<BrethrenVoice>
<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY>
<7 September 2002>
Contents:
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(1) <Devotional> "Life is like a painted dream?" - Winslow
(2) <Devotional> "Ought we to consider this?" - Ravi Zacharias
(3) <Doctrinal> "In the beginning it was not so!" (Pt-12) - C.E.Wigg
(4) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-22)- A.W.Pink
(5) <Apologetics) "Christian Apologetics" (Pt-10) -M. Copland
(1) <DEVOTIONAL>
LIFE IS LIKE A PAINTED DREAM?*
Winslow
"For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to the
end." Ps. 48:14
"The world passes away." Everything here in this present world is
changing.
"Life is like a painted dream,
Like the rapid summer stream,
Like the fleeting meteor's ray,
Like the shortest winter's day,
Like the fitful breeze that sighs,
Like the waning flame that dies,
Darting, dazzling on the eye,
Fading in eternity."
A rope of sand,
a spider's web,
a silken thread,
a passing shadow,
an ebbing wave,
are the most fitting and expressive emblems of all things belonging to this
present time's state. The homes that sheltered us in childhood we leave.
The land which gave us birth we leave. The loved ones who encircled our
hearths pass away. The friends of early years depart.
And the world that was so sunny, and life that was so sweet, is all
beclouded and embittered; the whole scenery of existence changed into wintry
gloom.
Such are the saddening, depressing effects of life's vicissitudes. But in
the midst of all, "This God is our God FOREVER AND EVER!" All beings change
but God. All things change but heaven.
The evolutions of time revolve, the events of earth go onward, but He upon
whom all things hang, and by whom all events are shaped and controlled,
moves not. "I, the Lord, do not change."
Our affairs may alter.
Our circumstances may change.
Our relations and friends may depart one by one.
Our souls in a single day pass through many fluctuations of spiritual
feeling.
But He who chose us to be His own, and who has kept us to the present
moment, is our
covenant God and Father forever and ever, and will never throw us off and
cast us away.
"For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to the
end." Ps. 48:14
---
*[From Winslow's "This God is Our God"]
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(2) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY>
OUGHT WE TO CONSIDER THIS?
Ravi Zacharias
We tend to look at the question of human nature in terms of good and bad.
But when we come to the teachings of Jesus on man's nature, there is a
dimension added to the discussion that must be understood.
Any conclusion about who we are remains circular when we use words like
good or bad, for simply using such terms points us to a moral law that is
beyond mere human reckoning. What do I mean? If we say that human nature
is either good or bad, then we are saying that we either measure up or fail
to measure up to a certain standard of the way things ought to be. But
what is this ought that we know inside of us? What is it that tells us,
"This isn't the way things should be; something is wrong"?
Friend, I suggest that this ought that each of us knows reflects that we
are made in the image of God, that He has left His stamp upon us. God has
given us a moral law written on our hearts. But when we look into the
human heart, we see violations-lust, greed, hate, anger, and the
jealousies that are so destructive. This is at the heart of the human
predicament, and the Scripture's description of human nature is that we are
dead in our sins. That's a graphic way to put it, I know, but as I said
before, until we understand our desperate position before God, we will not
understand His profound message of grace.
C.S. Lewis says it so well in Mere Christianity. He argues that behind the
moral law is the Power of absolute goodness who is God. Writes Lewis:
We know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of
what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in . . . Christianity simply
does not make sense until you have faced [this] . . . Christianity tells
people to repent and promises them forgiveness . . . It is after you have
realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and
that you have broken the law and put yourself wrong with that Power-it is
after all this . . . that Christianity begins to talk.
And I might add, talk in depth. Indeed, Karl Barth once said that sin
scorches us most after it has been under the scrutinizing light of God's
forgiveness. For when we recognize God's profound work of grace, we long
to know that transforming power in our lives.
---
Copyright (p)(c) 2001 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a radio ministry of
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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(3) <DOCTRINAL>
IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO! (PART-11)
PERSECUTION
Charles E. Wigg
....
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SUFFERING SAINTS:
As many at the time of writing are experiencing suffering and persecution
and are almost daily receiving threats against their lives and the lives of
their families. I thought to dedicate this instalment to their
encouragement, consolation and comfort. Though it is a little out of
keeping with our theme, "In the beginning it was not so", yet I know that
you will bear with the digression.
In the previous instalment, we have sought to sound a warning that
suffering is not something to be considered strange, but rather to be
expected by Christian believers. It may be assumed that if we do not
experience suffering or reproach from the world, then something is wrong. We
should never expect to be treated differently than the way that our Master
was treated. It is an honour to be called to follow "in His steps".(1Pet.
