Living in Light of Two Ages
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Monday, March 3, 2008 at 08:15AM 
For those of you keeping up with my Academy series, "Amillennialism 101," the posting of audio file from last week's lecture ("Interpreting Bible Prophecy -- Part 2") will be delayed a bit (due to some technical troubles).
Look for it next week!
Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 01:10PM 
"Jesus refused to drink the Messiah’s cup... In refusing to drink the cup, Jesus rejected to the last detail the role of Messiah in word or deed. The Jews did not reject Jesus as Messiah; it was Jesus who rejected the Jewish desire for him to be their Messiah."
OK, who said that? Leave your guesses in the comments section below . . .
Kim Riddlebarger
This denial of Christ's messianic self-awareness comes from John Hagee in his book, In Defense of Israel, pp. 144-145.
Friday, February 29, 2008 at 09:22AM 
I'm continuing my series entitled "Amillennialism 101." This is the third lecture in the series, and deals with "Interpreting Bible Prophecy--Part Two" from a Reformed amillennial perspective.
Academy lectures here held at Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, they begin at 7:30 PM and are free of charge. There is a time for discussion and refreshments are served.
Click here: Christ Reformed Info - Schedule of Academy Classes and Author's ForumsThursday, February 28, 2008 at 11:44AM 
Article 13: The Fruit of This Assurance
In their awareness and assurance of this election God's children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth of his mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God's children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God's just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.
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Contrary to the theology of fear and guilt taught by so many of our contemporaries, the assurance of our salvation is actually the only proper basis for good works. Critics of the Reformed faith often charge that if you tell Christians that they can assuredly know that they will go to heaven when they die, then there is no longer any incentive for doing good works.
The response to this misguided argument is a simple rhetorical question. “Does a dog bark to become a dog, or does a dog bark because it is a dog?” According to Hebrews 11:6, only the Christian who has been given faith as a gift by God, can actually do good works in the first place! Non-Christians can't perform any work that is acceptable to God, because whatever work they perform, is completely tainted and stained by the guilt of sin (Romans 3:12).
Let us not forget that good works spontaneously spring forth in the lives of those who have been called by God to faith in Jesus, and who have been justified and united to Christ (cf. Galatians 5:16-26). If the tree has been changed from a bad tree to a good one through regeneration, so too, good fruit will naturally and inevitably follow—though, as Luther wisely counseled, we should not look to this fruit in our own lives for the primary assurance of our own salvation because we are often times the worst judge of our own character! If we are privileged to see good fruit in our own lives, it should only serve to remind us of God’s graciousness to us, since his grace is the only reason why the fruit is there in the first place. But others in the body of Christ may see true fruit in us and be moved to give thanks to God.
Although I am sure they are there, I have yet to meet someone who is a Christian, and who asks, “how many sins can I commit and still be a Christian?” Biblically understood, the assurance of our salvation is not based upon human presumption and vanity, but upon confidence in Jesus Christ, who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us, and who prays for us, to that our faith will not fail (Luke 22:32; I John 2:1-2). Far from making us lax in our efforts, then, if we are in Christ, what else can we do, but live a life of gratitude, striving to be obedient to the commands of God as revealed in his word (1 John 5:2)?
The Canons also warn us, that those who reject this teaching, and who base assurance on human efforts are, ironically, the ones most apt to fall into sin. “By God's just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.” How many illustrations of this are there? Too many, I am afraid.
Therefore, the assurance of our salvation is based upon the promises of our Savior (John 6:37, 10:28), and once we are in him, the Scriptures declare, good works will inevitably follow (John 15:16). We must be very careful here not to reverse this order, and make the good works that we do to be the basis for our assurance. For this is the religion of fear and doubt, the religion that terrifies the soul. This is the American religion, grounded in a false sense of human goodness, and which places far too much confidence in the flesh.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 02:19PM 
Melissa asks (February, 21, 2008):
Dear Mr. Riddlebarger, I have been listening to your series (Amillennialism 101) with great interest. Having only been taught and believing premil dispensationalism (but with a lot of questions about it), I do find compelling arguments in your series. I am seriously studying this matter for myself and trying to set aside my presuppositions and beliefs.
I was just wondering how amils interpret passages such as Matt 19:28 (referring to the regeneration specifically) and also Rev 3:10 in which believers will be kept from the hour of testing. Any response would be most appreciated.
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Melissa:
While you make an important point about presuppostions, and then ask about two different passages, all of these matters are closely related. So I'll tackle them together in one Q & A.
First, you are absolutely right when you stress setting aside dispensational presuppositions when analyzing verses such as these. These are both important passages to dispensationalists, because they make perfect sense when read through the dispensational lens. So, for the sake of argument, let us analyze the two verses apart from the dispensational grid, and then see if they make better sense on amillennial presuppositions.
Matthew 19:28 reads, “Jesus said to them, `Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’” (ESV). Dispensationalists understand this passage as teaching that there will be a future restoration of the nation of Israel, in which the disciples will exercise an important role in an earthly millennial kingdom (Campbell and Townsend, A Case for Premillennialism, Moody, 1992, 176-178). John Walvoord says that this “is clearly a picture of the millennial earth, not heaven” (Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come, Moody, 1974, 146).
I beg to differ. The problem for dispensationalists in particular, and premillennarians in general, is that Jesus says this will happen when he sits on his throne, “in the new world.” In the Greek text, the phrase is en te palingenesia, which literally means “rebirth” or “regeneration.” The phrase en te palingenesia may be used in a similar sense to the way the word apokatastaseos is used in Acts 3:21, where it is translated “restoration.” The temporal aspect of this renewal or rebirth is tied to what follows (“when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne”), simply meaning that this is a reference to the renewal of the world at the end of the age, and is not a reference to an earthly millennium (see Hagner, Matthew 14-28 Word Biblical Commentary 33a, Word, 1995, 565).
Since the contrast between "this age" and "the age to come" is a contrast between the temporal and the eternal (see the discussion of the "two-age model in my A Case for Amillennialism, 81-99), this cannot be a reference to an earthly millennium after Christ comes back. When Jesus returns, he judges the world (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:11-15) raises the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11) and makes all things new (2 Peter 3:3-15). This makes it pretty clear that there is no one left on the earth in natural bodies over which the disciples can rule! In other words, this is a reference to the eternal state, not an earthly millennium.
On the dispensational/premillennial scheme, Jesus is telling the disciples that they will rule over Israel during the millennial age, while on the amillennial view, the rule depicted here is when the twelve disciples represent the true Israel and are vindicated by Jesus himself. In effect, Jesus is telling those who gave up everything to follow him, that they will be vindicated in the end.
As for Revelation 3:10, the passage reads, “because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth” (ESV). Dispensationalists believe that this is a reference to the rapture, in which the faithful church (symbolized by the church in Philadelphia) is removed from the earth immediately before the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period. Indeed, dispensational presuppositions require that the Gentile church be removed from the earth at the start of the Seventieth Week of Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27), so this verse is taken as proof of that pre-determined fact.
The problem is that dispensational presuppositions clearly get in the way of the text, and when you set them aside it is easy to see a better way to understand this verse. John tells the church of Philadelphia (the actual church in Philadelphia at the time John writes this letter about. A.D. 95), that a world-wide hour of trial is coming--perhaps a reference to persecution of the faithful by the beast from the sea (Revelation 13:1-10) and the beast from the land (Revelation :1311-18)--and that this particular congregation will be spared from this extensive period of tribulation because they have been faithful. Jesus will preserve them.
Notice that the same power which kept them strong, will preserve them (vv. 7-8)– “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” It is this same power (weak in man’s eyes) which will maintain for them their status (v. 9)– “Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.”
Because the Philadelphian Christians have been faithful witnesses to Christ in the past, Jesus now tells them that he will be faithful to them when some sort of horrible tribulation comes upon them in the near future. In other words, Jesus himself will preserve this congregation in the midst of whatever trial is about to come upon them. There is no hint here that these people will be taken out of the world before the trial comes, much less does this passage event remotely hint at the dispensationalist’s rapture.
But this passage does tell this congregation that when the hour of trial comes, they will be "kept" (preserved) from its evil effects. We know this because the same Greek word translated as “keep from” (tereso) appears only here (with ek, “from”) and in John 17:15, where we read, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”
I would argue that John is saying pretty much the same thing to the Philadelphians in Revelation 3:10, that Jesus said to his disciples in John 17:15. He will preserve his people in the midst of tribulation by protecting them from the evil around them.
