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Saint Paul’s Message of Justification
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Saint Paul’s Message of Justification
The Birth and Death of the Renaissance
The Pentecostal Movement and the Jesus Revolution
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Editorial:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Mal. 4:5
The central truth of the New Testament message is the justification and acceptance of sinful man by the saving activity of the Triune God. God the Father saves the sinner by His grace through the gift of His beloved Son. God the Son saves him by His life that was poured out through the shedding of His precious blood. And God the Holy Spirit makes it all effectual by giving men faith through the hearing of the gospel.
This glorious New Testament light was obscured and almost lost in the ages that succeeded the apostles. Then, in the great Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the truth about man’s justification and acceptance with God was rekindled from the writings of St. Paul. It blazed its way through Western civilization with such tempestuous fury that it changed the course of history.
In the more than four hundred years that have passed since the birth of the Reformation, forces have been at work to dilute the power of the mighty Reformation truth. Protestant liberalism has turned poor, sinful man back upon the resources of his own puny wisdom. Evangelical radicalism has turned a multitude after seeking satisfaction in pious religious experience. Pentecostalism and the so-called Jesus Revolution are leaving their millions to wallow in the delusive frenzy of spiritual subjectivism. The Renaissance has probably been the biggest pied piper of all, leading a vast horde of humanity down the road toward the mirage of a scientific utopia. And religious conservatives and “fundamentalists” have often been so engrossed in daubing the monuments of their hoary creeds, that they have forgotten to keep alive that Reformation spirit which constantly engaged itself in distinguishing between tradition and truth.
Thus this age of boasted enlightenment has turned man back to depend on his own resources just as effectively as did past ages of darkness and superstition. Just as those times of ignorance were favorable to the development of the papacy, so this age of knowledge is proving favorable to the rapid spread of papal principles. Protestantism in general has lost her identity. As she falters in her path and scans her uncertain future, she favorably casts her eyes back to Rome from whence she came.
In words of great certainty and clarity, the ancient prophet declared that God would send Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). And Jesus said, “Elias [Elijah] truly shall first come, and restore all things.” Matt. 17:11. Although this prophecy met its initial fulfillment in John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’ first advent, it is clear that an Elijah message must precede the second advent of Jesus Christ. What is the nature of this “Elijah” movement “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”? It is to restore all things. The faith and purity of apostolic Christianity is to be restored. The sanctuary of truth must be restored to its rightful state (Dan. 8:14, R.S.V.). Then Jesus Himself shall come, not as a Lamb to bear the sins of many, but as King to bring salvation unto them that earnestly look for His coming (Heb. 9:28).
Such a message and movement, sent of God to restore all things in readiness for the coming of Jesus, is clearly brought to view in the fourteenth chapter of the Revelation. It is represented by the flying apocalyptic angel:
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. … And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.” Rev. 14:6, 7, 14.
Here is no sectarian invention, but a divine retention. This is no denominational innovation, but an Elijah restoration. The gospel, once delivered to the saints, is again redefined and given with distinct utterance. Then the Eternal shall roll up the scroll of time and summon men before His throne to give account of their response to the gospel of His grace.
The Word of God mentions many signs of Jesus’ coming and the end of the world (see Matt. 24 for instance). Most of these signs have already been fulfilled. Yet the greatest sign is the restoration of the pure message of the New Testament. This restoration will carry the glorious work so nobly begun by the Reformers, to its final consummation. The world is ripe for this final restatement of the everlasting gospel. Once again everything is ready to hear the declaration of God’s righteousness, “that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:26. The sword of truth, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, will cut its way through the vanity of all human dependencies and once again confront man with the reality of God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ.
The publishers and sponsors of this magazine are committed to the vision of a full restoration of New Testament Christianity. Nothing more is needed. Nothing less will do. They have nothing left in this world aside from this hope, and nothing worthwhile to do outside the context of this commission.
And now, dear reader, we salute you with the words of the king of Israel: “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? …If it be, give me thine hand.” 2 Kings 10:15.
– This editorial was written by the former editor and appears in Present Truth Vol. 1, #1.
Saint Paul’s Message of Justification
The birth of Jesus was the most astounding thing that ever happened to this earth. Nothing like it had ever happened before. Nothing like it could ever happen again. The High and Holy One, who dwells in light unapproachable and majesty incomprehensible, became a member of the human family. The Creator of heaven, earth and the galaxies of limitless space, was born of a woman, grew up in a humble peasant home, traveled about as an itinerant preacher, died in ignominy and shame, rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. The twelve apostles were chosen eye witnesses of these things.
