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DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH HATE TO BE JESUS’ DISCIPLE?

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Am I Supposed to Hate My Family?

hateBy Ken Blue

“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26.

If I can convince myself that God hates people and I too am to hate them; it will give me a sense of power and entitlement. Many of the brethren are being led down the path to stupidity, ruin, and obnoxious behavior because they are being influenced to believe that God hates the lost, and therefore, they too must have contempt for them.

Well, we call upon these brethren to read the above verse and then tell the world that they hate their father, mother, wife, children, brethren, and sisters. Can they say with a straight face that they hate their family, or will they need to modify the word “hate” somewhat?

One of their problems is the refusal to accept that word usage in one place, time and culture, does not have the same meaning in another. Dake says the word is, “An idiom of preference (Mt. 6:24; 10:37; Rom. 9:13; Mal. 1:2-3; Gen. 29:30-31; Dt. 21:15-17). One must prefer God or love Him more than all else to be saved (Mt. 22:37). “God first” is the motto of the Bible.” —Dake’s Study Notes.

This truth is also illustrated in the different affection Jacob had for his two wives. “ And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.” Genesis 29:30-31.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary says an Idiom means, 1 a : the language peculiar to a people or to a district, community, or class
: DIALECT b : the syntactical, grammatical, or structural form peculiar to a language.2 : an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically (as no, it wasn’t me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (as Monday week for *the Monday a week after next Monday*).3 : a style or form of artistic expression that is characteristic of an individual, a period…”

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Hatred” as used in the time and culture of the Bible does not carry the same meaning we attach to it today in our culture.[/pullquote]

Therefore, the word “hate” as used in the time and culture of the Bible does not carry the same meaning we attach to it today in our culture; and your interpretation of Luke 14:26 will confirm that truth.

The same interpretation is to be give to the statement, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Romans 9:13. The context deals with the choice of God to give the family blessing to Jacob; which included the priestly and prophetic head of his house and give him all the birthright signified. Although Esau was the firstborn, God, in His sovereignty chooses Jacob and gave Esau the second position in the family. However, that second position included manifold blessings of God. “And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” Genesis 27:39-40.

Thus, the word must be seen in the context of the time and culture in which it was used and intended. Dake’s comments are correct when he says its use is, “An idiom of preference.” It is not to be thought of as we use it in our culture and time. Now, let me ask you again, do you hate your family, or will you cut them some slack?

JOB; THE QUESTION OF SUFFERING

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THE BENEFIT OF SUFFERING

By Ken Blue

While a student in Omaha, I pastored a small church in Iowa. Mrs. Blue and I visited a young man who was a teacher in the college town. As I attempted to discuss spiritual things, he said to me, “the God of Job would be my devil.” Needless to say, I was taken back and found that further discussion was useless. His problem, like many, was his inability and unwillingness to accept that God wants to use our suffering to fulfill a purpose in our life and in the lives of others.

Recently I received the following question. I will attempt to answer it as I understand the subject. However, the final answer to all our questions will be answered at the Judgment Seat.

“Hi Pastor. I have a question that keeps bugging me, and I thought I would see what your thoughts are. It’s about God’s actions that seem somewhat contradictory to his character (or at least by my perception)- in regard to Job. It seems contradictory to me that God could truly love Job and yet allow such tragedy to be placed upon him for what seems like no reason but to “prove” Satan wrong…. maybe I have it all wrong. It just seems like if Job was as good of a servant to God as the Bible says, that it would be totally wrong to inflict such pain on him. It wasn’t like God was disciplining him, or rebuking him, or correcting him- it was “just because” and I just don’t understand how that can possibly show God’s love in any way.”

The book of Job is the oldest book in existence. It is a literary masterpiece, and many colleges use it in their study of literature. It was written between 1800 and 1700 B.C. before the Exodus, or the nation of Israel existed. It was written to answer man’s question; why do the righteous suffer?

Suffering is in the world because of sin. That does not mean you are suffering because of your personal sins. We suffer because of the wickedness of others also. We may suffer for other reasons. If God protected every person from suffering, there would be no such thing as a free will, and without a free will, the word love, and choice have no meaning.

Suffering should be a warning to us not to sin. Suffering is intended to purge us from our sins, and we learn obedience by the things we suffer. David said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” Psalms 119:67.

The following verse should be meditated on. “ Though he (Jesus) were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Hebrews 5:8-9. No one was as perfect as the Lord Jesus, yet God saw value in allowing Him to suffer. There were things Jesus did not know until He suffered. It is in the midst of suffering we prove and demonstrate our faith in God’s love, wisdom, and goodness. Every reader should pause here and read Hebrews 11:24-40.

Suffering is to bring us to the end of our self-sufficiency and show what helpless sinners we are. This is the end to which God was bringing Job. Although Job is said to be perfect and upright, he still had a sinful nature, and it manifested itself in his self-righteousness. His ordeal and personal confrontation with God brought him to the end of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. Listen to his confession, after God had finished His test. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6. This may not sound appealing, but this is the end God has for every believer.  

God does not choose every person to suffer as Job. He knew Job’s character, and that he would justify God in the end. Many would not, thus they never learn the lessons Job learned or experience the knowledge of God he did. God restored to Job double what he had.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Was God fair in his dealings with Job?[/perfectpullquote]

We often hear the word fair associated with suffering. Was God fair in his dealings with Job? Our problem is understanding what the word means. When used in this context it means “just.” Was God just in His treatment of Job, and the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer is yes and no. If God had been fair with Job, you, and me, we would be in hell. That would be just and fair; but His mercy prevailed. Then, was God fair by allowing Jesus to die and suffer in your place? The answer is yes.

If we are to be what God intended, we too must suffer. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;  And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:4-13.

Job was a perfect man in chapter one; but he was a more perfect and much wiser man after chapter 42. You too will be better and wiser if you submit to the hand of God.  

Bible Boasters

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By Richard Sandlin [mailto:[email protected]]

I held a meeting for a pastor once who boasted of the fact he had read the Bible through over seventy-five times; he later ran off with a woman in his church. I’m acquainted with a dear man, of a different sort from the above mentioned, a godly man, who has read the Book over one hundred times; he believes bell-bottom pants, wire-rimmed glasses, and cowboy boots are wrong to wear. Then there is another Bible consumer that I know of who has gone through the Holy Writ close to two hundred times; he has been married five times.

What am I saying? Simply that reading vast amounts of scripture does not necessarily make one morally clean, doctrinally sound, or able to subdue the flesh. Satan knows and quotes the Bible, and yet is not helped, but remains a devil. It is not how many times we have gone through the Bible, but how many times it has gone through us. Putting a notch on your Bible each time you read it does not make an individual a better Christian, but I do strongly suspect it will make one more accountable to God.

The question is not so much how many times we have read God’s Word, but rather, how many times has it read us? Certainly we are to know the “Letter,” but not in the absence of the “Spirit.” There is nothing magical in Bible reading, but something does happen when we obey it. Charles Spurgeon said it best when he wrote, “Some people like to read so many (Bible) chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!”

JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE LAMB OF GOD

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JOHN’S UNDERSTANDING OF JESUS’ DEATH

By Ken Blue

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.

Recently a dear lady sent an email asking if John the Baptist might have understood that Jesus would die on the cross since he called Him the Lamb of God. It is my firm conviction that neither John nor anyone else believed that Jesus would die. In fact, all four gospels indicate that none of them understood this Old Testament truth.

John was greater than all the prophets, in that he had the distinct responsibility and privilege of preparing a remnant of Jews for the promised King and the kingdom. His message was clear, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins; the King is coming and the kingdom is at hand.”

Everything John believed and preached was that Jesus was Israel’s King and that the kingdom would soon follow their repentance and reception of Him. It never occurred to John that Jesus would be rejected by Israel or be crucified. This is why, when he was in prison, he asks “are you the one we should look for or should we look for another?” Nothing was going as John expected.

