have been cast in the depth of the sea! Down, deep in the sea! Join Martha and Bradley Garvin as they perform:
Revelation 7:17 — Yes, there is coming a day when no heartaches shall come, no more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore, On that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day, that will be!
It is healthy for Christians to think about heaven.
As we meditate on the blessed future the Lord has in store for us our hope should grow and we ought to feel a renewed energy to persevere in our Christian lives. But what exactly will heaven be like? And specifically, will there be Christmas in heaven?
Now, maybe no one’s actually asking about Christmas in heaven, and I don’t want to get into a debate about the pagan roots of Yule logs and all that jazz. But bear with me for a few paragraphs because it’s not a bad question.
Maybe it won’t be called Christmas, it will likely look a lot different than it does now, and there definitely won’t be a jolly fat guy in a red suit (St. Nicholas will be thin and healthy in his glorified body). But we will continue to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, the promised Messiah, in the eternal state. And that should shape how we think about our celebration of the holiday now.
Final Destination: Earth
Unfortunately, many Christians have imbibed a false view of what our eternal state will entail. The so-called Spiritual Vision model of heaven sees an afterlife consisting of disembodied souls endlessly enraptured in singing, or believers slogging through eternity as angel-like people reclining in boredom on a cloud. This mistaken notion has no biblical support. Instead, the Bible presents what has been called the New Creation model of the eternal state.
God made everything, physical and spiritual, and He declared it all “very good” (Gen 1:31). Yes, the Fall occurred in Genesis 3 and there were both physical and spiritual consequences for that. Christians know that God restores us spiritually through faith in Jesus Christ, but the promises in the OT look forward to a final restoration that is not limited merely to the spiritual plain. We are promised spiritual AND physical blessings (Deut 30:1–10; Gen 12; 13; 15; Jer 31–33; 2 Sam 7). And Paul goes out of his way in 1 Corinthians 15 to demonstrate that the resurrection believers look forward to is bodily, which is to say physical.
Dr. Michael Vlach explains it this way, “God plans to restore all things (Acts 3:21; Col 1:20) which includes every aspect of our environment, both spiritual and physical. This includes the glorification of believers in real resurrected bodies and the planet itself (Rom 8:18-25).”
Dr. Vlach summarizes the New Creation model as follows:
“This approach follows the language of passages like Isaiah 25, 65, 66; Revelation 21; and Romans 8 which speak of a regenerated earth . . . In sum, a new creation model operates on the belief that life in the future kingdom of God is largely similar to God’s purposes for the creation before the fall of Adam, which certainly involved more than just a spiritual element. Thus, the final Heaven is not an ethereal spiritual presence in the sky.”
The Bible presents to us our final home as something which is materially not so different from our present existence on earth, because it is earth. Earth, the place which God custom-made for man. But it is a restored, renewed, and perfected earth. What’s so exciting about having this correct understanding of our future home is that it gives us something concrete to hope in. Clouds are pretty, and I like singing as much as the next guy, but for me at least, the idea of being a disembodied soul belting out Chris Tomlin tunes for all eternity lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. And it’s not exactly the type of thing that fills me with the anticipation and hope required to meet the troubles of this life with confidence, much less to face a martyr’s death.
Culture Will Continue
But what does all this have to do with Christmas?
On the restored earth, culture will continue. There will be, it appears, some level of continuity in terms of the social, political, geographical, artistic, and even technological spheres as they presently exist, yet without sin. And it makes sense when you think about the big picture of the Bible.
In Genesis 1:26–28, God gives mankind a kingdom mandate—”subdue and rule creation as my image bearers.” And in God’s sovereign purposes, salvation and the cross were not His plan B. Just as there’s no reason to think He has given up on the planet He made for us, there’s no reason to think a concept that long preceded the Fall, kingship, will cease to be His purpose for man. There will still be nations, but they will live in harmony with one another (Isa 2:2-4). There will still be borders, but they will not be at war. There will still be cultural contributions (Rev 21:24). Man was made to work (Gen 2:5), and the Fall made work painful (Gen 3), but on the New Earth, we will work and serve Christ with joy (Rev 22:3).
If all these cultural aspects of life on the present earth will continue on the New Earth, who is to say certain aspects even of our holidays will not?
Celebration Will Continue
The heart of Christmas is celebration of the coming of Messiah (Luke 2:10–11). Will there be celebration in the eternal state? Yes! And it will be kicked off with the biggest party of them all, The Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:6–9). The celebration of Christ’s humbling Himself and becoming a man for the sake of lost sinners will most certainly endure into the eternal state.
