Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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You Should Come…

You Should Come…

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The annual conference of the church I am on staff with, is coming up on March 31-April 1, 2017. In 1517 Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg, and that moment has forever been associated with the spark that ignited what came to be called the Reformation.

grace-agenda-2017-reformation-500In reality, the Reformation was a recovery of the Gospel, and was nothing short of a revival. Where the church had declined into all sorts of erroneous  and unbiblical positions, the only solution was to repent and return to the Scripture as the rule of guidance for the church. This is what happened 500 years ago, and while we’ve come a long way and seen the effects of the recovery of salvation by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone, our reforming work is not done.

We are called to disciple the nations and a large part of that is that the Church must remain faithful to the Bible. Our GraceAgenda conference will be looking at both what happened in the past, and what needs to happen in the future. Luther & Calvin raced their laps, now it is our turn to rev the engine and careen forward with the Gospel of Christ into the nations.

Would love to have you join us…

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Time to Start Rockin’ the Protestant Doctrine of the Civil Magistrate

Time to Start Rockin’ the Protestant Doctrine of the Civil Magistrate

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Perhaps one thing that this election season has revealed about the American Church, is our sad neglect of the Doctrine of the Civil Magistrate. We all seem to admit that electing our leaders is important, but some (like John MacArthur) have tried to then, in the next breath, minimize the importance of it and suck the air out of any sort of civic effort.

What we are seeing before us is what happens when Christians abdicate our calling to shape and create culture, and instead pursue mere power and influence. The goal ought not to be simply to elect folks with “R’s” next to their name; but rather elect men who acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all things and submit to the Scriptures as the highest authority for mankind. The Magistrate, as Calvin and many other Christian writers of times gone by, called it has a high and holy calling; and our neglect of Scriptural teaching on the role and purpose of the governing authorities has brought about the hot mess we find ourselves embroiled in.

Calvin, in his last chapter of the Institutes magnificently presents to us the Doctrine of the Civil Magistrate, and when I recently read through the Institutes I was deeply struck by how insightful, even prophetic, his statements on Civil Government are. First, we must agree that God has in fact appointed the Civil Magistrate. This means, that we are not to view earthly governments as somehow outside of the scope and authority of God’s Word and Law; in fact, if ever there was a realm of authority that needs the bridle of the Scripture, it is politics! We easily affirm that the Bible should be the authority for individual Christians, families,and churches, but we hesitate to affirm it as the standard to which the Magistrate should submit and subscribe to.

Scripture teaches, in numerous places (Dan. 2:21), that God ordains the rising and falling of kings. This is not some extra realm where God’s hands are tied and he’s incapable of doing anything. We aren’t taught to hunker down and hope for the best in regards to the peace of our cities, states, or nations. We are taught to disciple nations. This means that as the Gospel shapes a culture, that its rulers must also come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of mankind. Otherwise, the government will assume that it is god and savior.

We hold our pastors & elders to a high standard, for they are ministers of God. According to Calvin, and the historic protestant teaching on the magistrate, we should think of Pastors and Politicians in much the same way. Into the hands of the elders is given the rule of the Church, under the headship of Jesus Christ; woe to them if they preach not the Gospel and teach the faithful teachings of Scripture (1 Cor. 9:16). God has ordained and appointed the elders to task of administering the word and sacrament and the care of the flock of Christ. But, in a like manner, He has committed to the Civil Magistrate the task of wielding the sword of justice and protecting and preserving the peace; thus, woe unto them if they fail to acknowledge their calling as under the ultimate authority of Jesus Christ. Calvin puts it wonderfully:john-calvin-ben-zornes-civil-magistrate

This consideration ought to be constantly present to the minds of magistrates, since it is fitted to furnish a strong stimulus to the discharge of duty, and also afford singular consolation, smoothing the difficulties of their office, which are certainly numerous and weighty. What zeal for integrity, prudence, meekness, continence, and innocence, ought to sway those who know that they have been appointed ministers of the divine justice! How will they dare to admit iniquity to their tribunal, when they are told that it is the throne of the living God? How will they venture to pronounce an unjust sentence with that mouth which they understand to be an ordained organ of divine truth? With what conscience will they subscribe impious decrees with that hand which they know has been appointed to write the acts of God? In a word, if they remember that they are the vicegerents of God, it behoves them to watch with all care, diligence, and industry, that they may in themselves exhibit a kind of image of the Divine Providence, guardianship, goodness, benevolence, and justice. And let them constantly keep the additional thought in view, that if a curse is pronounced on him that “doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,” a much heavier curse must lie on him who deals deceitfully in a righteous calling. <fn>(Book IV, Chapter 20, Section 6)</fn>

Notice the stress he places on the “ordination” of the magistrate/prince, and the heavy calling that is placed upon the ruler by God. We show that we’ve been far more influenced by our secular culture when we think that our leaders are simply appointed by human democracy; this is false doctrine in practice. Calvin again:

