The Theological Basis for Apologetics

Theology is not beyond anyone. An example, General Motors used to run an intstitute, which would train people to become automotive engineers. People could receive, bachelor's master's and doctorate degrees. They produce well trained people for the automotive industry. However, one does not need to attend GM institute to learn to drive a car, or even become a mechanic. One can learn these things, and learn these things well without attending a prestigous school. If you can attend such a school, great, but do not attend the school thinking that is the only way you can learn to drive and work on cars. It is every believer's birthright to study theology. You are required to pay attention when studying theology as your eternal destiny depends on your theology. The more you study theology, the easier it becomes and the more interesting it becomes. One cannot simply escape studying theology. Anyone who studies the Bible and formulates an opinion, whether objective or biased, will ultimately be grounded in some sort of theology. There are many christians that say "Let's not worry about words, let's just love Jesus." Every church has a tendency to focus on small matters and forget about the larger matters. This idea that we should not worry about words dismisses the Bible, and what Christ taught. All we are left with, is our own idea of what it means to love Jesus. We should love the Christ of the Bible, not the Christ of our own imaginations. Theology is not irrelevant even though people may dismiss it as such and any opinion if it has a theological basis.

Epistemology

The study of how we can know. Our system of thought must answer that question. There are two related questions that must be answered: How can we know, and the second, what is the basis for moral behavior? Presently, the public school system is expected to teach values rather than provide an education. There are many problems with expecting this from a school system. But we must ask, if they are going to teach values, what values are they going to teach? What values are essential? Many people will say that tolerance is one value that must be taught as it is the greatest virtue. But it is not the greatest virtue. G.K. Chesterton once said "tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions." Tolerance of evil is not a virtue at all. Only when men are intolerant of evil, can we put evil behind us. So tolerance cannot be the ultimate virtue. Tolerance of good, is simply pointless. Nobody is going to go out of their way to declare that they are tolerant of universally good things. The only things we can be tolerant about morally neutral things like cultural differences, customs, languages etc. This brings us to another related question: How can we know what moral neutrality looks like if we are going to be tolerant of it? Christians can know what this may look like because we have the written word and the Spirit of God dwelling in us to guide us, but how can non-christians know what is morally neutral?

There are some systems of thought that non-christians hold to that we will look at. The first one is called Naturalism, or Materialism. This system says that matter is the ultimate reality, that all things are produced from some pre-existing material. According to this thought, matter can be predetermined by mathematics and science. It is also known as Ontological Reductionism, the idea that everything is predetermined by mathematics. However, the phenomona of information is an unpredictable factor that Materialism cannot account for and thus, the whole philosophy goes down the drain.

Barna research did a poll among Christian churches to see the varying differences groups of Christians have on a biblical world view. A biblical world view is defined as absolute truth existing and the standard of such truth is determined by the Bible, and a firm belief in six specific views.
They are: 1. Jesus lived a sinless life
2.God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe and still rules it today.
3.Salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned
4.Satan is real
5.A christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people
6. The Bible is accurate in all its teachings.
Southern Baptists, the largest evangelical denomination, only 29 percent of the pastors hold to a biblical world view. 51 percent of independent bible church pastors hold to a biblical world view. 13 percent of the average nondenominational church members hold to a biblical world view and 9 percent of born again believers hold to these teachings. Professing christians do not hold to sound views mainly because christians do not know how they can know the truth, due to a lack of proper understanding of scripture.

The first source of knowledge is observation. The second source of knowledge is instruction. The third source of knowledge is reason. However, each of these sources of knowledge is faulty. We can think we know something and be terribly wrong. Someone can be wrong in their instruction as well. Even reasoning is faulty; we think we have figured out the laws of physics, math, and chemistry, and we are still wrong more often than we are right. This becomes a huge problem in the area of religion. And so, if God exists, then He must give us a fourth source of knowledge. The fourth source is revelation, through the Bible. The first three sources are considered general revelation that all men have, and the fourth source is called special revealtion. General revelation is not sufficient to show the way of salvation- only special revelation through God's word can suffice that role. While general revelation is not as strong as special revelation, scripture itself points to proofs that general revelation is in itself, enough to believe in God. Consider Romans 1:18-20: "For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because the thing which may be known of God is clearly revealed unto them, for God revealed it to them. For the unseen things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being realized by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, for them to be without excuse." Let us look at one of the arguments for the existence of God based on general revelation.

