The article “What I Had Wrong About Evangelism” posted on TGC website, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wrong-evangelism/, provides a refreshing second look at the call to personal evangelism in the NT. It is based on the Christian’s identity and God’s provision externally as well as internally to conduct His mission to build His kingdom and reach the lost. It can alleviate the tendency by ministers to resort to tough polemics in motivating their congregation to do evangelization.

The recent ICR post, “Should Creationists Brook Loss of a Trout?” (https://www.icr.org/article/should-creationists-brook-loss-of-a-trout/), is not about fishing stories and the one that got away, but posits a seemingly innocuous question that is used to unveil the corrupted underlying motis operandi and some insideous consequences of evolution in contrast to creationism: “Should a freshwater stream be restored to make it habitable for a failing fish population such as brook trout?¹ It makes sense that creationists proactively care about biodiversity and environmental stewardship, but why should evolutionists care?² These real-world questions are illustrated by Maryland’s Jabez Branch, a tributary of the Severn River in Maryland. Jabez Branch is the only stream in the state’s Coastal Plain that is—or maybe was—home to brook trout.¹” In brooking these questions, it debuncts the fallacy that Christians do not care about the environment because their attention is focused on heaven and the by-and-by.

In addition to the conclusions arrived at in the article, such as how evolution’s bedrock tenet of survival of the fittest is used to justify eugenics, it may be added that evolution has been a highly effective tool of Satan overall to rob God of His role as the creator of all things and humans as being created in His image. Man is relegated to being just another creature that developed through evolution over vast ages. That is the greatest crime of the big lie of evolution and in the wake of it over the past two centuries lies the decension of civilization into lawlessness and destruction to the present state of chaos and revolution. The Marxist arm of humanism is one its crowning achievements.

The ICR devotional article in Days of Praise, “Preaching the Ressurection” (see https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6), highlights the truth of how Christ’s apostles preached a message of the bodily ressurection of Jesus and were convinced enough to sacrifice their own lives for that scriptural truth. That alone is solid enough evidence that could stand up in a court of law, underscored by the eye witness testimonies of not only the apostles, but of the multitude indicated in 1 Cor 15:6 “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now…” The Gospel accounts provide even more concrete testimonies. That nullifies any notion that the Lord’s resurrection was only spiritual.

Christians must stand their ground in holding to the core Gospel truth about Jesus Christ against any false doctrine, which is the main message in Galations as well as 1 Cor 15. It is a crucial test of one’s own salvation: “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Roms 10:9, 10 (NASB)

Creation still declares the glory of God, even in unintuitive places, such as paleo-genetic science, as evinced in the ICR article DNA in Sheep and Dinosaurs. This article presents the solid case that can be made for the young age of dinosaur fossils by comparing the preservation of the genes in an ancient lamb carcass within a salt mine to the genetic material being found in dinosaur bones and other materials. Young-age dinosaurs are solid evidence of a young earth, and therefore, of a literal Genesis depiction of creation. This too is to God’s glory in creation, which should evoke wonder and worship from His people.

Contending for the Faith in a Confused Culture https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/contending-faith-confused-culture/ by Justin Dillehay, posted on The Gospel Coalition website, is a must read for all Christians facing the tremendous pressures of social degeneration and the  downward slide into utter moral bankrupcy currently underway in our post-Christian western culture. The results of a Ligonier survey cited in the article indicate there is an erosion of the biblical beliefs amongst evangelical Christians today, including rejection of the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ, along with embracing moral degenerate concepts rife in the popular culture. The former is a mark of apostasy from the faith. This article may serve to provoke believers to conduct an introspection of their own faith and call them back to the Gospel they first received and away from the morass of godlessness of our culture.

Israel Soong, on The Gospel Coalition website, presents a book review titled “Look! God is in Ordinary Stuff” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/god-all-things/, stating, “This idea, that our universe of things points to God and proclaims his glory, is the foundational thesis for Andrew Wilson’s book God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World. Wilson, a teaching pastor at King’s Church London, poses the question why God created things—after all, he could have created only a spiritual world without physical substance.” He goes on to outline the book author’s answer to this question, which can serve as a source of inspiration for all believers in a world seemingly overcome by darkness, to focus on the God of all creation seen in ordinary things. I recommend this article to my readers.

This article from TGC provides a sound biblical perspective on this controversial subject in Christianity today: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/physical-healing-atonement/. It also helps answer the oft-asked question of why is there suffering and death if God is so good, loving, and kind?

This part is the conclusion of the series addressing John 3:16. Here we mine the precious truths from the last phrase of the verse and bring it all together. The verse thus ends, “but have eternal life.” It conveys a very positive conclusion and promise that is the outcome of God providing His only Son as a gift to lost humanity. Simply said, He gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. He rescues them from a condition of reprobation and that of ultimately facing everlasting judgement and wrath to give them the reciprocal of that condition, which is eternal life. They will “have” eternal life as a possession–it is by its nature a quality of life that is everlasting. The Scriptures provide abundant teaching on the nature of this life for believers, which takes effect immediately upon believing and extends to eternity thereafter. The effects and benefits of this life over time is like a flower that starts as a bud and eventually unfolds in full bloom with increasing beauty through eternity without end. This beauty is spiritual and chiefly consists of acquiring an increasing likeness to God and fellowship with Him. It involves a special relationship with God the Son that has its zenith at the believer’s resurrection from the dead.

