You must know how to read and understand the Bible before you try to defend it!

Date:   9/9/2005 10:31:57 AM ( 19 y ago)

Exegesis, determining the intended message of the author (also referred to as "author hermeneutic"), is something you need to have a good handle on before actually giving a defense for your beliefs, which is what "apologetics" is all about. Let's go back to the salvation/ES issue for an example.

1 Corinthians 15

15:1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve...

15:12 Now if Christ is being preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty. 15:15 Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised. 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your sins. 15:18 Furthermore, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. 15:19 For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone.

It seems obvious here that Paul is saying belief in Christ's resurrection is essential for salvation. The statement in verse 2 about a "vain" faith is in the overall context of the resurrection, and in verse 14 we see it plainly stated that this "vain faith" is unbelief in Christ's resurrection from the dead. Some only look at verse 2 and claim salvation can be lost, but even on its own it doesn't speak of a lost salvation but a faith that was in the wrong object-- a Christ that did not rise from the dead. In other words, if something is done "in vain" it is a waste of time, a doomed effort from the beginning. So these people, if they rejected the resurrection, had a faith that did not save them, because it was not faith in the RISEN Christ.

Now let's look at another instance where Paul speaks of the Gospel and the Resurrection, Galatians:

1:1 From Paul, an apostle (not from men, nor by human agency, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead) 1:2 and all the brothers with me, to the churches of Galatia. 1:3 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 1:4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, 1:5 to whom be glory forever and ever! Amen.

1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel— 1:7 not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 1:8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! 1:9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! 1:10 Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ!

1:11 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 1:12 For I did not receive it or learn it from any human source; instead I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified! 3:2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3:3 Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? 3:4 Have you suffered so many things for nothing? —if indeed it was for nothing. 3:5 Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

3:6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, 3:7 so then, understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 3:9 So then those who believe are blessed along with Abraham the believer.

5:4 You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace! 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight—the only thing that matters is faith working through love.

First we see that the Galatians were believers in the crucified Christ, who then received the Spirit through this belief. But they were being sidetracked by "agitators" who were telling them faith was no longer enough, that they were in danger of being cast away by lack of good deeds, legalistic righteousness. These who were "trying to be declared righteous by the law" were alienated and had "fallen away from grace". Does that phrase mean they were now lost?

And we see in verse 21 a warning to these believers (he had warned these same people before) against practiciing evil which would result in them not inheriting "the kingdom of God". In 6:6-9 we see reference to reaping and sowing, where the one who practices evil reaps "corruption from the flesh" but the one who "sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit".

But notice that Paul keeps referring to them as "brothers and sisters" (see 5:13 for example). Would he refer to the lost as "brothers and sisters"? Hardly. Look now at what he says to the Ephesians:

1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

How do we reconcile these passages, when some speak of "not inheriting the kingdom of God" and others say we have been marked and sealed with a down payment that guarantees our inheritance "until the redemption of god's own possession"? The only possible solution is to understand that "not inherit the kingdom of God" does not speak of loss of salvation in this context. Along with many other scriptures referenced in the ES/OSAS blog entry, there is clearly a strong case for the impossibility of loss of salvation. We cannot simply ignore the verses that upset our preconceived views! NOSAS cannot ignore the promises of God and the seal of the Holy Spirit, and OSAS cannot simply ignore the warnings about falling away. So we must conclude that "falling away" does not mean loss of salvation but loss of reward.

Apologetics is not always easy, because as this example illustrates, it takes the study of quite a lot of scripture to see the whole picture. We spend our whole lives in Sunday School but never make good use of the time, preferring instead to endlessly repeat the comfortable and easy surface-scratching that makes us feel religious. This blog entry is about digging deeper, about "ask, seek, knock" as Jesus said. He won't force-feed you, you've got to ask. With Paul I would say,

1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, 1:18 —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 1:19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 1:20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 1:21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 1:22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and he gave him to the church as head over all things. 1:23 Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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