Reformed Blogging

Jesus' death on the cross also brings the topic of two thieves. Luke 23:39-43 records what Matthew didn't - Matthew only recorded the two thieves railed against Jesus (Matthew 27:44). However, Luke records the wonderful conversion of the thief on the cross: 39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. You can think of the situation of the two thieves. One thief died and went to Hell. The other thief died and was taken to Paradise and then to Heaven. Paradise was a part of Hades (Hell) which was for the redeemed and the other p...

Good Friday can invoke the mind of the Passion of the Christ. No, I'm not talking about the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ" but the very sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Our Lord Jesus became that final sin sacrifice. I want to do some reflection on why I believe the cross of Christ is really that hard to believe as a message of truth.  John F. MacArthur's book "Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus" writes on pages 26-27 which is is "Chapter 2: The Hard Truth" under the subheading "The Shame of the Cross" the following truths that made preaching the Gospel very hard : The Greeks wanted wisdom and the Jews wanted a sign. God gave them exactly the opposite. The Jews received a skandalon, a crucified Messiah - scandalous, blasphemous, bizarre, offensive, unbelievable. And for the Greeks were looking for esoteric knowledge, something high and noble and lofty, all this nonsense about the eternal Cre...

Ezekiel 3 has verses that are used by conditional security proponents to believe that you can lose your salvation. The verses in Ezekiel 3 are as follows: 18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. 20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, bec...

I find it impossible not to think about Good Friday when Christmas is around the corner. Thinking about Good Friday actually helps calm me down in the midst of the worldly Christmas season. One of the films (though I dare agree with A.W. Tozer that the religious movie is indeed a menace ) shown during Holy Week is the "Jesus (1979)" film which primarily focuses on the Gospel According to Luke. Matthew 15:21-28 records what some may call to be a difficult passage to understand. Some skeptics may want to prove that Jesus sinned . However, it's far from it and I'd have to defend why Jesus didn't sin at all in this passage. What did Jesus mean when He said that He was only sent for the lost sheep of Israel? Jesus wasn't lying (since as the holy and righteous eternal God the Son, He cannot lie) but telling the truth when He said that. I had my views into thinking that Jesus referred that all sinners are considered the lost sheep of Israel. Otherwise, this Canaanite...

I remembered the time I thought lordship salvation equals works salvation when it isn't. J. Vernon McGee warned about lordship salvation while he actually taught it. CARM.org also got it wrong on lordship salvation in its article " What is lordship salvation? ". Some people think they're against lordship salvation even when they agree to its distinctions. I thought of myself as an opponent of lordship salvation until early 2011. I was stuck in the controversy until I decided to read John F. MacArthur's article " An Introduction to Lordship Salvation " which placed me on the acid test. Something about it just struck me when I thought about the distinctions which I would agree on.  The distinctions as written by MacArthur are as follows: First, Scripture teaches that the gospel calls sinners to faith joined in oneness with repentance (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9). Repentance is a turning from sin (Acts 3:19; Luke 24:47) that consists not of a huma...

After the unfortunate encounter of Joshua in Ai because of the sin of Achan - there was soon Joshua's mistake in Gibeon. The chapter has the infamous con job of the Gibeonites who decided to deceive Joshua into signing a peace treaty. The people of Gibeon were fearful. Who wouldn't be fearful after seeing that the great city of Jericho fell down? Who wouldn't be frightful to see that the walls of Jericho fell down by the supernatural power of God? Others were still in resistance but the Gibeonites wanted their lives spared. What did the Gibeonites do? Unlike Rahab who honestly threw herself at the feet of Israel - they decided to pretend to be faraway travelers. Such a scheme would eventually backfire resulting in them becoming bound to servitude to the service of the true God. What can be seen is Joshua's failure to consult God. Joshua had the privilege to meet the Son of God in Joshua 5. Joshua was privileged to talk to God personally - something I don't have toda...

