Beginning with Impossible
It’s God’s power to save His people from the ends of the earth—and from our neighborhoods too. And He’s still using unlikely messengers like us to speak this unstoppable gospel. Yet, as His servants, we too often see only the bricks and barbed wire, the risks, and unfavorable statistics. And so, we stop at impossible or quit when it’s difficult, never seeing God shake Jericho or move mountains.
One of my favorite quotes from Hudson Taylor, the very quotable pioneer missionary to China, is this: “There are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” Taylor knew about impossible. Impossible was going to the other side of the world to untold millions who had yet to hear the gospel even once. Such a mission would require months of risky sea passage, then learning their utterly confounding language, all while facing diseases that might kill you if the people you were devoting your life to didn’t kill you first. On top of all that, to evangelize such a large country, it would take an army of cross bearers. Impossible.
The second and third stages—difficult and done—are not reached by Samson-like strength or Job-like patience. Taylor would be the first to correct such thinking. He said, “All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” And, he added, “Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength.” These three stages of God’s work (impossible—difficult—done) are considered from man’s perspective. However, believers cannot be mere spectators; they must be men and women who live by faith. Living by faith is not a warm, upward thought. Rather, living by faith is action displayed in the arena of our days to the glory of God and the advance of His gospel. Paul described his preaching, teaching, travel—and jail trips in between—as hard labor energized by God, saying he was “struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Col. 1:29). Therefore, living by faithis speaking and writing for the sake of the gospel. It is working and risking. It is winning and losing. It is going and not always returning. It is asking, seeking, and knocking. It’s what Jesus said “moves mountains.”
Reaching China with the gospel at a time when it was closed, dangerous, and distant was never impossible for God. But who could believe this strongly enough to follow Him there? Apparently, hundreds—even thousands—of men and women could. And whether through a lifetime of faithful ministry or through the witness of an untimely grave, the gospel advanced deep into unreached China.
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The Order of Salvation—The Application of Redemption (Part 2)
Written by Andy H. |
Monday, September 13, 2021
When we talk about the doctrine of salvation planned in eternity past, this involves foreknowledge, predestination, and election. In its accomplishment in redemptive history, it concerns Jesus’ righteous life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection. But, our focus is on salvation applied in the personal experience of the believer.In the first part, we had focussed on the life of the preacher, but in this part, we look more specifically at Paul’s second exhortation here in 1 Timothy 4:16, “pay close attention to yourself and to your doctrine or to your teaching.” He’s not just talking about the manner of his presentation. He’s talking about the content of his message and it’s the responsibility of the preacher to “Earnestly contend,” Jude said, “for the faith once for all delivered.” And the Apostle Paul said that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine for reprove, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God would be equipped thoroughly furnished for every good work.” The first use of scripture is for doctrine, for biblical truth. So then as Paul said in 1 Titus 1:9, “the elder must be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute and rebuke those that contradict.” So, it is absolutely crucial, and oftentimes failures in ministry or fruitlessness in ministry is a direct result of the preacher’s inconsistent life or the preacher’s poor understanding of doctrine. There’s much false teaching, and weak erroneous doctrine in America, in China, and in India, and all over the world. And the Apostle Paul told the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 that “be on guard for yourselves and for all the Church of God, over whom the Holy Spirit made you overseers to shepherd the church of God that he purchased with his own blood.” Why? “Because after I depart savage wolves will come in, not sparing the flock and number two from among you false teachers will arise leading people astray.”
That’s what we are focusing on: the doctrine of salvation. This will be a review for some of you and new for some of you, but I do not apologize, as Peter said, “to stir you up by way of reminder even though you know these things and have been grounded in them so that after my departure you may be able to call them to mind.” So we’re talking about the doctrine of salvation.It is absolutely crucial that in addition to deepening holiness in your life, you are growing in and understanding the truth of God. There’s some truth that is absolutely crucial and essential. There’s some doctrines that are important but are non-essential. For example, it is not necessarily a salvation issue of a person whether his eschatology is amillennial, post-millennial and pre-millennial. It is not absolutely crucial in regards to pneumatology or his doctrine of the Holy Spirit that he is a cessationist or non-cessationist regarding the spiritual gifts. Also in regards to the question of baptism, however, this is a bit more crucial because it can have eternal consequences. If people are hoping in their baptism, that is whether one is a baptist or whether one is a pedobaptist, that is more crucial. But pay attention: we are absolutely required to be certain in our understanding of the foundational doctrine regarding salvation issues.
