Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Faring Well Under the Final Cycle

In my most recent post, I outlined the five cycles of divine discipline to a client nation unto God. An understanding of the concept of client nations and the concept of the five cycles of discipline is necessary in order to make sense of this present post. (Click here to read about client nations and the five cycles of divine discipline.)

I’ve been teaching for almost 20 years that our client nation is under the cycles of discipline per Leviticus 26:14-39. On the morning of November 5, after the people of our nation elected Barack Obama as the next President of the United States of America, I concluded that I must now teach with the assumption that we are under the final cycle: that is to say, I will no longer teach that the final cycle is coming but rather, the final cycle is here. I may be wrong about this—and I hope and pray I am wrong—but for the sake of practical application, the perspective from which I communicate Bible doctrine will assume the final cycle is already here—unless I find reason to assume otherwise.

I did not determine we are under the final cycle because Obama was elected. (By the way, when he takes his oath of office, he will be my President, and I will pray with thanksgiving for him, per 1 Timothy 2:1-2. I will also pray that the Lord will guide our new President with wisdom as he begins the difficult task of fulfilling his office in these very troubling times.) No, it was not because Obama was elected. The change that is bringing our nation to its knees took place long before Election Day. In fact, the nomination of both candidates vividly reflects the change that has long been taking place in the thinking of our society. This change did not begin with this election, or even with the socialistic bailout eagerly rammed through by Congress and hastily signed by President Bush. My favorite historian, Clarence B. Carson, aptly entitled his final volume of the history of the United States, covering the period of 1929 through the time he completed the work in 1985, “The Welfare State.” Carson maintained that a major thrust toward the welfare state came very suddenly in 1933, in the midst of economic crisis, when Congress, urged by the President, “…asserted the authority of the federal government over the American economy in an unprecedented fashion.”[1] What was planted in 1933 has grown to fruition in 2008.

I’ve recently been teaching the congregation here at Finished Work Fellowship the principles of free enterprise indicated clearly in the Bible, and how socialism is an out-and-out defiance of biblical truth. But the present condition of the USA is not only a result of our nation becoming socialistic, but is also about our negative attitude toward the military establishment, our decline in morality, and many other factors: above all the negativity of Christians toward Bible doctrine. As Colonel Bob Thieme, Jr., used to say: “As goes the believer, so goes the nation.”

Well—what now? What do we have to look forward to as believers in Christ? Let’s consider some instructions God gave His people in the southern kingdom of Judah as to how they should operate as their nation was destroyed. When the fifth cycle hit Jerusalem, it was horrible, as the fifth cycle always is. There was murder, rape, plunder, and starvation, the likes of which even caused cannibalism (Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20). Many of the people were rounded up and transported to Babylon. Before the destruction came, God provided instructions for those who would be exiled to Babylon:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
"Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.
Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.
They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the Lord.
This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:4-11)

God was saying in effect: “Move on with your lives!” In spite of the very difficult and challenging circumstances that awaited God’s people, He still had a wonderful plan for them and would provide for them even when their enemies held them captive. When the number of spiritually mature believers (and those advancing toward spiritual maturity) is no longer large enough to sustain a client nation through the principle of blessing by association (Genesis 18:23; 39:5), the Lord’s attention turns toward providing for those believers as the nation falls. Of course, those believers who are killed in the destruction go home to be with the Lord in God’s perfect timing (Hebrews 9:27). Those who survive will face the unique challenges of enslavement to a foreign power or a tyrannical regime of some sort. However, human enslavement, whether to a single master or an oppressive government, does not prevent the believer in Christ from experiencing extreme blessing from God, nor does it hinder a believer from fulfilling the wonderful spiritual life bequeathed from God. Perhaps there is no better illustration of this than in Paul’s first epistle to the believers in Corinth:

Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are also able to become free, rather do that. (1 Corinthians 7:21)

In the time and place in which Paul wrote, slavery was sanctioned and regulated by Roman law. In fact, slaves accounted for a very large portion of the population. When Paul suggested that bondservants should become free if they are able to do so, he did not mean to run away or to rise up against their masters and demand their freedom. That would not have been consistent with passages such as Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-24; 1 Timothy 6:1-2 and Titus 2:9. Futhermore, in Paul’s letter to Philemon he certainly did not defend Onesimus for running away from his master. Paul’s suggestion for slaves to become free, if possible, was an encouragement to take advantage of any opportunity to be free that was legal. There were a number of legal means of manumission. Some slaves were able to save up their wages and purchase their freedom. Sometimes a master would specify in his will that his slaves would be free upon his death. Sometimes a master would free his slaves during his own lifetime, and there was even a special ceremony involved. Also, if a slave was taken into slavery by illegal means (such as kidnapping), a legal plea, Causa Liberalis, could be brought be brought before a magistrate so that freedom might be restored. But notice what Paul said to those who might remain bondservants for the rest of their lives: “Don’t worry about it!” Why? Because from the point of spiritual regeneration until going home to be with the Lord, the issue for the Christian is not whether he or she is under human slavery—but, the issue is the fulfillment the spiritual life—and clearly, being subject to a limitation of human freedom is not an obstacle to the fulfillment of the spiritual life. In fact, the testing involved in human slavery may even be a catalyst for the fulfillment of the spiritual life—that is, it may accelerate spiritual growth. By extension, we can infer that being enslaved by a corrupt, oppressive, massive and out-of-control government, or being enslaved by a conquering nation, is not an obstacle for the execution of the spiritual life, and likewise may be a catalyst.

For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. (1 Corinthians 7:22)

The word “freedman” is a translation of the Greek word apeleutheros, one freed away; that is one who was a slave, but has been made free. Before receiving eternal life in Jesus Christ, you were in spiritual death and in bondage to the kingdom of darkness as well as your own sin nature—but Jesus Christ freed you the instant you believed in Him! Regardless of what your condition may be with regard to human slavery, or how limited your freedom might be because of oppressive government, you are able to walk about in the spiritual life at liberty, unhindered by anything. You are able to serve whatever human masters you are under according the principles in the Word of God that apply to your situation, and the good news is that there is no opposing force that the spiritual life cannot withstand. Although a nation can destroy its own free enterprise, as our nation has done, the free enterprise of the spiritual life goes on!

Finally, notice in verse 22 that, paradoxically, even if you might be extremely free under human conditions, you are designated as a slave—a bondservant—of Jesus Christ. As Paul goes on to say in verse 23, and as he had pointed out in 6:20, you are not your own—you were bought with a price. So, we are not only free to fulfill the spiritual life—we are obligated to fulfill it! Yet, one benefit of being a slave of Jesus Christ is that a master is responsible to take care of his bondservants and provide for them—and while many masters in the Roman Empire did not treat their slaves well, our Master is characterized by perfect integrity—and His care and provision are perfect. Furthermore, thank God that being Christ’s “slave” is only one of designations that apply to the Christain. We are also God’s children (John 1:12); and if we obey the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are His friends (John 14:15).

As the human institutions come crashing down around us, there is no reason for “gloom and doom.” It is actually a very exciting time to be alive!

Footnotes:
[1] Clarence B. Carson, A Basic History of the United States (Wadley: American Textbook Committee, 1986) Vol. V, p.1.
Scripture quotations from Jeremiah 29:4-11 taken from the NIV.
Scripture quotations from 1 Corinthians 7:21-22 taken from the NASB.
http://www.lockman.org/

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The Five Cycles of Divine Discipline

A client nation is a nation which is assigned to represent God on the earth through custodianship of the Gospel and Bible doctrine. Such a nation is sustained by a nucleus of mature believers on whose account the nation is preserved through the principle of blessing by association (Genesis 39:5). Israel is the unique client nation in all of human history, because she is the only nation to which God has given covenants, and also because she was the first and will be the last client nation unto God.

