Category Archives: Psalms

Sermon: Psalm 37, Part 3

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

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The previous sermon in this three part series may be found here.

Psalm 37 (ESV)

He Will Not Forsake His Saints
37  OF DAVID.

1  Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2  For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

3  Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4  Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5  Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
6  He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

7  Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!

8  Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9  For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

10  In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11  But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

12  The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
13  but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.

14  The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose way is upright;
15  their sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.

16  Better is the little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
17  For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.

18  The LORD knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will remain forever;
19  they are not put to shame in evil times;
in the days of famine they have abundance.

20  But the wicked will perish;
the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures;
they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

21  The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives;
22  for those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

23  The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
when he delights in his way;
24  though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the LORD upholds his hand.

25  I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
26  He is ever lending generously,
and his children become a blessing.

27  Turn away from evil and do good;
so shall you dwell forever.
28  For the LORD loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29  The righteous shall inherit the land
and dwell upon it forever.

30  The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
31  The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

32  The wicked watches for the righteous
and seeks to put him to death.
33  The LORD will not abandon him to his power
or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.

34  Wait for the LORD and keep his way,
and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
you will look on when the wicked are cut off.

35  I have seen a wicked, ruthless man,
spreading himself like a green laurel tree.
36  But he passed away, and behold, he was no more;
though I sought him, he could not be found.

37  Mark the blameless and behold the upright,
for there is a future for the man of peace.
38  But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

39  The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
40  The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.

The Lord our Rock

12 Friday Oct 2018

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(These are from the lecture notes for a course I am teaching at The Master’s College

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Digression: The Lord our Rock

 

In this matter of making disciples, you will be overwhelmed; you will be crushed; you will be made weak: so that Christ will alone be seen as strong. You must know this to be true. If your faith is all second-hand, you will not be able to either exhibit a life or faith, nor will you be able to even speak of faith with confidence.

 

When someone comes in with a trial, your “Well, trust Jesus” will sound like empty air, sounds without meaning — unless you know for a fact that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5.

 

If you do not look and live like one who knows these things to be true, your life will contradict your doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:16

1            I love you, O Lord, my strength.

2            The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

 

Psalm 18:1–2 (ESV)

 

These words may very well sound pretty but false for someone in a brutal marriage, someone betrayed, someone dying of a hideous disease. Read these words to someone who has just buried her child; or someone who has just confessed to adultery. There are times when it simply sounds false to say “The Lord is my rock”.

 

In these circumstances, we must either conclude that David was wrong — or that our understanding of God’s deliverance is wrong. How then is the Lord our Rock?

 

How can we say that the Lord is our Rock when we seem to be crushed in this life?

 

What is the Claim of Salvation?

 

One way to “solve” the problem is simply to make God’s claim small enough to match our experience. This is similar to the “openness of God” defense to the problem of evil. When we ask, “Why do bad things happen?” The answer is “God can’t/won’t stop it, because God doesn’t know what is going to happen (God is “open” to the future, so as to guarantee human freedom). Yet, as we will see, God and the saints claim quite the opposite.

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Fathers, Sons & Sin & Pride

12 Friday Oct 2018

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Psalm 147:

5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

2 Chronicles 33:9-13:

9 Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

2 Chronicles 33:21-23:

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
22 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
23 And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more.

2 Kings 22:15-20

15 And she said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
16 Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read.
17 Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.
18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,
19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD.
20 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.'” And they brought back word to the king.

Thomas Manton on helps to obedience

15 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Obedience, Psalms, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Theology of Biblical Counseling, Thomas Manton

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Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Ps. 119:4

In this fifth sermon on the 119th Psalm, Manton begins by providing a help to obedience. There would be no need to speak of obedience, if it were “natural” to use. What then keeps us from obedience? Manton begins here:

Doctrine 1: To gain the heart to full obedience, it is good to consider the authority of God in his word.

Manson makes three points: the first two concern our benefit in obedience; the third, the necessity of obedience.

Our profit:  Obedience to God’s commands is both reasonable and profitable: our good lies in in obedience:

First, it is reasonable to obey God. “If we were left at our liberty, we should take up the ways of God rather than any other: Rom. vii. 12, “The commandment is holy, just, and good.”

Second, it is to our benefit to obey God, both in this life — and more even more so at the judgment. Obedience, “will bring in a full reward for the future.”