This is why your first point, about setting aside your presuppositions for a time to investigate this matter, is so wise. Yes, dispensationalists can make sense of these passages in light of those particular presuppositions. But their presuppositions are clearly faulty on a number of levels, and as we’ve just seen, the amillennial reading of these passages makes far better sense of these verses.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 09:11PM 
Bald men everywhere rejoice! There may be hair in our future. It is in the genes. Click here: Gene discovery may lead to new baldness drugs - Men's health- msnbc.com
Suicidal pets? Tell me we don't have too much time and money on our hands . . . There will be no Prozac for Andy, no matter how long he stares at me. Click here: Suicidal pets get anti-depressants | NEWS.com.au
Swear at a dog . . . go to jail. I'm not kidding. The police are real touchy these days. Click here: 28-year-old man charged with cruelty to animals : Martin County : TCPalm
Copeland against the US Senate--"name and claim it" versus another pompous government official seeking publicity. I wonder who will win this one? That's easy. The one with IRS agents, subpoena power, and courts. Click here: Copeland ministry fights Grassley investigation (OneNewsNow.com)
We've been left behind. Larry Norman has died. The guy was a real pioneer--back in the day when Christian rock/folk music had a passion and authenticity now long gone. Click here: Larry Norman, 'Father of Christian Rock,' Dies at 60 | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction
Today's object of Muslim wrath --Doritos. Yes, Doritos. Click here: Muslims criticise Walkers after it is revealed that some crisp varieties contain alcohol | the Daily Mail.
Finally, I am the "everyman." I have yet another twin (other than Dr. Phil). Click here: Under the Broom Tree: Observations, Opinions & Occurrences: Switched at Birth?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 01:21PM 
The Seventeenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans
Romans 7:14-25 is one of the most important, but disputed passages in the New Testament. This is because in this passage Paul describes a struggle with sin so intense that he can characterize it as follows: “when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” When the apostle seeks to avoid doing evil, he ends up doing it anyway. In fact, throughout these verses, Paul speaks of sin almost as a power or force which takes hold of him, taking him prisoner (“sold as a slave to sin,” as he puts it), even though in his heart, he delights in the law of God. In a lament of despair the apostle cries out in verse 24, “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
The news of the gravity and intensity of this struggle with sin either comes as a welcome relief to Paul’s reader–who may have a similar struggle–or as a word of warning that if this is their experience also, they need to move on to the victory over sin the apostle will describe in Romans 8. The dispute over this text centers around a very simple but important question. Is Paul talking about his present experience as a Christian, even that of an apostle? Or is Paul talking about that period of his life before he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps, Paul is not even talking about himself at all. Perhaps Paul is describing someone who has been convicted of their sin by the Law of God, but who has not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. But make no mistake about it–however we interpret Romans 7, it will dramatically impact our understanding of the Christian life.
This is one of those passages in the Bible where we hit a genuine fork in the interpretive road. As baseball player-philosopher Yogi Berra once put it, “if you come to a fork in the road, take it.” We do not have the option of remaining undecided about this text, because how we interpret it will affect virtually every aspect of the Christian life. From the doctrine of justification, to the doctrine of sanctification, to our expectations about the Christian life and how we choose to live it, to the kind of teaching and preaching we hear in the church, to the way in which we deal with our troubled consciences, to the way we pray, how we interpret these few verses has such dramatic consequences for our daily lives as Christians that we have no choice but to make a choice!
If Paul is talking about his present struggle with sin, even the struggle with sin as experienced by an apostle, then Romans 7:14-25 should be interpreted as speaking of the normal Christian life. This means that Paul’s struggle to do what is right and avoid doing evil, coupled with his failure to do so as depicted throughout, is the same struggle with sin that every Christian faces on a daily basis. If we interpret Paul in this way, the struggle with sin described by Paul is the inevitable consequence of being transferred from the domination of sin, the law and death (what we were in Adam–to use the categories Paul sets out in Romans 5:12-21) to the dominion of Christ. As we saw in chapters 6 and 7 of Romans, although we have been set free from sin, death and the condemnation of the law because we were buried with Christ in baptism and have risen with him to newness of life, nevertheless, we still think and act like what we were in Adam, while we were under the dominion of this present evil age. This is why the imperative (command) which Paul gives to his reader back in Romans 6:11, focuses upon the need to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God. It takes a fair bit of time for someone who has known only slavery, to learn to live as a freedman.