Eternity will be spent glorifying God for His person and work (Ps 100:1–5; Rev 19:5–6). Chief among the works for which we will glorify Him is His work in salvation (Rev 5:12). God’s work in atoning for the sins of man put His person on full display in all His holiness, humility, wrath, love, grace, mercy, etc. If you want to know what God is like, look at the cross. But without the incarnation, there would be no cross, and no atonement (Phil 2:8). And the incarnation is what Christmas is all about. So, though the form of our celebration on the New Earth will no doubt be different than it is now, the celebration of Christ’s humbling Himself and becoming a man for the sake of lost sinners will most certainly endure into the eternal state.
Christmas Will Continue
Will there be Christmas in heaven? When we qualify that question by saying that by heaven we mean our eternal home, which will be the renewed earth, and that the Scriptures indicate the continuation of certain aspects of culture, and that celebration will continue throughout eternity, then I believe we can most assuredly say there will be Christmas in heaven. And it will be the best Christmas you have ever known—even better than that year your parents got you a puppy.
Considering what aspects of our present lives and efforts will remain for eternity has a prioritizing effect. It causes you to focus more on what really matters. And when you think about what aspects of Christmas will remain, namely celebration and praise of God for sending His son, that should shape how you celebrate Christmas even this year. We know it’s not about the presents, the sweaters, the lights, or the nostalgia, but it takes a conscious effort to turn our minds again and again to remind ourselves this is about Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-man, who lived and was crucified and rose again that by faith men and women might be forgiven for their sins, counted righteous in God’s eyes, and granted fellowship and an inheritance with Him forever. Now that’s a holiday worth celebrating for all eternity.
[Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated.]
Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.2 Chronicles 15:7
God had done great things for King Asa and Judah, but yet they were a feeble folk. Their feet were very tottering in the ways of the Lord, and their hearts very hesitating, so that they had to be warned that the Lord would be with them while they were with Him, but that if they forsook Him He would leave them. They were also reminded of the sister kingdom, how ill it fared in its rebellion and how the Lord was gracious to it when repentance was shown. The Lord’s design was to confirm them in His way and make them strong in righteousness. So ought it to be with us. God deserves to be served with all the energy of which we are capable.
If the service of God is worth anything, it is worth everything. We shall find our best reward in the Lord’s work if we do it with determined diligence. Our labor is not in vain in the Lord, and we know it. Halfhearted work will bring no reward; but when we throw our whole soul into the cause, we shall see prosperity. This text was sent to the author of these notes in a day of terrible storm, and it suggested to him to put on all steam, with the assurance of reaching port in safety with a glorious freight.
Propitiation. A hard word to pronounce…and a hard word to understand, but we have to try, since the verse says this is the reason God sent His son.
An offering that turns away the wrath of God directed against sin. According to the NT, God has provided the offering that removes the divine wrath, for in love the Father sent the Son to be the propitiation (or atoning sacrifice) for human sin (1 John 4:10). Source: Pocket dictionary of theological terms (1996).
by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to exercise his love towards sinners. In Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. (1893)
The Easton’s definition uses the word ‘consistent’. God is able to do anything but it would not be consistent with His holy character to abandon his promise to punish wrongdoers for their sin. He could turn away His wrath by deciding to do so, but it would destroy His perfectly just nature to be inconsistent. No, God is consistent, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed“. (Malachi 3:6).
So He sent His Son to be that sacrifice and absorb God’s wrath for our sins, though Christ was sinless.
Further Reading
GotQuestions: What is Propitiation? The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.
Ligonier Ministries: What Do Expiation and Propitiation Mean? Let’s think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means “out of” or “from,” so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement. By contrast, propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation.
Bible Hub Topical Bible- Propitiation That by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners.
God chose men to speak His words to the people. He chose trustworthy men who were brave and obedient. These men had to be accurate when relaying God’s message because they risked death if they were wrong. “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20).
Too often today, we take God’s word lightly and willingly listen to preachers who change God’s words in order to tickle ears and water down sermons so as to be politically correct and not empty the pews. God takes His word seriously, and so should we. Jesus gave a strong warning about false prophets. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matthew 7:15-16).
There are many of these false prophets around today, so beware of anybody who says God told them to say or do something. They may truly be speaking for God, but don’t just accept them because they say they are speaking for God. Test all things by Scripture. If they say anything that is at odds with God’s word, then the speaker is wrong.
We do have hundreds of prophecies in Scripture, and we can count on them being accurate. Many have been fulfilled, but there are many yet to be fulfilled. We tend to think that prophetic words from God are for a distant time in the future and don’t really apply to us. If only Israel had paid more attention to God’s truth rather than ignoring Him, things might have gone smoother in their history. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.
Jeremiah was a young man whom God chose to be a prophet. When he least expected it, God called him to be a prophet. “Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
God knows what a special place a baby will have in his or her life long before birth and has a plan for that little person’s life. That baby isn’t just some inanimate lump of tissue but a little person with a purpose. Jeremiah was less than enthusiastic when God called him to be a prophet! “Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6).