In Leviticus chapter 26:1-13, God promised that the people of the unique client nation would experience great blessings if they were obedient to His Word. In Leviticus 26:14-39, divine discipline is promised to the nation if the people are disobedient. The divine discipline of a client nation is parallel to the divine discipline of an individual child of God (Hebrews 12:5-11; 1 Corinthians 11:30). God disciplines each believer in Christ for disobedience as parents should discipline their children for disobedience. However, unlike human parents, who sometimes make mistakes as to when and how they discipline their children, God’s discipline is always perfect.

The discipline God specified for His covenant people in Leviticus 26:14-36 for failure to comply with divine truth involved five distinct cycles. The discipline would intensify with each cycle with the intent that the people of the nation might change their minds and return to fellowship with God.

While the specific features of these cycles were specified to one nation only (the nation of Israel), application in principle may be observed in all declining client nations throughout history. The fourth and fifth cycles are covered in detail throughout the Scriptures and are apparent in the decline of nations in both secular and biblical history. Is the Lord's discipline always administered in five distinct cycles? Not necessarily--but no client nation has ever survived a continuous rejection of God’s authority and no nation ever will.

When a client nation is under the cycles of divine discipline, adjustment is called for in two categories: the attitude of the general population toward the divine principles of establishment regarding things as freedom, morality, rule of law, the understanding of freedom through a strong military, the punishment of criminals (including capital punishment for murder (Genesis 9:6); and two, the attitude of believers in Christ in the nation toward Bible doctrine. Let’s take a look at the first cycle of discipline specified for client nation Israel:

But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,
if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,
I in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up.
“I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.” (Leviticus 26:14-17)

The covenant that Israel was expected to obey included all of the legislation from the Law of Moses and the teaching of doctrine that came from the Lord during that dispensation. Believers today are not under the Mosaic Law, but are responsible for learning the whole realm of Bible doctrine and fulfilling the unique spiritual life of the present dispensation. Notice in the first cycle the deterioration of mental stability and the loss of inner peace and confidence.

As to the useless sowing of seed, we must recognize that the Bible must be understood in the time during which it was written. In our present era of industry and technology, this Bible passage may apply to all businesses and corporations even though they may not be agricultural in nature. The seed could be viewed as the capital invested in the business. Here is the second cycle:

“If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. “I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.
“Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.” (Leviticus 26:18-20)

The purpose of the first cycle was to warn the rebellious nation to make the appropriate adjustments. In verse 19, the problem is arrogance. The number “seven” in verse 18 speaks of the completeness of God’s program of discipline. He knows the perfect degree of intensity for each cycle and applies it. In verse 20, regardless of how great the ingenious any human solution may be, it will all be in vain, because of the perfection of divine chastisement!

The nation has been given the opportunity to respond between cycles, and upon failure to do so, more intense discipline is applied. Loss of national power and loss of production occur even though a great amount of human strength is expended.

“If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. “I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted.” (Leviticus 26:21-22)

The second cycle was followed by another gracious opportunity to respond, but failure to comply is followed by another cycle. The third cycle is marked by a general inability to control the earth and the beginnings of great desolation. Here is the fourth cycle:

“And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me,
then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.
“I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
“When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.” (Leviticus 26:23-26)


Sufferings become intensified under the fourth cycle. There are increased attacks by enemies and an influence of foreign influence. The fourth cycle is also characterized by a very severe economic crisis. National sovereignty dwindles. Before the southern kingdom of Judah went down to the fifth cycle under the Chaldeans, Judah had been controlled by the Assyrians and then for a short time by Egypt. The first two invasions of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans are understood to be under the fourth cycle. In 606 B.C., right after Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt, he invaded Jerusalem, but did not demolish the city. Jehoiakim, king of Juda, was allowed to remain on the throne. Daniel was taken to Babylon during this siege as a hostage, along with others. In 598 B.C. there was a second invasion and captivity of Jerusalem. It was at that time that Ezekiel was taken captive to Jerusalem.

“Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,
then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.
“Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.
“I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you.
“I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.
“I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.
“You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
“Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
“All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
“As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.
“They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies.
“But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies' land will consume you.
“So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.” (Leviticus 26:27-39)

Even after the fourth cycle, there is opportunity to respond, which would cause the disastrous circumstances to be reversed. Through adjustment to the Word of God, it is just as easy to go back to prosperity and blessing as it is to keep heading toward destruction. But when it is too late, the nation goes down to utter military defeat. The northern kingdom of Israel went under the fifth cycle to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Because at times in the southern kingdom of Judah there was some positive volition toward doctrine, the southern kingdom lasted about 135 longer than the northern kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem a third time in 586 B.C. and devastated the city. The fifth cycle includes things like cannibalism (verse 29), which occurred in the southern kingdom under the fifth cycle, and also in restored Judea under the fifth cycle again in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was under the siege of Rome. The fifth cycle also involves the assimilation of surviving nations into other nations and cultures. The fifth cycle of discipline to a nation is parallel to the sin unto physical death of an individual believer (1 John 5:16).

When a client nation comes under the final cycle of discipline, the Lord turns His attention toward the nucleus of believers that is positive toward the Word of God. The number of these believers is no longer large enough to preserve the nation, and though they will be under very difficult and challenging circumstances, God will be faithful to them, just as He was to the exiles and survivors of client nation Judah.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. http://www.lockman.org/

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Angelic Conflict and the Appeal Trial of Satan

A dispensation is a particular arrangement by which God regulates the way human or angelic beings relate to Him. Apparent in the Bible is the fact that history contains a divinely planned succession of unique arrangements. Through the diversity of the dispensations, angelic and human beings have been, are now, and will continue to be tested in various ways.

There is some debate on just how many dispensations there are and where they are divided on the timeline. Yet no matter how the dispensations are divided or subdivided, there are two very key dispensations which are completely overlooked by many (but certainly not all) dispensationalists. These administrations are: (1) the Dispensation of Angelic Testing, and (2) the Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity.

The Dispensation of Angelic Testing

The Dispensation of Angelic Testing explains the very reason man was created in the first place. Although this divinely appointed arrangement took place prior to the dispensations of human history, it must, nevertheless, be classified as a dispensation. At some time before the creation of the universe, God created the angelic host. The universe, including earth, was created to be inhabited by the angels. The Bible tells us that all of the sons of God (angelic beings) shouted for joy when God laid the foundation of the earth (Job 38:7), the creation described in the first verse of the Bible:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

The word for "create" in Genesis 1:1 is bara. Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament explains the importance of this word:

This verb is of profound theological significance, since it has only God as the subject. Only God can "create" in the sense implied by bara. The verb expresses creation out of nothing, an idea seen clearly in passages having to do with creation on a cosmic scale. All other verbs for "creating" allow a much broader range of meaning; they have both human and divine subjects, and are used in contexts where bringing something or someone into existence is not the issue.[1]

Bear in mind, for future reference, that bara is the word used for the creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1, and that this word is not used again in the Genesis account until the creation of animal life in 1:21.

The first dispensation of human history, which operated from the creation of Adam to the fall, is often referred to as Innocence. But there was a very important age before the first dispensation of human history. Before the creation of the man and woman, which initiated the Dispensation of Innocence, God the Son created the original universe, including the earth. He created the material universe out from nothing. And remember, the angels had already been created when the foundation of the earth was laid (Job 38:7), so the creation of the angelic realm obviously preceded the creation of the material universe.