We say, therefore, that they are the ordained guardians and vindicators of public innocence, modesty, honour, and tranquillity, so that it should be their only study to provide for the common peace and safety. <fn>(Book IV, Chapter 20, Section 9)</fn>

To very many it seems that among Christians the office of magistrate is superfluous, because they cannot piously implore his aid, inasmuch as they are forbidden to take revenge, cite before a judge, or go to law. But when Paul, on the contrary, clearly declares that he is the minister of God to us for good (Rom. 13:4), we thereby understand that he was so ordained of God, that, being defended by his hand and aid against the dishonesty and injustice of wicked men, we may live quiet and secure. <fn>(Book IV, Chapter 20, Section 17)</fn>

This reality that the rulers have been appointed and ordained by God should cause them to tremble. Calvin drives this point home and stresses that our elected officials are in fact “ambassadors of God”, and this carries with it a great curse if they pollute their earthly tribunal of justice, and a great blessing if they dispatch their office with the understanding that they are merely servants of God:

This admonition ought justly to have the greatest effect upon them; for if they sin in any respect, not only is injury done to the men whom they wickedly torment, but they also insult God himself, whose sacred tribunals they pollute. On the other hand, they have an admirable source of comfort when they reflect that they are not engaged in profane occupations, unbefitting a servant of God, but in a most sacred office, inasmuch as they are the ambassadors of God. <fn>(Book IV, Chapter 20, Section 6)</fn>

Finally, Calvin goes so far as to say, that this office is the most sacred & honorable in mortal life:

With regard to the function of magistrates, the Lord has not only declared that he approves and is pleased with it, but, moreover, has strongly recommended it to us by the very honourable titles which he has conferred upon it. […] Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful, but the most sacred, and by far the most honourable, of all stations in mortal life. <fn>(Book IV, Chapter 20, Section 4)</fn>

We need not think in a sacred/secular divide, and try to leave “politics” to the devil. In fact, if we are to be thoroughly biblical, this is a doctrine we must start rockin’ and rollin’ with. This doctrine demands the amps to be cranked up to 11, and taught boldly from our pulpits. The “state” has the tendency to become an unrestrained beast if it is not kept in check by the faithful teaching of its proper role in the ordering of our nation. More should be said on this…which I hope to get to soon.

Book Review: “Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter

Book Review: “Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter

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The Reformed PastorThe Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Richard Baxter’s “Reformed Pastor” is one of those classic works of the Puritan era. It comes with that trademark double-barrel shotgun of devotional pietism (of the best sort), and dirt-under-the-fingernails practicals. In the first portion Baxter takes aim at a pastor’s motivation for ministry, and the sort of man he ought to be. He forcefully exhorts that it must be a man of purity and holiness, and that his motivations for ministry are the glory of God in the salvation of souls.

The second portion delves into the practicals. Visiting the sick and dying, the sort of preaching to be done, and how to catechize your parish. Though a few centuries old, it still is very helpful, insightful and wise in guiding and shaping a pastor as to the calling God has placed upon him and how to avoid straying from that calling. He certainly doesn’t allow for any sort of willy-nilly neglect of the awesome task of being God’s minister to the saints and reprobates alike. The title may lend you to think that it is only for “reformed” denominations, but it is more aimed at the need for pastors themselves to “reform” their ways of idleness.

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A Collection of Quotes

ON A MINISTER’S WILLINGNESS TO WORK FOR LOW WAGES

Must I turn to my Bible to show a preacher where it is written, that a man’s soul is worth more than a world, much more therefore than a hundred pounds a year, much more are many souls more worth? Or that both we and all that we have are God’s, and should be employed to the utmost for his service? Or that it is inhuman cruelty to let souls go to hell, for fear my wife and children should fare somewhat the harder, or live at lower rates; when, according to God’s ordinary way of working by means, I might do much to prevent their misery, if I would but a little displease my flesh, which all, who are Christ’s, have crucified with its lusts?

 

ON EVANGELISM OF THE UNREGENERATE

He that will let a sinner go down to hell for want of speaking to him, doth set less by souls than did the Redeemer of souls; and less by his neighbor, than common charity will allow him to do by his greatest enemy. O, therefore, brethren, whomsoever you neglect, neglect not the most miserable! Whatever you pass over, forget not poor souls that are under the condemnation and curse of the law, and who may look every hour for the infernal execution, if a speedy change do not prevent it. O call after the impenitent, and ply this great work of converting souls, whatever else you leave undone.

 

ON EVANGELIZING THOSE NEAR UNTO DEATH

When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space? Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul will be in heaven or in hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the ‘inheritance of the saints in light.’ When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while there is hope, to help him if we can.

 

ON RESTRICTING A MINISTER TO TEACH PRINCIPALLY ON THAT WHICH IS OF GREATEST NECESSITY.

