Rejoice, rejoice, my soul,
Rejoice in sin forgiven;
The blood of Christ hath made thee whole,
For thee His life was given.

For thee His blood was shed,
On Him thy sins were laid;
To bear thy guilt He bowed His head,
And now thy peace is mine.

Rejoice in peace made sure,
No judgment now for thee;
Thy conscience purged, thy life secure,
More safe thou cannot be.

Thy Savior is the Lord,
Who died to set thee free;
Thy trust is in His faithful word,
He liveth now for thee.

Rejoice in joys to come,
The hope of glory near;
He’ll soon return to take thee home,
No cause for thee to fear!

Now, by the Spirit sealed,
Rejoice in God the Lord;
The mighty God is now thy shield,
And He thy great reward.

Thy song of triumph raise;
Exult with heart and voice;
Oh shout aloud His glorious praise!
Rejoice, my soul, rejoice!


Sir Robert Anderson

A word on the Beatitudes - 3

Isn't there any application in the Beatitudes for us today, then?

Of course there is — because "all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 2:16-17). But in order to apply it correctly, we must first remember who the audience is, the circumstances of the particular portion of Scripture, AND that Scripture isn't always written directly to us or about us.  For the Beatitudes, the audience is believing Jews who are still under the Law, and the circumstances are — the kingdom is at hand.

So keeping this in mind, let's look at the following beatitudes:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:4).

We can apply this verse to ourselves in a general way.  Remember, prophecy tells us that Israel will one day repent and turn to Christ and mourn for all the years they didn't, and that this particular verse is referring to that and how they will be comforted when Christ reigns in the earthly kingdom.  However, we can apply this to when we were saved.  We too came to a point when we realized and mourned our sinful state before placing our faith in Christ's finished work on the cross for us.

This verse does not, however, give us permission to constantly dredge up every sin we remember committing between now and when we go home to be with our Lord and mourn over it. Never does Paul tell us to beat ourselves up over our sinfulness after we're saved.  In Romans 7 (cf. Gal 5:17) Paul acknowledges that he (and we) still sins — that a battle continues to wage between his "inmost self" and his "members" — but instead of mourning over it, he concludes that "I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin," and rejoices that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1)." And though continually admonishing us to keep putting off the old self and putting on the new (Eph 4:21-24; Col 3:5-17), he still tells us to — "Rejoice ALWAYS!" (1 Thes 5:16; Phil 4:4; cf Heb 10:1-12) 

This means that we shouldn't be mourning over our sins, then rejoicing, then mourning our sins, then rejoicing, etc.  What a vicious cycle to be in!  There is a difference, of course, between mourning temporarily about a sin we regularly fall into and mourning habitually about our sinfulness. The first is healthy, the second is not. Why?  Because in Christ we have already been forgiven all our sins — past, present, and future.  In Christ we are already clean!  So rejoice always in Christ!  (For more on this see "1 John 1:9" and "Complete in Him" and "I'm Clean!")

I like the way my late brother-in-law use to end his benedictions — "Leave Rejoicing in the Lord!"  Comforting indeed.

Let's look at another beatitude:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6).

We shouldn't assume that our Lord was speaking of imputed righteousness here, because the theme of Paul's epistle to the Romans was clearly not the theme of our Lord's message to the Jewish disciples.

Let's imagine again that we are one of these Jewish believers so that we can get a clear understanding of His message to them.  Under the rule of Rome, the people of Israel had to bear a lot of injustice and unrighteousness.  They suffered a lot of injustice and unrighteousness from their own religious leaders, too (Matt 23:1-7).  This, of course, caused many to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and in this beatitude our Lord promised that in His kingdom their hunger and thirst will be satisfied.

Jeremiah 23:5 confirms this interpretation of the passage because it says that our Lord, in His coming reign, will "execute justice and righteousness in the land."  Isaiah 11:4 tells us that He will "decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth."  In other words, he will judge in their behalf.  Isaiah 32:1 tells us that under His reign "princes will rule in justice," and Isaiah 26:9 that "the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."  In fact, Old Testament prophecy is full of promises and descriptions of the righteousness that will prevail on earth at that time.

But in Paul's epistles our Lord goes straight to the heart of the matter and explains that man's case is hopeless apart from redeeming grace. "Scripture," he says, "imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Gal 3:22), since "none is righteous, no, not one" (Rom 3:10).  In fact, he explains that the Law was given for the exact purpose of demonstrating man's unrighteousness (Rom 3:19) and his desperate need for a Savior.

BUT NOW the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:21-26).

"...not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Phil 3:9). 

Blessed for sure are those who hunger and thirst after this righteousness — righteousness that is not their own — for they will be satisfied!

Okay, last one:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt 5:9).

While the words "blessed are the peacemakers" apply to God's people in every age, the promise which follows certainly does not.  Today peacemakers are by no means always, or even generally, "called sons of God."  In fact, they're often called troublemakers.

But the whole passage does apply specifically to the kingdom which our Lord proclaimed "at hand" while He was on earth.  The  Messianic kingdom will be characterized by the peace that will prevail then.  When our Lord returns to reign, "He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isa 2:4).

In Isaiah 9:6-7 it says that Messiah is "the Prince of Peace," and that "of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end..."  But before international peace can be achieved there must be peace among God's people, and this is the theme of the Sermon on the Mount: the peace that flows from sincere love will one day flow from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

This peace we, as members of the Church today, should daily seek to foster (Rom 14:19), not in view of the kingdom being established, but as fellow members of the "one body" (Eph 4:3-6).

While there can be no international peace until our Lord returns to judge between the nations (Isa 2:4), the message that we have been commissioned to proclaim is one of "grace and peace," not peace among men, but personal peace with God, made possible by His grace.

The peace that men will enjoy under Messiah's reign will be largely destroyed again at its close (though the kingdom itself and His people will not be destroyed - Isa 9:7), as we read in Revelation 20:7-9.  But the peace that Paul's epistles proclaim will never be disrupted, because it is the gift of God's grace through the finished work of Christ, "who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 4:25-5:1).

Not only do we by faith have "peace with God," but we also by faith have access to the "peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" (Phil 4:6-7).

May God help us to fulfil our commission to proclaim reconciliation and peace to a world at war with Him, so that many more may come to know "peace with God" and "the peace of God."

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:14-21).

A word on the Beatitudes - 2

In my last post I talked about how the direct audience of the Beatitudes was Jewish believers.  Now I'd like to go into greater detail about why our Lord preached them.  In Matthew 5:17, a mere few verses after the Beatitudes, He clearly states His objective:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Of course we now know that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law for us in two ways:  He obeyed the Law perfectly in His life, and He took all our sin upon Himself and thereby died as a sinner in order to pay the penalty of the broken Law for us in His death.  Our Lord was most likely alluding to these truths when He told these Jewish believers that He had come to fulfill the Law, but I don't believe they were His main emphasis.  Here's why:

1.  It isn't until much later, in Matthew 16:21, that we read: "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."  So in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount (which includes the Beatitudes), He couldn't have been specifically speaking of His coming death for sin.  Nor should we read into it what Paul later tells us of imputed righteousness, because we are clearly told that when Jesus began to tell His disciples about His coming death and resurrection, Peter rebuked Him for thinking He would be killed (Matt 16:22), and none of the twelve understood what he was talking about (Lk 18:34).

2.  Matthew 5:17 corresponds to the message which He and His apostles had been preaching — "the gospel of the kingdom."  This kingdom, long prophesied and graphically described in the Old Testament, will be based on the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, which was based on the Mosaic Law.  When our Lord reigns as King, and His subjects follow the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, the Law and prophets will be fulfilled.  Not only will God put His Spirit within them and cause them to obey His statutes and ordinances (Ezek 36:27), but the wonderful descriptions of Messiah's reign, called by Peter, "the times of refreshing," will also be fulfilled (Acts 3:19-21; Isa 32 and 35).

Comparing the Sermon on the Mount with Paul's epistles now, let's see what each contains and what each doesn't.  In the first, we find a wonderful way of life on earth proclaimed, but nothing about God's plan of salvation from sin by grace through faith in Christ alone. In the latter we find the message of abounding grace to sinners, but nothing about social reform, equal rights, communal living or anything of that sort. Paul makes it clear that with the rejection of Christ this world was doomed to judgment, but that God in grace delayed the judgment of Israel and the nations so that individuals might find forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ, who died for our sins (Rom 11:32-34; cf. Eph 1:7; Rom 3:24).

In other words, during the kingdom reign of Christ on earth — when the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes are fulfilled —righteousness will reign (Isa 32:1, 16-17; 61:11; Jer 23:5-6).  But now — though the days are evil (Eph 5:16) and godlessness grows (2 Tim 3:1-9), though righteousness is trampled upon (Heb 10:29) and Christ remains an exile (Heb 1:13; 10:12-14) — GRACE REIGNS!  This is not because He is being lenient, but rather righteous; i.e. the righteousness of Christ is paying the penalty for our sins, so that it is now a righteous thing on God's part to justify the believing sinner.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26).

To those of you who have not yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ's death on your behalf, there is still time to respond. God is patiently extending grace to all who will believe. 

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Rom 9:22-24) 

He won't be patient forever, so please take Him up on His offer now while you still have the chance.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

A word on the Beatitudes

The Beatitudes, which are part of the Sermon on the Mount, can be found most completely in Matthew 5:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt 5:3-12) 

Many people who read these beatitudes, however, fail to ask the basic questions: "To whom was our Lord speaking?" "What were the circumstances?" "Why did He preach them?"  Applying them to all men alike, they say that this is the way we ought to live.  But emphasizing good works will never reform fallen human nature, and it's a big mistake to think that this was the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount.

So to whom was our Lord speaking?  Was He speaking to all men?  Not at all, because not only was He "sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," He clearly instructed His apostles to "go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 15:24; 10:5-6).  He wasn't even speaking to the people of Israel as such at that time, because we read that "seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain" and that there He addressed "His disciples" (Matt 5:1).  All through this sermon our Lord distinguishes His disciples from the world, even the religious world, around them.

He certainly wasn't addressing the members of the Body of Christ because much of what He said doesn't and can't be directly applied to us today. The merciful today don't always obtain mercy; those who mourn are by no means always comforted; peacemakers are not generally called the children of God, and certainly the meek don't inherit the earth. They've never inherited it since these promises were first made.

Actually, the Sermon on the Mount — and especially its Beatitudes — is one of the strongest evidences that the Body of Christ was still a mystery "hidden for ages in God" as Paul so often tells us (Eph 3:1-11; Col 1:24-2:2), because our Lord addressed His disciples, the remnant of believers in Israel, as if the prophesied time of tribulation were imminent and the establishment of His kingdom were soon to take place.

Try to picture the scene back then among the Jewish believers. The prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Messiah had been fulfilled — He had actually come, and the establishment of His kingdom was "at hand." This is why John the Baptist, our Lord, and His twelve apostles all went about proclaiming the same message: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 3:1-2; 4:17; 10:7). Theirs was "the gospel of the kingdom," not "the gospel of the grace of God," and certainly not "the preaching of the cross."

The Beatitudes, then, give us the characteristics of those who will be heirs of the kingdom to be established on the earth one day.  Against this background, let's look at a few of the Beatitudes individually and see how perfectly they harmonize with "the gospel of the kingdom" which our Lord and His apostles preached.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3).

The millennial kingdom will be made up, not of those who are spiritually smug, but rather of those who realize their spiritual need.  Pride will not be tolerated under the reign of Christ.  Rather His kingom will be built on humility and love.  Today, however, we are not asked to be anything to inherit a position in Christ, only to trust in Him who died for our sins.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt 5:4).