Then the ascended Christ chose another man through whom the Holy Spirit would show the real meaning of those historical events which the twelve apostles witnessed. It is in Paul that the gospel, given to the Hebrews in types, shadows and promises, is fully revealed (Col. 1:26; Eph. 3:5; Rom. 16:25, 26; 1 Peter 1:10-12; Heb. 1:2). The full disclosure of the gospel was committed to Paul’s trust (Col. 1:25-27; Eph. 3:18; Gal. 1:12; 1 Tim. 1:11; 2 Tim. 2:8; Titus 1:3; 1 Cor. 3:10; 2 Cor. 12:1-5, 12; Rom. 16:25, 26).
Paul’s gospel theme was Christ and Him crucified for the justification of sinners (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 1:4). Of course, the other apostles also bore witness to the salvation of sinners through Jesus, but Paul shows how the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:16, 17). How could a just God justify sinners? How could God’s holy law be vindicated and its integrity maintained if God remitted a rebel’s punishment? How is the extension of mercy to law breakers consistent with the claims of divine justice? These are not just interesting questions. They must be answered if estranged man is to be reconciled to the character of God.
Justification
The key word in Paul is justification. In both the Old and New Testaments the words justify and justification have a very definite legal and judicial meaning. They are words closely related to the idea of trial and judgment (Deut. 25:1; 1 Cor. 4:3, 4; Matt. 12:37). Justification may be defined as being declared just by court order. When God is said to justify a man, it means that He has brought the case to trial before His divine judgment seat and, after examining the case, has pronounced the accused as free of all fault and blame, as altogether righteous and pleasing in the sight of His holy law. In modern English, the word acceptance would also convey the meaning of justification.
If justification means being declared righteous before the bar of the most infinite justice, who then can be justified? Alas! “How… can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” “What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” Job 25:4; 15:14-16.
In his great epistle to the Romans, the apostle sets out to answer the universal cry of the human heart, “How… can man be justified with God?” Job 25:4. If that question means, “What can I do that will cause God to accept me?” Paul’s answer is emphatic: Absolutely nothing!
Before the apostle presents God’s way of reaching man, he exposes the futility of man’s way of reaching God. None is righteous, none understands, none seeks God, none does good (Rom. 3:10-12). No one has a life that will meet the standard of the law of God (Rom. 3:19). “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” Rom. 3:20.
Paul does not simply say that no one can become just in God’s sight by his performance. He uses the future tense of the verb. He means that no mortal man will ever be considered just on the basis of his own life. No man can confront the judgment of God with an easy conscience if his standing rests upon the quality of his own life. The reason is very plainly stated: “For all have sinned, and continue to come short 
of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. Or as Solomon declares, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Eccl. 7:20.
The Saving Activity of the Godhead
Having abased all human pride and having exposed the futility of all human achievement, the apostle shows that man’s justification proceeds wholly from God:
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith is His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth is Jesus.” Rom. 3:24-26.
These three brief verses contain the meat of Paul’s message. They are wonderful in brevity and amazing in scope. The rest of the book may be regarded as an expansion of these three verses.
Notice how these verses cover justification from three aspects: by grace, by Christ, and by faith. Here we view the saving activity of the three Persons of the Godhead: God the Father justifies us by His grace, God the Son justifies us by giving His life, and God the Holy Spirit enables us to accept it by giving us faith.
By Grace Alone – the Source of Justification
“Being justified freely by His [the Father’s] grace…” Grace means mercy and favor shown to one who is lost and undeserving. In order to guard the absolute gratuitous nature of justification, Paul says that sinners are justified freely by God’s grace. The word “freely” means “without a cause” (see John 15:25). No amount of believing, obeying, repenting or character building ever causes God to regard a man as just in His sight. Someone has appropriately said that justification by grace means the divine acceptance of unacceptable people.
It is most important to notice also that Paul is not just talking about becoming justified at the commencement of the Christian life. He uses the present continuous tense of the verb – “Being justified…” This includes the state of remaining justified as much as the act of becoming justified. This means that we can never get past justification by grace. We can never remain in God’s favor except by pure mercy. Grace finds us sinners, and we remain justified just as long as we remain sinners in our own eyes. If at any time we could stand acceptable before God because of faith, obedience or moral excellence, it would no longer be justification by grace.
By Christ Alone – the Way of Justification
We must also understand the way grace operates to make sinful man acceptable in the sight of God. The way of our justification is said to be “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus, N.E.B.].” Rom. 3:24. We are also said to be justified “by His blood.” Rom. 5:9.
The doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus constitute the sole ground of our acceptance with God. He became the Substitute and Surety for poor, lost sinners. On their behalf He gave to the law an obedience that measured with its infinite claims. On their behalf, by His own dying agonies, He paid to the law the debt due to their transgressions.
