Where Are Your Ripples?

 If you throw a stone into a pond, the stone will create ripples in the water.  This is not complicated.

If someone says they threw a stone into the pond but no ripples were observed or detected, you would properly conclude that he was lying or mistaken or confused ... or something.

This is an illustration in the natural world of the spiritual relationship between faith and works.  As James says:

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.  - James 2:18-24

As I said, this is not complicated.  Saving faith is made visible - is manifested - by works.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  (Ephesians 2:10)

Because saving faith must NECESSARILY produce good works, it can be honestly observed that any so-called "believer" who does NOT display a changed life does not have saving faith.  This stirs up some theologians, who make a sharp distinction between "faith" and "works" and then insist the former is essential to salvation, but the latter is not. And their prime example is the thief on the cross, who had saving faith but no (alleged) opportunity for works.  Therefore, some reason, works must NOT be essential.  Is this thinking reasonable?

First, as I have pointed out previously, if being crucified was the way to get saved without works, I doubt that any would choose that option.  But this also displays some ignorance of crucifixion.  So let's clear that up.

We'll start easy:  if you are teaching a Sunday school class or speaking to others about Christ and the gospel, is that a "work"?  Or if you go to a hospital or senior living facility just to encourage the people who are there, is that a "work"?  I think we'd agree that these are - indeed - good works, proceeding from faith.  The act of speaking is a work.  And we do those sorts of works regularly.

What was the penitent thief doing?  He was speaking words of faith and encouragement while being crucified.  When one is crucified, all your weight is crushing your diaphragm.  You can breathe in, but it's agonizingly difficult to exhale.  You must push up with your lacerated feet to release the air in your lungs.  Speech is a series of painful gasps.  

It would have been easier for the thief to say nothing.  Breathing was painful, and speaking made it worse.  But he managed to say, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong," and "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."

This was not a casual discussion in a Jerusalem coffee shop, and it probably took the thief a while to get it all out.  But he said it - syllable by painful syllable.  The people standing around the cross may not have heard it, but Jesus did and it's a safe assumption that when the disciples asked Him about it after the resurrection, Jesus gave them the full account.  This is a short sermon by a dying man to an audience of one - that has been heard or read by millions of people around the world for the past 2,000 years.  This thief probably preached to more people than Billy Graham ever did.  So YES, the faith of the penitent thief was completed by works.  His "pebble of faith" created the expected ripples.

That was a bit of a detour, because my intention in this post is to, once again, defend the idea of "Lordship salvation" from those who think it's a heresy, that one need not make Jesus the LORD of one's life, or that any good works are unnecessary.  "Just believe," they insist.  "Belief is all that is required."  Some even suggest that works are an insult to God, because it suggests you are trying to save yourself, you think Christ's sacrifice was insufficient, or you are trying to earn or deserve salvation.  I addressed that here: 

The Selfish Gospel

and here:

Lordship Salvation - Another Perspective

Examine yourself, as Paul advises in 1 Cor. 11:28.  Be ready; Jesus is coming soon, and His reward is with Him, "to give to every one according to his work." - Rev. 22:12

Because It's True

Perhaps you are already familiar with "Cold Case Christianity" and the work of J. Warner Wallace.  If not, an introduction is definitely in order.  Wallace was a homicide detective of distinction in Los Angeles, along with being a fairly hard core atheist.  He was challenged to apply his investigative skills to the gospel narratives and he accepted the challenge.  Today, as a believer and skilled apologist, he is focused on training Christians to be able to present and defend the claims of the gospel.

Of interest is the "gospel presentations" he was exposed to when still an unbeliever; presentations he found to be unconvincing.  Maybe you have used similar approaches with family or friends.  They generally flow along the lines of testimony or personal experience: "I was crushed by guilt until Jesus set me free" or "I felt lost and was living a life without purpose, but Jesus changed my life," or even "if you say this prayer and invite Jesus into your heart, you will find peace and joy.  It worked for me."

There are two problems with personal experience:  they are personal, and they are experience.  Both of these criteria are subjective.  That is not proof.  It's not good enough for a courtroom, it wasn't good enough for Wallace, and it should not be good enough for us.  The question is not "how did it make me feel?" or "how did it affect my life?"  The only significant question is:  Is it TRUE?

For our purposes, however, there is a second question:  Is it relevant?  And I suspect that's the higher hurdle that must be cleared.  After all, there are LOTS of things that are true - things that can be proven in court and things that may be scientifically significant.  Laws of physics and chemistry are true, discoverable, and as far as we can tell, immutable.  But so what?  We use our cell phones because they work (experience) and care not about what makes them work.  The underlying physics and chemistry are both incomprehensible and irrelevant to nearly all of us.  

