John Calvin and the Church

Posted on 06/13/2009 by Paul Pavao

It’s funny that while I’m doing a series on Calvinism, I ran by chance across some statements by John Calvin on the Church. They’re pretty amazing.

I found these in Volume VIII of Philip Schaff’s History of  the Christian Church, an excellent eight-volume history written in the late 19th century. In fact, in the introduction he mentions celebrating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America “last month.” I felt like I’d been transported in a time machine.

Anyway, he extensively quotes Calvin on the Church. You’ve got to hear this. If I posted this with no name, you would insist a Roman Catholic wrote it.

Our present design is to treat of the visible Church …

There is no other way of entrance into life, unless we are conceived by her, born of her, nourished at her breast, and continually preserved under her care and government …

We must continue under her instruction and discipline to the end of our lives. It is also to be remarked that out of her bosom there can be no hope of remission of sins, or any salvation, according to the testimony of Isaiah (37:32) and Joel (2:32); which is confirmed by Ezekiel (13:9). …

In these words the paternal favor of God, and the peculiar testimony of the spiritual life, are restricted to his flock, to teach us that it is always fatally dangerous (latin: exitialis) to be separated from the Church. (Schaff, vol. VIII, p. 450-1; from Calvin’s Institutes IV, ch. 1, emphasis mine)

Wow. Are stronger words possible?

Is Calvin Unusual?

Nowadays. But let me tell you something: everyone would have agreed with him from the 2nd century down to his time.

What Calvin says here is just not exeptional. It’s perfectly normal.

Augustine is regularly faulted by Protestants for saying there is no salvation outside the church of Rome–which I don’t believe he said; it would be anachronistic except in certain contexts–but you can find the statement that there’s no salvation outside of the church in the writings of Christians from the 2nd century onwards.

In fact, you can find it in 1 John, too, where John tells us that those who go out from us were never of us (2:19).

The Real Question: What Church?

Ah, now we get to the real issue. What does Calvin mean?

After all, Calvin left the Roman Catholic Church.

It was difficult to sort through what he said about this. Apparently, he argues that he’s not leaving the Church, he’s just charging its pope and priests with error. He appeals to the example of Jeremiah (specifically) and the prophets (generally) to justify doing so.

He writes:

We neither dissent from the Church, nor are aliens from her communion.

and:

[We are assailed] with this battering ram, ‘Nothing can excuse withdrawal from the Church.’ We deny out and out that we do so. (ibid., p. 453)

The problem is, he doesn’t say what church he is not withdrawing from.

He could be meaning two things. He could mean that he’s not withdrawing from the Roman Catholic Church, the only church existing (for all practical purposes) in his day. Or, he could mean that he’s not withdrawing from the true Church–which is something different than the Roman Catholic Church.

In fact, he writes:

We are as ready to confess as they are that those who abandon the Church, the common mother of the faithful, the ‘pillar and ground of the truth,’ revolt from Christ also; but we mean a Church which, from incorruptible seed, begets children for immortality, and, when begotten, nourishes them with spiritual food … and which … preserves entire the truth which God deposited in its bosom.

Well, now, that’s convenient, isn’t it? We only have to stay connected–visibly, here on earth–to “the Church” if it’s a Church that “preserves entire the truth.”

Is Calvin Hypocritical?

This isn’t meant to be an attack on John Calvin. If I was going to do that, I’d pick a different subject.

This is meant to address us. Many Christians today have forgotten the importance of the Church. They claim to need the Bible alone, but they must mean they need it to sleep with at night like a teddy bear because they sure don’t mean “pay attention to what it says and do it.” Anyone who says, “All I need is Jesus and my Bible” is ignoring the teachings of their Bible. (Re: Eph. 4:11-16; Heb. 3:13; and a lot of others)

But let’s use Calvin as our example. Obviously, not being Roman Catholic myself, I think it was okay–no, good and necessary–for Calvin to leave the Roman Catholic Church. However, let’s consider some things he said and apply them to ourselves in today’s world.

It is extreme arrogance in us, if we presume immediately to withdraw from the communion of a Church, where the conduct of all its members is not compatible either with our judgment or even with the Christian profession. …

The desperate impiety of the Pharisees, and the dissolute lives everywhere led by the people, could not prevent [Christ and the apostles] from using the same sacrifices, and assembling in the same temple with the others, for the public exercise of religion. … the society of the wicked could not contaminate those who, with pure consciences, united with them in the same solemnity. (ibid., p. 451)

So,  which is it? Do we follow what Calvin says is the example of the apostles and stay in communion with a church even if its leaders are “desperately impious” and its people live dissolute lives?

Or do we follow what Calvin did, and leave a church because it doesn’t “preserve entire the truth which God deposited in its bosom”?

And how do we know  whether it has preserved entire the truth which God gave it unless we take up that “extreme arrogance” of declaring that their truth is not compatible with our judgment?

My Solution:

1. The Church Is Local

The very definition of the work ekklesia, which I believe to be carefully chosen by God (it is, after all, easy for God to be careful about such things), means something local. It was in common use in Greek-speaking areas of 1st century Rome, and it meant the citizens of a town.

The church is the ekklesia of God in a town, in contrast to the already-existing ekklesia of men in that town.

Applying the word church or ekklesia to a hierarchy above the local city or township is a misuse of the word.

2. It’s Relationship That Matters

God is never concerned about your relationship to an organization; he’s concerned about your relationship to people. That’s why Jesus says “wherever two or three are gathered in my name” (Matt. 18:20).

So when Calvin, with the rest of the town of Geneva separated from the Roman Catholic Church, they weren’t separating from anything at all. They didn’t divide anything. What they broke away from might as well not have existed. It was nothing, and it had no authority instituted by God.

We tend to get confused about God, as though there’s some cosmic, eternal rules that he feels subject to or bound to. No, God has reasons for what he does, and those reasons are based in love.

We have to stay together because we need each other, not because there’s some cosmic rule about membership in a church being necessary to salvation. Instead …

  • We need to be exhorted to stay away from sin; otherwise, we will fool ourselves (Heb. 3:13).
  • None of us are sufficient in ourselves to reflect and shine Christ to the world. So God has provided a vehicle for unity, his Spirit, so that together, each with our own gift from God, Christ might still be seen in the world.

