The following is reprinted from the "ShareTheWord" e-newsletter published by Elder Bobby Willis.
Gospel Gleanings:
By Eld. Joe Holder ... 4-14-15
Whenever the King James Bible uses “Predestinate” in any of its forms, it always refers to an action of God, a specific action that the passage associates with people by the inclusion of such personal words as “whom” or “us.” It never refers to the actions of men, especially to the sinful acts of men. When someone states his belief, “God predestinated all things that occur, but He didn’t predestinate sin,” he is guilty of stating a contradiction. Are human actions ever—or always—a thing that occurs? Either these folks believe that God’s predestination is not at all causative, itself a glaring contradiction of Scripture, or they contradict themselves in their statement. When you observe the fatalist long enough, you will begin to see a pattern of such contradictions, as with the example that I use in this week’s Gleanings. A man says that God doesn’t cause sin, but He “Purposes” every act of adultery that occurs. I have been close enough to this sin to observe the abysmal pain and ungodly destruction of families to reject this idea as originating in God’s “Purpose.” In Scripture, God categorically states that He hates adultery (Malachi 2:16). I have never found the first verse anywhere in the Bible that states or so much as implies that God ever “Purposed” the sin of adultery, or any other sin for that matter. A fatalistic belief demands its adherents to embrace one logical fallacy after another.
In our study passage for this week (Ephesians 1:3-6), Paul states the glorious truth of Biblical predestination. In love, and indeed with purpose and with causative certainty, God predestinated “us,” a specific people, “…unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.” God’s true, righteous, and Biblical purpose shall not be complete until He raises our bodies without sin or any sinful desires, a work that Scripture affirms shall occur “…by Jesus Christ” and “…according to the good pleasure of his will.” Then and only then shall we praise His glorious grace that wholly transformed us, body, soul, and spirit, “…accepted in the beloved,” in our Lord Jesus Christ.
“And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me” (Hebrews 2:13).
When He raises our bodies out of death at the Second Coming wholly without sin and wholly prepared to praise Him and His loving grace for eternity, only then shall God’s true—and Biblical—predestination be fulfilled. Thus, true Biblical predestination has nothing to do with the diabolical and wicked acts of men, any men, or with any kind of diabolical “Secret will” of God that consistently contradicts His one revealed will, a will that Paul in Hebrews, chapters 7-9, culminating in Chapter 9. God’s one righteous will became an active, and legal (God’s legality, not man’s) at Jesus’ resurrection.
Friends, flush from your minds the toxic errors that cause you to think of God’s predestination as something to be despised or to confuse your mind by implying that God is causative, both in sin and righteousness. Bathe your heart and mind with the Biblical truth of this doctrine in its focused Biblical clarity. When He sounds the trumpet that announces His return simultaneously throughout the universe, you shall arise in His image, without sin, and joyfully ready to praise Him for your redemption for all eternity. That, my friend, is Biblical predestination!
God bless,
Elder Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
Gospel Gleanings
by Eld. Joe Holder ... 4-21-15
Predestination Represents God’s Will, Not Ours
Introduction: Part 1 of 3
The only way to arrive at Scripture’s correct interpretation is to respect and follow, not try to wrest Scriptural terms away from their Biblical context and into our private interpretation. No intelligent literary work ignores contextual meaning and term use. If an author uses a term or word with a specific meaning that is obvious by the way he uses it, you expect the same meaning when he uses the term again in that same context. One of the greatest errors in Biblical interpretation is the error of ignoring context. Error always results from this myopic view of Scripture in which you look at one verse and interpret it according to your preconceived ideas, while wholly ignoring its Biblical context. In his commentary on Romans 8:29, Robert Gundry makes two rich points that simultaneously refute many of the errors that people try to impose onto this context while affirming the truth of the passage, contextually interpreted.
“…being conformed to the image of His Son looks forward to coglorification with Him through a resurrection like His.”
