MERCY
ON VIDEO-
.Shaky
.Bobby’s ‘Muslim’ friend
.Universalism?
.Carlton Pearson
.Inspiration of scripture
.Origen
PAST POSTS [verses below]-
ROMANS 11-13
[note- there’s much more on the video than the post]
.ROMANS 11
.ROMANS 12
.ROMANS 13
END NOTES-
.What effect did the Renaissance have on the Reformation?
.How did Erasmus differ from Luther?
.Do Catholics exalt Tradition over Scripture?
.Renaissance artists.
.Do Catholics believe in Justification by Faith?
.Catholic teaching on Civil Authorities [Romans 13].
.What does ‘AdFontes’ mean- and how does it relate to the
Renaissance/Reformation?
Romans 11
.Was Paul a full time preacher- paid?
.Is he teaching universalism here?
.Elijah was not alone.
(861)Romans 11:13- ‘For I speak
to you Gentiles, in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my
office’. Let me just make a few comments today. How is Paul 'exercising’ his
apostolic authority over the Gentiles in Rome? We know he hasn’t been there yet
[since becoming a follower of Jesus]. He did not have some type of relationship
with them where they contributed to him. He was holding no ‘church services’.
He exercised it by speaking into their lives and caring for their welfare. He
did this by WRITING THIS LETTER! Recently there has been some discussion on
‘Gods government’ and the apostles ‘bringing things into alignment’ [dealing
with the mistakes at Lakeland]. Lots of talk that I am familiar with. What is
Gods government? In the world we have 2 competing ‘world views’- systems or
modes of operation. You have God’s kingdom, and then the worlds system. When
the apostle John said ‘love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world’ he was referring to this system of lies and pride and sin. In Gods
kingdom you operate under his laws ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…
and your neighbor as yourself’. In this family [children of God] you have
different types of ‘gifts’. Some are apostles, others prophets, etc. All these
gifted ones are given for the singular purpose of building you up so you can
have a mature faith grounded in Christ and be the ‘glorious temple’ of God in
the earth. Paul was playing his part by communicating Jesus to these Roman
Gentiles. He did not have some type of a corporate relationship with them where
he said ‘commit to my authority over you. Either I will be your ‘covering’ or
someone else!’ These are mans ideas. Now, we often say ‘Paul didn’t receive
money from the Corinthians, but he did from the other churches’. I have said
this myself. Paul did receive support from the Philippians, but that was
support for his traveling ministry. To get him to the next place. If you read
carefully you will see Paul telling the Thessalonians ‘when I was with you I
did not eat, or take stuff for free. My hands ministered to both me and those
that were with me’ I think he even said he worked night and day. When he spoke
to the Ephesians elders in the book of Acts, he also said ‘I labored when I was
with you, I did not take support from you when I was there. I did this to leave
you ELDERS an example’. Now, the point I want to make is it seems as if Paul
did not take money when he was actually living among the saints. It seems he
took it only for traveling expenses [and of course for his ministry to the poor
saints at Jerusalem]. Now, I believe and teach that it is scriptural to meet
the needs, financially, of laboring elders. The reason I mention this is to
show you that being an ‘apostle’ or any other gifted minister in the church
simply means you bear extra responsibility to bring Gods people to maturity. It
was not some type of office where you were a ‘professional minister’. When I
hear all the talk of ‘Gods apostles are bringing Gods government back into
alignment’ for the most part these are men’s ideas being applied to an American
corporate 501c3 ministry. Gods ‘government’ operates along different lines. So
in this example Paul said ‘I magnify my office’ he was simply imparting some
truth to them for the purpose of their own edification. Paul did not see them
coming under ‘his covering’.