The word “child” is from the Hebrew word “na’ar,” which means a young boy or a youth. Jeremiah probably was in his late teens or early 20s when God spoke to him. This was still quite young, but when God calls a person, age doesn’t matter. If you’re called by God, then He will equip you for your calling. If you were a 20-year-old young man and God called you to bring the sins of your nation to the attention of the leaders, how would you react? Few grown men would be able to bear that burden.
Eventually, Jeremiah took his calling seriously and spread the word of God. Jeremiah’s words weren’t received well. There were threats to his life, arrests, and beatings. Why? Because he wasn’t politically correct! He spoke against child sacrifice, which we now call abortion. He spoke against ignoring God’s laws.
Judah was sent into Babylonian captivity for 70 years because they didn’t honor God’s law, which happens daily in our modern times. I wonder if the Bible teachers of the day tickled ears or taught what God “meant” rather than what He said. Whatever the reason, the people had disobeyed Leviticus 25:1-7 and did not allow the land to lie fallow for one year out of every 7 years. They stopped doing this for 490 years, and when they least expected it, God allowed them to go into captivity in Babylon for 70 years, which left the land fallow.
Even though Jeremiah had told them judgment was coming, they ignored the warning and did as they pleased. I’m not a prophetess, but I can read the signs of the times. God’s judgment is coming, and the only way to avoid that judgment is to repent and accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour today.
There are many instances of God warning of what’s to come and people not believing they are the generation when the prophecies will be fulfilled. One that is very well known and talked about this time of year is found in Isaiah. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Everybody knows a virgin cannot give birth, so God must have meant something else. Right? No, God meant exactly what He said. Prophecy not only said that a virgin would give birth but told where that birth would happen. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).
When they least expected it, God’s Son was born in a manger. It always amazes me that the religious leaders of the day were taken by surprise when the wise men showed up asking about Jesus, who had actually been born quite a while prior to the magi visiting. “Saying, ‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). The chief priests and scribes were taken by surprise, and they had no answer but finally started looking at prophecy. They might have worshipped the King of kings in the manger had they taken prophecy seriously. When they least expected it, the prophecy was fulfilled, and they had to search for answers.
One day, when Mary least expected it, she had a visit from the angel Gabriel. Mary was young; some say she was in her early teens, and the message Gabriel brought was startling. God sent Gabriel “To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:27).
Mary was a virgin. Mary and Joseph were engaged and had not had any sexual relations. There was nothing supernatural about Mary; she was just a normal human. Gabriel told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son. “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
Wow! Mothers always have high hopes for their children, but this was beyond amazing! Mary could have said, “Like, wow, man! That’s awesome!” Mary was down to earth and only said, “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?“ (Luke 1:34). Gabriel explained that the Holy Ghost would come upon her, and “the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,” and the baby would be the Son of God. Mary was humble and agreed to be the mother of God’s only begotten Son.
Joseph was taken aback by Mary being pregnant and decided not to go forward with the marriage to Mary. “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). This was all in fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.
Joseph and Mary both had to take it all by faith and believe the prophecies about the Messiah. They must have been a bit shocked to understand that they were a part of God’s ultimate plan of salvation. Did they know what they would face? Probably not all of it, but they were obedient in spite of public opinion and doubters. This was a one-time event and will never happen again. The child that was born fulfilled many, many, many prophecies, and there are still more that He will fulfill.
Why is it important to study and pay attention to prophecy? Because when you least expect it, it will be fulfilled. Even Peter, who walked with Jesus for 3 years, was directly taught by Jesus and saw many miraculous things, saw the importance of prophecy. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).
Brothers and sisters, we are living in a time when Biblical prophecy is coming to a final conclusion. When we least expect it, God will call all Christians Home. The Rapture is one of those topics that people try to interpret as what God meant rather than what He said.
There are “pictures” in the Old Testament of God removing His people prior to His judgment falling. Enoch was raptured prior to the Flood, and Lot had to be removed from Sodom prior to the fire and brimstone raining down and destroying that city of sin. The prophet Daniel was given a prophecy concerning the final seven years of time on earth, and it’s all about the Jewish people and bringing them to a pure faith in Jesus as the Messiah. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Daniel 9:24).
Daniel’s people are the Jewish people; Daniel’s holy city is Jerusalem. This prophecy goes on to describe the Messiah being “cut off” (crucified) and more about the end times. God doesn’t want us to be caught off guard. The Book of Revelation gives more detail of what the final seven years will look like, and nobody should want to be here.
Christians have a promise, the Blessed Hope, that God will remove us from the soon-coming judgment. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).
Some would have us believe the Rapture is a wrong teaching and that it causes those who believe God’s truth to get complacent and just sit back and wait to be called Home. Well, complacent Christians have nothing to do with belief in the Rapture. In fact, that truth should spur us on to evangelize and spread the Gospel so nobody will be left here to suffer the consequences of non-belief.