Christ’s active and passive obedience (His life and death) was altogether sufficient to secure the justification of every sinner. Says the apostle. “As One has died for all, then all have died.” 2 Cor. 5:14, Moffatt. As far as justice is concerned, it can look at Christ and regard every man as dead, as having fully satisfied the claims of the law. This is so because Christ is the Substitute for every man. In view of this, the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, makes this astounding statement about Jesus: “…Who was delivered to death for our sins and raised again to secure our justification.” Rom. 4:25, Phillips. Justification is not something to be secured. It has been secured. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that God has already accepted humanity in the person of His Son.
Questions one, “Do you mean to say that God has already done everything necessary for my justification through the death of His Son?” To which we reply, “That is the gospel. It is the good news of what God has done. The empty tomb is the proof that God has already purged our sins and received us back into His royal favor in Christ.” Listen: “He has taken us into His favor in the Person of His beloved Son.” Eph. 1:7, Knox translation.
People are so prone to think that if they repent, believe or surrender, then on this basis God will accomplish their justification. And they think this is the gospel. No! No! Christ rose from the dead to prove that God has already reconciled the race unto Himself (Rom. 4:25; 2 Cor. 5:18). This mighty reconciliation took place while we were still ungodly (Rom. 5:6), while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:8) and when we were God’s enemies (Rom. 5:10).
This raises the question, “Does God accomplish our justification by doing something that is completely outside of us?” Paul’s answer is an emphatic Yes! And he proceeds to prove it by contrasting Adam and Christ (Rom. 5:15-19). His point is this: When Adam disobeyed, condemnation and sin passed upon the whole human race. This was so because he was our father. When he fell, everyone fell. Condemnation came upon us not because of what we did, but because of what Adam did (v.18). “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (v.19). Thus we became sinners not by something that happened in us, but by something that happened completely outside of us. God saved the race by giving us another Father, even Jesus Christ (Isa. 9:6). Just as all were condemned by what Adam did, all that are in Christ are justified by what Christ did. “By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Rom. 5:18. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19.
So it is forever certain that the only ground of acceptance with God is what Christ has already done for us. Christ and Christ alone was found pleasing in God’s sight. There is one reason for our acceptance with God – Christ has been accepted. His obedience of two thousand years ago is the only ground of our acceptance with God today.
By Faith Alone – the Condition of Receiving Justification
As far as God is concerned, He has restored the sinful world to His favor as surely as He has restored His own Son to heaven. At the cross He accomplished the work that brings justification to every sinner. God redeemed the race (Heb. 9:12).
In the light of the gospel, man cannot ask such questions as, “Will God accept me?” God has answered that question by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. But God confronts the sinner with the question, ” Will you accept your acceptance?” Faith is our saying “Yes” to God. It is accepting the fact that we have been accepted in Christ. All that Christ is, becomes ours when we believe in Him. By believing, the blessing of justification is received and enjoyed. This is justification by faith alone.
Thus the apostle declares, “A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Rom. 3:28. We are not justified because of or on account of faith. That would be contrary to justification by grace alone and by Christ alone. There is no merit in the faith. It is merely the hand that accepts the blessing. Neither can the justified soul take any credit for faith. Apart from grace the sinner has no free will, no desire to seek God, no way of seeing the truth. Here is where the third Person of the Godhead acts in the matter of justification. Through the gospel, the Spirit enlightens the soul of the sinner, shows him the cross and draws him to Christ. As the sinner beholds the One who loved him and gave Himself for him, the Spirit persuades the sinner that the gospel is true. In a word, the Spirit gives faith. So Paul declares, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that [faith is] not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Eph. 2:8. “For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.” Gal. 5:5 (see Interlinear Greek).
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On the other hand, to believe not is the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit. While the saint can take no credit for faith, the lost must take full responsibility for unbelief. No one is condemned for being born a sinner or for having a sinful nature. Men are condemned only because they believe not (John 3:36). Thus they refuse to be included in Christ’s atonement, and by closing their ears against the gospel, they call God a liar (1 John 5:9, 10).
In the fourth chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul shows how faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). God imputes (or reckons) Christ’s righteousness to the believing sinner. In this way the sinner is declared to have right standing with God. That justification which was fully provided at the cross becomes the believer’s personal possession through faith on his part and imputation on God’s part. Faith is counted for Christ’s infinite righteousness, not because there is merit in faith, but because faith unites the empty believer to the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). The sinner brings to the union nothing but the disgrace of need; Christ brings to the union all the treasures of eternity. As the poor bride possesses the name of her wealthy bride groom and banks in his reputation, so the believer in Jesus is clothed in the name and virtue of Jesus Christ
Justification by faith alone is not a substitute for obedience, but it becomes a mighty stimulant for all true obedience. The soul that appropriates his acceptance in the Beloved is so overwhelmed by divine mercy and love, that his whole life is committed to serve Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. He serves, not in order that he might be accepted, but because he has been accepted. He offers his works, not as a sin offering, but as a thank offering in view of sins forgiven. Faith is the powerful progenitor of every good work because it brings the Holy Spirit. Faith in Christ’s work for us, brings the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (Gal. 3:14; John 7:37, 38). He writes God’s law in the heart (Heb. 10:16), and the believer obeys from inward prompting rather than from outward restraint.