(862)ROMANS 11- let me make a
note on the previous entry. Over the last few years, as well as many years of
experience with ‘ministry/church’, I have seen how easy it is to fall into the
well meaning mindset of ‘I am going into the ministry, this is my career
choice. My responsibility is to do ‘Christian stuff’ and the people’s role is
to support me’[ I am not taking a shot at well meaning Pastors, I am basically
speaking of the many friends I have met over the years who seemed to think
ministry was a way to get financial support]. In the previous entry I mentioned
how Paul seemed to have a mode of operation that said ‘when I am residing with
a community of believers, I refuse to allow them to support me. I will work
with my own hands to give them an example, not only to the general saints, but
also to the elders. I am showing you that leadership is not a means to get
gain’. It does seem ‘strange’ for us to see this. Of course we know Paul also
taught the churches that it was proper and right to support those who ‘labor
among you’. I have taught all this in the past and I don’t want to ‘re-teach’
it all again. The point I want to make is we ‘in ministry’ really need to
rethink what we do. How many web-sites have I gone to that actually have icons
that say ‘pay me here’. The average person going to these sites must think ‘pay
you for what’? Paul did not teach the mindset of ‘pay me here, now’. Also in
this letter to the Romans we are reading Paul’s correspondence to the believers
at Rome. He often used this mode of ‘authority’ [writing letters] to exercise
his apostolic office. Of course he also traveled to these areas [Acts] and
spent time with them. And as I just showed you he supported himself on purpose
when he was with the saints. Basically Paul is carrying out the single most
effective apostolic ministry of all time [except for Jesus] and he is doing it
without all the modern techniques of getting paid. He actually is doing all
this writing and laboring at his own expense. He told the Corinthians ‘the
fathers [apostles] spend for the children, not the children for the fathers’.
So in todays talk on ‘apostles’ being restored. God ‘bringing back into
alignment apostolic government’ we need to tone down all the quoting of verses
[even the things Paul said!] that seem to say to the average saint ‘how do you
expect us to reach the world if you do not ‘bring all the tithes into the
storehouse’! When we put this guilt trip on the people of God we are violating
very fundamental principles of scripture. Now, let’s try and finish up chapter
11. Paul is basically telling Israel and the Gentiles that God’s dealings are
beyond our understanding [last few verses]. God is using the ‘unbelief’ of
Israel as an open door to the Gentiles. He is also using the mercy that he is
showing to the Gentiles as an ‘open door’ to Israel! He will ‘provoke them to
jealousy’. There are a few difficult verses that would be unfair for me to skip
over. ‘All Israel shall be saved’. Paul uses this to show that God’s dealings
with natural Israel as a nation are not finished. Who are ‘all Israel’? Some
say ‘the Israel of God’ [the church]. I don’t think this fits the text. Some
say ‘all Israel that will be alive at the second coming’ I think this is
closer. To be honest I think this can simply mean ‘all Israel’ all those who
are alive and also raised at the return of the Lord. Now, this would be a form
of universalism [all people eventually being saved]. I am not a Universalist,
but I don’t want any ‘preconceived’ mindset [even my own!] to taint the text. I
think God has the ability to reveal himself to the whole nation of Israel in
such a way that ‘they all will be saved’. If I were a Jewish person I wouldn’t
wait for this to happen! Just like the Calvinists argument of ‘why witness’?
Because God commands it. So even though you can make an argument here for a
type of universal redemption at Christ’s revealing of himself to Israel at the
second coming [which is in keeping with this chapter, as well as other areas in
scripture; ‘they will look upon him whom they have pierced’ ‘God will pour out
the spirit of mourning and supplication on Israel at his appearing’. Which by
the way would fit in with ‘whoever calls on the Lord will be saved’ which I
taught in chapter 10. This is a futurist text implying a time of future
judgment and wrath’]. So God’s dealings with Israel are not finished. Paul also
warns the Gentiles ‘don’t boast, if God cut out the true branches [Israel] to
graft you in. He can just as quickly cut you out too’! It would be dishonest
for me [a Calvinist] to simply not comment on this. You certainly can take this
verse in an Arminian way. Or you can see Paul speaking in a ‘nationalistic
sense’. Sort of like saying ‘if Germany walks away from the faith, they will be
‘cut out’. [France would have been a better example! Speaking of the so called
‘enlightenment’ and the French Revolution]. In essence ‘you Gentiles, don’t
think “wow, look at us. God left Israel and we are now special!”’ Paul is
saying ‘you Gentiles [as a whole group] stand by faith. God could just as
quickly ‘cut you out’ and replace you with another group’. I also think the
Arminians could use this type of argument for the previous predestination
chapter [9]. But to be honest I needed to give you my view. One more thing,
Paul quotes Elijah ‘lord, I am the only one left’. He uses this in context of
God having a remnant from Israel who remained faithful to the true God. God
told Elijah ‘there are 7 thousand that have not bowed the knee to baal’. Paul
uses this to show that even in his day there were a remnant Of Jews [himself
included] who received the Messiah. An interesting side note. The prophetic
ministry [Elijah] seems to function at a ‘popular level’. Now, I don’t mean
‘fame’, but Elijah was giving voice to a large undercurrent that was running
thru the nation. If you read the story of Elijah you would have never known
that there were ‘7 thousand’ who never bowed the knee! Often times God will use
prophetic people to ‘give voice’ or popularize a general truth that is
presently existing in the ‘underground church’ at large. Sort of like if Elijah
had a web site, the 7 thousand would have been secretly reading it and saying
‘right on brother, that’s exactly what we believe too’!