Study prophecy and be aware of where we are in history. Keep your eye on the happenings in the Middle East. Pray for Israel. When you least expect it, we will be called Home.
Al-Julani: Syria will be a country of Sharia Law Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani says new Syrian regime will operate under Sharia Law, morality police will be supervised by clerics and mullahs.
Vatican employee says ‘gay lobby’ wields enormous influence over Pope Francis A frustrated Vatican employee has alleged that Pope Francis is giving preference to the “gay lobby” when it comes to decision making. In an anonymous interview with Italian media outlet Panorama, a member of the Vatican’s labor union complained that not only are fellow employees dissatisfied with Francis’s alleged financial management, but that he gives strong preference to those who are in favor of the homosexual agenda.
Hezbollah leader says terror group lost its supply route in Syria Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a the terror group lost its supply route in Syria with the fall of the Assad regime. During the Assad regime, weapons and other military supplies were brought through Syria into Lebanon, but when Syrian rebels seized the route, the supply chain was cut off. “We also hope that the new ruling party will view Israel as an enemy and refrain from normalizing relations with it. These are the key factors that will shape the nature of the relationship between us and Syria.”
Tel Dan Stele, oldest archaeological evidence of King David, comes to NY’s Jewish Museum The Tel Dan Stele, a stone fragment long held exclusively by the Israel Museum, is on view at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side until Jan. 5. A 12-by-13 inch chunk of basalt, the Tel Dan Stele is a 9th-century BCE stone document acknowledging the military victories of a person whom scholars believe to be King Hazael of Aram, an area in contemporary Syria that includes what is today Damascus. One of those victories was over a descendant of David, the king of ancient Israel.
Why the Left is celebrating the execution of a CEO His assassination, to them, was a good first step toward taking that system down, especially if it sowed terror in the hearts of other healthcare industry executives that they might be next. But does it really need to be said that targeting healthcare industry executives for assassination is not only not the solution, but is also morally wrong?
Biden admin takes credit for Israeli victories it tried to prevent From the outset, Biden and his aides have also pressed Israel to reach accommodation with its enemies—criticizing, threatening, and punishing the U.S. ally in the name of regional de-escalation. Biden administration officials have claimed credit this week for the ongoing collapse of the Iranian axis, seeking to recast their role in a series of Israeli victories that they worked to thwart.
Netanyahu weighs new security-oriented political party Sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are weighing the creation of a new security-oriented right-wing party for those on the Israeli right who are not interested in voting for the Likud party, but who would be willing to cooperate with Netanyahu after the elections and join a coalition led by him.
Hamas ‘ready for any ceasefire plan with Israel’ A senior Hamas official stated that there is ‘an excellent opportunity to declare an agreement with Israel and a ceasefire arrangement in the Gaza Strip.’
ABC to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle lawsuit, AP reports https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-833453 ABC News has agreed to give $15 million to US President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ comments he made on air involving the civil case brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Could Iran’s new hijab law bring down Khamenei? As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei grapples with the knowledge that his proxy terror groups throughout the Middle East are falling one by one, either through war with Israel or rebel factions in the case of Syria, only one domino with meaningful power is left standing – that of Khamenei himself. The latest cause for domestic murmurings was the introduction of a newer and harsher “Hijab and Chastity Bill,” approved by the Iranian parliament earlier this month, Punishments range from fines to prison time and even the death penalty.
Is domestic terrorism the next step for antisemitic radicals? Thoughtful people may be perplexed as to how it is that some are treating the alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, 26, as a sort of folk hero on whose behalf a crowdfunded legal defense fund has been established, and Thompson, 50, a husband and father, as a villain. It’s hard not to draw a connection between this incident and the way that many supposedly educated Americans have reacted in much the same manner to the atrocities committed by Hamas and Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. The attack on an insurance executive has prompted worries that this won’t be the last instance of violence directed at someone in the health-care industry.
Very strong M6.4 earthquake hits Chile-Argentina border region A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 hit the Chile-Argentina border region at 23:38 UTC (20:38 LT) on December 13, 2024. The agency is reporting a depth of 110 km (68 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth. Chile’s National Seismological Center is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 114 km (70 miles).
Chido strikes Mayotte as most violent and destructive cyclone in 90 years Tropical Cyclone Chido made catastrophic landfall over the island of Mayotte on Saturday, December 14, 2024, as a category 4 equivalent cyclone. Reports suggest two fatalities linked to the storm with widespread damage being reported across the island.
Scientists are Investigating Something Called ‘Disease X’-Here’s What We Know International health authorities have been dispatched to the Democratic Republic of Congo to address a respiratory illness of unknown origin. Over the weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a team has been sent to the region to discover the cause of the illness and enhance local healthcare efforts. Currently, Congolese health officials have reported 406 cases and 31 fatalities, with a significant impact on young children.
