Hezekiah

Hezekiah: What Have They Seen in Thy House?

There is an interesting story in 2 Kings 20 about Judah’s King Hezekiah.  Some envoys were sent to him from the king of Babylon; and in his pride, Hezekiah “showed them all the house of his treasures…..there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them” (v. 13).  When the prophet Isaiah inquired  about their visit (v. 15), he asked the king, “What have they seen in thy house?” Hezekiah had exposed all of Judah’s wealth to his Babylonian guests – a mistake that would eventually lead to the downfall of the kingdom of Judah (vv. 16-18).

Hezekiah

As Hezekiah, Do You Know What is in Your House.

 

To borrow from Isaiah’s question: what about your life?  Has anyone visited you lately?  If so, “What have they seen in thy house?”  Did they see a genuine love for God in your home?  Did they see a respectable and loving family, devoted to one another?  Was the beauty of Jesus seen in your conduct? If not, beware, my friends.  For such a mistake will eventually lead to ruin.

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Suffering in Hell?

Is there suffering in Hell?

How could a loving God ever consider casting man into a lake of fire and leaving him there to suffer for all eternity? This is not an easy question to consider on many levels, but it is one which intrigues the minds of so many. Is it possible that we may not see the horrendous nature of sin and what divine justice demands for punishment? Is it possible that we may have developed a wrong view of God by overemphasizing His goodness, and that wrong view of Him is part of the problem? Whether we can answer these two questions or others which might come to mind really is not the issue. The underlying issue is, “What does God reveal that He will do with the wicked?”

Every sin will be punished. The writer of Hebrews looked at the Old Testament and said, “The word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward” (Heb. 2:2). The Holy Spirit of God affirmed that every sin committed for the thousands of years since Adam had been justly rewarded. Our God delights in forgiveness and rejoices in showing mercy (Micah 7:18), but He is also just. The issue before us is, “What does He reveal that He will do with the wicked?”

The sin of angels is punished by God with continuing suffering. Both Jude and Peter (Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4) describe the rebellion of angels. What did a loving God do with them? He did not simply destroy them, but He bound them with chains in the darkness of hell awaiting a coming judgment where they will be cast into an everlasting fire (Matt. 25:41).

The rich man who refused to share with the beggar, Lazarus, suffered in the fires of Hades. What did a loving God do with this selfish, rich man? Taken from his body, he was in torments, begging for one drop of water to cool his tongue. His words, “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24), show what love and justice demanded from both Lazarus and the rich man.

Those who worshipped the beast suffered consciously in the fire of God’s judgment. “If any man worship the beast . . . he himself shall drink of the wrath of God. . . . He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone . . . And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night” (Rev. 14:9-11). How will a loving God deal with the man who rebels against Him? Certainly not simply casting him into the lake of fire where he will immediately burn up and cease to exist. It is the loving God who speaks of fire and brimstone lasting forever and ever and never having any rest from that punishment.

Remember the issue is, “What does God say about hell?” The options are clear—eternal bliss with God or eternal darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Your choice!

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The Piety of Baptism

The Piety of Baptism – An Identifying Mark of the One True Church

The post-modern attitude of “live and let live” rarely (if at all) places religious demands upon individuals.  Such has not been the attitude toward God in times past.  Debates regarding exactly what those religious demands entailed were commonplace in former times.  Popular attitudes toward contemporary religious obligation are primarily limited to some kind of concern for the poor.  Many consider everything else optional.  Even characterizing such attitudes as “religious” is passé.  Instead, people prefer to moniker themselves as “spiritual.”  In such a religious environment the ancient and biblical concept of piety – doing religious things simply because that is what God desires – has been replaced with one’s self interests, but that is exactly what Christianity calls individuals to sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).

baptism

Baptism and Piety Go Hand in Hand.

In times past, questions about baptism surrounded its purpose (whether it was for the remission of sins or not), necessity for salvation (whether one needed it to go to be saved), and/or mode (whether it was sprinkling, pouring, or immersion).  Some suggested that the only purpose of baptism was to become a member of the local congregation.  The Lord’s church has stood strong in these discussions pointing to the necessity of baptism (immersion) for the remission of sins.  This is, after all, what the Bible simply teaches in such passages as Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:36-39, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:11-13, and 1 Peter 3:21.  More and more, however, individuals are just ignorant of what baptism even is.  I remember one person coming into the church building, pointing to the baptistery, and saying, “What is that?”

As the religious culture around us changes, the need to stay true to the Bible’s teaching on baptism becomes even more important.  While in the past, teaching what the Bible clearly says about baptism has distinguished the churches of Christ from other religious groups who practice some form of baptism, today, teaching what the Bible has to say about Baptism distinguishes the church from the masses of religious/spiritual groups who know nothing of the practice.  In contradistinction to the self-serving nature of popular religion today, Christian baptism calls the individual to a selfless submission to Christ and His will.  It is a true reflection of the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for the sins of mankind (Romans 6:1-11).  In that regard, it is a preeminent act of personal piety.

