Thoughts and Meditations

Personal comments made by David F. Reagan unless otherwise stated

November 30, 2006

Continual Prayer – “The Moravian Brethren were a Protestant people who had long suffered Catholic persecution in their homelands in central Europe. In 1722 a pious nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, came to their aid, and gave them refuge on his estates in Saxony. There they built a communal settlement which they named Herrnhut. In 1727 they experienced a great enduement of spiritual power, as a result of which their past differences were obliterated and an abounding new joy filled their souls. Desiring to maintain so rich a blessing, they instituted a system called The Hourly Intercession – a system in which there was always one of their members at prayer, an hour at a time, day and night – and this continuous praying was carried on without break for over a century.” –from George Whitefield: Volume 1 by Arnold Dallimore (p.171). Read Acts 12:5.

God is Justice – “It is sometimes said, ‘Justice requires God to do this,’ referring to some act we know He will perform. This is an error of thinking as well as of speaking, for it postulates a principle of justice outside of God which compels Him to act in a certain way. Of course there is no such principle. If there were it would be superior to God, for only a superior power can compel obedience. The truth is that there is not and can never be anything outside of the nature of God which can move Him in the least degree. All God’s reasons come from within His uncreated being. Nothing has entered the being of God from eternity, nothing has been removed, and nothing has been changed. 

“Justice, when used of God, is a name we give to the way God is, nothing more; and when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation. As gold is an element in itself and can never change nor compromise but is gold wherever it is found, so God is God, always, only, fully God, and can never be other than He is. Everything in the universe is good to the degree it conforms to the nature of God and evil as it fails to do so. God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.” –from The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer (p.93-94).

November 29, 2006

Two by Two – R. B. C. Howell would later become pastor of First Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. But as a young man, in 1824, he left home to attend Columbian College in Washington, D.C. He had already been doing some preaching, but his plan was to study law. “Upon leaving home and going to college his intention was to discontinue all public ministry. He still had plans to study law, but once on campus he found himself, along with twenty other young men, forming a practical Missionary Society. Years later Howell described this group. 

“‘The members of this society went out, two together, every Lord’s Day afternoon, and preached, some of them in the room of the Preparatory School in the College Campus; some of them at Rock Creek Chruch; some at Taney Town; some at the Paper Mill in the suburbs of Georgetown; some at the poor House; and others at several places in or about Washington; and not infrequently in the Baptist churches in that city and Alexandria. To some one or another of these places, [I] was detailed every Sabbath. This process was continued during the whole period of studies at that school.’ ” –from the Biographical Introduction to The Cross and the Covenants by R. B. C. Howell (p.vi-vii). 

November 28, 2006

Taking the Place of his Son – Ezekiel Skinner (1777-1855) was a Baptist medical doctor who was called to preach and who served as pastor of a couple of Baptist churches in Connecticut. “The Skinner home surely was spiritually oriented for God and blessed with at least two sons. A son named Benjamin Skinner was born on January 7, 1803. That son grew up with a heart burdened for missions, and after being trained for Christian service in Hamilton, New York, he was ordained and was accepted as a missionary to Liberia on October 12, 1830. Before a year had passed, Benjamin, his wife and child, succumbed to a tropical disease and died. 

“Doubtless the severe weather had entered into the problem, but undaunted, Dr. Ezekiel Skinner determined that the Lord would be pleased to have him replace his son in Liberia. Though the good Doctor was almost sixty years of age at the time, in 1834 he sailed for Liberia. He served in that difficult place for three years before returning to the States. He had determined to remain until a suitable replacement could be found, and he persisted in that task. Upon his return to the States, he assumed once again the role of physician and minister, and labored as such until a couple of months before his homegoing.” –from This Day in Baptist History III by David L. Cummins (p.14-15). 

November 27, 2006

Work Together For Good – Thomas Brooks, in All Things For Good (p.11), gives an explanation of the phrase, “all things work together for good” as used in Romans 8:28. “This expression ‘work together’ refers to medicine. Several poisonous ingredients put together, being tempered by the skill of the apothecary, make a sovereign medicine, and work together for the good of the patient. So all God’s providences, being divinely tempered and sanctified, work together for the best to the saints. He who loves God and is called according to His purpose, may rest assured that every thing in the world shall be for his good.”