UK to Rollout Digital ID In 2025 A digital identification program, utilizing smartphones, will deploy in the United Kingdom next year. It is being marketed as a way for young people to buy alcohol and go to clubs utilizing facial recognition biometrics within an app. It will also allow the payment of taxes, banking activities, state-issued benefit program disbursements and, perhaps alarmingly, merely shopping at the store.
Mad Miliband wants to turn hundreds of square miles of farmland into solar farms UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has made proposals to carpet the countryside with solar panels. He also wants to accelerate the development of offshore wind farms. Even sunny Australia can’t get solar and wind energy to work well, so cold cloudy Britain doesn’t stand a hope of succeeding with “renewable” energy sources.
China is introducing spherical robots to chase down criminals; the robots will eventually replace humans in fighting crime On Monday, the US Sun described some dystopian technology that is becoming a reality: Chinese AI-powered spherical robots capable of detecting, chasing and apprehending using net-launching cannons; a Polish faceless robot with synthetic organs, artificial muscles and veiny arms; an “unstoppable” Chinese robodog on wheels and Elon Musk’s humanoid robot that can do anything, even babysit.
Pastor Jack dissects a few of the most often misused Bible verses. Quoting, meditating on, and sharing the scriptures are essential to our Christian walk. However, it’s important to use them in the proper context. This episode will put into perspective some of the often misused and misunderstood verses.
As we spiral toward the return of Christ, things are quickening in both the world and in our souls. Even the unwashed know something is coming, but their unbelief creates angst and fear as to what.
The believer can look toward the future and the blessed hope that is our Savior. And He will return to make things right. In the meantime, suit up in your spiritual armor and prepare to endure, as world events compress our timeline to the point that a decade of events seems to occur in a single week.
Providence Baptist Church on RSBN featuring Pastor Dr Rusty Sowell live from Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard, AL Sunday Morning Worship 12/15/24
There has been a lot of “analysis” of Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter after countless statements that he would not pardon Hunter because “no one is above the law.” There is a longstanding mantra by Democratic Party leadership saying that no one is above the law. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, Alvin Bragg, Jack Smith, and the list goes on and on of people who claim nobody is above the law, yet they are above the law.
Fact is, if you disagree with the Democratic Party and you can be brought to lawfare persecution in a Democrat-controlled court or prosecutor, you will see first-hand who is above the law and who is under it. Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter is just one example of the hypocrisy.
After nearly a decade of lawfare persecution against Donald Trump—all of which has failed to remotely prove his guilt of charges—and claiming that everybody is under the law, the Bidon pardon is a true example of the Democrat-class of law and everybody else. The White House said numerous times over the past two years that Biden would not pardon Hunter. Biden said he would not pardon Hunter. The Democrats used this commitment to demonstrate that Trump had to face his legal consequences because no one—not even the “president’s” son—is above the law. Except when he is, which is now when Biden is leaving office and all the lawfare persecution against Trump is left in shambles. But this is nothing new.
Let us recall Hillary Clinton, who had classified emails on a server in her home’s closet. Clinton also used a pay-for-play scheme as Secretary of State to fatten the pockets–$74-88 million worth–of the Clinton Foundation by brokering high-level meetings for Algeria, Brunei, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Let’s not forget about her gaslighting all of America about Benghazi. The foundation shut down after she left office.
How about Clinton conspiring with Obama and the Democratic Party to use the secret FISA court to spy on Trump and mock-up fake documents saying Trump colluded with the Russians? Nothing to see here. Then FBI Director James Comey pronounced his own law when he said, “Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Trump’s home was raided by the FBI, and he was brought to trial by Democrat prosecutors in a Democrat-controlled court over classified documents. Biden also had classified documents piled in his garage. A special counsel concluded that Biden “willfully retained” those documents after he was vice president, but “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” no jury would convict him, so there would be no charges filed.
Now, the leftist media is saying that Biden was just being a good father by pardoning Hunter. Not so. A good father understands that his son must face consequences for his actions.
Colossians 3:25 says, “But he who does wrong shall receive justice for the wrong which he did, and there is no respect of persons.”
In America these days, there are two sets of laws, and believing that no one is above the law is… say it with me… Stupidocrisy.
On Dec. 5, 2024, Robert Gottselig (author, host of an Israeli weekly newscast) wrote:
There is a showdown (confrontation, clash, etc.) on the horizon with the countries that come against God’s chosen people, and it’s not going to fare well for the nations.
It’s a spiritual battle.
Satan hates Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jewish people.
Why? Because God loves and has made promises to them.
If Satan can destroy the Lord’s chosen people and nation, he believes he can render the promises void and make the God of Israel a liar.
This endeavor by Satan to thwart God is an effort to avoid judgment.
Consider these facts:
The nation of Israel was destroyed, and there was no nation of Israel for almost 2,000 years.
In the 1800s, Jews started returning to Israel from the 4 corners of the earth.
