Paul's Passing Thoughts

Ordinarily, I would think that the following fact is bizarre:  the vast majority of church discipline practiced today is unbiblical. But the fact of the matter is, as a former elder, I was on an elder body that practiced errant discipline. What we were doing had a semblance of  biblical correctness and the church had always done it that way – it’s an easy trap to fall into. In the Christian life, most assumptions (concerning truth not verified) are dangerous; you eventually learn that. However, my past error will serve to make my initial points.

Like everyone else, we used Matthew 18:15-20 as a schematic for church discipline. That was our first mistake. The passage has nothing to do with church discipline, it is clearly a procedure initiated by Christ to resolve conflict among Christians. But worse yet, we didn’t even use the wrong text the right way once we…

“The fact that Christians buy into ‘the imperative command is [always] grounded in the indicative event,’ is just plain embarrassing.”

I guess the belief sweeping through Christendom  that saints are unable to participate in the sanctification process is just fine with everybody. Also, we know that Christ died for our sins, but did he also live on earth for our works in sanctification? Was one of the primary purposes of His first appearing to fulfill the Law for us, and thereby nullifying a necessity to uphold  the Law in the sanctification process by us?  That seems like a major doctrinal angle to me with serious consequences regarding life application. But hey, I guess that’s just me. This neo-Reformed  doctrine can be seen clearly in a recent post by Justin Taylor entitled “Imperatives – Indicatives = Impossibilities” on his “Between Two Worlds” blog. The title of his blog is a reference…

“That’s just gospel—perfectly timed, perfectly applied, perfectly suited to my need. That’s why the Bible is so thick—because there are so many different needs that you have. And there are suitable places where the gospel is unfolded for you, so that if you immerse yourself in the whole book, always with an eye for what Christ has wrought for you and purchased for you in this thick, glorious history of God’s interaction with people, he will give you what you need.”

~ John Piper

“If not only the unregenerate but the regenerate are always dependent at every moment on the free grace of God disclosed in the gospel, then nothing can  raise those who are spiritually dead or continually give life to Christ’s flock
but the Spirit working through the gospel.”

~ Michael Horton

“That which makes the Bible the Bible is the gospel. That which makes  the Bible the…

Regardless of label or stripe, no serious Christian would deny that God’s word is the primary instrument of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification process. Christ himself said: “ Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth [John 17:17].” Furthermore, no serious Christian would deny that the closed cannon as superintended by God is His truth in totality. Now consider the following facts in regard to the above backdrop:

[1] Only 4 books in the Bible [Ruth, Song of Solomon, Philemon, 3John] do not contain predictive information.

[2] There are 31,124 verses of scripture in the Bible; 8,352 Bible verses are predictive.

[3] 28.5% of the Old Testament is predictive; 21.5% of the New Testament is predictive.

[4] The book of Matthew, one of the four accounts of the gospel, has more predictive information than

the book of Revelation [Matt.-278 verses, Rev.- 256 verses].