The Gospels, and particularly the Book of John, speak of Jesus possessing life, being the light of life, having life in Him, etc., which are allusions to eternal life. In John 14:6 Jesus famously says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” In 5:20 we have, “This is the true God and eternal life.” In 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” and finally in John 20:30, “but these things are recorded in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Herein is God’s remedy for man’s lost condition–Jesus Christ, the gift of the Father to the perishing.

Martin Luther made a pivotal stand in history before the Holy Roman Emperor, King Charles V, 500 years ago, for the defense of the scriptural teaching of the Gospel message. Here is a link to several articles presented by TGC reflecting on this momentous event:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/luther-stand-worms-anniversary/

Continued from Part 1

The concept of Jesus as Messiah needs to be explained more fully at this point. Messiah means the Anointed One and speaks of the anointing with the Holy Spirit that was prophesied of God’s Messiah in the OT (Isaiah 61:1ff, Luke 4:16-30). The term ‘Christ’ is Greek for the ‘Anointed One’ as well. For Jesus, the anointing took place during the inauguration to His ministry at the baptism by John the Baptist (Mt 3:13-17, Luke 3:21f, Jn 1:32-34). After the Holy Spirit came to Him in the form of a dove, He remained on Jesus (Luke 4:4) for the remainder of His ministry in infinite fulness and power (Jn 3:34) and worked tremendous miracles to attest to His Messiahship as well as to His divinity (Jn 5:36, 14:11, Matt 11:4). The NT also makes it clear that Jesus descends from the lineage of David and fulfills the promises of God to David that a future king would take his throne, which would be Israel’s Messiah (Ps 2, Luke 1:32f, Acts 2:24-37). Thus, the NT refers to Jesus in terms of His messianic identity in using the term ‘Christ’ in many places, in the various forms consisting of Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ the Lord, the Christ of God, Christ, etc. (John 1:41, Matt 16:20, Jn 20:31). This underscores the prominence given in the NT to this aspect of the identity of Jesus and is vital to the proof that He is the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews.

Although the Jews had a long tradition of their hope of the coming of Messiah to conquer their Gentile enemies and set up a kingdom over the nations ruled by David’s descendant through Israel, the Lord’s first advent did not square with those expectations. Thus, He was not only rejected by the Jews of His day, but also was misunderstood by His own disciples until after His resurrection. When they were expecting a conquering hero to overthrow the Romans, instead their Messiah spoke multiple times of being arrested, mistreated, and then killed, until it actually transpired. Instead of taking the throne over Israel to conquer and then rule the nations in the political sense, their Lord, after rising from the dead, ascended into heaven out of their sight, leaving behind the disciples with a commission to preach the message of salvation to the Jews and then to the world. Thus, their Messiah took a completely different path than what they had been taught in their synagogues. Nevertheless, the chosen disciples remained true to the Lord’s commission and laid down their lives for Him in the end.

One controversy still lingering over Israel’s Messiah to this day is, how will He return to earth? The present-day Jews are still waiting for the first advent of messiah, while still rejecting Jesus as God’s Messiah. Christians however are awaiting Christ’s return to earth, His second advent. But the controversy of the manner of His return revolves mainly around the two views of whether He returns after a period of catastrophic judgment, to set up His political earthly kingdom to rule on David’s throne in the restored nation of Israel, that has accepted Him as Messiah, reigning over and conquering the world for a literal thousand years, until He brings in the Final Judgement or if He remains in heaven as the reigning heir on David’s throne at the right hand of God, spiritually ruling over His kingdom of the Church, which is the Israel of the New Covenant, conquering the entire world through the Gospel, until the end of the world when He finally returns to usher in the Final Judgement? Those are two general views of Christ’s rule and return held by eschatology schools in Christian circles today. But in either view, Jesus reigns as Messiah on the Davidic throne. Also in both views, He remains in heaven from the time of His Ascension ruling on David’s throne until He returns to the earth. During the time on the heavenly throne, He is working through the Church by His written Word and the operation of the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel of Salvation to all nations in fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matt 28:19f). The main divergence of the two views with respect to Messiah’s return to earth therefore is when that return will occur, to whom He will return, that is, will it be to the Church as a whole or to the nation of Israel in particular, and the circumstances surrounding His return, i.e., to a world entirely conquered by the Gospel or a world in total rebellion and under catastrophic judgement. In any case, when Christians confess Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior (Roms 10:6-13), they are confessing their belief and allegiance to the Messiah of the Bible, the long awaited Hope of Israel, who first came as the Lamb of God to take away their sins and who will come again to the earth as the victorious Lord of all.

To be continued – The Supreme Gift of thThe Supreme Gift of the Ages – Part 3