Category: theology

Posted in theology

Sunday Word of the Week: Glorification

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The thread of Christianity depends on a unity from one generation to the next of mutual understanding of our important words. Hence the Word of the Week.

People sometimes get these mixed up: Justification-Sanctification-Glorification. The previous weeks’ links for Justification and Sanctification are below. Justification is the moment when God declares a sinner righteous through the atoning work of Jesus. It is the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Jesus. Picture a courtroom, the judge bangs the gavel in the verdict then says, ‘You’re free to go.’…

Sanctification is what happens over the rest of our lives on earth. We are being made holy by the work of the Spirit and our own efforts to partner with Him in the ongoing growth of resisting sin and pursuing Christ-likeness. In our fleshly lives, sanctification never ends. We’ll never be perfectly holy while we are in this flesh.

Glorification is what happens after death when we receive our new bodies at the resurrection. At CARM.org, glorification is defined–

Glorification is the future and final work of God upon Christians where He transforms our mortal physical bodies to the eternal physical bodies in which we will dwell forever.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

We don’t know exactly what our glorified bodies will be like, or exactly when we will receive them, but in the end we will be like Jesus. (1 John 3:2).

Glorification means we will finally be FREE from the power and presence of sin! Can you imagine a brain freed from the darkness of sin and able to behold His glory? Able to sing and praise and worship freed from sinful lips and tongue? Able to commune with Jesus perfectly and to love our fellow brothers and sisters without fault?

All crippling diseases will be gone. All pain and deterioration will be gone. No more tooth fillings, eyeglasses, dialysis, titanium hips, prosthetics, nothing.

Glorification is something we should all be looking forward to as the hope of our reward: sinless bodies that can dwell personally with Christ.

—————————————-

Further reading:

Blog post: Our Future Glorification

Essay: How does the Bible describe the glorified bodies we will possess in Heaven?

5. Sanctification
4. Propitiation
3. Immanence
2. Transcendence
1. Justification

Posted in discernment, theology

Henry Ward Beecher, social justice, and Eben-melech the unknown hero

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Beecher was a minister, temperance promoter, abolitionist, social justice warrior, and the brother of famous novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe. He lived from 1813 to 1887. In his ministry, he developed a new oratorical style, in which he used humor, dialect, and slang, very rare for the time. Over his career, he developed a theology emphasizing God’s love above all else. He also grew interested in social reform.

You just know this won’t end well. Any man or women who does all of the three, it’s almost a death knell for his faith. The three again:

1. New approaches to preaching (or learning if you’re a layman)
2. Emphasizing God’s love only
3. Emphasis on social reform

Think of what is going on today with a sudden heavy emphasis on social justice and you’ll see the same trajectory in many ministers and parachurch ministries.

Beecher, as some people might not know, was also a tremendous womanizer. He had affairs with many women of his congregation and many women who were not in his congregation. One colleague quipped that on any given Sunday Beecher was preaching to 7 or 8 of his mistresses. Eventually, he endured a trial for adultery that made him the “most famous man in America”. It was called the trial of the century.

Be wary of ministers and organizations that claim to love Christ but primarily exist to promote a social gospel. Look for a clear biblical objective. Otherwise, avoid.

So, what is the Social Gospel? Wikipedia describes the Social Gospel:

The Social Gospel was a movement in North American Protestantism which applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean environment, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. It was most prominent in the early-20th-century United States and Canada.

The novel Christy I’d reviewed in April focused on the social gospel work of some missionaries in the Appalachians. The novel was based on a real mission and real people. There was a huge push for social gospel work in missions then that began in the very late 1800s and reached its peak in the 1910s and began to wane after WWI.

The premise of the work was that if missionaries or lay-Christians in their everyday environments could show the love of God in doing good, rectifying deplorable conditions, it would spark an attraction to Jesus in the recipients of the benevolence. Moreover, if the hindrances to faith are removed, i.e. that if the recipients did not have to worry as much about their next meal or getting coal or firewood to stay alive, it would also spark an interest in Jesus.