In 1948, Israel became a nation again.
In 1967, Israel retook East Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the Golan Heights.
According to the Bible, Jesus will come back to Jerusalem.
Jesus will dwell in Jerusalem.
The Jews have rebuilt Jerusalem, Pres. Trump recognized Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel on Dec. 6, 2017, and the U.S. embassy was moved to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018.
Hear what the prophet Zechariah said:
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness” (Zech. 8:2-8).
Here is my understanding of more Scriptures.
The Lord’s name is on Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:7).
The Lord will dwell in Jerusalem during the Millennium (God’s New World Order; Psa. 132:13).
When Jesus comes back, His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (Zech. 14:4).
The Lord will teach, and His Law will go forth out of Jerusalem during the Millennium (Isa. 2:3).
During the Millennium, people will call Jerusalem “the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem” (Jer. 3:17).
Jesus taught us to pray: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:9-13).
Jesus will come back as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).
This is why a showdown is coming over Jerusalem.
Satan doesn’t want Jerusalem to be the capital of Jesus’ earthly kingdom.
Satan wants Jerusalem for his own purposes.
Here are some articles that seem to indicate that the end of the age is getting close.
One, concerning Jerusalem: on Dec. 3, 2024, the Pres. of Paraguay, Santiago Peria, announced that he will be in Jerusalem on Dec. 12, 2024, for the opening of Paraguay’s embassy in the Holy City.
Peria said,
The State of Israel recognizes Jerusalem as its capital.
The seat of the parliament is in Jerusalem.
The president is in Jerusalem.
So, who are we to question where they establish their own capital?
Paraguay joins five other countries that currently have their embassies in Jerusalem: the U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea.
Two, concerning Israel’s borders and Jerusalem: on Dec. 3, 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution,
Demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state and Israel’s withdrawal from all territories secured in the 1967 Six-Day War in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
That reiterated the UN’s rejection of Israel’s application of sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem in 1967.
That includes plans for a High-Level International Conference at UN headquarters in New York in June 2025 to urgently chart an irreversible pathway towards the peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the implementation of a Palestinian state.
(My opinion: A showdown with God is coming. God has already decided what Israel’s borders will be and who will get Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria during the Millennium; see Gen. 15:18.)
(More: On Dec. 3, 2024, Al-Arabiya News reported that French Pres. Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmen (MBS) will co-chair the Jan. 2025 UN conference to urgently chart an irreversible path towards peace and the creation of a Palestinian state. Between now and June, Macron and MBS will work with everyone – many – to bring along this path. Macron said, we want to involve several other partners and allies – many – both European and non-European, who are ready to move in this direction. Macron said there was a simultaneous aim to trigger a movement of recognition in favor of Israel, which could provide answers in terms of security – sounds like peace and safety – for Israel and convince people that the two-state solution is a solution that is relevant for Israel.)
Three, concerning Judea and Samaria: on Dec. 5, 2024, it was reported that Sen. Tom Cotton has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate, that, if passed, would require all official US documents to use the historically accurate term “Judea and Samaria.”
Cotton said,
The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years.
The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney introduced the bill in the House.
Tenney said,
The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria.
At this critical moment in history, the U.S. must reaffirm this.
This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory.
I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Jewish leaders representing about 500,000 Jews that live in Judea and Samaria believe that Pres.-elect Trump will support their claim of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, so they are already making plans for the possible expansion of Israel’s borders.
I find it interesting:
That the Tribulation Period will begin when the Antichrist confirms (strengthens) a covenant of peace with many in the Middle East (Dan. 9:27).
That Trump has been elected, and he intends to push for a peace treaty in the Middle East.
That the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt, and some of Trump’s nominees believe the Jews should be allowed to rebuild the Temple.
That the Antichrist will defile the Jewish Temple at the middle of the Tribulation, and Jesus told the Jews in Judea to flee into the wilderness (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15-16).
That the Antichrist will rise to power over a world government, that the UN is a wannabe world government (New World Order), and that the UN has now scheduled a meeting to discuss ways to force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.
(I want to be clear: There must be an existing covenant for the Antichrist to confirm – strengthen – it. And pre-Trib Rapture believers – like myself – believe the Rapture will occur before the Antichrist confirms that existing covenant. We could be seeing the development of the existing covenant.)
(My opinion: God gave us signs of the Second Coming of Jesus and told us to watch for them so we would know when it is getting close. Current events seem to be signs that we are close.)
(My opinion: a showdown is coming over Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and it appears to be getting close. During the Tribulation Period, God said He “will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it; Zech. 12:2-3.)
(My opinion: Fulfilled prophecy verifies that the Bible is the Word of God. Peter said, “We have a more sure word of prophecy, unto which ye do well that ye take heed” (II Pet. 1:19).
