GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND MAN’S FREEWILL

 


While Calvinists emphasize God’s Sovereignty, Arminians favor Man’s Freewill. However, it seems that the Bible embraces both, suggesting that we too must embrace both of these perspectives. Besides, it can be argued that there isn’t a single verse that nullifies either principle. (However, freewill is a relative thing. An adult has more freewill than a newborn, a drug addict, or a comatose patient.)

We see both in play in the account of Pharaoh hardening his own heart against the Israelites (Exodus 8:15, 32), but God also hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 7:3; 9:12).

Many other accounts embrace these two realities. Often, God would bring nations in judgment against Israel. Assyria was one such nation:

•    Isaiah 10:5-7 “Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

God had sovereignly used Assyria in judgment against other nations. However, as far as Assyria was aware, she had been merely motivated by her lust to conquer and destroy. She had no awareness that God had been pulling the strings through Assyria’s freewill choices. Nevertheless, she was guilty before God for her brutality and arrogance:

•    Isaiah 10:12-15 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.” Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! [Are we the ax who boasts?]

In this passage, we can clearly see that both truths—God’s sovereignty and man’s freewill—are at play. In some mysterious way, they work together:

•    Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

•    Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

•    Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

However, we are not mere puppets on the stage of a cosmic drama. We make our choices and pursue our desires. Saul and his servant had been combing the countryside for his donkeys that had wandered off. After a fruitless search, the servant suggested:

•    1 Samuel 9:6 …“Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.”

Saul freely agreed without any sense that he was being coerced by God. Meanwhile, God told the Prophet Samuel

•    1 Samuel 9:16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.”

How can we grasp these two principles? I don’t think we can. There are some truths that transcend our childlike understanding as our Lord has warned us:

•    Isaiah 55:8–9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It should be obvious to us that our Creator and Sustainer is far greater than we. Therefore, we are counseled:

•    Proverbs 3:5–6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Consequently, we shouldn’t discount what the Bible says simply because it doesn’t conform to our own understanding. Therefore, we should be ready to believe doctrines like the Sovereignty of God, the Trinity, and the Inerrancy of the Scriptures, even though they are written by men.

We too acknowledge that the Scriptures are also the words of men. Paul had written freely about his feelings, his friends, and his experiences. How can the Scriptures also entirely be the Words of God as the Scriptures consistently claim?

•    2 Timothy 3:16–17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Nevertheless, we believe that the Scriptures are both the product of man’s freewill choices and God’s all-embracing sovereignty. Likewise, we believe we are making freewill choices as we are being led by God, as Paul had confessed:

•    1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Here, Paul affirmed that it was he who had worked hard, but it was primarily the work of God. Consequently, faithfulness to the Word of God requires us to take a step beyond our feeble understanding to embrace the evident truths of the Scriptures.

BOOK OF MORMON: A LETTER TO A MORMON MISSIONARY

 

 

Hi…

You had asked me what I think of the Book of Mormon. Here’s what I found. There were few gross contradictions, although there are many extra-biblical additions.

While there are many minor copy errors in the Bible, there is no evidence of systematic deletions, as alleged in 1 Nephi 13. We can say this confidently because we have almost 5,000 ancient NT Greek manuscripts and fragments. In addition to this, we have 25,000 ancient manuscripts from other languages. From this wealth of evidence, we can safely say that our new testament (along with the Old) is highly reliable.

·       1 Nephi 13:26-28 And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away. And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men. Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and a precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God.

While Mormons claim that, “we are also Christians,” this Book teaches that we are “that great and abominable church.” Therefore, isn’t your claim that “we are also Christians,” misleading?

The next two passages are very problematic for the Christian who believes that salvation and God’s grace do not depend upon our performance (obedience) as a means for us to earn grace:

·       2 Nephi 25:23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Chris and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

·       Moroni 10:32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

These two passages claim that we have to earn grace to be saved, which would give us a basis to boast—something contrary to the Bible:

Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Titus 3:3–5 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…

These two passages show that we have a consistently lower regard for man and a much higher regard for God than do the Mormons, which aligns you with all the other cults. Seeing ourselves as far more needy than Mormons humbles us and frees us from trying to prove that we are better than we really are. It enables us to accept who we really are—sinners in desperate need of our Savior Jesus, who has become everything for us:

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

One last problem—Racism:

·       2 Nephi 5:21 And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.