Angels have the ability to travel back and forth from the presence of God to various places in the universe. They were delegated the authority to rule in the universe, and they were apparently assigned various responsibilities as well. Lucifer was given territory in the original Eden (Ezekiel 28:13). There is no reason to assume that this Eden was not in the same location as the later Eden. It was during this time that Lucifer solicited a rebellion against God:

" '…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.' " (Isaiah 14:14)

Lucifer's own immense beauty had obsessed him, and he had apparently become occupied with approbation and admiration from his fellow creatures, until he resolved to be like God Himself. This resulted in a revolt, in which approximately one third of the angels were effectively seduced by Lucifer (Revelation 12:4). The rebellion was centered upon one tiny planet in the universe: Earth, where Lucifer had been assigned and given dominion. The revolt of Lucifer brought the earth into a state of chaos. The earth was enveloped in darkness and became chaotic. This is shown in the second verse of Genesis:

And the earth was formless and void… (Genesis 1:2a)

The verse begins with a disjunctive clause. "And" would more accurately be translated as "But," followed by the verb hayah in the qal perfect, "became." "Formless" is tohu, formlessness, confusion, emptiness, a place of chaos. "Void" is bohu, emptiness, or waste. A better rendering of Genesis 1:1-2a would be:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
But the earth became a state of chaos and waste…

We know that in the beginning (when the heavens and the earth were originally created) the heavens and the earth were not created in a state of chaos and waste. Isaiah verifies this:

For thus says the Lord who created [bara] the heavens
(He is the God who formed the earth and made it,
He established it and did not create [bara] it a waste place [tohu],
But formed it to be inhabited),
"I am the Lord, and there is none else." (Isaiah 45:18)

It was after the original pristine creation that the earth plunged into chaos. Although there is much speculation on the nature of the earth both prior to and during the chaotic state, there is not really much Biblical information describing it. Suffice it to say that the chaos was the result of a test; that is, a failed test! The Dispensation of Angelic Testing was failed through the negative volition of Lucifer and the angels he led into conspiracy. Ever since negative volition was expressed by Lucifer, there has been a great war raging between the forces of God and the forces of Satan (a name ascribed to Lucifer since his rebellion). We refer to this warfare as the angelic conflict.

As a result of Lucifer's rebellion, Lucifer and his coconspirators have been sentenced to the Lake of Fire (Matthew 25:41). This everlasting fire has been prepared for them because of their revolt, and we know that the sentence will be executed at the very end of Christ's one thousand year reign over earth (Revelation 20:10). This will mark the end of the last dispensation of human history, which will in turn launch the beginning of a new heaven and earth.

The Appeal Trial of Satan

Now the fact that there is so long a delay in the execution of the sentence imposed upon Satan appears on the surface to be at odds with a divine standard given in the book of Ecclesiastes:

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)

Granted, this verse imparts a principle of establishment for the human race, but it is a divine standard nonetheless. Why, then, is there such a long delay in the carrying out of God's sentence upon the fallen angels? We would have to deduce one of two possibilities: Either God is unjust and fails to fulfill His own principles, or, an appeal was filed by Satan, and the justice of God is allowing this appeal. Since the former is unthinkable, we are really forced to conclude the latter! Human history runs concurrently with this appeal trial. We cannot possibly understand our purpose as human beings, or God's will for our lives, or why there is suffering, or a number of other things—unless we understand the nature of the angelic conflict and the appeal trial of Satan. And it is only through these doctrines that we can understand the significance of suffering for the believer in Christ.

Satan As His Own Attorney

Since his fall, Satan has been acting as his own attorney, attempting to gather enough evidence to win his case on appeal. This Hebrew word satan means "an adversary." It comes into the Koine Greek as Satanas, and carries the same meaning. Satan is God's courtroom opponent. The Greek word that is translated "the devil" is diabolos, a slanderer or false accuser. He is referred to as the adversary in 1 Peter 5:8, which is antidikos, literally, an "opponent in a lawsuit."[2] Satan's defense strategy is "the lie" (Romans 1:25). He contends that the justice of God is inconsistent and arbitrary. The case he tries to establish could be summarized in this way: "How could a loving God send His creatures into the Lake of Fire? God is not fair!" Satan is the quintessence of the victim mentality. He seeks to prove that under the right circumstances any and every created being with free volition would have made the same choices he did. He has refused to accept the responsibility for his own decisions and actions.
We have seen how the earth became a state of chaos and waste (Genesis 1:2a). Let's continue in verse 2:

...and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:2b,c)

From Genesis 1:2a on, what the Bible describes is not the original creation, but the restoration of the earth from its chaotic state. The earth is a very insignificant part of the universe, spatially considered. But it is this tiny speck in God’s universe that is the focus of the Scriptures because of its prominence in the conflict which began long before human history. The six-day creation account in Genesis describes the restoration of planet earth. This restoration has actually provided a courtroom for Satan's appeal trial. But now, a second category of creatures has become involved: the human race. We referred to the first dispensation of human history as Innocence, because when the man and woman were created and placed in the garden, they were in a perfect environment which was established for them through the restoration of the planet (Genesis 1:2c-25).

The perfect environment of the restoration is a replication of the environment in which Lucifer originally sinned. The human race is made up of creatures who are inferior to angelic beings in terms of power and intellect—yet they resemble angels in that they have capacity for thought and choice. The dispensations of human history always involve the testing of free volition, and they make up the means through which the appeal trial of Satan is conducted. In fact, human history should be seen as an extension of the angelic conflict. Volition toward the prohibition against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the issue in the Dispensation of Innocence. In the subsequent dispensations of human history, the issue is volition toward the Gospel followed by the volition of the believer toward the spiritual life. In fact, Satan's attack during his appeal trial is on human volition in those two critical areas. Angels have already made their crucial decisions, so he does not attack angelic volition. He cannot directly attack deity, or God's sovereignty, or divine volition. Satan's battle is for the mentality of the human soul.

The Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity

As we have seen, the Dispensation of Angelic Testing is one of the two dispensations that are commonly neglected by dispensationalists. The other is the Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity. The Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity was the special administration under which the humanity of Christ pioneered a unique spiritual life. At His birth, Jesus entered humanity in what theologians call the Hypostatic Union. This comes from the Greek word hupostasis, "...a taking of a thing upon one's self; an assumed position...."[3] The Hypostatic Union is the term used to describe the reality that in the person of the incarnate Christ there are two natures. These natures are inseparably united, yet there is no mixture or loss of these separate identities. In the Hypostatic Union there is no diminishing of the attributes of either nature. His deity is eternal, and from His birth into the human race Jesus has existed, and continues to exist, as both total deity (John 8:58) and total humanity (1 Timothy 2:5).

The Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity is an administration which is recorded in the four Gospels. The time period[4] involved began with the virgin birth of Christ and terminated with His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the Father in heaven.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7)

"Emptied Himself" is well translated, coming from the aorist active indicative of kenoo, to empty. Arndt and Gingrich translate: "...he emptied himself, divested himself of his privileges...."[5] God was self-limited in function during the Dispensation of Christ's Unglorified Humanity. Entering the human race in true humanity, the Second Person of the Trinity limited Himself by submitting to the plan of the Father, which included undergoing grueling examination by Satan for the purpose of testimony in the appeal trial. As Jesus underwent this testing, He was required to refrain from using His own deity and to instead rely upon a system provided by the Father which included the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the intake and application of doctrine. In Luke 2:52, as Jesus grew physically, He also grew spiritually by assimilating doctrine under the continuous filling of the Holy Spirit. He accomplished this as He set aside the privileges that accompanied His deity and subjected Himself to parental authority, governmental authority, and the spiritual authority prescribed for Judaism at that time. When He reached spiritual maturity, Christ's spiritual life was vindicated by the testimony of His Father:

...and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Through this statement, Jesus was actually being presented as a witness for the prosecution in Satan's appeal trial. He was a credible witness because of His impeccability up to this point, under the principle of freedom. In the Hypostatic Union, Jesus was the only truly free person to be born into the devil's world. After the man and the woman had failed the test of the Dispensation of Innocence (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6), every human being has inherited the sin nature from Adam (Romans 5:12). Christ, however, bypassed the problem of the inherited sin nature through the virgin birth. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35); therefore, unlike the rest of humanity, He had no sin nature. Jesus was thus free from the authority of the sin nature, from the authority of the devil, from the imputation of Adam's original sin, and from the condemnation of spiritual death. And He had now grown, as a human being, to spiritual maturity under the Father's care and provision, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to Him. Now it was time for "cross-examination."

The Cross-Examination of Jesus

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after He has fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2)


If this does not seem like that great a test to you, just try not eating for forty days! The hunger had to be excruciating.

And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." (Matthew 4:3)

Satan knew that Christ had the power to accomplish such a miracle. The deity of Christ was, in fact, sustaining the universe even as they conversed (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). Turning the stones into bread would have been no problem. Satan was attempting to get Jesus to operate independently of the plan of the Father. This would show that Christ's humanity could not depend on the Father's provision.

But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'” (Matthew 4:4)

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. The real issue here is not simply that Satan was refuted with the Word of God; but that Jesus, under the filling of the Holy Spirit, was applying Bible doctrine which he had incorporated into His human soul. Christ's deity could have instantly changed the stones into bread, or even pepperoni pizzas, had He wished. Miracles require only divine sovereignty, but Satan's cross-examination tested Christ's human response to the plan of the Father. Instead of frantically scrambling for an independent solution, Jesus, in adherence to the Father's plan, restricted the independent use of His deity. He did not summon a miracle. He applied Bible doctrine. Instead of speaking to the stones, He addressed Satan, thereby providing crucial testimony for the prosecution in Satan's appeal trial. Further testimony was provided in the two subsequent tests (Matthew 4:5-10). With this testimony He answered any and every possible argument from Satan, including the argument that under the right circumstances any being with free volition would, like Lucifer, have chosen against God. He also answered the argument of Satan which implies that the provision and the justice of God on behalf of His created beings are insufficient and inconsistent.

The Resolution of the Angelic Conflict

The Bible clearly teaches that Christ, in hypostatic union and continuously under the filling of the Holy Spirit, completely fulfilled the plan of the Father, utilizing only what was provided by the Father through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He accomplished this by using the system of problem solving that the Word of God creates in the human soul when it is received with humility and on a consistent basis. Bible doctrine in the soul actually creates its own system of problem solving. Christ thus fulfilled His very own spiritual life, becoming the "star witness" for the prosecution in the appeal trial of Satan.

But wait—there's more! There is another key concept in the appeal trial of Satan. The standard for this concept is found in Deuteronomy:

On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. (Deuteronomy 17:6)

This, like Ecclesiastes 8:11, is a principle of divine establishment for man; yet if God commands it for us, He does not violate it Himself! In order to be completely fair and consistent with His own standard of justice, God has provided for additional witnesses in the appeal trial of Satan.

...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith… (Hebrews 12:2a)

"Author" is archegos, "...founder … originator … the originating power…."[6] "Perfecter" is teleiotes, "accomplisher, finisher."[7] The noun "faith" is articular, pointing out individual identity. Jesus founded and completed the spiritual life which has been passed along to believers in union with Him. Jesus pioneered the unique spiritual life which functions on the filling of the Holy Spirit. Every believer during the present dispensation is immediately placed into union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, each believer receives the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9) and the option to be, moment by moment, under the filling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), which is the means of the fulfillment of the spiritual life which Jesus pioneered.

In accordance with the principle of Deuteronomy 17:6, believers who go on to fulfill the spiritual life pioneered by our Lord provide the additional witnesses for the prosecution which are required by the justice of God. Moreover, believers of the other dispensations have had, or will have, the potential to be witnesses as well, although the mechanics of their spiritual lives differ. And thus, the great question, "Why are we here?" has been answered. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict.

Footnotes:
1. Merrill Unger and William White, Jr., eds., Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament, PC Study Bible (Seattle: Biblesoft, 1992).
2. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 74.
3. Wesley J. Perschbacher, The New Analytical Greek Lexicon (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1990), p.422.
4. On the timeline, the Dispensation of Christ’s Unglorified Humanity ran concurrently with the later years of the Mosaic Dispensation. Christ was under the Law of Moses as were all of the Jews at that time. However, no other human being was under the dispensation Jesus was under as He was tested as to problem solving through the application of doctrine under the continuous filling of the Holy Spirit.
5. Arndt and Gingrich, op. cit., p. 428.
6. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), p. 252.
7. Ibid., p. 1770.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.
http://www.lockman.org/

This article is a revised excerpt from Then the Proconsul Believed: A study of the Acts of the Apostles, Volume I—Acts Chapters 1—13, by Lee Griffith, available free of charge, upon request.

Copyright © 2006 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.

The Mystery Man


TWO GREAT BODIES OF TRUTH

Following his conversion, Saul of Tarsus (later to be known as Paul) received, by direct communication from the ascended Christ, a continuum of revelation. This revelation came in progressive increments. (He describes these increments as "revelations"—in the plural—in 2 Corinthians 12:7.) He received them over a long period of time—perhaps thirty years or more. Paul conveyed to Agrippa that Christ had made it clear to him at his conversion that the Lord would continue to appear to him and disclose information:

"But arise and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you…" (Acts 26:16)

This continuum of revelation diverged into two basic categories, or bodies, of truth: The Gospel of the Grace of God, and the Revelation of the Mystery. The principle of these two revelations is described eloquently by Lewis Sperry Chafer:

"Unquestionably the greatest religious crisis in human history was experienced when, immediately following the death of Christ, the divine purpose was changed from the limitations of Judaism to the world-wide proclamation to Jew and Gentile alike of the infinite grace of God in and through Christ Jesus. The demand then was for a man who, under God, could receive the new divine revelation, formulate its doctrines, and contend for its claims. Saul of Tarsus was God’s chosen instrument and to him were given two distinct revelations. The first was of the gospel of the saving grace through Christ, which is stated thus: ‘But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 1:11, 12).
"The second was of the divine age in the out-calling of the Church which, so far from being a continuation of any previous plan for Jew or Gentile, is said to be a mystery or sacred secret which was hid in past ages. This new purpose was not merely that a blessing was determined for Israel or for the Gentiles—each of which has a large place in unfulfilled prophecy—but rather that out from both Jews and Gentiles a new heavenly company was to be formed. The Scripture states, ‘For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward; how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; … which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel’ (Eph. 3:1-6). The Ephesian letter is a revelation of God’s plan in and for the Church and is thus a development of the second revelation given to the Apostle Paul."[1]

THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD

The first revelation, that of Christ’s work on the cross for eternal salvation, is referred to as "the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24), "the word of the cross" (1 Corinthians 1:18), and "the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Sometimes Paul just called it "the gospel" (Romans 1:16; Philippians 1:12). At times, Paul emphasized the fact that it had been uniquely committed to him, using the first person singular personal pronoun, calling it "my gospel" (Romans 2:16; 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8).