Throughout the whole course of our ministry, we must insist chiefly upon the greatest, most certain, and most necessary truths, and be more seldom and sparing upon the rest. If we can but teach Christ to our people, we shall teach them all. Get them well to heaven, and they will have knowledge enough. The great and commonly acknowledged truths of religion are those that men must live upon, and which are the great instruments of destroying men’s sins, and raising the heart to God. We must, therefore, ever have our people’s necessities before our eyes. To remember the ‘one thing needful’ will take us off gauds and needless ornaments, and unprofitable controversies. Many other things are desirable to be known; but this must be known, or else our people are undone for ever. […] All our teaching must be as plain and simple as possible. This doth best suit a teacher’s ends. He that would be understood must speak to the capacity of his hearers. Truth loves the light, and is most beautiful when most naked.

To speak slightly and coldly of heavenly things is nearly as bad as to say nothing of them at all.

 

ON DEPENDENCE ON CHRIST AND PRAYER IN A MINISTER’S LIFE

Our whole work must be carried on under a deep sense of our own insufficiency, and of our entire dependence on Christ. We must go for light, and life, and strength to him who sends us on the work. And when we feel our own faith weak, and our hearts dull, and unsuitable to so great a work as we have to do, we must have recourse to him, and say, ‘Lord, wilt thou send me with such an unbelieving heart to persuade others to believe? Must I daily plead with sinners about everlasting life and everlasting death, and have no more belief or feeling of these weighty things myself? O, send me not naked and unprovided to the work; but, as thou commandest me to do it, furnish me with a spirit suitable thereto.’ Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching: he preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them. If we prevail not with God to give them faith and repentance, we shall never prevail with them to believe and repent. When our own hearts are so far out of order, and theirs so far out of order, if we prevail not with God to mend and help them, we are like to make but unsuccessful work.

 

ON EVANGLISM

Oh, then, let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless: ‘Did I die for these souls, and wilt not thou look after them? Were they worth my blood, and are they not worth thy labor? Did I come down from heaven to earth, “to seek and to save that which was lost;” and wilt thou not go to the next door, or street, or village, to seek them?

 

ON REPENTANCE & THE SIN OF PRIDE

The sorrow of repentance may exist without a change of heart and life; because a passion may be more easily wrought, than a true conversion. But the change cannot take place without some good measure of the sorrow. Indeed, we may here justly begin our confessions; it is too common with us to expect that from our people, which we do little or nothing in ourselves. What pains do we take to humble them, while we ourselves are unhumbled! How hard do we expostulate with them to wring out of them a few penitential tears, (and all too little) while yet our own eyes are dry! Alas! how we set them an example of hard-heartedness, while we are endeavoring by our words to melt and mollify them! Oh, if we did but study half as much to affect and amend our own hearts, as we do those of our hearers, it would not be with many of us as it is! It is a great deal too little that we do for their humiliation; but I fear it is much less that some of us do for our own, Too many do somewhat for other men’s souls, while they seem to forget that they have souls of their own to regard. They so carry the matter, as if their part of the work lay in calling for repentance, and the hearers’ in repenting; theirs in bespeaking tears and sorrow, and other men’s in weeping and sorrowing; theirs in crying down sin, and the people’s in forsaking it; theirs in preaching duty, and the hearers’ in practising it. […] O that the Lord would lay us at his feet, in the tears of unfeigned sorrow for this sin! Brethren, may I expostulate this case a little with my own heart and yours, that we may see the evil of our sin, and be reformed!

 

THE FAME OF GODLINESS

Woe to him that takes up the fame of godliness instead of godliness!

 

ON THE BOLD AND LIVING PROCLAMATION

If we were heartily devoted to our work, it would be done more vigorously, and more seriously, than it is by the most of us. How few ministers do preach with all their might, or speak about everlasting joys and everlasting torments in such a manner as may make men believe that they are in good earnest! It would make a man’s heart ache, to see a company of dead, drowsy sinners sitting under a minister, and not hear a word that is likely to quicken or awaken them. Alas! we speak so drowsily and so softly, that sleepy sinners cannot hear. The blow falls so light that hard-hearted sinners cannot feel. The most of ministers will not so much as exert their voice, and stir up themselves to an earnest utterance. But if they do speak loud and earnestly, how few do answer it with weight and earnestness of matter! And yet without this, the voice doth little good; the people will esteem it but mere bawling, when the matter doth not correspond. It would grieve one to the heart to hear what excellent doctrine some ministers have in hand, while yet they let it die in their hands for want of close and lively application; what fit matter they have for convincing sinners, and how little they make of it; what good they might do if they would set it home, and yet they cannot or will not do it.

 

ON BLAZING HOT PREACHING

In the name of God, brethren, labor to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners. Remember they must be awakened or damned, and that a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken drowsy sinners.