The Cosmological Argument

The argument stated with motion as a variation: "It is certain . . . that . . . some things are in motion. Now whatever is moved is moved by another, for nothing can be moved except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is moved. . . . If that by which it is moved be itself moved, then this also must needs be moved by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover. . . . Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God." - Thomas Aquinas  

    
Two of the criticisms skeptics take to this line of argument is why there cannot be an infinite series of motion, and why must it stop with God? There are two possible types of series of motion one could be talking about. Aquinas himself would admit that an infinite series of motions would in theory, be possible. One person came from another person, and that person came from another person ad infinitum. This is considered a horizontal series of motion, and could theoretically go on forever. But there is a vertical series of motion that does not go on forever. Once a person is an adult and independent of their parents, they continue to be dependent on things that are essential to life such as water, air and other things. My existence is dependent on water for example. I can get water from my kitchen faucet and where did that water come from? A river, perhaps, or a resovoir. Where did it come from before there? The sky? And from there? Ultimately, it came from God, the creator.

Now, I said earlier that it would be theoretically possible for a horizontal series of motion to be infinite, but even in this scenario, it is not. An infinite series of numbers exists in the mind, but with humans and life in general, there had to be a first couple from which all other humans descended. Not only that, but atheists and skeptics make the error of assuming that all things must be created, which is not true. The Cosmological argument does not say that all things must have a designer behind it, but all created things must by necessity have a creator. The God of the Bible is not only the creator of all things, but is by definition, uncreated and self-existing.

1. The Christian Faith by Dallas Roark. (Broadman Press Edition, 1967)

Hebrews 1:5-7

Hebrews 1:5-7

"For unto which of the angels said he at any time, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?' And again, 'I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son?' And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, 'And let all the angels of God worship him.' Of the angels he saith, 'Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.'"

This series of verses in the first chapter of Hebrews references the Old testament several times. In order to understand these verses, it is best to look at each OT reference (in its own context) and see how the author of this epistle is using it here to uphold the deity and supremacy of Christ. The author starts out asking his reader the rhetorical question: "For unto which of the angels said He at any time 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?'" This is only the first part of verse five, the verse goes on as the author asks a second question, but we will pause here and look at the Old Testament reference he utilizes. The phrase "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" appears in Psalm 2:7, the context is found in vv. 6-8: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth." (Psalm 2:6-8 bold emphasis mine). This psalm is a messianic Psalm declaring the sovereign rule of the Lord in spite of the world's rejection of Him. Verses 6-8 show the Lord receiving all the earth for His inheritance, not just Israel, but the gentile nations too. Christ's sonship is on full display as God the Father Himself says "Thou art my Son..." So we return to Hebrews. The author quoting Psalm 2:7 asks which of the angels did God ever say that they were His Son. Not one of the angels could ever say that they were the Son of God. Jesus Christ is God's Son, not by adoption, but His begotten Son, the only begotten of the Father.

The second Old Testament verse that is referenced here in verse five is 2 Samuel 7:14: "I will be his Father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men." The surrounding context of this verse is the foundation of the Davidic covenant. The Lord has promised King David that the throne of his kingdom would be established forever, that David's seed would be set up and there would always be someone from the line of David ruling from Jerusalem. The phrase that the apostle emphasizes here in Hebrews is the first part, "I will be his Father and he shall be my son." This is where the Lord is referring to both Solomon and Christ, the rest of the verse obviously does not apply to Christ.

In verse six, the apostle quotes a verse out of Deuteronomy 32:43 but not out of the original Hebrew manuscripts; the author of Hebrews quotes out of the Septuagint, which reads: "Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people." The original Hebrew is quite different but the apostle reckoned the LXX to be scripture and so he quoted it thus. It's interesting to compare the LXX translation of this verse with an Hebrew-based English version such as the KJV. The KJV translates Deut. 32:43 as: "Rejoice O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people." It's amazing how the Holy Spirit uses the Septuagint in the New Testament, and I am thankful that God used the LXX translation of Deut. 32:43 instead of the standard Hebrew.

The Superiority of Christ to His Angels

The superiority of Christ to His heavenly & earthly servants.

Hebrews 1:1-14:

  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

A couple of weeks ago, I was a part of an evangelistic Bible study where one of the participants whether out of ignorance, or out of emotional zeal, made a statement that Christ is the highest archangel. I and other leaders in the study were swift to correct the error of this thinking. I turned to this passage in the epistle to the Hebrews as a basis to refute the heretical teaching that Christ is merely an angel.