Islamic View of the Heavens – “The universe of popular Islam comprises seven heavens, seven earths and seven seas, each inhabited and ruled over by different beings. The heavens provide the abiding places for angels and archangels. They are also the invasion ground of other spirit beings. It is commonly thought that up to the time of Jesus, the jinn had freedom to enter any of the seven heavens. With Jesus’ birth, they were excluded from three of those heavens. With Muhammad’s birth, they were shut out of the remaining four. Yet, even after this, the jinn continued to ascend to the boundaries of the first heaven to listen to angels talking together about God’s decrees. Meteors are said to be fiery darts, hurled after such jinn who try to eavesdrop.” –from The Unseen Face of Islam by Bill Musk (p.64).

November 24, 2006

Entering the Presence of the King – Donald W. McCullough, in The Trivialization of God (p.112), recounts this story: “A chapel service during my year at Wheaton College had an unforgettable impact on me. The speaker was Dr. V. Raymond Edman, beloved past President of the College. His health had been precarious, and so it was a special moment when he stepped into the pulpit. 

“He wanted us to learn greater reverence before God. Worship is a serious matter, he told us, and to illustrate the point he recalled visiting Haile Selassie, then Emperor of Ethiopia. He described the preliminary briefings, the protocol he had to follow, and the way he bowed with respect as he entered the presence of the king. In the same way, he said, we must prepare ourselves to meet God. 

“At that moment Dr. Edman slumped onto the pulpit, fell to the floor… and entered the presence of the King of kings. He was dead, but for a few moments at least we had come to life. The dividing line between heaven and earth suddenly dissolved, and we were no longer restless college students with textbooks on our laps, worried about exams the next hour and dates the next weekend; we had joined angels and archangels around the throne.” 

November 23, 2006

Meditate on His Power – “Meditate on this power of God, and press it often upon your minds. We conclude many things of God that we do not practically suck the comfort of, for want of deep thoughts of it, and frequent inspection into it. We believe God to be true, yet distrust him; we acknowledge him powerful, yet fear the motion of every straw. Many truths, though assented to in our understanding, are kept under hatches by corrupt affections, and have not their due influence, because they are not brought forth into the open air of our souls by meditation.” –from Existence and Attributes of God: Volume 2 by Stephen Charnock (p.102).

Arrow of Conviction – Layman Jones (1803-1845) served as a Baptist minister of the gospel in Sevier County, Tennessee. “Elder John Russell attributes his conviction to a mild rebuke of Layman Jones, administered at old Providence Church in Sevier County. The occasion was a ‘communion service.’ Young Russell had come to church through mere curiosity to see what was ‘doing.’ The preacher, taking in the situation, said: ‘See how the line of separation is drawn; only those who love the Lord and are washed and separated from their sins can come to the Lord’s table. In the judgment day the line will be drawn again, and the separation will be forever, the sheep on one hand, the goats on the other.’ The arrow struck deep, and he never got rid of it till, ‘washed in the blood,’ he walked out of the ‘dark, rough wilderness into the light of day,’ and took his stand on the Lord’s side.” –from Sketches of Tennessee’s Pioneer Baptist Preachers by J. J. Burnett (p.266).

November 22, 2006

Trusting God in the Dark – “Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart. 

“There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him. Here is His promise: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” [Isaiah 42:16]. 

             Let Him lead thee blindfold onwards,

              Love needs not to know;

            Children whom the Father leadeth

              Ask not where they go.

            Though the path be all unknown,

              Over moors and mountains lone.

                                    Gerhard Tersteegen 

“God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. ‘I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel’ [Isaiah 45:2-3].” –from The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer (p.69).

November 21, 2006

Conversion of Robert B. C. Howell – Robert Boyte Crawford Howell (1801-1868) served for forty years as a Baptist preacher and for twenty-five years as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee. But he grew up in a family that belonged to the Episcopal Church. “It is interesting to note that Howell, by the study of the Bible alone, had ‘arrived in his thinking at an approximation of Baptist principles, and this several years before he publicly professed religion.’ This careful study of the Bible along with the faithful instruction of a godly parent were the means of producing deep Holy Spirit conviction in his heart. ‘Howell came to think of himself as being in a dangerous spiritual condition, without hope and without God in the world.’ This condition of deep conviction over his sin lasted ‘over a period of several months’ and came to an end during the autumn of 1820 as he professed conversion to Christ. He was home alone at the time the event took place, and expressed his experience in these words: ‘I was able to lay hold by faith upon the Redeemer, and to rejoice in the salvation wrought out by Him.’” –from the Biographical Introduction to The Cross and the Covenants by R. B. C. Howell (p.iv-v). 