 

ON THE SIMPLICITY OF OUR FAITH AS UNITY

When we once return to the ancient simplicity of faith, then, and not till then, shall we return to the ancient love and peace. I would therefore recommend to all my brethren, as the most necessary thing to the Church’s peace, that they unite in necessary truths, and bear with one another in things that may be borne with; and do not make a larger creed, and more necessaries, than God hath done.

 

ON EVANGELIZING YOUR PARISH

The design of this work is, the reforming and saving of all the people in our several parishes. For we shall not leave out any man that will submit to be instructed; and though we can scarcely hope that every individual will be reformed and saved by it, yet have we reason to hope, that as the attempt is universal, so the success will be more general and extensive than we have hitherto seen of our other labors. Sure I am, it is most like to the spirit, and precept, and offers of the gospel, which requireth us to preach Christ to every creature, and promiseth life to every man, if he will accept it by believing. If God would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, (that is, as Rector and Benefactor of the world, he hath manifested himself willing to save all men, if they be willing themselves, though his elect he will also make willing,) then surely it beseems us to offer salvation unto all men, and to endeavor to bring them to the knowledge of the truth.

 

ON MEN-PLEASING

We have a base man-pleasing disposition, which will make us let men perish lest we lose their love, and let them go quietly to hell, lest we should make them angry with us for seeking their salvation: and we are ready to venture on the displeasure of God, and risk the everlasting misery of our people, rather than draw on ourselves their ill-will. This distemper must be diligently resisted.

 

ON A FIRM FAITH IN THE MINISTER

We are so weak in the faith, that this is the greatest impediment of all. Hence it is, that when we should set upon a man for his conversion with all our might, if there be not the stirrings of unbelief within us, whether there be a heaven and a hell, yet at least the belief of them is so feeble, that it will hardly excite in us a kindly, resolute, constant zeal, so that our whole motion will be but weak, because the spring of faith is so weak. O what need, therefore, have ministers for themselves and their work, to look well to their faith, especially that their assent to the truth of Scripture, about the joys and torments of the life to come, be sound and lively.

 

ON HAVING A SOFT HEART

Oh what a thing is a senseless, hardened heart! O Lord, save us from the plague of infidelity and hard-heartedness ourselves, or else how shall we be fit instruments of saving others from it? Oh, do that on our own souls, which thou wouldst use us to do on the souls of others!

 

ON QUESTIONS A PASTOR SHOULD ASK HIMSELF
Is this all thy compassion for lost sinners? Wilt thou do no more to seek and to save them? Is there not such and such — oh how many round about thee! — that are yet the visible sons of death? What hast thou said to them, or done for their conversion? Shall they die and be in hell before thou wilt speak to them one serious word to prevent it? Shall they there curse thee for ever that didst no more in time to save them?

 

ON QUESTIONS A PASTOR SHOULD ASK AN INQUIRING SOUL

Now, though I have no desire, needlessly, to pry into any man’s secrets, yet, because it is the office of ministers to give advice to their people in matters of salvation, and because it is so dangerous a thing to be mistaken as to points which involve everlasting life or everlasting death, I would entreat you to deal honestly, and tell me, Whether or not you ever found this great change upon your own heart? Did you ever find the Spirit of God, by the Word, come in upon your understanding, with a new and heavenly life, which hath made you a new creature? […] Can you truly say, that you have so far taken the everlasting enjoyment of God for your happiness, that it hath the most of your heart, of your love, desire, and care; and that you are resolved, by the strength of Divine grace, to let go all that you have in the world, rather than hazard it; and that it is your daily, and your principal business to seek it? Can you truly say, that though you have your failings and sins, yet your main care, and the bent of your whole life, is to please God, and to enjoy him for ever; and that you give the world God’s leavings, as it were, and not God the world’s leavings; and that your worldly business is but as a traveller’s seeking for provision in his journey, and heaven is the place that you take for your home?

Marching Upward to Zion

Marching Upward to Zion

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In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the land of Israel, and most especially Mount Zion, is always “up”. So, take for instance when Jonah decides to skip town after God’s commission to go preach repentance to Nineveh, Jonah goes “down to Joppa” (Jon. 1:3) and then goes “down” into the ship (Jon. 1:3), and then once the storm buffets the ship, we find Jonah “down” below (Jon 1:5), and finally once he is thrown in the sea his prayer reveals he “went down to the bottoms of the mountains” (Jon 2:6). This is part of the motif of Jonah, to be sure, but it shows an interesting cultural mindset of the Israelites.

In their minds, Mount Zion in Israel, was the pinnacle of the world, and you couldn’t get any higher. To go elsewhere was a downgrade, and their prepositions indicate this. God had raised them up, and brought them to this promised land and set them above their enemies. Although in later history this led to a sort of arrogant presumption, they had this notion of being the city on a hill, a light to the world. For they served the One True God, while the surrounding nations were “down” in the valleys of pagan darkness.