D.-Martyn-Lloyd-Jones

Of course this is backward. Promoters of the movement tended to blame sin on societal structures rather than human nature. Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously said in his Studies on the Sermon on the Mount,

The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment. That is a tragic fallacy. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.

But look at their efforts anyway!

Our purpose is “to gather a new generation of women, equip them with the tools to know God more deeply and live out their purposes and unleash a movement to promote healing and reconciliation around the world.” [If:Gathering]

“Our mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world“. [Sojourners].

There’s even Christian eco-justice.

“is a grassroots community of United Methodists who believe that a relationship with God’s creation and a ministry of caring for and healing the earth are integral to what it means to be a Christian.” [Caretakers of God’s Creation]

“heal the world”? “inspiring hope”? “healing the earth”? So vague. Again, if there is a social justice organization or a parachurch ministry that focuses on social justice, look for their clear and specific biblical objective. If they don’t have one, avoid it.

We are to help the poor and disadvantaged. No question, I’m not saying charitable mercy is never warranted. Of course it is, the Bible prescribes it. But notice I didn’t say ‘social justice’ but instead ‘charitable mercy.’

George Crawford at Grace Community Church, in the series Sundays in July, delivered a sermon today called “Probably the Greatest Old Testament Hero You Never Heard Of”. It’s wonderful because he addresses social justice through his exegesis of a nearly anonymous man in the Old Testament in an obscure passage, regarding the rescue of prophet Jeremiah. Crawford illustrates what real biblical justice is, and how heroes who pursue such justice should act and what they should do.

Mr Crawford himself was an attorney for a regulatory agency and an administrative judge for his career of 40 years. He is highly concerned with justice, but equally concerned any kind of justice done in Jesus’ name is approached biblically. He feels this passage is the best one in the Bible that addresses the issue of social justice. I recommend it.

Jeremiah 38:1-13, “Probably the Greatest Old Testament Hero You Never Heard Of”

Crawford’s main points in the sermon, which is very easy to listen to, revolve around what true social justice heroes are like, based on what the man Eben-melech in Jeremiah’s scene accomplished:

  • Heroes get over sins against them, and move on
  • Heroes have an accurate grasp of reality
  • Heroes will take action, boldly
  • Heroes take precise, specific action (There is no room in the faith for broad, general, overall passionate, unfocused, untargeted, mindless social justice).
  • Heroes are practical
  • Heroes act with mercy
  • Real concern for real biblical justice will focus on real and specific situations
  • Heroes act with prudent courage, recognizing the reality of danger but taking action anyway
  • Heroes are willing to forego credit in order to get the job done

Let’s go back to Beecher. “I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” This quote that opened this essay is completely backwards, of course. It’s indicative of the backwardness of the plethora of  “eco-social-racial-gender-sexual justice” organizations today. Beecher forsook God’s love whilst dwelling on it excessively, abused His grace, promoted ill-fated social causes and lost his first love (like those at Ephesus, Revelation 2:4). It happens every time.

Be wary of ministers, organizations, or parachurches that focus on God’s love to the exclusion of other attributes of God, and who set out in unfocused or non-specific manner to rectify social ills. Eben-melech got the job done because he was smart about it- he had a clear biblical objective. Unfocused zeal is not only unhelpful, it could be dangerous.

More to the point of Beecher’s quote, is that no one who is outside of Christ knows how to love. One can’t learn to love before one learns to worship. No one. That Beecher preached it thus is a tragic mistake. Our entire being is at enmity with God. Enmity means war, hatred, opposition. Only Jesus who is the source of Love, enables us to rightly love after we enter the faith. It is He we love, because we worship Him first.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. 1 John 5:1-3.

————————————-

Further Reading

WWUTT what is social justice? (90-seconds)

Sermon: The Most Misunderstood Parable

Blog post: Frequently Abused Verses: Is the Social Gospel the Whole Gospel?

