DOES THE SUN RISE AND SET DAILY

Part Two

Another example of this culturally directed use of science in education was the insistence by our science teachers that the sun doesn't really rise and set. We were supposed to think in terms of the earth spinning on its axis as it orbits the sun. You know, like those wall charts with the sun at the center and all the planets going around it in elliptical orbits. That's the way things really are. We were supposed to realize that such an out-in-space perspective on things articulates reality much more correctly than our terrestrial perspective ever could. And, indeed, there are some special, technical situations where an out-in-space frame-of-reference is more useful than a terrestrial one. Like sending a spacecraft to give us a closer look at Jupiter and Saturn. Useful or not though, it is a bit much to claim that such an out-in-space perspective is more accurate that our usual, terrestrial one is, just because there are some uses for such a perspective. On the whole, there are comparatively few such uses in the life of humanity. Here again though, we were taught that because our everyday frame-of-reference is naive, we need science to give us the correct perspective on reality.

Now, don't get me wrong. What I'm saying is not anti-science. It would be silly to sit here and deny subatomic phenomena or our galactic environment. And, in fact, I'm not trying to do that. I am taking exception though, to the cultural imposition of a particular, supposedly "scientific" attitude toward reality which is really a philosophic attitude. An attitude that insinuates that our human scale of reality is somehow less real than the subatomic scale of things——that our scale of experience is merely a second-hand, statistical impression of what's real——just because someone in a lab coat discovered subatomic structure in things. It simply does not follow that if we identify subatomic structure in a desk, for example, that the desk we see is less real than the particles and forces we don't see; as if the whole desk is nothing more than its subatomic parts. Or, more to the point, that "reality" is nothing more than a label to identify the furthest limits of our atomistic reduction of things. And that since only the sciences can "see" this reality, it is to the sciences that we must turn if we are ever to understand reality at all.

It's silly to insist that it is inaccurate or primitive, to talk about the sun rising and setting. Of course the sun rises and sets! It's not a matter of accuracy, but of being consistent with a particular frame-of-reference. And from here on earth, the sun rises and sets. It really rises and sets. There's nothing more realistic about an out-in-space view of things. The problem is that when "reality" is defined according to the prevailing theoretical view of things, then every time someone in science comes up with new numbers or a new spin on old numbers, we are expected to react by changing our whole view of what reality is.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Post #196

CULTURE ATTITUDE TOWARD CHRISTIANS

WHAT ABOUT SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE

Part One

Do we need to know sciences to understand the Bible? Is it Reality or Science:

• This cultural attitude toward Christians and what we believe is nowhere more evident than in that part of our culture interested in things "scientific". Not that science is the only cultural activity where this attitude exists. Nor can it be said that everyone in science shares such an attitude. They don't. It's just that in public institutions that are passing on our culture, science holds a special place. A place that has made it the most powerful and authoritative cultural tool in our society's rejection of God. It hasn't caused that rejection. But it is being used to legitimize that rejection just the same.

• For decades now, we have been taught that reality lies beyond our everyday, human faculties. And that the sciences offer our only objective interface with reality——the only way for us to really get in touch with the way things are. In school, to drive this lesson home, we were told that the desks upon which our elbows rested were not really what they seemed to be. They were really made up of mostly "space" (referring to the 'spaces' in the atomic and subatomic structure of the material that makes up the desk). It was supposed to follow that our confidence in the solidness of desks was, therefore, something of an illusion——a sort of crude approximation of reality. What we were so sure we knew about our desks was really just an impression derived from our rather dull senses and their inability to precisely engage reality. Thinking of the desks as "solid" is as close to reality as we can expect to come, left to ourselves. Through the sciences though we know better. (Oh, we may still talk about "solid" desks if we want to. But only as a naive convention of language. Because the desks aren't really solid, after all).

• This lesson was supposed to impress upon our young minds that we need science in order to correctly articulate reality. And that it is through the sciences, rather than religion, that we actually come to understand reality. And further, that it is upon the sciences, rather than religion, that we must build engaged and relevant and responsible lives for ourselves, especially if we intend to be practical about things.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH WAS THE ACTS CHURCH

Part Four

Review:
First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Second, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY WE EXPECT ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH ON A LARGE SCALE?

Part Four
THEY WERE A DEVOTED CHURCH:

THEY WERE A HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH
THEY WERE A UNITED CHURCH

• We read of them that they were so united that they had all things in common, and they daily continued with one accord in the church. There were no parties among them, no petty conflict and divisions, they loved the Lord too well for that If you divide the church within itself, you also divide it from the mighty operations of the Spirit of God. Be full of love to one another, and then you may expect that God the Holy Spirit will fill you with blessing.

