Trust AND Obey » Christian Controversy

Not Against Flesh and Blood

Dave Miller — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:06:18 +0000

All Christians must remember Ephesians 6:12 when defending biblical faith. I forget this far too often; especially when debating hot-button issues like same-sex marriage the way my friend Scott and I were doing this past week.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:12 ESV

This verse is part of the section of Ephesians where Paul instructs the believers in Ephesus to put on the whole armor of God. Take a few moments to read these verses – after all, context is king.

Look at how many times Paul repeats the word “stand” in the first half of this section. When you see an idea or word repeated in scripture, it should alert you that this is a very important point. Standing means not moving. It infers stability, and since the context of this passage is focused on military armor, we should think about standing in a manner militant.

A soldier on guard duty is to stand his ground, not turn and run at the first sign of hostility. The equipment that a first century soldier wore helped him fulfill his duty. Likewise, God equips the saints (That’s you, believer!) to do the same today.

First, let’s look at the armor separate from what it represents: belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, and sword. Notice that all of them but one have an exclusively defensive purpose. These pieces of armor give the properly equipped Christian the ability to stand his ground when the fight comes to him. He is not to be aggressive or confrontational, but a defender. We’ll get to the weapon our soldier carries in a moment.

Now look at what each piece of this armor represents for the Christian: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the word of God. Notice that none of these things are inherent in the soldier – they are all gifts from God. As a defender and guard, the Christian soldier of today needs to know all these things are at his disposal for his own well-being and for the greater purpose for which he stands.

So, with whom is this soldier engaged in battle? Verse 12 answers that question. It is not against our fellow man, but against the powerful forces of evil that have invaded and continue to pervade this world. The ‘flesh and blood’ we encounter in our daily interactions are usually victims or slaves of these forces. They are not the enemy, but they belong to him.

This is where our weapon comes in handy; more than handy actually. It is the only effective weapon against our foe. It is The Sword of the Spirit – The Word of God. Just as our armor is a gift of God, the only weapon we wield is the word of God. Our armor is defensive; it helps us stand our ground. But when we are in danger of being pushed back, we have to struggle and fight against our enemy hand-to-hand and drive him back with the sword.

The word of God is revealed primarily and most perfectly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And it is through Him that our enemy will ultimately be defeated. In Hebrews 4:12-13, we learn that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword and discerns the intentions of the heart. In Revelation 19:15 we see this same imagery when Jesus returns to unleash the wrath of God. A sharp sword comes out of his mouth (like a word) to strike down His foes.

This is all the well-armored Christian may do offensively, wield the word. It is the spirit of God that does the piercing, the dividing, and the discerning. We must only speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) and remember that the human beings we address are God’s image bearers, but fallen, deceived and dead in sin like we were at one time (Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:1). They may be set free and saved from their slavery to sin, but it will not be the doing of flesh and blood, but of the spirit of God through His Holy Word.

Si vis pacem, para bellum. (If you want peace, prepare for war.)

Not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers and the spiritual forces of evil.

Lincoln – 19 April 2012

Dave Miller — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:00:30 +0000

The Jar

Dave Miller — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:00:17 +0000

All I remember of the beginning is that I was standing in a kitchen in a well-appointed home. It was daytime and there was a well-dressed woman sitting at a table across the room having coffee. I was standing next to a microwave on a countertop and there was a clear glass jar next to it. In the jar was a baby in an amniotic bubble and it was alive.

The baby had bluish, transparent skin and I could see tiny internal organs and a beating heart. At the baby’s midsection, I saw two ovaries. She was a girl. I looked up at her expressionless face and she opened her eyes, they were like milk chocolate; a beautiful little brown-eyed girl. She blinked and looked at me, and I started crying.

I was crying because I had helped to put her where she was. She was still alive, but wouldn’t be for long.

Turning to the stylish woman at the table, I intoned through my tears, “Why did you do this!?”

“You know why,” she answered incredulously, “I’m having company over today and I can’t be pregnant for company!”