Posted in thankful, theology

A wonderful gift from a reader

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m just a puddle of tears and joy, you guys.

The internet is a wild and woolly place when discussing traditional, conservative, evangelical Gospel. The worst push back I receive is from people claiming to be Christian who just hate any talk of standards, holiness, or false teachers. (Especially if it’s their favorite teacher).

Of course, political talk is just as bad, which is why I don’t participate in it, but some of the people I follow online do. I try to avoid looking at the worst of the discussions.

Many compatriots in the faith are switching off Twitter or Facebook, or others grit their teeth and call it the devil…I agree some days are just pretty bad. But I have been fortunate in my 23 years online. I’ve found alternately from the bad, that people are also friendly and kind and generous and interesting and thoughtful. I’ve had good luck with people overall.

Since I started my Quiet Life blog (in Blogger and here in WordPress later) in 2006, I’ve had nice interactions 90% of the time with readers. They either comment on the blog or send emails. As my sanctification progressed, my blogging became less personal and more theological. I started a second blog called The End Time on blogger as well as here on WordPress).

Readers have been so kind. Sometimes they donate using the PayPal button. Often they comment intelligently, or ask probing questions that absolutely delight me. Sometimes they send a gift like a book. They send notes. Sometimes they send a hand made gift. I use the crocheted coasters a lady made me every day.

But I’ll save my favorite reader response for the end.

Today I received a package from an unknown address. What is this, I wondered up the driveway.

It’s THIS! Just LOOK AT IT!

It’s INCREDIBLE! Handmade art and paper art. Here is a bit of what the mom wrote:

Her 17-year-old daughter drew the bird knowing my love of birds. Her 18-year-old daughter created the paper craft knowing my love for teapots and teacups. Aren’t they just gorgeous? Such talent. Isn’t that incredibly thoughtful? The care, the patience, the love in those hand made gifts, and to me, someone they don’t even know in real life, I’m just overwhelmed.

She said some nice and encouraging things about the content of the blog, which is so terribly heartening. You bloggers know that we do what we do for Christ, as an audience of one. However we also do what we do in hopes that the brethren (in my case, sisters) would be edified or challenged or encouraged. It’s nice to know we are not working in an echo chamber, and it’s nice to know that any seeds we may send out into the wind land and flourish.

But here is THE BEST PART. She wrote,

In fact, you introduced me to the ministry of John MacArthur. We now own and study his New Testament Commentary series as well as the MacArthur Study Bible.

My goal is always to point to credible ministries led by credible men. Personally in this era, I don’t think there is any better ministry underway today than John MacArthur’s. I mean, he preached through the New Testament verse by verse. I believe he is the Spurgeon of the day. One person on Twitter recently wrote:

I wish young pastors would let it sink in that few people have had greater worldwide impact with the gospel than @johnmacarthur  He didn’t focus on having that impact, but on preaching the Word. “If you take care of the depth of your ministry, God will take care of its breadth.”

It’s awesome that my lovely reader was introduced to MacArthur, because that opens up a world of other credible ministries, such as Phil Johnson’s (who I am appreciating more and more each day), Steven Lawson, Paul Twiss, HB Charles, Alistair Begg, Abner Chou…and all the other men in JMac’s circle. Connecting women with good ministries is a heart-felt goal of mine. When it comes to pass I praise the Lord for His goodness in allowing me to minister at all, and also for being a part of the joy in connecting with other women who love the Word taught by good teachers and find delight in it.

Knowing her grown daughters have been hearing good sermons is part of the circle of life that extends to the next generation. By God’s grace, those girls won’t be following the IF:Gathering or Beth Moore or Lauren Chandler or Jennie Allen. They’ll know good Bible teaching when they hear it and they’ll have had meat to chew on and can distinguish that from the no-good fluff.