“firstborn;…Jesus was the first to be resurrected to a life which neither sin, nor its consequence, death, would play any further part.”
I add one point to Gundry’s. Paul specifically stated the outcome of God’s predestination. Not only will Jesus be the “firstborn,” but He will be the “…firstborn among many brethren.” “many” does not include all, and it does not indicate only a few. The word quite clearly makes a point. When dealing with the number of those who are faithful to God in their personal life, Scripture always refers to the number as small, as a few. However, in this passage, Paul makes the point of contrast; the final outcome of God’s predestination shall make Jesus the firstborn over “many,” not over a few. The only way to restrict this word or the many other passages that make the same point is by one or another form of shameless sophistry. Contemporary Christianity has done itself a grievous wound by either outright or by implication teaching that only people like us, and only a few of them, shall make it to heaven in the end. Folks, make no mistake. God’s election embraces far more than western European, white, middle class openly professing Christians.
A vigorous refutation of all the various ideas that twist Biblical predestination to in some way, directly or indirectly, make God the originator or cause of sin, Paul categorically states in both contexts, Romans 8 and Ephesians 1, that the final outcome of God’s election has to do with the resurrection of God’s elect and not with the presence of sin in the world. If Paul had intended to teach that predestination involved God causing sin, he should have written that God’s predestination aimed at causing those so predestinated to be conformed to the image of Adam, not to the image of His Son. Further, in both contexts, the focus of election deals with people, clearly indicated by the personal pronoun “whom” in Romans 8:29 and “us” in Ephesians 1:5.
God’s grand design and purpose in His true predestination, as set forth in Scripture, takes us to the Second Coming and to the resurrection of all His beloved elect in the image of His Son, no longer in the broken, sinful, marred image of Adam. Therefore, this doctrine gives us the most powerful hope available when we encounter the trials and disappointments of life in this sin-cursed world. Thanks to God and to His loving and righteous purpose, His eternal purpose in predestination, all whom He loved and chose in His Son shall be raised in the moral and spiritual image of His righteous and beloved Son, Jesus thereby becoming the “…firstborn among many brethren.” Hallelujah! What a Savior!
God bless,
Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
*******
Gospel Gleanings
by Eld. Joe Holder ... 4-22-15
Predestination Represents God’s Will, Not Ours
Part 2 of 3
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” (Ephesians 1:9–11, KJV 1900)
Over the years I have often referred to the error of a few who isolate Romans 8:28 from its context, making "all things" work for their personal good. In this view, they ignore Paul's clear definition of "all things" in Romans 8:32 as referring to what God gives us through His not spared Son. As I ponder the passage before us, it occurs to me that this errant view represents the epitome of selfishness, subjecting even God to the person who holds the view. "God is working for my good, so whatever I do, I can rest assured that He has 'permitted' it and intends to use if for His glory." With this belief, a man can--and many advocates of the idea in fact do--rationalize any and every sin he chooses to commit. In both the Romans 8 and the Ephesians 1 context, the emphasis resides in God's glory and purpose, not our personal benefit or gain. In neither context do we find any implication that God either directly or indirectly causes sin or that He “Orchestrates” or manipulates sin so that the sin produces a supposed “Greater good.” When God warned Adam of the consequences of violating that simple law, He did not in any way imply to Adam that Adam’s violation would actually result in a greater good for humanity. He warned Adam of one consequence of his violation; he would die.
