Iron Sharpening Iron: A Biblical Guide for the God-Honoring American Man

Part 1: Selfless Service

Signing of the Mayflower Compact 1620

³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40).

Chapter 1: The God-Honoring American Man

God desires for His saints to possess the character of His Son Jesus Christ and works at bringing transformation (Phil 1:6). This is the impetus behind the Messiah’s declaration we read above. Jesus reduces the Law of Moses (613 distinct commandments) down to only two: the chief commandment, which harkens us back to Dt 6:4-5, love for God, and its counterpart from Lev 19:18, love for man. This first commandment is the Christian’s foremost principle from which all duties and actions should flow, and the end to which all should be done. This first commandment is a summation of the first four commandments of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.¹⁰ The second commandment is the corresponding, reciprocal principle, which is only made possible by observing the first. This second commandment is a summation of the fifth to tenth commandments of the Decalogue. As mentioned before, the first four commandments teach us to love God, while the last six teach us to love our neighbor (Ex 20:1-17). Love for God comes first because we cannot love another person until we love God. Moreover, if we do not honor God, we will not truly honor one another.

The Scottish theologian Henry Scougal wrote: The love of God is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself completely unto Him, desiring above all things to please Him, and delights in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with Him, and being ready to do or suffer anything for His sake, or at His pleasure.¹¹ Regarding the second greatest commandment Scougal writes, A soul thus possessed with divine love must need be enlarged toward all mankind, in a sincere and unbounded affection, because of the relation they have to God.¹²

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of all who believe in Him, lived out these commandments, as well as the entirety of the Law of Moses, perfectly; and remained obedient to the Father, even unto death, perfectly fulfilling the Father’s will and plan. One of the goals of this book will be a practical working out of the two greatest commandments.

Two Criminals

Two criminals condemned, dying, cry out from their crosses adjacent the innocent Christ, one blasphemed, the other who had read the inscription on the cross, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’ (Jn 19:19), and no doubt moved by its truth, now conscious of his sins, cries out in his great need: Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom (Lk 23:42). In the response of Jesus, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise (Lk 23:43), we have the most profound truth a soul can have; divine assurance of sins forgiven and the promise of eternal life here and now!

The two criminals, who were crucified, along with the innocent Jesus, represent the two responses to the Gospel. Of the two criminals, both deserving of death (Rom 3:23-24; 5:12), one through faith was crucified along with Christ and included in Him, having his sins forever atoned for, and upon his last breath entered Paradise, eternal glory, and gained the beatific vision of God. The other, equally deserving of death, joins the mocking crowd in their blaspheming, breathes his last and enters hell; thus justly condemned and to be forever punished. The first man, by grace through faith was accounted righteous because the obedient and sinless Christ Jesus took upon Himself that man’s sins; this is the life of God in the soul of man. The second, being blind, ignorant and obstinate, remained under God’s condemning wrath and pays the penalty for his own sins, forever.

Space will not permit a full commentary on the texts used above but suffice it to say that: First, Christ’s word to penitent criminals everywhere gives assurance of salvation. The dying thief saw in the face of Jesus, mankind’s only Savior. Can you appropriate Christ’s promise to yourself (Rom 10:9-10)? Second, Christ’s word to penitent criminals throughout all time gives assurance of entrance into the kingdom of God. The Scripture alone gives us the only message that we may enter the kingdom of God because of Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, for the glory of God alone.¹³ Jesus had a lot to say about the kingdom of God. It was at the very heart of His message. He used many parables to describe it. Third, Christ’s grace extends to all penitent criminals, from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. Our eternal life begins the moment we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Jn 5:24, 25).

The believer will never be as saved as when he first believed, and though he may doubt his salvation and be frustrated through various temptations and sins; yet the true believer is never left without the presence and provision of the Holy Ghost who keeps him from sinking into utter despair. It is hoped that the reader experiences the saving power of the risen Christ as these and other biblical concepts are developed throughout this book.

A Tale of Two Cities

The two criminals who were crucified along with Christ also represent the two cities of which mankind may belong; the City of God or the city of man. The difference between the two cities is the difference between the two loves. Those of mankind who are united together in their love of God and one another in Christ belong to the City of God. Those of the other city, not being united in any real sense, have one thing in common besides their opposition to God: each one of them is intent on the love of self above all else. In Augustine’s timeless expression, These two cities are made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self, unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God, unto the contempt of self. The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 26, speaks about these two cities:

26 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; we have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. ² Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. ³ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. ⁴ Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: ⁵ For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. ⁶ The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy (Is 26:1-6 KJV, emphasis added).