So it was a very good day. She ended by saying my favorite thing of all- “Thank you for always pointing the way to God’s word and how to properly apply it.” That is what it’s all about while we are on this earth, learning more about Him and applying what we know of Christ to life so that we glorify Him.

Thank you.

PS: I placed the curled paper art into a shadowbox so it wouldn’t get dusty and hung it up, and I hung the bird art with Psalm on the back where I can see it every day. The note I took out of the paper art and I’m keeping separately to re-read on difficult days. 😉

Posted in theology

“Well behaved women seldom make history”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

This was a bumper sticker adorning the car ahead of me at a red light. A long light. I had time to read it and think about it and then get steamed about it. Of course next to that bumper sticker there was a ‘coexist’ bumper sticker. How can those two be reconciled? If a women isn’t being well-behaved, she is being rebellious. And if she is being rebellious, she is not co-existing peacefully with those around her, is she? Illogical.

In any case, I thought that the bumper sticker’s premise was that for women to be recorded in history, they must have had to do something daring or against societal expectations, or had done something ‘out there’ in some way. This, I had mused, is illogical too, because there are plenty of women in history who were simply good at what they did, and that was why they got into the history books. Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Marie Curie, Queen Elizabeth II, Sally Ride… Would NASA have chosen a rebellious upstart to be part of their space program? Of course not.

Curious now, I looked into the origins behind the bumper sticker and I was surprised by what I found.

The phrase comes from Harvard Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Ulrich identifies herself both as a feminist and a Mormon. It was her 1976 little-known academic paper published in American Quarterly called “Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735” where the now famous bumper sticker phrase was first seen.

Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, was populated in the 1600s by deeply religions Puritans who had emigrated from England and the Netherlands to worship God freely, something they could not do on the Continent.

Ulrich looked into the lives of ‘ordinary’ Puritan women, especially midwives, through their own diaries. The ordinary, the mundane, the repetitive nature of the life, consisting of hard work mainly at home, drew Ulrich’s attention. She expanded her paper into into a 1990 book called, “A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812.” The staying power and viral nature of the adage she had coined back in 1976 led to Ulrich eventually write a book in 2007 called by the very phrase she had coined: “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.” Here is an excerpt from the 1976 paper:

Cotton Mather called them “The Hidden Ones.” They never preached or sat in a deacon’s bench. Nor did they vote or attend Harvard. Neither, because they were virtuous women, did they question God or the magistrates. They prayed secretly, read the Bible through at least once a year, and went to hear the minister preach even when it snowed. Hoping for an eternal crown, they never asked to be remembered on earth. And they haven’t been. Well-behaved women seldom make history; against Antinomians and witches, these pious matrons have had little chance at all.

It turns out, that Ulrich wanted to simply promote the lives of the Puritan and the 1800s women which history had forgot.

Ulrich noted that though women were nearly invisible in society, only recording when they were born, married, or died, their standing in spiritual realms was highly elevated.

…this circumscribed social position was not reflected in the spiritual sphere, that New England’s ministers continued to uphold the oneness of men and women before God, that in their understanding of the marriage relationship they moved far toward equality, that in all their writings they stressed the dignity, intelligence, strength, and rationality of women even as they acknowledged the physical limitations imposed by their reproductive role. …  Source 1976 paper, “Vertuous Women Found”

Huh. Go figure. A Mormon Harvard feminist professor who got it right. As for the popularity of the phrase I’d seen on the bumper sticker, Ulrich said that its ambiguity (when taken out of its context) accounts for its appeal. In other words, you can interpret it any way you want. Which is exactly what I had done at the red light when I first read it.

My objective when I wrote those words was not to lament their oppression but to give them a history. … [T]he ambiguity of the slogan surely accounts for its appeal. To the public-spirited, it is a provocation to action, a less pedantic way of saying that if you want to make a difference in the world, you can’t worry too much about what people think. To a few it might say “Good girls get no credit.” To a lot more, “Bad girls have more fun.” … Source: “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” (Knopf, September 2007)

Well there you go.