THEY WERE A GENEROUS CHURCH:

• The Lord will never bless a church of cheapskates; if they are skinflints they may keep their worship to themselves, for God is a generous God, and He loves to have a generous people. They sold what they had, and gave to those who had needs.
  

THEY WERE A CONTINUAL CHURCH

• Again, these people were in such a condition that their homes were holy places.

• What about this idea that they met in their homes?
  

1. I want you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and ate their food with gladness and singleness of heart.
2. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the House of God.
3. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were so mixed and mingled with the Lord's Supper that to this day the most cautious student of the Bible cannot tell when they stopped eating their common meals, and when they began eating the Supper of the Lord.
4. They elevated their meals into diets for worship: they so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness to the Lord.
5. I wish our houses were, in this way, dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all day long, and made our homes temples for the living God.

1. A footnote: My earliest days in my parents’ home, my remembrance is filled with people coming to our home on a daily basis. After Charity and I were married, and in our first youth ministry in Wooster, Ohio, our home was our church youths’ home. When we pastored at First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas, our home was never our house, but the place where our members were always there.
   

Does God need a house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crude ignorance this is! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does, and there is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to the fear of the Lord. A Christians home is always a Christian home.

I have already mentioned that they were a praying church, and that accounted greatly for the increase.
They were a devout church, a church which did not forget any part of the Lord's will.
They were a baptized church,
They were a church that continually celebrated the Lord’s Supper, in the church; and they had a meal with others in their home daily. so we can see that they were obedient to Christ in both ordinances.

They were also a joyful church. We find that they ate their food with gladness. Their religion was not of the somber type which comes from doubts and fears. They were believers in a risen Redeemer, and though they knew that they would soon be persecuted, they rejoiced so much that everybody could see heaven shining on their faces, and might have known that they believed in the blessed gospel, for they were a blessed people.

They were also a praising church, for it is said they "praised God, and they had favor with all the people." Oh, may the Lord make this church and all the churches around us to be as holy and joyful as that apostolic community.

3A. WHAT RESPONSIBILITIES DO THESE ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH BRING TO THE CURRENT MEMBERSHIP

• To those who come into the church it needs to be said: Please do not join our fellowship as a member unless you are saved.
• As for us (the current membership) who will receive the converts, what is our responsibility?
• First, to welcome them wholeheartedly. Let us open wide the door of our hearts and say, "Come and welcome," for Jesus Christ's sake.
• After welcoming them we must watch over them, and when so many are added, double care is needed
• Let the watching be done by all the members: by the officers of the church first, and then by every individual

Guide them and cheer them on. Help their weakness, bear with their ignorance and impulsiveness, and correct their mistakes

THIS IS A LITTLE DESCRIPTION OF THE KIND OF CHURCH IN THE BOOK OF ACTS.

If we want to have an Acts kind of Church, we need to know what kind of Church was in Jerusalem.

Drafted By Charles E. Whisnant, March 25, 2007 Proof Checked or Read by my lovely wife of thirty-seven years. 9 months 11 days, and several hours

TWO PAINFULLY LEARNED AND IMMENSELY IMPORTANT LESSONS

BY MARK DEVER

Personally, over the last fifty years I have seen too many pastors/preachers who have left the ministry for sinful behavior. Some have been men whom I have known personally. I have known good men who have been in ministry for years, and from the outside you would think God hadn't blessed their ministry. I believe men who sin can be forgiven and be blessed by the Lord. I also believe good men can have a ministry that would seem not so successful yet have a wonderful relationship with the Lord.

I read this article by Mark Dever on this subject and I have posted his remarks below.

A recent conversation with a good friend reminded me of two of the most painfully learned lessons of my life. I thought I would briefly share them with you.

There was a minister I dearly loved (and still do) who proved unfaithful in his ministry. Paul says in I Cor. 4:2 that "it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." None of us do it perfectly. This one friend proved spectacularly unfaithful, that is, the unfaithfulness was of a serious and on-going nature, and it was revealed suddenly.

For three to four months it was like I had a second job taking phone calls from around the world counselling with friends--especially young ministers--who were deeply shaken. It was a terrible time, and one in which God's gospel stood as clear and bright as ever, and the hope of heaven became even sweeter.

As I reflected on the time, two lessons especially stood out to me. The first is for all Christians, the second especially for pastors.

The first lesson was provoked when one dear brother reproached himself for not reaching out more to this mutual friend, not asking more questions about how our mutual friend was doing. I told him that I had met with this friend weekly and often asked him many questions. I didn't think he (my self-reproachful friend) was so much in the wrong as our mutual friend was wrong for not being honest.

• Lesson number one: no accountability relationships will work if there is not a commitment to honesty on the part of the person in question. The problem wasn't a lack of initiative toward him; the problem was his hiding the truth from us. If I am committed to my sin above a humble, self-revealing honesty, then I can't rely on any accountability structure or loving friendships to expose my sin and protect my soul. I must remember that if I am to war against sin, I must labor to be embarassingly transparent.