Occasionally advocates of fatalistic determinism will cite our present study passage and emphasize their belief that God "...worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." From this point, they catapult their belief into the amoral idea that God in some way orchestrates or manipulates every event that occurs for good, in the end, "For my good." Just as they obviously ignore Romans 8:32, in this context, they ignore Ephesians 1:10. For a brief moment, ponder the wicked actions of wicked men whose sinful infamy is recorded in history. Also ponder the wicked acts of people whom you have known. Consider the man or woman who ignores the vow of faithfulness made to God in marriage and who cruelly and habitually abandons that vow, all the while claiming that he/she did nothing wrong. When a person so sins, Scripture never allows the sinner to pass the buck and blame God for the sin. And Scripture emphatically does not ever indicate that God either directly or indirectly caused the event because He intends to in some way orchestrate or use it for His glory or, far more fancifully, use it for good to the sinner who chose to consciously ignore God's moral Law and indulge his/her sinful appetite as their ultimate personal "Good." Paul refers to such a mindset with intense rejection, "...whose god is their belly." (Philippians 3:19)
Within any specific context that we study, the integrity of Scripture requires that we apply a consistent meaning to words and terms, not change their meaning as we wish. In our present context, Paul states that God works all things "...after the counsel of his own will." In the Ephesians 1:10, immediately prior to this verse, Paul also used the same term. In that verse quoted below, what is the meaning that Paul applies to "all things"?
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
Whatever Paul may intend by his use of "all things" in Ephesians 1:11 must agree with his use of the same term in Ephesians 1:10. Does God intend to gather together all of your and my sins into one in Jesus at the Second Coming? Preposterous! Those "things" that God presently works according to the counsel of His own will are the same "all things" that He shall gather together in one in Christ Jesus at the Second Coming.
Think of Paul's reference to our gathering together in one in Christ. At the Second Coming, our bodies shall be somewhere in this world. Our soul and spirit shall be in glory with the Lord. Neither our body without the soul and spirit, nor our soul and spirit without our body constitute "Us" as a whole person. Less that the personal "me," a dead body or a bodiless soul and spirit are incomplete "things." However, Paul comforts us with the glorious truth of the Second Coming when the Lord shall "...gather together in one..." those "things" back to the complete persons whom He redeemed by His unspared Son. Thus, Paul's point is not that God manipulates every sin that occurs according to some hypothetical "Secret will" by which He supposedly contradicts every moral law He ever gave to man, but that God has purposed and shall complete His purpose for everything necessary to wholly redeem every one of His beloved children at the Second Coming.
God bless,
Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
*******
Gospel Gleanings
by Eld. Joe Holder ... 4-23-15
Predestination Represents God’s Will, Not Ours
Part 3 of 3
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” (Ephesians 1:9–11, KJV 1900)
In our study passage, Paul refers to what God has in store for His children as an "inheritance." Our being in heaven finally, body, soul, and spirit, is not a reward or a partially earned bounty. It is an inheritance. That means we shall be there because of a family relationship and because God included us in His will, not because of our will. Think about the logic of an inheritance. If people may will themselves into an inheritance, why don't you will yourself into the inheritance of Bill Gates? Bill Gates determines who is included in his will, not you or I, and not our will. Likewise, God chose the people whom He would include in His will, and that choice was based on His merciful grace, not on your or my will or good works.
...not of works, but of him that calleth. (Romans 9:11b)
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. (Romans 9:16)
A common idea of our day holds that God looked into the future, knew who would believe, who would be "willing" to Him and to His will, and who would obey Him; supposedly, based on this foreseen good in them, God chose them. Paul's points in these verses refutes this idea. Past or future, God's election is not based on our works but on God who calls His own to Himself. Our election, and thus our eternal salvation, living for eternity with God in His glory, is not of those who will, nor of those who "run" the Christian race the best. It is all of God who shows mercy to save anyone at all. God chose the specific people whom He would save, and He chose not to save them based on their will, or willingness or their works and running the Christian race. He chose all whom He did choose based on His mercy and His will.
One of Scripture’s most powerful lessons on God’s election builds on the life of two Old Testament men, twin brothers, Jacob and Esau. No better example could exist. Both men were born into the same family at the same time. And, to be candid and faithful to the historical lesson in Genesis, both men demonstrate sinful traits that leave them equally undeserving. Do not search Jacob’s life for deserving righteousness. You won’t find it. After using Jacob and Esau as an example of election and of non-election in Romans 9, Paul leads us to the one logical conclusion that Scripture consistently affirms. God’s election of anyone is not based on anything good that that person supposedly did, but on His own loving mercy.