Hebrews 1:1-2

God at certain times and in different ways communicated to His covenant people through the prophets, but now we in the dispensation of grace have received a fuller revelation through His Son, Jesus Christ the appointed heir of all things. The rule of progressive revelation shows that while the revelation saints of this dispensation is not greater than that of the revelation received by Abraham, Moses, and David, it is a fuller revelation. In the Old Testament, it was not the spirit of man, but the Spirit of Christ that testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow (1 Peter 1:10-12). But the prophets of whom the Spirit of Christ testified of these things in were not able to understand of all that they spoke of. The Son of God has spoken to us the fulfillment of the things the prophets spoke of and could not comprehend. As creator of both the superior and inferior worlds (Col. 1:16), the Son of God is heir of all things by right of creation. To this end, our Lord and Savior is greater than the prophets which did speak of Him. These verses also refute all notions that any false prophet (e.g. Muhammad, Joseph Smith, etc.) could be greater than Christ, or preach a greater gospel than Christ.

Hebrews 1:3-4

Matthew Henry writes: "The third verse here is a high description of the glorious Redeemer, an account of His personal excellency. The person of the Son is the glory of the Father, shining forth with a truly divine splendour. As the beams are effulgent emanations of the sun, the father and fountain of light, Jesus Christ in His person is God manifest in the flesh. He is light of light the true Shekinah."1 All things-- material and immaterial-- are held up by the word of His power, that is the power of Christ's word. What we know (or think we know) about the laws of physics would be changed drastically if we were to consider the truth of the power behind Christ's word. Having cleansed us of our sins, all by Himself, with no assistance from any man or angel, sat down at the right hand of God. As Son of God, Christ is eternally superior to all created angels and thus has always been "better" than the angels. As Son of Man, Christ received a more excellent name as a consequence of His humiliation, sufferings, and meritorious death. The author seems to implicate both aspects of the Sonship of Christ as to how He has received a superior name than the angels. Notice the construction of the third verse: it starts with a grand description of the glory of His deity and ends with the fact of His vicarious death and subsequent sitting down at the right hand of God. As Son of God, Jesus Christ is the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. As Son of Man, Christ is our representative, bearing our sins in His body. As Son of God, the name belongs to Christ naturally and essentially; it is His divine inheritance. As Son of Man, He was made in our likeness and was obedient to the death of the cross for which cause God exalted Him and gave Him a new name which is above every name (Phil. 2:9-11).

Sources: 1. Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

Notes on Heresy

       
        Notes on Heresy

The definitions of these two terms are often considered to be synonomous, but they are not. They are linked, but the truth is, as far back as the first century, heresies have subsisted amongst godly believers. Apostasy on the other hand, is more controversial as it pertains to eternal security and the possibility for a true believer to commit apostasy. These, and other issues will be taken up in this article and perhaps the next one as well.

Let us start by looking at heresy first. Heresy is a noun transliterated as "hairesis". It literally means "a choice, i.e., (specifically) a party [to associate oneself with], a sect. Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines heresy as: "a body of men following their own tenets, i.e. of the Sadducees, of the Pharisees, of the Christians etc., dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims." The term appears in 1 Corinthians 11:19 where Paul writes: "For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you."  According to the definitions listed, Paul was clearly alluding to what he had written earlier in the same epistle: "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (1 Cor. 3:3-4) If heresies literally means "divisions and parties, then Paul must have been referring back to his statement in chapter three where speaks about divisions. However, the word for divisions in the third chapter is not the same as the word for heresies in the eleventh chapter. The word for divisions in the third chapter is "dichostasia", and it literally means "disunion". So although "heresies" and "divisions" are not exactly the same thing, they are closely related. They are both listed in Galatians 5:20 as works of the flesh: "Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions [divisions], heresies. Acts 24:5, 14, and 28:22 all make reference to Christianity as being a heresy or sect. It is used once in Acts 24:5 when the orator Tertullus accuses Paul of being a "mover of sedition among... the Jews... and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:" In Acts 26:5 Paul uses the term sect in describing the Pharisees: "Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Notice that in all these verses "heresy" or "sect" is used in a negative context. Whether used by the Pharisees towards Christians, or by Paul towards the Pharisees, it was not a term of endearment to be called a heresy or sect.

What About Seditions?