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is no doubt always getting grossly misrepresented by both Ariminians and Antinomians. The cartoon above is from Dan Corner's deplorable site Evangelical Outreach to which he continues his battle against eternal security. Corner is partly right about Antinomianism but he sure is wrong about eternal security. Then you've got Antinomians (directly or indirectly) such as Jacksmack77 and David Tutty Fleming who say that you can get saved and remain the same - which is also not biblical.  Theopedia defines the perseverance of the saints in the following way: Perseverance of the saints is the Calvinist doctrine that those who are truly saved will persevere to the end and cannot lose their salvation . It doesn't mean that a person who is truly saved will never lose faith or backslide at any time. But that they will ultimately persevere in faith (inspite of failures) such as not to lose their salvation.   The doctrine of perseverance ...

Note: I love Jack T. Chick's artwork but I no longer subscribe to his site due to all the inconsistencies. It's really an issue that we see the term "turn from sin" or "turn away from sin" to be saved. I think the term has a lot of tendencies to be misunderstood, it can be somewhat misleading, others think it adds works to faith, or what does it mean to turn from sin or to turn away from it if salvation is not by good works? I usually prefer the term repent of your sin than turn from sin. Repentance is metanoneia or a change of mind that results in a change of purpose. Yes, I believe repentance of sins is necessary for salvation - without which people hardened in sin will never savingly believe. How can a person see the need for a Savior if they at first don't repent or be sorry for their sins? People who aren't repentant will never want to get saved.  So, it's common to have John F. MacArthur and Ray Comfort maligned, right? I actually ...

I was reading "Hard to Believe" by John MacArthur and there's one thing worth thinking - the Gospel is indeed hard to believe. When I mean it's hard to believe - I'm not saying that it requires you to work for it. Rather, the problem of the Gospel is that it challenges your mind and the way you think. It's not just a call to depart from a lifestyle of sin but also to depart from self-righteousness. No wonder Jesus said that the publicans and the harlots enter Heaven before the Pharisees. It's because the publicans and harlots were seeing their sinfulness and the Pharisees have not. I grew up Roman Catholic and it was all about doing more good than bad. Every time I did something bad - I was told that God was going to outweigh my sins vs. my good works. I was told, "Always be good and you will enter Heaven someday." It's a very common theme in almost everything we see whether in works of fiction or in theology. Salvation by works is nothin...

When God says it I can 100% believe it. Jesus is the eternal Son of God and is God the Son Himself. Whoever says that God the Father talked to angels in the Creation account is dreaming. The Son of God appeared in His pre-incarnate form in the Old Testament, lived a perfect life, had no sin and died for the sins of mankind. My great confidence is when Jesus said in John 19:30, "It is finished!" Finished means finished! Jesus already offered one sacrifice for sin and it's never to be repeated. Hebrews 10:14 writes to the Jews that tells them that Jesus offered that one sacrifice never to be repeated again. The veil that separated commoners from the Holy of Holies has been torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45) so why should religion try to stitch it back up? There's no more need for priests because all who are in Christ have that equal access as priests in that sense (1 Peter 2:9). Nowhere in the New Testament do we have priests! Instead...

As I finally go back to reading Genesis. I remembered the very blasphemy that Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte did as he asked the question of who is this stupid God. It should be a good question to ask and Christians must be ready to answer when they are asked (1 Peter 3:15-17). You have to remember that Romans 13:1-7 asks people to submit to authority. At this point, this is the very situation where Filipino Christians have a very serious responsibility of praying for their country's leader. This is also where one must be a Daniel when the leader is a Nebuchadnezzar. It may have been some weeks since he made the tirade but I still feel the need to be a Daniel if ever God made President Duterte a Nebuchadnezzar. President Duterte was once a Roman Catholic. He supposedly became "born again". He even made January as Bible month for the Filipinos but there's no doubt that he's still not saved as evidenced by his anti-God tirade. He has a very poor unders...

Rahab is one of my favorite examples that even a wanton woman is not far from the grace of God. Reading through Joshua 2 would actually help us realize the very description of her - she was a Canaanite woman and a prostitute. Methinks that she's most likely a temple prostitute due to the wicked religion of their day. She was supposedly doomed to be destroyed with her sinful people. God gave a command to the Israelites to utterly destroy the wicked people in the land. Yet she was spared for this reason - she had turned from the wickedness of the Canaanites for the one true God. Joshua 2:9-13  And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you . [10] For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye...