A People for His Name

Is This a Valid Assessment of Fundamentalism?

July 30, 2015

On a Facebook thread, a friend of mine posted in June the following assessment of fundamentalism:

Music is a clear instance where fundamentalism teaches a Manichean (an ancient heresy) view of the world by dividing everything into good or evil – good styles vs. bad styles, worldly music vs. Godly music. Augustine and other orthodox Christians rightly saw this as a faulty cosmology. It calls evil what God has created and declared as intrinsically good.

If you believe, as this friend does, that fundamentalists who reject certain musical styles are “Manichaen” heretics and hold “a faulty cosmology,” please show us “heretics” point-by-point from the Bible alone how we are calling “evil what God has created and declared as intrinsically good.” Where and how exactly does the Bible itself teach that God created all musical styles and declared them as intrinsically good?

In CCM, Theology

25 Parallels between Genesis 1-4 and Revelation 19-22

July 26, 2015

This morning, I finished teaching an 8-week Sunday school series, Beginnings at the End: Creation, Fall, and Redemption in the Book of Revelation. The series featured a thorough comparative analysis of Genesis 1-4 with the book of Revelation.

In the final lesson this morning, I presented to my class that there are at least 25 clear parallels between Genesis 1-4 and Revelation 19-22 that show how important and fit it is to study these passages comparatively. By carefully studying the following references concerning the stated subjects, you will be able to see just how closely these two passages correspond to each other!

creation	Gen. 1-2	Rev. 21:1, 2, 5, 10
night	Gen. 1:5, 14, 16	Rev. 21:25; 22:5
sea	Gen. 1:10	Rev. 21:1
sun and moon	Gen. 1:14-18	Rev. 21:23; 22:5
humans ruling for God	Gen. 1:26, 28	Rev. 20:4, 6
blessed	Gen. 1:22, 28; 2:3	Rev. 19:9; 20:6; 22:7
humans with direct fellowship with God	Gen. 1-4	Rev. 21:3; 22:4
the tree of life	Gen. 2:9; 3:22-24	Rev. 22:2, 14
river/ (water of life)	Gen. 2:10-14	Rev. 21:6; 22:1-2; 17
gold	Gen. 2:12	Rev. 21:18, 21
human service for God	Gen. 2:15	Rev. 22:3
marriage	Gen. 2:18-25	Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2; 21:9-27; 22:17
demonic deception of human beings	Gen. 3:1-5; 13	Rev. 20:3, 8
the devil	Gen. 3:1-5; 15	Rev. 20:1-10
curse	Gen. 3:14, 17; 4:11	Rev. 22:3
death	Gen. 3:19; 4:8	Rev. 20:6, 14; 21:4
fallen human beings	Gen. 3-4	Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15
divine evaluation of human beings	Gen. 3:9-13; 4:4-7; 9-10	Rev. 20:11-15
divine punishment of sinful humans	Gen. 3:16-19; 3:22-24; 4:11-15	Rev. 19-22
divine provision of clothing for humans	Gen. 3:21	Rev. 19:8, 14
divine redemption of humans	Gen. 3:15, 21; 4:1, 4, 26	Rev. 19-22
vital role of righteous angels in ministering to humans	Gen. 3:24	Rev. 19:17-18; 20:1-3; 21:9-21; 22:6, 16
false worship	Gen. 4:3 cf. 4:5	Rev. 19:10, 20; 22:8-9
true worship	Gen. 4:4	Rev. 19:10; 22:9
a city	Gen. 4:17	Rev. 21:2; 22:19

In Sunday School, Theology

A Profound Truth about God as the Redeemer

July 20, 2015

The word redeemer occurs 19x in Scripture. Incredibly, the NT never calls God the Redeemer even once!

Of its 19 occurrences in the OT, 15 are in statements that explicitly speak of God as the Redeemer of national Israel: Psalm 78:35; Isaiah 41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5, 8; 59:20; 60:16; 63:16; Jeremiah 50:34. Furthermore, as the preceding listing shows, 13 of those 15 occurrences are in Isaiah 40-66.