November 20, 2006

Making the Sad Glad; the Glad Sad – The Puritan writer, Thomas Watson, wrote the following as introduction to his book, All Things For Good: “Christian Reader, There are two things which I have always looked upon as difficult. The one is, to make the wicked sad; the other is, to make the godly joyful. Dejection in the godly arises from a double spring; either because their inward comforts are darkened, or their outward comforts are disturbed. To cure both these troubles, I have put forth this ensuing piece, hoping, by the blessing of God, that it will buoy up their desponding hearts, and make them look with a more pleasant aspect. I would prescribe them to take, now and then, a little of this Cordial: ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD [Romans 8:28]. To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort; but to be assured that ALL things which fall out shall co-operate for their good, that their crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish more; this may fill their hearts with joy till they run over.” 

November 17, 2006

Anabaptists and Donatists – “David L. Cummins, in This Day in Baptist History III (p.9-10), discusses the identity of the group known as the Anabaptists. “Dr. Roland H. Bainton [in The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, p.98-99] connects Anabaptists with the ancient Donatists when he acknowledges that ‘The parallels between the Anabaptists and Donatists were however, more than superficial.’ I am not implying that Bainton clamed an actual relationship between the Donatists and the Anabaptists of the Reformation period. But he wrote of their similar persecutions: ‘To call these people Anabaptists, that is re-baptizers, was to malign them, because they denied that baptism was repeated, inasmuch as infant baptism is no baptism at all. They called themselves simply Baptists, not re-Baptists. The offensive name was fastened on them in order to bring them under the penalty of the Justinian Code against the Donatists.’ It is interesting that those known as ‘Anabaptists’ were willing to assume the simple name of ‘Baptists.’” 

Early Testimony to the Deity of Christ – Ignatius of Antioch lived from 30AD to 107AD and knew the Apostle John. “In his letters to the Ephesians, to the Romans, to the Magnesians and in other letters, Ignatius wrote: ‘Jesus Christ our God;’ ‘who is God and man;’ ‘received knowledge of God, that is, Jesus Christ;’ ‘for our God, Jesus the Christ;’ ‘for God was manifest as man;’ ‘Christ, who was from eternity with the Father;’ ‘from God, from Jesus Christ;’ ‘from Jesus Christ, our God;’ ‘Our God, Jesus Christ;’ ‘suffer me to follow the example of the passion of my God;’ ‘Jesus Christ the God;’ and, ‘Our God Jesus Christ.’” –from AMG’s Encyclopedia of World Religions, Cults and the Occult (p.19).

November 16, 2006

Honoring the Infinite Power of God – “We measure the infinite power of God by the short line of our understandings, as if infinite strength were bounded within the narrow compass of our finite reason; as if he could do no more than we were able to do. How soon did those Israelites lose the remembrance of God’s outstretched arm, when they uttered that atheistical speech (Psalm 78:19), ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ As if he that turned the dust of Egypt into lice, for the punishment of their oppressors, could not turn the dust of the wilderness into corn, for the support of their bodies! As if he that had miraculously rebuked the Red Sea, for their safety, could not provide bread, for their nourishment! Though they had seen the Egyptians with lost lives in the morning, in the same place where their lives had been miraculously preserved in the evening, yet they disgrace that experimental power, by opposing to it the stature of the Anakims, the strength of their cities, and the height of their walls (Numbers 13:32). And (Numbers 14:3), ‘wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword?’ 

“As though the giants of Canaan were too strong for Him, for whom they had seen the armies of Egypt too weak. How did they contract the almightiness of God into the littleness of man, as if he must needs sink under the sword of a Canaanite? This distrust must arise either from a flat atheism, a denial of the being of God, or his government of the world; or unworthy conceits of a weakness in him, that he had made creatures too hard for himself; that he were not strong enough to grapple with those mighty Anakims, and give them the possession of Canaan against so great a force. 

“Distrust of him implies either that he was always destitute of power, or that his power is exhausted by his former works, or that it is limited, and near a period: it is to deny him to be the Creator that molded heaven and earth. Why should we, by distrust, put a slight upon that power which he hath so often expressed, and which, in the minutest works of his hands, surmount the force of the sharpest understanding?” –from Existence and Attributes of God: Volume 2 by Stephen Charnock (p.93).