A second point requires our emphasis. God’s election, as described in Scripture, is not limited to a handful of people out of the mass of humanity who happen to look like you, agree with you, or whose personality is compatible with yours. God’s election as set forth in Scripture is broadly inclusive, not pathetically exclusive. (Revelation 5:9; 7:9. Notice in Revelation 7:9 that the number of redeemed, “…a great multitude, which no man could number…” is directly contrasted with the finite number, 144,000, whom John identified as the “…sealed servants” of God. (Revelation 7:3) I rejoice that Scripture’s promise of the inclusiveness of God’s election might surprise a number of folks who view election as exclusive, but always including them and their favorites.
Even the passages that affirm a large number as being included in God’s election categorically reject the notion of universal salvation of all humans. “…out of” leaves no doubt; God didn’t elect all of humanity to eternal salvation.
In Scripture "predestinate" has to do with the final outcome of God's choice of those whom He in mercy loved and chose to save from their sins. The Greek word translated "predestinate" in the King James Bible defines the setting of limits in advance, not the unbridling of any limits, or especially the devious idea that God causes sin, either directly or indirectly. "Pro" defines something done in advance. "Horidzo" defines the "Horizon," the point at which the landscape ends and the sky begins. Even the two passages where the King James translators translated this word by a different English word have to do with Jesus' sufferings for our sins and not with every event in human history. And in those two passages, the idea of limitation prevails. Wicked men would gladly have done far more to Jesus than they did, but God limited what they did; He didn't cause them to do what they did. Jesus' words, "I have power..." takes the whole issue of His sufferings and death away from Pilate, the Sanhedrin, and the Roman soldiers.
The next time someone tells you that he/she objects to the idea of predestination ask the question. “Do you object to being raised from the dead at the Second Coming without your sins and glorified so that you can wholly praise God for eternity?” That, my friends is the grand and final outcome of God’s election. The two contexts where the King James translators used this word harmonize in naming the final outcome of God’s election and predestination. First, all whom He knew, loved, in advance shall be finally and without a single exception “…conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Second, he shall “…gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” Praise God for such loving mercy.
God bless,
Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
*******
Editor’s Note: This is the introduction of Elder Holder’s writing this week on “The Man of Sin at Work - and Defeated” from II Thessalonians 2:5-12. The body of the writing will be sent tomorrow. bw
Gospel Gleanings
by Elder Joe Holder ... 6-18-15
Dear Friends,
Scripture wisely reveals both God’s ultimate victory and Satan’s diabolical effort to defeat God and His work. As we read Scripture and learn its lessons, we witness the cosmic battle of the ages, but we read and witness it, knowing from Scripture the final outcome of the battle. God wins! In this week’s study, I have devoted space to one of Christianity’s most mindless and deceived departures from Biblical truth and from Scripture’s dominant affirmation of God’s wholly righteous character. While the idea that God is as fully the cause of sin as of righteousness is held by a relatively few people, its corrupting subtleties slip into the thinking of naïve believers far more often than one would think. It is important that we follow Scripture’s clear description of error and of error’s instigator. In Scripture, the key to God’s final and decisive victory appears in the “mystery of godliness.” (1 Timothy 3:16) The revelation of this mystery appears in the Incarnation, in God taking onto Himself the form of humanity in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our present study context references the mirror opposite to this mystery, the “mystery of iniquity.” As the mystery of godliness lies at the heart of God’s purpose to defeat and to destroy sin and its instigator in the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so the “mystery of iniquity” mentioned in our study passage lies at the heart of Satan’s diabolical and wicked design to defeat God and His purpose. While our study passage describes this evil mystery, it also leaves no question or doubt that God shall prevail.