The earthly city glories in itself, the heavenly in the Lord.¹⁴ The concept of the two cities will be developed throughout the book, however in passing, let us consider that whereas those of faith enter through the narrow gate and rest within the walls of salvation, the proud and lofty are left outside and brought low to the dust.

The title of this chapter, the God-honoring American man, presupposes a number of things, namely that, in addition to loving God with all one’s heart, soul, strength and mind, as well as one’s neighbor as one’s self (Luke 10:27, cf. Dt 6:5; Lev 19:18), a God-honoring man, a Christian man, possesses certain attributes which mirror Christ’s character. Additionally, the qualitative ‘American’ is added because one of the stated goals of this book is to recover what is presently being discarded in this country as chauvinistic, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, simplistic, bigoted, or even virulent.

What particular aspects characterize the God-honoring man? A man who loves the Lord with all that is in him and his neighbor as himself; a man who seeks to glorify God by his every thought, word and deed. In a nation that is rapidly throwing off restraint, and seeking to forget God, how do we go about recovering what formally made this nation great? It is believed that these following seven marks will distinguish what constitutes God-honoring behavior. The discussion of these marks will frame the entire chapter.

The following seven ‘marks’ caricature the God-honoring American man:

1. Faith in God.

2. Faithfulness to Christ’s commandments.

3. Faithful family man.

4. Faithful member of a local Church.

5. Loyal patriot to State and Country.

6. Loyal member of an organization or unit.

7. Loyal comrade to my team mates.

First Mark of a God-Honoring American Man: Faith in God

Pilgrims arriving in the New World

And God spoke all these words, saying: ² I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ³ You shall have no other gods before Me (Ex 20:1-3).

Augustine, in his book Confessions gives us timeless expressions. Two of which articulate man’s greatest need: Great are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Your power, and infinite is Your wisdom. You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.¹⁵ And, it was now a joy to put away what I formerly feared to lose.¹⁶ These two assertions of Augustine approximate first, man is as anxious as he is confused before finding lasting solace in God, and second, this comes only by way of surrender.

God has made mankind for His own glory, as Pro 16:4 declares, The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom, and again in Romans 11:36, For of him, and through him, and to him are all things. God therefore commands all men everywhere to seek Him in faith and repent of their sins (Acts 17:27). This is a commandment not a suggestion. Man’s purpose in life or chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.¹⁷ To glorify God is man’s foremost purpose; the enjoyment of God forever is wherein his chief happiness consists. Whereas only the man who has faith in God can ever hope to glorify Him, only the man whose heart rests in God can ever hope to enjoy Him. We must therefore know God personally if we are to ever hope to glorify Him.

Who is God?

The first mark of the God-honoring American man is faith in God, that is, the God of Israel, Yahweh, the Self-existent, Self-revealing God of the Bible. There have been many concepts of God throughout history. Some see God as everything – pantheism. This view envisions the world as being divine; others see God as in everything – panentheism; the whole is in God. Whereas pantheism identifies God and the world as identical, panentheism denies that God and the world are identical and suggests that God be thought of in the world much the way a mind is in a body. In fact, according to panentheism, the world may be thought of as the body of God.¹⁸ What’s important to note here is that both of these prominent views deny the biblical understanding of God on several important levels. First, the Creator-creature distinction; second, God is a Person, and third, God is Lord.

First, God is the Creator of all things and is separate from His creation. Therefore we must reject the pantheistic and panentheistic speculations about God. Likewise, God’s creation doesn’t become divine but remains creation.¹⁹ In light of this, we must understand 2 Pet 1:4 which tells us that through the promises we may partake of the divine nature, to refer not to the normative (essence) but ethical sense. In other words, God develops the image of Christ in us by faith. God is separate from His creation but transcends it in order to reveal Himself savingly to mankind.

Second, God is a Person. The word ‘God’ (Elohim functions as a proper name for Him. Though some world views, like Hinduism, envision millions of gods, the Bible however reveals only One living and true God (Dt 6:4).²⁰ Additionally, the Bible reveals God by His divine names and attributes.

For instance, God reveals Himself as ‘El-Shaddai," which means ‘God Almighty,’ to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex 6:2-3); a name which not only signifies God’s greatness, but a source of comfort and blessing as well. The greatest name of God is Yahweh (Jehovah). The name’s origin and meaning are indicated in Ex 3:14-15. It expresses the fact that God is always the same, and especially that He is unchangeable in His covenant relationship, and is always faithful to His promises.²¹

God is a Person who reveals Himself in the Bible and teaches us that He is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being (self-existent), wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.²² Additionally, God is love personified (1 Jn 4:8). Moreover, God has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being (1 Jn 5:7; Mt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14). So, when we speak of faith in God, we mean the personal God of the Bible, whom we are able to know personally. Many deny the personality of God and conceive of Him as an impersonal force but God is a Person who thinks, feels, loves, speaks and acts in a completely holy manner. God is a Person with whom we may converse and trust, who helps us in our difficulties, and fills us with joy inexpressible (1 Peter 1:8).