By way of background, when we talk about the doctrine of salvation, it is usually discussed or presented in three stages. What do we mean Well? First of all, there is salvation planned in the eternity past. Second of all, there is salvation accomplished in redemptive history. Third of all, there is salvation applied in our own personal experience.
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Judge Not Part 8—The Invaluable Treasure of a Clear Conscience
The maturing believer’s conscience is in the process of cleansing and purification. Judging other hypocritically is a sin. Gossips and slanderers are guilty of that sin. Believers are called to be cleansed of that sin.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.I am grateful to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I unceasingly remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 longing to see you, having remembered your tears, so that I may be filled with joy, 5 being reminded of the unhypocritical faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that it is in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.2 Timothy 1:1-7 (LSB)
People are such illogical creatures. The fallen nature we all inherited from Adam reveals itself at the most maddening of times. Our Christian scholars, ministers, and theologians are not immune. It seems that our lack of humility is Satan’s most valuable tool in defeating us. I have a Blog as part of my writing ministry. I also participate in theological discussions on other Blogs. Some of those discussions can become chaotic situations at times. There are times when the ones contending in these “discussions” become so adamant about their polarized positions that the situation becomes ripe for frustration, anger, and bitterness.
The conscience is part of each of our Spirits. This part of our spirituality condemns us when we violate the “standards” it holds high. It also commends us when we do well as far as those “standards” are concerned. The condemnation it sends into the Soul makes us feel guilty and unfulfilled. The commendations it sends into the Soul leads makes us feel fulfilled. God designed it to condemn us when we are not experiencing His glory. This makes Man religious. Those outside of Christ have no way to contact God’s glory because the Spirit that the conscience is part of is deadened to God. The regenerated believer’s Spirit is not deadened to God. In fact, the Holy Spirit resides there. The believer has the ability to experience God’s glory directly via his or her Spirit; however, only maturing believers have learned to do this consistently. This is covered in detail in my first book, Walking the Walk by Faith.
The conscience’s role in our spiritual walk is huge. The immature Christian’s heart is relatively hard when compared to that of the maturing Christian. When I speak or write about our “hearts,” I am not speaking of the physical muscle in our chests that pumps blood to keep us alive. Instead, I am referring to our spiritual hearts. The “heart” is made up of the Soul and the conscience. When the Bible refers to “hearts of stone” or “hard hearts” it is speaking of a condition where a person has not heeded their conscience as they should resulting in a callous layer of hardness (Romans 2:5) or greasy fat (Psalm 119:70) separating God’s value system, which resides in the conscience, from the Soul.
A hard heart is one that has become defiled and possibly impure. That means, the person with a hard heart is not heeding his or her conscience. In extreme cases, this blatant denying of the conscience will actually sear it. Serial killers are said to have done this.
The Christians who have hard hearts are in trouble. They may be unaware of the danger they are in as well. However, their hard hearts blind them and deafen then from hearing their consciences condemn and blame them about their sinful behavior. With each act of disobedience, their hearts become more and more callous towards God. However, when the believer responds to God’s calling to repent and turn his or her heart back to Him a miracle takes place. God will cut away the callousness from the repentant heart. He will circumcise the repentant heart making His ways, His values, His Law, and the reality of His grace apparent to that believer’s Soul. This enables the Walk by Faith.
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The Revelation: Introduction and Overview
The intended audience of the book is the universal Church, the purpose of the book is to instruct, exhort, and encourage the universal Church, and the theme of the book is the privileges and prerogatives of the High King of Heaven who rules over the cosmos for the good of the universal Church. It should not surprise us then if Revelation 20 addresses the Church, prophesies to the Church, and speaks of the destiny of Church during the course of High King’s reign.[Author’s] Note: This essay is a chapter from my book, The Great End Time Debate: Issues, Options, and Amillennial Answers (Redemption Press, 2022). I have posted it here not only to introduce readers to the Revelation, but also to help them understand its most controversial chapter, Revelation 20. Once you have finished reading the essay, you may wish to continue with the sequel, available here.