God commands:

The next motive is that of the text, to urge the command of God. It is a course enjoined and imposed upon us by our sovereign lawgiver. It is not in our choice, as if it were an indifferent thing whether we will walk in the laws of God or not, but of absolute necessity, unless we renounce the authority of God.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 39.

He then supports this point with three considerations:

First, God is not our equal: He is our creator, therefore he has the right to command. He is our judge and therefore has the power to enforce his commands by punishment or reward.

Second, God has not suggested but commanded:

Unless you mean to renounce the sovereign majesty of God, and put him besides the throne, and break out into open rebellion against him, you must do what he hath commanded: 1 Tim. 1:9, ‘Charge them that be rich in the world,’ &c., not only advise but charge them. And Titus 2:15, ‘These things exhort, and rebuke with all authority.’ God will have the creatures know that he expects this duty and homage from them.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 40.

Third, God has given us precise directions that must be followed, “precepts”.

Christians, if we had the awe of God’s authority upon our hearts, what kind of persons would we be at all times, in all places, and in all company? what a check would this be to a proud thought, a light word, or a passionate speech?—what exactness would we study in our conversations, had we but serious thoughts of the sovereign majesty of God, and of his authority forbidding these things in the word!

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

At this point, Manton stops and considers the various hesitations, doubts, questions or weaknesses which could beset his hearers. He asks, Why should I consider the authority of God? This is a key point of the best preaching: it does not merely drop information before the hearer, but it helps the hearer process in the information. The preacher anticipates questions, uncovers motives, et cetera.

The very best preaching and the very best counseling are the same: helping another to understand, to digest, to live in accordance with God’s will.

1  We take God without the seriousness deserved: it shows in how we live:

Because then the heart would not be so loose, off and on in point of duty; when a thing is counted arbitrary (as generally we count so of strictness), the heart hangs off more from God. When we press men to pray in secret, to be full of good works, to meditate of God, to examine conscience, to redeem time, to be watchful, they think these be counsels of perfection, not rules of duty, enforced by the positive command of God; therefore are men so slight and careless in them. But now, when a man hath learned to urge a naughty heart with the authority of God, and charge them in the name of God, he lies more under the awe of duty. Hath God said I must search and try my ways, and shall I live in a constant neglect of it?

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

2  Obedience requires appropriate fear: disobedience comes from taking the commands of God too lightly:

The heart is never right until we be brought to fear a commandment more than any inconveniencies whatsoever. To a wicked man there seems to be nothing so light as a command, and therefore he breaks through against checks of conscience. But a man that hath the awe of God upon him, when mindful of God’s authority, he fears a command

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

3 If God has commanded the duty, then God will make obedience possible. We need not doubt our ability, because God stands behind the obedience. If someone thinks they will fail, they almost certainly will:

Many times we are doubtful of success, and so our hands are weakened thereby. We forbear duty, because we do not know what will come of it. Now, a sense of God’s authority and command doth fortify the heart against these discouragements

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

4  The purpose or profit behind some commands are not immediately obvious. Why should God command that I not eat from this tree? Why should God command such and such a morality, a behavior? Why should God command faith? We do not need to quibble at God’s reasons when we know that it is God who commands.

5  God does not need our bare behavior. When God commands us he is seeking the  voluntary submission of our will to his:

Obedience is never right but when it is done out of a conscience of God’s authority, intuitu voluntatis. The bare sight of God’s will should be reason enough to a gracious heart. It is the will of God; it is his command, So it is often urged: 1 Thes. 4:3, the apostle bids them follow holiness, ‘for this is the will of God, your sanctification.’ And servants should be faithful in their burdensome and hard labours; 1 Peter 2:15, ‘For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.’ And 1 Thes. 5:18, ‘In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ That is argument enough to a godly Christian, that God hath signified his will and good pleasure, though the duty were never so cross to his own desires and interests. They obey simply for the commandment sake, without any other reason and inducement.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 42.

Nature is out of joint

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Psalms, Theology of Biblical Counseling, Thomas Manton, Uncategorized

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HAMLET

Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit!—So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you,
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together.
Act 1, Scene 5
Human beings suffer greatly because we are out of place in the world we have expounded, as Rilke write in the Dunio Elegies, Elegy 1  “and the resourceful creatures see clearly/ that we are not really at home/in the interpreted world.” Ecclesiastes elegantly tell us the world is vain and unsatisfying. The difficulty lies in our place, we cannot be content unless we put the purpose for which we exist:

Use 1. To press you to seek God. The motives are:—
1. It was the end of our creation. We do not live merely to live; but for this end were we sent into the world, to seek God. Nature is sensible of it in part by the dissatisfaction it finds in other things; and therefore the apostle describes the Gentiles to he groping and feeling about for God, Acts 17:27. God is the cause of all things, and nature cannot be satisfied without him. We were made for God, and can never enjoy satisfaction until we come to enjoy him; therefore the Psalmist saith, Ps. 14:2, We are ‘all gone aside, and altogether become filthy.’ Nature is out of joint; we are quite out of our way to true happiness. We are seeking that for which we were created, when we seek and inquire after God.