Saved by Hope
Justification by faith brings radical changes in the believer’s life (peace, joy, love, regeneration, sanctification, obedience, etc.). Yet in this life it remains that the believer is righteous only by faith, never by visible reality. It is his faith which is counted for righteousness, not his regeneration, sanctification, obedience or Christian character.
Righteousness by faith means that the believer’s righteousness is not on earth, but in heaven; not in himself, but in Jesus Christ. Man can never find perfection or fulfillment in himself within the historical process. This is only realized in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9, 10). He is not on earth, but in heaven; and the believer possesses perfection and fulfillment only by faith.
True, he is given the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of his inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:13, 14), but this is only the “first fruits of the Spirit,” the down payment and pledge given until the day of final redemption (Rom. 8:23-25; Eph. 4:30). The possession of the Spirit does not lead the believer to feel that he has arrived or to think he can find satisfaction in his own experience. Rather does the Spirit stimulate him with earnest longing for the day of Christ, when he shall receive an infilling of the Spirit not possible in this life.
The doctrine of the second coming of Christ is a vital part of Paul’s gospel message (2 Tim. 1:10; Phil. 1:6; 1 Cor. 1:7, 8). We might say that there are two great points in Pauline theology: justification and the Parousia (the appearing of Jesus). The first calls for faith; the second calls for hope. The former we have now; the second is not yet. Possessing righteousness by faith, the believer waits, groans and presses toward the realization of righteousness by visible reality in the day of final salvation (Rom. 8:23; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:9-12).
Whenever the truth of justification by faith has been taught and received, the hope and expectancy of Christ’s soon coming has possessed the church. The apostolic church was aflame with the hope of the parousia. On the other hand, the loss of the truth of justification has led to a corresponding loss of eschatological (last-day) hope. During the Middle Ages, men looked to the church on earth as the expression of human fulfillment. There was no hope in the coming of Jesus. With the Reformation and a revival of the truth of justification, men again began to ardently look for and hope for the coming of Christ. And finally, in these last days the time has fully come for the truth to be restored to its rightful place. The message of Christ’s righteousness must sound from one end of this earth to the other and thereby make way for the coming of Christ.
“A voice cries:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
“A voice says, ‘Cry!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people is grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
“Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Behold your God!’
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and His arm rules for Him;
behold, His reward is with Him,
and His recompense before Him.”
Isa. 40:3-10, R.S.V.
– This article was written by the former editor and appears in Present Truth Vol. 1, #1.
the Renaissance
The Renaissance was born in the torpid world of the fourteenth century. With masterful energy this revival of learning sought to restore the thought and culture, the spirit and aspiration, of classical times. The classical Greeks and Romans had taught that there is fulfillment for men in this life. And fulfillment, they said, is found in the search for beauty, for life, for value, for position and reward. This was their “righteousness.”
Then Christianity had burst upon the ancient world and turned it upside down with the truth of justification by faith. The apostles vigorously denied that there was any fulfillment in this present life. They declared with power that perfect righteousness resides only in heaven and not on earth, alone in Another and never in themselves in this life.
Nicolas Copernicus, circa 1543That truth so contrary to classical thought was desperately opposed by the world. For that matter, it was never fully accepted by the church. And it was finally violently assailed by the papal system, which grew out of the early church.
Catholicism began to teach that Christian righteousness is some quality poured into the soul, which gives a mystical fulfillment to life on earth apart from any secular status or position, indifferent to intellectual learning or attainment, and contrary to any bodily exercises or condition.
Men like Augustine sought to extend this ideal to all mankind. They conceived of an ideal Christian society governed by the church. They claimed that the kingdom of God on earth was established by the growth of the Catholic Church. They turned men’s faith from a heavenly righteousness and their hope from a heavenly city whose Builder and Maker is God, to the growth and enlargement of an earthly church and the society of the church on earth.
The result was the development of a religious absolutism. Salvation was offered only through the sacraments of an earthly and corrupt priesthood. The forms of religion were multiplied and the people were burdened with rigorous actions. The age was dark. For more than a thousand years the Western world was sunken in an ignorant stupor, filled with superstition and fear, and abounding only in filth, disease and vice.
Finally the true light again began to dawn upon men. The abominations of Romanism so disgusted society that the world was ripe for the Reformation. And the great Reformation truth was to revive the doctrine of justification by faith. As in apostolic times, men were taught not to look to this life, nor to any earthly government or to the church of God on this earth, for fulfillment.
