The Restoration of the Jews according to Jeremiah 33, with Zechariah and Hebrews

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.' for thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in My presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever." (Jeremiah 33:14-18) 

To my mind, this is an exhilarating passage, because it unites so many messianic themes. The Branch is an epithet used for the coming Messiah several times in Jeremiah, and points to the coming of Jesus, about 600 years after the historical events of the book. The prophet uses several confirmatory references that we know from the New Testament. First, the Branch will cause His people to bear the name "The Lord is our righteousness." This should cause any Christian to think immediately of the words of Paul in II Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake, He [the Father] made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God." Contrary to the claims of some dispensationalists, this proves that the future conversion of the Jews will occur on the same basis as the conversion of the Gentiles, by faith alone in Christ alone, so that His righteousness is imputed to the elect believer. There is no separate class of saved people among the Jews (Acts 15:11). They simply follow a different historical track to arrive at that same place. 

Furthermore, Jeremiah tells us that the Branch will fulfill a dual role, to fill the throne of David forever. "Once for all I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before Me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies" (Psalm 89:35-37). The other is that He will sustain the work of the Levitical priests. We know that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, not of Levi. However, the Epistle to the Hebrews addresses that question by telling us that Jesus's priesthood is not according to Levi, but according to the pattern of Melchizedek. "The one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that out Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of Him, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek'" (Hebrews 7:13-17, quoting from Psalm 110:4; see also Hebrews 4:14-5:10). Together we have the Priest-King prophesied by Zechariah: "Behold the man whose name is the Branch, for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. An there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both" (Zechariah 6:1-13, using Josiah the high priest as a type). 

There can be no doubt that that the restoration of Israel will come, not as the political event expected by dispensationalism, but as a Gospel event, founded upon Jesus Christ alone as savior. It won't be at the same time as Gentile believers, but it will be by exactly the same faith, atonement, and imputation of His righteousness alone.

The Universal Kingship of Yahweh/Christ

"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations." -Psalm 22:27-28 

In the verses cited above, both uses of "Lord" in English represent Yahweh in the Hebrew, the name of the preincarnate Christ, the second Person of the Trinity. And "nations" is also translated as "Gentiles." Therefore, this is the claim of Christ to a universal kingship, not just over Israel, as is claimed by the Jews and dispensationalists, but over all nations, both Jews and Gentiles. A kingship which is already real, and which will become progressively more visibly as we approach the time of His return, as we pray in the Lord's prayer; "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10)." This is explicitly and eloquently affirmed in the Westminster Larger Catechism: "In the second petition, acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the Gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the Gentiles brought in, [and] that He would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of His power to al the world, as may conduce to those ends" (answer 191). 

In both the Scripture ext and in the catechism, the presumption is of a current kingdom which shall have future effects. Neither allows for a future kingdom as is assumed by the dispensationalist. Nor does either allow for a kingdom limited to a particular region of the earth, such as the political state of Israel, or even to the church as is held by amillennialists.

A Witness for an Optimistic Eschatology

Eschatology is a popular topic for every radio and television preacher, for reams of books, and endless debates on every internet platform. And it is a topic which rarely produces healthy or edifying conversation. Why? Because it is titillating. The popular preachers make a lot of money by making predictions, and the more wild-eyed and frightening the more money they make. 

How do these discussions end up in such a theological rut? Well, in addition to the excitement that comes from particular interpretations, there is just bad exegesis in most cases. Biblical passages are wrenched out of context to apply to the time of Jesus's return as if there were no other events in the two-thousand years (so far) in between. And just on the basis of assumptions, not because of any reasoning or hermeneutical principles. If you get into a conversation about Matthew 24 and mention that Jesus applies it to the generation to which He was speaking (verse 34), you will be shouted down. Or if you point to His words, "the Gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world" (verse 14) and compare them to the words of Paul, "the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under Heaven" (Colossians 1:23), you will be decried as feeble-minded. 

