Historical, Doctrinal, Supernatural...The Gospel as truth for all

Conversion & Effectual Calling

My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be aright, which is it, and how shall I know it?

11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the aEpistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack bwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

12 Never did any passage of ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects cunderstood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in adarkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to cpray dvocally.I

24 However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a avision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was bmad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the cpersecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.

25 So it was with me.

We can not base our belief around an experience because it cannot be refuted. The account I just read is actually from the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith.

Even when we see examples of incredible experiences in the Bible like Paul’s. His experience of seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus is unique. But even then God uses Ananias to assist Paul in recovering his sight and to commission him for his unique assignment as an apostle to the gentiles. Importantly, Paul’s message is in congruence with the Gospel message as set forth by Christ himself and embraced by the other apostles. Paul is not preaching something different. In essence it is the same. Paul is preaching a fulfillment of the Law in Christ, but this is something that Jesus himself attests to Matthew 5:17 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Furthermore, we know that God used a vision to correct Peter’s inclination that salvation is a result of Law and Faith. We know too, that God used the Gentile, Corenlius in this process.

Let’s look at two instances of conversion through which God used unusual circumstances to capture the attention of two men who went on to become great theologians. Notice that the extradordinary event was used to draw each man to the Word of God and a proper historical, theological, and doctrinal interpretation.

First, let’s look at Augustine.

Augustine, while living a life of unbridled licentiousness, heard children playing a game in the garden with the refrain, “Tolle lege, tolle lege,” or “Pick up and read.” He looked up and saw a manuscript of the text of Romans. When he opened it, his eyes fell on the text of Romans 13:13–14: “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” The Word of God suddenly penetrated his heart, and he responded to the gospel.

In RC Sproul’s conversion, a young man quoted him a verse from the book of Ecclesiastes: “If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie” (11:3). Sproul said, “ I’m probably the only person in history who has been converted through that particular verse, but that image of a tree lying dead on the floor of the forest—inert, rotting, no longer producing fruit, worthless—gave me a picture of my life. I saw myself as a rotten tree, and God used that verse to quicken me to saving faith.”

All of these conversion experiences, as different as they are, have one thing in common—the role of the Word of God. And the calling of each man to salvation by faith in Christ in accordance and submission to the Word of God.

God calls us to salvation in accordance and submission to His Word.

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Ephesians 1:11-13 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”

Narcissistic Hermeneutic

I can’t help but to think of how many times, I’ve flippantly heard the phrase, “God told me...” or “God called me to...” . I want to caution against reducing God to something you use to affirm your desires, never completely altruistic, but maybe sometimes in line with the Gospel and Christian wisdom and other times in utter opposition to them. God has spoken audibly to various patriarchs of the faith, prophets, Mary & Joseph, as well as , to the apostles, and in other instances to confirm something or use someone in explaining a vision to an apostle (think Corenlius and Ananias). Let’s be less flippant about this kind of justification for our actions that’s devoid of a basis that goes beyond our own personal experience. Something that’s not confirmed in God’s word. Let’s also refrain from using God as a superstisious confirmation of our inner desires. For instance, in Albania, old ladies read the grounds left on the coffee cup from their Turkish coffee to tell them their future. Similarly, within evangelicalism we’ve begun to use signs as a way to confirm our inner desires and to act upon them in a way that disguises our desires as God’s will or causes others to not question our decision or motivation behind our decision.

I’m not saying to not be led by the Holy Spirit, but I am saying there are parameters that God gives us in his Word. Actually, I’m saying we ought to be led by the Holy Spirit, and I’m saying we will find absolute perfect coherence between how the Holy Spirit leads us and what we read in the Bible. We don’t treat the Bible like a magic 8 ball. We don’t ask a question like “what is my calling” or who should I marry…should I make a move…what should I study in school..and then open the Bible to a page, read the words, and use it to confirm are biases. This is strange and superstitious. We must read the Bible with a proper hermeneutic, or interpretation. This means we ready the Bible within it’s proper historical context and uncover the meaning to its original audience and then how we ought to best apply the text in light of history, doctrine, and theology. We should refuse to read ourselves into the Bible. We are not a David and God is not strengthening us so we can slay our giants. David is a prototype of Christ. We are not Paul. We are not apostles. We are to be sanctified and become Christ-like, but we will never become Christ. We are only sanctified through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are only saved through His drawing us. We are not the main character in the Bible. Jesus is. Let’s not miss that, because if we do; it has enormous implications. In fact, what many have created is not Christianity at all. They have exalted themselves as the main object of their affections. As Paul states in Romans 1:21-22 “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. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,”

Reading the Bible this way isn’t taught in this church and is not historically accepted as orthodox within Christianity, in fact, it’s been regarded as heresy. But these ideas are pervasive in our culture. And furthermore, they are at the root of a sinful nature that appeals to our exaltation of ourselves over and above all things.