It was an exciting time to be alive, not only because of the Reformation, but also because the Renaissance had already gripped the hearts and minds of people. Realizing the inhibitions and shackles imposed on human minds by the Catholic Church, men saw deliverance in classical wisdom revealed to them by Byzantine and Islamic scholars. They were filled with a love of learning and of freedom, a desire for the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and a dedication to human progress. They saw the promise of fulfillment in this life through human effort, art and ingenuity.
For a time it seemed that the Renaissance and Reformation were to be linked together and finally to liberate the human race. The Renaissance gave to the Reformation such scholars as John Wycliffe, Erasmus and Melancthon. It restored a knowledge of the Biblical languages and recovered the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Scriptures. It provided the invention of movable type and faster modes of transportation. It bred a spirit of inquiry, of tolerance and of individual freedom of expression. Finally, it gravely weakened the historic absolutism of the papacy.
But the ancient antithesis between primitive Christianity and Greco-Roman thought was a fundamental barrier to the union of the Renaissance and the Reformation. The faith and hope of the Reformation were in heaven; for the Renaissance they were on earth. The means and end of the Reformation were found in Jesus; for the Renaissance they were found in man. The concern of the Reformation was spiritual; for the Renaissance it was material. The interest of the Reformation was in the revealed and the dogmatic; for the Renaissance it was in the rational and the experimental.
Few Renaissance scholars embraced the Reformation. Most of them broke with it and determinedly fought it. Even such a man of great learning and conviction as Erasmus, with his inestimable contribution to the Reformation, ended by breaking with Luther.
Ultimately, the Renaissance stands with the Roman Catholic Church. This should not be surprising since both pursue an earthly perfectionism. Such perfectionism is the ideal of fulfillment on this earth. Catholicism pursues this ideal through the sacraments and institutions of the Catholic Church; the Renaissance seeks this same ideal through the secular wealth and energies of humanism. The Renaissance promised men that through the untrammeled pursuit of science and the humanitarian arts, the race could find answers to all its problems, whether political, social, medical or psychological. It was an age of great promise. It was the great hope held out to mankind. And those hopes and promises of the Renaissance have extended down the centuries even to our own day. Its nascent energies bred the Age of Enlightenment, produced the Industrial Revolution, ushered in the Golden Age of biology and medicine, and unleashed the present technologic and scientific revolution on the world.
Yet it is one of the paradoxes of history that the scientific, technologic and cultural advances of modern times have been so widely attributed to the ethic of the Protestant Reformation. The facts are rather that the secular perfectionism of the Renaissance invaded Protestant thought and vitiated the great truth of justification by faith.
Three hundred years after the Reformation, the Protestant bodies in America bitterly opposed the doctrine of the soon coming, literal second advent of Christ. They declared for a temporal millennium on earth to be ushered in largely by man’s ingenuity and all the great learning of the universities. For the Protestant universities had not built on Luther. The Protestant universities, with their higher education and learning, were wholly permeated with the classical philosophy of the Renaissance. They wanted none of the pure religion of St. Paul and of Martin Luther. They traded it all for the hope of the Renaissance.
So a hundred years or more have gone by since those days, and the whole world has surfeited more and more on the hope of scientific progress. And what an age has been spanned in our own brief lifetime with all the changes and the acceleration of human learning. The progress seen even since World War II is staggering beyond the imagination.
But can you sense what has happened in the last decade? The 1960’s began with the hope and aspiration expressed in a young and vigorous American President. There was a charm and mystique about John Kennedy. He expressed the hope of America – the New Frontier. It was the decade in which man reached the moon. But suddenly it dawned on him that his aspirations for fulfillment through scientific idealism were as dead as the moon.
In the late 1960’s man was suddenly so surfeited with the hope of science and the promise of the Renaissance, that he was filled with revulsion. You could sense in America the grand disillusionment that all the prosperity and progress had done little for man after all. They had only polluted his air, defiled his streams, corrupted his children, broken his homes, decayed his cities and ruptured his social amity. Suddenly the Renaissance was dead!
Again the world is ripe. But ripe for what?
Today in America there is a tremendous turning to occultism, to Pentecostalism and to the Jesus Revolution. Multitudes despair of life fulfilled on earth except through some inner ecstatic experience. But this, of course, is the essential and mystical ethic of Roman Catholicism.
Time once proved and irrefutably demonstrated the error of this Catholic concept until the world was ripe for justification by faith. So today man’s vain hope of fulfillment in this life has again been demonstrated until the world is ready for the pure truth of justification by faith and a mighty revival of hope in the coming of Jesus Christ in glory.