This gospel was a new development in the good news of salvation for man—a development which could only be proclaimed after the cross! It is all about how the human race had been expiated, and how God had been propitiated, by the work of Christ on the cross. It is about how that work is the basis by which the righteousness of God is freely imputed to the believing sinner—and how this imputation is formally declared by a divine verdict (justification).

We must recognize that, though this message is the newest and most advanced development of the saving work of Christ, it is firmly anchored to the Old Testament predictions and types. This is why Paul wrote that the gospel message that he preached was about how Christ had died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Although the ascended Christ had revealed this gospel message directly and exclusively to Paul (Galatians 1:11-12), its roots are in the Old Testament. It is the full revelation of what the Old Testament had only pointed to. But it is a revelation of the same Person—and His work—alluded to in the Hebrew Scriptures. That is why eternal salvation has always been absolutely by grace through faith; totally apart from any works whatsoever.

THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY

On the other hand, the great mystery which was revealed to Paul was not according to previous Scripture! It was something new and altogether different from what had previously been conveyed to man about the plan of God. Paul summarizes this mystery in the third chapter of Ephesians:

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; (Ephesians 3:1-2)

"Stewardship" is oikonomia, a dispensation, or administration. Paul was the one who was chosen by God to receive the details of this entirely new spiritual economy and to impart them to the members of Christ’s Body. The Apostle Paul is to this present dispensation what Moses was to the dispensation of the Law!

…that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. (Ephesians 3:3)

The phrase, "…as I wrote before in brief…" refers to what he had written about this unique administration earlier in the epistle to the Ephesians, or perhaps even what he had written in earlier letters. Even Paul’s early epistles contained components of mystery doctrine (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51; Romans 11:25).

By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit… (Ephesians 3:4-5)

Notice that while Paul said this dispensation was given to him—and that the mystery was revealed to him—it has now (at the time Paul was writing to the Ephesians) been revealed to the apostles and other New Testament writers "…in the Spirit." "Spirit" is locative of sphere. They received the information, not by direct revelation from Jesus Christ as had Paul (Acts 26:16)—but by the time Paul wrote Ephesians, the other apostles and New Testament prophets were receiving mystery doctrine in the sphere of the Holy Spirit—that is through the teaching ministry and writings of Paul as illuminated by the holy Spirit—just like you and I receive Bible doctrine! Or, because "Spirit" is anarthrous (without the article), it is possible that Paul had the sphere of the human spirit in mind, which is also essential in the process of the illumination of God’s Word.

…to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel… (Ephesians 3:6)

At the heart of this great revealed secret is the blessing of the Gentiles in a completely new and different way. It was never a secret that God would bless the Gentiles. That is an important feature of the prophetic Word. The Gentiles will be blessed through the overflow of blessings to Israel under the New Covenant. But that Gentiles would be blessed on an equal footing with Jews—not through Israel’s agency—that is something without precedent in the Old Testament and even in the four Gospels.

…of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ… (Ephesians 3:7-8)

"Unfathomable" is anexichniastos, an adjective which means "untrackable" or "untraceable"—something the source of which cannot be searched out. The word is from the negative particle a, plus the preposition ex; "out from," plus ichnos; "a footprint." This mystery is "not out from footprints"—that is, it cannot be traced: There is no precedent for the mystery of Christ which Paul is describing! There is no place in the Old Testament Scriptures, or in the Gospels, where you can go to find something that points to, or even relates to, what Paul is writing about. The mystery cannot be traced to anything in the Word of God before Paul.

…and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things... (Ephesians 3:9)

Paul’s burning desire was not only that members of the human race would be saved, but that they would, after being saved, be enlightened as to the mystery which had been hid for ages and generations! Regeneration makes each believer of the present dispensation a candidate for the enlightenment of mystery doctrine—which is a radical departure from anything previously revealed by God to members of the human race. Because the great mystery is so radically different from what believers had been used to under the covenant program for hundreds of years is, perhaps, why people have such a hard time with the teaching of Paul. Since many Christians look to the Law of Moses, or the Sermon on the Mount, or Pentecost, as the basis of the spiritual life, they, quite understandably, do not see how Paul’s writings can possibly “fit in.” Brian J. Dodd illustrated this well when he wrote:

"An American bishop recently told me about a fellow bishop who proudly retired without having ever preached a single sermon from the writings of 'that Paul.'"[2]

After sharing his burden for the human race regarding the dispensation of the mystery, Paul affirms something which is quite wonderful—and which should cause every believer to pause and ponder:

…so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)

Mystery doctrine has great impact on the angelic theatre! In past times, angels have been involved in the teaching of human beings (e.g. Daniel 8:16; 9:21-22; 10:14; Luke 1:26-28)—but during the present dispensation, mystery doctrine is taught to angels through human beings who learn it as they fulfill the spiritual life.

Footnotes:
1. Lewis Sperry Chafer, The Epistle to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1991), pp. 13-14.
2. Brian J. Dodd, The Problem with Paul (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p.11.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. www.lockman.org

This article is a revised excerpt from “Then the Proconsul Believed: A study of the Acts of the Apostles, Volume I—Acts Chapters 1—13,” by Lee Griffith, available free of charge, upon request.

Copyright © 2006 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.

Evangelism Not Activism!

What does the Bible say about civil disobedience? Furthermore, is Christian activism an expression of the spiritual life of the believer in Christ? Let’s consider this subject in the light of an incident involving Peter and John in the book of Acts:

And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.
But when they had ordered them to go aside out of the Council, they began to confer with one another,
saying, "What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
"But in order that it may not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to any man in this name."
And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge;
for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:14-20)

Peter and John would not submit to the Sanhedrin’s request to stop preaching Christ. Although the authority of the Sanhedrin was greatly diminished during the Roman occupation, the Roman government, for political purposes, allowed this council quite a bit of jurisdiction to govern the affairs of the people. This is how the Jewish leaders were able to play such a large part in the persecution of believers in Christ. How ironic it is that the very officials who should have recognized and welcomed Messiah were committed to silencing those who would speak of Him.

The leaders of Israel were certainly out of line in commanding the disciples not to speak and teach in the name of Jesus. Jesus was, in fact, the One whom the leaders should have been obeying. No government, not even a Gentile government, is justified in attempting to suppress the gospel message or Bible doctrine. Christians are to always obey God over man. In times when freedom to evangelize is limited by the tyranny of government, believers are to continue to preach Christ. This calls for discretion and wisdom, and for sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Because of the rejection of divine principles of establishment by the populace of the USA, and because so many believers in this nation have rejected Bible doctrine, we may soon suffer economic collapse and military defeat, finding ourselves facing fierce oppression and persecution from an occupying nation. If this happens, believers must recognize that God will provide for believers who choose to fulfill the spiritual life. The plan of God will move forward, including evangelism and the dissemination of Bible doctrine, as it did through Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and others during the time which Judah was occupied by the Chaldeans. God will always be faithful to provide opportunities by which the lost can be saved and believers can advance in the spiritual life. And believers, regardless of what adversity there may be, must never compromise spiritual principles. All of us, at one time or another, will face a situation which will involve making a choice between what is God’s direct will and what is man’s. God never honors compromise!

On the other hand, believers in Jesus Christ are to realize that the spiritual agenda does not include Christian activism or civil disobedience for the sake of protest. Peter and John were not disobeying the instructions of the Sanhedrin to make a political statement or to cause political or social change. Nor were they lobbying to pressure the Sanhedrin into making conditions more favorable for believers in Christ. They were teaching and preaching Christ.

