Tag: Separation

Are Fundamentalists Legalists?

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I am thankful for good books on Bible characters.  We are going through Charles Swindoll’s book on the life of the Apostle Paul.  However, that doesn’t mean I agree with everything Swindoll has written.  I think we sometimes get lost in a sea of theological extremes and opinions.  The Bible through the Spirit’s illumination needs to pull us back.  Our attitude should be prayerful and God-dependent.  However, we also must clearly stand for truth.

Dr. Dave Doran wrote a two-part article answering the charges of legalism and its connection to fundamentalism by men like John MacArthur and Charles Swindoll for Frontline back in 1999.  It’s worth reading or re-reading.  The only place I could find the article online is at the website for Salina Bible Church.  I quite agree with Dr. Doran.  I am a fundamentalist without apology.  While I have been Pharisaical at times in the past, my last bout with legalism was when I was still a member of the Catholic church.  It is there that I depended upon my own self-righteousness for the salvation of my soul.  I hope you’ll take the time to read these articles.  Also, come join us at a Heritage Baptist Church tomorrow!  Hopefully, you’ll find believers who love the Word and the God of the Word.

Here’s the conclusion, which I hope whets the appetite to read both parts.

While it is unlikely that any Fundamentalists are seeking to earn righteousness with God through the works of the law, it is possible that some Fundamentalists have fallen prey to the Pharisaical spirit that is so controlled by people’s opinions that it perpetuates external conform­ity without internal devotion. However, honest evaluation would reveal that this is not a Fundamentalist problem; it is a humanity problem! God told us 3,000 years ago that “the fear of man brings a snare,” so it should not surprise us to find people continually trapped in the snare of conformity for the sake of approval. It certainly happens among Fundamentalists, but it hap­pens just as frequently among evan­gelicals. The symptoms may vary, but it is the same disease.

God’s grace has provided His right­eousness for us by faith in Jesus Christ apart from the works of the law (Rom. 3:21-22), and that same grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteous­ly, and godly in this present age (Titus 2:11-12). As Fundamentalists, we should affirm these truths without apology and live them out without fear of false accusations or surrender to the opinion polls of people.

Are Fundamentalists Legalists?

Are Fundamentalists Legalists (Part 2)?

Cultivating Faith (Part 3)

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Cultivating Faith:  A Man of Self-Denial

The story of Abraham and Lot is a story of two roads which diverge.  It is a story filled with choices.  While the eternal destination of both men is the same, the ways in which they lived on this earth become a stark contrast.

As we enter Genesis 13, both men led their families side-by-side with unity of purpose.  As long as the interests of both men aligned, they maintained unity.  But a point came when their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together (Genesis 13.6).  The result was strife leading to separation.  The separation became necessary in order to promote stability and peace.  The diverging directions of both men teach us some very important principles.

It is possible to trace the choices of both Abraham and Lot under two main headings.  Both men represent diverging philosophies of could be termed as separation and infiltration.  Abraham separates from the world (Sodom and Gomorrah); Lot infiltrates the world – slouching toward Gomorrah to borrow Judge Robert H. Bork’s title from his 1996 book.  First, Abraham represents the choice of separation…

Choosing to separate leads to the path toward God (Genesis 13.1-9).

“Please separate from me …they separated from each other …the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him” (13.8, 11, 14).

The path to God leads away from strife and toward peace.

“If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will take the left” (13.9).

Abraham knew well the wisdom of his descendant Solomon who wrote, “The beginning of strife is like releasing water; therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts” (Proverbs 17.14).  Once water is released, the breach widens as the water erodes it away.  It moves so rapidly that there is nothing we can do to stop it.  Therefore, stop contention before it starts.  Once it begins, you’ll never know when or how it will stop.

Abraham desired peace with Lot.  That governed the choice he made.  So we have his words, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren” (Genesis 13.8).  Abraham was a peacemaker not a peacekeeper.  The path to God leads away from strife and toward peace.  Our endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace necessarily separates us from the world to God.  If our family and friends choose the path to Gomorrah, they will be walking a different path.  But make no mistake:  They have left the narrow way for the broad road.