In the New Testament, the names of God are simply the Greek forms of those found in the Old Testament. For example, the name Theos θεὸς, the most commonly employed name for God in the New Testament, is simply the word used in place of the Hebrew word Elohim Additionally, the name Kurios κύριος, used over seven thousand times in the Bible, meaning ‘Lord,’ is applied not only to God but also to Christ (Phil 2:11; Rev 4:8). This name takes the place of both ‘Adonai’ and Yahweh.²³ God is a Person not an impersonal force. Yet, He is immanent (covenantally present) and reveals Himself in a personal form in Jesus Christ. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God. Three Persons. God has eternally existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three Persons are One God, being the same in substance, and equal in power and glory. God has eternally existed as three Persons within the unity of a single divine Being (Mt 28:19; Jn 8:24; 8:58; 17:5; Acts 5:3-4; Rom 9:5; 2 Cor 13:14; Tit 1:13; Heb 1:8).

Thirdly, as a Person, God is a completely holy Being who Himself is the source of moral obligation. As Lord, He is Head of a covenant community, which He has taken for Himself to be His own particular people (Tit 2:14). The heart of this covenant relationship is: I will be your God, and you shall be My people (Ex 6:7; Lev 26:12; Rev 21:3). Redeeming us from death, God brings us into His covenant community and demands certain behavior on our part, which He reveals to us in the Bible.

The Scripture

The final authority for the Christian is Scripture because it is the very Word of God. Scripture is directly binding on conscience. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. The Bible is perfect and complete, sufficient in all its parts. This view is known as biblical inerrancy. Having a low view of Scripture became a kind of stumbling block and method of entry for all sorts of biblically condemned practices that are now celebrated. J.C. Ryle put it best when he wrote, We corrupt the Word of God most dangerously, when we throw doubt on the plenary inspiration of any part of Holy Scripture.²⁴

The Scriptures, the living oracle and revelation of God’s mind and will, has been divinely composed through human agency. The doctrine of revelation states that God has chosen to give us information – propositional truths – that we could not gain on our own. The Bible reveals truth: truth about God, truth about the world, and truth about ourselves. Truth, as R.C. Sproul puts it, is reality as God sees it. This full and sufficient oracle of truth encapsulates all that must be believed concerning God, and the duty God requires of us.²⁵ Standing obstinately against this major premise is the spirit of the age. Man redefines terminology, in hopes of relieving his troubled conscience. To counter this trend, throughout this book we must: first, define our terms based upon what the Bible claims for itself; then, second we must answer objections to their terms and claims; and third, we must show the practical importance of believing in what the Bible claims for itself.

No amount of argument or evidence amassed by the human mind can convince the skeptic that God has spoken until God has permitted him to hear and understand. For the skeptic today, as always, it will be a journey of either doubt to faith or doubt to despair. In the final analysis, the one that comes to God must first believe that He exists; that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6); that His Word is completely accurate in all matters, including science, mathematics, and history, and therefore accurate to the very letters and words (2 Tim 3:15-17) – thus plenary inspiration.

The Bible’s authority is over the whole of creation much less one’s own life (Lk 24:25), and is sufficient to give the means of salvation; knowing Christ as Savior (Jn 5:39-40; 10:27; Acts 4:12). This being at the very core of the Church’s doctrine of Biblical inspiration was articulated by the magisterial Reformers with the words Sola Scriptura. Biblical inerrancy is thus the historic doctrinal assertion that the Bible, because it is the very Word of God, is perfect and complete, and sufficient in all its parts including the very words. This is the doctrine of verbal inspiration. The doctrine of verbal inspiration states that, the Bible is the revelation of God’s mind and will written by men, who, under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote God’s very words. Regarding the Church’s doctrine of verbal inerrancy, Warfield writes,

It has always recognized that this conception of co-authorship implies that the Spirit’s superintendence extends to the choice of the words by the human authors (verbal inspiration), and preserves its product from everything inconsistent with divine authorship – thus securing, among other things, that entire truthfulness which is everywhere presupposed in and asserted for Scripture by the Biblical writers (inerrancy).²⁶

Just how critical is the doctrine of plenary inspiration? As Warfield states, Failing to espouse this view of Scripture can destroy all Biblical doctrines, because a low view of Scripture undermines our confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture as a witness to doctrine.²⁷ The word plenary is derived from the Latin plenus meaning full and complete in every respect. Plenary inspiration serves as a column which buttresses the overarching roof of Biblical inerrancy. Along with the other columns of verbal inspiration, authority and sufficiency, these truths form a colonnade. If one were to remove any of these buttressing columns, the roof of Biblical inerrancy – along with the assurance with which it carries – collapses.