As Christians, we march up to Zion every Lord’s Day. We stand in the communion of saints, in fellowship with Almighty God through Jesus Christ and represent to the world the union of God with Man. For it is not found elsewhere than the true Church of Jesus. As Hebrews 12:22 puts it, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.” By faith, God brings us up into union with him and communion with all the elect saints.

Our mindset should be, not only on the Lord’s Day, but all week long that we are “going up” to Zion. We stand as a city on a hill, and presumption should be the furthest thing from our mind as we proclaim the invitation to all the earth to join us on the heights of God’s holy hill (Ps. 24:3-6). Our weekly gatherings are a visible sign to the world of the reconciliation of God with man, and our spiritual relationship with God every day is, in reality, one which has raised us up and seated us together with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). So, individually, day-by-day, march upward to Zion by faith in the Lord Jesus; and then join with all the saints every Sunday to go up to the city of our God, on the high and holy hill of Zion.

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Another Point for the Men

Another Point for the Men

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I am proud to say that we now live in such a tolerant and diverse society that my nine month old son can now grow up to be anything he wants. Take for example the fact that the latest front page of CoverGirl featured a CoverBoy for the first time.

What a hope-filled generation this is…full of aspirations, and after decades of Disney telling us to follow our hearts, we have finally broken free and discovered ourselves. Men have been shut out from gracing the covers of beauty magazines for generations, and this has perpetuated a culture that leaves boys insecure that they are not beautiful enough. It has left them to squander their lives away by fixing engines and caking their hands with grease. It has left them with sunburned, rugged skin from longs hours at construction sites, lumber yards, corn harvest, and such repressive activities.

But at long last, men have broken the gender barrier, and are now able to become woman of the year, like Bruce Jenner, or CoverGirl. In fact, my personal opinion here, it takes a real man to be a woman of the year or CoverGirl. There’s nowhere but up here for men. What feminists have been unable to accomplish for decades, men have finally attained…equal magazine time for all.

In all seriousness, we have come to the point where we are celebrating our shame. And yes…mockery is the only response when we applaud our young men for painting themselves like clowns. When you act the court jester, expect the court’s laughter. This generation is sadly confused and has found that the reward for all their tolerance activism is now a bland world of no meaningful variation and diversity. We’ve aimed for diversity for its own sake, and our culture is now as flavorful as Malt-O-Meal porridge.

The feminists wanted to overthrow the oppression of men, they demanded equality at all costs; and now their crusades are entirely irrelevant, because what a man is and what a woman is no longer is of any consequence. Only your “feels” matter. Their glory is their shame…this CoverBoy’s “beauty” is his shame. He’s made in the image of God to be male…to go plow a field and raise a family by the sweat of his brow, the toil of his mind, and provide for his wife something that she might make beautiful.

Now, men are allowed to usurp the position of the fairer sex, or as Milton put it “heaven’s last best gift” and insist that we want to be pretty too. Men weren’t made to be pretty…we were made to sweat, bleed, and toil so she could be pretty.

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Book Review: “Calvin’s Preaching” by T.H.L. Parker

Book Review: “Calvin’s Preaching” by T.H.L. Parker

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Calvin's PreachingCalvin’s Preaching by Thomas Henry Louis Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This cursory look at Calvin as a preacher is thorough, insightful, and offers sound assistance & encouragement to preachers especially, and believers in general. The historical context surrounding Calvin as preacher is very useful in understanding the man. Also, there are a few remarkable lessons learned; Calvin preached with either a Hebrew or Greek Bible and “translated on the fly” as he preached on his selected text; also, he was not afraid of preaching “politics” or of addressing sin.

Wonderful to see that his habit was to almost exclusively preach to “us” and “we” rather than “you guys”. He included himself in his exhortations. Further, whereas in his theological writings (i.e. Institutes) you see the sharp, orderly, and cogent logic, in his preaching he is free (as Lloyd-Jones often exhorted preachers). It is in this that we are reminded that thorough systematic theology and Gospel preaching ought to serve each other, but also ought to give way to the other depending on the task at hand (defending the faith vs. proclaiming the faith).

Calvin was a immensely gifted man, and though trained as a lawyer, Parker shows that in his preaching he often leaves the lawyer behind and clearly wears the mantle of the prophetic/apostolic. Parker strings together wonderful quotes, primarily from Calvin’s sermons, and demonstrates (as much as is possible) how Calvin prepared his sermons, his primary method, and his clear habits and patterns. A very helpful companion to Institutes, and I think would be a very useful read for folks who love Christian history, or to help shape one’s understanding and approach to preaching. I would heartily recommend this make it on to your reading list.

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MORE BOOK REVIEWS

Calvin on Faith & Hope

Calvin on Our Enemy

Our Father’s House

Our Father’s House

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Harmony, not Discord

The Christian faith is built upon the foundation of these two preliminary assertions: one, God is; and two, He has spoken. We live in a world that is covered in the fingerprints of an Architect, an Intelligence, a Cause, a Designer behind it all. The theological term for this reality–natural (or general) revelation–is compared and contrasted with special revelation; and while this is a helpful way to categorize these certainly distinct ideas, we must never treat these two methods of God’s revealing as somehow alienated from each other. In fact, since the Bible must shape our doctrinal categories (not the other way round), it is imperative that we look keenly to how Scripture presents God’s revealing.