ROMANS 12
.ARE SOME GIFTS BETTER THAN
OTHERS?
.HOW SHOULD THEY FUNCTION IN THE
‘BODY’?
. HOW SHOUD WE GIVE OFFERINGS-
DID PAUL TEAHC TITHING?
.HOT COALS ON THEIR HEADS- HUH?
(864)ROMANS 12:1-8 ‘I beseech
you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service [spiritual worship]’.
Most times we see ‘by the mercies of God’ as a recap of all that Paul has
taught from chapters 1 thru 12. This is true to a degree. I think Paul is
honing in on the previous chapters that dealt with the purpose of God
specifically seen in the resurrection of the body. As we read earlier ‘for we
are saved by hope’ [the hope of the resurrection]. Basically I see Paul saying
‘because of what I showed you concerning Gods redemptive purpose for your body,
therefore present your body now, in anticipation of it’s future glorious
purpose, as a living sacrifice ‘holy and acceptable unto God’. Why? Because you
are going to have that thing [body] forever! [in a new glorified state] Paul exhorts us to be changed by the renewing
of our mind, the way we think. I have mentioned in the past that this renewing
is not some type of legalistic function of ‘memorizing, muttering the
[parts]
(835)ROMANS 7:1-4 Paul uses the
analogy of a married woman ‘don’t you know that the law has dominion over a
person as long as he is alive’? If a married woman leaves her husband and
marries another man she is guilty of breaking the law of adultery. Now, if her
husband dies, she is free to marry another man. The act that freed her from sin
and guilt was death! Every thing else in the scenario stayed the same. She
still married another, she still consummated the new marriage. But because her
first husband died, she has no guilt. I always loved this analogy. For years I
wondered why these themes in scripture are for the most part not ‘imbedded’ in
the collective psyche of the people of God. We have spent so much time ‘proof
texting’ the verses on success and wealth, that we have overlooked the really
good stuff! Now Paul teaches that we have been made free from the law by the
‘death of our husband’ [Jesus] so we can ‘re-marry’. Who do we marry? Christ!
He has not only died to free us from the law, he also rose from the dead to
become our ‘husband’ [we are called the bride of Christ]. Paul connects the
death and resurrection of Jesus in this analogy. Both are needed for the true
gospel to be preached [1st Corinthians 15]. Notice how in this
passage Paul emphasizes ‘the death of Christ’s body’. The New Testament doesn’t
always make this distinction, but here it does. In the early centuries of
Christianity you had various debates over the nature and ‘substance’ of God and
Christ. The church hammered out various decrees and creeds that would become
the Orthodoxy of the day. Many of these are what you would call the ‘Ecumenical
councils’. These are the early councils [many centuries!] that both the eastern
[Orthodox church] and western [Catholic] churches would all accept. Some feel
that the early church fathers and Latin theologians [Tertullian, Augustine and
others] had too much prior influence from philosophy and the ‘forensic’
thinking of their time. They had a tendency to describe things in highly
technical ways. Ways that were prominent in the legal and philosophical
thinking of the West. Some of the eastern thinkers [Origen] had more of a Greek
‘flavor’ to their theologizing [Alexandria, named after Alexander the great,
was a city of philosophy many years prior to Christ. This city was at one time
the center of thinking in the East. That’s why Paul would face the thinkers at
Athens, they had a history in the east of Greek philosophy]. Well any way the
result was highly technical debates over the nature of God and Christ. The
historic church would finally decree that Christ had 2 natures, Human and
Divine. And that at the Cross the ‘humanity of Jesus’ died, but his ‘Deity’ did
not. I think Paul agreed by saying ‘we are free from the law by the death of
Christ’s Body’ here Paul distinguishes between the physical death of Jesus and
his Deity. Note- actually, Augustine would be in the same school as Origen.
Alexandrian.
(836)ROMANS 7: 5-13 ‘But now we are delivered from the law, that being
dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of the Spirit, not
in the oldness of the letter’. This is such a
[parts]
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