I am aware that Mormonism has recanted here. However, doesn’t this mean that the Book of Mormon cannot be trusted? Perhaps other part will soon be recanted?

Addiction and Truth

An acquaintance confided, “I know it’s wrong, but I am going to stick with her no matter what happens.” She was referring to her present lesbian relationship. Nevertheless, she believes in a Creator who had also created moral truths and that there are negative consequences for violating these truths.

This is just one more example of the power of sin and desire. It is like the porn addict, alcoholic, or heroin addict who knows that the addiction is destroying him but seems incapable or unwilling to do anything about it, resigned to his fate.

What can we do to help our friend? If our friend dropped his gold coin in the high grass at night, we fetch a flashlight. I think that helping our addicted friend is also about shining light upon his addiction. Firstly, our Savior is able to break our addictions. There is nothing too hard for Him:

•    Isaiah 40:28–31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

However, we often have to wait for our deliverance. Why? God has a plan for our lives:

•    Psalm 138:6–8 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Our Lord has a purpose for our lives. Consequently, we are His workmanship, but to mold us according to His plan may take a lot of time:

•    Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

However, it takes time to be molded for His service. It requires a process of humbling to teach us to hope in His purposes and promises above all else. He must become #1 in our lives (Matthew 6:33) so that we entrust our lives completely to Him:

•    Psalm 37:4–5 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.

He will act on our behalf once we commit all to Him. Sadly, my acquaintance hasn’t committed her all to Him. In the meantime, she has lost all. Her girlfriend has moved on.

HUMILITY—SEEING OURSELVES ACCURATELY

 

 

A God-believing friend told me, “I don’t like the idea of evolution, because it reduces us to animals lacking any meaning or purpose.” I agreed, but then he said, “ For the same reason, I do not like Christianity, because it reduces us to dirty-rotten sinners and  damages our self-esteem.”

I could see his point, but I am convinced that he is missing a lot. In fact, we are truly dirty rotten sinners who deserve to be condemned by an all-righteous God. But this same God has provided the perfect remedy through Jesus, who paid for our sins by dying for us and making peace between those who have received Him and God:

·       Romans 3:10–13 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

·       Romans 3:23–24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

·       Romans 3:27–28 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

According to the Scriptures, boasting, arrogance, and pride are the enemies of humility, other-centeredness, truth, and transparency. They are in direct opposition. Therefore, we can only choose one or the other—building self-esteem or humbling ourselves to the truth. Jesus and the rest of the Bible consistently taught in favor of humility:

·       Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

But doesn’t humility come at the price of sacrificing our self-esteem and self-confidence? Absolutely! Jesus made plain the hidden costs of self-trust:

·       Luke 18:9–14  [Jesus] told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [reconciled to God], rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The edifice of self-trust can only be built upon the contempt for those “beneath” us and the continual feeding of our self-esteem. It is not enough for us to think that we are worthy and significant. Instead, we need to think that we are better and more deserving than others. This is the plight of the narcissist who requires a steady stream of the self-adoration drug . Before God will exalt him, He must break him of his mind-altering drug addiction, something few can see and are willing to surrender. Otherwise, he will regard God’s blessings as his entitlement by virtue of his “superiority”—a relationship killer in every way!

I am convinced that this addiction can only be broken as God provides us with a far better substitute—His affirming, loving and reassuring care. However, His purifying fires can be horribly painful.

How can we endure our repeated meltdowns? No one enjoys enduring withdrawal from our narcissistic drug. However, in John 8:31–32, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” How?

·       Once we stop trusting in and obsessing about our own virtue and adequacy, we can begin to trust in our loving Savior as never before and who will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).

·       Having humbled us, He can begin to exalt us in ways we had never before imagined: Ephesians 3:19–20 …”know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

·       Knowing that we are beloved by our Savior, we no longer need to crave the love and affirmations of others. This frees us from our dependence upon them to meet our needs to become centered on their needs.

·       Humility can take criticism and failure. Why? Because my life no longer depends on these things and maintaining my self-esteem but on the love and care of our Savior. However, before I knew Jesus, I had used many strategies to protect the foundation of my life.