He does this so that hurting, lonely people, without answers and without power to overcome the world or themselves, might be gathered into his family, know God, and be filled with joy.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit (and attainment) of happiness; that is the gift given by the Gospel.

This happiness is not based based on worldly success. It’s based on  relationship with God and with God’s people, so that it can’t be taken away under any circumstance.

Keep this faith, for it benefits everyone.

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Predestination, Calvinism, and Bible Interpretation: Part Three

Posted on 06/08/2009 by Paul Pavao

We have been looking at Calvinism’s TULIP a little bit. I considered going point by point through TULIP–and I still want to do that–but there’s something more important than that.

Does the Scripture ever really bring up Calvinism?

Are the 5 points of Calvinism ever a central discussion of Scripture at any point? In any of the letters? In any of the Gospels?

There’s only one place that Calvinists can make any claim that the Scriptures purposely discuss their 5 points, and that is in Romans 8 through 11.

So today, rather than addressing what Scriptural predestination is not, let’s look at what it is.

Let’s begin with the key Scripture in Romans:

For whom [God] foreknew, these he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

In addition, those he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. (Rom. 8:29-30)

Foreknowledge

The question we then have to ask is whom God foreknew. It is the foreknown who are predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son.

The problem is, the Scriptures really don’t address whom God foreknew, nor even what he foreknew of them. All it tells us is that he predestined the ones he foreknew, then called, justified, and glorified those who are predestined.

What we do know, however, is that foreknowledge cannot be the same thing as predetermination. Foreknowledge is simply knowing something in advance, not making it happen in advance.

The reason we know this is because the Scriptures uses foreknowledge (epignosko in the Greek) of things we humans know in advance. We know in advance that this age will come to an end.

That foreknowledge, according to 2 Pet. 3:17, should move us to remain steadfast in following Christ.

So we have a tiny bit of information here. The predestined ones are the ones God foreknew. With this Peter agrees, as he tells us in 1 Pet. 1:2 that we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.”

Predestination

The other thing we know about God’s choice–about the things God has predetermined–is that he hardened the Israelites so that mercy could be shown to the Gentiles.

We know that he had every right to do that because the potter can make from the clay whatever he wishes to make. God, then, can harden whomever he wills and show mercy to whomever he wills.

And he has willed to show mercy to the Gentiles and harden the Israelites, so that the Israelites may be provoked to jealousy, be confined under unbelief, and wind up obtaining mercy themselves.

Why? Because God wants to show mercy to all (Rom. 11:32).

Calvinism

Where does this leave the 5 points of Calvinism? How does this address Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints?

It doesn’t. This whole passage from Romans 8:29 to the end of Romans 11 never mentions any of those things. It never touches on them, nor does it say anything at all that addresses them.

With two exceptions.

  • Romans 8:29-30 does say that the ones he foreknew are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. He calls, justifies, and glorifies them. So it does address the Perseverance of the Saints–positively.
  • Romans 11:32 says that God wants to show mercy to all, so it addresses Limited Atonement–negatively.

But no other point of Calvinism’s TULIP is even addressed in Romans, and even on these two subjects, they are not central.

Paul’s concern in Romans is his Gospel. He is explaining why the Gentiles are being admitted to God’s people and why salvation is by the Spirit through faith and not by the Law through works.

He is not discussing any of the points of Calvinism.

Calvinism Must Stand on Its Own

Thus, Calvinism has to stand on its own, pulling verses from here and there to establish its new and unusual view of God. It cannot make any claim to be being brought up or purposely discussed in even one passage of Scripture.

And it has a terribly difficult time standing. The Scriptures state repeatedly that God wants all to be saved and all to come to repentance (Rom. 11:32; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9, and many others). Thus, Calvinism is chopped down at the knees before it really ever gets started.

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Romans and Calvinism: an Excursion

Posted on 06/01/2009 by Paul Pavao

I’m doing a series on Calvinism and Predestination here on this blog, but I want to make a quick side trip.

I mentioned in the last post that Romans has a series of arguments concerning Jews and Gentiles and the righteousness of faith vs. the righteousness of the Law.

I believe the first of those arguments is the most important one, and I believe most people don’t even know Paul is presenting an argument!

Romans 1: Justification As a Defense of the Gospel

We all quote Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

Have we ever asked, however, why Paul has to say he’s not ashamed?

The reason is pretty obvious from the first half of Romans. Paul is writing to Christians who have not met him. Most of  them are Jewish, and they have heard that he is preaching a righteousness apart from the Law.

They think this is bad, and they are quoting him as saying things like, “Let us do evil that good may come” (Rom. 3:8).

So Paul writes to these Christians in Rome to defend and correctly explain his Gospel.

After a few introductory statements, he launches right into his defense: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ …”

Why not?

The Power of the Gospel of Christ

Paul says why not immediately:

It is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes; to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. (vv. 16-17)

Nowadays we like to use verses like this as an argument that we don’t have to be righteous to go to heaven. That’s ridiculous. We’ve been warned–by Paul, the very one who wrote these verses in Romans–not to be deceived into believing such nonsense.

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived … (1 Cor. 6:9)

Paul is arguing the very opposite!

I’m not ashamed of the Gospel, Paul says, because whenever I preach it, the people who believe it experience the power of God to salvation. They live righteously, and their righteousness is not just any righteousness, but is the righteousness of God being revealed in them from faith to faith.

Have you ever heard a better argument for the Gospel? Who can stand up against that argument?

Watch this Gospel at work! I have nothing to apologize for, and I have nothing to be ashamed of. The righteousness of God himself is revealed in it.

That’s what Paul is saying.

Is That Really What Paul Is Saying?

Why doubt it? Should we doubt it because nowadays so many people believe that righteousness is imputed even when it’s not imparted?

No matter how many modern scholars and lexicons say that justification in the Greek means right standing with God rather than righteous living, the New Testament itself–in Greek or English–makes it clear that they’re wrong, wrong wrong …

… Eternally and dangerously wrong.

Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. (1 Jn. 3:7)

Clear enough for you?

Now both Paul and John have told you not to be deceived about this doctrine of right standing with God apart from the actual performance of righteousness. So, don’t be deceived!!!

The Righteousness of Faith

Here’s Paul’s description of the righteousness that comes by faith:

For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did … (Rom. 8:3)

Paul has just described what the Law could not do in chapter seven. It can’t cause us to obey God. It may display the righteousness of God and be perfect, holy, and good, but it can’t empower us to obey.

