<BrethrenVoice> <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <22 August 2002> Contents: --------- (1) <Exhortatory> "On Rousseau and Pascal" - Ravi Zacharias (2) <Exhortatory> "Four truths every Christian should know..."-E.C Hadley (3) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-10)- A.W.Pink (1) <Exhortatory><Slice-of-Infinity> ON ROUSSEAU AND PASCAL Ravi Zacharias One of the principle aspects of Jesus' teachings is his poignant understanding of human nature. In fact, Christ's appraisal of humanity is undoubtedly one of the distinguishing features between Christianity and other worldviews, evident even in our political and cultural theories. Consider the two perspectives of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal on human nature. Rousseau opened his book The Social Contract with these well known words: "Man was born free; and everywhere is in chains." Rousseau believed that humans are inherently good; yet he saw that goodness did not prevail. His political theory described social contracts that would capitalize on this innate goodness. But such notions were soon overturned in the flames of the French Revolution. Any philosophy that assumes that man is innately good finds its optimism ever disappointed. History continues to show us this. In distinction to Rousseau's estimation of human nature, listen to what Blaise Pascal said: "It is in vain, oh men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for all your miseries. All your insight has led to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you discover the true and the good. The philosophers promised them to you, but they were not able to keep that promise...Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth...Those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have cast you down in the other abyss by making you believe that your nature is like that of the beast and have led you to seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals." (Footnote 1: Blaise Pascal, The Mind on Fire, ed. James M. Houston (Portland Oreg.: Multnomah, 1989), 115) Is Pascal right? What he is saying here is that we tend either toward thinking that we are like God, or that we are beast-like. So then who are we? Jesus taught that we are essentially superior to animals, but immeasurably less than God. The contrast in both comparisons is one of kind, not just degree. Jesus clearly taught that our wills are bent in rebellion against God, the only source of goodness, but that we can know the working of God's goodness in our lives when we acknowledge our rebellion and seek Him. Rousseau said, "Man was born free; and everywhere is in chains." Jesus teaches us that man is born in chains, but everywhere can be free. --- Copyright (p)(c) 2000 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. ______________________________________________________________________ (2) <Exhortational> FOUR TRUTHS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SALVATION E C Hadley Many believers are frustrated and troubled about their walk, sometimes doubting their salvation because of so much failure in their lives. The following four truths about salvation should be helpful to anyone with such thoughts. Truth 1: Forgiveness --------------------- When we come to the Lord Jesus as sinners and accept Him as our Savior, God forgives our sins and justifies us because of the shed blood of Christ (Rom. 3: 23-26). When Jesus was on the cross, our sins were laid on Him and He took the punishment for them. There is no more judgment for sin for all who accept Christ as their Savior. Every sin that comes into our lives has already been judged and punished when Christ died for us on the cross (Isa. 53: 5-6; Heb. 9: 28; Heb. 10: 12-14). Perhaps someone might say, "If that is true it does not make much difference whether we continue to sin or not." But it does make a tremendous difference, because there are three other truths to consider about salvation. Truth 2: A New Nature ----------------------- When we accept Christ as our Savior, God not only forgives us and justifies us, but He also gives us a new (divine) nature. We are born again we become God's children (1 Peter 1: 23; James. 1: 18; 2 Peter 1: 4). This new nature loves God and hates sin; it makes us desire to live without sinning and makes us feel miserable when we do sin. No born again Christian can be truly happy in sin. But someone asks, "Why do I do sinful things if I have a new nature? I really do not want to do them, but even with all my good intentions I eventually give in and do them again." We not only have a new nature that hates sin, but we also still have the old (sinful) nature that loves sin. There is a conflict going on within us. The old nature wants to sin but the new nature wants to please God. Besides this, we have consciences which tell us that what the new nature wants is right, and what the old nature wants is always wrong. But we find all too often that the old nature, with its desires and lusts for sinful things, is the strongest in time of temptation. It carries us away captive and we do those things which our new nature hates and our consciences denounce. After it is all over we regret it and resolve that we will never do it again. However, it just seems as if we don't have any strength to resist temptation. What is to be done? Here is where the third truth of salvation comes in. Truth 3: The Holy Spirit ------------------------ When we accepted Christ as our Savior and were born again, God gave us His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts (Eph. 1: 13; Gal. 4: 6). This Holy Spirit pours out the love of God in our hearts and causes us to feel the peace of Christ in our souls. As a result, we are happy! (Rom. 5: 1-15). But when we give way to sin, the Holy Spirit is grieved. He cannot give us joy, because that would encourage us in those sinful things which He hates. He is one with God the Father and Son in His hatred of sin and love of righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4: 30). The Holy Spirit is given to us not only to pour out the love of God in our hearts. He also gives us power to say "No!" to the desires of the old nature, and to yield ourselves to the will of God, doing those things that please Him. "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). It is just like Peter walking on the water. As long as he was counting on the Lord to hold him up, all went well; but