November 15, 2006

Enduring Others – “The mercy of God can cause us to endure. It will not quit, therefore, we cannot. We can endure others because God’s mercy remains with us. There is an old story of a Jewish rabbi who consented to take a weary traveler into his house for a night’s rest. After they ate, the rabbi asked the gentleman, ‘How old are you?’ ‘Almost a century old,’ the man replied. ‘Are you a religious man?’ asked the rabbi. ‘No, I do not believe in God,’ said the gentleman. 

“The rabbi was infuriated. He opened the door and said, ‘I cannot keep an atheist in my house overnight.’ The old man hobbled out to the cold darkness. Later the Lord spoke to the rabbi. ‘Why did you let him go?’ The rabbi replied, ‘I turned him out because he was an atheist, and I cannot endure him overnight.’ God replied, ‘Son, I have endured him for almost one hundred years. Don’t you think you could endure him for one night?’” –from The God You Can Know by Dan DeHaan (p.58). 

Infinite Nature of God – “Because God’s nature is infinite, everything that flows out of it is infinite also. We poor human creatures are constantly being frustrated by limitations imposed upon us from without and within. The days of the years of our lives are few, and swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of. 

November 14, 2006

Old Testament Sacrifices and Salvation – John Walvoord, in Jesus Christ our Lord (p.59-60), gives the following explanation of how Old Testament sacrifices worked in conjunction with the salvation of the Old Testament saints: “Under the system of sacrifices, God provided an outward means of manifesting inward faith. But the sacrifices in themselves could not save because an unbeliever who offered sacrifices was still lost. A believer who really trusted in Jehovah would, on the other hand, be sure to offer his sacrifices. The sacrifices, although not work which was acceptable as a ground of salvation before God, were nevertheless work which demonstrated faith. 

“Faith in the Old Testament therefore took a definite outward form of manifestation. In offering the sacrifice, the offerer was assured that he was performing an act of recognition of God as his Saviour and in particular a recognition of the promise of the coming seed of the woman, the Son of God Himself. The institution of the Mosaic covenant did not alter the way of salvation but specified more particularly the way of sacrifice. Moreover, it provided a detailed rule of life, the means for maintenance of fellowship and communion with God, and the obligation to obey as a condition for blessing in this life. Salvation was still a work of God for man, not a work of man for God.” 

Focus on Fun – Gary Gilley, in This Little Church Went to Market (p.19), comments on the teaching of one of the church growth experts, Christian A. Schwartz, and his eight characteristics of growing churches: “One quality especially important to today’s growing churches is enthusiastic worship services. Schwartz asks his readers, ‘Is the worship service an inspiring experience for those who attend it? It is this area that clearly separates growing from non-growing churches. People who attend inspiring worship services unanimously declare that the church service is—and for some Christians this is almost a heretical word—“fun.”’

 “Growing churches are creating an atmosphere, an environment of fun. So fun has become the criterion of an excellent, growing church, since fun and entertainment are what consumers want. Yet, Bible references encouraging churches to become havens of fun are, as one may suspect, lacking.”

November 13, 2006

God’s Love a Proof of the Trinity – “God is love. Many, from these words alone, have argued the necessity of a co-eternal and a co-equal plurality in unity, as a deduction from that absolute perfection of the Divine nature which requires every possible excellence: co-eternal; for love implies, at least, that there be One who loves, and One who being loved reciprocates that love; and, therefore, if the Son were not from everlasting (as the Father himself), the first and the last, the beginning and the ending; then before the creation of our world, or of any worlds, through the receding cycles of a past eternity, they have contended that ‘the divine mind would have stood in an immense solitariness,’ without reciprocity of affection, and without communion of intellectual enjoyment; 

Grateful to Whom? – “Grace evokes gratitude, and a thankful heart needs to express itself. Nineteenth century English writer Harriet Martineau was something of an atheist. One day, reveling in the beauties of an autumn morning, she burst out, ‘Oh, I’m so grateful!’—to which her believing companion replied, ‘Grateful to whom, my dear?’ Gratitude needs someone to thank, and once gratitude discovers the ultimate Someone behind all good gifts, the Giver who has embraced us in eternal love, praise will follow, in Peter Marshall’s words, ‘as the needle seeks the pole… as the sunflower seeks the sun… as the river seeks the sea… as the eagle seeks the ceiling of the world.’” –from The Trivialization of God by Donald W. McCullough (p.104).  