What’s more, the glorious ending of the book of Isaiah has at least 13 other explicit statements about God’s redemption of national Israel: Isaiah 43:1, 3, 4; 44:22, 23; 48:20; 51:10, 11; 52:3, 8, 9; 62:12; 63:4. A careful examination of these 26 explicit references about redemption in Isaiah 40-66 (and many other passages in both Testaments, including Jeremiah 31:35-40; 33:14-26; Ezekiel 20, 36; Zechariah 14; and Romans 9-11) shows beyond any doubt that God is yet going to redeem national Israel for His own eternal glory!

As Christians, therefore, we need to understand that God as the Redeemer in Scripture preeminently concerns God’s future redemption of national Israel!

In Interpretation, Theology

On Fallen Angels as a Leading Source of Human Unbelief in Creation

July 16, 2015

God is the only One who has existed forever. When God, therefore, created the first angel(s), there were no other created beings in existence.

Because all angels are created beings, they must believe what God has told them about His having created them and that they have not always existed, as God has. Since no angels were around to witness God’s creating at least the first angel(s) who was/were created, righteous angels exercise faith in what God tells them about their origin.

It makes sense to think, however, that some or perhaps all fallen angels reject what God has told them about their origin. Given this demonic rejection of the truth of their being created beings, it would naturally follow that some or all demons have played a leading role in influencing humans around the world to reject the biblical doctrine of creation.

I think that we would do well to present this biblical line of reasoning to those who reject the biblical doctrine of creation and challenge them that their rejection puts them in line with evil supernatural beings. What do you think?

In Evangelism, Theology

Twelve Times through the Book of Revelation This Year!

July 10, 2015

Today, I read through the book of Revelation again, which makes twelve times that I have read the book since mid-April. I can testify to how greatly God has blessed me through my reading this book over and over again, just as He has promised to do for anyone who will read, hear, and do what is written in this phenomenal book!

In Bible reading, Testimony

A Key, Overlooked Passage concerning Biblical Marriage

July 9, 2015

None of the many articles that I have read recently concerning biblical marriage has mentioned Genesis 6-9 as a relevant or important passage about the subject. An examination of several facets of the passage shows that Genesis 6-9 is a key passage that provides decisive information that corroborates what Genesis 1-2 teaches about biblical marriage.

A Profound Emphasis on Male and Female in Genesis 1-5 and 6-9

Genesis 1:27 reveals that God created man as male and female and blessed them and instructed them to be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 2:18-25 corroborates that passage and states that God brought Adam and Eve together as the first humans and united them to be husband and wife. Their union was blessed of God, and there was no shame involved in their being united as one flesh.

Genesis 5:2 reiterates that God made man male and female and blessed them. This key statement shows that Genesis 1-2 records factual history concerning biblical marriage.

In Genesis 6, we learn that mankind had so completely corrupted itself that God decreed that He would annihilate all people and animals from the earth (Gen. 6:5-17). By the favor of God (cf. Gen. 6:8), only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives would be spared from that worldwide destruction (Gen. 6:13, 18). God thus spared mankind only as pairs consisting of a male and a female who were married to each other.

In addition, God would spare certain numbers of animals from that destruction. God profoundly emphasized that he would spare these animals only as pairs that were specified to be male and female (Gen. 6:19; 7:3, 9, 16).¹

He even speaks of these pairs of animals as being “a male and his female” (Gen. 7:2 [2x]; emphasis added). After the Flood, God instructed Noah to bring out all the animals “that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth” (Gen. 8:17), making clear that the animals that were spared were male and female animals that were spared as pairs.

Following the Flood, the whole earth was “overspread” by the children (and further descendants) who were born as the fruit of the marriages of each of Noah’s three sons with his own wife (Gen. 9:19). Although not directly stated, the same was the case with all the earth being filled with animals through the unions of each male animal and his female.

Based on all these statements in Genesis 6-9, we learn that God has profoundly emphasized that He had ordained for humans that their marriages were to be between a man and his wife because He only spared four pairs of humans, all of whom were married according to the pattern that He had established at Creation (Gen. 1-2). Furthermore, the profound emphasis in this passage on even the animals being pairs consisting of a male and his female shows that God’s pattern for all these living beings that He created, both humans and animals, was from the beginning to be the uniting of males and females into pairs that were comprised only of humans with humans and animals with animals respectively that were of opposite gender.