Then other passages are simply not allowed into the discussion. One of which is my subject here. 

In Hebrews 1:13, that writer quotes from prehistory the words of the Father to the Son from the intra-Trinitarian covenant, "Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The quote is from Psalm 110:1, and is repeated in Hebrews 10:13. It is also found quoted in several other places in the New Testament. All refer to the awaited glory of Jesus before His return. 

What are some of those enemies that the Father shall subdue for the Glory of the Son? Paul gives us some prominent examples. 

Paul quotes the same verse indirectly, Psalm 110:1, in I Corinthians 15:25, and then gives the last enemy in verse 26: "He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." So death will be defeated as the last enemy before the return of Jesus. That completely eliminates the entire timeline of premillennialism, especially the dispensationalist variety. 

But Paul gives us another case which I find even sweeter to my soul. 

"Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, and He will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.' As regards the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards elections, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers" (Romans 11:25-28). At some point near the end of history, Paul tells us, the fullness, the majority, of Gentiles will have been converted, and then the blindness which was placed on the Jews will be lifted, so that they will be converted en masse to the Messiah whom they had rejected. 

If Jesus will return to an overwhelmingly converted world, how does that allow for the violence and persecution and unbelief described by the scary eschatology crowd? I see the two things as utterly incompatible, which is why I reject that scary eschatology. 

The Universal Sovereignty of God

"God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together; the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly to be exalted" (Psalm 47:8-9). 

There is a common belief among evangelicals that only the church is accountable to God. In fact, dispensationalists would go even further and claim that only Israel is accountable to God, as a nation. But those assumptions are based on human presuppositions, not on any assertion of Scripture. 

Notice the verses above, in which the Psalmist tells us that God reigns, not over Israel, but explicitly over the "nations," which can also be translated as "Gentiles." When God created Adam, He created the founder of the human race, not of the people of Israel in particular. That is the establishment of His universal rule over all of mankind, of whatever nation we may be. 

The mistake that the dispensationalists make is that they overlook the role that Israel fulfilled as the reestablishment of a people in faithful covenant with God. Adam and Eve and their immediate descendants in the line of Seth were in such a faithful covenant. Yet they died out, such that God called Abraham, a pagan, into His covenant of grace, to restore the line of faith among men. Abraham, too, was not a Jew; they were to be his descendants. 

That is why Paul could refer to the Gentiles called by God's name, because this was not a new concept, contrary to the assertions of dispensationalists, but a return to God's original purpose, as described, not just in the psalm above, but also in Amos 9:11-12: "After this, I [God] will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things" (in the Septuagint version, as quoted in Acts 15:16-17). 

After the Fall, the focus of God's revelation narrowed step by step to just one man, Abraham. From him, that revelation began to widen again step by step to its original scope, until it once again includes all elect men, whether Jewish or Gentile. Dispensationalists err when they try to distinguish between the Jews as the people of God and the Gentiles as a mere parenthesis in His plans of redemption. 

The Scriptures as the Basis of Our Apologetic

 Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, with 176 verses. Of those verses, only three don't contain a word referring to the scriptures, such as law, commandments, or testimonies. The Psalm is 176 references to the benefits of God's Word in the life of the believer. I will focus on the section labeled "Waw," verses 41-48. 

"Let Your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, Your salvation according to Your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your Word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in Your rules. I will keep Your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, for I find my delight in Your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward Your commandments, which I love, and I will mediate on Your statutes" (Psalm 119:41-48).  

The Psalmist here uses the same encouragement that Jesus gave to His disciples: "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in the synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (Matthew 10:16-20). 

In both passages, it is the source of our answers that should give us confidence, because it is the very Word of God, inspired  by the Holy Spirit. The rest of Psalm 119 relays the means to this end, the constant study of, and obedience to, the Word of God. 

What is often forgotten in our apologetical confrontations is that there is no promise in Scripture that God will give success to our clever response. Rather, He promises His power to attend His word: "So shall My word be, that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). 

God's Judgment on Abortion

"They [i. e., Israel] served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood" (Psalm 106:36-38).

I have been reading of  "progressive Christians" who claim that the Bible says nothing about abortion. Yet here we have God's wrath spoken against the sacrifice of the children of Israel to pagan deities. If that is not the essence of abortion, I don't know how we could put it more clearly. 

Are Americans not aborting our sons and daughters as sacrifices to something - the universe, maybe - as an act of worship in exchange for prosperity? Our jobs will be better, we will have more money, we will avoid embarrassment, however we justify it. It is that paganism which is judged by God, because it is the shedding of blood - innocent blood - as an exchange for personal prosperity, the ultimate act of self-involvement!

America's Apostasy and the Innocent Blood of Aborted Babies

In describing the apostasy of Israel, God gave these words through the anonymous writer of Psalm 106:36-39: "They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds."

In my own mind, I recognize in this description my own culture, 21st-Century America. True, worshiping idols has not become widespread. Wicca, Hinduism, and other pagan religions, both ancient and new, even explicit worship of Satan, are spreading and becoming more visible, as they are mainstreamed by the broadcast media, such as the TV shows "Charmed" and "Supernatural." These traditions are being mixed in fashion trends, such as the Goth movement. But they are still relatively small compared to the overall size of the American population. 

On the other hand, the sacrifice of sons and daughters is far more companion than any explicit idolatry. Sixty million Americans were murdered in their mothers' wombs between 1973, when the Supreme Court declared abortion a "constitutional right," and the overturning of that decision in June of this year (2022). Why? For about 99% of abortions, it was merely for convenience: "A baby would interfere with my lifestyle." Babies cost money, and parenthood interferes with an irresponsible lifestyle. Worst of all, a baby puts a block in a lifestyle of promiscuous sex. Thus we have both the prosperity and lasciviousness of the ancient human sacrifice cults. 

America is a land soaked in innocent blood. There has never been, and can never be, a just accusation of a capital crime against an unborn child. The mere suggestion of it is specious. Among humankind since the Fall, there can never be true innocence, but there can be justice. And capital punishment for someone who has never committed a crime is not justice, but is itself a crime.

I am writing this just after the 2022 midterm elections, so I am thinking especially of leftwing candidates who campaigned on the protection of the supposed right to kill the innocent. I have tried to warn them that the blood of those innocents will testify against them in the judgment, but they don't care. May God grant them repentance! Until then, if ever, the innocent blood drips from their hands  and stains every word they speak or action they take. And God holds this nation accountable for not removing that evil from our civil government. 

Is Pluralistic "Freedom of Religion" A Biblical Precept?

"These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the high hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and make His habitations there" (Deuteronomy 12:1-5). 

We in America brag of our freedom of religion. Not only are there Christian (real or not) denominations of every description, but we also boast of our Jewish synagogues, Islamic mosques, and Hindu and Buddhist temples. And that doesn't even include the various varieties of nonreligious or irreligious Americans, even including Satanists. 

I think the contrast between those two paragraphs should be clear to anyone. Yet the pietists and dispensationalists have eliminated any evidence or discussion of what God said in Deuteronomy, as if the pluralism of modern America were the case from the days of creation. 

The pietist claims that the Christian faith is a private affair, "a relationship, not a religion." So the less visible his religion is, outside of church and home prayer, the more spiritual he feels. 

On the other hand, the dispensationalist claims that God's commandment here was for Israel, and ended with the coming of Jesus. After all, does it not refer to their "land"? 

And it does. Do we have no references to the land given to Jesus, and His body, the Church? "Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth Your possession" (Psalm 2:8). That is the promise of the Father to the Son, in the intra-Trinitarian covenant, made before the world was created. And did Jesus ever claim that promise? "All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-19). The commandment was limited to the land, but the land was expanded to include the whole earth! 