I knew I had to get this baby back to where she belonged, and fast. But this didn’t make sense; I’m a handyman, not a doctor.

The woman seemed annoyed, “I told you I needed to have some things done around my house to make it presentable. You agreed to help me do that. This was just part of your job. What’s your problem?”

My knees buckled; I sank to the floor. Lying on my right side, I curled up and sobbed. My heart weighed a thousand pounds and my head threatened to burst.

“I didn’t agree to help you kill your…” It came out like a shout and a moan. I had to stop and hold my breath. My stomach was full of stones. I felt like vomiting.

And that was the end.

My dreams are like that usually. They start in the middle and are over before they finish.

I haven’t been able to put it out of my head today. I still have a remnant of that sickening feeling that I’m an unwitting accessory to the murder of an innocent. The baby in the jar was going to die and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Yesterday I read an article about seven former Planned Parenthood employees who are willing to testify before congress that the national abortion factory that is the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) regularly uses taxpayer monies to fund abortion on-demand.

PPFA receives more than one million dollars a day from federal and state sources which, by law, may NEVER be used for elective abortions. Malfeasance by Planned Parenthood is a well-known secret that shouldn’t surprise anybody; the lack of congressional oversight is criminal and, again, shouldn’t surprise anybody.

In the time it took you to read this article another brown-eyed girl has been killed by an employee of Planned Parenthood. If you are a taxpayer, you helped kill her.

But this is just part of your job, citizen. “What’s your problem?”

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; Jeremiah 1:5a

Pray For It

Dave Miller — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:17:40 +0000

I’ve been working on an essay about the inerrancy of the bible, but need to post this real quick instead.

Christopher Hitchens, polemicist extraordinaire, has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He has canceled his current book tour and will begin chemotherapy immediately. Read more here.

Hitchens is a devout atheist and would most certainly request that nobody waste their time praying for him. Hundreds of thousands of Christians will ignore his preference and pray for his full recovery anyway.

I’m going to stop short of encouraging anyone to pray for Hitchens’ full recovery. I think we should be praying for God to break his pride and do whatever is necessary for Hitchens to repent and believe. (Matthew 5:44) His recovery or death matters much less than the disposition of his eternal soul. (Luke 12:20)

I think we should be praying for whatever will reveal God’s glory in the greatest way possible. (Philippians 2:10-11) If that means that Christopher Hitchens dies of cancer, pray for it. If that means that he recovers fully, pray for it. If it means that you or I die tomorrow, pray for it. Whatever is the will of God and will bring Him the greatest glory, pray for it.

Paper-thin Bible Study

Dave Miller — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:05:14 +0000

Welcome to our bible study. Today we will be covering Paul’s letters; all of them. We might even throw in Hebrews if we have time.

Open your bibles to Romans 1:1 and follow along as I read, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, set apart for the gospel of God,” Well that’s all the time we have for Romans. There’s really not much more to it, a lot of theology and rules and things. What we have learned so far is that Paul is a servant of Jesus. That will really help us in part two of our lesson. If you must go deeper, you can read Romans 8:28 which says that God gives us everything we want. Be sure you don’t read any further into chapter 1 and stay away from chapter 9.

Let’s start into Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Wow that’s a big word. What does sanctified mean? I guess since it is written to the church it means that everyone in the church is sanctified. That’s good news to all of us and that about does it for Corinthians. Everyone in the church at Corinth was sanctified, that’s all you really need to remember. Be sure to avoid chapters five, six, eleven and twelve if you insist on reading more.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are all pretty much the same book. Paul talks about living a good life. Ephesians 5:1 really sums up everything in these four books. ” Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;” That’s what we all are, children of God.

The two books of Thessalonians are next in our study. Let’s start with 1 Thessalonians 1:6, “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” Well, here we have a mention of the Holy Spirit which, along with the previous verses about God and Jesus make up the Trinity. That pretty much covers all we need to know about God. Let’s move on.

Timothy and Titus were both ministers that Paul was writing to and since none of you are ministers, there’s really not much point in going into them. If any of you are thinking of going into the ministry, they’ll probably make you read them in seminary.

Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters and it will take us very little time to study it.

Thank you for attending Bible Study today. It looks like we’re out of time so we’ll save Hebrews for another day.

Obviously this is an exaggeration, but have you ever attended a bible study like this? The leader of such a study is plowing a furrow ten miles long and a tenth of an inch deep. It is useless for planting anything. A good teacher could spend an hour talking about 2 Corinthians 5:21 alone. Covering entire chapters of the bible in a matter of minutes is an insult to the intelligence of the believers attending and does no justice to the Word of God.

How is God glorified with such paper-thin bible study?

On Women Pastors

Dave Miller — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:43:03 +0000

Earlier today, a friend on Facebook asked me my opinion on women pastors. My opinion doesn’t matter, so I told him what I have found in the Bible. If you disagree, or have another view, please post a comment with the biblical basis for your belief.

I still have much to learn, but this seems rather plain to me.

The Bible doesn’t bar women from teaching altogether, just from teaching and having authority over men in the assembly. For that reason, I have to say that female pastors and elders are unbiblical. 1 Tim.2:8-15. That said, I have met some very godly women who have the gift of teaching and use it as God intends.

Titus 2:3 says that older women are to teach what is good. Acts 18:26 tells of the beginnings of the ministry of Apollos. One of his teachers was Priscilla. Clearly, even in the early church, women teaching was approved and even encouraged in certain situations. I don’t think that has changed and we shouldn’t put unbiblical restrictions on women who have the gift of teaching.

A common counter-argument is “Paul is just stating a cultural or religious difference that doesn’t apply to us today.” But Paul doesn’t appeal to cultural or religious examples for the reasons behind his statement. In 1 Tim. 2:13-14, Paul uses the example found in Genesis 3 of the woman supplanting the authority of the man and deciding to eat the fruit and encouraging Adam to do the same. Look at Gen. 3:9, who does God call to account for the sin? Not Satan, not Eve, but Adam. The man is held accountable.

The problem in the modern church isn’t only that women want to do what God has said they shouldn’t, (like Eve) but also that men let women usurp the authority that God intended for them (like Adam). The “adolescentizing” (to mint a word) of the American male is behind this problem. Many men would rather play with their toys than lead a community of believers. But that’s another rant for another time.

Hume tells Tiger to Turn

Dave Miller — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:11:19 +0000

Brit Hume, the senior political analyst for Fox News and a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday had the audacity to express an opinion during the opinion portion of the January 3, 2010 show. See for yourself.

There has been an uproar from some in the media (and from plenty of anti-free-speech bloggers) that Hume’s statement is inappropriate. The fact of the matter is that Brit Hume is a gutsy guy. It is only a matter of time before the “mainstream media” will excoriate him for this, but he’s right on the money. The false religion Tiger Woods adheres to (Buddhism) will do nothing for him. Nothing. He needs Christ as his Lord and Savior. John 14:6 Romans 10:9-10 Acts 13:38

Bravo Brit Hume!

Hopefully Christians everywhere will stand up to applaud Hume’s remarks. Send an email to FoxNews comments[at]foxnews[dot]com or Hume’s show, FoxNewsSunday.

The Manhattan Declaration

Dave Miller — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:55:27 +0000

All believers should support the aims of The Manhattan Declaration; to declare and defend the sanctity of life, to affirm and codify the biblical definition of marriage and restore true religious liberty, even when it isn’t politically correct.

One of the men I respect most in this world, John MacArthur, has decided not to sign the declaration. This is a summary of his reason (read the entire statement here).

In short, support for The Manhattan Declaration would not only contradict the stance I have taken since long before the original “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” document was issued; it would also tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue. That is the wrong way—perhaps the very worst way—for evangelicals to address the moral and political crises of our time. Anything that silences, sidelines, or relegates the gospel to secondary status is antithetical to the principles we affirm when we call ourselves evangelicals. – John MacArthur

Dr. Albert Mohler explains why he is one of the original signatories of the declaration here at his blog.