– This article was written by Jack D. Zwemer, D.D.S., Ph.D, and appears in Present Truth Vol. 1 #1.
The Pentecostal Movement and the Jesus Revolution
It has been said that Christianity has two great branches – Catholic and Protestant. Some are now saying that there are three branches – Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal.
Pentecostalism itself is not a denomination, but a rapidly growing religious phenomenon among all major sections of Christendom. Religious commentators are beginning to recognize it as the third force in the Christian world. Sometimes called “the Charismatic movement,” it is no longer confined to the small Pentecostal groups as it once was. This activity is becoming quite widespread within the Catholic Church as well as the more conservative Protestant denominations. It can be identified by the experience of speaking in tongues (glossolalia). Interdenominational groups, like the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, are very active in spreading the “Pentecostal baptism of the Spirit.” So many charismatic groups are springing up, especially in the youth generation, that this movement has been dubbed “the Jesus Revolution.”
The apostle John has this word of wise counsel:
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1. Following is a six-point evaluation of the modern Pentecostal movement:
1. Pentecostalism Lacks the Apostolic Emphasis on the Gospel of Christ.
The New Testament accurately records the gospel that was preached by the apostles. They went everywhere proclaiming the good news of what God had done in Christ for the salvation of the human family’. In the words of Paul, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Cor. 5:19. The message of those early Christians was an exaltation of Jesus Christ. He was God, incarnate in human flesh, who kept the law of God for us. He died for our sins, rose again for our justification, and ascended to the right hand of God for our acceptance and restoration to the Father’s favor. Christ Himself, the Representative of the human race, was set forth as the “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30) of all who would believe on Him as their Substitute before the bar of eternal justice.
The New Testament also shows that faith in Christ’s work for us will bring about dynamic changes in the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit brings peace, joy and love, as well as various gifts, to those who accept what God has done in Christ for their justification and salvation. Rough, uneducated fishermen became refined and forceful exponents of the gospel. Cruel persecutors of the followers of Jesus became ardent and loving disciples. Some of the followers of Christ were given gifts of prophecy, healing, tongues, etc. Yet with all the spiritual power and gifts that were manifested in the lives of the apostles, they did not go around preaching, magnifying and extolling their experience in the Spirit. Said Paul, “For it is Christ Jesus as Lord whom we preach, not ourselves.” 2 Cor. 4:5, Phillips. Certainly God wants to manifest His grace in human lives, but that is not the gospel. That is the result of believing the gospel. The gospel transcends human experience. It is the record about what God has done in Christ for poor, guilty, sinful man. It is something that God did completely outside of us, but nevertheless something that He did for us; and the right believing of this brings the true experience of salvation in the individual soul.
In Pentecostalism the gospel message of what Christ has done for our forgiveness and acceptance has been subordinated to an emphasis on the personal, subjective experience. The Holy Spirit’s work in the believer is its “gospel.” This inverts the whole New Testament emphasis. Instead of really glorifying Christ, it degenerates to the glorification of human experience. When people become preoccupied with what God is doing in them, they lose sight of what God has done outside of them. Whenever men try to reduce Christianity to the dimension of their own human experience, it becomes a cheap, egocentric counterfeit of apostolic Christianity.
2. The Pentecostal Movement Is Based on Subjective Experience Rather Than on the Objective Word of God.
Genuine “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Rom. 10:17. Faith does not rest on our experience, however elevating and Spirit-filled that experience might be. Our salvation rests entirely upon Christ’s experience for us, just as Isaiah says, “By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many.” Isa. 53:11. And the apostle Paul declares, “By the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19. It cannot be stressed too strongly that Bible faith rests upon something that was done entirely outside of us. The Word of God instructs the sinner in the knowledge of Christ’s infinitely perfect character, His infinite sacrifice on the cross, His triumphant resurrection.
This knowledge of what God has done for him creates faith in the sinner’s heart. Faith rests on the certainty of that objective salvation, feeling or no feeling. If the believer feels sinful and destitute of the Spirit, he may still rest in the fact that Christ died for the ungodly. If he is filled with the Spirit and transported to the mountain top of Christian experience, he still knows that his experience cannot save him or recommend him to God.
In modern Pentecostalism the subjective experience becomes the all absorbing element of religion. In this case people cannot help but build their faith on something inward rather than on something outward. Faith comes to rest on miracles, wonders, feelings, things that the worshiper can sensibly experience. The Pentecostal will try to extol reality and substance, but he confuses the experience of a poor, finite and sinful human being with reality and substance. The truth of the matter is that the only reality and substance that a Christian possesses is what he has by faith in Jesus Christ. A Christian’s treasure is in heaven. He is righteous only by faith and shall be saved only by hope.