Thomas Manton, “Sermon III”, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 23–24.

What is man that you ….

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Christology, Hebrews, Image of God, imago dei, Job, Justification, Psalms, Romans, Soteriology, Uncategorized

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Job 7 and Psalm 8 present a paradoxical contrast in the meaning of man before God: Why does God care for man.  Job asks why God cares so deeply as to even be concerned with men’s sin:

17 What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,
18 visit him every morning and test him every moment?
19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?
21 Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.

Job 7:17-21

This sort of question, in the minds of some, has led to a religious impulse which creates a god who simply forgives because this god is merciful — God may be concerned about extremely wicked men (typically this requires genocide or at least extreme viciousness), but God does not care about my “small” sins.

And while this sort of religion appears to be very comforting it comes it at a very high cost. First, it comes at the cost of God: God must give up justice to simply overlook sin without redress: Imagine a judge hearing the case of someone who without question committed a gross injustice against you. The criminal is guilty, you sense your need for justice and the judge simply shows “mercy” and less the bad-guy go. Your anger would rightly rise against this situation, because “mercy” comes at the cost of justice.

What sort of a god could sacrifice justice and still be a just God?

Second, as Job notes, to simply overlook sin without more, comes at the expense of humanity. Job asks, why concern yourself with my sin? I’m not that important.

And so you see, that a merely “merciful” god regards a degradation of God and of humanity. God must be unjust and we must be without value to pull off such a “forgiveness”. It is not surprising then that our civic religion of an avuncular god who simply forgives comes at the cost of human dignity.

Scripture however presents a perfectly holy God. It also places human beings as alone bearing the image of God. For humans to be of such worth requires that God have concern for our sin: because human beings are representing God (whether good or ill).

A high view of God and leads to a high view of the value of human beings — at the very same moment, producing the humility of wonder and love:

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalm 8:4-5  This resolution of the conflict takes place in Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews specifically brings these strands together, God, man, sin as follows;

6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:6-9. There in the place of Jesus, God greatness and justice gather up the sinfulness of humanity and restore human beings to a place of honor.

This is how Paul makes the same argument, from a slightly different vantage:

 

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21–26.

Edward Taylor: View All Ye Eyes Above.2

19 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by in Ascension, Edward Taylor, Literature, Philippians, Psalms, Puritan, Uncategorized

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16815854588_e6021d93f1_o

The analysis of the previous stanza made be found here

Upon the wings he of the wind rode in
His bright sedan, through all the silver skies
And made the azure cloud his chariot bring
Him to the mountain of celestial joys.
The Prince of the Air durst not an arrow spend
While through his realm his chariot did ascend.

The entire poem concerns the Ascension of Jesus following the Resurrection. Jesus having been resurrected ascends to heaven as King of All.

The image is of Christ ascending through the air up to heaven in great power. Satan can see the ascent of Christ but cannot attack:

Romans 6:9 (AV)
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

Biblical Allusions:

Upon the wings:

The allusion here is to metaphorical references to God coming in Judgment or great power.

Psalm 18:9–12 (AV)
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. 10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

The allusion is also to God unassailed power over all his creation:
Psalm 104:1–5 (AV)
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: 3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: 4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: 5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

The mountain of celestial joys:

The place of God’s peculiar residing is sometimes referred to as “heaven” and sometimes as on a mountain. The allusion here seems in particular to be Psalm 24:

Psalm 24 (AV)
Psalm 24
A Psalm of David.
1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

This psalm is particular appropriate to Taylor’s poem because it concerns the Ascension of Christ, beginning in verse 7: The King of Glory coming through the everlasting doors.

Then follows the apostrophe: the prophet foresees the ascension of Christ and his saints into the kingdom of heaven. He sees his Lord marching at the head of the redeemed world, and conducting them into regions of honour and joy. Suitably to such a view, and in a most beautiful strain of poetry, he addresses himself to the heavenly portals. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory,” with all the heirs of his grace and righteousness, shall make their triumphant entry; “shall enter in,” and go out no more.—James Hervey.