The anti-God, anti-Biblical idea that God is as much the author and cause of the mystery of iniquity as He is the Author and Cause of the “Mystery of godliness” is wholly pagan in origin. It appears in the Koran and Islamic teaching, in ancient philosophies, and even in the eastern religions in the form of yin and yang. The idea behind all of these pagan ideas is that sin and righteousness are two necessary parts of reality, one as necessary and valuable as the other, and both concepts morally neutral. Example; in the eastern religions yin represents the feminine component and yang the masculine. There is nothing either moral or immoral about masculine and feminine; both are equally necessary ideas that work together in balance. Scripture in both Old and New Testaments directly confronts and rejects this idea. Sin is not in any way a part of God or of God’s causative work. As our present chapter clearly emphasizes, the mystery of iniquity grows out of Satan and his host in diametrical opposition against God. Over a hundred years ago when this error first attempted to enter the Baptist family, Elder Sylvester Hassell and others who opposed it occasionally noted its similarity to the fatalistic concepts of Islam. We would do well to take note of these wise men and their warnings against leaving Scripture and trying to blend Scripture with anti-Scriptural religions and teachings. From the beginning, God and His followers have pursued a different path from the endless pagan ideas that degrade both God and His creation.
The comforting message of Scripture, while never allowing us to forget or to ignore the reality of sin, is that God shall wholly and decisively destroy Satan and his opposition. The glorious message of Scripture is constant. “God wins!” And that, my friends, is also the good news message of the gospel that is grounded in Scripture. We live in a hostile world that daily reminds us of its hatred of our God and of His ways, but that world shall suffer complete and final defeat when the Lord commands the trumpet to blow and shouts His victory, returning to claim His redeemed children and take them to eternal glory with Him.
Even so, come Lord Jesus,
Elder Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
*******
Editor’s Note: Introduction was sent yesterday. The following is this weeks writing by Eld. Holder on "II Thessalonians 2:5-12).
Gospel Gleanings
by Elder Joe Holder ... 6-19-15
The Man of Sin at Work—and Defeated
“Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:5–12, KJV 1900)
I told you these things. Every worthwhile teacher knows the value, indeed the indispensable necessity of repetition. A Bible believer is inundated on every side with constant error. And that error is repeated like a mantra; as the evil one of whom Paul writes in our study passage adroitly uses repetition to mesmerize the unsuspecting and naïve. Sound Biblical teaching should be taught with the freshness of grace, but the message needs constant repetition to help us “…keep in memory” what Scripture teaches us. Paul didn’t teach one thing when he was present with the Thessalonians and another thing later when error surfaced. When their error appeared, he gently and clearly reminded them that his present rejection of their error was precisely the same truth that he taught when present with them. The Bible often compares sound gospel preaching to good food. Think about your diet over the last week or so. How many times did you repeat the same or similar food because you liked the taste and because it was healthy and nutritious? The analogy well applies to the gospel. Paul preached sound gospel “Food” to the Thessalonians when present with them, and he reminds them that he is now writing the same truth that he preached to them.
How then did the Thessalonians lose their way? Based on verses two and three, there can be little doubt that other men teaching other ideas “Invaded” the Thessalonian Church and tried to entice them away from Paul’s preaching.
1. Nor by letter as from us. One could gather from this point that these false teachers actually framed their error in a document and claimed that Paul wrote it, likely suggesting that the Thessalonians may have misunderstood Paul’s preaching when he was present with them. The deceiver and people under his influence will use any trick they can imagine to entice faithful believers to leave their faithfulness and follow them.