The path to God leads away from self-assertion and toward self-denial.

It should be clear that Abraham is the elder and Lot the younger.  Abraham the uncle and Lot the nephew.  Abraham was called out of Ur, and Lot came along for the ride and the blessings.  Wouldn’t you think that as soon as Abraham gave Lot the choice of the left or right that Lot would have deferred to his uncle out of respect?  Shouldn’t he submit to Abraham and not the other way around?  Abraham could have asserted his rights, but he practiced self-denial.

People in the world lord their authority over others.  This is the way it is and the way it will be with unbelieving people.  But as Jesus said, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20.26-28).

The path to God leads away from self-assertion toward self-denial.  How can there be strife if one party denies self and assumes the role of a perpetual servant?  How can the self-assertive and the self-denying walk the same path?

The path to God leads away from greed and toward generosity.  

Abraham should possess at least as much as Lot if not more than Lot.  But Abraham was a sieve.  He simply allowed wealth to flow in and out.  Abraham gave; Lot took.  Abraham knew that the plain of the Jordan was fertile, lush land.  He simply deferred to Lot.

Faith reasons that God will take care of us and fight for us.  So if a man demands my cloak, I’ll give it to him along with my tunic also.  If he demands I walk with him one mile, I’ll walk the one and then another mile as well.  If it is within our power to meet a need, we should meet that need.

But greed leads to spiritual deadness.  The heart set on things below is more concerned with the comforts of this life.  Pure and undefiled religion is “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1.27).  It is truly more blessed to give than to receive.

A choice to cultivate a life of faith means a choice to separate, which leads us along the path toward God.  Lot chose differently and serves as a warning to us…

Choosing to infiltrate leads to the path toward Gomorrah (Genesis 13.10-18).

The path to Gomorrah leads away from the eternal and toward the temporal.

“Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan …Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan …Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom …They also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son who dwelt in Sodom” (13.10-12; 14.12).

We can’t be sure when Lot placed his faith in the God of Abraham.  We know that when Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, he is a righteous man.  Perhaps his conversion is a result of the problems caused by this divergent path that he took toward Gomorrah.  But believer or not, he took the path away from the eternal and toward the temporal.

We don’t know for certain, but it does seem that Lot has no problem with separating from Abraham.  Such separation would expose him to the temptations of Gomorrah.  He would be able to infiltrate that world, and gratify his desires.  Perhaps greed and ambition were two of the top desires for him.

Lot saw comfort in the well-watered plains of the Jordan.  The text tells us that the fertile land resembled the Garden of Eden itself.  Worldliness includes a fixation on the temporal and comfort that we desire right now in this temporal life.  Covetousness and a desire to fulfill temporal desires govern the heart of a person slouching toward Gomorrah.  We will learn that Lot gets a position as a judge and leader in Sodom.  His temporal desire far outpaced eternal interests.  The path to Gomorrah leads away from the eternal and toward the temporal.

The path to Gomorrah leads away from the spiritual and toward the physical.

  • The days of Lot are characterized as days when “they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built” (Luke 17.28).
  • “On the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17.29).
  • “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17.32).
  • ‘The LORD turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, and made them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and “delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2 Peter 2.6-8).

Lot certainly came to understand what the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were like.  Their sin was out in the open for all to see.  The Bible is right:  “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15.33).  Lot left Abraham and moved toward Gomorrah with little or no regret that we can determine from the text.

We lose so much when we sacrifice spiritual benefit for physical comfort.  We endanger our churches, families, and ourselves when we make this exchange.  We fail to feed on the Word of God and grab at the crust of bread we find in the world.  That crust of bread is a counterfeit form of life.  We need to be brought to repentance when living for this world.  God is merciful enough to do it.

Guard against a love for this world.  You must separate from it not infiltrate it if you are to cultivate a life of faith.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2.15-15).

Lot’s love for the world led to choices that nullified his testimony within it.  Lot only had the world for a little while.  In the end it was all taken away from him.  If you live for the present arrangement of things, then your life will be empty.

Cultivate a life of faith through a compassionate, self-denying spirit.  Look to the Holy Spirit.  Be grateful to God because He has enabled you to sacrifice your own interests for the interests of others.