As a Presbyterian, I am aware of the impact that this conflict has had on my own tradition. When the Westminster Standards were originally written, they included the presumption of establishmentarianism. However, after the US Constitution was adopted, American Presbyterians changed our standards to reflect the new political enthusiasm for religious freedom. I am disappointed that they chose a political justification over the requirements of Scripture. 

Neither political considerations nor pietistic latitudinarianism can override what God has commanded in His word. And that is that His truth is the only truth, and must displace all competing, but false, claims of truth. 

The Spiritual Consequences of Abortion

"They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds" (Psalm 106:36-39). 

Mothers, and sometimes fathers, are told that they will experience greater happiness and prosperity by killing their preborn babies through abortion. Whether it is because of poverty or fetal anomalies, or even mere convenience, a child will supposedly bring them down, while killing the child will bring them up. 

It is all a lie. 

Ancient Israel tried the same thing, sacrificing their own children to pagan deities, Moloch and Baal, and expecting greater prosperity in response. However, the only thing they found was judgment from the real God, the triune God of the Bible, who judged them and their land, polluted by the blood of innocents exterminated by their own parents. 

Even those who encouraged them, whether government officials or apostate religious leaders, are condemned by Scripture: "I will make a stormy wind break out in My wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in My anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end... Thus will I spend My wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it, the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord God... Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life... I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 13:13, 15-16, 22). 

Judgments on the Climate for the Works of Men

"He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. [However,] He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there He lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city in which to live; they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield. By His blessing they multiply greatly, and He does not let their livestock diminish" (Psalm 197:33-38). 

The world is abuzz about "climate change." Every time there is a hurricane, a drought, a wildfire, pestilence, or famine, politicians and the media blame it on climate change. That, in turn, is blamed on human economic activity, though even some secular sources disagree. I don't have a problem with that explanation. However, I think that scripture shows that natural forces are merely the means, not the true cause of climate change. 

Look at the passage quoted above. 

In this Psalm, coming down to us anonymously, God tells us that it is, indeed, human activity that produces good or bad climate effects, but not because of economics. Rather, it is man's moral activity that brings either the curses or the blessings of God on the land. That portion of the world which professes the Christian religion, especially North and South America, Australia, and Europe, have embraced the values of paganism, such as human sacrifice by abortion. And, as a result, we have brought God's curses on our land in the form of climactic devastation. 

Yet, do we see repentance? Not so far. Rather, we see the wickedness compounded by more nature worship on one side and expanding government tyranny on the other. Even those in Christian ministry, embracing pagan "wokeness," are speaking less of God's law, less of man's sin, and hardly a peep about righteous living according to the word of God. 

As result, we can anticipate increasing climactic judgment, no matter what tinkering government does, until the professing Christian community awakens to its failures. 

The Covenant Faithfulness of God: Covenant Succession

"The children of Your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before You" (Psalm 102:28). 

Psalm 102 is described in its subtitle as "a prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord." Who that person is, we do not know. Yet we read his complaint of some affliction which leaves him sleepless and without appetite. His foes taunt him. Whether that is because of what is happening to him, or if that is itself the affliction, again we do not know. But his heart is revived as he recalls the sovereignty of God (verse 12), especially in His faithfulness to His church (verse 16). 

In the final verse, which I have quoted above, the author reminds us that God is faithful not just to us in the moment, but to our children and their posterity. This covenant succession is mentioned frequently in Scripture. For example, we see a parallel verse in Isaiah 54:13: "All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children." 

The Destiny in This World of the Godly and of the Wicked: Psalm 37

In Deuteronomy, Moses laid out for the Israelites the blessings and curses that would come from the obeying or disobeying of the commandments of God. In Psalm 37, David, the man after God's own heart, lays out the same dichotomy in poetic form. Even as poetry, though, the psalm has much to say to modern America regarding her growing devolution from biblical Christianity. 