·       Humility doesn’t always have to be on the defensive and to always be right.

·       Knowing His acceptance of us, we can begin to accept ourselves despite our many failures and also to accept others.

·       No longer needing to prove ourselves to others, we are free to be transparent and to even laugh at ourselves.

·       If we are blind to ourselves and our cravings, we remain blind to those of others. However, as we come to understand ourselves, we begin to understand others and their needs.

·       Because we have been set free from the demanding ever-present need to exalt ourselves, we can now see ourselves accurately. Knowing that God is for us, even though we are not worthy of Him, we no longer need to promote ourselves and to manipulate others to approve of us.

God has satisfied our most basic needs so that our weary souls can find rest and freedom.

Through humility our Lord offers freedom, peace, and the knowledge of the truth. It is the fertile soil from which all virtues must grow, but it is also the gift of God. From my experience, we will no sooner seek the truth about ourselves than a mouse would seek a cat.

ISRAEL AND THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Struggling to trust that God would honor His promise to provide an heir through his barren wife Sarah, Abraham—the Patriarch and father of the Israelites—designated his servant Eliezar to be his heir. However, God came to him in a vision and assured Abraham:

·       … “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” Genesis 15:4.

To illustrate His promise, God directed Abraham to look up at the uncountable stars and then assured him that this is how many offspring he would have:

·       And he believed the LORD, and [God] counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

The Lord “Yahweh” provided Abraham with a mysterious gift—the gift of righteousness—that transcended anything that Abraham could have expected. It was a gift that would reshape human history. What did Abraham understand about God’s strange and unexpected gift? We do not know. Scripture doesn’t tell us. Abraham never refers back to it. Instead, Abraham’s focus had been upon having an heir and a landed inheritance.

However, without the gift of God’s righteousness, humankind was destined to be endlessly coerced to prove their worth, significance, and righteousness through their own efforts. In the process, they would become self-obsessed narcissists, endlessly preoccupied with proving their own righteousness [once their immediate material needs had been assured.]

This reality has become particularly true about the Israelites, to whom God had given the ability to be successful:

·       “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:17–20)

Sadly, this divine warning has become the portrait of Israel’s history. However, God promised that He would never abandon Israel permanently:

·       But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the LORD of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” For thus says the LORD of hosts: “As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not…The [Gentile] inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ” Zechariah 8:11–15, 21-23

What happens when we reject God’s gift of righteousness? We become self-condemned to have to endlessly construct our own righteousness. It is not enough to hit just one home run. Instead, we have to hit the ball out of the park continually. However, once we convince ourselves and the world that we are a “somebody,” the battle doesn’t cease. Instead, the higher we exalt ourselves, the harder we fall.  And, the perpetual process of proving our worth continues.

John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world of his day, was asked, “How much more money will you need to be happy?” He famously answered, “Always a bit more.” As with any addict, we always need a greater fix to maintain our high.

Let’s apply this to my Jewish people. Even the Orthodox have rejected the God of the Bible for the god of the Talmud—in other words, the opinions of the rabbis. As a result, they are on the Rockefeller rollercoaster, forever clawing their way to the top, controlled by the need for the righteousness of God that they have rejected.

How is this manifested? Often, through various wild, idealistic quests—even messianic quests to be the greatest and most self-sacrificial. For this reason, many Jews were drawn into causes that would eventually come to persecute them. However, the prospect of attaining self-righteousness blinded them to the costs, both to themselves and to those they sought to help. Some had supported Hitler but more often communism. To both, they had fallen prey. And now they are hated by their fellow Leftists.

Oddly, this Jewish quest for self-righteousness can also lead to a rejection of their own people. This is a way that some Jews can demonstrate that they are above tribalism. The late poet T.S. Elliot reflected on the dangers of such misguided idealism:

·       Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.