I signed The Manhattan Declaration because it is a limited statement of Christian conviction on these three crucial issues, and not a wide-ranging theological document that subverts confessional integrity. I cannot and do not sign documents such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together that attempt to establish common ground on vast theological terrain…The Roman Catholic Church teaches doctrines that I find both unbiblical and abhorrent — and these doctrines define nothing less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But The Manhattan Declaration does not attempt to establish common ground on these doctrines. We remain who we are, and we concede no doctrinal ground. - R. Albert Mohler

It is with great trepidation that I must respectfully disagree with one portion of the first sentence of Dr. MacArthur’s summary. He says, “support for The Manhattan Declaration would…tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue” I agree that relegating the truth of the gospel to the level of a secondary issue would be the worst way for believers to address these issues, but this declaration does not do that.

This declaration has nothing to do with primary issues such as the gospel, justification, the sovereignty of God, or any other essential Christian doctrine. This declaration is an agreement on a secondary issue where the scriptures allow freedom for the conscience-bound Christian.

Are we to do things in this world only with others who believe undeniably, certifiably, exactly and rigidly the same as we believe? I doubt there are two Christians in the world that have exactly the same beliefs. How are we to be salt to the world if we don’t rub up against it? How are we to be light if we hide ourselves under a bushel basket? (Matthew 5:13-16)

- Story time -

Three people, one an Atheist; one a church-going, unrepentant adulterer; and one a saved sinner meet at a homeless shelter to feed the hungry. They all do exactly the same work for exactly the same amount of time. What effect does this good deed have on their eternal souls?

The Atheist will have no part of the kingdom of God because he denies Christ is Lord and will be judged according to his rejection of Jesus. This good deed may alleviate some of his eternal suffering, but he will spend eternity separated from God and in torment.

The unrepentant adulterer will have no part in the kingdom of God because, though she says she believes in Jesus with her lips, her heart is far from Him as evidenced by her actions. Jesus will say to her in that day, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.” This good deed may alleviate some of her eternal suffering, but she will spend eternity separated from God and in torment.

The saved sinner will be ushered into God’s heavenly kingdom because, though he is a sinner, he acknowledges that Christ is Lord and though he sins on a daily basis, he also repents on a daily basis. This proves that his faith is genuine and it is by that faith, given freely through the grace of God, that he is saved and will spend eternity in the presence of the One Holy God. This deed has nothing to do with him getting into heaven, but he will be rewarded in the kingdom of God for this selfless act of love.

Remember, the worst room in heaven is infinitely better than the best room in hell.

God is not going to withhold the believer’s reward because he did good deeds standing side-by-side with an atheist and an adulterer. Neither will the unbelievers share in heaven because they did the same good deeds as a believer.

The atheist is condemned because he denied Christ with his words, even though he did good deeds.
The adulterer is condemned because she denied Christ with her deeds, even though she confessed him with her word.
The believer is approved because, by grace, he confessed Christ and his words and deeds are the proof.

So what does this have to do with The Manhattan Declaration?

Let us say that doing the work of God means carrying a heavy load up a mountain along a rocky path. I am carrying this load by myself, struggling and sweating all the way. Now let us say that an unbeliever comes along side of me and, for some reason or no reason, begins to share my load. Am I to stop doing the work of the Lord so as not to be yoked unequally to this unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14) Of course not! I am not marrying this person. I am not in a business partnership with this person. I am temporarily allowing him to help me do the work that God has appointed to me.

What really matters is Jesus’ work on the cross and God’s work in drawing the sinner to belief and repentance. The sanctity of life, marriage and religious freedom are secondary issues compared to the primacy of the Gospel. At this point in time, I fail to see how The Manhattan Declaration does violence to the Good News of Christ.

I have read The Manhattan Declaration, but haven’t signed it – yet.

I am leaning toward signing it, but there are too many Evangelical Christians that I respect deeply who are opposed to it for the sake of the Gospel. Please add your thoughtful comments to this post, or post a link to your blog, and help convince me and others what a “Narrow Path” Christian should do. (Matthew 7:13-14)