When sharing the gospel, we need to be trained to clearly explain why it is true.  But we also need to deal with why it matters, and I'd suggest that is one reason we need to be more than superficially conversant with Bible prophecy.   Contrary to the strident claims of atheists and evolutionists, this world is not meaningless, purposeless, or ultimately subjective.  We are experiencing a TEMPORARY world and a TEMPORARY life.  All who are here share in God's common grace.  All can enjoy the beauty of a sunset.  All can be refreshed by cold, pure water on a hot summer day.  Every good thing in this world has its source in a benevolent Creator.  No one is entitled to God's grace.  But the time we all have to enjoy it is both temporary and short.

At some time in the near future, this temporary period of common grace will end, and Biblical prophecy sheds necessary light on this expectation.  Those who are reconciled to God will be preserved and the rest will be destroyed.  Our message is both highly relevant and TIME-CRITICAL   The fact that Jesus Christ is LORD is central and critical to both the gospel message and the prophetic certainties of the future.

We should have some urgency, and especially in our prayer lives, regarding our commission and function as ambassadors for Christ.   This does NOT mean an over-excited presentation to the lost or indifferent, but it DOES mean a change in our priorities.  We are the ones who should "see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25) and live accordingly.  We should see prophecy, NOT as an arcane abstraction, but as a present reality.  

There are some things about the distant past that we can't know.  They are buried by the sands of time, but they are no less true for being unknown.  Similarly, there are some things about the future that we can't know; very probably a design feature of apocalyptic writing.  Nevertheless, there are things that we CAN know and SHOULD know, and those things are both true and relevant.  Most Christians I know shrug off prophecy and the study of it because it's confusing, divisive, or not relevant to their day-to-day life.  Even though a significant amount of scripture deals with prophecy, many brush off the topic by quoting (without context) Matthew 24:36.

Jesus told us to WATCH!  (Mark 13:37).  He said that those who do not know the signs of the times are HYPOCRITES! (Matthew 16:3)   I would not want to be surprised, find myself suddenly standing before Christ, and hear Him rebuke me for not watching and for being a hypocrite.  (And by the way, the excuse for not going to church because "the church is full of hypocrites" is true for this reason.)

I'm not here to criticize, but just to encourage whoever reads this to re-prioritize before it's eternally too late.  Turn off the TV.  Be reconciled and make restitution with those you have offended, defrauded, or sinned against.  Live the rest of your life in the light of unfolding prophetic reality.  It's later than you think.

A Romantic Conjecture

The last days are likened to the days of Lot.  As we know, God was looking for righteous people in Sodom, that He might spare the city.  So He sent two angels and they were greeted with hospitality from Lot, but with hostility by the rest of the townspeople.  Perhaps the "test" for righteousness was hospitality to strangers.

Jesus said in Matt. 24 and Mark 13 that He would send His angels to gather His elect.

In Rev. 3:10 the promise of being kept from the hour of trial is for those who persevere.

The romantic conjecture is that we will all have opportunities in these last pre-rapture moments to entertain angels (Hebrews 13:2) and that is the test of perseverance.  God will send angels, in the guise of homeless, lost, crippled and the like - to determine whether we are really persevering in the faith, or whether we talk the talk only.  The "theological" Christians will have all the answers, of course.  But those who take the Lordship of Christ seriously will display their faith by their works.

‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

Oblivious

 NATO has been poking the Russian bear with a sharp stick for a few years now, with military proxy attacks, ignored promises, "sanctions" and no doubt many nefarious acts performed out of public view.

Russia has - understandably - had enough.

According to Hal Turner and many others, we have apparently crossed the last "red line."

This is the threshold of national judgment - orchestrated by God Himself against America, perhaps at the hands of Russia and China ... and perhaps not.  After all, we have the Yellowstone caldera, primed and ready to blow.  There's the Cascadia subduction zone and the New Madrid fault line.  There's the San Andreas fault.

I understand the Atlantic is a cauldron of potential violent hurricane activity for the upcoming season, and the sun has already sent a few CME's in our direction.

America is currently "celebrating" Gay Pride Month.  My opinion of these activities is irrelevant - it's only God's view that matters, and He has made His position crystal clear.  The deaf and disinterested Western cultures seem to think God is unwilling or unable to deal with this affront to His Law.  I think that will prove to be a fatal miscalculation.

The beat goes on - the noise gets louder and the distractions pile up.  But not for much longer.

Get ready, America - judgment is at the door.