Supernatural Context

In my time of study the Lord has been impressing something upon me. This is a subject that lies at the core of what believe. What it means to claim to be a Christian. This is an understanding of the Gospel that acknowledges the historical, doctrinal, and supernatural truths within it. Not an understanding of the Gospel that reduces Christianity to a feeling or an experience. Sometimes, and especially, within an American “Bible-belt” churched culture we have become complacent with the Gospel. And in our postmodern American culture we have begun to place undue emphasis upon a spiritual experience that on the very object of our faith. We may be tempted to recoil against the exclusivity of the Gospel in the midst of diverse and globalized world. I believe we have begun to take for granted the historical event of the resurrection, which gives power to the Gospel. We take for granted the doctrinal implications of the resurrection. We take for granted that Christ died for our sins. And we take for granted the supernatural nature of the Gospel in a world wrestling with contradicting impulses towards relativism on one side and scientism on the other. But make no mistake, What we believe is supernatural in nature. we are talking about the resurrection of a 30 some year old Jewish man, miraculously conceived and born of a virgin, who performed miracles, made claims to be God, was executed by crucifixion at the hands of the Roman government and to the chagrin of Jewish religious leaders. And demonstrating his power over death and over sin. The tomb that they placed his body in could not contain him and thus three days later he was resurrected. He ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father and serves as our judge and intercessor. This is historically true, doctrinally rich, and supernaturally awesome.

We must not take this for granted. We must not take for granted those saints who have gone before us…attesting to and proclaiming this same message. Rooted in history…with implications for all people…and taking place through supernatural means, not easily explained away.

Let’s look in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 (ESV)

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

So, here we have a statement of truth made by Paul.

We see that Paul was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”—that is history. “He loved me and gave Himself for me”—that is doctrine.

. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity.” J Gresham Machem

Let’s look at them text together.

Paul offers a gentle rebuke to the Corinthian church. He tells them that he is making known to them the Gospel. Although, they have heard it and perhaps given verbal assent to what it says he is reminding them of it’s contents and of it’s power.

Let’s look now to verse 3. Paul says, “that he has passed on what he has received.” Thus, Paul is cementing his claim not only in the authority of his apostleship, which he does in many of his writings and especially his letters to the Corinthian church, but also, he is cementing his claims in a tradition passed down. He is stating the Gospel is bigger than Himself. Perhaps, he is even making reference that the Gospel was passed down to him by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. Regardless, he is referencing the historical claim he is making. He understands that Christianity hinges upon the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without this historical event, the Gospel would be untrue. Without it, Jesus Christ is simply a man and can be reduced to the status that many often attempt to reduce him to. He is a prophet…or a moral teacher…or a philosopher. But if he has conquered death. He must be regarded as God. The claims that he made throughout his life of being God are validated. Paul is saying don’t just take my word for it. There is a historical truth to the claim I am making. He is careful not to insult his audience.

Furthermore, Paul states that the claim he is making that “Christ died for our sins.” is in accordance with the scriptures. He is rooting his message in events that have taken place previously. He is pointing to prophecies like the one in Isaiah 53 which states, “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearer…”

He says Christ died, that he was buried, and raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture. Continuing, Paul states to whom Jesus appeared to. Paul is making appeal to the sources of his factual statement.

He makes note of those eyewitness testimonies to the resurrected Christ by appealing to the apostles. And furthermore, by making the statement that some of them are still alive and continue to attest to this historical fact. So Paul’s narration of facts is history.

Paul makes an intellectual claim. He doesn’t appeal to the Corinthians out of complete ignorance or blind faith. Paul doesn’t tell the Corinthians about his good health or newly acquired wealth. He doesn’t appeal to his testimony in a way that emphasizes his approaching Jesus or his initiating a relationship with Jesus. He doesn’t talk about Jesus casually or flippantly. He attests to who is. He attests to what He has done. And he attests to the implications of that.

Paul also makes doctrinal statements. Doctrinal statements take historical events and attribute to them meaning. The Word of God provides both the content and the norm for the teachings formulated from it. Doctrine is the link between the Bible and the preaching, teaching, worship, order, and service of the Christian community.

Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith Doctrine

Every aspect of the church’s life must be grounded in the Word of God: doctrine is the link between the Bible and the preaching, teaching, worship, order, and service of the Christian community

Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith Doctrine

Karth Barth, in opposition, held that the community of faith is created only by the Word given testimony in Scripture, and apart from the teachings of the Bible neither faith nor church can exist. Jürgen Moltmann’s emphasis on the doctrine of hope has resulted in a focus on sound practice (orthopraxis) alongside sound teaching (orthodoxy). Liberation, feminist, and minjung theologies claim that doctrine may be articulated only by persons who experience a certain kind of oppression.