This promise is particularly significant in light of Old Testament prophecies and Pentecost, because mourning has a special relation to Israel's latter days. This is clear when we look at the ministry and message of John the Baptist, our Lord on earth, and the twelve apostles. They all came proclaiming to apostate Israel to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Instead of repenting, however, Israel crucified her Messiah.  In response to our Lord's prayer on the cross for their forgiveness (Lk 23:34), God gave them another chance at Pentecost when Peter offered them the return of Christ if they would repent (Acts 2:38; 3:19-21).  But again, rather than repent they stood their ground, even stoning Stephen to death and waging war against the disciples of Christ.

According to prophecy, Israel will one day repent and mourn.  In that day Israel will finally respond to God's call to repent and turn to Christ, and friends and neighbors, even husbands and wives, will be ashamed to look at each other as they mourn over their long rejection of Messiah. 

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves" (Zech 12:10-14).

Many other Old Testament Scriptures tell us that Israel will not be saved until she turns in repentance to her crucified Messiah (Zech 13:1; Isa 51:11-12; 40:1-2; 61:1-3).  These passages agree with the words of our Lord in Matthew 24:30: "...and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."  They also agree with Revelation 1:7: "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen."

But is this how we are saved today?  No, because God interrupted the prophetic program and sent Paul to proclaim to all men that God had enthroned grace (Rom 5:20-21), committing to him "the gospel," the good news, "of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24).  Unlike Peter at Pentecost, Paul doesn't charge men with the crucifixion of Christ.  Rather he says, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). 

In Romans 5:10 Paul even makes the amazing statement that "we [once enemies] were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."  Whereas, according to the prophetic program, the cross made the enmity between God and man (Ps 2:1-5; 110:1), Paul says that according to God's eternal purpose the enmity was slain by the cross, i.e., He counted that death the payment for our sins, so that He could "preach peace" to us Gentles "who were far off and peace to those [Israel] who were near (Eph 2:16-17).

In Paul's message, our Lord is no longer seen as a victim—even a voluntary victim—at Calvary, but as the victor over Satan, sin, death, and the Law. "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col 2:15), at the same time He took the Law, "set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Col 2:14).  It is He who, at the cross, paid the penalty for our sins and delivered us from the fear of death (Heb 2:14).  Where do we find any of this in the Sermon on the Mount?

Okay, one more:  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matt 5:5).

It's very possible that our Lord chose these words from Psalm 37:11 where we read: "But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace."  Obviously our Lord spoke these words with the kingdom in view because the meek certainly don't inherit the earth today.  When this promise was made the Roman Empire was ruling with brutal force, and during the centuries that followed, tyrants like Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Josef Stalin have acquired large portions of this earth by taking them.  But when our Lord returns to reign, the meek will indeed inherit the earth. 

While it has not been promised to us that we will inherit the earth (see previous post about this here), we have been given a position in the highest heaven in and with Christ.  By grace God has seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6) and has there already "blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing" (Eph 1:3).  Some day, in changed and resurrected bodies, we "will be caught up" to meet and be with Him forever (1 Thes 4:16-18; 1 Cor 15:51-52).  What a wonderful day that will be!


(to be cont)

When Trials Come

Sometimes life gets overwhelming  — money problems, health concerns, family tensions, etc. — but in it all God is with us.  Even more, He is working through all these things to our benefit (Rom 8:28-30).

When trials come no longer fear
For in the pain our God draws near
To fire a faith worth more than gold
And there His faithfulness is told
And there His faithfulness is told

 

Within the night I know Your peace
The breath of God brings strength to me
And new each morning mercy flows
As treasures of the darkness grow
As treasures of the darkness grow

 

I turn to Wisdom not my own
For every battle You have known
My confidence will rest in You
Your love endures Your ways are good
Your love endures Your ways are good

 

When I am weary with the cost
I see the triumph of the cross
So in its shadow I shall run
Till He completes the work begun
Till He completes the work begun

 

One day all things will be made new
I'll see the hope You called me to
And in your kingdom paved with gold
I'll praise your faithfulness of old
I'll praise your faithfulness of old

by Keith and Kristyn Getty

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpScEpriWZs

 

WWJD (What would Jesus do?)