2. Let no man deceive you by any means. Given this sentence, we cannot reasonably doubt that false teachers invaded the Thessalonian Church and blatantly attempted to lead them away from Paul’s teaching. The actual error, a false belief that the Second Coming and end of time was imminent was a common Jewish belief of the day. The belief was that the end of time and God’s final judgment would shortly follow the coming of Messiah. It was Jewish Christians who created the discord and error in Antioch Church. (Acts 15; notice the letter from Jerusalem Church to Antioch Church specifically states that those who created the discord in Antioch were members of Jerusalem Church, but their beliefs were not what Jerusalem Church believed) They were deluded and sought to gain followers for themselves by their false teaching. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment. (Acts 15:24) The same people may have been the false teachers in Thessalonica.
Whether these people were still members of Jerusalem Church or former members who “…went out from us,” they did not convey the truth that Jerusalem Church believed, nor were they rightly representing Jerusalem Church in their sowing confusion and discord in Antioch Church. I am thankful that Acts 15 gives us so much instructive detail regarding how “Sister” churches are to respectfully work together and not seek to rule over each other or ignore each other. Jerusalem Church might have taken the carnal idea, “We are the ‘Mother church.’ You should do as we direct.” Instead, the Jerusalem Church, including the apostles who were present and active in that church, jointly wrote the letter to Antioch Church as equal believers with Antioch.
People who seek to spread error or to gain disciples to themselves often overstate their position, authority, and their knowledge. Those who were involved in the deceit at the Thessalonian Church apparently used a forged document and claimed that Paul wrote it to gain footing in the minds of the Thessalonians. They likely also falsely claimed that they and Paul were far more agreed than they were, more fuel to try to convince the Thessalonians to follow them. If we follow the New Testament’s teaching, the one God-appointed teaching authority in any local church is that church’s pastor. (Ephesians 4:11 and context) When the people in a church listen and learn from that teaching and encourage each other to abide faithfully in it, the church prospers, and the Lord blesses the church to fulfill Paul’s description of a peaceful, healthy, and spiritual body in this context. When others, not unlike the Jerusalem people in Antioch or the false teachers in Thessalonica, work to contradict or diminish this teaching source in the church, confusion and coldness grows. If someone seeks to lead people away from their pastor’s teachings, the wise members of the congregation will politely tell the wannabe teacher, “Your ideas don’t agree with our pastor. I’m sure you are sincere, but I will abide by his teaching,” and politely walk away.” No one can teach another if the other person refuses to listen. (Romans 16:17; “…avoid them”) The position of pastor/teacher is an overwhelming responsibility, one that Scripture reminds both pastor and church alike, the man shall account to God personally for his teaching. (Hebrews 13:7-17; the person who holds this position is the man who has “…spoken unto you the word of God,” the teaching pastor) Peter affirms this same truth. “Feed the flock of God which is among you….” (1 Peter 5:1-3) Peter adds an instructive warning, “Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.” The moment a man starts to strong-arm or verbally bully people to agree with him he has violated this passage and should be rejected. I find this passage particularly instructive, especially since Peter wrote it. Obviously, contrary to popular opinion, Peter didn’t view himself as the supreme and unquestioned dictator over the Lord’s church. The false teachers in Antioch gladly pushed their ideas to the point that Paul and Barnabas “…had no small dissension and disputation with them.” (Acts 15:2)
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. For the present time, the deceiver continues to deceive, but Paul fully assures us that God has not been deceived. In the end, the deceiver shall be “…taken out of the way.” Nothing, including Satan and his united hosts can hinder God on His appointed day of judgment and glory. We live in the era of the deceiver’s deceit, but never doubt that his days are numbered. I spent my secular career in various areas of the business world. Both in that setting and on sad occasions in churches where designing men tried to control a church as if it were their personal and privately owned business, I have witnessed the evils of deceit up close and personal. For that reason, I will oppose any appearance of such a spirit in any church. No believer who seeks to follow Jesus has any business imitating the arch-enemy of God.
