Idolatry: Are we idolators?

Acts 17:16: Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

Idolatry is defined in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary as: 1 the worship of a physical object as God. 2 immoderate attachment or devotion to something
Worship is defined in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary as: 4 extravangant respect or devotion to an object or a thing. The etymology of the word worship in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary is described as coming from the middle english word worshipe meaning worthiness, respect, reverance paid a divine being.

I heard a sermon series by Alistair Begg titled City of Idols ( you can find it on his website for free) several months ago, Mr. Begg put forth the premise that just like Paul was troubled in spirit while in Athens over their many idols, it was said there were more idols in Athens than there were people, Paul would equally be troubled if he visited the United States of our day. I agree with everything Mr. Begg spoke forth in his sermon series, and I especially agree with his main point that our country is saturated with idolatry. You, the reader might be saying to yourself, as you are reading this blog post, that our country is not full of idols that people are bowing down to and worshipping constantly, but I say au contrare, taking into account the above mentioned definitions, we our far greater idolators than the people of Athens. The people of Athens spent a good deal of their time just trying to live, they did not have all the modern gadgets we have to save time on the daily essentials of living. So the people of Athens, though extraordinary idolators in Paul's eyes, would pale in comparison to the amount of time that we, the citizens of the United States, devote to our idols. What are our idols here in the United States. Well, why don't we make a short list, not listed in any particular order: Money, recreation, television, sports and those who play them, movies and those who star in them, our children (we are constantly catering to their every imagined need), our cars, our homes, our success, our status, and many more objects or things that we elevate worthiness, respect, and devotion to that is far above the time we are giving to in our pursuit of God and His kingdom.
Exodus 20: 3 (ESV) states You shall have no other gods before me. This opening verse starts the listing of the Ten Commandments given to the children of Israel by God. God concerned for His worthiness, His absolute holiness, and His deserving of His creation's devotion, respect, and worship, listed this commandment first and foremost as the most important expectation of His creation. So in our modern day culture, we worship, devote time to temporal things, and respect everything else but our creator. We are guilty before Him of the worst sort of idolatry. Why is our idolatry worse than those in Athens, and all the other pagan cultures that went before, or since, because in our country, we absolutely should know better. We have more bibles than people in any other nation or culture, a church on almost every street corner, God's Word being preached constantly on t.v., radio, and the internet, and yet we serve our modern day idols with far more zeal than all those who have gone before us. We pay token lip service to God, making the occasional fly-by visit to one of His houses of worship, in pursuit of our real Gods of money,sex,power, status,pleasure and recreation, television, movies, sports, our children, and unfortunately, the list could go on and on. I have heard it said, that what we value most, is what we will worship. And many of us obviously value the previous listing of our modern day idols more than God. I encourage you, do a radical self-analysis of who or what you are worshipping. I did. And I was convicted that I needed to adjust how I was using my time. Make sure that you are not an idolator, a worshipper of things other than the Living and Eternal Creator of the universe, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. If you are, the place of repentance is just a few feet below your knees right now. Cast yourself on the ground and call out to God and ask His forgiveness, give Him His worthiness, His rightful devotion, and His just respect. And while you are there, knowing your fallenous, and your sin, ask Him for the help to start worshipping Him as He should be worshipped.

Free Will, Man's sovereignty, God's Intervention

I received an excellent e-mail from a Pastor in southern Indiana, named Rick Lauterbach, that I consider worthy of posting on my blog. I met Rick several years ago at U.P.S. and he immediately impressed me with his knowledge of Christianity. At the time, he was not a Pastor yet, but he was attending school to serve Christ more effectively. Now he is a bi-vocational pastor, he still works at U.P.S., pastors his congregation in southern Indiana, and now is attending Southern Seminary in Louisville to attain another Master's degree, and he hopes a doctorate. You can see from his e-mail, he knows his doctrine. So please read his reply to the subject of God's sovereignty in salvation, man's free will, and our ability to achieve relationship with God on our own ability.

Kevin

The idea of free will as the bible depicts it is quite different from the concept of free will as most people hold to. A fully sovereign God does not have to bow before the will of his creatures as many suppose. Libertarian free will is outside of the biblical understanding. Men are held responsible before a holy God for their sin, while at the same time being unable in their fallen estate to cause their own rescue. God holds them guilty of their own sin, not the sin of someone else. Every soul is in its original estate is damned. The grace of God rescues those he has by his election set aside for redemption according to his purposes. The only problem someone could have is that they would say it is unfair not to offer salvation to everyone. The problem is if he did so and left everyone to their own conscience all would perish and none would be redeemed. Is God unjust because he has saved some and allowed others to perish? God is judging sin in both the elect and the non elect. Christ suffered an eternity for each of his beloved and those that have not been atoned for will suffer through out eternity. Is God unjust because he acts according to his will and not as a man? Proponents of libertarian free will believe in someones right to choose, just not the right of God to choose. Everyone believes in limited atonement - we just differ on who is doing the limiting. Libertarian free will ultimately believes those that come to Christ were somehow either smarter, better, or more deserving of Gods grace. I hope I didn't make it less clear.

Blessings


Rick Lauterbach

Pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

What about Free Will?

It did not take long for my blog posting on the doctrine of sovereign choice or as it is more commonly called the doctrine of pre-destination to elicit the question "What about free will?". There are multiple scriptures and whole passages within the bible that speak to the subject of the free will of man. However, I believe that it must be stated at the front of this blog that the answer to the question,"What about free will?", needs to be addressed directly and very emphatically. MAN DOES NOT HAVE FREE WILL! I was convinced of this after reading a book by R.C. Sproul several years ago,one of the most famous and well respected theologians in the modern Evangelical church. The book was titled "Willing to Believe". I read that book shortly after I had read another book by R.C.Sproul titled "Faith Alone". At the time I read those books I was a member of a Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel church. My views on the process of salvation were poorly grounded in teachings by non-seminary educated preachers. My understanding at that time, was that for a person to be saved or to be "born again", all was needed was a passioned presentation of the gospel by a witness using the Roman Road set of scriptures. Although those kind of Gospel presentations actually work, most of us do not know the why and the how of how it actually works. I did not know at the time that there was any real theological debate that was on-going among theologians over the process of salvation and the dynamics of all that the process actually entails. After my first reading of both books,my paradigm for understanding the salvation process was obliterated and forever changed. Dr. Sproul eloquently and comprehensively presented the different views of the salvation process, listing their strengths, and ultimately disproving all but the historical Reformed understanding of the salvation process.
Dr. Sproul pointed out that the main issue about the free will of man in choosing God can be reduced to this argument. Is man able to cooperate with God using his own determinate will in his own conversion or is man totally depraved, a slave to rebellion, blind to the presentation of the Gospel, and incapable of comprehending the words of Jesus Christ without initially being regenerated? The bible teaches that man is spiritually dead. And logically if you are spiritually dead you cannot communicate with the Living and Eternal God. The famous passage in John chapter 3:1-21 details the encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus and is the best starting point to discuss biblically man's participation in his own salvation. Every Christian is familiar with this passage, and a good many can even quote it, but the exposition of this passage is usually straight forward by most preachers and is not thoroughly unpacked in a complete and comprehensive way. In verse 8, Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, states: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.(ESV) I must point out that just as the wind blows where it wishes,(another word for a determinate will), the wind's "will" is compared to the will of the capital S Spirit, which is referring to God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings new life where He wishes. Simply stated God chooses who is born again. You cannot even approach God with out Him first choosing you and drawing you (John 6:65). Jesus states emphatically in verse 3: Truly, truly,I say to you,unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (ESV). To describe the vista and the beauty of the Rocky Mountain National Park to someone who was born blind is impossible. They have no frame of reference of vision, or of seeing at all to base their interpretation on. In the same way, without out God acting in a monergistic way to "open and heal our spiritual blindness", there is no frame of reference for a spiritually dead man to choose Him. So, to conclude my part of the argument for man's will being free in the choosing of God, dead men do not choose. Only men who have already been regenerated by God will believe.