Seditions is closely related to heresy as they both speak of divisions as pointed out in the last paragraph. The Greek word for seditions is found three times in the King James Version: Romans 16:17; 1 Cor. 3:3; and Galatians 5:20. Romans 16:17 contains one of the strongest and yet obscure warnings against those who are seditious in all of scripture. Here, Paul warns the Roman believers: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them." We are to call out those who do these two things: cause divisions and offences opposite to the doctrine we have learned of God, then we are to avoid them. Seditious behaviour itself while associated with heresy, is also associated with offences contrary to the doctrine of scripture, which is by definition, heresy. I do not think this is referring to all doctrine, but the doctrine we have learned of Christ that convinced us of our sin and need of a Saviour and of which we learned to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It is this doctrine that we must guard by marking and avoiding those who cause offences contrary to these essential doctrines. The word for offences in the seventeenth verse of Romans 16 is "skandalon" and is where we get the english word "scandal". It is translated as "stumblingblock" in Rev. 2:14 and "occasion of stumbling" in 1 John 2:10 among other verses. Rev. 2:14 reads: "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." The stumblingblock then, was not only an offense to God, it was also scandalous behaviour that eventually brought a plague upon the congregation of Israel. (Num. 31:16)

Examples of heresy, seditions, or offenses contrary to sound doctrine which we have learned might be baptismal regeneration, or universal salvation of mankind because either of these false doctrines present a very real possibility of a person stumbling in their understanding of who Christ is, His work on the cross, and who they are as a sinner. The false doctrine of continuation of sign gifts in this generation should not be looked on as a heresy or sedition unless the person holding to it makes the doctrine a deciding factor in whether or not other believers are truly saved. Then, they would be guilty of causing division but the problem would not rest in their understanding of the use of tongues but in their understanding of salvation.

Notes on Repentance and Salvation of the Soul.

Notes on Repentance and Salvation of the Soul

In scripture, the word 'repent' and its various cognates appear a total of one hundred and six times in ninety nine verses. In the Old Testament, 'repent' appears forty-one times. Both biblical languages have two main words for 'repent'. In Hebrew, the words are transliterated as "naw-kham" and "shoob". "Naw-kham" is used in the majority of the verses in the Old Testament and it literally means "to be sorry, to pity, console oneself, rue; or, to avenge (oneself). The other, "shoob", means to turn back (hence, away) and it is translated as repent only three times in the Old testament.

In the New testament there are two words that are used for the verb form of repent and one for the noun form. The two verbs are "metanoeo" and "metamelomai". The first is very much like "shoob" of the OT. It also has to do with a change of mind and would be considered to be the intellectual aspect of repentance. The second word, "metamelomai", is used significantly less in the New Testament and implies feelings of guilt. It is the emotional aspect of repentance but does not necessarily mean one is truly repentant. It is used in Matthew 27:3 of Judas: "Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented of himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,". Judas himself repented of his treachery but it was not true repentance as he did not seek forgiveness for his sin.

Often times believers and non-believers alike can get confused on the meaning of 'repentance for salvation'. People tend to think that that when the word 'repentance' is used in this way it means to turn away from a sinful lifestyle. This thinking leads some to believe in works-based salvation or lordship salvation. Of course, this is not how the Gospels and the New testament uses the term 'repentance' in reference to salvation and justification.

Because of the confusion, believers who are ignorant of how repentance is used in the New testament tend to go to one of two extremes. They will either preach a works-based gospel which states that a person must stop committing sin in order to be saved, or they will leave repentance out of the gospel altogether. The latter route is known as the "feel good gospel" because according to those who preach this "we just need to show the love of Jesus." By looking at how repentance is used in the gospels, we will see that neither option is scriptural.

In the New testament, the verb 'metaneo' is primarily used for 'repentance'. The first time it is used is in Matt. 3:2: "And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Luke uses 'metaneo' for repentance in recording the Lord's great commission to His disciples (Luke 24:47). It is also used in Revelation 2:5,16,21,22 and Rev. 3:3,19. Each of these six verses that 'repent' is used in the letters to the seven churches it means "to turn away from." Verse 5 makes use of 'metaneo' twice:"Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Here, the Lord is commanding the saints at Ephesus to repent, or turn away from, of their having departed their first love, Himself.

Notice that in the gospels Christ never exhorted publicans and harlots to feel a sense of guilt for their sinful behavior and lifestyle. Of the five churches that were commanded to repent, none of them were commanded to feel a sense of guilt, neither. A sense of guilt is important yes, it has its place, but not in preaching the gospel, or in restoring a backslidden brother in Christ. Remorse, sorrowful feelings for sins committed must come from within an individual. You cannot force such feelings upon another person, you can only preach the awfulness of sin and the depravity of man. The Spirit will work in the person if they have not hardened their hearts and they will feel remorse in time.