The Pentecostal will say, Seeing is believing. But subjective experience is no criterion for truth. A true Christian must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He must not judge after the sight of his eyes or after the hearing of his ears (Isa. 11:3). He will remember that Jesus said that many would come in His name and show great signs and wonders, and if possible deceive the very elect (Matt. 24:24). The Bible says that in the last days Satan will work with all signs and power and lying wonders (2 Thess. 2:9). In the last judgment many will come to Christ, saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works?” But Jesus will say, “Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23.
If ever humble, earnest, searching of the Word of God for light and truth were needed, it is now. By the utterances of the Bible, every experience and miracle must be tested. If we trust in our senses, we shall surely be deceived. If we trust our experience, we merit the condemnation of fools, for it is written, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Prov. 28:26. There is a constant danger that religious enthusiasts will mistake their whims and impulses as the Holy Spirit, when in reality they are the promptings of the wayward human heart.
3. Pentecostalism Is More Catholic Than Protestant.
Anyone who understands the real principles of the religious struggle in the sixteenth century, will appreciate that Pentecostalism is Roman Catholic in its most fundamental principles. On the other hand, it is clearly contrary to the principles of the great Protestant Reformation.
There are two aspects of redemption: (1) God’s work for us in Christ; (2) God’s work in us by the Holy Spirit. All Christians will subscribe to these two aspects of man’s salvation. The struggle of the sixteenth century was this: Roman Catholicism taught that men could be just in the sight of God on the basis of what God’s grace did in their experience. In other words, it based its faith and hope of salvation on Number 2. The Reformers contended that the sole basis of salvation was God’s work already accomplished in Jesus Christ. In other words, they based their faith and hope of salvation solely on Number 1.
Between these two great systems of thought there can be no reconciliation or compromise. Men will either have a Catholic relation to God or a Protestant one, and there is no middle ground. The only reason that people today can imagine that the gulf between Romanism and true Protestantism can be bridged is because they have allowed false sentiments and principles to erode their faith. A new generation is arising that has either forgotten or does not care for the mighty Reformation truth of justification by faith.
Pentecostalism is doing more than anything else to bring Catholics and Protestants together. But it is not bringing Catholics over to Protestant principles. Rather, it is bringing Protestants over to Catholic principles. This is because Pentecostalism, along with Romanism, places supreme emphasis on God’s work of grace in the human heart instead of God’s work of grace in Jesus Christ.
It should ever be remembered that the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself. He comes to glorify Christ, and will use men and women who will cooperate in that great purpose (see John 16:13, 14).
Pentecostalism makes the baptism of the Spirit the end, and Christ only a means to that end. This is an utter perversion of the Bible order. True Christianity has Christ as its center. The believer makes Christ his end, and the Spirit is given him to persevere in that faith. To sinful, fallen, needy men, the gospel presents Jesus as the Pearl of great price, the infinite Treasure of eternity, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the One who is the righteousness, wisdom, sanctification and redemption of all who believe. The Holy Spirit comes to teach poor, blind men that great and glorious truth. The Spirit never turns the focus of attention away from Jesus to His own merit (John 16:13, 14). When a sinner believes in Jesus, the righteousness of God and the accumulated wealth of eternity are all his in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to the believer as the down payment and guarantee of that great inheritance (Eph. 1:13, 14).
Moreover, the Spirit teaches the believer that his Treasure is only in heaven, and that he can never look to any thing or any experience down here as the fulfillment of life. Life can only be fulfilled at the coming of Jesus to receive His own unto Himself; and the Spirit is given to stimulate their love for His appearing and to sustain their hope of His coming (Rom. 8:23-25). Meanwhile they live by faith, and remain righteous and acceptable to God only because their Substitute is wholly pleasing to Him.
4. Pentecostal Theology Degrades God Into a Popular Somebody.
In Revelation 14 an angel is represented as proclaiming “the everlasting gospel” to every nation on earth. It is important to notice that his first words are, “Fear God, and give glory to Him…” Rev. 14:7. If, as Solomon says, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, then the modern Charismatic movement is the beginning of folly. This word “fear” means an attitude of reverential awe in view of the unspeakable majesty, power and holiness of God. It is an attitude born of knowing the infinite distance between the holy Creator and the sinful creature, yet at the same time knowing that that distance has been spanned by God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Certainly God wants His people to be joyful in His love and mercy, but reverence is the first law of worship. The religion of the Bible does not bring God down to man, but lifts man up to God.
Pentecostalism tends to make of God a popular Somebody. Under its influence, people will shout, dance, laugh and leap for joy, and they are encouraged to do this in the complete absence of faith or obedience.
Furthermore, God says, “Come . . . let us reason together.” Isa. 1:18. The Pentecostal emphasis on the spectacular, the novel, and emotional experience, inhibits man’s highest critical faculties and makes it impossible for God to educate the mind to the right kind of thoughts about His character and work.