To read the rest of this sermon, click here
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 08:24AM This is no surprise. Mainline Protestant churches continue to shrink. Rome holds its own--well, sort of. Non-denominational churches are growing. What a great time to evangelize our aimless neighbor! Click here: ABC News: Protestants Losing Status as U.S. Majority
This is not a surprise either. If you don't catechize your youth, the culture will do it for you. Click here: 'Earth worship' on the rise among evangelical youth (OneNewsNow.com)
Have a beer with Jesus? Jesus and pot smoking? Think this is an ad for an emerging church? Guess again. Click here: The Missoula Project
More on the continuing success story of government run schools . . . Click here: USATODAY.com
How is this for a title: "Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Most Humble Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ." Well, he died. Click here: Fra Andrew Bertie obituary - Times Online
Here's the ridiculous Muslim demand of the day. Click here: Muslims want unis to fit prayer time | The Australian
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 10:21AM 
In light of my previous post about a Bible study beginning in Las Vegas (with the goal of forming a new URC congregation), several of you left comments, or emailed me personally, about how to go about doing the same thing where you live.
If you are really interested in seeing a URC planted near you, here are a few preliminary steps you may want to take. Please note, these are my personal suggestions, but hopefully this will get you started and headed in the right way.
1). Pray about this first! Pray about this throughout the entire process!
2). Understand how the URC works when it comes to church-planting. Unlike other Reformed and Presbyterian denominations, the URC has no official church-planting agency. You'll have to work with a local congregation. This means there won't be a home office, or funding, to help you get started. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The tough part is that you'll have to do most of the initial planning and organizing yourself. The good thing is that there is no church bureaucracy to get in the way. You can go at your own pace, and you don't have to jump through too many unnecessary hoops.
3). Begin to read and study the Three Forms of Unity, and the church order of the URCNA. Most URCs have these posted on their website. Here's our list: Click here: Christ Reformed Info - The Latest News. Scroll down to the right under "confessions." This is our official doctrine and our constitution. If, after reading and studying this material, you are still interested, then press ahead. If you have problems with these documents, the URC is not for you.
4). After realizing that this will take a fair bit of time and energy on your part, pray again! Do you really want to do this?
5). This is the critical step. Begin networking. Think about people you know (who are not already members of true churches) who may be interested in such a church. Gather these interested folks together on an informal basis (someone's home is best), talk about a potential church plant, dream about what kind of church you want, and then begin praying together on a regular basis! Start looking over the various websites of URC churches to help frame your vision for a future church.
6). Expend your group. Invite new people, consider running a local newspaper ad looking for interested parties, etc. You may want to consider setting up an escrow account and ask people to contribute to it. This will be the seed money needed to go further, and you should agree beforehand that should the church never become viable, the monies will all be returned to those who gave them.
7). Once you find a core group of interested people, begin a Bible-study devoted to the Three Forms of Unity. Don't do the bait and switch thing. Let everyone up front know what your intentions are. Start inviting additional people, continue the networking, etc. Make sure that the group prays together, seeking God's will and blessing upon a possible church plant.
8). Now you come to a decision point. This has to do with viability. If your group does not grow, if it flounders, or lacks unity and purpose, then take that as a sign that this is not yet God's will. But if the group grows, if a sense of unity and purpose develops, and people are truly excited about the prospects of planting a church, then press ahead. Start keeping an eye out for a place to worship.
9). When your group gets to 20 or more, and all signs are "go", then contact the nearest URC pastor to you (geographically) and see if their consistory would be willing to oversee the process of your group becoming a church. That congregation should be willing to assume the responsibility of walking you through the formal steps to getting a pastor, holding worship services, etc.
10). Realize that this will not happen overnight. When Mike Horton and I started talking about planting a church which eventually became Christ Reformed, it took nearly two years from the time we began talking, until we held our first service. And that was with radio support and interest. But let me tell you . . . it was well worth it!
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 08:24AM
Here's the link to the second lecture in my series "Amillennialism 101." The lecture is entitled "Interpreting Bible Prophecy" and deals with how our hermeneutical presuppositions influence the way we interpret prophetic passages.