There’s one more thing. The premise that ‘well behaved women seldom make history’ is supposed to spark a knee-jerk reaction that it’s a bad thing not to make history. Like, “Hey! I wanna get into history! Why can’t I be in the history books?! The biblical worldview would have a response to this in several respects. First, woman already are in the only history book that matters, the Bible. Well-behaved and rebellious women are both recorded throughout the pages of that holy Book. From Jezebel to Esther, from Mary to the Woman at the Well, women are recorded in biblical history doing what they do as humans.

Secondly, women already are recorded…in the Lamb’s Book of Life. There is NO OTHER book than that precious book one should aspire to have our names written.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12).

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27).

If you have repented and believed in the risen Christ, then us well behaved women are all set with names written in the Lamb’s book. All other books will fade away. But not Jesus’ words, those are the only words and the only history that matters.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (Matthew 24:35).

well behaved

Posted in encouragement, theology

Happy Fourth!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata
flag collage.jpg

The Fourth of July is so fun for a kid. It’s a day when the grownups stay home and we all get to play. For some, that means swimming in the lake or at the beach. For others it means parades and cookouts. For just about everybody it means fireworks.

Our family did lots of different things on the holiday. We spent summers at the Cape. We went to the Park and listened to the Boston Pops. We had pool parties with BBQs. But mainly what I remember is our grandparents’ beach house on the Bay, cousins, and all the uncles leaving to go buy fireworks and returning laughing carrying a huge box. Cherry Bombs and rockets and roman candles, and most delightfully, sparklers.

I loved the sparklers. I’d run up and down the beach waving them as I passed all my other cousins who were doing the same thing.

Is there anything more fun or beautiful than colorful fireworks streaking overhead? Jimmy Buffett has a song called,  “The night I painted the sky”.

Independence Day
And all I remember
Was a midnight rainbow
That fell from the sky
As I stand on the beach
I slowly surrender
To the child in me
That can’t say goodbye

The rockets in the air
And the people everywhere
Put away their differences for a while
Oh I am still a child
When it comes to something wild
Oh that was the night
I painted the sky

The prominent memory is the family- nuclear and extended, gathered together on the 4th. Fun, family, eating, family, laughter, family.

There’s some negative reactions these days from Christian conservatives when a person even tiptoes over to the rah-rah America side of things. I unashamedly love my country. Though I love America, I know my ultimate citizenship is in heaven. But the Lord birthed me in 1960 in America and kept me alive throughout these 50 odd years and I can’t complain about His ordination of his time and place for my life. It wasn’t China in 645 BC or Iceland in 1828 or Germany in 1944. It was America, 1960.

I’m glad I live in America. I think it’s a great nation and it has afforded me a good life. My great-grandparents and grandparents, all 4 of them, came (legally) to America. They chose America to immigrate to, and that says something. They raised their kids here and the men fought the wars to protect here and eventually all the Pratas gathered at the beach house and we ran up and down waving sparklers in freedom and in love for our country.

Here in America today people will gather in sidewalks to see parades or in backyards to eat hot dogs or in parks to hear music…whatever you’re doing I hope it’s with family, a structure the Lord ordained as a foundational building block of the nation. And I hope it affords you means to behave in Gospel ways and to speak of the Savior to others. Because we live in America, we can still do that. We can assemble freely and practice our religion freely.

It’s a day that also can remind us that no matter how much we delight in painting the sky with lights, no matter how we enjoy family, eating great food, or just relaxing from our labors, the Country that’s coming in which we will dwell will afford us more peace, more joy, and more light and beauty than we can imagine. We love America, but it will pass away to a better country: the New Jerusalem. Think of today not only of building family, not only as a day to share the Gospel in gatherings, not only as a day off from hard work, but a day that foreshadows the greater Day when our citizenship will be united not around an earthly nation but around perfection in Jesus.