Plenary inspiration has been attacked from the beginning. As the apostolic writings were circulated, almost immediately we find the spirit of antichrist at work. Even before the canon was compiled men such as Marcion, and a horde of other textual critics, plied their trade of operating on the original manuscripts or sometimes wrote their own.²⁸ These men rejected plenary inspiration. They denied the unity of the whole of Scripture by viewing certain authors as uninspired. They viewed the words of Jesus as inspired while rejecting the words of some or all the apostles. Some even introduced spurious additions or made serious omissions to the gospels and to the apostle’s epistles even in Peter’s day. Peter writes about those who have altered Paul’s writings as they do the other Scriptures (2 Pet 3:16). Peter in this way acknowledges Paul’s writings as equal to the Old Testament canon. The apostles were conscious of the fact that what they were writing was Scripture.

Verbal inspiration, as the very term suggests, extends to the very words of Scripture. Our Lord echoing Isaiah 40:8 ascribes this very quality to the Scriptures, i.e., the Scriptures cannot be broken (Jn 10:35), and every jot and tittle, literally every word will be fulfilled (Mt 5:18). The minute details of God’s plan will be carried out. The part of His plan He has revealed to us we have in Scripture (Dt 29:29). God has spoken. The very words He has used, every jot and tittle of the law are all equally important.

The doctrine of verbal inspiration has been denied on the grounds that there are numerous scientific and historic mistakes in the text. For example, the apparent disparity between the list of kings in the books of 1, 2 Kings and 1, 2 Chronicles has troubled many for centuries, and has proven to be the stumbling block for skeptics.²⁹ These seeming disparities in what textual critics have pointed out as apparent flaws in the Scripture have been worked out with other parts of Scripture to show the accuracy of the Bible in history. Seeming contradictions only seem to be contradictive. What we must do is harmonize these apparent contradictions by other parts of Scripture. We mustn’t like Marcion and Bultmann deny the unity of the whole by approving some Scripture and rejected other parts based upon our own fallible assumptions.³⁰ Scripture interprets Scripture.

As to the apparent inconsistencies between the findings of science and the facts of the Bible, it must be stated that the Scripture does not contradict the findings of science; it contradicts and opposes the godless Darwinian hypothesis of science – evolution. It’s not the intent here to enter the debate between young and old earth creationists; however, the Bible speaks of a creative week, not a drawn-out evolutionary timeline. And contrary to the evolutionist theories, the Scripture speaks accurately and decisively about the origin of the universe (Gen 1:1, et al; Mt 19:4-6; Mk 10:5-9; Jn 5:17). And most importantly, if God didn’t create Adam, as the Bible reveals in Genesis, and we evolved from apes, then the Adam-Christ parallel is dissolved, and the truth about redemption is destroyed (Rom 5:12-20; 8:23; 1 Cor 15:47-49; Phil 3:21).

The Scripture is Life-giving. It not merely contains the word of God; it is the Word of God. Verbal inspiration as such is the Biblical doctrine which espouses that every word of the Scripture is God-breathed and that the choices of these words by human authors were under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved the authors along to write the very words of God while allowing these authors to retain their personal idiosyncrasies of culture, manners of speech while simultaneously preserving them from mistakes in teaching.³¹

For this reason, we cannot dismiss passages of the Bible we don’t like, sloughing them aside as mere cultural idiosyncrasies because they fail to appeal to our sense of fairness and equality. For these passages are God-breathed commandments (1 Cor 14:34-37). B. B. Warfield writes,

When the Christian asserts his faith in the divine origin of his Bible, he does not mean to deny that it was composed and written by men or that it was given by men to the world. He believes that the marks of its human origin are ineradicably stamped on every page of the whole volume. He means to state only that it is not merely human in its origin.³²

The words of Scripture are not infallible due to the holiness of the human authors but because the Holy Spirit’s superintendence. The final authority for the Christian is Scripture because it is the very Word of God. The form critics of the mid 1800s rejected verbal and plenary inspiration and subsequently abandoned the formal principle of the Reformation Sola Scriptura. Form critics such as Bultmann, believing the Word of God to be divinely inspired, though mixed with mythology and other interpolated human inventions, dismissed plenary and verbal inspiration as untenable. This disregard for the Bible’s authority and sufficiency brought many to the point of plummeting below the line of despair.³³ The purer the doctrine, the purer the flow of God’s Holy Spirit. Anything short of the belief in the fullness of Scripture as a divine flow of grace is insufficient.