We often hear that a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ, and that it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you are following Him. There are few things to keep in mind regarding our Lord Jesus' life here on earth, though.

When He was eight days old He was circumcised (Lk 2:21).

He was born UNDER THE LAW (Gal 4:4) and came to fulfill the law (Matt 5:17-18).

He recognized the authority of those who were in the LAW SEAT while here on the earth (Matt 23:1-3).

When He was thirty years old, AS HIS CUSTOM WAS, He attended the Jewish ‘LAW’ services in the Jewish synagogue on the SEVENTH DAY JEWISH SABBATH (Lk 4:16).

In Luke 12:33 He said, "Sell your possessions, and give to the needy." (For more on this, see Sell Everything.)

In Matthew 10:8 He said, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons."

In Luke 6:30 the He said: "Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back."

He said, in Matthew 6:17, "But when you fast, anoint your head and WASH your face." Then in Hebrews 9:10 we are told that the WASHINGS were imposed on the Jews until THE TIME OF THE NEW ORDER.


In 1 Corinthians 11:1, however, we are told to be imitators of Paul as he followed Christ. (See also Phil 3:17). Christ was speaking in Paul (2 Cor 13:3). Members of the Body of Christ today are not in the will of God in following Jesus of Nazareth in much that He did and said while on earth. In fact, they cannot intelligently follow Jesus Christ unless they follow the truth revealed by Christ to and through Paul.

Acts 17

It's been a rather overwhelming couple of months.  I haven't been blogging because I've either been out of town, sick, and/or extremely busy.  To jump back in, I thought I'd post this quote by C.R. Stam talking about the seventeenth chapter of Acts.  If you've been following my bible study blog — justme2 — you'll have already seen this.  But because I think it's so good, I'm bringing it over to this blog, too.


"At the synagogue in Thessalonica Paul reasoned out of the Scriptures for three sabbaths (or weeks) with men who were unwilling to listen, with the result that only a few (Gr. 'certain') of them believed, while 'a great multitude' of the Gentiles believed. What Paul preached was new to them and they refused to consider it, letting the Gentiles put them, God's chosen people, to shame ... The Athenisans went to the other extreme. They lost interest in what was old and clamoured only to hear the new. Yet if what they heard did not appeal to them some 'mocked' while others said, more politely: 'We will hear thee again of this matter,' with the result that there too the fruit was meagre ... Significantly, the record of the Bereans comes between those of the Thessalonians and the Athenians. The Bereans possessed the true spiritual greatness to give man's word a respectful hearing, whether old or new, and then to subject it to an examination in the light of God's Word. The result was that 'therefore many of them believed,' in comparison with few of the Thessalonians and the Athenians."

"If there is anything this passage teaches it is that every believer is responsible to examine even the best teaching in the light of the Scriptures, that every preacher should expect his teachings to be so examined and should thank God for those who do this. Indeed, it is a sign of a lack of spiritual greatness when men of God resent Scriptural examination of their teachings by their hearers. The purity of the Church, doctrinally, depends not upon loyalty to the dogmas of the Church, but upon the maintenance of the Berean spirit among the people of God ... Let us never close our minds so as to keep error out, for in doing so we will only shut new light out and close old errors in. Moreover, it is but a small step from shutting out new light from God's Word to engaging in bitter opposition to it ... How this lesson is needed in the professing Church today among preachers as well as hearers! Modernists cast away precious treasures of the Bible, explaining that they are old and out of date, while Fundamentalists, clinging to old truth (and error) reject new light simply because it is new! Modernists vie with each other to keep up to date, intellectually, while Fundamentalists vie with each other to be orthodox, when both should make it their aim to be Scriptural, bowing in faith before the Word of God."


I couldn't agree with him more!  How about you?