2;21.) Paul reminded the believers at Philippi, that it had been given them,
not only to believe on the name of Christ, but to suffer for Him also.
(Phil.1;29). And later in the same epistle told them of his desire to know
Him and partake in the "fellowship of His sufferings", (Phil. 3;10). So let
me encourage my suffering brothers and sisters. God has bestowed an honour
upon you and when you "suffer as a Christian", then the Spirit of Glory and
of God rests upon you", (1 Pet.4;12-16). There is for you a present honour
and a future reward, because when we stand before the Judgment Seat of
Christ, then you will receive a crown from the hands of Him for whom you
have suffered and a place of prominence in His Millennial Kingdom.
[To be concluded]
---
[Reproduced with permission of Charles E. Wigg]
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(4) <PROPHETICAL>
"THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-22)
THE FACT OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN (2 OF 2)
Arthur W. Pink
....
"Where sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20). Marvellous are
the ways of God. He maketh, even the "wrath of man" to praise Him (Ps.
76:10). Those wicked hands of men which nailed to the Cross the Lord of
Glory, were but fulfilling, unknown to themselves, the eternal purposes of
Jehovah. The Lord Jesus as "delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). These words bring before us the Divine
side of that mysterious transaction. As He hung there on the Cross the Lord
Jesus suffered not only at the hands of man, but He was also smitten by the
hand of God (Is. 53:4, 10) because it was then and there that He "bare our
sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24). On the Cross, our blessed
Saviour who knew no sin was "made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). It was because
He hung there as the Sin-Bearer that Jehovah said, "Awake, O sword, against
My shepherd, and against the man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts:
smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (Zech. 13:7). Thus,
the Death of Christ must be viewed from two great standpoints. From the side
of the world His death was a deliberate, cold-blooded murder; from the side
of God it was a satisfaction rendered unto His justice and holiness which
had been outraged by sin. From the side of the world, the Cross was the
climatic display of its sin and guilt; from the Divine side it was God's
provision to remove the sin and guilt of all who believe. From man's side,
the world has yet to account to God for the death of His Son. Therefore it
is that God has a "controversy" with the nations. My reader, you are living
in a world over which hangs the judgment of God! And the day of His
vengeance draws near. God has yet to reckon with a world that is stained
with the blood of His beloved Son and soon will His fearful wrath be poured
out upon it. How rarely, in these days, is this side of the Cross pressed
upon men's consciences and hearts. The Death of the Lamb of God secured our
salvation, but it consummated the world's guilt.
Christ is absent. Why? Because the world rejected Him. Yet, if the world
disowned Him, the heavens received Him. If men despised Him, God hath highly
exalted Him, and given Him the name which is above every name. We shall
consider now, though, more briefly, the second great fact.
God the Holy Spirit has come down to this earth and is still here. This,
also, is an amazing and stupendous fact. God did not abandon the world to
which in love He sent His Son, even though that love was requited by the
crucifixion of the Holy One. How strictly just it would have been had God
then and there entirely deserted this rebellious race of ours! He "spared
not" the angels that sinned but "cast them down to hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. 2:4), why
then should He continue to deal in mercy with a race that had committed a
crime which far surpassed in wickedness any sin of which the angels could
have been guilty? Ah! God's ways are "past finding out." Where sin abounded
grace did much more abound. The day of God's wrath was postponed. A world
guilty of murdering God's beloved Son was granted a reprieve. In marvelous
long-sufferance God gave the world an opportunity, a protracted opportunity,
to repent and thus reap the benefits of the Death Divine.
The Holy Spirit has come down to this earth. Here is an amazing fact of
stupendous magnitude. There is a Divine person on earth to-day. He has been
here, now, for eighteen centuries unseen, unknown, and unappreciated by the
world, yet here, nevertheless. Like the absence of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the presence of the Holy Spirit has a double bearing--a bearing upon the
world, and a bearing upon the Church. His relation to the world is a solemn
and an awful one. The Holy Spirit is here to convict the world of its
terrible crime in rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. This is clear
from the language of John 16--"When He is come, He will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not
on Me. Of righteousness because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of
judgment because the prince of this world is judge" (vss. 8-11). These
verses do not refer to the work of the Holy Spirit in individual sinners,
but speak of the consequences of His presence on earth toward the world. It
is true that by His gracious operations the Holy Spirit brings sinners to
repentance, but this is not the subject of the above verses: there, as we
have said, we have set forth the relation of the Holy Spirit toward the
"world" in general. The above quotation brings before us the significance of
the Spirit's presence on earth rather than defines the character of His
work. In the sense that He is now here, the Holy Spirit would not be present
at all if the Lord Jesus had not been cast out by the world. The Holy Spirit
is here to fill the place of an absent Christ. The presence of the Holy
Spirit is the demonstration of the fact that Christ is absent. Therefore it
is that His presence here "reproves the world," reproves the world "of the
cause of Christ's absence, reproves the "world" of its awful crime in
putting to death the Lord of Glory. He reproves the world of "sin."