Many years ago I recall reading an article by a man that he supposedly based on this passage. I was surprised and highly disappointed when the man made the preposterous claim that God is no less the Author and cause of the “mystery of iniquity” as He is the Author and cause of the “mystery of godliness.” The idea implies that God is wholly amoral. When confronted with the point, advocates of the idea will twist words and wax eloquent in endless logical fallacies and philosophical reasoning, falsely so called, as Scripture describes such false reasoning in another context, to try to rationalize their idea that God can cause sin and yet not be the cause of sin. Does this sound like double-speak? No surprise; it is! And far worse, it contradicts every principle of God and of His holy and righteous character that Scripture reveals about Him. Jeremiah confronted people in his day whose sin brought Babylonian captivity onto them, but who tried to blame God, “We are delivered to do all these abominations.” (Jeremiah 7:10; along with several repetitions throughout Jeremiah’s prophecy) It is far easier for the sinful heart and mind to blame God for one’s sins than to face the sin and to repent of it. Not long ago a friend and pastor and I were discussing a man we both knew who had embraced this error. We had both tried to reason with the man to abandon this unbiblical belief. My friend made an insightful observation, “He has embraced an idea about God that accommodates his ungodly lifestyle.” And my friend, I fear, was right. When people embrace any notion that God causes sin or only “Permits” it when He intends to orchestrate it, beware. It is quite likely that he either has already committed some sin or is considering one and has decided to blame God for it. This is precisely the point that Jeremiah makes in his repeated refuting of this errant idea in his prophecy. Consider a current example. While researching this heretical idea not long ago, I stumbled onto a web site in which a man who believes it wrote his personal belief that God occasionally intervenes and prevents someone from sinning, as when the Lord prevented Abimelech from committing adultery with Sarah. However, the man reasoned, at other times God “…purposes” adultery, presumably in which occasions the sin occurs. Imagine the moral quicksand this idea imposes onto a person who is weak in his moral foundations and is considering this or any other sin for that matter. Why not do your best to go forward with the sin? If God doesn’t want you to commit it, He will directly intervene and prevent you from it. But, if you do actually commit the sin, don’t fret or feel convicted. You sinned because God “purposed” (An obvious substitute for “Caused”) it. He allegedly intends to use your sin for a noble “purpose.” By some form of diabolical reasoning, people who hold to this idea actually think that they may freely break God’s moral commandments, comforting themselves in the sin by their false belief that God intends to use their sin for His glory. If he/she didn’t so sin, God would be robbed of a grand occasion to show His glory. Paul specifically confronts this twisted thinking in Romans 3:1-8 and refutes it, writing that such a claim represents slander against God and His moral and revealed righteous truth. If we “Take the roof off” this logical fallacy and errant view, we discover the bare depth of its error. If God actually purposes a man’s sin and actively orchestrates it, the man’s wicked action is an act of obedience that glorifies God. Scripture never hints at such an abomination. “My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” (James 3:10b) Here James is dealing with sins of the tongue. However, his point challenges this errant fatalistic and pagan idea. If God “Purposes” every sin that occurs, supposedly He also purposed your sin of speech. Do you see the puzzle? Why would God purpose something that God Himself reveals in Scripture that “…ought not so to be”? If it ought not to be, why didn’t God simply not “Purpose” it? Biblical truth declares that God is always and only holy and righteous. Sins of all stripe occur in the sinful heart of man, not in the secret will or purposes of God. The mystery of iniquity is Satan’s master plan that opposes God; it is not God’s secret purpose or will.
The mystery of iniquity is alive and at work today, but rest fully assured; God is not its cause or author. Paul warns us in this context that this intimate servant of Satan will sit in the temple of God and claim to be God, but his message will never agree with God’s message. This mystery is part of the deceiver’s strategy that God shall reveal and crush in His day. God shall reveal this diabolical adversary in His time, take him out of the way, “…consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” All of this shall occur at the time of His glorious “…coming.” And that, my friends, is the comforting lesson of 2 Thessalonians 2.
Even so, come Lord Jesus,
Elder Joe Holder
Little Zion PBC, Bellflower, CA.
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