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 1-26, vol. 1 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 382–383.

The Prince of the Air: Satan

Ephesians 2:1–3 (AV)
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Mechanics

A-B-A-B-C-C

The first line is the most interesting metrically

– ‘ – ‘ ‘ – – ‘ ‘ –
Up on the wings he of the wind rode in

Two observations: the accent on “he” coming after the accented “wings” brings a jolt and lays the attention fully upon the main character in the scene. Second, the unaccented “in” hurries the attention along to “His bright sedan”. The same effect is rendered in the third line which ends with “bring”.

In the fourth line, the rhythm slows. There is a long pause after of “mountain” created by normal mid-line pause followed by two unaccented syllables. The effect is to slow the scene as the King arrives at the mountain — with the emphasis falling last of all upon “joys”.

Satan then comes along in the couplet as an impotent enemy gazing in rage at his loss:

Colossians 2:15 (AV)
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

If you have tasted that the Lord is good

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in 1 Peter, Preaching, Psalms, Sermons, Uncategorized

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Why does Peter quote a Psalm of David to Christian believers in the First Century?

1 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV)

2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Psalm 34:8(ESV)

8  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Theophilus of Antioch: Our God is in the Heavens, He does whatever He pleases

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Apologetics, Baal, Psalms

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It is a comfort to see how little things have changed in thousands of years. Theophilus of Antioch, having worked his way through numerous objections and religions turns to philosophy. Here a great deal of words have been exhausted but in some important ways little new has taken place. 

First there are the atheists and deists and Freud:
Some of the philosophers of the Porch say that there is no God at all; or, if there is, they say that He cares for none but Himself; and these views the folly of Epicurus and Chrysippus has set forth at large. And others say that all things are produced without external agency, and that the world is uncreated, and that nature is eternal; and have dared to give out that there is no providence of God at all, but maintain that God is only each man’s conscience. 

For these God is somewhere between a delusion and non-existence. It is interesting that Theophilus doesn’t even take the time to prove God’s existence:
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 

Romans 1:19-23. To deny God’s existence is to deny the sun shining at noon. 
Now others, a la Spinoza and Hegel, admit to a God who is inhabits and is subsumed by all the universe. There is no real creation, only an extension of God:
And others again maintain that the spirit which pervades all things is God. 
Next, Theophilus turns to Plato and a Creator who doesn’t actually create. Before the Big Bang became the default cosmology there was the Steady State theory which held that the universe was eternal and somehow creating continuously. I have an astronomy book from the 1960s which puts out both theories as possibilities. 

Theophilus holds up this God for examination and finds he is not really much of a God after all:

But Plato and those of his school acknowledge indeed that God is uncreated, and the Father and Maker of all things; but then they maintain that matter as well as God is uncreated, and aver that it is coeval with God. But if God is uncreated and matter uncreated, God is no longer, according to the Platonists, the Creator of all things, nor, so far as their opinions hold, is the monarchy of God established. And further, as God, because He is uncreated, is also unalterable; so if matter, too, were uncreated, it also would be unalterable, and equal to God; for that which is created is mutable and alterable, but that which is uncreated is immutable and unalterable. And what great thing is it if God made the world out of existent materials? For even a human artist, when he gets material from some one, makes of it what he pleases.

Theophilus ends this section of his argument not by “proving” the truth of his thesis by drawing out every inconsistency in the rejected views. Rather, he makes an argument which seem more at home in evangelism and presuppositional apologetics. 

Theophilus without apology asserts God as God is. Theophilus does not defend God: God needs no defense. In this, Theophilus reminds me of Gideon’s father, when Gideon tore down the idol in the night:28 When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.

29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.”  30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.”  31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.”  32 Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. 

Judges 6:28-32

Theophilus does not defend God, he asserts God. As Spurgeon said of the Bible, the best defense is to let the lion out of the cage

But the power of God is manifested in this, that out of things that are not He makes whatever He pleases; just as the bestowal of life and motion is the prerogative of no other than God alone. For even man makes indeed an image, but reason and breath, or feeling, he cannot give to what he has made. But God has this property in excess of what man can do, in that He makes a work, endowed with reason, life, sensation. As, therefore, in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also in this; that out of things that are not He creates and has created things that are, and whatever He pleases, as He pleases.

Theophilus recounts Psalm 115:

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! 

2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.  – Psalm 115:1-3

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