In our categorization of general & special revelation we must take care  that we don’t develop a clunky, mechanical notion of God’s speaking. This would lead us to a more deistic view of God’s interaction with the world. Scripture, however, teaches us that God is a communicating, relational God, who has spoken in diverse ways; and, as Hebrews 1:2a (KJV) puts it, “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”

Notice how this text provides a contrast with the “diverse ways” with which God had spoken previously (Heb. 1:1), by introducing a new & distinct method of speaking, vis. His Son Jesus. However, it is clearly meant to tie together both methods of God’s speaking and revealing, and not to lead us to the errant notion that God was a divine Edison, filling the garbage pail with failed idea after failed idea until the eureka moment came.

If we fail to bind natural revelation with special revelation as two distinct but coordinated manners of God’s speaking, then we will almost certainly end up with a notion of the Almighty as an inventor at the mercy of a chance discovery. This opens a whole world of error that we must certainly avoid, and in all fairness, we must ensure that we don’t traipse recklessly the other way and not acknowledge any difference between the unique methods of God’s revelation.

Natural revelation has to do with God’s created order, which certainly speaks for Him and of Him, and Special Revelation has to do with God’s Word in text, but perhaps most accurately the Word in Flesh, Jesus Christ; thus, while special revelation has to do with Scripture as revealed to and written by the holy writers of it, it also finds its culmination in the person of Christ.

God’s speaking by creation and by oracles is not a disjointed attempt to get mankind’s attention; both are a coordinated means bringing about the same end: the glorification of God through His salvation of the world. Thus, natural revelation and special revelation ought to be thought of as harmonic notes of the same song, not discordant tones of a cacophonous racquet.

Waking Up in Our Father’s House

Now, to begin with, our conception of ancient mankind must not be shaped by thoughts of a “Neanderthalic” caveman. Rather, we must realize that the first generations of men were not knuckle-draggers, but were quite advanced intellectually. Very early on in human history we know that agriculture, musical instruments, and industry were advancing quickly, even among the lineage of Cain (Gen. 4:20-22). Calvin argues that this particular passage in Genesis is to illustrate that the endowments of divine light were sent even upon such unregenerate men and that they “flourished in various and pre-eminent endowments, which would both render it inexcusable, and would prove most evident testimonies of the divine goodness.”<fn>Calvin, John. Genesis. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970. pg. 219</fn> So, when discussing God’s revelation, we must not think that God made creation, filled it with evidence of His nature and character, and then stood back–fingers crossed–hoping the message would get through the frontal lobe of primitive man.

In fact, we ought to remember that Adam was accustomed to walking with God, in the garden, communing with Him there (Gen. 3:8). Further, G.K. Beale points out that in the beginning narrative of Genesis, the original Hebrew clearly depicts Adam with features of a priest, and the Garden of Eden with features of a temple.<fn>Beale, G. K. A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011. pg. 618</fn> In a sense, Adam awoke in God’s house which was covered in the fingerprints of the Builder, and he was also habituated to conversing with the Builder Himself. Adam had natural witness of God and special witness of God. It should not surprise us that, from the beginning, natural and special revelation were in perfect union; but what about after the fall?

After the fall, mankind is first driven from the presence of the Lord (Gen. 3:24), Cain “went out” from the Presence of the Lord (Gen. 4:16), men in the days of Enos first called upon the Lord (Gen. 4:26)–which Jonathan Edwards takes to mean that a peculiar movement of the Spirit “stirred [men] up to meet in assemblies to assist one another in seeking God, so as they never had done before”;<fn>Edwards, Jonathan. A History of the Work of Redemption. Edited by John Frederick. Wilson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. pg. 142.</fn> God raises up preachers of righteousness, in particular Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Noah (1 Pt. 2:5); and, in the case of Noah, we are told that God speaks to him and his sons after the flood, covenanting with them at an altar (Gen. 9:8); at Babel we have a record of man’s rebellion against God, and the Lord “coming down” (Gen. 11:5) to see and judge man’s work.

All of this shows that up through Abraham, in general, mankind is fleeing from the presence of the Lord; while, at the same time, there are also righteous men seeking the Lord and proclaiming the Lord. Once again, there was a world full of natural revelation, but alongside of that was special revelation through the mouth of God Himself–in various special instances–and very often in the mouth of righteous men who were inspired to preach.