  • “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12.10).
  • “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2.4-5).

Follow the faith of Abraham.  Walk the path to God instead of slouching toward the destruction of Gomorrah!

Come Tonight!

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We continue our series in Abraham’s life by considering Genesis 16 this evening at 6 pm at Heritage Baptist Church (5200 Heidorn Ranch Road, Antioch, CA 94531).  Tonight, we learn to cultivate faith once we have compromised the Lord’s convictions.  Here’s where we’ve been:

• A Man Set Apart (Genesis 12.1-4) – We learned from Abraham’s call that cultivating faith means that we are set apart from the world, to God, and for a faith that works.

• A Man of Perspective (Genesis 12.5-20) – Cultivating faith begins with a proper perspective of God and on godliness. Godliness requires faith, obedience, self-denial, foresight, and effort. These requirements cannot be met in the power of the flesh, but only in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.

• A Man of Self-Denial (Genesis 13.1-18) – We must choose to deny ourselves and cultivate faith. Abraham made the right choice and Lot the wrong choice. Choosing the path of separation leads you to God; choosing the path of infiltration leads you to Gomorrah.

• A Man of Courage (Genesis 14.1-24) – Cultivating faith takes courage to see beyond today. We will serve the King of Sodom or the King of Salem. It doesn’t take courage at all to serve the former.

• A Man of Perseverance (Genesis 15.1-21) – It takes perserverance and patience to cultivate faith. We are not always faithfulful, but God certainly is. Cultivate faith by imitating those who through faith and perseverance inherited God’s promises.

Cultivating Faith Series (Part 1)

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Cultivating Faith:  A Man Set Apart 

Abraham lived roughly 2000 years before the time of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He lived in a world that spiraled down out of control plummeting into the depths of idolatry.  Abraham’s father Terah dwelt on the eastern side of the Euphrates River.  He raised his family in an atmosphere of idolatry.  They all served other gods (cf. Joshua 24.2).  And yet, God set Abraham apart from the wickedness of idolatry to Himself and for His glory.  God chose to preserve truth and the revelation of Himself in the earthly family of one man named Abraham.  So God called Abraham, and he had to choose to leave his country and all his familiar surroundings to occupy a land that God would show him in the future.

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you. 

(Genesis 12.1)

Set Apart from the World

God has not called me to leave the idolatrous state of California for some earthly location that He will determine at a later date.  He hasn’t called me to leave my family or all that is familiar here in this great place.  But He has set me apart from earthly things in Christ.

  • He demands that I set my mind on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3.2).
  • “The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5.19).
  • Even so, God commands me not to love the world or the things in it (1 John 2.15).
  • “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul writes in Romans 12.2.
  • “Friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4.4).
  • We must “come out from among” the idolaters in the world “and be separate” (2 Corinthians 6.17).
  • “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6.14).
  • We must confess with those who have cultivated a life of faith before us that we too are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11.13).

We are very comfortable in the world in which we live.  I’d say a bit too comfortable.  We should be grateful for the freedoms and comforts that we have.  We must use these as tools to reach the lost with the Gospel.  But if our world collapses and we suffer, we shall be able to strengthen and encourage one another to continue in the faith.  Is it not true that we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14.22)?

As with Abraham, we must hold onto the things of this world loosely.  The good things of life cannot keep us.  The evil will not divert us.  We desire a better, that is, a heavenly country just as Abraham did.  God has prepared a city for us (Hebrews 11.16).

“Forget your own people …your father’s house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him” (Psalm 45.10-11).  It is in this sense that we are set apart from the world.  While some of us must be more involved with the day-to-day activity of this world, we are not of it.  Prepositions are important.  We must separate ourselves from this world or be prepared to suffer the misery coming upon it.  This is the first step in the cultivation of faith.  But separation is not all negative.  We are set apart from the world in order to be…

Set Apart to God 

Abraham’s call to leave his family and country seems pretty drastic until you consider verses 2-3 of Genesis 12.  The LORD also revealed to Abraham the following:

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

(Genesis 12.2-3)

Notice the five-fold repetition of the word blessing in these two verses.  The focus of Abraham’s call away from everything and everyone he knows is the fact that God had something much better in mind for him.  Abraham would be blessed and also be a source of blessing for all the families of the earth.