So when Paul states that Christ died for our sins. This is doctrinal. The elements of history and doctrine are the very foundations of Christianity. Doctrine is rooted in history.

Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith (Doctrine)

doctrine in the Reformed tradition was articulated through confessions

Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith (Doctrine)

Confessions are not intended to be innovations but faithful expositions of biblical and apostolic faith, consequently most Reformed churches are also creedal, subscribing to the Apostles creed and the Nicene Creed

Let’s now look to one of the earliest creeds of Christianity, which is the Apostle’s Creed. It was a revision of the Old Roman Creed which was developed as early as the 2nd Century. So, this creed put together in the apostolic age as a summary of Christian belief has stood the test of time because of the historical tenants that it affirms and furthermore, the very basic doctrinal statements that arise out of these historical events.

Let’s recite it together. And as we recite, pay close attention to both historical foundation and doctrinal implications.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (The Later Creed)

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth;And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born from the Virgin Mary,suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into hell,on the third day rose again from the dead,ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty,thence He will come to judge the living and the dead;I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy Catholic Church,the communion of saints,the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and eternal life.Amen.

The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life are possible because of the preceding statements.

So, as Hebrews 10:23 states “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

He is faithful, and we attest to his faithfulness through his creation; through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; through the in working of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of scripture, through the teachings of the Apostles, and through the witness of a universal church, which is expressed in individual covenantal communities.

We shouldn’t bristle against tradition. We should fight the insanity that is pervasive around us and has infiltrated the church. There are standards…There is truth…and it can be known. We ought to rest in the reality that God is drawing people unto Himself from every tongue, tribe, and nation. We ought to pray and plead for the salvation of those who don’t Him. We ought to go to the outermost reaches of the Earth to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to all people regardless of their ethnicity, geographic location on planet earth, or the language they speak. In the midst of relativism, God is screaming out for the universality of the Gospel. And I think we understand this. Maybe we aren’t prone to be like the Judaizers that would have preferred that people uphold the Law and accept the grace offered to us through faith in Christ alone. However, I think our culture and perhaps our protestant tradition have conditioned us to have a disdain for history…or at least a suspicion of it. In that we rightfully believe the truths of the Bible but we have abandoned the teachings of the church fathers and the continuity of the faith that has existed since the Christ’s resurrection. The communion of saints that we enjoy with believers across two millennia. And thus, we have started to embrace an anti-establishmentarian , anti-institutional attitude. We have thrown out the baby with the bath water. We have begun to celebrate a “me and Jesus” type attitude. We testify to what Jesus has done for us. There is a growing indifference as to the fellowship of the body and to its covenantal nature. And a disregard for doctrine or theology or proper understanding of what the Bible says. Instead, we get in Bible studies and proclaim how the text spoke to us and listen to 5 interpretations of a text but one with only one proper meaning or some cases with 2-3 disputed meanings. We claim that God spoke to us…but He did so absent from His word. And we have begun to ignore a powerful apologetic for Christianity and that is…that it’s true. It’s not true for me. Our sales pitch isn’t, it worked for me and you should try it. It’s that it is simply true. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ has radically changed the world.

If we believe this. It will have implications for how we live our life. I don’t want to reduce the Christian life to an intellectual exercise, but it is both an intellectual and spiritual exercise. We can’t divorce one from the other. And furthermore, we can’t divorce God’s role in our coming to intellectual assent and spiritual desperation. It is He who opens our eyes. It is God who draws us to Himself. The God we serve is not an equal…we don’t fashion Him into the God we’d like Him to be. He is… and we should discover who He is through His Word. We should delight in knowing Him. We should enjoy Him for who He is.

Christianity and Liberalism Chapter II: Doctrine

The character of Christianity as founded upon a message is summed up in the words of the eighth verse of the first chapter of Acts—“Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Christianity and Liberalism Chapter II: Doctrine

From the beginning Christianity was a campaign of witnessing. And the witnessing did not concern merely what Jesus was doing within the recesses of the individual life. To take the words of Acts in that way is to do violence to the context and to all the evidence. On the contrary, the Epistles of Paul and all the sources make it abundantly plain that the testimony was primarily not to inner spiritual facts but to what Jesus had done once for all in His death and resurrection.

Christianity is based, then, upon an account of something that happened, and the Christian worker is primarily a witness. But if so, it is rather important that the Christian worker should tell the truth. When a man takes his seat upon the witness stand, it makes little difference what the cut of his coat is, or whether his sentences are nicely turned. The important thing is that he tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If