Conclusion

For Christians who believe fully that the entire Bible is the perfect Word of God, Genesis 1-2 is not the only key early passage that reveals to them what biblical marriage is. As discussed above, Genesis 6-9 profoundly confirms what Genesis 1-2 teaches such believers about biblical marriage.

¹ Of the clean animals and birds, God instructed Noah to bring in a seventh animal, which was later offered in sacrifice to God (Gen. 7:2; 8:20).

In Discipleship, Exposition, Interpretation, Theology

A Striking Observation about the Book of Revelation

July 3, 2015

Not a few believers today probably regard the book of Revelation as largely an obscure prophetic book filled with apocalyptic symbolism and a book that is not really of much contemporary importance for how we are to live our lives. A striking observation about the book shows that its relevance for our lives could hardly be overstated.

Number of Occurrences of Forms of the Word “Worship”

Through reading through the book of Revelation 11 times in the past four months, I have discovered many truths about the book that I had not seen before. Today, after reading through the book this morning, I examined how many times the word “worship” occurs in its various forms in the book compared to other books of the Bible.

In the OT, the seven books with the most occurrences of forms of the word “worship” are the following: Exodus – 7; Deuteronomy – 7; 2 Kings – 12; Psalms – 16; Isaiah – 10; Jeremiah – 9; and Daniel – 12. In the NT, 23 books have fewer than five occurrences of the forms; four books have 13 or more occurrences: Matthew – 14; John 13; Acts – 13; and Revelation – 24.

These figures show that the book of Revelation has far more occurrences of forms of the word “worship” in it than any other book of the Bible does! Based on this data, we learn that this book stresses the importance of worship in a profound way that is probably little appreciated by many believers today.

Conclusion

The book of Revelation is far more than just an obscure prophetic book filled with apocalyptic symbolism that has little relevance for how we live our lives. At least through its surpassing use of forms of the word “worship,” the book of Revelation challenges us more than any other book of the Bible does that we must worship God aright for who He is and what He has done and will yet do.

In Discipleship, Theology

Learn Guitar for Ministry: Six-Week Beginner’s Class!

June 27, 2015

If you live in the Greenville, SC, area and are interested in learning to play the guitar for use in Christian ministry, I am offering beginning on July 20 two sections of a six-week beginner’s class at a phenomenal price! Each class lasts for 45-minutes and includes thorough instruction in my original method that will help you get off to a great start!

Space in both classes is limited, so please take the class only if you are serious about using the guitar for ministry. Completing this class is required in order to take the intermediate and advanced classes that I plan to offer later this year.

See how much you can learn in just six weeks! For more information, please contact me personally or by sending an e-mail to me at [email protected].

You can learn more about my guitar playing by watching this guitar-cello video.

In Guitar Music, Ministry

Nine Times Through Revelation This Year

June 23, 2015

Because I am teaching an 8-week Sunday school series from the book of Revelation this June and July, I have been repeatedly reading through the book. Since April 16, I have read the book through nine times!

So far, I have made it through the whole book in one day three times (4/16, 4/20, 6/6), including reading the whole book in one sitting on June 6. My goal is to keep reading the book through once a week throughout June and July.

Praise God for giving us this incomparable book!

In Bible reading

Six Truths That the Book of Revelation Teaches Us about Creation

June 17, 2015

1. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God—He is the “first cause” (Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament) of all that God has created; as the agent of God the Father, Jesus created all things.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

2. God must be worshiped because He is the Creator.

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

3. True belief in God as Creator is displayed by worship that glorifies Him as the Creator.

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

4. Every created being will one day honor God and the Lamb.

Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

5. An angel will one day swear a key truth by the eternal Creator.

Rev 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.

6. Worshiping God as the Creator is an essential dimension of the everlasting gospel.

Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

⁷ Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

In Theology

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

A Profound Emphasis on Male and Female in Genesis 1-5 and 6-9

Conclusion

Share this:

Number of Occurrences of Forms of the Word “Worship”

Conclusion

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: