Prophets Must Obey God

Now go, write it on a tablet before them
And inscribe it on a scroll,
That it may serve in the time to come
As a witness forever.
For this is a rebellious people, false sons,
Sons who refuse to listen
To the instruction of the LORD;
Who say to the seers, "You must not see visions";
And to the prophets, "You must not prophesy to us what is right,
Speak to us pleasant words,
Prophesy illusions.
"Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,
Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel... (Isa 30:8-12).

With the current flood of evangelical manifestos, we have been considering what it means to stand and speak "prophetically," that is to bring the Word of God to the people of God with integrity. After some frustrated reflection, it eventually dawned on us that it may help to actually read a prophet. So, while reading through Isaiah, we noted especially the characteristics of Isaiah's prophetic ministry in Isaiah 30.

Ministering in Jerusalem during the Assyrian aggression, Isaiah particularly chastised Judah for their unholy alliance with Egypt (cf. chs. 28-35) and, therefore, adding "sin to sin" (30:1) by seeking the Egyptians rather than repenting and resting in their Lord (cf. 30:15). In such a context of sin and compromise, how does God's prophet respond?

By revealing sin (30:8-9). Isaiah is to write a visible witness to God's warning for the instruction of future generations (even us!). Sometimes, the prophet must just point to the lemmings as they leap over the cliff (cf. Isa 6:9-11) for it only confuses people as to the character of God to let public sin go unmentioned.

By refusing to compromise (30:10). Not that people explicitly love to live in falsehood, but they assume their actions to be the standard of righteousness, making God's truth intolerable. God's prophet, however, must bring God's Word to God's people, he does not survey God's people and then tell God His Word!

By receiving rejection (30:11). God's prophets received a lot of rejection (cf. Acts 7:52)! Isaiah even gave his life for his prophetic ministry (cf. Heb 11:37). There is a painful solitude in prophetic ministry, for the prophet who sees the Lord of glory, must also endure the blasphemy of His name.

By rendering judgment (30:12-17). Notice that Isaiah spoke the very thing his hearers refused, the word of the Holy One of Israel. The prophet's chief and singular concern is to stand with integrity and faithfulness before His Lord. Or as another "prophet" has written:

...the Prophet must obey God, though he should become the object of men’s hatred, and though his life should be in imminent danger. Here we ought to observe his steadfastness in dreading nothing, that he might obey God and fulfill his calling. He despised hatred, dislike, commotions, threatenings, false alarms, and immediate dangers, that he might boldly and fearlessly discharge the duties of his office. Copying his example, we ought to do this, if we wish to hear and follow God who calls us.

– John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 2, p. 355

While God's prophets are privileged to speak of His glory in redemption, they desert their post when they refuse to speak what God has spoken, regardless of the response. May the Lord help each one to stand prophetically in a day of compromise.

Theologians are First Grammarians

Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all (I Tim 4:15).

At The Prostrate Calvinist, we are spending much of our summer brushing up on Greek reading. We have been especially helped by Lee Iron's reading method and calendar for the Greek New Testament.

An encouragement to "taking pains" with those pedantic rules of Greek grammar, we have also recently begun reading The Minister and His Greek New Testament by that venerable Greek grammarian and New Testament commentator, A.T. Robertson. His exhortations to develop intimacy with the Greek New Testament are compelling and convicting:

But the chief reason why preachers do not get and do not keep up a fair and needful knowledge of the Greek New Testament is nothing less than carelessness, and even laziness in many cases (p. 8).

The real New Testament is the Greek New Testament. The English is simply a translation of the New Testament, not the actual New Testament. It is good that the New Testament has been translated into so many languages… One needs to read these translations, the more the better. Each will supplement the others. But, when he has read them all, there will remain a large and rich untranslatable element that the preacher out to know (pp. 9-10).

The Greek compels one to pause over each word long enough for it to fertilise the mind with its rich and fructifying energy. The very words of the English become so familiar that they slip through the mind too easily. One needs to know his English Bible just that way, much of it by heart, so that it will come readily to hand for comfort and for service. But the minute study called for by the Greek opens up unexpected treasures that surprise and delight the soul (p. 11).

It is our hope that we who glory in the riches of Biblical theology know well the language in which that theology was originally penned. Again, Mr. Robertson recalled the words of A.M. Fairbairn, "he is no theologian who is not first a grammarian."

(For more on the importance of study in the Greek New Testament, see:

Henry Thiessen, "Should New Testament Greek Be 'Required' in Our Ministerial Training Courses?"

F.F. Bruce, "The Greek Language and the Christian Ministry"

John Piper "Brothers, Bitzer was a Banker!"

And lest we be accused of imbalance by some of our less grammatically-inclined readers, be encouraged by Greenlee's "No, You Don't Have to Know Greek.")

Losing Friends and Influencing People

And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God (II Cor 2:16-17).

Granted extra time by Memorial Day Weekend, we began reading The Life of John Murray. An inaugural professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, John Murray was one of the leading Reformed commentators and theologians of the last 100 years. Instrumental to J. Gresham Machen during the fundamentalist - modernist schism of the early 20th century Presbyterian controversy, he was a stalwart of orthodox teaching until his death in 1975.

Yet, it was Murray's steadfast refusal to violate his conscience before God, even when it meant forsaking his vocational desires and valued associations, that most strikes contemporary eyes as an artifact of bygone eras. His clarity of commitment in Christian leadership is strangely unique to the present-day, as evangelical leaders frequently demonstrate negotiable consciences and varied allegiances (see this previous post for an example).

It may be that John Murray learned such "heroic honesty" from Machen, his mentor and friend:

A true Reformation would be characterized by just what is missing in the Modernism of the present day; it would be characterized above all by an heroic honesty which for the sake of principle would push all consideration of consequences aside.

- What is Faith?, p. 103.

Or maybe Murray was just a Christian leader. And so he understood that the watershed of God-glorifying influence was pursuing integrity in personal conviction over personal convenience.

It would sometimes be to our apparent advantage to suppress the testimony to certain aspects of truth, to soft-pedal on matters which wake the dissent and even provoke the ire of many people. Many things for which we stand are unpopular and we lose friends. Sometimes we are tempted to stand for things which the counsel of God does not warrant and we could gain a great deal of popular support by standing for them. We cannot do it, for we must not go farther than the counsel of God. The whole counsel of God but nothing more. The counsel of God and nothing less.

- John Murray, quoted in The Life of John Murray, p. 84.

The mantle of Christian leadership is not a matter of personal sufficiency, for all say with Paul, "And who is adequate for these things?"! Rather, it is a grace to so refuse to be "not like many" and to speak sincerely from a sufficient Word, to speak conciously of the all-glorious God, and to speak under the Lordship of the only Christ. May He grace many of this generation to be leaders and to pursue the integrity of conviction of John Murray... even if they must do so alone.

(More lessons from The Life of John Murray to come, but take some time to peruse some of his writings and sermon audio through the external links at his Wikipedia entry).

On Their Shelves Unused

But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Matt 22:29).

Serapion, a desert monastic, once challenged the owner of several books:

The prophets wrote books. Then came our ancestors who lived by them. Those who came later understood them from the heart. Then came the present generation who copied them but put them on their shelves unused.

(HT:CT)

Serapion's profound exhortation brought to mind Jesus' rebuke to the Sadducees, that you may possess the truth of Scripture and still not own it.

Theological Depth Perception

The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 2:24-25).

A former professor of mine has dropped some worthwhile counsel on theological disagreement in a recent book review:

Within the broader evangelical community we should heed basic principles of respect and integrity. This especially applies when we offer critiques of views held by other believers. We may disagree with another Christian over the issues of cessation of the sign gifts, millennial views, rapture views, limited and unlimited atonement, etc., but there are certain things we should never be guilty of. This includes misrepresenting our opponent’s view with straw man arguments, using sarcastic and belittling language, and presenting our theological opponent in the worst light possible. This should be true even if our opponent does not always play by the rules. Responsible scholarship also entails putting theological issues into proper perspective. We need a ‘theological depth perception,’ a wisdom that allows us to discern issues that are at the core of Christianity and those issues that are important but are not salvation issues or threats to historic Christianity.

- Michael Vlach, "My Thoughts on Hank Hanegraaff’s Apocalypse Code"

Why is it that while defending "the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3), the saints often treat each other like pagans? I have often been served and convicted by Paul's instruction to Timothy on dealing with troublesome teachers... "with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition."

Note well that it this defender of orthodoxy, the gentle and self-controlled, whom God uses to sovereignly draw their opponents to repentance. It is fitting that theological unity is never won by the fervor of an argument, but through the power of God's Word and the illuminating ministry of God's Spirit, that the glory may belong to Him alone.

Bring the Books

When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments (II Tim 4:13).

We obviously appreciate the edifying value of good Christian literature here at The Prostrate Calvinist. Although we are slightly biased toward the older divines, there are many contemporary authors that are worth your hearing. Thanks to the leg-work of the Discerning Reader, here's a select list of note-worthy volumes to look for this year:

March
• David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World
• Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God

April
• Mark Dever, 12 Challenges Churches Face
• Colin Hansen, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists
• Walt Kaiser, The Promise-Plan of God: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments
• J.I. Packer & Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement
• Richard Phillips, What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace?
• D.A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited

June
• Thomas Schreiner, New Testament Theology

July
• Joel Beeke, Living for God's Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism

August
• Burk Parsons, ed. John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology

September
• Steven Lawson, The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards

Dare to be a Sinner

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another (Eph 4:25).

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of men. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this.

In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God's forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is not lack of psychological knowledge but lack of love for the crucified Jesus Christ that makes us so poor and inefficient in brotherly confession.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 118-19; emphasis added.

Reason de Entre

but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth(I Tim 3:15).

Far more than God's means of present edification and sanctification, the Scripture has been entrusted to Christ's Church that she might both exhibit and safeguard it, amidst all of the turmoil and change in the world around her.

The church does not invent the truth, and alters it only at the cost of judgment. It is to support and safeguard it. It is the sacred, saving treasure given to sinners for their forgiveness, and to believers for their sanctification and edification, that they might live for the glory of God. The church has the stewardship of Scripture, the duty to guard it as the most precious possession on earth. Churches that tamper with, misrepresent, depreciate, relegate to secondary place, or abandon biblical truth destroy their only reason for existing and experience impotence and judgment.

- John MacArthur, I Timothy, 136-37.

Governing, Guiding, and Refreshing

He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (Col 1:18).

Since Christ is the Head of the Church, it is His Word that rules Christians. Scripture’s authority is as present and active as if the Lord Jesus Himself should open the skies and audibly direct us.

The rule of Christ is made effective by his Spirit, through whom he illumines our understanding of his Word, and gives us wisdom to apply it… The rule of Christ through his Word and Spirit is not the dead hand of human tradition reaching from the past. Rather, by his living truth and the abiding presence of his Spirit the Lord governs, guides and refreshes his people.

- Edmund Clowney, The Church, 202-03.

We only follow Christ when we are obedient to Scripture and we only honor Christ when we are faithful to Scripture. For us to follow any other authority or to look to any other source for direction, is nothing less than mutiny against our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Grapes Do Not Grow on Thistles

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (I Cor 2:14).

An "objective unbeliever"? That, my friend, is a creature of myth, a conceptual oxymoron. And this was precisely Paul's point to the Corinithians.

In view of the humility (2:1-5) and veracity (2:6-13) of Paul's message, why did some among them still reject his teaching? Because they did not want to accept it. The rejecters do not, in fact, "accept" (dechetai) his message, which is to say that they do not welcome or receive the message as one would a guest. So it is not that the unbeliever "cannot understand" the message because "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (v. 2) is irrational and overly complex... it is because He is not welcome.

Given a wrong inclination, wrong volitions must follow. If the disposition of the will be vicious, the volitions of the will cannot be virtuous, any more than the fruit can be grapes if the root is that of the thistle.

- William Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 4.5.

It is because the news of Jesus is not welcome that men "cannot understand" or mock Him as "foolishness." Fallen humanity is not lacking in bare ability, it is that they have no desire. Man's rejection is so hostile that it may be described as total inability.

This principle of irrationality by rejection also carries a rather searching application to those of us whose desire has been mercifully changed by God's Spirit, but for whom sin remains an experiential reality... do you yourself welcome the truth as a long-awaited guest?

Preserving Purity

As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Gal 1:9).

It is not a matter of small importance whether we preserve the purity of the gospel. The chief dangers to Christianity do not come from the anti-Christian systems. Mohammedianism has never made inroads upon Christendom save by the sword. Nobody fears that Christianity will be swallowed up by Buddhism. It is corrupt forms of Christianity itself which menace from time to time the life of Christianity.

Why make much of minor points of difference among those who serve the one Christ? Because a pure gospel is worth preserving; and is not only worth preserving, but is logically (and logic will always work itself ultimately out into history) the only saving gospel. Those who overlay the gospel with man-made additions, no less than those who subtract from it God-given elements, are not preaching "the gospel" in another form, but are offering a different kind of gospel, which is essentially no gospel at all.

- B.B. Warfield, "The Dogmatic Spirit"

Impertinent, But Beneficial

... so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (1 Cor 2:5).

Clear-cut definition of terms in religious matters, is by many persons regarded as an impious proceeding. May it not discourage contribution to mission boards? May it not hinder the progress of consolidation, and produce a poor showing in columns of Church statistics? But with such persons we cannot possibly bring ourselves to agree. Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.

- J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism.

Thoroughgoing conviction is only trivial, and the clever wisdom of men is only attractive, if you live on a flowery bed of ease. For the rest of us who are daily squeezed by external crisis, personal tragedy, and inner failure, only the firmest, most controversy-worthy beliefs will suffice.

The Meaning of Sola Scriptura

Study to shew thyself laudable unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, dividing the word of truth justly (2 Tim 2:15, Tyndale).

Most of us are content to get the "gist" of it. William Tyndale was not. In an all-consuming drive for Biblical fidelity, this oft-overlooked Reformer gave his very life to deliver the glorious Gospel of Christ to the English people through the words of Scripture itself.

In 1526 in Worms, Germany, the city which had been home to Luther's famous stand nearly a decade earlier, William Tyndale printed his translation of the Greek New Testament into English. The first time this had ever been done in the history of the English-speaking peoples. Without modern lexical aids or centuries of precedent to rely upon, Tyndale so diligently rendered the Word of God into the English tongue that his translation formed the basis of all the English Bibles that would follow. In fact, his renderings still dominate our modern English versions today.

Yet, perhaps even more significant and instructive for us, was Tyndale's absolute commitment to preserve and to give the meaning of Scripture accurately, regardless of how violently it contrasted with the prevailing assumptions of his day. This is the meaning of Sola Scriptura.

Tyndale's bold faithfulness is probably most observable in his accurate, and non-Catholic, translation of presbuteros, ekklesia, metanoeo, and agape. These important Greek words had been chained to presupposed Roman Catholic theology for centuries, being understood as "priest," "church," "do penance," and "charity," respectively. Tyndale's conscience, however, was captive to another authority.

With the disregard of a revolutionary and the faithfulness of a workman, Tyndale accurately translated presbuteros as "elder" (it literally means "old man") and ekklesia as "congregation" (it literally means "assembly" or "gathering"). And, in so doing, Tyndale unleashed the New Testament doctrine that all are one in Christ and that there is no spiritual hierarchy of pope, bishop, and priest in Christ's Church. Metanoeo means "repent" and agape means "love," which is exactly how Tyndale translated these terms and ended their supposed support of the Roman Catholic sacramental system.

David Daniell, whose thorough biography of Tyndale is well worth your time, captures the gravity of Tyndale's insubordinate, and devastatingly accurate, translation:

So Tyndale translated the Greek New Testament word ekklesia as 'congregation'... To the English bishops, the heresy was twofold: the implied equality and the pernicious word "congregation" instead of "church'. The bishops saw that this idea, which they took as basically Lutheran rather than scriptural, could make the whole Church structure fall apart. That indeed, is what it did, and quickly (122).

He [Tyndale] cannot possibly have been unaware that those words in particular undercut the entire sacramental structure of the thousand-year Church throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. It was the Greek New Testament that was doing the undercutting (149).

Brave fidelity to the Word of God, and hard work in it, blew away centuries of superstition and carried the Gospel of salvation to untold numbers of souls. Far more than a philosophical discussion of epistemology, this is the meaning of Sola Scriptura.