If Christ, John the Baptist, and all the apostles commanded sinners everywhere to repentance, but did not pressure men and women into feeling remorseful for sins committed, what did they preach repentance from? Quite simply, they preached repentance from the sin of unbelief. It is unbelief that keeps a person from accepting Christ as their Savior, and it is this that everyone must turn away from.

All men and women are born with a flawed view of who Christ is and what He has done for us. Some of us are raised thinking that while Christ died for the whole world, He hasn't died for me personally. Others are raised with the belief that Christ was just a good man but not God. There are many other views that people of the world have about Christ. Views that separate one from receiving forgiveness and a relationship with God. Every one must turn away from and reject these misconceptions and false views, and every Christian must preach true repentance which can only result in a turning away from such views!

Dealing with False Teachers in 2 John

2 John 1:5-11

“And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his deeds.”  

Here in John’s second epistle, he writes to a woman at an assembly of believers he is in contact with. He gives the lady and the assembly she is in fellowship at the same exhortation to do the commandments of the Lord. There was no new commandment to give this group of believers, nor are there any for today’s believers. It is the commandment you have heard from the beginning dear saint, from the time you believed on Christ and made the decision to follow Him. We are to love one another, all believers ought to have this affection towards each of his brothers and sisters in the Lord. But there are many who assume the name and appearance of a christian and yet deny Christ. If they were common enough in John’s time for him to write that ‘many deceivers are entered into the world’ then the deceivers have waxed in number over the millenia. John’s second epistle offers some great reminders not only to walk in the commandment to love one another as the Lord has commanded us, but also some much needed advice on how to deal with false teachers and apostates who take the name of Christ. 

It can be quite easy to forget this little epistle as so many of us have before, but without it, we who stand fast in the faith would be inclined to show hospitality as hospitality is a trait of love, to all believers– even the apostates. This is precisely the reason why John did not simply give this elect lady an exhortation to continue in the commandment of love but also issued this important warning of deceivers and antichrists who deny that Christ had come in the flesh. 

During this period of church history, the heresy of gnosticism was on the rise. A man named Cerinthus was one of the most well known teachers of gnosticism. He taught that Jesus of Nazareth was just a man who received the Christ at His baptism, and the Christ left Him in the garden of Gethsemane. Cerinthus did not believe in the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, or in His deity. He denied that Christ had come in the flesh and gained a wide following with his teachings. His teachings continue to abound to this day, with many famous Hollywood actors and actresses, Jane Fonda and Shirley Maclaine to name a few. 

If a person claims to be a christian but denies either explicitly or implicitly that Christ– the pre-existent Son of God– came in the flesh and dwelt among men, then that person is an antichrist. Other christians are not to welcome that person into their home, no matter how pleasant and friendly they may be. Believers are called to suffer many things; we are sometimes called to suffer shame, reproach, affliction, persecution, and more. But one thing we can not suffer in our homes or in the assembly at large is a false teacher who denies either the humanity of deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

If a professor of the faith transgresses the standard of the doctrine of Christ and departs from thence, they do not have the Spirit dwelling in them. It is not that they lose the Spirit, for that is impossible, but that they never had it to begin with. However, if a professor abides or, remains, in the doctrine of Christ, they have both the Father and the Son as well as the Spirit. This teaching is not to be confused with Perseverance of the Saints that is taught in Calvinist theology. Perseverance of the Saints is better known as Lordship salvation which is endorsed by the calvinist John MacArthur. Another teaching that deviates from 2 John 1:9 is the Arminian teaching known as Uncertainty of Perseverance. 

Ironically, the Calvinist teaching on eternal security is very similar to the Arminian teaching. Calvinists teach that if one is surely elect, they will persevere in the faith; Arminians teach that anyone– elect or non-elect– can get saved, but they can lose their salvation if they commit a horrible sin or a great number of sins. In short, Calvinism teaches that no one can be assured of their salvation, Arminianism teaches that anyone who is saved is not secure in their salvation. 

You must remain in the doctrine of Christ so that you may remain in the Father and the Son. It does not have to do with good works, or not sinning, but holding fast to strong doctrine. If we remain in the doctrine of Christ, which Paul calls the doctrine of godliness in his letters to Timothy, we will be exercised to produce good works and keep from habitual sin. So the doctrine of Christ or the doctrine of godliness, has many benefits, chief among them being kept in the hands of the Father and the Son. 