5. The Pentecostal Experience Lacks the New Testament Emphasis on Repentance, Faith and Obedience.
Even in the realm of subjective experience, Pentecostalism fails to place the primary emphasis where the New Testament places it on repentance, faith and obedience. Jesus commanded His disciples to preach repentance and faith. Paul preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21. Repentance means a godly sorrow for sin. The heart will never experience this unless it becomes sensible of its own moral defilement in the light of God’s law.
The majesty, holiness and justice of God must be presented to the mind of the sinner until he sees something of how offensive and damning is his state of corruption and rebellion in the sight of Infinite Purity. When the sharp arrows of conviction pierce the soul and he becomes terrified with the thought of appearing before God in his sin, then the soul is ready to hear the good news of God’s saving love in Jesus Christ. The message of the cross does not lessen the sense of sin, but deepens it, for in the light of the terrible suffering of the Savior, the sinner sees how grievous sin appears in God’s sight.
By the working of the Spirit upon his heart, he begins to hate sin for what it is, and longs for that purity and righteousness unto which he is powerless to attain. The Spirit not only gives him repentance toward God for breaking His law, but also faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith is not a mere opinion about the historical Jesus, but it is a trusting response of the whole life to Jesus Christ. The repentant sinner, claiming no merit of his own, comes into the presence of a holy God presenting nothing but the merits of a crucified and risen Savior, claiming nothing except that Christ stands as his Substitute.
True faith will bring forth the fruit of obedience to the whole will of God, to the whole law of God. Faith is the seed or root of obedience because it acknowledges the lordship of Jesus Christ over the whole life. These are the primary graces imparted by the Holy Spirit repentance, faith and obedience. The wondering crowd will be more enamored and impressed with spectacular things, like miracles and tongues. A circus is more pleasing to carnal hearts than self-renunciation, sorrow for sin, and faith that will be manifested in obedience to all the commandments of God.
6. Pentecostalism Represents Love (Agapé) As an Emotional Experience.
The divine agapé love of the New Testament is not a sentiment or emotion, but a heaven-born principle. Pentecostalism presents love as a rapture or feeling that is enjoyed in the believer’s heart. The Bible presents love as a principle of unselfish concern for others. These two concepts are as different as night is from day.
The one who accepts the Pentecostal experience will do things because the “love” in his heart makes him feel like doing it. He may even quote Paul, who says, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” The one who accepts the principle of Bible love will do things whether he feels like doing them or not. In fact, in the matter of duty, his feelings will not even be consulted. His first concern is God’s glory, and he will obey Him even if it runs contrary to his own feelings and impulses. He will keep God’s law at the expense of personal convenience or even life itself. He will do this because he has made Jesus first and last and best in everything. Furthermore, he will serve and seek to benefit his fellow men. He may not have a strong emotional feeling toward them. He may not like some of them. But he will love them as souls for whom Christ died.
Pentecostalism is a sensual “love” experience. Many who have participated in it testify that the experience is similar to a sexual experience. Instead of getting “high” on drugs, many are taking up the motto, “Get high on Jesus.” Instead of being the work of the Holy Spirit, it is often the work of the spirits of devils who stimulate the sensual organs of the brain. Bible prophecy foretells that this phenomenon is going to grow throughout the Christian bodies until the religious world becomes “the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Rev. 18:2. Yet a remnant, armed with the Word of God, shall escape the grand delusion that will unite the Catholic and so called Protestant worlds. This remnant is described in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
– This article was written by John A. Slade, a teacher from New Zealand and first chairman of the Australian Forum, and appears in Present Truth Vol. 1 #1.
On the Religious Front – Coming Together
Concord on the Eucharist
The doctrine of transubstantiation has long been a source of friction and division between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. To the Catholic, this teaching means that the bread and wine consecrated in the service of the Mass are changed in form, or “transubstantiated,” into the very blood and flesh of Christ. The Anglican, on the other hand, has believed that these elements of the Communion service are symbols or memorials of Christ’s sacrificial offering for the sins of men.
A significant document has been released jointly by dignitaries of the two churches. It signified that a consensus of belief on the Eucharist has been reached. This document, entitled Agreed Statement on Eucharistic Doctrine, reveals that the Anglican Church has officially come over to the Catholic opinion on this teaching of Christianity.
The statement proclaims that “communion with Christ in the Eucharist presupposes his true presence, effectually signified by the bread and wine which, in this mystery, becomes his body and blood,” This is another ecumenical “straw in the wind” which portends further ideological union in the future. One Church of England official commented on this accord: “[It is] the most important doctrinal pronouncement made between official representatives of the two churches since the Reformation.”[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
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