The second lesson was more particularly for those engaged in public ministry. Many Christians will make pious statements about God refusing to bless a ministry because of sin in the minister's life, or holiness being the essential ingredient in a pastor's ministry. Many other statements like that are in the literature. And certainly holiness is a necessarily present mark of any true ministry--or true Christian life, for that matter. BUT, and here's

• lesson number two: the public success of your ministry is no indication of the true state of your relationship with God. Yes, preachers should meet the qualifications Paul lays out in I Tim. 3 & Titus 1, but God is not limited to using people who do. In Scripture we see God using beasts (Balaam's donkey), inanimate objects (the burning bush) even Satan himself to do His bidding. We shouldn't be surprised that God can sovereignly have His truth preached through the mouths of hypocrites. My brother minister, are you in a time of public blessing? Don't assume that necessarily has anything to do with how your own relationhip with the Lord is.

Those are the two lessons, shared briefly with you. Behind them are months of painful experience, tears, prayers, and countless conversations. I hope they may be useful to you now. That would be a good use of the sorrows of many brothers and sisters.

Posted on March 20, 2007 on Together For The Gospel

Charles E. Whisnant 03 28 2007

THE ACTS KIND OF CHURCH?

YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ACTS KIND OF CHRISTIAN

Part Three

These people were in such a condition that their homes were holy places.

First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Second, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS MAY WE EXPECT ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH ON ALARGE SCALE?

Can we expect additions to the church on a daily basis?. Or every Sunday in the services?

• Every Sunday at FBC in Hammond people were added to the church, I would say every day some were added to the church. While at Gideon Baptist Church in Fort Worth, for forty two weeks we saw Christ adding to the Church.

I fear that many churches would not be content with a ministry whose power would lie solely in the Holy Spirit. I hear a lot of churches who say they want to be an Acts kind of Church. They say they want to have that Holy Spirit power of that early church. What then would be the result of that kind of church?

A Holy Spirit ministry, if Peter is the model, is one which is bold, clear, telling, and persuasive.

• One which tells men that Jesus is the Christ, and that they have crucified Him, and calls on them to repent and turn to the Lord.
• The truly sent preacher speaks out straight and plain, and home to the conscience, whether men will hear or whether they will refrain.
• The Holy Spirit minister chooses Jesus for his main theme, as Peter did. He did not speak to them about modern science and the ways of twisting Scripture into agreement with it.
  He cared nothing for the rumblings of the philosophies of the Greeks; but he went right on preaching Christ crucified and Christ risen from the dead.
• When he had preached Christ, he made a pointed personal appeal to them and said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." He was not afraid to give such an exhortation; he was not like some who say, "We must warn sinners and then leave them; we may preach Christ to them, but may not request them to repent;" but he boldly preached the gospel and left it to his Master to send it home by the power of the Holy Spirit. That was the sort of sermon which God blesses.
• The man was full of God, and God shone through the man, and worked with him, and forgiveness of sins was sought and was found through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by a vast number of souls. May God send to all his churches a Holy Spirit ministry!

• But if there are to be many additions to the church it must next be a Holy Spirit church.

A Holy Spirit filled church, as most churches desire, will have additions to the church.

What is a Holy Spirit church? Well, it is a church baptized into His power, and this will be known first by its being devoted.

• Read the 42nd verse: "They devoted themselves." He will not bless a church which is excited and then relapses, is carried away by every novelty, and does not know what it believes, but a church which lives in Jesus and in his truth.

THEY WERE A DEVOTED CHURCH: FOUR POINTS.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

1. In the apostle's teaching. They were a doctrinal church, they believed in being devoted to the unmovable truth; they did not belong to the shifty generation of men who plead that their views are progressive, and that they cannot hold themselves bound by a ordinary creed.. If God does not save men by truth he certainly will not save them by lies, and if the old gospel is not competent to work a revival, then we will do without the revival; we will keep to the old truth, anyhow, come what may! Our flag is nailed to the pole.
2. Next they were devoted in fellowship. They loved each other, and they continued doing so. They conversed with one another about the things of God, and they did not give up the conversation. They helped each other when they were in need, and they continued in such kindness. They were true brethren, and their fellowship was not broken.
   Have you noticed the conversation in most church fellowships is not doctrine, or the cross, or Christ; but it’s farming, baseball, and apple pie. First century Acts believers had Christ on their lips daily in the Temple and in their homes.
3. Next they continued in the breaking of bread, which is a delightful ordinance, and never to be despised or underestimated. As often as they could they celebrated the death of Christ, until he would come again. They delighted the dear memorials of his sacred passion, both in the church. I will mention later what they did in their homes.
4. They also remained devoted in prayer. Mark that! God cannot bless a church which does not pray, and churches must increase in supplication if they would increase in strength. Sacred insistent requests must surround the throne of God, and then the blessing will be given. Oh, children of the heavenly King, you hamper the Spirit and hinder the blessing if you restrain prayer. Their prayer would say, "Lord add to your church, my mother, dad, and family, and friends." Their prayer was directed to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of others.
   