Enjoy your Fourth!

flag with fireworks

Posted in discernment, theology

Sin ensnares another high profile pastor

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m very sorry to have to report this. Art Azurdia, elder at Trinity Church of Portland (OR) and frequent speaker at high-profile conferences such as The Shepherds’ Conference, has fallen.

He admitted to a sexually inappropriate relationship with a woman outside their church, and in fact admitted to a previous inappropriate sexual relationship also. The elders of Trinity Church, as biblically commanded, removed Art from leadership. Short statement below.

A Statement regarding Art Azurdia from the elders of Trinity Church of Portland
July 2, 2018 by Thomas Terry
Category: Trinity Church Announcement
On Sunday, June 24, the elders of Trinity Church of Portland received an accusation that Art Azurdia has been in a sexually immoral relationship with a woman from outside of Trinity Church. The elders of Trinity Church, after an initial investigation, confronted Art with the accusation. Art admitted to the immorality. He also admitted to a previous sexually immoral relationship. Based on these facts and the biblical qualifications required of an elder (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1), the elders have removed Art Azurdia as Senior Minister of Word and Worship at Trinity Church, as an elder, and from all pastoral ministry at Trinity Church. We grieve the shame this brings to the Gospel and the sorrow it brings to God’s people.

Sometimes when I get up in the morning and turn on Facebook and Twitter, I sigh because I know that it’s like putting your face into a buzz saw. Seeing posts like the one from Trinity hurts. I hurt for Art and for the woman and for their church and for all of us. The last sentence mentioning the shame to the Gospel and the grief it brings to God’s people is apt.

But as tempting as it is to turn turtle and ignore all that is going on, it’s important not to. Sin lurks. Sin crouches, waiting to have you, and me. We have to be vigilant, and unfortunate incidents like this remind us that it can and DOES happen every day to anyone.

We can’t ignore these things because it’s a call to action. Pray for YOUR pastor and elders and teachers. Often I am so fervent in praying for the right doctrine to enter my elders’ minds and come out in their teaching that I forget to pray for them morally too.

Paul warned Timothy,

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16).

This sentence from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary restating Calvin sums it up:

The two requisites of a good pastor: His teaching will be of no avail unless his own life accord with it; and his own purity of life is not enough unless he be diligent in teaching [Calvin]

We need Jesus every hour. All of us.

 

Posted in prophecy, theology

Speaking up for prophetic scriptures

Posted on by elizabethprata

They used to say that the Puritan preachers were so heavenly minded they lived in heaven 6 days a week and came down on Sunday to preach. I don’t think it could be said that the Puritans gained biblical knowledge for knowledge’s sake and failed to apply it. In my opinion, the more you study the Bible, including prophecy, the more you want to apply it. Why study prophecy? Aside from the fact that we are commanded to? (Mark 13:37)

I study prophecy because –

–it is part of the Bible, God’s revelation of Himself through holy inspired word
–it is commanded (See above)
–it instills in me an urgency to live righteously and to witness. We don’t study just for the information and go our way. It has to affect our Christian walk, just as any scripture does.
–it’s beautiful
–It comforts me to think of these things being fulfilled:

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2).

If you are driving in a fogbank, you get disoriented. You slow down. You look carefully. You are on high alert. You see a fogline at the edge and you know how far to go.

When in the fog you look for distinct landmarks, but the fog may be so heavy you don’t see them unless they are large or unless they are close. Eventually you start to emerge from the fogbank and you can see more clearly, landmarks near and far. The Bible in all its glories clear the mind and allow us to see with a Christian worldview. The more we study all of it, the clearer our minds become.

It’s sad that many people avoid studying prophecy because they think it’s isn’t a worthy part of the canon…or they don’t know how (as if the prophetic scriptures are less or more challenging than the scriptures of Law or Poetry or History), or it causes arguments.