Consequently, some Jews viciously attack Israel. Jeffrey S. Tobin writes:

·       At the heart of this sinister effort [to denigrate Israel] are its preferred mouthpieces: Israel-hating Jews who typically chime in to criticize the Jewish state “as a Jew.” They are essential props in the campaign to legitimize efforts to distort and deny traditional Jewish beliefs. While sometimes couched in the language of faith, scholarship and human-rights advocacy—and purportedly anchored in Jewish historical movements—the goal is much the same as that of bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists: destroy the Jewish state, something that could only be accomplished by the slaughter of its people. (“Progressive Judaism ‘without Israel’ is a tool for antisemites,” Jewish News Syndicate, 1/17/2024, at https://www.jns.org/progressive-judaism-without-israel-is-a-tool-for-antisemites/ )

It seems plain that there are some progressive Jews who want to show the world: “I am more righteous than you.” I understand this because I also used to be this way until I received the free gift of God’s righteousness. When we are assured of His love, we become free from the never-ending need of having to prove ourselves righteous and worthy.

SHOULD OUR BELIEFS BE BASED ON MIRACLES?

 

 

Certainly not! As Jesus had warned, miracles can be performed by the lawless and even demons:

·       “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus also warned about satanic miracles:

·       “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24)

These miracles will be so compelling that even God’s children would be led astray apart from His protection. These deceptive miracles will proliferate towards the end of the age:

·       The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10) Those who have rejected the truth and seek an alternative spirituality will be fair-game for demonic deceptions through paganism, the New Age, and witchcraft. Pharaoh’s magicians were even able to duplicate some of Moses’ miracles. The Book of Revelation is filled with demonic miracles:

·       It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. (Revelation 13:13–14; 16:14; 19:20)

Consequently, we should never allow miracles to override the authority of the  Bible, God’s Word. While miracles can serve to validate the Gospel, they should never overrule the Gospel. All our beliefs must be brought into conformity with the Word of God, our supreme authority:

·       For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:4–5)

The supremacy of God’s Word, even above signs and wonders, is echoed throughout the Bible:

·       “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God…” (Deuteronomy 13:1–5)

Teaching against God’s Word was so serious that it carried a death penalty in the OT. However, Holly Pivec, and R. Douglas Geivett have written that deceptive signs and wonders tragically deceive many Christians:

·       I have personally witnessed the devastation of the many wounded people left in its wake. I’ve watched unsuspecting Christians who are hungry for revival become swept up in a movement that promises unity, renewal, and even miracles only to deliver confusion, empty promises, and manipulation.” (Introduction, Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church)

They target the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) centered in Bethel Church, Redding Calif, which claims many miracles, prophecies, healings and modern-day apostles and prophets who perform them. However, other related “Christian” groups, Like the Word of Faith movement (also called the Prosperity Gospel). highlight signs and wonders to justify their distorted use of God’s Word. These groups have become so influential that a 2017 Lifeway Research study found that:

·       …churchgoers are more likely today (2023) than in 2017 to believe God wants them to prosper financially (76% v. 69%) Today, 3 in 4 churchgoers (76%) believe God wants them to prosper financially. https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/oberlins-art-museum-projects-grandeur-in-a-gemlike-package/

In light of the teachings of the NT, this is shocking:

·       But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:6–10)

While these Prosperity Preachers are preaching the love of money, the Bible preaches the very opposite message. How then has prosperity preaching been able to influence so many? Does their love of money exceeds their love of God’s Word? Are they more impressed by the “signs and wonders” supported by their many testimonials of healings and successes, prevailed? Nevertheless, Jesus reassures us that:

·       “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27–28)

REJECTION DOESN’T ALWAYS IMPLY FAULT

One author had argued that evangelicalism is dying because of its rigidity and certainty. I responded:

“You are correct in your assessment of the rigidity of evangelicalism. However, there are many things that require rigidity like our commitment to:

1. Truth
2. Justice
3. Honesty
4. Integrity
5. And our families.

There is also a need for certainty that:

1. There is a right and wrong, like genocide and rape are wrong.
2. Without certainty, we cannot stand against oppression, put our lives on the line, and even resist falsehoods as you are certain you are doing.

It is certainty that prods us evangelicals out of our comfort zones to live sacrificially and to love the unlovable. It is the rejection of certainty that narrows our lives to mere immediate gratification, pleasures, and distractions.

Truth should not be decided by vote or by popular consent. If evangelism is dying, it doesn’t mean that evangelicalism is at fault, no more than Jesus’ crucifixion meant that He had done something deserving of death.