A High and Lofty View of God

It seems that the modern church has a very low view of God. Despite how it may seem at first glance, when one really looks at the modern doctrines taught from pulpits and on TV, there is a serious lack in how people view the sovereignty of God. Many seem to present a God that is on His throne, but when you look at the nitty-gritty of what they teach, He is actually on their throne, and not His own. He is presented as a God who can, and is, manipulated by men.

Man's Authority Over God?
For example, one teaching about prayer is that when we pray we are giving God permission to act. Excuse me. If God is God, how in the world can we give Him permission to act? That would imply that we have authority over God. That would mean that God is not sovereign.

Tied in with this teaching is that God gave over His authority to man in the Garden of Eden, but we then gave it over to the devil who now has authority over the earth. Now the devil is superior to God? If the devil is superior then why in the book of Job did he have to go to God to obtain permission to test Job? In fact, was it not God who told the devil about Job's faithfulness in the first place? (see Job 1:8) All the bad things that happened to Job were only done because God gave the devil permission to do them.

If the devil is in charge of this earth, then why did Jesus say in Matthew 10:29: 

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

True, in 2 Corinthians 4:4 the devil is given the title, "god of this world," as well as similar titles "prince of the power of the air" in Ephesians 2:2 and "ruler of this world" in John 12:31. However, a little understanding of Greek is necessary here to understand these phrases.

The word often used for world in Greek [kosmos], has two meanings: 1) orderly arrangement, and, by implication, 2) the earth as a planet and all its inhabitants. However, this is not the word used in 2 Corinthians 4:4. Here the word aion is used, which means age. The devil is called the god of this age in Corinthians, and the god of the orderly arrangement, or government, in John. He is not in charge of the world as a planet. If he was, then he would be in charge of the sparrows falling to the ground.

Satan does indeed have a considerable influence on the faith, thoughts, ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of people. He also has influence on philosophies, education, business, poilitics and religion, but he does not rule the world completely. In fact, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 28 that all authority in Heaven and earth has been given to Him (v18). If the devil had that authority, then Jesus would be a liar, and we all know that is not possible.

God, in His infinite wisdom has allowed satan to operate in this world within boundaries that God Himself has set. When the Bible says that satan has power over the world (age / government), it means that he has power over unbelievers alone. Believers are no longer under the devil's rule, but have been tranferred into the Kingdom of Light (see Colossians 1:13). Unbelievers, however, have been held captive "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26), lie in the "power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19), and are controlled by Satan (Ephesians 2:2).

God's Exercising of Authority
AW Pink put it best in his book, The Sovereignty of God: "Sovereignty characterizes the whole Being of God. He is Sovereign in all His attributes."

Every aspect of God's character, and everything that He does is sovereign. He is in authority over absolutely everything, and his authority is far higher than any other authority. Take a look at what Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 about Jesus' authority:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (vv18-23).

A key phrase is in verse 21 - "far above." Jesus is not just the next one up in the ladder as though we can just climb up there to be equal, or even above, Him, but rather that He is infinitely higher than any authority. That means above governments, kings, pastors, the devil, and all mankind. And yet we read in verse 23 that this absolute authority has been given to the church to be its head. Christ as our head is a gift, and then we turn around and try to usurp that power? How ridiculous.

We see that God is sovereign in how He exercises His power. He does what He wants, when He wants, where He wants and how He wants to. We have absolutely no right whatsoever to demand of God, or to dictate to Him the what, when, where and how of His actions. He needs no permission from us. If anything, we need the permission from Him to do what we want.

We also see God's sovereignty in who He delegated His power to. We read of many accounts in the Bible where people exercised great power that was not of their own. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to perform mighty acts. Even in the New Testament we see that it is the Holy Spirit who decides who receives what gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:11). We are not given every single gift, nor do we have access to whatever gifts we want. God gives them as He wills.

God is sovereign in the area of mercy. As we read in Exodus 33:19, God will show mercy on whoever He chooses. This is a hard pill to swallow, but if God chooses not to have mercy on us, we have no right to demand it. God is God and we cannot dictate mercy to Him. As belivers we have already received great mercy through the cross that we had no choice in whatsoever. It is a gift from God, and again, who are we to demand it?

Attached to this is that God is also sovereign in His exercise of love. God loves those of His choosing, not ours. Think about it, as a sinner who has turned his back against God, did you in any way deserve to have God love you? As a non-believer that did not know anything about God could you even imagine someone loving you as you were? We cannot demand that God love us, nor can we expect Him to love or not-love someone else because of the way they act or speak. As Ephesians 2:3 tells us, we were children of God's wrath. There was nothing about us that drew God's love to us. Therefore it is something that came from Him and and is according to His desires, not ours.