Four, concerning world government: the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) met on Dec. 2-6 to try to push forward the WHO Pandemic Treaty – a treaty to empower the UN to control global healthcare – before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, and they failed.
They decided to continue to meet until the end of May but recognize that Trump will probably not sign a treaty.
This is great news for the U.S. and the world, but we know that the Antichrist will be given control of a one-world government after the Rapture.
Five, concerning wars and rumors of wars at the end of the age: on Dec. 5, 2024, Michael Snyder (The Economic Collapse Blog) reported:
According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, the number of military conflicts that are currently active is the highest that we have seen since World War II…Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia… and so on.
There are up to 56 active conflicts in the world, the highest number since World War II.
Moreover, these carry an increasingly international component, with 92 countries involved in wars outside their borders.
Six, on Dec. 6, 2024, a Turkish diplomat said foreign ministers from Russia, Iran, and Turkey (the 3 most important nations that will attack Israel in the Battle of Gog and Magog) will meet on Dec. 7, 2024, to discuss Syria’s future.
Note: On Dec. 7, 2024, insurgents were moving into Syria’s third largest city (Homs, a city of 1.4 million people) from two directions. A Syrian watcher who seems to be from Israel said:
If the rebels capture the Homs area, it is all over for Assad. His Alawite coastal heartland and all the ports will be cut off from the capital Damascus. Iran would lose access to all but two border crossings into Lebanon (mountain passes that Israel can, and routinely does, control via airstrikes. The Kurds are also pushing into Deir Az Zor, and if they succeed, Iran will lose its primary supply route to Hezbollah (they will be forced to run the gauntlet across the Syrian desert, within easy reach of US bases).
(My opinion: Things are changing by the minute. Syrian army troops are defecting and joining the insurgents. Things are not looking good for Damascus, Iran, or Hezbollah.)
(More: On Dec. 7, 2024, it was reported that Syrian rebel groups say they have started encircling Damascus and they are closing in on the city. The U.S. embassy has started urging U.S. citizens to leave Damascus. U.S. Sec. of State Blinken contacted Turkey to stress the importance of protecting citizens. Thousands of citizens have been displaced in the last few days.)
(More: Syrian rebels entered a suburb of Damascus, toppled a statue of Pres. Assad’s father, and decapitated it.)
(More: In the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 2024, Bashar al-Assad’s government was overthrown. Later in the day, Russia announced that al-Assad and his family had arrived in Russia.)
(My opinion: These insurgents comprise several separate groups that came together to overthrow the Assad government. Some are on the U.S., UK, and UN terrorist list. They have now captured Syria’s nuclear reactor, and this situation is dangerous.)
(More: On Dec. 8, 2024, Israeli jets destroyed Syria’s chemical weapons factory, several weapons storage facilities, and Syria’s long-range rockets and missiles.)
(More: On Dec. 10, 2024, it was reported that, in hundreds of strikes, the Israeli air force and navy destroyed Assad’s army and navy: tanks, planes, helicopters, ships, air defense systems, missiles, military factories, intelligence facilities, and everything that Syria’s military has held and built for decades. Israel destroyed them to prevent the insurgents from capturing them and possibly using them against Israel.)
Seven, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on Dec. 6, 2024, an Israeli delegation visited Moscow where they told Russia that Israel would not allow Iran and its proxies to use Syria as a haven to attack Israel.
(FYI: The Bible teaches that Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others will come from the north – Syria – and attack Israel in the latter days and latter years.)
Nine, concerning Israel expanding its borders at the end of the age: in 1974, Israel and Syria agreed to create a buffer zone along their border to keep their forces separated.
When Damascus fell on Dec. 8, 2024, Syrian troops abandoned their positions near the buffer zone.
To prevent the insurgents from taking over those positions and moving into the buffer zone, Israeli troops moved into the buffer zone, crossed it, and took over the Syrian positions on the other side (this included the Syrian side of Mt. Herman, and Israel took it to protect Jews on the Golan Heights. By the way: the Bible also says Jews will walk upon the Mountains of Israel at the end of the age: Ezek. 36.)
Israel wants peace with the insurgents and is not threatening to keep the area they have seized, but they want assurances from the insurgents that they will not move troops up to Israel’s old border with Syria.
Anyway, the Bible says Israel will expand its borders at the end of the age, and we may have just witnessed a partial fulfillment of it.
(More: On Dec. 8, 2024, a Syrian insurgent went on TV and said the group wants peace and cooperation with Israel.)
(More: When Trump recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, the UN, Syria, and others refused to recognize it. On Dec. 9, 2024, two days after the fall of the Syrian government, Netanyahu said the Golan Heights will remain part of Israel for eternity.)
(More: On Dec. 10, 2024, Turkey and Qatar condemned Israel’s occupation of the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.)
Ten, concerning false teachers and a falling away in the church at the end of the age: on Dec. 8, 2024, it was reported that Pope Francis unveiled the Vatican Nativity Scene over the weekend with the baby Jesus lying on a Keffiyeh – a Palestinian scarf – in a cradle.