November 10, 2006

Baptism by Immersion – In This Day in Baptist History III (p.5-6), David L. Cummins writes: “I am amused and quite amazed when I read certain professed religious historians who claim that immersion was unknown among Baptists until 1641… Previously to that time in Great Britain all denominations in Christendom had practiced baptism by immersion. The introduction of pouring and sprinkling was a novelty in Great Britain. Previously, the Roman Catholic Church had practiced sprinkling, but that practice had been unknown in Great Britain among the Protestants until it was introduced by the Presbyterian practice. 

“Dr. W. H. King of London made a complete search of the subject of baptism in the pamphlets found in the British Museum. He reported as follows: ‘I have carefully examined the titles of the pamphlets in the first three volumes of this catalogue, more than 7,000 in number, and have read every pamphlet which has seemed by its title to refer to the subject of baptism, or the opinions and practices of the Baptists, with this result: that I can affirm, with the most unhesitating confidence, that in these volumes there is not a sentence or a hint from which it can be inferred that the Baptists generally, or any section of them, or even any individual Baptist, held any other opinion than that immersion is the only true and Scriptural method of baptism, either before the year 1641 or after it.’ ” 

Christianity is Different – “Christianity is different from all other religions. They are the story of man’s search for God. The Gospel is the story of God’s search for man.” –from AMG’s Encyclopedia of World Religions, Cults and the Occult (p.5); quote made by Dewi Morgan.

November 9, 2006

Cutting the Koran – “A common method of divination [among traditional Muslims] is found in ‘cutting’ the Qur’an (estekhareh in Farsi, istikhara in Arabic). A Qur’an is opened at random and words on that page are interpreted to give light to a person seeking to make some kind of decision. An alternative process is performed with prayer beads. After repeating the Fatiha, the prayer beads are breathed upon, in order to transfer the magic power of the sacred chapter into the beads. Then a bead from the chain is randomly selected, and the enquirer counts towards the ‘pointer’ bead, using the words ‘God’, ‘Muhammad’, ‘Abu Jahl’. If the count terminates with the word ‘God’, it means that the matter under consideration will turn out favourably. If the count terminates with “Abu Jahl’, the prognosis is bad. If it ends with ‘Muhammad’, the issue is doubtful. The aim of the divination is to chart a course of action.” –from The Unseen Face of Islam by Bill Musk (p.63).  

November 8, 2006

New Lease on Life – Hamp Hyder was a nineteenth century Baptist preacher who served in the hills and among the people of northeast Tennessee. “At one time Brother Hyder was very low with typhoid fever. His sweat had been cold and clammy for a week. At last his breathing stopped and his pulse ceased to beat. For several minutes he was thought to be dead; in fact, was pronounced ‘dead’ by the attending physicians, one of whom, his own son, had closed his eyes. Everybody thought the end had come and the family were all crying, when suddenly, and to the utter astonishment of all present, he who was supposed to be dead opened his eyes, and with a firm, clear voice, spoke to his wife, telling her he was not dead, that he had been sent back on an errand, and was new-commissioned to preach the gospel. 

“The doctors, ordinarily, would call this an instance of ‘suspended animation.’ But Brother Hyder thought it was a real ‘coming to life,’ and that the hand of the Lord was in it. The circumstances also deeply impressed the neighbors. The preacher lived sixteen other years, with the abiding impression that he had received from the Lord a new lease of life to preach the gospel more earnestly and to give himself wholly to the ministry. And this he did, the Lord working with him and greatly blessing his labors. He was away from home on the King’s business, preaching the gospel, when he reached the end of his earthly journey, and was called to his home above. The summons came March 5, 1886. 

“From the marble slab above his grave I have copied these words:

            'For more than forty years he fought,

              As few beside can boast;

            Then died as he had longed to die,

              While standing at his post.'”

                        --from Sketches of Tennessee’s Pioneer Baptist Preachers by J. J. Burnett (p.261-262).

November 7, 2006

No Pride in God’s Presence – “It is interesting to note the men in Scripture whom God commissioned into His service only after giving them a bold revelation of Himself. Ezekiel tells us after his encounter with the character of God, ‘This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake’ (Ezekiel 1:28, italics added). In that same chapter Ezekiel had a revelation of who God is. He saw His majesty, His power, His holiness, His righteousness, His grace, even His skill and wisdom. The result was that Ezekiel fell on his face, humbled before God. The greatest problem of man—pride—is destroyed through contact with the revelation of God. That is why knowing a lot about the Word of God without knowing the God of the Word always produces pride [1Corinthians 8:1].” –from The God You Can Know by Dan DeHaan (p.41-42). 