Here is a key to some of the acronyms you will find in my books and essays:
DNT = The Didactic New Testament (the teaching portions of the NT)OTKP = OT prophecies of the Kingdom of GodNCH = New Covenant Hermeneutic (the NT method for interpreting the OT in general, and OTKPs in particularHP = Historic PremillennialismPP = Partial PreterismFP = Full Preterism
Immanuel’s Loftiest Land
Truly, God has situated the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the high places of Immanuel’s Land, for which reason many a biblical traveler, growing suddenly dizzy, has found himself turning back, overwhelmed. And yet the holy terrain ever beckons, being richly favored with tall peaks and lush valleys that God’s pilgrim people long to see and enjoy. The need, then, is not to avoid the Revelation, but to be equipped and prepared so that we can boldly enter in. In the following essay I have done what I can to meet that pressing need.
Setting
The year is around 95 A.D. John, in all probability the last living apostle, is now in his 80’s (John 21:21-23). Because of his faithfulness in preaching the Gospel, the Roman authorities have exiled him to a penal settlement on the island of Patmos (Rev. 1:9; John 21:21-23). It has been over 60 years since Christ’s ascension. The Lord is tarrying, and among many believers the expectation of his Parousia is waning (2 Pet. 3:1f). The demonic emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68), a vicious persecutor of the Roman Christians, has come and gone. Titus has decimated Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Under emperor Domitian the persecution of Christians has spread throughout the Empire and reached Asia (A.D. 81-89). More is now looming (Rev. 2:3, 10, 13). And beyond this external threat there are internal threats as well. Heretical “Christian” sects have grown in size and number. Their members are seeking to penetrate the orthodox churches and draw away disciples (Acts 20:13ff; Rev. 2:2, 6, 14-15, 20-24). Some churches are even tolerating their presence (Rev. 2:14f, 20f). Meanwhile, other churches are in decline. The love of certain Christians is growing cold (Rev. 2:4, 3:1-2). Others, having thus far escaped the fires of persecution, are falling in love with the world and sinking into apathy and hedonism (Rev. 3:14-21). The situation is dire. The faltering Church needs a word from the Lord. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is that word.
Author
The author is the apostle John (Rev. 1:1, 4, 9, 12; 22:8), an historical fact confirmed by several of the early church fathers. Significantly, he is now in exile (likely from his home church in Ephesus) and under persecution. In fulfillment of his Lord’s words, he has remained upon the earth for many years; and now, as promised, his Lord has come to him. It is not to take him home, but instead to give him a revelation and prophecy meant for the Bride, the entire Church (John 20:20-23). Like John himself, she will be in exile: not from the presence of her Lord, but from her heavenly home. Like John himself she will (often) be under persecution (Rev. 12:6ff). And so Christ comes to him . . . and through him to her. Through the Revelation he will prepare his Bride for her centuries-long pilgrimage through the howling spiritual wilderness of this present evil world (Rev. 12:6, 14).
Date
It is almost certain that John recorded the Revelation around 95 AD. This is important to keep in mind, since preterist interpreters argue for a much earlier date: sometime between 54 and 68 AD, during the reign of Nero. Based on that assumption, they say that most (or all) of the “comings” and judgments described in the Revelation were actually fulfilled in and around the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But as indicated above, the internal evidence weighs heavily against it. Accordingly, the vast majority of scholars agree that the Revelation was composed between 81-96 AD, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian. Notably, at that time Pergamum was the official center of emperor worship in Asia, and the city in which Antipas became a “faithful martyr” for his Lord (Rev. 2:12f). External confirmation of a late date comes from the scholar and bishop, Irenaeus (ca.125-202), who, citing earlier sources, wrote, “John received the Revelation almost in our own time, toward the end of the reign of Domitian” (i.e., AD 81-96).
Intended Audience
The Revelation is a prophecy given by God, through the glorified Christ, his angel, and his apostle, to the universal Church, for the crucially important reason that it is about the universal Church. It is not, as preterists hold, about the Church in and around 70 AD. Nor, as dispensationalists hold, is it (largely) about a band of 144,000 Jewish evangelists proclaiming a millennial Kingdom during a literal seven-year Tribulation. No, it is about all Christians of all times and all places. It is a prophecy meant to edify, exhort, and encourage the universal Church.
The evidence for this crucial thesis abounds.
Revelation 1:1 states that God gave Christ the Revelation in order to show it to his bond-servants. That would be the universal Church.
In Revelation 2-3 we have Christ’s messages to the seven churches of Asia. But the number 7, which symbolizes completeness and perfection, alerts us to the fact that here we have a complete and perfect message designed to perfect the complete Church: the Church of all times and places.
In Revelation 1:9 we hear Christ telling John: “Write down the things you have seen, and the things that are, and the things that will take place soon after them.”
This verse gives us one of the key structures of the book. The things John saw are described in chapter 1: the details of Christ’s self-disclosure to the apostle. “The things that are”—the present condition of the seven churches of Asia—are described in chapters 2-3. “The things that will take place soon after them” are described in chapters 4-22. These are the things that will happen from now on: all the way out to the Consummation and beyond. Why does Christ want all his bond-servants to know about these things? The answer is obvious: It is because he knows these things concern and affect all his bond-servants. The Revelation is for the universal Church because it concerns the universal Church and the things that will affect the universal Church.
In a moment we will discover a second way in which the Revelation is structured. It too will show that the book is for and about all Christians of all times and places.
Nature and Purpose
On six separate occasions John speaks of the Revelation as a prophecy (Rev. 1:3, 19:10, 22:7, 10, 18, 19). Now according to the apostle Paul, he who prophesies speaks to men for edification (i.e., instruction in the faith), exhortation (i.e., warning, admonition), and comfort (i.e., encouragement, the impartation of hope), (1 Cor. 14:3). This short definition wonderfully captures the deep purpose of the Revelation. Everywhere we turn we find the exalted Christ teaching, warning, and encouraging his Bride, so that she may overcome all adversaries, complete her pilgrimage, and safely enter the completed Kingdom of God.
A few examples will illuminate this rich three-fold purpose.
In the Revelation Christ teaches the Church Militant by helping her understand her true place in the world and in Salvation History. In other words, through the use of richly symbolic language he strengthens her grip on the biblical worldview. Here Revelation 12 is central. In a prophetic vision of stupendous theological reach and power, Christ teaches the Church Militant who she is, what she is about, what she can expect, and upon whom she can call and count as she makes her way out of eschatological Egypt, through the eschatological Wilderness of Sin, and into the eschatological Promised Land. Fittingly, this rich chapter stands in the middle of the book, since in many ways it gives us the keys to the whole book. Before wrestling with Revelation 20, it will repay you to study it well.
In the Revelation the Lord exhorts the Church by warning her about the four enemies she will encounter in her long pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world.
The first is the Dragon, that serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan (Rev. 12:9). While he is indeed capable of direct attack upon the saints, in the Revelation he is found using the three remaining enemies as his evil agents and instruments.
The second foe is the Beast (Rev. 13:1-4), the political or governmental face of the world-system, which, when seized and energized by the Dragon, will always persecute the true spiritual Church.
The third enemy is the False Prophet, also called the Beast from the Earth (Rev. 13:11-18, 16:12-16, 19:20, 20:10). This beast symbolizes not simply false religion, but false religion in the service of the self-deifying State, and therefore demanding that the Church worship the State on penalty of persecution or death.
The fourth and final enemy is the Harlot, also called Babylon the Great and the Great City (Rev. 17:1, 3, 5, 18; 18:2). This is the economic, commercial, and cultural face of the world-system. As a general rule the Harlot likes to collude with the Beast and the False Prophet, doing all she can to persecute the Church (Rev. 17:6), even as she entices saints and sinners alike with her allurements and sorceries (Rev. 18:23).
Out of deep love and concern for the Church’s purity, power, and eternal welfare, the High King of Heaven exhorts his Bride to be aware of all her enemies and to come out from among them (Rev. 18:4)
Finally, in the Revelation the heavenly Husband speaks comfort to his Bride, and this in several different ways.
At the very outset of the book he comforts her with a majestic vision of his own divine nature, covenant faithfulness, and Messianic glory (Rev. 1:9-20).
He comforts her with repeated assurances of his presence in, and faithful watch-care over, all his churches, even as he manifests the tough love that he feels for each one of them (Rev. 2:1-3:22).
He comforts her with rich, symbolic representations of his heavenly mediatorial reign, the share that the saints have in it, and his absolute sovereignty over all that remains of Salvation History (Rev. 4:1-5:14).
He comforts her with scenes of the spirits of departed believers safely arrived in heaven, praying for divine justice, and waiting eagerly for the resurrection of their bodies at his return to the earth (Rev. 6:9-11, 20:4-6).
He comforts her with serial portraits of his own Parousia in power and glory at the end of the age (Rev. 14:14-20, 19:11-21).
In conjunction with these portraits he also comforts her with visions of ultimate justice: of final rewards for the faithful saints, and of final retribution against the persecuting and God-hating “inhabitants of the earth” (Rev. 6:9-17, 11:11-19, 15:1-4, 16:17-21, 20:7-15).
He comforts them with several “sneak-previews” of the glorified Church surrounding the throne of the Triune God, exultantly lifting up the eternal worship that will fill the World to Come (Rev. 7:9-17, 14:1-5).
And finally, he comforts her with two luminous chapters supplying mysterious, thought-provoking glimpses of the (eternal) life of the saints in the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. 21-22).
Do you consider the Revelation a frightening book? Well, for sinners it is, and is meant to be. But for saints who bravely venture into its depths, it is not only a prophecy that instructs and exhorts: It is also a river of comfort that never ends.
And this is true of Revelation 20 as well.
Underlying Theme
The underlying theme of the four Gospels is the humiliation of the Son of God: His incarnation as the Last Adam, his righteous life, atoning death, and public ministry on earth as Israel’s Messianic prophet, priest, and king.
The underlying theme of the Revelation is the exaltation of the Son of God: the various ways in which God the Father is pleased to honor his Son, so that in the end every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord: the High Prophet, Priest, and King of the universe (John 5:23; Phil. 2:5-11).
In a moment we will see how the structure and contents of the Revelation reinforce this majestic theme. Here, however, I want to highlight the many ways in which this book sets the worshiping Christian before every facet of the one diamond that is the exaltation of Christ.
The Revelation shines its light on Christ’s resurrection (Rev. 1:18), his ascension (Rev. 12:5), his session at the right hand of the Father (Rev. 5:1ff), his spiritual headship over his Body (Rev. 2-3), his authority and control over all the remaining events of universal history (Rev. 5:7, 6:1), his prophetic proclamation of the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth through the Church Militant (Rev. 6:2, 11:4-13, 14:6), his faithfulness to his persecuted people (Rev. 12:6, 13ff), his ongoing (providential) judgments against their enemies (Rev. 11:5, 16:1f), his rich provision for the souls of his departed saints (Rev. 6:9-11, 20:4-6), his rush to the rescue of his little flock in the days of the Last Battle (Rev. 16:12f, 19:11ff), his glorious Parousia at the end of the age (Rev. 6:12ff, 11:11ff, 14:14ff, 19:11ff), and, at that time, the final judgment of his enemies, whether human or demonic (Rev. 6:12ff, 11:11ff, 14:14ff, 16:17ff, 19:11f, 20:11ff), the final redemption of his Bride (Rev. 7:1ff, 11:11f, 15:2-4, 14:14-16), and the creation of new heavens and a new earth, the eternal home where he and his beloved Bride will dwell with the Father, the Spirit, and all the holy angels as the eternal family of God (Rev. 21-22).
This manifold revelation of the exalted Lord Jesus Christ is integral to the prophetic character of the book. It is in beholding and contemplating the exalted Christ in all of his offices, prerogatives, judgments, and redemptive acts that the saints are instructed, admonished, and, above all, comforted for their arduous spiritual journey through the wilderness of this world.
Does all of this help us understand Revelation 20? Indeed it does. For if the theme of the book as a whole is the glory of the exalted Christ reflected in the course, character, and consummation of his heavenly reign, how likely is it that the theme of Revelation 20 is the glory, vicissitudes, and final failure of his future 1000 year earthly reign?
No, the Revelation is a predictive prophecy that sings the glory of the High King of Heaven and Earth through and through. To see this is to see the meaning of chapter 20 as well.
Literary Genre
The Revelation is an outstanding example of what theologians refer to as biblical apocalyptic. We may define this as a special kind of prophecy in which the Holy Spirit uses symbols—both images and numbers—to communicate divine truth about the course, character, and consummation of Salvation History, and especially about final judgment and final redemption.
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