The Scripture is sufficient for salvation (Ps 119:97-104; Jn 5:39; 1 Tim 4:16; 2 Tim 3:14-17). All that need be known for life and godliness is clearly revealed in Scripture. Because Scripture is all sufficient for man’s salvation, as well as every need in his walk of faith and practice, nothing is to be added.³⁴ Because the Holy Spirit makes the reading and especially the preaching of the word effectual unto salvation, we are not to tamper with God’s Word. We are to proclaim it, especially the parts of Scripture that don’t appeal to our flesh.

The biblical point being made here is this. Confusion and despair will be the only fruit of denying the inerrancy of the Bible. The current trends today are the fuller ramifications of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Today, in full bloom, liberalism displays its fruit of impenitence towards the authority of Scripture. It obstinately refuses to submit itself to the demands of God’s Word. Seeking to ease their disparaging consciences, they gleefully carve up the text of Scripture, reducing it, and redefining, in hopes to render it voiceless and powerless. Higher criticism, a stratagem of liberals, is destructive to the composite unity of the whole of Scripture. Belief in Biblical inerrancy is affirming that all that God has spoken to us in His Word is entirely accurate, trustworthy, and authoritative. As Francis Schaeffer has so aptly pointed out, the rejection of the Bible’s authority will lead only to despair.

Looking again at the Ten Commandments, we may divide them into one group of four, pertaining to our duty to God, and a group of six, describing our duty to man. The Ten Commandments are the moral law. God’s moral law reflects His holy character and imprints an indelible mark on man’s soul. But must Christians obey the Law of Moses in order to be saved? No. Christians are not under the law but are under grace (Rom 6:14; 7:4, 6; 8:2; Gal 5:18). So how should Christians view the moral law?

The Moral Law

The law is holy, righteous, just, and good, as well as spiritual. It is the mirror of God’s character and His nature. It was given to mankind for the purpose of not only revealing God’s character and nature, so as to give mankind an ethical standard, but also to reveal sin. The law was given to teach sinners their sin. But what is sin? It’s important we define our terms because in America, and society as a whole, we have redefined sin right out of existence. Sin is virtually missing from our vocabulary. What’s more deplorable is the fact that sin is rarely spoken of from American pulpits. Yet, sin is very real. Its offense is rank and smells to high heaven.

Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.³⁵ Sin hardens and blinds us but the gospel comes and we see our corruption. Seeing our sin is a revelation! This, revelation of our sin, is unto hardening obstinacy or willing surrender; and it comes to pass that mankind will harden themselves even under the means which God uses for the softening of others; by the same sun he softens wax and hardens clay.

In Bunyan’s allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character, whose name is Christian, along with a would-be traveler on the Way, Pliable, leave the city of Destruction but soon afterward fall into a deep bog, known as the slough of despond. In the slough of despond, Christian and Pliable sink under the weight of sins and their sense of guilt for them. Pliable, offended and angry over this experience, turns back from his half-hearted venture and returns to the city of Destruction, exclaiming to Christian, "Is this the happiness you have told me all this while of?³⁶ If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may we expect between this and our journey’s end? Christian, alone and endeavoring to make it through, is drawn out of the slough by Help, who sets him on solid ground and bids him go on the Way.

Like Christian in Bunyan’s allegory, when we see our sin and own it, we’re conducted by the Holy Spirit unto Christ for grace. What God demands in His law, He gives to us in His gospel. God the Father sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins or we would have been dead, defiled and damned forever (Jn 3:16).

The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote, The moral law is the copy of God’s will, our spiritual directory; it shows us what sins to avoid, what duties to pursue.³⁷ Jesus said, If you love Me, obey my commandments (John 14:15). The gospel of Jesus Christ therefore obligates us to keep the law of God (Mt 22:37-40). We are not to keep the law of God so we may be saved, rather we keep the law of God because Christ has saved us. Our salvation is by grace, through faith, unto good works which testify to what God through Christ did for us, not what we have done for ourselves. Christians are commanded to keep the law of God out of gratitude for what Christ has already done for us. There is a lot more we need to say regarding the Christian use of the law of God. This will be developed more throughout the book, but for now, let’s look again at the first commandment.