At the end of Abraham’s life, when he is well-advanced in age, the Bible says that “the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things” (Genesis 24.1).  Abraham’s servant reveals that the LORD had blessed his master greatly, he had become great (Genesis 24.35).  So, Abraham had been blessed with abundance in the temporal life he lived.

But it was the spiritual and eternal benefits that Abraham possessed at the end of his life which were far greater.  His faith in the revelation of God was accounted for righteousness.  He was justified before God.  All of these material and eternal blessings were communicated to his family as well.  People were encouraged and built up because of Abraham’s “follow-ship”.  Follow-ship is imperative when it comes to leadership.  Because Abraham obeyed God’s call to come out of Ur to Canaan, he was able to be a blessing to so many, even to all the families of the earth.  Every person will be blessed or cursed according to whether or not he or she accepts or rejects the promised Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Leave the world behind!  Sever all ties that bind you to it.  If you do this for Christ’s sake, you will have lost your life as far as this world is concerned.  You are dead with Christ, but you are alive to God.  You might not have the abundance of Abraham when it comes to material and temporal wealth, but you will have gained your soul and incomprehensible, daily benefits.

Christians are sensitive to sin and even the moments that we live detached from God wear us down.  We mourn over these times, and yet in spite of the mourning, we are and shall be truly blessed.  We have forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God in the Beloved One.  We are blessed with the one who cultivated a life of faith so long ago.

But not only are we blessed in Christ; we are a source of blessing to all around us.  As parents, employers, friends, and associates, we relate to other people.  We graciously promote the true joy of life in Christ with all connected to us.

Within the church and within our country, we exemplify the life of light.  Our own follow-ship becomes leadership of a godly sort.  Our prayer on the behalf of others, will it not prevail if we are godly, fervent, and righteous?  What if we simply lead one person to Christ, will that not be more than all this world could offer them or us?  Won’t that one person be eternally grateful to us for God mercifully allowing us to communicate the glorious Gospel of reconciliation?  When you think about it, all truly is vanity when compared to the eternal blessings of a life truly abiding in Christ.

Set Apart for Faith that Works

Abraham obeyed God. “Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him” (Genesis 12.4).  He didn’t hesitate.  Lot, his nephew, went with him.  But one wonders about the opinion of many others in his family.  How many thought Abraham was crazy to leave Ur and later Haran?  Imagine people asking him, “Well, where are you going?”  How does he answer?  “I don’t know where I’m going.  I just need to leave.”  When he finally leaves, how many feared for him?  But Abraham didn’t worry about the comforts of home, family, and friends.  He desired the blessing of God above all.  He believed God.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  (Hebrews 11.8-10)

Abraham is surely the prototype for us when it comes to the cultivation of faith and obedience.  If we leave this world behind for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s, we gain so much more than we could ever hope for.  Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15.18-19).

I cannot see Heaven, but I have entered my Promised Land nonetheless.  I move through life enjoying the quality of eternal life while waiting for the appearance of my Eternal King and His eternal city.  This is why we “consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8.18).  Our obedience is fueled by our dependence upon the eternal life Christ gives.  We walk by faith and not by sight.

Some of us are way too comfortable in this world.

Jesus said that if we are, then perhaps we’ve come to Him but we don’t hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and our own life also.  If that be the case, we cannot be His disciples (Luke 14.26).

How do we hate these people, when we are commanded not even to hate our enemies?  The answer is that Jesus is using figurative language.  He means that any connection or affection that we have in this world which is more important than faith in Him is the forsaking of Him.

Our love for Christ must so overshadow our earthly ties that we act as if hate those closest to us in comparison.  We sacrifice all without hesitation for the cause of Christ.  Forsake all and follow Him!  This leads to your own personal blessing and makes you a source of blessing for others.

Some of us are determined to live for the world to come.