P.J. Wiseman makes the case that based on ancient cuneiform tablets, which archeologists have discovered, man was quite proficient (even before Abraham’s time) at writing and chronicling his history; and Calvin states that God had “[scattered] some excellent gifts among [Cain’s] posterity”<fn>Calvin, Genesis, pg. 218.</fn> and that, too, among Adam’s lineage, “industrious and skillful men, who exercised their diligence in the invention and cultivation of arts”.<fn>Ibid., pg. 218.</fn>

Wiseman furthermore argues, “No longer is there any good reason to doubt that the very earliest records in Genesis–those of the creation and the fall–were written down in a very early form of writing, within the period which Genesis assigns to Adam’s sons.”<fn>Beale, G. K. A New Testament Biblical Theology, pgs 56-57.</fn> He even asserts that Genesis itself leaves us reason to believe that it was composed by Adam and his posterity because of the oft-repeated phrase (with some variations) “this is the book of the generations (Gen. 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, etc.)”, and that the personal nature of what is recorded in even the very earliest part of Genesis, along with the reality of Adam’s naming of the animals should compel us to think of these sections as “tablets” which Moses likely compiled later on.<fn>Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology, pgs 58-60.</fn>

This should make it plain that primitive man knew he was dwelling in God’s house, not simply because of what nature was saying about God, but because God was speaking to man by Himself and by early preachers; again, a coordination of natural and special revelation. Although some men sought to flee God’s house, and others sought God Himself, all men seemed to know of God Almighty regardless of their relationship to Him.

Bishop John Overall wrote in 1606 that, “It is apparent, that within a few ages [after the death] of Noah [and] his sons, great barbarism and confusion fell among their generations, through their pride and dissoluteness, in that they thought scorn to be governed, either civilly or ecclesiastically, as God himself, by Noah, had ordained.”<fn>John, Overall. “The Convocation Book of MDCVI.” Archive.org. Accessed October 07, 2016. https://archive.org/stream/convocationbooko00overuoft#page/10/mode/2up.</fn> Here he insists that from Adam to Moses, man was not without clear direction (either civilly or ecclesiastically) from God. This means that the roughly two thousand years of human history from the fall to the Ten Commandments was not devoid of special revelation. Clearly, natural revelation was not the only manner of revelation present, but God was also actively communicating through world and word His will to mankind.

Another observation should be made regarding the nature of God’s revealing work in early human history. Modern man often forgets that architecture and art carries with it much of the essence and evidence of the architect and artist. Perhaps we would do well to return to a mindset which Tolkien so masterfully describes in his fiction; he understood how mankind formerly viewed architecture and art, and in the mouth of one elven character he draws us to see the wisdom in such a perspective, “we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”<fn>Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings (50th Anniversary Edition). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012. (Kindle Edition)</fn> The idea is that the maker invests himself into his work and art.

Even more poignantly, when Tolkien describes the creation of his Middle Earth, he hints at the reality that when we make something, something of the maker passes into the thing made. Tolkien’s mythological deity, Ilúvitar, declares after singing with his angels a song of creation: “‘Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added’”.<fn>Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion (Kindle Edition). Edited by Christopher Tolkien. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012.</fn> Their song and their singing became a world. Their making flowed from them as makers.

temple-eden-revelation-ben-zornesReturning to the biblical narrative, Beale shows that we have numerous Scriptural reasons to conclude that Eden itself was very likely a temple/sanctuary<fn>Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology, 617-622.</fn>, Adam was commissioned as a priest, and his descendants either fled from God, or sought fellowship with God; but all along they were cognizant of the reality that they were living in God’s world, because it was evidently covered in his fingerprints, and because He was speaking to them in diverse ways. Bishop Overall draws attention to the fact that God provided antediluvian man with a priesthood, so that mankind was not only presented with natural revelation (i.e. the fingerprints on the temple of the world), but also forced to reckon with the special revelation of faithful preachers (i.e. His own Word in the mouth of His appointed priests):

“It is not to be doubted, but that, first, Adam for his time, and afterwards the heads of every family of the faithful, were not only civil governors over their kindred, but likewise had the power and execution of the priest’s office; and that they were themselves instructed and taught from God, as they afterward did instruct and teach such as were under them in the said mysteries of man’s restitution, through the promised seed, by faith, and in the right worship and service of the true God.”<fn>Overall, The Convocation Book of MDCVI, Book 1, Chapter IV.</fn>

This indicates that from the earliest of times natural and special revelation were woven together in a harmonic song of God’s redeeming purposes. Further, after the flood, God once more ensured that mankind would not be bereft of this two-fold revelation. Bishop Overall again:

“Noah […] was the patriarch, or chief governor over them; ruling and ordering of them by virtue of that superiority, power, and authority which was given unto him by Almighty God, and was also warranted by the laws of nature and reason. Touching this patriarchal, or in effect, regal government of Noah, there is more expressed in the Scriptures, than there was before the flood, of the power and authority of Adam, or at any of the chief fathers and rulers that were descended from him. For now there is mention made by God himself of punishing blood by blood, which was done by the sword of justice, being the chief & and warrant of supreme and regal authority.”<fn>Overall, The Convocation Book of MDCVI, Book 1, Chapter VI.</fn>

God had poured Himself into His creation, this house of the world, leaving His seal all over it; He placed man in a temple garden and gave him a set of laws to follow; even after the fall and flood, God’s world bore the evidence of her Maker. What’s more, God spoke directly to certain men–some very likely putting His words into writing. Thus mankind was continually confronted with the harmonious song of the natural revelation and special revelation of God.