In this issue of the Christian Worker, we look at the topic of baptism.  It is our purpose to address typical objections from religiously minded individuals, but also to simply teach what the scriptures simply reveal on the issue.  With that in mind some key passages that discuss baptism have been selected and our writers have been asked to comment on those verses.  The issue concludes with the very important question, “Why should I be baptized?”  It is our hope and prayer that everyone who comes to read this issue will take the topic of baptism as an act of personal piety seriously.  In so doing, we will also consider serious the mode, purpose, and necessity of baptism as well.

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Hindrances to Prayer life

Hindrances to a Proper Prayer Life

Statistics show that many Christians do not pray as much as God encourages through His word. Prayer is such a vital part of the life of a Christian; yet, because it takes time and effort, many put very little forth to develop a necessary prayer life. What a shame, knowing that God actually encourages us to pray:

Prayer

Do You Have a Proper Prayer Life?

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matt. 7:7-11).

Notice some hindrances to a proper prayer life.

Note the hindrance of a real relationship. Under the Old Testament, humanity addressed God with such terms as “Almighty God,” “Jehovah,” and other terms relating to His role of Creator and God. However, when Christ taught His disciples to pray, He informed them that through the new covenant and because of God’s completion of redemption, humanity can form a new relationship with him as “Our Father, which art in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). God took the analogy of being His children to a completely higher level. Note the personal pronoun—He is not simply to be a God of the world; rather, He is inviting us to develop a personal relationship with Him as “our Father.” Without a real and sustaining relationship developed through love, trust and communication, we can definitely hinder our prayers.

Note the hindrance of a real faith. In the aforementioned request to pray by Jesus in Matthew 7, the verbs “ask…seek” and “knock” are petitions that require faith. James would offer his commentary on the subject when he wrote, “…ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). In his first chapter, he already discussed the need for faith in our prayers:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1:5-7)

One cannot pray without faith—it will do absolutely no good whatsoever. Therefore, one must develop a daily lifestyle of faith to go with his prayer life so that he will not hinder his prayers.

Note the hindrance of real perseverance. In the great chapter on prayer of Luke 18, the text begins with Jesus teaching through a parable “…that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). He concluded His parable with the principle: “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” (Luke 18:7). Note the allusion to the forbearance and patience of God to the perseverant pleas of His faithful. Many times, we are tempted to pray for something once, and expecting an immediate answer, we quit and refuse to persevere in our prayers. Faithful children never stop praying for righteous things!

Any one of these three can hinder our prayer life. May we all strive daily to improve our prayer life in our relationship with our Heavenly Father through a deep faith in Him expressed in perseverance.

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Ark of the Covenant

“Contradictions” Regarding the Ark of the Covenant

How does the “20 years” reference in 1 Samuel 7:2 harmonize with the fact that the ark was not brought from Kirjath-jearim until 2 Samuel 6:4—more than 40 years later?

ark

When was the Ark moved?

Even though God’s Word can be substantially communicated from one language to another, the translation process is sufficiently complex to the extent that many of the subtleties of the parent language are lost in translation. These subtleties rarely, if ever, involve matters that are critical to the central purpose of revelation. However, apparent discrepancies on minor details can surface that require a careful re-examination of the actual linguistic data of the parent language (in this case Hebrew) in order to dissolve the apparent discrepancy.

The individual clauses of 1 Samuel 7:2-3 are linked in Hebrew by “waw consecutives” that bring the statements into close logical and temporal connection. The three verbs of verse two are a continuation of the infinitive, which points to the main sentence being resumed in verse three (“and Samuel spoke”). The gist of these grammatical data is that the writer is informing us that after the ark’s capture, the people endured Philistine oppression for the next twenty years. Though all Israel “lamented after the Lord,” He allowed the Israelites to continue their suffering at the hands of the Philistines for 20 years—at which time Samuel called upon the nation to put away its idols.

First Samuel describes the final years of the period of the judges. The reliance upon the ark as a sort of mystical talisman brought swift military tragedy, precipitating yet another period of foreign oppression by Israel’s enemies due to their own apostasy. This period of Philistine preeminence went on for twenty years before the lamentations of God’s people were finally heard. At the end of the twenty years, Samuel called on them to couple their lamentations with genuine penitence (1 Samuel 7:3). When they put away their idolatry (vs. 4), they once again enjoyed the services of the judge (vs. 6), who assisted them in throwing off Philistine oppression by military defeat (vss. 10ff.).

Thus the twenty years refers—not to the total number of years that the ark remained in Kirjath-jearim—but merely to the number of years the ark was in Kirjath-jearim before the Lord chose to hear the people’s lamentations and provide them with intervention through Samuel.

Dave Miller – http://apologeticspress.org/AllegedDiscrepancies.aspx?article=767

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