Just remember that Abraham’s father and brother went as far as Haran, but no further.  God renews the call while Abraham is in Haran with them, but Terah dies there.  Nahor, his brother, wasn’t willing to journey any further with Abraham.  Abraham took only Sarah and his nephew Lot.  While we don’t know about the specific reasons or even the spiritual state of Abraham’s family in Haran, they didn’t go with Abraham to the Promised Land.

A promise remains of entering God’s rest, let us fear lest any of us seem to have come short of it.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them (2 Peter 2:20–21).

Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”  But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

We are not of those who draw back.  We are determined to follow in faith, to cultivate faith.  We are set apart from the world to God for faith that works!

The Pursuit of Purity in Christ

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If we keep the biblical teaching of separation in the classroom, few within Fundamentalism would question its importance.  As it relates to the fundamentals, all would be in agreement.  However, what many seem to fail to understand is that separation must be applied to practice.  Applying separation in practice to people, churches, colleges, etc. takes biblical discernment.  Especially when separating from a disobedient brother or sister in Christ.

Disobedient Christians are believers who practice willful disobedience; however, they also tend to be self-deceived or purposefully deceptive.  We should truly sharpen one another.  A Christian should not have fellowship with anyone called a brother who enjoys and persists in the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5.11).  A church should have the authority to discipline members who refuse to forsake some form of false teaching or unscriptural practice (Matthew 18.15-17; 1 Corinthians 5.1-13).

Restoration is always the aim of biblical separation in local churches.  But leaven must be purged from the church.  Whatever happened to church discipline and the purification of the church?  Should we seek to cleanse our local assemblies from sin?  It is important to separate from willfully disobedient believers in order to preserve our testimony as a people of God (1 Peter 2.12), prevent the disobedient from influencing others to do wrong (Galatians 5.9), exemplify obedience and encourage others toward that direction (1 Timothy 5.20), and to bring about repentance in the disobedient (2 Timothy 2.25).

We should be firm but loving.  Separation is not the answer to every disagreement we have, but there comes a time when it is necessary.  I think most conservative Christians would readily absorb these words and take them to heart.

But what do you with the controversial areas of practice.  Still further, what do you do when the Bible offers no explicit instruction regarding what we should do in a particular area of life?  I’ve been taught that you look for principles in order to apply them to that specific area.  After all, a Christian that has to have a handbook rule in order to make decisions about how to live is not much of a Christian.  He is a legalist of sorts.  He must have it explicitly written down as a rule in order to make decisions regarding particulars.  Is that not truly legalism?

Issues like should we drink alcohol, what music should we listen to, and what movies should we watch behave like this.  There are no explicit instructions, but there are principles mature believers are able to use from the Word of God.  We must leave the milk for the meat.  Obedience to basic teaching of right and wrong along with obeying that which is explicitly stated are good things, but the Bible is sufficient to answer questions regarding alcohol, music, and movies too.

Hopefully we would not conclude that the Bible is silent in these areas because we are afraid to admit that we are living lives contrary to its teaching.  That’s where deception comes into play.  Hopefully we realize that all of us our inconsistent to one degree or another in the progress of our sanctification.  But that inconsistency should not deter us from pressing on or being challenged to make changes for the glory of Christ.

As believers we are saved from a world system at enmity with God.  It is energized by the prince and power of the air.  We need to figure out what this means.  We must be distinct and holy or we have no firm footing from which we lift the next generation up to greater heights.

Music

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Music has divided churches today.  It is a very difficult subject because many fail to consider what makes some music good and worthy of expression and what makes some music bad and not fitting for expression at all.  Arrangement and style matter when it comes to dress (orderly, neat, clean, etc.) and they matter when it comes to music as well.  We may disagree on where the line is drawn; however, everyone draws a line.

At the risk of oversimplification, I see two key problems when it comes to music.  First, there is the problem of failing to recognize that music can be sensual and worldly.  Which leads to a corollary problem:  Many Christians do not want to come out from the world and be separate when it comes to music choices.

Many churches will draw lines differently in the area of music.  But church leadership must have an objective way by which they draw the line.  I don’t think we are asking the right questions.  May God grant us wisdom as we consider the future of church music.