The ministry of Jesus as recounted in the gospels was never about political or social activism. Jesus totally rejected political clout as a means of advancing His agenda, because God’s love for the human race could not be revealed through the force of human legislation. Likewise, activism was never a part of the function of the spiritual community recorded in Acts.

THE CHRISTIAN NATION FALLACY

Today, those of the Christian right assume that Christians should be working to “take back this country.” They propose that if Christians work together, we can win back the control of the institutions that supposedly have been seized from them over the past decades. They are zealously attempting to establish (or supposedly return to) a “Christian nation.”

However, the very idea of a Christian state is ludicrous, because a genuine relationship with God can only occur through free volition with no compulsion of any kind. Only an individual can become a Christian. All attempts to establish a Christian state have reaped disastrous results. For example, when Constantine became emperor of Rome (AD 307-337), he became a self-styled advocate for the Christian faith. He bestowed many favors on the Church. The government began to provide money for the operation of the Church. The clergy became exempt from public service. By 380, Theodosius I issued an edict that established Christianity as the exclusive religion of the state. Punishment from the state was suffered by any who maintained another form of worship. As the Church became more and more politically powerful she plunged deeper and deeper into apostasy. The world seemed to be getting better and better. It looked as if Christ's kingdom had already come. Christians began to think it was the Millennium and that Christ would come back at the end of a thousand year reign of the Church to congratulate the Church for a job well done. What a contrast to the way Jesus had responded at the inauguration of His ministry, when Satan offered Him "all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory" (Matthew 4:8). The temptation to Christ's humanity was something like this: "Jesus, wouldn't Your ministry be much more effective if You have the support of human government at Your disposal?" Jesus never used human government to advance His work! The same was true of both Peter and Paul. Do you remember what Jesus said when He stood before Pilate?

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." (John 18:36)

In the Koine Greek, the word translated "of" is ek, "out from." Jesus was saying, "My kingdom is not out from this world system." He was not denying that His kingdom would be a political earthly kingdom when it is established. Far from it. He was asserting that the source of its establishment will not be human agency, including human government. The Messianic Kingdom will be given to the Son by the Father. It will come in God's timing, through the destruction of human governments (Daniel 2:44). In the meantime, the Kingdom of God does not ride on the coattails of human government!

THE CHURCH AND THE CONSTITUTION

Many in the Christian right maintain that the Constitution of our nation was designed to perpetuate a Christian order. They attribute the problems of America to the separation of the intended fusion of church and state. What many people do not know is that the Christian right wants to take us "back" to a USA that never was! The "Christian state" view they are pushing is not the concept that was held by the founding fathers, but rather the view of religious groups who governed some of the colonies prior to the framing of the Constitution. It was the tyranny of such administrations that our founders vehemently resisted!

Two of the most prominent figures of the founding generation of our nation, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, were students of the teachings of the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). Locke believed that the purpose of government is to protect life, liberty, and property, but not to propagate or defend religious truths or protect religious values. Locke's Letters Concerning Toleration had a tremendous impact on the minds of the colonists with regard to the importance of the separation of church and state. He observed that it is "necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion, and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other."[1]

While most of those who founded our nation were very concerned about protecting the proper role of government from religious tyranny, there were others who influenced the shaping of the Constitution, who understood the wisdom of the separation of Church and state from a different angle. There are many Americans today who, if they checked their history books, would be surprised to discover that there was actually an undercurrent of religious leaders within the colonies who were very determined to keep the church separate from the state. Perhaps the greatest influence on their thinking was the turmoil caused by a well known pastor named Roger Williams (1603-1683), the founder of the Baptist church in America and also the founder of Providence, Rhode Island.[2] Williams migrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631, before John Locke was even born. Quite the radical for his day, Williams criticized religious intolerance, insisting that the magistrates had no authority over an individual's religion, and he opposed a state church. He was banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1636, which led to the founding of his own colony. Though Williams believed that unbelievers might rule in governmental positions as capably as believers, his primary concern was not for the state, but for the church. He was convinced that the state could not touch anything to do with the Church without corrupting it. The surprising thing is that in church doctrine he was in agreement, for the most part, with those who had banished him. More than a century later, when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted, many religious leaders in the colonies had been persuaded by Williams' argument for the separation of church and state, and their convictions were surely known by our founders.

So, the principle of the separation of church and state, so fundamental to our Constitution, was derived not only from those who understood that a religious state would be tyrannical, but also from believers who were determined to protect the purity of Bible doctrine. Both camps were right!

And when they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which they might punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;
for the man was more than forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. (Acts 4:21-22)

Peter and John were thus providentially protected from immediate danger. God will protect and provide for every believer until it is time to go home to be with the Lord (Psalm 68:19-20). His protection and provision are not always the means we would choose for ourselves, but we can be sure of this: We will be sustained until it is time to go home to be with the Lord; and when it is time to go—it is time to go!

GOD REMOVES HEROD—WITHOUT ANY HELP

There is another event in the book of Acts which should help us consider Christian activism and the spiritual life. This takes place after Peter is supernaturally delivered from prison by God:

Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.
When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king’s country.
On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them.
The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!”
And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:18-23)

It is quite interesting how the arrogant ruler, Herod Agrippa I, died. Did it take Christian activism to bring him down? Absolutely not. In fact, there is a conspicuous absence of Christian activism in the New Testament. We don’t have to worry about changing the environment or changing society. We don’t have to worry about the resistance we will face, even from evil people in government, as we go forward with the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). God will remove any obstacles that need to be removed, while leaving some obstacles in our path to challenge us so that we can grow to spiritual maturity and provide testimony for the prosecution in the appeal trial of Satan.[3] God’s plan will go forward. If Christian activism is not the way to go, then what is it that believers should be doing? A.R. Knapp offers the biblical solution:

“Christians may be inclined to two distorted courses of action, or inaction, as the case may be. We are prone either to attempt to 'take America for Jesus' and try to force upon the American public the Christian ethic, which they are incapable of truly fulfilling without regeneration and the power of the Holy Spirit, or we may be tempted to simply wait for some inevitable institutional persecution which, we say, is required to purify the Church. First Timothy 2:1-4 suggests another alternative. It is actively supplicating, praying, petitioning God to intervene on behalf of all men, but primarily those in office or in positions of authority (in our own case in the U.S.A., those in the executive, judicial and legislative branches of our government) so that God’s divine counsel will sovereignly prevail as He guides the mentality and decisions of those civil leaders. The result of God’s intervention in this way, at the request of His priesthood (i.e. all believers in that nation who make up His spiritual house) (1 Peter 2:5), is the strengthening of the walls of His protective and providential institutions so that local churches, and true Christianity at large, may go on quietly and peaceably—not as loud political bullies, but as progressive, effective believers in Christ, fulfilling the Christian life as God designed it—operating in spiritual integrity and anonymity.”[4]

Consider the fact that when Paul wrote the passage cited by Knapp, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Nero was in authority over the Empire. Nero was one of the cruelest and most evil emperors. It was under the administration of Nero that Paul would eventually be executed, under the sovereignty and wisdom of God. That was God’s plan for His witness, Paul. During the years of Paul’s ministry, the Empire was under government that was very corrupt because of evil—yet Paul never suggested Christian activism as a solution—nor did Peter. As believers in Christ we have the wonderful privilege of participating in the fulfillment of God’s sovereign purpose through intercessory prayer, and through our ambassadorial function (2 Corinthians 5:20). Christian activism is the result of ignorance of what constitutes the spiritual life.

Even believers who are negative toward God’s word cannot hinder the plan of God from going forward—they only disqualify themselves from the greater blessings in both time and eternity that are received through positive volition toward His Word. Christians who are seduced into becoming Christian activists are some of the greatest losers of all time, because they are distracted from the spiritual life. Ironically, many of them go on for years thinking that their activity is fulfilling the spiritual life!

But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. (Acts 12:24)

The Word of God continued to go forward. Persecution did not stop the ministry of the Word of God.

Footnotes:
1. Quoted in Clarence B. Carson, Basic American Government (Wadly: American Text Book Committee, 1993), p. 149
2. The influence of Williams and his followers on the framing of our constitution is well documented in The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness, by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore, published by W.W. Norton & Company.
3. See article, “The Angelic Conflict and the Appeal Trial of Satan” on this website.
4. A.R. Knapp, The Tottering Lampstand (Pittsburgh: Greater Grace Church, 1989), pp. 133-134.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. www.lockman.org

This article is a revised excerpt from “Then the Proconsul Believed: A study of the Acts of the Apostles, Volume I—Acts Chapters 1—13,” by Lee Griffith, available free of charge, upon request.

Copyright © 2006 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.

The Peril of Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is alive and well throughout the nations of the world today, and unfortunately, the United States of America has not been exempt from this evil form of prejudice. No nation can afford to be anti-Semitic, and the Church is culpable for much of the anti-Semitism that has abounded in western civilization during the past two thousand years. A deficiency of Bible doctrine specific to the Jew’s place in the plan of God is largely responsible for anti-Semitism, past and present, in Europe and America. R.B. Thieme hit the nail right on the head when he wrote:

“No one, especially the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, should ever participate in anti-Semitism. The believer must understand the historical and future plan of God for Israel. Keeping the divine perspective in mind guards against any form of anti-Semitism. The assimilation of divine perspective comes from hearing and believing the message of the Bible.”[1]

MARTIN LUTHER AND THE JEWS

It is widely known that Jews were severely persecuted under the Roman Catholicism that dominated Western Europe during the Dark Ages. Protestants are often less aware of the historical impact which has resulted from the anti-Semitism of the central figure of the Protestant Reformation.

It was, without question, the teachings and activity of Martin Luther that provided the impetus which launched the Reformation. Luther was used by God to recover important Biblical truths which had been abandoned for centuries. The spiritual darkness of the Dark Ages had been the direct result of the suppression of truth, and Martin Luther’s work contributed much toward the deliverance of the Church—and indeed civilization—from a long period of historical crisis. Yet, it must be recognized (and those who nearly worship the reformers would do well to recognize) that Martin Luther was a sinner, saved by grace, whose sin nature operated in him (as it does in every one of us) until the day he died and went to be with the Lord. Furthermore, the words penned by Martin Luther were not inspired by the Holy Spirit. Luther’s words—all of them—should be judged in the light of the words which are inspired by the Holy Spirit!

Martin Luther had a problem that surfaced in his later years and entered into his writings—a problem that Protestantism has often attempted to sweep under the rug. Martin Luther was terribly anti-Semitic. There are circumstances in Luther’s life which evidently shaped his anti-Semitic outlook. In his early years he had been vocally pro-Semitic in contrast to many of his contemporaries. He produced a tract in 1523 that was favorable to the Jews, entitled “That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew.” He had been very optimistic about the Jews, expecting that in the wake of the turbulent historical changes that were transpiring, they would respond to Christ. However, after his attempts to evangelize the Jews failed, he became very disappointed and bitter—and very anti-Semitic. In 1543, Luther wrote an angry and vitriolic diatribe of considerable length entitled, “On the Jews and their Lies.” In it he bitterly lashed out at the Jews with some of the most vicious, bitter, and obscene rhetoric imaginable, including a seven point plan for dealing with Jews:

“What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves. Vengeance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:
“First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly—and I myself was unaware of it—will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.
“Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
“Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them….
“Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses … in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: 'what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord.' Those villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16:18, 'You are Peter,' etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the right to teach.
“Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home….
“Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
“Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3:19). For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”[2]

Martin Luther was a figure who is, with some good reason, revered by mainstream Protestantism. There are probably few Christians who are even aware of “On the Jews and their Lies.” Now granted, Luther was a very fiery and bombastic writer and speaker as was common in his time. There was, no doubt, some hyperbole involved in these rants. Also, it is certainly important to consider the work of an author in the context of his entire work, and in the context of the time and historical setting in which he wrote. Yet, is it any wonder that Jews might be suspicious of the motives of Christians—Protestant or otherwise?

After I had been away from my hometown for about fifteen years, I visited a Jewish friend and neighbor I had known since I was a little boy. Since I had last seen him I had believed on Jesus Christ, had graduated from a Bible college, and was involved in Christian outreach. When I told him I was now a Bible believing Christian, the first thing he asked me was, “Are you anti-Semitic?” Having learned some things since he asked me that question, I can now really understand why he would ask it.

FROM LUTHER TO HITLER

Luther’s anti-Semitism had far-reaching influence which has spanned a long period of time. Luther always remained a famous German hero, and Adolph Hitler exploited Luther’s popularity to his own advantage, quoting (though often misrepresenting) Luther’s writings to promote his own warped agenda. In his classic work, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," William L. Shirer contends that Martin Luther had a profound influence on the German people for both good bad—and that the bad influence reached down the generations of Germany, especially among Protestants, helping to pave the way for the tyranny of Nazi Germany:

“There is not space in this book to recount adequately the immense influence that Martin Luther, the Saxon peasant who became an Augustinian monk and launched the German Reformation, had on the Germans and their subsequent history. But it may be said in passing, that this towering but erratic genius, this savage anti-Semite and hater of Rome, who combined in his tempestuous character so many of the best and the worst qualities of the German—the coarseness, the boisterousness, the fanaticism, the intolerance, the violence, but also the honesty, the simplicity, the self-scrutiny, the passion for learning and for poetry and for righteousness in the eyes of God—left a mark on the life of the Germans, for both good and bad, more indelible, more fateful, than was wrought by any other single individual before or since.”[3] Shirer also noted:

“The great founder of Protestantism was both a passionate anti-Semite and a ferocious believer in absolute obedience to political authority. He wanted Germany rid of the Jews and when they were sent away he advised that they be deprived of ‘all their cash and jewels and silver and gold’ and, furthermore, ‘that their synagogues or schools be set on fire, that their houses be broken up and destroyed … and they be put under a roof or stable, like the gypsies … in misery and captivity as they incessantly lament and complain to God about us”—advice that was literally followed four centuries later by Hitler, Goering and Himmler.’[4]

So much hatred—so much tyranny—so much suffering; and objectivity would force one to conclude that Luther’s mindset regarding the Jews, in his later years, has certainly played a role in the way history has unfolded. Even some of the staunchest admirers of Luther are forced to admit that this was Luther at his lowest. But why did Martin Luther become so disappointed and disillusioned with the failure of the Jews to respond to Christ? How did he become bitter enough to engage in his anti-Semitic attacks? I would suggest that it was because he lacked dispensational understanding of the Jew’s role in the plan of God. Had the great expositor of Paul’s epistle to the Romans recognized the future of national and spiritual glory guaranteed to the racial species established through Abraham by God (Romans 11:12-15, 26-28)—had he recognized that the Mystery Dispensation is only a temporary departure from the prophetic plan, during which many, but not all, Jews will reject Christ (Romans 11:14, 25)—he would not have become disappointed by the response to the Gospel of many of the Jews in his time. He would not have become “arrogant toward the branches” (Romans 11:18); that is arrogant toward the Jews. It is not that anyone in Luther’s time was getting it right, dispensationally—but it is important that we learn from our own failures and the failures of others. As George Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.”