If there come any into our gatherings who do not bear this doctrine, we are not to welcome them into our homes as we would with other believers. We are not even to bid them God speed or some other courteous line of farewell. Letting them into our homes could affect our testimony in some way if our neighbors see us letting in some false teachers such as mormons or JW’s. If our neighbors see us extending hospitality to these false teachers, they may assume that these cults are as orthodox as we are. If on the other hand, they see us telling them to not come back to our house, or some other unwelcome statement, they should get the picture. 

Even wishing them well, these false teachers, is spoken against by the apostle John. While we may be sincere in our intentions to be polite by wishing them well, we must not, for that would cause us to enter into fellowship with them. It would be a loose sense of fellowship, nevertheless the word “partaker” used in verse 11 means to enter into fellowship with another. In the apostle’s day bidding someone God speed also carried along with it the sense of supporting someone financially if they were in need. Today, it is equally important to neither support false teachers or verbally assent to their teachings. In no way, shape or form do we want to make ourselves look like we are in concord with Belial (2 Corinthians 6:15). 

1 John 2:18-22

1 John 2:18-22

“Little children, it is the last time. And just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be revealed that they were not all of us. But you have an anointing of the Holy One, and you know all things. I have written unto you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist.”

Here in John’s epistles we do not see so much of a description of apostasy but the confirmation of apostates in the first epistle and how to deal with them in the second epistle.

All apostates deny the truth while trying to convince others they can do what Christ did or preserve what He did. This is what makes them apostate. It is also how we know we are in the last days. There are many apostates in the Church today who deny Christ. But, then again, since the end of the first century, there have always been those who deny Christ but not His name.

When the nineteenth verse states: ‘they went out from us, but they were not of us...’ it is not referring to the local church, nor is it referring to loss of salvation. It would be entirely inconsistent for it to refer to loss of salvation as so many verses throughout scripture make it plain that one who is truly saved can not lose their salvation regardless of what they do or others may say. Likewise, it would also render the text nonsensical if the apostle were stating that these apostates had departed from the local church, although it is likely true they had. The apostle John was referring to the greater picture, that they had departed from the doctrines that are essential to salvation, they were no longer identifying themselves with the risen Savior. If they had been truly saved John reasons, they would have remained in the faith, holding to a conservative viewpoint on areas such as sin, repentance, faith and forgiveness. If they had held to a conservative, traditional view on these and other crucial areas, they would have remained, perhaps not at the fellowship of saints to where John was writing, but they would have remained in the sphere of general fellowship that all believers have. It was convenient for the believers in fact, for the departure of the apostates made it easy to identify who was truly saved.

Now, after reading verse twenty in the KJV, I was curious to know what the word ‘unction’ means. It sounds like “chrisma” when transliterated from the original Greek, and probably is the root for “Charisma”. It means unguent, ointment, or anything smeared on. The Levite priests had a special ointment that they would pour over their heads, so in this sense, they had an “unction”. As believer-priests, we christians also have an unction, an unction from the Spirit. This pouring on of the Spirit that all saints receive at the moment of salvation is what allows us to know all things. This is something that the apostates who depart from us do not have, they do not know all things especially things that pertain to spiritual matters.

John did not write unto them because his “children” did not know the truth, as some were disposed to believe. Rather, it was the fact that they did know the truth that he wrote unto them. No lie is of the truth he warns them. However reasonable a doctrine may sound, if it is not of the truth, it is a lie. Many unsound doctrines are formulated sincerely and earnestly by well-meaning teachers of the word. But these doctrines are not the sincere milk of the word. And so believers must be careful and discerning when reading their Bibles and should they come across a difficult passage, it is best to prayerfully meditate over it for a period of time before coming to a conclusion about what it is teaching. Even more importantly, we must be careful when we read books written by men, books that support a theology or philosophy irrespective of what school of theology the author may belong to. Theologically, I describe myself as a Dispensationalist and eschew both Calvinism and Arminianism as systems of soteriological thought. However, I still must be on my guard when reading theology books written by Dispensational authors. In the same manner, I can glean many things from both Calvinists and Arminians as long as I keep my distance from their views on the doctrines of grace. I must remind myself that no lie is of the truth. Henceforth, no theological system is entirely free (although some are more free than others or else I would not consider myself a Dispy) of producing unsound, untruthful doctrines that can harm the body of Christ.

John asks the rhetorical question “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” It is meant to make his readers think for a moment about who could be more of a liar than one who denies Jesus as Christ. That’s right, no one is more of a liar than the one who denies the Lord. He who denies Christ is an antichrist, one who assails the Lord while professing His kinship. He does not only deny the Lord, but he denies God the Father who sent Him also.