See Romans chapter 9, Ephesians chapter 1,John chapter 3, John chapter 6, Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 5, the calling of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, an idolater from the land of Ur, the story of King David's anointing by Samuel to be King, David was the 8th son of Jesse, and he was a sheepherder, read the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis, the calling of the disciples of Jesus, the conversion of Paul on the Damascus road, Acts chapter 13, and verse 48 specifically as some beginning readings to meditate and understand God's sovereignty in choosing who serves Him. Also, there is an excellent link at http://monergism.com/ that has many articles on classical Reformed theology. Dr. Russell Moore's paper at predestined-to-what-why-the-doctrine-of-election-is-so-hard-to-believe at Moore to the Point web page. Dr. Moore is an associate Pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville and an academic Dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. See all the sermons on Romans chapter 9 by John Piper at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/.

Appointed to Believe

In Acts 13:48 in the ESV translation it states: And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed(italics mine) to eternal life believed. The context of Acts 13:13-48 describes the preaching of the Gospel to the people of Antioch by Paul and Barnabus. The passage details that when Paul and Barnabus first entered Antioch, they entered the synagoge on the Sabbath day, and Paul preached the Gospel, beginning with the earliest days of Israel's history declaring the activity of God in bringing about His purpose for His people, Israel. Paul rehearses the work of God in the people of Israel's life right up to the story of Jesus and His resurrection. Those who heard the Gospel begged Paul and Barnabus to come back and preach again at the next Sabbath. The text states that the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. In verse 45, though the text states that when the Jews saw the crowds, they were moved with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul. So Paul and Barnabus boldly spoke to them that it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to the Jews first, but since they refused the Gospel, they would go to the Gentiles and preach the Gospel. And that is how the text arrives at Acts 13:48 describing the rejoicing of the Gentiles and their glorifying of the word of the Lord. The last part of the verse states: as many as were appointed (italics mine) to eternal life believed.
The word appoint is defined, in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, to mean, to fix or to set officially or to name officially. This part of our text in Acts 13:48 serves to establish and communicate the doctrine of election. The doctrine of election, simply stated is the sovereign choice of God, based on His right as the Creator God, to choose or elect who will believe in the Gospel and who will not. In Ephesians 1:11 in the New Internation Version, it states: "In him we were also chosen (italics mine), having been predestinated according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will," further attests to the same right of God to choose who will believe and who will not. Another verse giving even more weight to the absolute need for God to make it possible for a person to believe is John 6:65, where Jesus is teaching his disciples states: ... "that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."(ESV)
I hope this post helps to stimulate the reader, to search the scriptures for themselves, and to see if what is written by this author on the doctrine of election, or to be said another way, the doctrine of the Lord's choosing, is true.

Sovereign Grace

This is the first post on my blog. So to set the tone for the blog, I will state that first and foremost, I desire to serve Jesus Christ through any writing or information displayed here. I hope that the postings that are found here prove to be thought provoking and will stir passion in the readers. I hope that the passion that is stirred encourages the readers to pursue Jesus more diligently, study more diligently, and serve Jesus more diligently.
My background as a believer begins at the age of 18 as far as the point in time that I first professed Jesus as my Lord and Savior. But, I believe, based on a Reformed understanding of theology, that the Lord chose me before the foundations of the Earth somewhere in eternity past. I believe that He pursued me and drew me to Himself based on His sovereign grace alone and on nothing that merited any favor from Him based on my worth or actions. In fact, my life testifies that God did not choose me based on my works. My works were definitely deserving of eternal separation from God and punishment for eternity in Hell. I would go further to say that any thing that I did that would be considered good was done for the wrong motives and for selfish reasons. So to state it in another way, I was depraved, bankrupt of any righteousness, and just plain "basically evil"( thanks Daniel Montgomery for that vivid descriptive term, http://sojournchurch.com/ ).
In later postings I will more thoroughly recap my testimony. I want this blog to exalt Jesus every time it is written and read. I owe Jesus everything, not because I could ever pay Him back, because I could never do that, I owe Him everything because He is my God and Savior. He is worthy of my best praise, my eternal worship, complete respect, and every honor. He is all that is beautiful, He is the lifespring of all that is, He is eternally sovereign. He is Alpha and Omega. He is Lord. He is the First-born from the dead, He is the cornerstone that the buiders rejected, He is, was, and forever will be God, with God His father and God the Holy Spirit.


Kevin L. Rhea