The Palestinians worship Allah; they desecrate Jewish holy sites. Jesus was Jewish, and the Palestinians are trying to kill as many Jews as they can.
(My opinion: Pope Francis is catering to the Palestinians because he wants to merge all religions into a one world religion, and that will happen during the Tribulation Period. A showdown is coming.)
Eleven, concerning a rebuilt Temple on the Temple Mount: on Dec. 4, 2024, a group of religious Jewish officials (Beyadenu) held their annual meeting to seek more freedom for Jews to worship on the Temple Mount.
They believe the opposition to a rebuilt Temple is still strong, but Israel’s success against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas has weakened the opposition, and the day will come when they receive permission to rebuild it.
Here is my daily update on the Israel-Hamas war.
Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, (day 425) The three hundred and seventieth day of the resumed war. Day 203 of the attack on Rafah.
S. officials believe Hezbollah is using the ceasefire to rebuild its forces in Lebanon and resume its attacks on Israel.
Israel is continuing to strike Hezbollah forces that are violating the ceasefire agreement.
A major faction of the Turkey-backed insurgents that are attempting to overthrow the Syrian government said they want to end foreign domination (Russian, Iranian, etc.) domination of Syria. They said they have a lot of respect for Pres. Trump and Israel.
Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 (day 426), The three hundred and seventy-first day of the resumed war. Day 204 of the attack on Rafah.
The Turkey-backed insurgents that are rebelling against Syrian Pres. Assad are continuing to capture more Syrian territory. Powerful shells are exploding, fear is setting in, banks are closed, thousands are trapped in their homes, and food and water are in short supply. Thousands of Syrian Christians have fled for their life.
Hezbollah declared that it would help Syria fight off the insurgents.
The insurgents (backed by Turkey) warned that Iranian-backed proxies should stay out of this war.
Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan said the era of Western dominance is coming to a close (Wrong: Turkey, Iran, and other Islamic nations and groups are headed for defeat in the Battle of Gog and Magog).
Israel is closely monitoring the events in Syria because Israel doesn’t want Turkey-backed insurgents taking over its border with Syria.
Syria said Israel had destroyed caches of advanced weapons in northern Syria to prevent them from falling into the hands of Islamist rebel groups.
Friday, Dec. 6, 2024 (day 427), The three hundred and seventy-second day of the resumed war. Day 205 of the attack on Rafah.
Israel believes the Syrian government is in danger of collapsing.
Israel said it is beefing up its air and ground forces and raising its readiness level in response to the civil war that is taking place in Syria.
The Turkey-backed insurgents are now only 6 miles from the Golan Heights (mountains of Israel).
Israel is sending reinforcements to the Golan Heights.
Israel warned the insurgents to stay away from the Israeli border.
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024 (day 428), The three hundred and seventy-third day of the resumed war. Day 206 of the attack on Rafah.
On Saturday night, Israeli jets and ships started striking targets across Syria.
Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, (day 429) The three hundred and seventy-fourth day of the resumed war. Day 207 of the attack on Rafah.
Trump said the Gaza war must end, but Israel must be victorious.
The Turkey-backed insurgents that overthrew the Assad government looted the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Monday, Dec. 9, 2024 (day 430), The three hundred and seventy-fifth day of the resumed war. Day 208 of the attack on Rafah.
The insurgents that have taken over Syria said they will not enforce a dress code on women in Syria.
Israel has established direct communications with the insurgents.
-elect Trump’s nominee for Middle East envoy sent a message to Hamas, “Listen to what the president has got to say (there will be all Hell to pay). It’s not a pretty day (when Trump becomes Pres. on Jan. 20) if they (the hostages) are not released.”
The committee to monitor Hezbollah’s 60-day ceasefire agreement with Israel met for the first time, Hezbollah continues to violate the agreement, and Israel continues to retaliate.
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024 (day 431), The three hundred and seventy-sixth day of the resumed war. Day 209 of the attack on Rafah.
Hamas has changed its position and now wants a hostage deal.
FYI: God does not send anyone to Hell (all of us are born with a sin nature and destined to go to Hell because we sin), but God has provided a way (Jesus) for everyone to go to Heaven (and He is the only way to get there; John 14:6).
Finally, are you Rapture Ready?
If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.
Pastor Dean Dwyer of Australia discusses a recent poll related to Christian voter issues impacting the U.S. election. Pastor Dwyer shares his perspective how the election process works in Australia as well as how the U.S. election affects its citizens.
Jan Markell’s guests include Josh Schwartz, Ken Mikle, Billy Crone, and Brandon Holthaus. Many shepherds do not allow the sheep to hear biblical and prophetic truth. Hear from many believers who give new meaning to the term “remnant.”
Truth2Freedom's Blog 