The Hand to Which the Fingerprints Belong

God filled this world with plain evidence of Himself, and–as Paul puts it in Romans 1:20–this leaves man without excuse. This world has His fingerprints all over it; but it is one thing to see a fingerprint and it is another thing to take hold of the Hand. Jonathan Edwards describes the insufficiency of natural revelation and the need for special revelation this way, “If there never had been any [special] revelation, I believe the world would have been full of endless disputes about the very being of a God: whether the world was from eternity or not, and whether the form and order of the world did not result from the mere nature of matter. Ten thousand different schemes there would have been about it.”<fn>Edwards, Jonathan. “Divine Revelation.” Divine Revelation. Accessed October 07, 2016. http://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/jonathan-edwards/miscellaneous-writings/divine-revelation/</fn> We needed God’s fingerprints in order that we might be left inexcusable, but we most deeply needed the Son of the Right Hand of God to be “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).”

Natural revelation is crystal clear, lacking nothing; but much like the Mosaic Law was intended to expose man’s sin and imperfection in order to make way for Christ, so too, God’s message through Creation was intended to lead man to Christ or else condemn him for his obstinate impunity for ignoring God’s clear prefatory messages of the coming Christ. T.H.L. Parker, in discussing John Calvin’s preaching, has a helpful insight here, “God has left clear marks of his divinity and power on what he had made.”<fn>Parker, T. H. L. Calvin’s Preaching. Louisville, KY: Westminster/J. Knox Press, 1992. pg. 2</fn> This is the authority of natural revelation. He then draws attention to Calvin’s lucid statement regarding how natural revelation was joined with special revelation:

“The only way, therefore, by which in ancient times holy men knew God, was by beholding him in the Son as in a mirror. When I say this, I mean that God never manifested himself to men by any other means than by his Son, that is, his own only wisdom, light, and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others, drew all the heavenly doctrine which they possessed.”<fn>Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008. pg. 763</fn>

Parker points out that “the Teacher of the Old Testament Church is the same Christ as the teacher of the New Testament Church”<fn>Parker. pg. 7</fn> and Calvin states that “nothing else was permitted to the apostles than was formerly permitted to the prophets—namely, to expound the ancient Scriptures, and show that the things there delivered are fulfilled in Christ.”<fn>Calvin, Institutes, pg. 764.</fn> From the fall of Adam, God’s revelation in nature has been a reminder of the Divine Judge from whom mankind rebelled and fled from. However, by grace, God has continually coupled the witness of nature with the proclamation of His Son, and–though by degrees–His redemptive purposes were finally and fully revealed in Christ. All along man’s history God’s special revelation of His redemptive purposes have been faithfully proclaimed to man.

Natural revelation gives man the understanding that it is inexcusable to not acknowledge God as the Framer, Maker and Ruler of the world, from whom we have rebelled and thus deserve punishment. But, God has never left the world without a witness of the promised deliverer and restorer, who was finally revealed to be God Himself, in the flesh: the Lord Jesus. Some disputers often quarrel about tribes in the middle of the jungle who have never heard the Gospel; would God really damn them? We must reply that those tribes did not spring up out of the dust, but they came from somewhere; or perhaps in some instances, fled from somewhere. Mankind dispersed all over this globe which God had made, and as they went their stories and mythologies are full of memories of a Creator, a fall, a flood, a serpent, a curse, a Savior.

Bishop Overall affirms this truth and asserts that to deny that Christ, the promised Seed of the woman, was proclaimed from the beginning in the earth, is a great error. He emphasizes the ancient patriarchs’ role as priests before God in this way:

“Any man shall therefore affirm the Son of God having from the beginning a church upon earth, didn’t leave them until the flood without priests, and priestly authority to govern and instruct then in those ways of their salvation, and in the right manner of the worship and service of God; or that they might teach them any other doctrine in that behalf, than that which they have received from God himself, he does greatly err.”<fn>Overall, The Convocation Book of of MDCVI, Book 1, Canon IV.</fn>

From the beginning, mankind has dwelt in a temple in ruins that bears the signature of its Divine Maker; mankind has either sought God or fled from God. Nevertheless, God has never left men without the revelation of Himself in this world and the revelation of Himself by His Word. He has not failed to continually thunder to mankind, “This is my beloved Son: hear him (Mar. 9:7).” The One who made the fingerprints, has Himself reached down and calls us to hearken to His Word. Make no mistake, His Word is now most clearly declared in the bright glory of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Ben Zornes