But what the Law could not do, God did!

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh … (Rom. 8:3)

Awesome! The Law couldn’t break the power of sin in our flesh, as explained in Romans 7, but Jesus, by the offering of himself, could!!! Hallelujah!

So that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:4)

Note that the righteous requirement of the Law is not fulfilled in us as we subject ourselves to the Law and to its requirements. It is “fulfilled in us”–happens automatically–if we walk according to the Spirit!

We have to subject ourselves to the Spirit.

What happens if we don’t?

If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live. (Rom. 8:13)

He who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap everlasting life. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap … if we do not lose heart. (Gal. 6:8-9)

That’s probably clear enough.

Conclusion: Back to Romans 1

Let’s not miss the fact that Romans 1-11 is one long series of arguments and explanations of Paul’s Gospel. It’s powerful, and once you see it as a series of arguments and explanations, it’s quite clear.

The first argument is: Those who hear my Gospel experience the power of God that produces righteousness, and that righteousness is produced from faith to faith, so I don’t apologize for preaching faith rather than Law.

Is that what we can say about our Gospel?

Then maybe we had better change our Gospel because if we believe Paul is inspired by God, then God doesn’t think very highly of false gospels (Gal. 1:8-9).

Jesus’ Gospel involves giving up your entire life and having no attachment to this world at all (Luke 14:26-33).

I love church history, and I can tell you that no other Gospel has ever produced the results Paul spoke of. Just the one that says, “Forsake everything for Christ.”

The others all produce what you see around you. You decide which one you want, which one is Biblical, and which one will gain you favor at the judgment.

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Calvinism, Predestination, and Bible Interpretation; Part Two

Posted on 06/01/2009 by Paul Pavao

Well, since Britt–a dear friend of ours and a good, godly man–has put it on my mind with his comment, let me make part two to cover Romans 9-11.

I need to keep this short enough for a blog, which will be a lot of work for me, so let me get right to the point:

Does Romans 9 say God Only Wants Some To Be Saved?

Let’s admit one thing to the Calvinists. Romans 9 definitely says that God can and may make people for the sake of wrath and dishonor. It is definitely, inarguably true that one of Paul’s arguments is that God can do whatever he wants, including making people that are destined from birth for wrath and destruction (Rom. 9:15-24).

What Calvinists miss is that there is a conclusion to Paul’s argument. Paul’s argument has a purpose!

First, the purpose. The context of Romans since chapter one is Paul’s Gospel of righteousness by faith vs. righteousness by the Law. From chapter one through chapter eleven, he addresses righteousness as it applies to the Jews and as it applies to the Gentiles.

His argument is that both Jews and Gentiles are supposed to obtain righteousness from God by faith, not by the Law.

Now in chapter nine, he tries to make it clear to Jewish Christian readers–his audience from chapters one through ten; he switches to the Gentile Christians in chapter eleven–that he still cares about Israel.

Verses one through five (of ch. 10) say that Israel matters. Verses six through ten says that Israel is not Israel according to the flesh but according to promise.

Then he launches into telling his Jewish Christian readers that God can choose whomever he wants.

The question the Calvinists fail to ask is, whom does God choose? Instead, they assume that their doctrine, that God chooses randomly (unconditionally) is what Paul is talking about.

However, that’s not what Paul is talking about. Paul concludes his section on God’s choice by saying, “… even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only , but also of the Gentiles” (9:24).

He then quotes Scripture saying that God would choose a people from among those who were never his people.

Jews and Gentiles

The context since chapter one has been Jews and Gentiles. The context in chapter nine continues to be Jews and Gentiles. The context will stay Jews and Gentiles through chapter eleven.

Notice the heart of his “God can choose whomever he wants” argument in 9:18:

Therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he wills, he hardens.

So on whom does he will to have mercy, and whom does he will to harden? That question needs to be asked.

I speak to you Gentiles (11:13) … I don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery … that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (11:25).

God has hardened the Israelites and shown mercy to the Gentiles.

Calvinism and Bible Interpretation

It is not good or right to pull one argument out of the middle of a long string of arguments that are all about Jews and Gentiles and the righteousness of faith vs. the righteousness of the Law.

Paul’s topic in chapter 9 is not predestination or hardening. Paul’s topic in chapter nine is still Jews and Gentiles and the righteousness of faith vs. the righteousness of the Law.

Predestination, hardening, and God’s choice are arguments meant to advance his case that his Gospel to the Gentiles is true. His purpose is most certainly not to advance a new doctrine not taught anywhere else in Scripture, nor ever believed by any of the churches he or other apostles started.

God, from the beginning, intended to harden the Israelites and show mercy to the Gentiles, not to make random choices about who will be saved because he only wants some to be saved.

Bible Interpretation and Context

If anyone is open to Scriptures being pulled out of context by the Holy Spirit and applied to a unique situation, it’s me. I believe the Scriptures are living oracles, and I believe the Holy Spirit can guide us in interpreting them.

However, that does not mean that we ought to pull an argument out of its context and use it to disagree with the plain teaching of Scripture. In this case, I’m referring to the Calvinists pulling Paul’s argument in Romans 9 out of its context and using it to disagree with all the Scriptures that say God wants everyone to be saved.

Take a look at 2 Peter 3 sometime. What’s the context of that chapter? Well, the context is actually Peter trying to answer those who say the end will never come because it’s not come yet.

Part of his argument is that God is extending the time so that more people can be saved because he wants everyone to come to repentance.

The people being addressed in 2 Peter 3 are all people. The people being addressed in Romans 9 are nations, Jews and Gentiles.

It’s important to keep things straight.

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Calvinism, Predestination, and Proper Bible Interpretation

Posted on 05/31/2009 by Paul Pavao

Someone once told me that if I wanted to know if a teaching was true, look at what it asks you to do. If it asks you to do something that Scripture also commands, you can probably trust the teaching.

If it asks you to do something different than Scripture commands, throw it out; it’s false.

I heard that 25 years ago. It has served me well for 25 years.

Predestination According to Calvin

I have a lot of problems with the Calvinist version of Predestination.

Since I haven’t read Calvin’s Commentaries or Institutes myself, I’m relying on what I’ve heard from people who call themselves Reformed or Calvinist.

I am also responding to what is known as the 5 points of Calvinism, which make the anagram TULIP. TULIP is:

  • Total depravity
  • Unconditional election
  • Limited atonement
  • Irresistible grace
  • Perseverance of the Saints

Really, I doubt I agree with a single one of those things, but let’s start our short series on Calvinism with the most offensive and ridiculous one …

Limited Atonement

There are at several Scriptures that sound like they were written specifically to refute Calvinism’s Limited Atonement:

  • God our Savior … wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:3-4).
  • We trust in the Living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe (1 Tim. 4:10).
  • He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 Jn. 2:2).
  • The Lord is not slow concerning his promise … but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Pet. 3:9).

Okay, so a guy comes along 1500 years after these things are written and argues–for the first time in history–that “all men” means just the people who will be saved and that “not any” means not any of the elect.

There’s nothing to argue here. This Limited Atonement teaching is unscriptural nonsense, and the man who teaches it teaches falsehood. Maybe John Calvin had a bad childhood, or maybe he was overly influenced by Luther’s over-reaction to monasticism, or maybe he’s just evil and influenced by the devil. Whatever the cause, if John Calvin taught limited atonement and that God only wants some people to be saved, as people say he did, then he taught error.

Calvinism and Predestination in General

We’ll go into this subject more in the next few days. Maybe we can do each point of Calvinism one by one. Total Depravity seems to be the only one, in my opinion, that has even a small Scriptural basis. However, taking human depravity so far that a person can’t even choose to be saved is taking it too far.

(It also is having too much confidence in your own Bible interpretation; nothing is ever as sure as it seems. “Can’t” and “never” are big words when you start applying them to God and man.)

The rest seems like nonsense to me that disagrees with everything taught by the apostles’ churches.

I mentioned at the start of this post that we ought to see what a teaching tells us to do in order to test it, and we’ll do that as we look at the other points of TULIP.

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Apostolic Succession: Tradition, Apologetics, and Contending for the Truth

Posted on 05/21/2009 by Paul Pavao

Due to working on Christian History for Everyman, I’ve been slow in posting here. I’m working on a page on apostolic succession, however, and it is perfect for a blog entry.

The line (uh, here I am quoting myself again) that caught my eye was:

Apostolic succession is an argument against the Roman Catholic Church, not for it.

My line was prompted by this wonderful passage from Tertullian’s Demurrer Against Heretics. Tertullian was a lawyer, and a “demurrer” is a legal brief. (Apparently, lawyers could be Christians in A.D.  200. I’ve heard rumors that might be possible even in A.D. 2100, but I haven’t verified those yet.)

Since the Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostles to preach, no others ought to be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed … Nor does the Son seem to have revealed [the Father] to any other than the apostles, whom he sent forth to preach …

What that was which they preached … can … properly be proven in no other way than by those very churches which the apostles founded in person, by declaring the Gospel directly to them themselves, both viva voce, as the phrase is, and afterwards by their letters.

If, then, these things are so, it is equally apparent that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches, those molds and original sources of the faith, must be reckoned for truth, as undoubtedly containing that which the churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God. In the same way, all doctrine must be prejudged as false which savors of disagreement with the truth of the church and apostles of Christ and God. …

We have fellowship with the apostolic churches because our doctrine is not in any way different from theirs. This is our witness of truth.

– Demurrer Against Heretics 21

Sorry for all those ellipses. Tertullian is more wordy even than me, and he can’t resist any opportunity–in fact, he creates as many opportunities as possible–to inject some explanatory comment. His rabbit trails have rabbit trails.

However, he’s one of the most logical thinkers among the early Christian writers.

Perfect lawyer.

What Is Apostolic Succession?

 Tertullian makes it clear that truth comes from God. God gave it to Christ, Christ gave it to the apostles, and the apostles committed it to the churches. Thus, the churches became the standard of truth.

This is the reason that Paul says that the Church, the household of God, is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

The Roman Catholic Church, somewhere down through the centuries, went completely crazy and decided that since they were the standard of truth, they had the right to change the truth at will.

The Roman Catholic Church, however, is not the standard of truth. The apostolic churches were the standard of truth.

Apostolic succession, to Tertullian and his contemporaries, was a way of arguing that their churches, a mere hundred years removed the apostles, had received truth from the apostles and maintained it unchanged.

Apostolic Succession as Proof of Pristine (Unchanged) Truth

Tertullian’s argument from apostolic succession was limited. Such an argument could prove that the church to which he belonged and the ones with which they were in fellowship had received truth from the apostles 100 years earlier. It could not prove they had kept it pure.

For that he had to resort to a stronger argument:

Is it likely that so many churches, and they so great, should have gone astray into one and the same faith? … Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues. When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and the same, it is not the result of error, but tradition. (ibid. 28)

Little different view of tradition than what the Roman Catholics tell you about, isn’t it? Tradition is authoritative, just as they say, but only if that tradition came from the apostles.

Think about this argument. Tertullian’s argument assumes that there is no central authority in the church. Notice that he mentions  “that which is deposited among many.”

Tertullian’s argument falls apart if there is a central authority–a pope, or a supreme church in Rome–that can dictate doctrine. In that case, it would be extremely likely that so many churches, no matter how great, would go astray into one and the same faith because one man, the pope, could have dictated it.

Tertullian doesn’t mention this, however, because he’d never heard of a pope. He had no idea that anyone would argue that the church in Rome was supreme over all other churches.

Apostolic Succession as an Argument Against the Roman Catholic Church

Tertullian speaks of churches which …

… although they do not derive their founder from apostles or apostolic men (since they are of much later date, for new churches are being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine. (ibid. 32)

Churches such as these, he says, will submit other churches to a “test.” What is that test?

For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and disagreement, that it had for its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man. This is true because just as the apostles would never have taught anything self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would never have taught doctrine different from the apostles. (ibid.)

So when we who are seeking to follow apostolic teaching ask the Roman Catholics to prove that they, too, are following what came from the mouth or pen of the apostles, we are simply following in the footsteps of the church fathers; something the Roman Catholic Church is quite unwilling to do.

Apostolic succession was meant to establish that a church held to apostolic teaching without changing it. The Roman Catholic Church uses apostolic succession to justify exactly the opposite. They want to have authority even when they are disobeying Christ and changing his teachings.

The churches which actually had apostolic succession, something no church has had for over 1700 years, would have condemned them as heretics.

Apostolic Succession, Tradition, and the Authority of the Church

Apostolic succession, tradition, and the authority of the Church all refute Catholicism. They do not defend it.

  • Apostolic succession is simply one argument used by early churches to establish that they had received and apostolic doctrine and maintained it unchanged.
  • Apostolic tradition is apostolic doctrine. Paul refers to his teachings as tradition several times (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:2; 2 Thess. 2:15).
  • The Authority of the Church comes from being the pillar and support of the Truth. The Truth is that which is delivered to the churches by the apostles, who received it–and the authority to pass it on–from Christ, the Truth himself.

Protestants and the Fight for Truth

If this is so, then why has the Roman Catholic Church used these things–apostolic succession, tradition, and the authority of the Church–to argue for themselves and against Protestants.

It is because the Protestants are an easy target. Just as the Roman Catholics would never honestly look at the teachings of the fathers because those teachings condemn them for deviating from the tradition of the apostolic churches, so the Protestant churches refuse to submit to the apostolic churches–and thus to apostolic teaching.

There is now and always will be a fight for Truth. Truth sets men  free. Thus, Jude tells us that we must contend earnestly for the Truth in the form of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

With whom, however must we fight?

Is it not the devil? Is it not principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places?

It is. And they would like nothing more that we fight against each other and for our traditions rather than against them and for the apostles’ traditions, which came from Christ.

Scripture vs. Apostolic Tradition

Where do we find the apostolic tradition? Isn’t it just in Scripture?

Are we really so blind? Millions of people study the Scriptures every day, and they disagree and divide with each other every day. Almost every heretical group gets their doctrines from the Scripture. I’ve almost never heard of a Jehovah’s Witness or WOW missionary (from “The Way International”) leaving their heresy because of being convinced from the Scriptures.

We know what the apostolic churches were like. We know the basic traditions the apostles delivered to those churches.

Loud voices cry out that we don’t. People say the early churches disagreed with one another. People say that they fell away and became legalistic.

They didn’t.

We may not like it, but they didn’t.

They were one, they were holy, they stood in persecution, they overcame the world, and they were so powerful that they brought the Roman empire to its knees even as it killed their bodies on a daily basis.

Among us you will find uneducated persons, craftsmen, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth. They do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbors as themselves. (A Plea for the Christians 11)

Ignore them at your peril.

The Scriptures, no matter how badly we want to make them “the sole rule of faith and practice,” continue to teach that the Church is the pillar and support of the truth and that God will guide the saints into truth only while they are completely united (1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Jn. 2:27),  not while they simply read the Bible.

Conclusion

I was looking for a nice, tidy ending to this rambling post that started on apostolic succession and the Roman church, but then turned on us who have clung to Sola Scriptura.

I have no such ending. I hope something in this blog has helped you.

Even more, I hope you will quit caring about yourself, your life, your savings, your college, your career, your car, your denomination, your loyalties, your alma mater, your family, your money, and anything else you’re prone to caring about, and you’ll begin caring about his kingdom.

When you do, you’ll look around and be horrified at how hard it is to find something that can rightly be said to be “the pillar and support of the truth.”

Then perhaps you’ll weep, cry out, repent, find those who are truly your brothers and sisters–not accepting their mere claims but examining their lives–and together ask God to reveal to you what he has only promised to reveal to those who are united and who fear him alone.

He is worth it all.

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Revisiting the Ten Commandments of Catholicism

Posted on 05/11/2009 by Paul Pavao

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog on the ten commandments. There I argued that the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) split “You shall not covet” into two commands in order to draw attention away from the command they omit, which is “You shall not make any graven image.”

My son came to me last week to tell me that he looked in a Catholic Bible and the ten commandments there are the same as in a Protestant Bible.

This is true. The problem with the ten commandments by Roman Catholic (RCC) standards is not in their Bible translation. They have left the Bible unchanged. The problem is in the list they publish and teach to their followers.

Here is the description of the difference between the RCC ten commandments and the list made by Protestants according to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The system of numeration found in Catholic Bibles, based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine … and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans … This arrangement makes the first commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against. (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04153a.htm)

In other words, they are claiming that the reason that they make “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make any graven images” into one command is because this is all one class of sin: false worship.

The reason they give for dividing “You shall not covet” into two commands is:

It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils. (ibid.)

The problem, as I pointed out, is the Biblical text.  The ten commandments are the ten commandments. The proper way to divide them into ten commands is the way God divided them through Moses. We cannot simply make up our own divisions.

Here is how Moses gave the last commandment to Israel:

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. (Ex. 20:17)

Perhaps you will notice that the command not to covet your neighbor’s wife, which the RCC claims is a separate commandment, is in the middle of all the other things we are not to covet. The RCC makes the 9th commandment to be “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.”

As you can see, the problem is that my neighbor’s goods are listed  both before and after my neighbor’s wife. It’s not very hard to figure out that Moses, and thus God through Moses, was not counting the command not to covet your neighbor’s goods and the command not to covet your neighbor’s wife as two separate commands. No theology degree is needed to see that this is completely illogical, no matter how logical the Catholic encyclopedia claims it to be.

In fact, it requires an advanced theological degree to become blind to something so obvious.

Roman Catholic Justification for Their Ten Commandments

The RCC argument for combining “You shall not have any gods before me” and “You shall not make any graven images” is not bad. They state:

This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject. (ibid.)

That’s fine. The Jewish list of ten commandments does the same. They make the first command–which, strangely enough, is not a command at all–to be “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” They then combine the command to have no false gods and not to make any graven images into one command.

That’s strange, but at least it doesn’t require pulling a tenth commandment right out if the middle of the ninth.

Also, the Jews are opposed to making graven images and bowing down to them.

The Roman Catholics, however, are not. The Catholic Encyclopedia says this about the making of graven images:

… the prohibition [is] directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. (ibid.)

Okay, let’s talk about that. What exactly is idolatry? Is it not God who gets to define this as well?

God says, “You shall not make for yourself any graven image … You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them” (Ex. 20:4-5).

Do Roman Catholics not bow down to graven images? I know that as a 6th grade student at a Catholic elementary school I was made to bow down and kiss the feet of a statue of Mary. Everyone knows that Catholics bow down in front of statues of saints and pray to those saints all over the world. It happens every day at Lourdes in France.

Do they really expect us to believe that it is just an accident of interpretation that their list of commandments says nothing about not making or bowing down to graven images?

Exodus 20 vs. Deuteronomy 5

I need to point out that while Exodus 20 says not to covet your neighbor’s house, then your neighbor’s wife, and then his other goods, Deuteronomy 5 lists the coveting of your neighbor’s wife first. Thus, if you wish to divide “You shall not covet” into two commands, Deuteronomy 5 does allow you to do so without destroying the text.

Um … does this matter?

The RCC claims to base their numbering of the ten commandments on a list given by Augustine in his work Questions on Exodus. I can’t seem to find a copy of that online, and The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers doesn’t contain it. However, I read enough references to it online to be confident they’re telling the truth.

Those references point out that Augustine was using Deuteronomy 5 to make his list, which is a very strange thing to do in a book entitled Questions on Exodus.

Oh, well. This blog is not about Augustine, who lived before the catholic churches were “Roman Catholic,” though he did not live before images of saints were being made and adored by almost-but-not-quite converted pagans.

(The pagan emperor Julian the Apostate, who reigned over three decades before Augustine was bishop, said that the saint worship of the Christians of his day was greater than the hero worship of the pagans before them. Even he scoffed at it and called it idolatry.)

Despite all this, it has been over 1600 years since Augustine wrote his book. No one considered during that time that his list doesn’t make sense if you read Exodus?

Someone needs to state the obvious. The making of statues fosters idolatry in general. In particular, the making of statues of saints not only can foster idolatry, but it already has created rampant idolatry throughout both the modern and historical Roman Catholic Church.

In fact, according to Exodus, bowing down to a statue is already idolatry.

Throughout the reign of the Pope as a civil authority (a time known as “the Dark Ages”) and until the 1960’s, the RCC discouraged the reading of the Bible. As long as this was so, they could simply publish a list that never mentions a prohibition against making and bowing down to graven images.

Over the last 40 years, however, the RCC has conceded and encouraged the reading of the Scriptures. Some of those RCC members need to petition their leaders to correct their dishonest rendering of the ten commandments.

Until it’s corrected, no matter what is written in the Catholic encyclopedia, their ten commandments are a loud testimony that the RCC has not only practiced idolatry, but allowed and promoted it.

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Scoffing Scholars

Posted on 05/09/2009 by Paul Pavao

Don’t you hate it when someone announces that “all the scholars know” that Christianity isn’t true; they’re just scared to tell us?

I hate it, and it’s baloney.

A guy named Bart Ehrman has written a book called Jesus, Interrupted, claiming just that sort of thing. He tells us things like:

  • Only 8 of the 27 books of the NT were written by the authors to whom they’re attributed
  • Each Gospel portrays Jesus differently
  • Paul and Matthew are at odds on keeping the Law
  • The Nicene Creed and Trinity are not found in the Bible
  • Doctrines like the suffering Messiah, the divinity of Christ, and heaven and hell are not based on teachings of Jesus

HarperCollins, the publisher, writes in their review:

As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, [these points above] have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars …

Nice.

Inch-Deep Scholars

Books like Ehrman’s are always directed against myths of modern Christianity. With this I concur. I speak out against myths of modern Christianity as well.

However, I replace those myths with truth, not unbelief!

For example, Paul and Matthew are at odds on keeping the Law; that is, if Paul’s letters teach what most Protestants say they teach. Big if.

Paul’s letters don’t teach what we Protestants say they teach.

A good scholar, when he notices that Paul’s letters and Matthew’s Gospels don’t match on the subject of Christians keeping the Law, will ask why. He will not simply point out that problem to the masses in an attempt to shipwreck their faith.

It’s not like it’s some mystery. It’s obvious to anyone who reads the writings of the early Church that we have completely lost their view of the Law. The Baptists don’t have it, the 7th Day Adventists don’t know about it, and the Pentecostals are completely unaware of it.

It’s gone, lost, buried and unheard of.

Unless, of course, you read the fathers, like scholars who write about the early Church are supposed to. That way, they know what they’re talking about.

You can find the early Church view of the Law, which powerfully reconciles Matthew and Paul in a way that is encouraging, uplifting, and even exciting, in Against Heresies, book IV, chapter 12 and forward. (I have also written a web page on it at http://www.christian-history.org/law-of-moses.html)

There’s no reason you should know that, but it’s inexcusable that an early Church scholar doesn’t know that.

A Quick Look at the Other Issues

1. Only 8 of the 27 books of the NT were written by the authors to whom they’re attributed

More accurately, we’re only confident about 8 of the 27 books. Those books were written 2,000 years ago. For most of those, all we have is some quote, decades later, that attributes the book to that person. It’s not terribly reliable information.

We already knew that. Before, however, you say that 19 books of the New Testament were written by plagiarists and frauds, you ought to have proof yourself!

That proof is difficult to find. Mostly the unbelievers and scoffers rely on textual criticism, a very unreliable source when you have so few pages of an author’s work, and when we know that various scribes would often have been used.

My response to the scoffers? The Scriptures transform lives and are involved in miraculous, powerful events every day. They have been for 2,000 years. They’re unstoppable and filled with power. That comes from God, and God doesn’t use frauds.

2. Each Gospel Portrays Christ Differently.

The review actually says “remarkably divergent portrayals.”

We’ve read them ourselves, Mr. Ehrman. Thanks, anyway.

This is crazy. The same scoffing, unbelieving scholars argue that Matthew, Mark, and Luke copied their information from one another. This rather limits how divergent they can be!

As for John, we already know how divergent John is. He wrote his Gospel at least four decades after the events. Irenaeus tells us it was six decades later. John was dealing with gnostics, and his Gospel was written partly to refute the gnostics.

It’s no wonder his Gospel presents a “remarkably divergent” view of Christ. It’s not a contradictory one, however. We Christians have read it ourselves, remember?

3. The Nicene Creed and Trinity are not found in the Bible.

This is like Paul and Matthew’s view of the Law. Our modern interpretation conflicts with the Bible on some minor points, but the Nicene Creed and Trinity doctrines themselves are found in the Bible. Much of the Nicene Creed is quoted word for word from the Bible.

Someone who knows history ought to know that the Nicene Creed’s basis is Matthew 28:19: ” … in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Paul, too, gives a similar formula to the Nicene Creed in 1 Cor. 8:6: “We believe in one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.”

If you ever have time, I give a thorough explanation of the history of the Council of Nicea and an early Church explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity at http://www.christian-history.org/nicea.html.

4. Traditional doctrines such as the suffering Messiah, the divinity of Christ, and the notion of heaven and hell are not based on the teachings of the historical Jesus.

More inch-deep scholarship. The idea of heaven and hell are only hinted at in the Old Testament. That’s why the Sadducees–Jews who didn’t believe in an afterlife–could exist.

However, the Book of Enoch is full of the idea of heaven and hell, and Jesus most certainly agrees with Enoch. He even pulls directly from Enoch on the subject of the afterlife in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:20ff).

If scoffing, unbelieving scholars were talking about Enoch, they’d tell you that Enoch greatly influenced Jesus. They’d be hoping to attack your faith. However, it’s inconvenient to mention Enoch when you’re trying to say that Jesus didn’t believe in heaven or hell.

I guess Ehrman also missed the story of the judgment of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.

Conclusion

There are good, solid reasons for believing in Christ. The most notable reason is that if you do, he’ll unite you to God and change your life.

However, it is true that a lot of what we believe today is contradictory and false. It’s been 2,000 years, many unconverted people have been Christians and even clergy, and Christians have battled and fought with each other much of that time. We’ve damaged and wrecked “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”

For those scoffing scholars, it’s like shark feed. Our errors draw them, and they circle the boat looking for those who fall overboard.

I’m for getting a better and truer grip on that faith so that we can have even more power with God.

I’m against throwing out the faith just because we’ve lost some of it and patched it up with myths.

Let’s not confuse these unbelieving scholars with honest academicians simply hunting for the truth. These are scoffers, enemies of God, on a crusade to wreck the faith. We need to rise up against them.

We’ll have a much easier time if we have at least a few of us who know something about the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

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Honest Bible Interpretation: Assumptions, Humility, and Reality

Posted on 04/27/2009 by Paul Pavao

It seems that there’s always some incident making me want to talk about honest Bible interpretation.

Today it was a phone call  made to a call-in talk show. The hosts, conservatives like most talk radio hosts, had repeated a rumor I’ve heard that the lastest statistics say there’s been a 7-year cooling trend globally.

Caveat: This blog’s not about global warming. I have not yet checked whether that rumor is true. I don’t care about global warming.

I’m against polluting the earth. I am for weaning ourselves off coal and oil and using as much clean, free energy (sun, wind, tide, rivers) as possible. I like clean water and clear air.

I think if you don’t agree with that, then you’ve been blinded by politics, and you should ask God to deliver you from the world.

The caller was deeply offended. “What if,” she began, “listeners simply take a sound byte off the radio from you and assume it’s true?”

They went back and forth until I couldn’t take it anymore, and I turned the radio off. I had a question to ask her, and the hosts weren’t asking it.

Assumptions and Humility

Here’s what I would have asked. “What if listeners just took a sound byte off the radio from those hosts, assumed it was true … and it was true? Would you mind so much then?”

Or, “What if you just took sound bytes off the evening news, assumed it was true, and never checked it out? Is that a problem?”

The underlying assumption in her call was that these guys were wrong. What they said was false. Why? Not because she researched it. The other parts of her call made it obvious that she knew very little about global warming.

She was simply assuming that what she heard was true, exactly what she was accusing their listeners of doing.

Honest Bible Interpretation

Like I said earlier, this isn’t about global warming. If global warming is true, we should stop polluting the earth. If global warming is false, we should still stop polluting the earth. (What I do know is that we are polluting the earth less, especially in America. Yeah! Don’t slow down now!)

The problem is that so many Christians do exactly the same thing with the Bible. They are absolutely confident of so many doctrines that have a weak Biblical basis at best.

By itself, that’s not a big problem. You can get a lot of doctrine wrong and still be a great Christian if you obey Christ and walk by his Spirit.

However, the flip side is the condemnation and haughtiness associated with these assumptions.

Let’s pick a not-very-threatening example.

An Example: The Devil’s Rebellion in Heaven

Almost every Christian knows the story about the devil deceiving a third of the angels into rebelling against God. That’s how he became the devil, and he was thrown out of heaven.

Almost every modern Christian believes that everything from Revelation ch. 4 and forward is future prophecy.

Almost every modern Christian thus believes a contradiction.

The story about the devil deceiving a third of the angels is in Revelation 12. There’s no reason at all to believe that this happened before Adam.  It’s strange that any of us believe it at all.

Worse, the story simply says that the dragon drew a third of the stars of heaven with his tail and threw them to the ground. That could mean angels, I suppose, but I don’t know any Christians who believe that the stars which fell to earth in Revelation 6:13 are angels. I don’t know any who believe the twelve stars in the crown of the woman in Rev. 12:1 are angels.

There’s a lot of guessing and contradiction going on here.

That’s not the only place.

Honest Bible Interpretation: The Rest of Our Doctrines

I’m not going to talk about the rest of our doctrines. I don’t want to correct the rest of our doctrines. I want us to be more humble.

No, I want us to quit dividing.

We violate the Scriptures every day by telling young Christians to go to “a Bible-believing Church.” Of course, there will be 75 “Bible-believing” churches within driving distance of his house, and they will disagree on some really major doctrines, including how he is saved, how he keeps his salvation–or whether he even needs to–how he should be baptized, and what that baptism means.

Our tracts should say

Dear new believer, I am so sorry but I have to tell you to pick among our many sinful divisions of Christ’s body. I weep and cry to God every day that we might repent of our sin and unite. Until we do, you’ll have to choose from one of those divisions. Please don’t join the division. The Bible clearly teaches that it’s our unity that will convince the world that Jesus is God’s Son (Jn. 17:20-23), and Paul tells us that we’re being carnal when we say we belong to a denomination (1 Cor. 3:3-4). In fact, our divisions could keep us out of the kingdom of heaven (Gal. 5:19-21)!”

Assumptions and Honesty

I got a little off track there.

Let’s use another political example. In Hank Hanegraaff’s The Bible Answer Book (I can always count on Hank as a massive resource for presumptions and assumptions; generally I can find one on any page I look) , he writes, “The Book of Hebrews warns us that there were Jews who, like Judas, tasted God’s goodness and yet turned from grace. They acknowledged Christ with their lips, but their apostasy proved that their faith was not real.”

Really? Where does Hebrews say their faith wasn’t real?

The fact is, it doesn’t. Hanegraaff has argued the eternal security issue with people for years. He’s discussing Hebrews 6:2-6, actually, and he knows very well that whether the people mentioned there had a real faith or not is exactly what people argue about.

But he doesn’t care. He has a point to make. Who cares if it’s false or unreasonable?

Let’s quit picking on Hank Hanegraaff. What about you?

That verse you’re using to prove your point, does it really say what you say it says? Or do you just have a point to make whether or not the Bible really backs it up?

Maybe we could try saying, “You know, I think this, but I can’t really back it up well right now. Besides, you’re more important to me than this doctrine, even if I could back it up well. We’re both servants of Christ. Let’s follow him together.”

I know, I know. There’s doctrines we can’t do that with. We might be surprised how few doctrines we can’t do that with, however.

Humility and Good Works

We fight so strongly for our doctrines, and we are so offended when they are crossed. Yet, have you ever read the part in your Bible where we’re going to be judged for our doctrines?

I’ve never read it, either, because it doesn’t exist.

We are going to be judged by our deeds. The words of a Don Francisco song make the point perfectly (and Scripturally):

The thing I need to ask you is, have you done the things I said?
Do you love your wife?
For her and for your children, are you laying down your life?
What about the others?
Are you living as a servant for your sisters and your brothers?
Do you make the poor man beg you for a bone?
Do the widow and the orphan cry alone?

Now that’s some honest Bible interpretation!

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Low-Carb Christianity: How to Continue to the End

Posted on 04/24/2009 by Paul Pavao

Today, at the chiropractor’s office, I read that the problem with low-carb diets is that people can’t stick to them.

I’d heard that before. People who go on the Atkins’ diet have been tested, and the results are amazing. Not only do they lose weight, but heart-attack indicators like triglycerides are lowered. On top of this, they lose more weight that people on other diets . . .

For six months.

Yo-Yo Dieting and Yo-Yo Christianity

After twelve months people on the Atkins diet have usually lost no weight at all or very little.

The article said you would do better continuing with carbs, but making better choices. Get your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables.

Which brings us to following Christ. This is, after all, not a health blog.

The Scriptures say:

Why, as though you are living in the world, do you subject yourself to religious dogmas? ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle … ‘ are things that vanish and are misused because they belong to the commands and teaching of men. True, they have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion, humility, and severity with the body, but they’re of no value against satisfying bodily desires. (Col. 2:21-23, wording by me)

When we get filled with zeal for God, we are prone to setting all sorts of strict rules for ourselves. We adopt strict dress codes, forbid all entertainment, and insert religious language into everything we say.

These things make us feel good about ourselves. We’re denying our natural inclinations, and we’re subjecting ourselves to God.

Or so we think.

Indulging Bodily Desires

Bodily desires do not only include food, sex, and luxury–the things against which we love to make rules. In the Scriptures, bodily desires include things like jealousy, pride, envy, and selfish ambition; they include hatred, slander, and gossip.

How often are our rules–“do not touch,” “do not taste,” “do not handle”–perfect vehicles for condemning others and then talking about those we condemn. They are great reasons for us to be proud of our Christianity and how well we do in Christ, especially compared to others. There are whole denominations founded on such strict rules, but those denominations struggle with hypocrisy and nominalism as badly as any others.

Such denominations are victims of low-carb Christianity. They’ve cut out the carbs, but it’s done no good against the indulgence of the flesh. Eventually, their desires overcome them, and those desires come out either by hypocritical violation of their own rules or by condemnation, envy, and hatred towards other Christians.

Walking by the Spirit

Do you ever wonder why the New Testament emphasizes walking by the Spirit over obeying the Law, but then turns around and says that only those who keep God’s commands know him (1 Jn. 2:3-4)?

It’s to save us from low-carb Christianity, a Christianity in which we will eventually be overcome by our cravings (Rom. 7). The problem with low-carb diets is not that they have the wrong goal. The problem is they don’t achieve the goal.

The same with low-carb Christianity. The problem is not the goal. Romans 7 warns us about the weakness of the Law, but it highly praises the purpose of the Law (e.g., v. 12). When God provides Romans 8–the sacrifice of Christ and walking by the Spirit–as a solution, it is to “fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law” (8:4).

It is good to keep God’s commands. It is not good to walk in the flesh.

Saul of Tarsus thought he was keeping God’s commands when he was killing Christians. Today, many “Christians” think they are keeping God’s commands while they hate their brother and divide Christ, and they are just as guilty and just as in need of the light of Jesus Christ as Saul was.

The Right Way to Deny the Flesh

Throughout Christian history there have been great saints of God who denied themselves in the extreme and were greatly blessed and used by God. What’s the difference between them and the low-carb Christians I’m talking about?

They denied themselves, not others.

If you walk by the Spirit, the first lesson you will get from God is that Romans 7 is true. In you, that is in your flesh, nothing good dwells. He will drive that home to you, and you will learn not to trust yourself.

If you walk by the Spirit, you will be filled with love. You will encourage your brother, not exalt yourself above him. You will consider others better than yourself, not because of your impressive humility, but because you know who you are. You won’t have to pretend you consider others ahead of yourself. Knowing yourself, seeing that nothing good dwells in you, it will not be difficult for you to do.

A Proper Diet

Just as the solution for a low-carb diet is to make modifications to your diet and lifestyle that will be permanent, so if you walk by the Spirit, you will find that you are able to walk in obedience to God. He will lead you; he will not overwhelm you with strict, ascetic rules that you can’t continue in. He won’t give you a lifestyle that causes you to look down your nose at others.

I once watched a news interview with Mother Theresa. A newscaster asked what it felt like to be a saint of God. Mother Theresa looked directly at him and said, “I am no more a saint than you are. I simply do what I can where I am, and you must do what you can where you are.”

I’m quoting from memory, so I’m sure that’s not real accurate, but that was the gist of her statement. It applies to all of us. We are not to make duplicates of ourselves; we are to make disciples of Christ. Jesus is still able to lead his people*.

*In the current state of Christianity, it is important when mentioning “his people” to point out that his people are those who have believed his Gospel. They deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. Those that accept Jesus into their heart on the promise of a better life followed by heaven, but who have not agreed to follow him wherever he leads them, are not his people. Sorry.

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