The first commandment, You shall have no other gods before Me (Ex 20:3), God in effect is saying, I have no rival. But if God is the only God, then why does the Bible repeatedly speak of other gods? The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Cor 8:5, 6:

⁵ For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

Again the apostle Paul also tells us in 1 Cor 10:19-20,

¹⁹ What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? ²⁰ Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

Furthermore, Psalm 96:5 tells us, For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.³⁸ There is only one true God, the rest are demons – fallen angels, who call for the worship of mankind, seeking to usurp the worship due God alone (Gal 4:8). The reason false gods (demons) have this enslaving power is because by demonic force they gain mastery over their worshippers. Thus the gods of Egypt held real spiritual power over the minds and hearts of the Egyptians, and also the Israelites.³⁹

The first commandment therefore commands us to worship the only true God and not to worship any other so-called gods (1 Cor 8:5).⁴⁰ When God commands us to worship Him alone, He is commanding us to choose Him alone as true God, thus enthroning Him as our only Lord. That what God forbids, is at no time to be done; what he commands, is always our duty.⁴¹ The reformer John Calvin writes, the first commandment requires us to contemplate, fear, and worship His majesty; to participate in His blessings; to seek His help at all times; to recognize, and by praises to celebrate, the greatness of His works, as the only goal of all the activities of life.⁴²

What happens when we break the first commandment? The Bible tells us of King Solomon’s great wisdom. How that no one in the ancient world rivaled him. This wisdom was in fact given to him from God as an answer to his prayer, so that he might rule Israel wisely (1 Kgs 3:5). The Bible tells us that Solomon judged his people rightly, and that he even served as a counselor to other kings and queens. The highlight of his tenure as king was his magnificent prayer he offered to God at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kgs 8). God answered Solomon’s prayer by descending on His temple in glory, and in 1 Kgs 9:4-7 said to him,

⁴ Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ⁵ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ ⁶ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight.

Regrettably, Solomon failed to keep the first commandment by serving other gods. The Bible tells us that his many wives (700), and concubines (300) turned his heart away, and he went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites (1Kings 11:5). Yet, if we look at Solomon’s life closely, we’ll see that his heart began to turn away from God long before he ever bowed down to any idols.⁴³ The same thing happens to Christians when we are lured away from keeping the first commandment by our three enemies: the lust of the flesh, the lures of the world, and the lies of Satan, which tempt us to follow after other gods. This concept of a Christian’s three enemies will be developed in chapter two.

Whereas the first commandment tells us Who to worship, the second commandment tells us how to worship. The second commandment urges us to worship only according to God’s revelation of Himself.⁴⁴ The second commandment tells us:

⁴ "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁵ you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

God has a right to tell us how He wants to be worshipped. The second commandment forbids us to worship God by images, or any other way not appointed in His word.⁴⁵ Again, that which God forbids, is at no time to be done; what he commands, is always our duty. The Bible gives us an excellent example of the differences between the first and second commandments in the life of King Jehu of Israel (2 Kgs 9-10). King Jehu was a mighty man of war who God raised up to eliminate Baal worship from the life of Israel. Jehu put the wicked queen Jezebel and her Baal priests to the sword. He eliminated Baal worship. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan (2 Kgs 10:29).

Jehu had enforced the first commandment but broke the second commandment: he and his subjects continued to worship the golden calves. To Jehu and the people of Israel, the golden calves didn’t represent false gods; to them they represented the God of Israel. But God gave us the second commandment, forbidding us to worship Him that way; with an idol.

Historically, Christians have differed as to whether the second commandment forbids using pictures of Jesus. Packer writes, There is no room for doubting that the commandment obliges us to dissociate our worship, both in public and private, from all pictures and statues of Christ, no less than pictures and statues of His Father.⁴⁶ Packer offers two reasons why the second commandment should be stressed so emphatically: (1) because images dishonor God, by obscuring His glory, and (2) because images mislead us, for they convey false ideas about God.⁴⁷ The point being made here is God’s purpose in giving us the second commandment is to compel us to take our thoughts of Him from His Holy Word alone.

We’ve discussed the first and second commandments, how they define worship. The third commandment emphasizes worship also. Whereas the first commandment deals with the object of worship, and the second deals with the regulation of worship, the third deals with one’s attitude toward worship. The third commandment states,

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain" (Ex 20:7).

The third commandment forbids us from using God’s name incorrectly; and the abuse of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances, or works, by blasphemy, perjury, and all sinful cursings.⁴⁸ Along with the other commandments, the third commandment has many implications. This commandment regulates not only the speaking of God’s name, but also the bearing of His name as well. This aspect will be developed in chapter four.

God’s lordship is an extension of His personality. Those whom God has saved and brought into His covenant have an obligation to obey their Sovereign Lord (John 14:15). Therefore, to know God is to know at the same time the ultimate source of reality and the ultimate source of ethical obligation.⁴⁹ These concepts of the covenant community and Christian ethics will be developed throughout the book.

What is Faith?

The Bible has quite a lot to say about faith. To begin with, Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The two words, substance and evidence, used in this verse may further clarify the concept of faith. The first word ‘substance’ means essential nature, as well as assurance or reality. The second word, evidence, relates to conviction and proof of existence. We use these two words regularly in English to describe the saving response of the Christian: belief and faith.

In biblical Greek they are the same word, πίστις pistis, which is used 243 times. They are used in various ways which widen the scope and definition of belief and faith. Interestingly, the way we translate the words belief and faith reveals the various functions of faith. Here are ten biblical descriptions of faith:

▪ Faith or believing is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-10).

▪ Faith is the fruit of believing, it is the act of trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation (Jn 14:1).

▪ Faith is a cognitive relationship to a reality beyond ourselves. ⁵⁰

▪ Faith is assured knowledge of the love of God. It is a firm and certain knowledge of God’s good will towards us, which being grounded on the truth of the free promise made in Christ, is both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit. ⁵¹

▪ Faith is applicatory knowledge. Faith is a wonderful grace of God by which a man doth apprehend and apply Christ and all His benefits unto himself. ⁵²

▪ Faith or believing is a relational response to God’s promises. This involves knowing God personally (Jer 9:22-24; Jn 20:31; 1 Jn 5:13).

▪ Faith is obedience to the truth (Rom 16:26; 1 Pet 1:22). That is why repentance mustn’t be separated from faith.

▪ Faith expresses itself in the Christian life with fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the products of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) – Chapter 3.

▪ Faith is refined, like gold, in believers through tests and trials (1 Pet 1:67) – Chapter 8 – 10.

▪ Faith is what believers persevere in to the end (Mt 24:13; Rev 13:10) – Chapter 9 – 10.

The Scottish theologian Henry Scougal writes: The root of the divine life is faith; the chief branches are love to God, love to man, purity, and humility; it extends itself unto all divine truths; but in our lapsed estate, it hath a peculiar relation to the declaration of God’s mercy and reconcilableness to sinners through a Mediator; and therefore, receiving its denomination from that principal object, is ordinarily termed faith in Jesus Christ. This is the life of God in the soul of man.⁵³ Therefore, faith in God is trusting in the One He has sent, Jesus Christ. Faith in God is faith in Christ (Jn 14:1).

Christians are saved by grace alone through faith (Eph 2:8-10). Grace is the life of God in the soul of man. Faith is the relational response to the promises of God; it is also the work of God in our hearts, which saves us (Luke 7:50), guides us (2 Cor 5:7), heals us (Luke 8:48) and transforms us (2 Pet 3:18). God brings us to Himself by faith, from first to last (Rom 1:17). Faith, therefore regards not present things so much as the things it waits for; things beyond our understanding. Hence, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1), it advances beyond the intellect, and takes possession of the will and of the heart, to make us act with zeal and joyfully as the law of God commands.⁵⁴

Senator John McCain, reflecting on what carried him through his harrowing ordeal as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War writes,

The three essential keys to resistance…were faith in God, faith in country, and faith in your fellow prisoners. Were your faith in any of these three devotions seriously shaken, you became much more vulnerable to various pressure employed by the Vietnamese to break you. The purpose of our captors’ inhumanity to us was nothing less than to force our descent into a world of total faithlessness; a world with no God, no country, no loyalty. Without faith, we would lose our dignity, and live among our enemies as animals lived among their human masters.⁵⁵

Senator McCain goes on to say that during the worst moments in captivity, keeping faith in God, country, and one another was not only difficult but also imperative.⁵⁶ Let it be said that having faith in yourself will only go so far, and by itself leads to a complete loss of hope.

John Paton, the indefatigable missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific, labored for nearly fifty years to bring the gospel to cannibals at the cost of his wife and child. While he was translating the Bible into the Polynesian language he was unable to find a word in their dialect for the believing or having faith. One day while he was working in his hut, a native came running into Paton’s study and flopped into his chair, exhausted. He said, It feels good to rest my whole weight in this chair. Instantly, John Paton knew he had his definition: Faith is resting your whole weight on God. That meaning helped bring a whole civilization to Christ.⁵⁷

What we should also make abundantly clear is that salvation is of God; we cannot save ourselves. Titus 3:5-7 tells us:

⁵ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Therefore, it must be clearly stated by the God-honoring man that though God commands righteous works to be done (Mt 5:16, 20), they will however never save us, but will serve God’s purpose in holy living and evangelism when they are done in faith with the power God supplies. We cannot earn salvation by doing good works. The first Beatitude (Mt 5:3) tells us that the poor in spirit are blessed, which is the absence of self-aggrandizement or self-reliance.

