Faith for Faith

At my new job site with the security company for which I work, I have the privilege of working with a brother of Christ who comes from a Church of God denominational background, and who is presently pursuing a Master of Divinity in Christian Counseling. We have had some wonderful conversations the past two days (and will likely have many more in the future, Lord willing), and I have little reason not to believe that this man is a child of God. He loves the Lord and his Word, and he strives for holiness and likely shares Christianity with more unbelievers than I do.

However, despite these admirable and godly traits, this brother is a full-fledged Arminian and believes the very doctrines that the Synod of Dordt denounced. And while I am convinced that the Spirit of God dwells in this man, I have felt it my duty to share with him at least some differing views on his beliefs since this man aspires to one day be a full-time minister to God’s flock. Here are a few of my thoughts that I have shared with him.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call–one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Eph. 4:1-7).

When we think upon the writings of Paul compared to our own context, it is interesting to think about those whom he is addressing. He is not writing to the First Baptist Church of Ephesus or to the Ephesus Presbyterian Church or to the Reformed Church of Ephesus, but he is writing to the church at Ephesus. And what exactly does the apostle mean when he says that he is writing to the church at Ephesus? He explains this at the beginning of his letter: “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (v. 1:1). Therefore, his letter (shockingly) is intended for all who are in Christ in Ephesus–who have been bought with his blood and who share in the Blessing of his Spirit.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 12 Comments »

Having held a Reformed stance on God’s salvation of men for many years, I have witnessed time and time again (having stayed in traditional, Southern Baptist churches), how Calvinism and Calvinists cause quite a bit of stir within many churches. This stirring up of discord within churches concerning what is commonly called the Doctrines of Grace is generally multifaceted, and it is usually caused by two things–the hard doctrines of Calvinism itself placed against the doctrines of men that have crept into the church, and the Calvinist himself. While there can be little done, save by Spirit of God, with regard one’s hard heart toward the Doctrines of Grace, what is often the cause of one’s hard heart is not the doctrines themselves, but the person who bears the doctrines.

For, unfortunately, is commonplace that those who are most vocally Calvinists are those who would esteem themselves to be scholars of some grade and great exegetes of the Word of God. These, at times, act as though they bear some special knowledge that others in church have missed and therefore have about them a certain air of arrogance with regard to their particular understanding of the Scriptures.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 11 Comments »

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned (Rm. 12:3).

The foundation of humility is a right understanding of who we are in light of what God has given to us. As regards our salvation, we must recognize that we, like the rest of mankind, were once dead in our own transgressions and were by our choice enemies of God, but God, being rich in mercy toward us, has borne our transgressions in the person of Jesus Christ and has revealed himself to us by the Holy Spirit. We have no basis upon which to boast in our salvation, for our salvation was completely accomplished without us, and love and mercy were directed toward us even before the creation of the world (cf. Eph. 1:6). We did not choose God, but God chose us, so that in all things, especially in our salvation, he might receive glory and honor and that we might glorify him with humility.

This humility that we are to have extends beyond our salvation into our place in the body of Christ. For even among those who are God’s children through Jesus Christ, he assigns to each a measure of faith so that each of them might perform a different function within the body. The apostle Paul continues in Rm. 12:4 with the analogy that the church is like a human body, and each member in the church performs a particular function. And, as in the human body, some members perform seemingly more crucial roles than others. However, a member’s role within the body is not determined by his ambition or his hard work, but it is determined by God who assigns to each a different measure of faith in order that there might be diversity of function within the body.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | No Comments »

Having studied John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 Timothy 2:4 in their proper contexts and having determined the author’s intent through the Holy Spirit in those passages, we have seen that the doctrine of God’s sovereignty over the salvation of souls is in no wise refuted nor is its potency compromised. What we have found instead is that persons, be they well-meaning Christians or otherwise, have felt compelled either to take the charge in defending the supposed “problem of evil” that the doctrine of a sovereign God creates, or they have felt compelled to defend their own natural understanding of reality and have twisted the Scriptures, like those texts aforementioned, to fit their particular understanding of the world. They do all of this under a guise of humility declaring, “If the Church has not reconciled the concept of free will and the doctrine of God’s sovereignty by now, it was never meant to be reconciled.” I would rather postulate that the Church has been and is filled to this day with sinful men whose personal agendas have trumped their desire to honor God by a humble submission to his Word.

To such a charge, I am sure someone is thinking, “What an arrogant person, to think that he is right and that those who disagree with him are wrong!” I have one question of such a thought: Does believing and proclaiming that which is declared to be truth by God and, by necessity, that which is false warrant a verdict of “arrogant”? If so, one would have to label Jesus Christ an arrogant man, as well as the apostle Paul who rebuked the apostle Peter (the nerve!), and any other prophet who was ever sent by God to proclaim to men their wickedness and lack of understanding. The idea that the proclamation of truth is arrogance is a product of postmodernity and not some right understanding of “speaking the truth in love.” What we find today is that evangelicals reject postmodernity when it comes to those outside the Faith who declare that Jesus is not the only way to the Father, but when those evangelicals are within the Church they say ridiculous and arrogant things like, “What does this text of Scripture mean to you?” as if they were lords over the meaning of Holy Scripture! This seems to me the grossest of arrogance.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

When Haley and I were on our honeymoon in St. Lucia, we decided to try out a free snorkeling trip. Whilst we were snorkeling, I decided (for some reason) to touch a rock that was underwater in the reef, and I found myself reflexively withdrawing my hand just as quickly as I had placed it upon the rock. I swam to the surface, looked at my left hand, and saw that one of my fingers was bleeding and had on it what appeared to be three black specks. Those specks were in fact imbedded splinters from whatever was on the rock that I touched. Being away from home and away from my “home surgery kit,” I had to deal with the splinters for the rest of our honeymoon, and they were quite painful.

After getting back to the States, one of the first things that I did when I got home was attempt to remove the splinters from my aching finger. I successfully removed the first two, pulling out the entire splinter with a pin, a knife, and a set a tweezers. The last splinter proved to be more difficult, and it broke while I was trying to remove it. The small piece that remained in my finger imbedded itself further and finally proved itself impossible to remove. Two years later and after several bloody attempts to remove it, my honeymoon splinter is still with me. Since then the constant pain has subsided, and most times I forget that it is there. But every so often, I will grip something in particular way or push against something at the just the right angle, and I will feel an unbearably sharp pain travel from the tip of that finger and up my left arm, reminding me that my splinter friend is still with me after all this time.

For this reason, when I read Paul’s account of his thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12, I, either rightly or wrongly, think it comparable with the splinter in my own finger. In light of the context and my experience, I do not think Paul’s thorn was something that struck him with pain constantly, but that it was something that struck him with pain when he needed it. According to the text, the thorn was given to him solely to prevent him from becoming proud and conceited, and I can imagine Paul finding himself in torment, seemingly out of the blue, as with my splinter, at precisely the time that he thought more highly of himself than he ought to have had.

This symbolic thorn in Paul’s flesh is not reserved to Paul’s experience alone, for I believe that many Christians are given thorns like Paul’s to humble them. From the context, I believe Paul’s thorn was a particular, nagging sin that Paul could not completely overcome, and this I believe because of God’s response to Paul’s petition to remove it: “My grace is sufficient for you.” God’s grace was sufficient for Paul’s thorn. Then I asked myself this question, “What is the best way to humble a man who thinks himself righteous and holy on his own accord?” The answer: Let him fall into the sin that he believes that he has conquered.

Have you not found this to be the case in your own life? You find that you are living righteously before God and are loving him and obeying his commandments, and then, all of sudden and out of nowhere, your focus shifts off of God and his glory to you and your glory. You think to yourself that you have somehow arrived spiritually, that you get what others do not, and then a small, pride-filled grin smirks across the side of your face. And just as quickly as you found yourself boasting in yourself, you find yourself sinning in a way that did not even occur to you prior to your boasting. You immediately realize the folly of your thinking and remember quite clearly that without God you are nothing.

For this reason, the thorns of sin that torment us throughout our lives are sweet Providences in disguise. Yes, they cause us to groan for the redemption of our bodies and to yearn for that day when the jewels of sin will appear to be dung in the sight of God, but they are at present working together for God’s glory and our good. We, like Paul, will pray in our ignorance and weakness that these things would be removed from us, and the Spirit will be there interceding for us with inexpressible groanings according to perfect will of our Father (cf. Romans 8:26, 27). Rest well, child of God, knowing that God will discipline you and that his grace is more than sufficient to cover your failings.

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