On the plus side, the godly are shown a wonderful future. Though David speaks generally, not necessarily as to individual experience, the blessings should produce a delighted hope in the heart of the believer. 

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act... The meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace... The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever; they are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine, they have abundance... The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in His way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing... Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off... The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him" (Psalm 37:3-5, 11, 18-19, 23-26, 34, 39-40). 

In these verses, we see the same blessings promised for obedience in Deuteronomy 28: agricultural bounty, happy and blessed children, wealth, and the inheritance of the land. 

The cursings promised to the wicked provide a stark contrast: "They will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb... In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there... The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that his day is coming. the wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken... The wicked will perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish - like smoke they vanish away... The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial... I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found... Transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off" (Psalm 37:2, 10, 12-15, 20, 32-33, 35-36, 38). 

What we see of the wicked is a delusion of cleverness, but his ways lead only to futility and brevity of life. His posterity are cut off, and the land passes to the righteous. 

Christian Apologetics Against Unbelief in Psalm 10

"The wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek Him; all his thoughts are, 'There is no God.' His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, 'I shall not be moved; throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity'... He says in his heart, 'God has forgotten; He has hidden His face, and He will never see it'... Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, 'You will not call me to account'?" (Psalm 10:3-6, 11, 13). 

This is poetry, from an unknown poet, written hundreds of years earlier, but should call to mind a later prose text: "The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who, by their unrighteousness, suppress [their awareness of] the truth... And, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they knew God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them" (Romans 1:18, 28-32). Also Romans 3:18, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 

What the two writers have in common is something that we often forget about the unbeliever: That he knows that the biblical god exists and holds us accountable for our wicked acts. The difference is that the believer repents of those actions, and flees to Christ for redemption and forgiveness. the unbeliever just shuts the awareness out of his mind, believing, though irrationally, that, if he merely suppresses his knowledge of God, then God will not observe his wickedness or call him to judgment. 

However, denying the consequences in no way dispenses with them. "But You do see, for You note mischief and vexation, that You may take it into Your hands; to You the helpless commits himself; You have been the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till You find none. The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; You will strengthen their heart; You will incline Your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more" (Psalm 10:14-18).

The Assurance of Perseverance

Arminians like to argue against the biblical doctrine of perseverance by citing the biblical warnings against apostasy. Those warnings truly exist; no Calvinist would say otherwise. The problem is that the Arminian argues further that the existence of the warning logically requires that the apostasy of true believers must be possible. To that the Calvinist objects as an unwarranted leap of logic. 

"That a righteous man may fall is evident. And as evident it is that he cannot fall finally. For, though he fall seven times in a day, as often does he rise again, Proverbs 24:16, and this because 'the Lord upholdeth him with His hand,' Psalm 37:24, and again, 'the Lord upholdeth all that fall,' Psalm 145:14. That is, either He stays them when they are falling, or so orders and limits the matter that they fall not into mischief, as others do, and, to be sure, He will set them on their feet again. The absolute promise cannot be nullified or made uncertain by cautionary words elsewhere delivered" -- Puritan Elisha Coles, A Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty. Coles continues, "The Lord does ordinarily bring about His purposes by means, of which cautions are a part. And by which, as a means, He keeps off the evil cautioned against."

Coles' point, which is an important one, is that God's warnings of the consequences of apostasy are one of the means by which He prevents the elect from experiencing those consequences. It is like the parent of a small child, who warns against touching the hot stove. The parent expects his warning to prevent that against which he has warned. Yet the Arminian wants us to believe that the parent's warning implies that the child will, then, proceed to touch the stove and get burned. Not only does the parent have no such expectation,  but God even less so, because He has effectual means for maintaining the faith of the true believer. 

Weariness and the Call of the Gospel

One of the most comforting statements in the Bible comes from the mouth of Jesus Himself: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). His reference to "rest for your souls" is an indication that He was not speaking of physical weariness, or, at least, not primarily. Rather, He was describing the burden of sin, of which He alone is the cure. 