God's sovereignty is seen in His grace. The mere definition of grace shows this - it is unmerited favour. If it is unmerited, then what can we do to receive it? Who are we to demand it? We are not entitled to grace in any way.

Conclusion
God is sovereign, and He is in charge of everything. All that happens on this earth is because He has willed it. The reason why He answers our prayers, and don't forget "no" is still an answer, is because He chooses to. We have no right whatsoever to demand anything from God, and we certainly have no right to try and be above God. To do so is not only undermining the sovereignty of God, but it is also in direct disobedience of the first two commandments - you shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make for yourself an idol and worship it.

As Romans 1 tells us, those that do this have been given over by God to the lusts of their hearts to impurity for they have exchanged the truth of the sovereign God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature (me, myself and I in this context), rather than the creator.

Binding and Loosing

There are two verses in the book of Matthew, where a serious misinterpretation of the meaning of the verses has permeated the modern church and the prayer lives of many.

The verses in question are Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." (16:19)
"Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." (18:18)

Calling God Allah?

Is it OK to call God Allah as some missionaries in Muslim countries say is OK to do?
For me the matter is simple, however I will try to expand on it below. Sorry if things tun out to be a little long-winded, but I will try to be as brief as possible. I have included the references that I know to where things are found within the Qur'an.
In my mind there is no other way to look at this subject than as blasphemous, and is a transgression of the third commandment: "you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain", for one basic reason:
The concept of a name in the Bible is not just a title that you call someone so you know how to address them when you speak to them, but it incorporates the very character of that person and often includes details about the person with regard to their heritage, role or activities.

Would Jesus Oppose the Death Penalty?

One of the most contentious issues facing us today is that of the death penalty. There are many theologians that fight their point vehemently on both sides of the argument. I remember while in Bible College there were people on both sides of the fence and no resolution was ever reached. For many years I sat on the fence with the whole issue, but having worked through the whole issue of the law and its application today, I have come to a final decision. So in this final instalment of the role of the law, we are going to look at the issue and hopefully end off with a proper position on the subject. Some of you may be surprised with the outcome.

The Law As the Schoolmaster

Dispensationalists who teach that Old Testament law has been completely cancelled out by Christ, quote Galatians 3:23-25 as proof for their claim: "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." (The last phrase in the New King James Version translates as "we are no longer under a tutor.")
In order to fully understand this passage we need to answer two questions.

1. What does Paul mean by the term "law"? and
2. What does he mean when he says "we are no longer under a tutor"?

Sanctification and the Law

Before we go any further in discussing the role of the Law, let us proceed to look at the issue of sanctification. “Why?” you may ask. Quite simply, because the issues of justification and sanctification cannot be separated from each other and need to be fully understood together. But before I can explain the connection properly, we first need to look at what the word sanctification means.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines sanctification as “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” In justification, once the sinner believes in Jesus, he/she is declared righteous before God purely on Jesus Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. The guilt of sin is removed and the sinner is clothed in the righteousness of Christ. At this point, the the lifelong process of sanctification immediately begins. This process is described by the theologian, Louis Berkhof as “that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which He delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God, and enables him to perform good works.”

Justification and the Law

Dispensational "scholars" use a number of Paul's passages to argue that Jesus cancelled the Old Testament laws and that law is no longer needed. Let us briefly look at a couple of these passages:

EPHESIANS

One passage used is Ephesians 2:8-10 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Let us begin by looking at the word translated as "saved" (Gk. sozo). This word is best understood when we remove all religious connotations and look at its root meaning: that is to be "rescued". To save someone simply means to rescue them from a situation that put them into danger, or would have resulted in something fatal happening to them, like a lifesaver rescuing someone from drowning in the sea. So, in the spiritual context, it means that we have been "rescued" from our previous condition that has fatal consequences.

The Role of the Law

The modern century church seems to have neglected, and at times perverted, the Biblical teachings of God's law. The reasons for this are varied, but one of the biggest is due to the teachings of Dispensationalism.
Dispensationalism teaches that all Old Testament law (this includes religious, social and civil) have been put aside by Christ and his teachings concerning law. Their motto comes from Paul's teaching that “we are not under law, but under grace.”

True vs False Conversion

There are so many people in the church today that believe that the Truth of God's Word is not enough to bring people into repentance. Some believe that we have to exhibit some kind of miraculous signs and wonders in order to convince the unbelievers of the Truth in the Word. Others try to dress it up in a way that makes it culturally relevant or “seeker sensitive”. Many believe that without some or other gimmick, the message of the Gospel will not reach its target. The church is desperately trying to find new ways of offering what the non-believers say they are looking for in the church. Every conventional form of worship is at risk of being put aside for more “relevant” forms in order to cater for the worlds appetites. Things that challenge or make people uncomfortable is not permitted. And it seems to be working. Or is it?