As we look into the first group of believers following Pentecost, they were people from all over the area, they were now new believers in Jesus Christ. The same Jesus that had been put to death on a Cross. Now some of them had been a part of Jesus death. They now were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were 1st Century Christians.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant

THE ACTS KIND OF CHURCH, YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ACTS KIND OF CHRISTIAN

Part Two

The church has no right to exclude any of the saved because their knowledge or experience is not that of advanced believers. If they believe in Jesus and are saved, then the babes belong to the family and ought to be received, the lambs belong to the flock and ought not to be kept outside the fold.

Church membership is not a certificate of advanced Christianity, it is simply the recognition of the profession of saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Again the text says, "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." They were really "added" to the church. I am afraid certain persons' names are added to the church, but they themselves are not. Be careful about adding those whom Christ has not added.

A true church is a living entity, and only living men and women made alive by the Spirit of God are fit to be grafted into it, and the grafting must be done by the Lord himself, otherwise it is no true addition to the church of the Living God.The church is a living organism, alive, full of life, John MacArthur often says.

Some members are only tied on to the church, and they are neither useful nor an enhancement, just as a dead branch fastened to a tree would add no beauty to it, and would certainly bear no fruit. There must be a living union, so that the life which is in the church will join with the life that is in the man or the woman, and the one life of the one living Spirit will flow through the whole of the body.

Every member that has been added by Christ will be a part of the living organism and will desire to have their name along side every other member of the body.

Another point in the text is this, that "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." There were additions to the church every day. Every day God added to the church in Jerusalem.

• "Some churches, if they have an addition once in twelve months make as much noise over that one as a hen does when she has laid an egg" Spurgeon.

But, you answer, or counter, we are not preaching daily. That may be, but we ought to be; if not daily in the pulpit, there should be the daily preaching of the life, and if all the members of the church were daily teaching of Jesus Christ from house to house, a daily sowing would bring a daily reaping; if we were daily praying with earnestness, and daily using every effort we could by the power of the Holy Spirit; and if daily the church lived in fellowship with her master, we would soon see added to it daily those who were being saved.

Most of my earlier experience in my dad’s church, there was the expectation that many would be added to the church weekly.

• When we were in First Baptist Church in Hammond there was the expectation that daily people would be added to the church.
• When we were at Madison Baptist Church, we expected to see people added to the church membership via Christ’s addition.
• "Why don’t we see it," says one, "in many churches?"

Why, because many churches do not believe in it. If there were many converts added to them, they would say, ""Yes, we hear of a great many additions, but what are they? We hope they will hold on," or some such unkind remark.

• John MacArthur has said: "Doing the Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way will result in the Lord adding to His Church."

A SURE SIGN OF A GOD-REJECTED CHURCH:

• God will not cause His children to be born where there is no one to nurse them; He will be sure not to send converts to churches which do not want them
• He will not have His lambs snarled over and kept out in the cold for months together to see whether they will howl as wolves or bleat as sheep.
• He loves to see His people watchful for new converts, and watchful over them. The Good Shepherd would have us feed His lambs, gather them in from the cold field of the world, and carry them to some warm sheltered place, and nurture them for Him.
• When He sees a church ready to do that, then will He send them his lambs, but not till then.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant Check by Charity Whisnant

Stand for One-Man, One-Woman Marriage- Support Coach Tony Dungy

Pro-gay activists are bent on denying Super Bowl-winning Coach Tony Dungy, of the Indianapolis Colts, his First Amendment right to free speech. The cause of the Left's ire? Dungy's support for protecting marriage as the union of a man and a woman

Dungy recently accepted a Friend of the Family award from the Indiana Family Institute (IFI). IFI is a state-based family policy council associated with Focus on the Family. During his acceptance speech, Coach Dungy announced his support for Indiana's state marriage-protection amendment, which would define marriage between a man and a woman in the state constitution

"We're not anti-anything else. We're not trying to downgrade anyone else," Dungy explained at the IFI event. "But we're trying to promote the family –– family values the Lord's way."

Since his comments became public, several pro-gay groups have called on Dungy to retract his comments and support for the marriage amendment, and on the Colts organization to censure their coach.

Personally I support the Word of God on this matter.

This is a issue that is no issue with God.

Homosexuality is biblically wrong.

The cure:

A new life in Christ Jesus as Saviour, Lord:

"How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him (Christ) that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth, we should not serve sin."

Romans 6:2, 6