Turning from the weight of sin to liberation in Jesus is something that only the elect person can do. The reprobate, in contrast, while they experience the futility of sin, will turn to any other source for relief, whether it is substance abuse, moral reform, or a false religion. But, by his very nature, the reprobate is unable to depend on the only solution that works, i. e., redemption and sanctification by Jesus, received by grace alone through faith alone. 

An error is often committed here, even among folks who profess the Reformed Faith. And that error is to teach that Jesus is appealing to the undistinguished mass of humanity, whether elect or reprobate, because, they suppose, God wants "all to be saved" (out of context from I Timothy 2:4). They believe that God has two wills at war with each other, the will to save some, elected from prehistory, but not others, and another will that wants all to be saved. This is called by the misleading phrase "the well-meant gospel offer." That is, offered by God. No one disagrees that we men cannot know who is or is not elect, so we sincerely desire everyone with whom we share the Gospel to respond in saving faith. 

God, however, certainly does know. Yet this doctrine, admittedly the majority doctrine, holds that He, nevertheless, desires everyone without exception to believe unto salvation. This is in spite of what Jesus also tells us in another place: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). So we have this doctrine of the well-meant offer claiming that God works at cross purposes, both drawing and refraining to draw the same men. How can such a schizophrenic being be God? 

Rather, God gives a general outward announcement of the gospel, to which He has decreed that a portion, the elect, will respond in saving faith.  To the reprobate, the hearing of the Gospel is not an invitation to believe, but is, instead, a declaration of judgment, because God has decided to harden them against the word that they hear. That increases their judgment. It is not an effort at cross purposes to the secret will of God. 

The doctrine of the well-meant gospel offer seems to be an effort by Calvinists to take the edge off the doctrine of election, to make it more palatable to the Arminians around us. Yet, how can the insult to the omnipotence of God be worth any softening of our opponents toward us? Not that I believe that Arminians are made any more hospitable thereby. The doctrine puts God in violation of the logical principle of non-contradiction; it violates the Scriptures that tell us that God necessarily achieves His will (e. g., Daniel 4:35 and Psalm 135:6). In support of it is no Scripture or logically-consistent principle. 

Therefore, I am compelled to reject it. 

The Conversion of Israel As Proof of the Saint's Perseverance

"I will establish his [i. e., David's] offspring forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake My law, and do not walk according to My rules, if they violate My statutes, and do not keep  My commandments, then I will punish their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him My steadfast love or be false to My faithfulness. I will not violate My covenant or alter the word that went forth from My lips" (Psalm 89:29-34). 

These are the words of God in His covenantal promises to King David. Paul echoes them in II Timothy 2:13: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful - because He cannot deny Himself." In both passages, God's faithfulness to His people is never founded on our faithfulness to Him. Rather, even when we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, because to do otherwise would be to deny Himself. To violate His covenant promises would be a betrayal of His own nature, and is, therefore, unthinkable. 

We know the history of Israel, though it was still future to the time of the writing of the Psalm. She was, indeed, unfaithful, and God did, indeed, bring down on her fearsome judgments, especially the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians, and the carrying away by them of the bulk of the population into captivity. This was a judgment only succeeded by the later judgment under the Romans in 70 AD, when Jerusalem was again looted and the temple destroyed, and an estimated 1.1 million Jews were massacred. From that judgment, the Jews have not yet recovered. Rather, Israel lies under a judicial hardening for her rejection and murder of her Messiah. 

Yet even that judgment points to Psalm 89. 