THE GREAT CLASSIC OF RACIST AND PARANOID LITERATURE

In between the time of Luther and Hitler’s rise to power, a document surfaced that fueled, and continues to fuel anti-Semitism. This document has ignited fear and hatred of the Jew for almost a century. This document, rejected as a forgery and a fraud by serious scholars, is known as The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. It is purported to be the confidential minutes of a secret Jewish conclave convened at the close of the nineteenth century. Naïve and gullible people, including doctrineless Christians, have been taken in by the fraud which is heralded as “proof” that Jews are involved in an ongoing plot to take over the world. The Protocols appeared in the very early years of the nineteen hundreds when a Russian monk named Serge Nilus edited several editions of the manuscript, each time providing a different account of how he discovered the document. The twenty-four sections of this booklet portray an alleged plot whereby the Jewish leaders would attain world domination by inciting revolution, by destroying Christian institutions, by disrupting education, etc. Reputable scholars, like Professor Norman Cohn, in his book, Warrant for Genocide, contend that this myth was actually invented from the inspiration of a nineteenth century political satire in France—in which the “plotters” were not even Jewish![5] The Protocols became a tool during the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 to incite anti-Semitism among the Russian people, which led to the slaughter of many Jews and even more publicity for the document. Hitler cited the Protocols in his propaganda, and the booklet has been published extensively throughout the world in many different languages. It is today used by neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and many in the Middle East who perceive an “international Jewish conspiracy.” You can find many duplications of the document from hate groups on the world-wide web.

HENRY FORD AND THE JEWS

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion has become highly publicized in the United States through an interesting source: Henry Ford. Henry Ford was a very complex and controversial figure, yet most would recognize that he has made some very important contributions to America. Amid all of Henry Ford’s greatness, his genius, his ingenuity, his values, his concern for the common man—there was a very serious flaw—that flaw was anti-Semitism. Neil Baldwin, in Henry Ford and the Jews, attributes much of Ford’s anti-Semitism to the Zeitgeist of mid-nineteenth century America:

“As early as the 1840s, while Grandfather John Ford was working the land in Dearbornville, a firm conviction was already in place among small-town Americans that they were an elect and favored people, doing God’s work. As Anglo-Saxons, most thought, they had come into a new territory that was their birthright to be cultivated ‘according to the intentions of the Creator.’”[6]

Baldwin notes that Ford, like so many American children, had been instructed and indoctrinated by McGuffey’s Readers, which, along with the great ideals and principles which they imparted, included a significant amount of prejudice against the Jew in stories such as “Shylock, or the Pound of Flesh” (from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, written during the 350 year expulsion of the Jews from England) and “The Good Son.”[7] In later life, Henry often expressed his gratitude for being reared up in “McGuffeyland,” and proudly quoted from these readers. Much of the American literature of this period was replete with subtle or overt ant-Semitism:

“The gospel of progress was synonymous with the Christian (generally Protestant) way during the ‘Great Century of Christian Expansion.’ Henry Ford recalled that he and his younger siblings were raised on a daily dosage of the American Tract Society’s The Illustrated Family Christian Almanac for the United States topping off the nightly fireside McGuffey readings. The almanac’s ‘Historical Tales for Young Protestants’ were classic representations in a widespread and popular genre of evangelical publications predicting, either implicitly or explicitly, that, sooner or later, the obsolete Jewish religion would give way entirely to ‘the new Israel’ of America. Who, the little boys and girls learned catechistically, was the ultimate symbol of persecuted goodness? Christ. And who persecuted Christ and crucified our Lord—as the grand old hymn had it? The Jews…”[8]

The Protocols began to be widely publicized in the United States through the efforts of Boris Brasol, a former Czarist prosecutor.[9] Henry Ford was taken in by the far-fetched conspiracy theory, and in 1920, The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper owned by Ford, published an American version of the Protocols in a series of articles entitled The International Jew: the World’s Foremost Problem. These articles were later republished in book form. A half a million copies were circulated in the USA, and the books were also translated into several different languages. Hitler is reported to have read The International Jew while in prison, where it influenced his book, Mein Kampf.

One Dearborn Independent article lauded The Protocols as “too terribly real for fiction, too well-sustained for speculation, too deep in its knowledge of the secret springs of life for forgery.” “The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on,” Ford stated in 1921. “They have fitted the world situation up to this time. They fit it now.”[10]

Of course Jews and many others were outraged by these articles and put a lot of public pressure on Ford. Prominent lawyer Samuel Untermeyer described the effects of the circulation of The International Jew:

“Wherever there was a Ford car there was a Ford agency not far away, and wherever there was a Ford agency these vile libelous books in the language of the country were to be found. They, coupled with the magic name of Ford, have done more than could be undone in a century to sow, spread and ripen the poisonous seeds of anti-Semitism and race hatred. These articles are so fantastic and so naïve in their incredible fantasy that they read like the work of a lunatic, and but for the authority of the Ford name they would have never seen the light of day and would have been quite harmless if they had. With that name they spread like wildfire and became the Bible of every anti-Semite.”[11]

Despite the many complaints, The Dearborn Independent continued to attack the Jewish race. In 1927, the paper printed accusations against Jewish lawyer Aaron Sapiro and a number of Jewish bankers and merchants. They were allegedly seeking to control the nation’s wheat farming.[12] Sapiro sued for defamation, and finally, Ford publicly apologized to the Jews as a group and to individuals. Though he apologized for the articles, and even closed The Dearborn Independent, there are many who distrust his sincerity, as he later, in 1938, accepted from Hitler’s Nazi government, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle.[13] Whether or not his sentiments were genuine, it is a fact that The International Jew is still at large, especially on the web sites of hate groups on the internet, inciting anti-Semitism in a new generation.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO US?

Neither Luther’s nor Ford’s anti-Semitism represents real Christianity. The hostility these two great men had toward the Jew was not even consistent with the many principles of truth that both of them espoused. Furthermore, Ford’s anti-Semitism certainly did not represent the America he loved and greatly contributed to. What is the most important lesson of all of this to us? Anti-Semitism among Christians is spawned by the ignorance of dispensational specificity in Bible doctrine, and the results can be far-reaching. The Bible clearly delineates the important place of the Jew in the plan of God.

Footnotes:
1. R.B. Thieme, Jr., Anti-Semitism (Houston: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 1991), pp. xii-xiii.
2. Martin Luther, “On the Jews and Their Lies” in Internet Medieval Source Book, ed. Paul Halsall, 1987, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther-jews.html
3. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), p. 91.
4. Ibid., p. 236.
5. Anti-Defamation League, “Anti-Semitic Myths,” 2002, http://www.adl.org/special_reports/protocols/protocols_into.asp
6. Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), pp. 27-28.
7. Ibid., pp. 2-3.
8. Ibid., p. 28.
9. Anti-Defamation League, op. cit., http://www.adl.org/special_reports/protocols/protocols_international.asp
10. Anti-Defamation League, “The International Jew: Anti-Semitism in the Roaring Twenties Revived on the Web,” 2000, http://www.adl.org/special_reports/ij/print.asp
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. www.lockman.org

This article is a revised excerpt from “Then the Proconsul Believed: A study of the Acts of the Apostles, Volume I—Acts Chapters 1—13,” by Lee Griffith, available free of charge, upon request.

Copyright © 2006 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.