Courage Under Fire – In How Satan Turned America Against God (p.144), William P. Grady takes a portion of one chapter to tell of some of the Baptist preachers around the time of the American Revolutionary War. One of these preachers was David Jones: “David Jones was another ‘reverend’ who could shoot about as well as he could pray. In April of 1775, Jones became pastor of the Baptist Church in the Great Valley, near Valley Forge. Within the year he enlisted in the army as a Baptist chaplain, serving under Colonel St. Clair, General Horatio Gates and General Anthony Wayne. He was highly respected by George Washington and preached to the suffering troops at Valley Forge. Jones’s courage under fire is legendary, his defining moment occurring when he charged alone, pistol in hand, into the face of a British attack at the Battle of Brandywine. [William] Cathcart writes: 

November 3, 2006

Unknown Attributes of God – “In the awful abyss of the divine Being may lie attributes of which we know nothing and which can have no meaning for us, just as the attributes of mercy and grace can have no personal meaning for seraphim or cherubim. These holy beings may know of these qualities in God but be unable to feel them sympathetically for the reason that they have not sinned and so do not call forth God’s mercy and grace. 

“So there may be, and I believe there surely are, other aspects of God’s essential being which He has not revealed even to His ransomed and Spirit-illuminated children. These hidden facets of God’s nature concern His relation to none but Himself. They are like the far side of the moon, which we know is there but which has never been explored and has no immediate meaning for men on earth. There is no reason for us to try to discover what has not been revealed. It is enough to know that God is God.” –from The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer (p.52). 

Converted by a Tear – J. H. (Hamp) Hyder (1812-1886) served much of his life as a Baptist pastor and preacher in the hills and mountains of northeast Tennessee. J. J. Burnett in Sketches of Tennessee’s Pioneer Baptist Preachers (p.260) gives this account of Hamp Hyder’s salvation: “‘Hamp Hyder was converted through the instrumentality of a tear.’ So said William A. Keen, in relating to me the circumstances of his conversion. He was attending a meeting at old Sinking Creek Baptist Church, where two missionaries were preaching. He was then a Methodist, but without religion, hard-hearted, and full of prejudice. 

November 2, 2006

Jesus is Jehovah – Edward Henry Bickersteth in The Trinity (p.72) points out that several prophetic declarations regarding Jehovah in the Old Testament [who is identified as LORD in the King James Bible] are fulfilled in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. “This is, perhaps, the most conclusive evidence that could be adduced—an inspired interpretation of an inspired text—so that, if I may adopt the apostle’s words, ‘by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation…’ ” Compare these two scriptures:  

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3 

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Matthew 3:3 

“Now John’s voice, without controversy, was heard in the wilderness, preparing the way for Christ. Therefore, Christ is Jehovah, our God.” 

November 1, 2006

Salvation in the Old Testament – This is taken from Jesus Christ our Lord by John F. Walvoord (p.58-59): “The question has often been discussed concerning the condition of salvation in the Old Testament. If the present offer of the grace of God is secure to those who believe in Christ, what was the specific condition of salvation in the Old Testament? The problem has assumed undue proportions as a result of the unwarranted zeal of scholars who emphasize the unity of God’s plan without regard for biblical dispensational distinctions. It is clear that Old Testament saints did not believe in Christ in the same way and with the same comprehension that believers with the New Testament do for the simple reason that they were not in possession of the same information. In the nature of the case the issue of faith is to believe in the revelation given. 

“On the other hand there are not two ways of salvation. All salvation of God stems from the Saviour, the Son of God, and His work on the cross. It is also clear that the salvation of individual souls requires faith. Even a merciful and gracious God cannot save a soul who passes into eternity in unbelief. The two great essentials of salvation remain the same from the salvation of Adam to the last soul which God takes to Himself in the future. Faith is the condition and the death of Christ is the ground. 

“The chief difficulty, however, rests in the precise definition of these two elements. Faith in what? What is the nature of the object of faith? The gospel of grace was given to Paul as new revelation (Romans 1:2-4). God does not hold the Old Testament saints to account for revelation given in the New Testament. Faith as a condition of salvation is obviously faith in the promises of God insofar as they were revealed. For Adam and Eve this was faith in the promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent—would bring salvation to fallen man and defeat the tempter. As the exact character and work of the Deliverer is only gradually unfolded in the Old Testament, faith took the form of trust in Jehovah Himself without necessarily specific knowledge of the way by which Jehovah was to provide an adequate salvation.”