"It is true [that] the body of that nation, for their unbelief, is now broken off; there is a suspension of the outward part of the covenant. Not that God intends an utter rejection of them. For such as have part in the special election are always saved, Romans 11:7, and the time will come when all Israel shall be saved. For, as touching the election, they are beloved still, though yet unborn. For their sakes it was that 'those days of tribulation were shortened,' Matthew 24:22, which answers to Isaiah 65:8, 'Destroy it not, there is a blessing in it.' The Lord will not so much regard what they have done or deserved as what His covenant is concerning Abraham's seed, which, minding of His covenant, is from the unchangeableness of His purpose. And, therefore, though broken off at present, 'they shall be grafted in again,' verse 24, though driven into all lands, scattered into corners, mingled with the heathen, and become so like them as not to be known asunder. Yet, being His chosen, and within His covenant, He will bring them out of their holes and gather them one by one, Isaiah 27:12. He will do it so accurately, exactly, punctually, that none shall be wanting, 'though sifted among all nations, not one grain shall fall to the earth,' Amos 9:9. The reservation mentioned in Romans 11 was God's omnipotent safeguarding of His elect, when the rest of the nation fell to idolatry. They had gone all, as well as some, had not election held them back. It is, therefore, said to be according to the election of grace. Election was the pattern, and reservation the copy of it" ( Puritan Elisha Coles, "A Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty"). 

Coles cites the faithfulness of God to His promises to Abraham as the grounds for the sustaining of a faithful remnant among the Jews, and for their eventual national repentance and salvation. And that same faithfulness is why the Christian can be assured that God will enable him to persevere in this life unto eternal life in the age to come. 

God's Preservation of His People: The Perseverance of the Saints in Troublous Times

"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretched out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands." --Psalm 138:7-8 

As I write this, America is just past another wave of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has just begun its third week. Unemployment is low, but inflation has jumped, especially in the prices of food and gasoline. We are in uncertain times. People are fearful, and many professing Christians have begun another round of talk about the Rapture and Mark of the Beast. 

Under such circumstances, unease is rational. Trusting in God does not mean that Christians don't have normal emotions. However, bad theology merely fans the flames of that unease, adding irrational fears to the rational unease. 

Good theology, on the other hand, brings comfort, and minimizes our fears. In particular, the knowledge that God, our God, reconciled to us through the blood of Jesus, always keeps us in His care: "We know that, for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:28-30). This is hard for our egocentric hearts to accept, but the purpose of God is not about us; it is for the glory of His Son that He causes all things to work for good for those who belong to His Son. 

Beyond that, however, it is the purpose of the Son to care for His people without failure and without ceasing: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" (John 10:27-29). Because of His love to His sheep, Jesus guarantees to us that He cannot fail to preserve His sheep for eternity, and He calls on the love of the Father for Him to guarantee what He desires for us.

Infant Baptism, the Covenant, and the Reformed View

"Upon You have I leaned from before my birth; You are He who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of You"(Psalm 71:6). 

When discussing the baptism of infants with Baptists, they often tell me that a little baby can't know anything about God. We should, they claim, wait until a person grows to an age of accountability or moral awareness. It is phrased in different ways. 

Yet, look at the words above from Scripture. Is that not to be our authority? We are not to look to pop psychology or secular educational assumptions. 

Unlike other psalms, Psalm 71 includes no superscription with its authorship. I think it sounds like David. Whether or not it is, is obviously the words of a covenant child, i. e., one born to a believing home. He professes even a preborn experience of the promise of God: "All your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children" (Isaiah 54:13). Note that He doesn't say all children; rather, He says your children. Why the distinction? Because God claims the children of believers as His own (Ezekiel 16:20). Not that He promises that they are or will ever be regenerate, but that He distinguishes them covenantally from the children of pagans. We see it in His discrimination between the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. While Ishmael is the heir of the promise, He also blesses Ishmael because of his covenantal status (Genesis 17:18-21). Both sons are members of the visible church, while only Isaac is a member of the invisible church, a proviso that Baptists consistently fail to consider. 

That is why the Reformed baptize the children of our members. God has claimed them as His own, a great privilege! Therefore, they have a right to His covenant sign, baptism. I am not attempting here to explain the Catholic or Lutheran views of baptism; that is for them to do. But the Reformed do not assume the regeneration of our infants, contrary to the oft-repeated strawman argument of Baptists. We just give them the status that God has declared of them. 