When he referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, he was not thinking of His sacrificial death, but rather, of His purity and righteousness to lead Israel to victory against their gentile enemies. This is what all believing Jews understood.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]John probably died a perplexed and confused follower of Jesus Christ.[/perfectpullquote]

Zaharias the prophet proclaimed the expectation of Israel when he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. 76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, 78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, 79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:68-79.

When John spoke of Him “taking away the sin of the world” he was expecting that to happen in his lifetime. He is not speaking of His death on the cross. However, because of Israel’s refusal to repent, that event is reserved until the Second Advent and the end of the Kingdom. It will be during that time, sin will be taken away from the world. Satan, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and all the wicked, will be “taken away” by the wrath of the Lamb of God.

Paul never called Jesus a lamb or the lamb. That distinction is reserved for Israel. We read more in Revelation about the Lamb than anywhere in Scripture. The wicked, who are about to be expelled say, “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:” Revelation 6:16. “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:” Revelation 14:10. This is the context of the comment by John.

It has been made clear to us, and it will be to Israel (Isa. 53) in the future, that the Lamb also had to die. But, that truth was not understood by anyone in John’s day, and most orthodox Jews do not see it today. Note the conversation on the Emmaus Road. “And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. 22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; 23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. 25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:19-27.

These two demonstrate exactly what other believing Jews expected, and how they felt. Note the words “should have redeemed Israel.” The redemption Israel expected did not include a sacrifice, rather it meant the renewing and reclaiming Israel’s kingdom, as spoken by the prophets. The redemption was deliverance from gentile dominion.

This is why John asks the question, in doubt, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Matthew 11:3. Even though Jesus sent abundant evidence in His answer, John probably died a perplexed and confused follower of Jesus Christ.

SHOULD BAPTIST CHURCHES HAVE ALTARS?

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By Ken Blue

“1. An elevated place or structure before which religious ceremonies may be enacted or upon which sacrifices may be offered. 2. A structure, typically a table, before which the divine offices are recited and upon which the Eucharist is celebrated in Christian churches.” – The American Heritage Dictionary.

Having been saved and reared in Baptist churches all my life, it never occurred to me that much of what we do is steeped in tradition. We have borrowed these from Judaism and the Catholic Church. One of these is the so-called “altar.”

One way the altar is justified is by placing the tithes and offering on the communion table as an offering from the people; Thus the sacrificial altar. Another defense of the altar is to sing, Is Your All On The Altar Of Sacrifice Laid? Then we plead with Christians and sinners to “come forward to the altar and get right with God.

Thus, we, like Catholics, have come to accept the altar as part of the church furniture, and getting people to it is the goal of the sermon. Coming to it is an act of sacrifice, dedication, and surrender.

None of the church epistles have any suggestion that such an apparatus was to be installed. The idea would probably have been abhorred by the early church.

The following information concerning altars in Protestant churches is taken from Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
“A wide variety of altars exist in various Protestant denominations. Some Churches, such as Lutheran and Methodist will have altars very similar to Anglican or Catholic ones, keeping with their sacramental understanding of the Eucharist. In Protestant churches from Reformed, Baptist, Congregational, and Non-denominational traditions, it is very common for the altar to have on it only an open Bible and a pair of candlesticks. Many of these groups use a very simple wooden table, known as a Communion Table, adorned perhaps with only a linen cloth, and would avoid any suggestion of a sacrifice being offered.

Some evangelical churches practice what is referred to as an altar call, whereby those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. 
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Tradition is a powerful thing.[/perfectpullquote]

It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church (however, the invitation may be referred to as an “altar call” even if there is no actual altar present). Most altar calls occur at the end of the sermon…This is a ritual in which the supplicant makes a prayer of penitence (asking for his sins to be forgiven) and faith (accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior).

Altar calls may also invite those who are already fully members of the Christian community to come forward for specific purposes other than conversion; for example, to pray for some need, to rededicate their lives after a lapse, or to receive a particular blessing (such as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit) or if they are called to certain tasks such as missionary work.”

So, the question is, should Baptist churches have altars and an altar call? If not, how would we carry on business? Tradition is a powerful thing. Should we, or could we function as well without the altar?