Furthermore; the presence here of the Holy Spirit reproves the world of
"righteousness," of righteousness because Christ has gone to the Father and
the world sees Him no more, nor will it see Him until He returns in
judgment. The "righteousness" of which the Spirit reproves or convicts the
world is the righteousness of God the Father in His exaltation to His own
right hand of the One cast out by the world. Finally, the presence here of
the Holy Spirit convicts the world of "judgment" because Satan, the prince
of this world, is already judged, though the sentence has not yet been
executed. So much then for the world-ward bearing of the fact of the Holy
Spirit's presence on earth.
Like the fact of our Lord's rejection by the world, the presence of the Holy
Spirit on earth also has a bearing upon the Church--a blessed bearing. God
has overruled the issues of this second great fact. Though the presence here
of the Holy Spirit condemns the world, it involves infinite blessing for the
Church. Churchward, the Holy Spirit is here to take the place of our absent
Saviour. He is here to "quicken" (John 3:6) as Christ quickened (John 5:21).
He is here to "teach" (John 14:26) as Christ taught (Matt 7:29). He is here
to "comfort" (John 16:7) as Christ comforted (John 14:1). In short, the Holy
Spirit is here to do for God's people what Christ would have done for them
had He remained on the earth. The consequences, then, of the presence here
of God the Holy Spirit are unspeakably solemn as regards the world, but
infinitely precious as regards the saints.
We are now prepared to consider the third great fact which is presented to
our notice in the New Testament scriptures that fact which forms the subject
of this chapter--the fact of the Redeemer's Return. And--
[To be concluded]
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(5) <APOLOGETICS>
"CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, AN INTRODUCTION - (PART-10)"
M. Copland
....
II. THE EVIDENCE FOR THE EARLY EXISTENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
A. INTERNAL EVIDENCE...
1. THE ENDING OF THE BOOK OF ACTS
a. The book ends abruptly with Paul in prison, awaiting trial
- Ac 28:30-31
b. A plausible explanation is that Luke wrote ACTS during this
time, before Paul finally appeared before Nero
c. This would be about 62-63 A.D., meaning that ACTS and LUKE
(which came first - cf. Ac 1:1 with Lk 1:1-4) were
written within thirty years of ministry and death of Jesus
2. NO MENTION OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70 A.D.
a. Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus' prophecy that the
temple and city would be destroyed within that generation
- e.g., Mk 13:1-4,14,30; Lk 21:5-9,20-24,32
b. History records that in 70 A.D. Jerusalem with its temple
was destroyed, exactly as Jesus foretold!
c. Yet not a single book of the New Testament refers to this
event as having happened!
1) Such would be very unlikely if they had been written
after 70 A.D.
2) For that event helps to verify Jesus' claim to be the
Son of God, and it is hard to imagine that any writer
after 70 A.D. would not make mention to the fulfillment
of Jesus' prophecy!
d. This has prompted some scholars to conclude that ALL of the
books of the New Testament were written prior to 70 A.D.
- e.g., John A. T. Robinson, in his book REDATING THE
NEW TESTAMENT
B. PAPYRI FRAGMENTS...
1. CHESTER BEATTY BIBLICAL PAPYRI (dated 200-250 A.D.)
a. Made public in 1931
b. Contains the Gospels, Acts, Paul's Epistles, and Revelation
2. PAYPRUS BODMER II (dated 200 A.D.)
a. Discovery announced in 1956
b. Contains fourteen chapters of John, and portions of the
last seven chapters
3. EARLY CHRISTIAN PAPYRI (dated 150 A.D.)
a. Made public in 1935
b. Written by someone who had the four gospels before him and
knew them well
4. JOHN RYLANDS MSS (dated 130 A.D.)
a. This is oldest fragment of the NT
b. "Because of its early date and location (EGYPT), some
distance from the traditional place of composition (ASIA
MINOR), this portion of the gospel of John tends to con-
firm the traditional date of the composition of the gospel."
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, Geisler & Nix
[To be concluded]
---
© M. Copland 2002
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