Again, why study prophecy? Observing and studying not just for knowledge but
–to learn the entire sweep and scope of God’s promises,
–to instill a wonder at His sovereign hand from beginning to end
–to create in us an urgency so as to live righteously and to share boldly
–to be encouraged

A good commentary can help. Also a good study Bible. James Montgomery Boice preached well through the prophetic books that most preachers don’t pay attention to, such as Haggai, Daniel, Amos, and the like.

What a glorious prophetic future we have to look forward to:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:1-3).

prophecy

Posted in theology, word of the week

Word of the week: Sanctification

Posted on by elizabethprata

The thread of Christianity depends on a unity from one generation to the next of mutual understanding of our important words. Hence the Word of the Week.

c111c-word2bof2bthe2bweek2bword2bcloud

Justification is the moment that God declares us not guilty and imputes His righteousness to our account. It takes but a moment. It only takes as long as it takes the Judge to bang his gavel.

Sanctification takes the rest of our life on earth. Justification is a declaration, sanctification is a process.

Short version:

Literally refers to the process of setting something apart for a sacred purpose. In Christian theology, it denotes a doctrine concerned with the gradual purification from sin in the life of the believer and a progressive spiritual growth toward Christlikeness. ~The Lexham Glossary of Theology.

Longer version:

SANCTIFICATION Refers broadly to the concept of being set apart as sacred. In Gen 2:3, God “sanctified” the seventh day, meaning He set it apart as sacred. In Leviticus, Yahweh tells the entire people of Israel to maintain being sanctified (Lev 11:44–45). This aspect of the concept of sanctification is closely related to holiness and biblical regulations for maintaining purity.

The New Testament similarly reflects the idea that followers of Christ have been sanctified or set apart as a result of Christ’s holiness (Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Cor 1:30; 2 Thess 2:13). This idea that Christians have been made holy before God through their faith in Christ is related to justification. In Christian theology, a distinction is sometimes made between justification and sanctification where justification refers to having saving faith and sanctification refers to the process of gradual purification from sin and progressive spiritual growth that should mark the life of the believer.

This doctrine of sanctification draws on New Testament passages that emphasize a move toward holy and righteous living that characterizes following Christ in faith (1 Thess 4:3–8; Rom 6:19–22).  ~The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Bullet version, with verses:

1.      Is separation to the service of God. Ps 4:3; 2 Co 6:17.
2.      Effected by
a.      God. Eze 37:28; 1 Th 5:23; Jude 1:1.
b.      Christ. Heb 2:11; 13:12.
c.      The Holy Spirit. Ro 15:16; 1 Co 6:11.
3.      In Christ. 1 Co 1:2.
4.      Through the atonement of Christ. Heb 10:10; 13:12.
5.      Through the word of God. Joh 17:17, 19; Eph 5:26.
6.      Christ made, of God, to us. 1 Co 1:30.
7.      Saints elected to salvation through. 2 Th 2:13; 1 Pe 1:2.
8.      All saints are in a state of. Ac 20:32; 26:18; 1 Co 6:11.
9.      The Church made glorious by. Eph 5:26, 27.
10.      Should lead to
a.      Mortification of sin. 1 Th 4:3, 4.
b.      Holiness. Ro 6:22; Eph 5:7–9.
11.      Offering up of saints acceptable through. Ro 15:16.
12.      Saints fitted for the service of God by. 2 Ti 2:21.
13.      God wills all saints to have. 1 Th 4:3.
14.      Ministers
a.      Set apart to God’s service by. Jer 1:5.
b.      Should pray that their people may enjoy complete. 1 Th 5:23.
c.      Should exhort their people to walk in. 1 Th 4:1, 3.
15.      None can inherit the kingdom of God without. 1 Co 6:9–11.
16.      Typified. Ge 2:3; Ex 13:2; 19:14; 40:9–15; Le 27:14–16.

~Torrey, R. A. (2001). The new topical text book: A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers.

4. Propitiation
3. Immanence
2. Transcendence
1. Justification