New Marcionites

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I’ve noticed recently that a number of Christians when discussing Scripture seem to relegate the Old Testament as sub-standard. The law of God is particularly shunned. Comments like “I see you are quoting from the Old Testament, but we are New Testament Christians,” abound. It’s almost as though these people think Christ has done away with the Old Testament. These are our modern-day Marcions.

To respond, we must first of all look at how Jesus viewed the Law. In Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains the Christian approach to the Law and the Prophets (the majority of the Old Testament.)

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:8-20

Sometimes people remember the fact that Jesus came to fulfil the Law, and assume this means he has done away with it. But the very context does not support this. Fulfil cannot mean abolish, since it is contrasted with that word. Jesus does not abrogate the law, he fulfils it for us. This does not mean the law has no relevance to the life of the Christian anymore. According to Christ, people who teach that will be least in the kingdom of heaven! Hardly a view he endorses.

Paul himself, when writing to Timothy wrote these famous words.

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 Timothy 3:16-17

When Paul wrote these words, the only Scripture that was available to the church was the Old Testament. For Paul then, the Old Testament Scriptures are profitable and enable the man of God to be trained and fully equipped for every good work. Consequently as Greg Bahnsen points out in By this Standard “If we disregard any portion of the Bible we will – to that extent – fail to be thoroughly furnished for every good work. If we ignore certain requirements laid down by the Lord in the Bible our instruction in righteousness will be incomplete.“

Certainly, more could be said on the role of the Old Testament, and particularly the Law in the life of the Christian, but at the very least we should be very sceptical of those who would seek to denigrate Old Testament Scripture as irrelevant for the Christian.

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6

We continue our survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith after a weeks hiatus. In our last instalment, we looked at WCF 1.4 & 1.5 and focussed our discussion on the authority of Scripture. Today we look at WCF 1.6 which highlights the sufficiency of Scripture, an important and somewhat neglected doctrine of late as alluded to in The Resistance series.

VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.

There are a few key ideas we need to note as we look at this statement. Firstly, the framers of the Confession believe that God’s written Word is complete. It is the whole counsel of God and nothing is to be added to it. This includes adding to it now with new revelations of the Spirit or adding on the traditions of men. So for example, there are those who become concerned that you haven’t had God ‘speak’ to you and others who rely on a ‘Word from the Lord’ from spiritual people in their congregations. While these might be nice and encouraging, they are not necessary, and God’s Word provides you with everything you need to live a God-honouring life. At the other end of the spectrum, you might have some churches that believe church traditions are needed to supplement God’s Word. We must not add to Scripture and we do not need to.

Secondly, there is the idea of sufficiency that we have already flagged. God’s Word contains all things necessary for the glory of God, man’s salvation and the life of faith. What we need is either expressly written down in the Scriptures, or by Spirit-filled reasoning can be deduced. This deduction from Scripture is not without danger, and incorrect deductions can be made. However, the practice itself is not wrong. Indeed Christ himself deduced things from Scripture. When dealing with the Sadducees on their silly question about the woman who had seven husbands who died he said, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” This is a clear case of deducing the resurrection from the grammar of the text.

So what are the implications of this truth of sufficiency? Firstly, God has provided us all we need to be saved and to live for God’s glory. Scripture teaches this. Peter says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” Obviously, salvation can only come through the Word by the Spirit. However, for those who have the Spirit, the Word provides us with everything we need to live a life pleasing to God. This is how Paul sees things when exhorting Timothy. He says, “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.”

Now we must be careful not to misinterpret what is being said here. The scriptures do not talk about every topic there is. There are some things that Scripture does not touch on and God does not intend it to touch on. It is not, for instance, an engineering textbook, nor is it a book on nuclear physics. This is not a problem. God reveals to us all we need to know to bring glory to him and please him, but he gives us the opportunity to explore his world and discover what he has not revealed in Scripture directly as dominion makers. Then there are other things that He has not revealed and we cannot discover (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Finally, the writers of the Confession point out that there are some things that we ought to use our God-given wisdom in as Spirit-filled Christians. There are principles in Scripture that we ought to take and apply, but there is room for interpretation and wisdom in applying these in practical situations. The framers of the Confession point to the worship of God and the government of the church. For instance, the timing of our weekly gathering, whether we meet in a home or at a church building or how we run our annual general meetings are all examples of things Christians can use ‘the light of nature’ and ‘Christian prudence’ to decide. They are very careful to point out however that even in these situations the general rules of the Word must be observed.