the very moment he noticed that the wind and the waves were rough, he became afraid and began to sink. In our Christian experience we must count on the Lord to hold us up each step of the way by the power of His indwelling Spirit (Matt. 14: 24-31; John. 15: 4-5). Truth 4: Fellowship -------------------- Salvation brings us into fellowship with God. There is a happy feeling between God as our Father and us as His children. We can enjoy hearing what He has to say to us by His Spirit through His Word. We feel free to talk with Him about all our troubles, just as a child is free with his earthly father whom he knows loves him. He makes us happy by his smile. However, when a child disobeys, he knows his father will be displeased. Instead of a smile he has to experience discipline. The relationship between father and child has not changed, but the fellowship and the happy feeling between them has been broken. So it is with our heavenly Father. When we sin we are still His children. It is also true that Christ already took the judgment for that sin; it has been put away by His sacrifice on the cross. But fellowship with our Father and with our Savior is broken and the Holy Spirit is grieved. The Father has to rebuke us for our disobedience and perhaps even chasten us, especially if we continue in it. If we come to Him with confession, humbled because of our sin and disobedience, then we can experience His forgiveness as a father forgives his child. Fellowship is restored and we feel free and happy in His presence again (1 John. 1: 9). So then, when a child of God sins he is not lost, because God has accepted him on the basis of Christ´s sacrifice for our sins. Neither is his relationship with God broken. He is still God´s child and God is still his Father. But his fellowship with the Father is broken, the Holy Spirit is grieved and he is subject to the Father´s chastening. When he is humbled about his sin and confesses it to his Father then fellowship is restored. There is one thing we lose by sin that can never be restored. Christ said that a cup of cold water given in His name would never be forgotten (Mark. 9: 41). He is going to give a reward for everything we do to please Him. Therefore, if instead of giving way to sin we had been obedient and done something that pleased Him, we would have received a reward in heaven. But now that reward is lost because we have lost the opportunity to gain it. That is an eternal loss, since every reward Christ gives in heaven is an eternal reward. This should make us careful not to lose the opportunities we have each day for faithfulness to the Lord. If we let them slip by, both the opportunities and the rewards are lost forever. We will have all eternity to rejoice in the rewards for our victories, but we have only the present moment to win them. There are no victories to be won in heaven--they must all be won now or never. _______________________________________________________________________ (3) <Prophetical> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-10) Arthur W. Pink .... X. THE REDEEMER'S RETURN IS NECESSITATED BY THE EXPECTATION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST This argument may be summarized thus:--The Intermediate state into which the souls of the redeemed pass at death is not the perfect state, it is but an "unclothed" (2 Cor. 5:1-3) condition. Like their brethren who are still upon earth, those now in Paradise are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:23). A countless multitude of those who fell asleep in Jesus are yet in the disembodied state, and in that state they are "waiting," waiting for the time when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and when this mortal shall put on immortality. Those, who while on earth, looked and longed for the Return of their Redeemer, and who are still waiting that blest event shall not wait thus for ever, as it is written, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). In the last book of the Bible, where the veil that separates between the present and the future and between this world and the next is pulled aside, we find a Scripture that bears closely upon the point now under consideration. We refer to Rev. 6:9, 10--"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the alter the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" This passage, stript of its symbolism, signifies that martyred believers now in the Intermediate state are waiting with eager expectation the time when God shall avenge their death, which time is reached immediately before our Lord returns to this earth. That which we wish to specially emphasize is the fact that souls now in Paradise are here represented as crying "How long?" Thus we learn that those "present with the Lord," as well as believers still "in the body," are eagerly expecting and waiting for the time of their Redeemer's Return. The answer made to these disembodied "souls" is very striking--"And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" (Rev. 6:11). The "dead in Christ" are waiting in hope, waiting for the fulfillment of that promise, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:42-44). Is their hope nothing more than an idle dream? Are they to wait thus for ever? No, blessed be God. His Word, declares that at the time of our Redeemer's Return, "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thess. 4:14). Therefore we say that the present unclothed condition of the dead in Christ with their expectation of the Resurrection morn requires and necessitates the personal Return of our Lord. To sum up. At least ten reasons require that Christ shall come back again -- the declarations of Old Testament prophecy; the affirmations of our Lord Himself; the ratification of the Holy Spirit through the writers of the New Testament Epistles; the humiliation of the Cross, requiring a corresponding vindication of Christ in power and glory; the present disorganization of Israel; the exaltation of Satan and the powerlessness of man to depose him; the degradation and desolation of the world; the lamentations of a Creation waiting to be delivered from its bondage of corruption; the supplications of the Church crying "Even so, come, Lord Jesus;" and the expectation of the dead in Christ waiting for their glorification, singly and collectively necessitate and demand the personal Return of our Redeemer. 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