The Nature of God: Biblical Versus the Corporeal Deity of Mormonism

"The right hand of the Lord does valiantly!" (Psalm 118:15).

The reference above mentions the right hand of God. We also see references to His arm and His back. Orthodox Christians call these references "anthropomorphisms," that is, metaphorical references to God as if He is a man, as an aid to human understanding. In other words, we say that they are never to be taken literally (apart from the true body of Jesus, but only as the result of His incarnation). 

In contrast, Mormons claim that they references are literally true, such that the Father has a literal, physical body, with hands, feet, hair, etc., and that the Son also had a body, even prior to His incarnation. On the other hand, their Holy Spirit does not have a body. As their scriptures say, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as man's; the Son also" (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). 

However, something else we see in the Bible is this: "The Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form - only a voice was heard... Give good care to yourselves, for you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you corrupt yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female..." (Deuteronomy 4: 12, 15-16). These verses are significant because they explicitly state that God did not reveal Himself with any form. In fact, Moses says, to represent Him with a form would be corruption! What I find even more significant is that He calls Himself Yahweh (represented here by the English word "Lord"), which I consider to be, not the Father, but rather the preincarnate Son in His mediatorial role. Whether or not one agrees, these verses plainly negate the claims of Mormons. 

On the issue of anthropomorphisms, that chapter contains another relevant reference: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today..." (Deuteronomy 4:26). Moses calls on the physical creation to witness the commitment undertaken by the people of Israel. Taken literally, that would require that heaven and earth be sentient. Yet Mormons make no claim that anthropomorphisms are literal in this case. 

Does that not prove that they recognize the validity of the orthodox view? They must deny it, however, because to accept it would bring down the house of cards which is their manmade religion in a single stroke. 

Jesus the Shepherd and Effectual Calling

"That saying of Christ is much to our purpose: 'And other sheep I have, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice' (John 10:16). This must imports a duty not to be dispensed with. He had 'received a commandment for it from the Father' (verse 18), and this shall [imports] that effectual working 'whereby He subdues all things to Himself,' and whereby they are made to believe (Eph. 1:19). The sheep of themselves lie as cross to this work as other men. 'What have I to do with Thee?' cries the possessed Gadarene (Mark 5:7), but, being His sheep, He must make them willing (Psalm 110:3)." - Elisha Coles, "A Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty" (emphasis in the original). 

A common Arminian objection to the doctrines of grace is their claim that "God has given us free will." And by that phrase, they mean a level of sovereignty, such that each man is able to chose God for himself or to reject God for himself, and God takes a hands-off attitude toward that decision. 

First, there is no such sovereignty. On the contrary, it was a false offer of sovereignty that Satan made to Adam and Eve in the first temptation. Satan said that a declaration of independence would enable them to decide for themselves what is good or what is evil. Yet, somehow, Arminians are unconcerned that their claim is the same as that made by Satan, by which he deprived the first couple of their blissful existence in the garden of Eden. And second, nowhere does the Bible say that men have any such authority. It is God's authority alone to determine right and wrong. 

Notice the scriptural citations in the quote above from Puritan Coles. Jesus is the shepherd, and His people are sheep. In the anti-type of that metaphor, it is the shepherd who selects his sheep, not the sheep who choose a shepherd. So it is with Jesus's sheep. His flock consists of those given to Him by the Father in their prehistoric intra-Trinitarian covenant (John 6:37-37). And, as Coles notes, Jesus never left the result to the sheep. Rather, He declared His divine intent, one which must be achieved, and the means shall be arranged, and the sheep will be brought into their eternal fold. Not once does the divine shepherd express a mere hope that the sheep will agree or that His calling would achieve its end. Rather, He expresses an unfailing assurance that such will definitely be the case: "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day" (John 6:39, see also John 17:24).