The Resistance – The Word and Prayer – Part 2C

Yesterday we sought to give some practical suggestions which will help Christians make the Word and prayer central to their households. This is an essential step as we build the Christian Resistance and seek to see New Zealand turn back to Christ. As each family cell in the Resistance is led by men who prioritise the Word and prayer, we should expect to see God working great things. His Word will not return to him empty but will achieve the purpose for which he sent it out (Isaiah 55:11). And we know that purpose: it is that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

4. Hold to the Sufficiency of Scripture Practically

It is also vital that as we read the Scriptures we hold to the sufficiency of Scripture. And I don’t mean just nod intellectually to this concept. I mean actually believe and act upon it. The Apostle Paul wrote these words that most Christians know by heart. “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 Timothy 3:16-17) Paul argues that Scripture can be applied so that the man of God can be complete and equipped for every good work.

Do we know what to think about helping the poor? The Scriptures are sufficient for developing a robust and Christ-honouring approach. Do we want to know how Christians should respond to the COVID-19 lockdowns and potential vaccine mandates? We should search the Scriptures. Do we want to know whether redistributive tax policy is a Christian approach to government? We have the Scriptures which enable us to be equipped for every good work, whether it is in politics, family life, work-life, economics or science.

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Bring Back the Doctrine of Vocation

In a recent sermon I heard, the congregation was encouraged to be at a second Sunday meeting (in the evening) as well as the morning service. They were encouraged to attend other weekly meetings of the church, and it was insinuated that it was Satan’s temptation that was causing people to stay at home. There was even that old chestnut, that we need to be careful we are not turning spending time with family into an idol. This was a fairly egregious example of what I have noticed is a serious temptation for many pastors – that of thinking that the church organisation and meetings they run are the most important thing in the lives of every member of the church, and that to miss one indicates a lack of seriousness about one’s faith.

This brow-beating approach to shepherding in order to get the flock to come to more church meetings is unfortunate. As one who has been a Christian for decades, I shrugged it off. I’m not about to be guilt-tripped into attending something because a pastor insinuates it is a sin to not attend. I know the Scriptures. It is dangerous for leaders in the church to put burdens on those they lead that Christ himself does not require. Young Christians however may be fooled by zeal into thinking this is indeed a requirement. The pressure this may put on them when they have a spouse or children and work may indeed cause unhelpful and illegitimate feelings of guilt.

Additionally, I’ve noticed and mentioned in a previous post, the tendency of many pastors to use the Sunday morning service as the opportunity to be evangelists. Instead of feeding God’s beloved sheep and assisting them to apply the gospel to their daily lives, some pastors focus on the gospel message of salvation every week as if their congregations are hardened heathens hovering over the fires of hell.

All this makes me think that our modern clergy need a reawakened understanding of vocation. A book helpful in this area is God at work by Gene Edward Veith Jr. Veith writes, “Churches should not demand so much “church work” from their members that it takes away too much time from their primary vocations.” We the laity are also called. God calls us to our vocations, be they son or daughter, husband or wife, doctor, teacher, labourer, retail assistant, nurse, or homemaker. Yes, pastor, God calls you as our shepherd, but don’t forget that he calls us to our vocations too. It’s easy for pastors to see the good things they are doing (and the vocation of pastor is a good and holy calling!) and expect everyone to turn institutional church-related things into the most important thing in their lives too. But it might be that in attending every church event, I may neglect my God-given calling as a husband or a father. Indeed, it might be that a pastor who fills his time with church events could well be neglecting his God-given calling to be a husband and father too.

Veith puts things this way, “We may assume that what happens on Sunday mornings is not enough, as if coming into Christ’s presence through the proclamation of His Word is a small thing, and as if the daily lives of ordinary Christians are not themselves arenas for divine service.” Pastors need to see their role as shepherds as Paul explained in Ephesians. Pastors are to equip the saints for works of ministry. Unfortunately, because we do not have a solid understanding of the doctrine of vocation, we miss that those works of ministry will often occur outside the institutional church meetings. The sum total of my ministry is not handing out the order of service at church, manning the kitchen, playing in the church band or being part of a welcoming team. These are good things, but my core ministries are being a father and a husband, and whatever God calls me to as I earn money to provide for my family. Paul writes earlier in the epistle of Ephesians, that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. On a Sunday morning, what we need to see from our pastors is an acknowledgement of the good works God has called us to do in our vocations, and then the opening of the Scriptures to help us in that regard as we are reminded of Christ’s kingship and authority. As Paul writes to the young pastor Timothy, “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.” Preach that word so that your congregation may be ready for every good work during the week.