By Grace through Faith

This important truth was once demonstrated by Jonathan Edwards. Edwards, an eighteenth century New England Christian pastor and theologian, arguably the ablest mind ever produced by America, once wrote to clarify how conversion to Christianity occurs. Edwards accounts in his Faithful Narrative examples of various conversions in his congregation.⁵⁸ Outlining several universal steps in conversion, Edwards states: First, how conversion occurs when people with an interest in Christianity attempt to live righteously through their good works, and study their Bibles, in an attempt to avoid sin and hell and to earn salvation.⁵⁹

Next, Edwards describes how these people inevitably fail to live up to the Old Testament legal standard, experience despair at their failures and inherent sinfulness, and often believe they have committed unpardonable sin.⁶⁰ Then, Edwards describes how successful converts experience converting grace and awaken to see that forgiveness is available to all who have faith in Christ alone and that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice atones for all sins. Finally, Edwards recounts how this revelation of saving grace is followed by a sense of joy or an internal new light from the Holy Spirit and a desire to spread the gospel and leave sin behind. Thus, salvation is impossible through works which are simply the evidence of faith.

Standing squarely over against Edwards is Emmanuel Kant. In Kant’s view, it isn’t important so much for us to know what God has done for our salvation but rather for us to know what we must do to be worthy of it.⁶¹ Liberal theology, following Kant, translates grace into works righteousness. However, we mock the mercy of the Giver if we seek to give as a work the thing we receive as a gift.

Looking again at Bunyan’s allegory, Christian, walking along the narrow path toward the City of God is lured out of the Way by Mr. Worldly Wiseman, who bids him take a less burdensome approach to ridding himself of his burden (the knowledge that he’s a sinner needing a Savior) by seeking a judicious gentleman named Legality. By Mr. Worldly Wiseman’s allurement, Christian turns out of the Way and seeks Legality, who lives in the village of Morality. As Christian went on, his burden grew heavier the further he went up the hill, Mount Sinai. There came also flashes of fire, out of the hill, that made Christian afraid that he should be burnt: here therefore he did sweat and quake for fear. And now he began to be sorry that he had taken Mr. Worldly Wiseman’s counsel.⁶² However, Evangelist appears and reasoning with Christian sets him back on the Way to the Narrow Gate.

The proper mindset, as Bunyan’s allegory shows us, is one which views faith as a gift of God (Eph 2:8); His Spirit enabling us to walk just as Christ walked (1 Jn 2:6). This is a narrow, difficult Way, which to the natural man is as unpleasant as it is offensive. Thomas Scott writes,

In the broad road every man may chose a path suited to his inclinations, shift about to avoid difficulties, or accommodate himself to circumstances; and he will be sure of company agreeable to his taste. But Christians must follow one another in the narrow way, along the same track, surmounting difficulties, facing enemies, and bearing hardships, without any room to evade them: nor is any indulgence given to different tastes, habits, or propensities.⁶³

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (Jn 14:6). No other Way leads to the Celestial City and into the presence of the King. The point being made here is: we are God’s work from beginning to end (Phil 1:6). He works in us that which is pleasing in His sight (Heb 13:20-21). Glorifying God is the chief end of all human activity. The good works Christians do are simply fruit of a living faith (Eph 2:8-10). Because our salvation is by grace through faith, good works testify to what God through Christ did for us, not what we have done for ourselves. This is the assurance a perfect atonement secures. God’s wrath is forever extinguished by the atonement of the Lamb of God, who, for all that call upon Him in saving faith, accounts believing sinners with His spotless righteousness.

Colonial Christianity

We’ve talked about the meaning of faith and the object of faith. We’ve discussed how God forms faith in us to not only save us but to guide us, heal us, and transform us into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). We’ve discussed the personal nature of having faith in a transcendent, immanent, All-powerful, All-knowing, and All-present Being whom we call God. Our relationship with the personal God of the Bible is based on God’s written revelation and the finished work of Jesus Christ in space-time history.

If you were as fortunate as I, you grew up in America hearing these truths from the cradle. Some argue I learned these truths merely because my father is a pastor and my mother is a godly woman but are these truths of the Christian faith foreign to America? Wasn’t America founded on Christian principles and values? The weight and scope of discussions involving questions like these has been well established in other works, but for the sake of argument, even a casual glance at our history will reveal the truth that not only was America founded on biblical principles but was supplied with Christian values as well. Chief Justice Joseph Story writes in his great commentary on the U.S. Constitution,

Every colony, from its foundation down to the revolution, with the exception of Rhode Island, (if, indeed, that state be an exception,) did openly, by the whole course of its laws and institutions, support and sustain, in some form, the Christian religion; and almost invariably gave a peculiar sanction to some of its fundamental doctrines.⁶⁴

The New England Puritans, who had experienced religious persecution first hand, sought refuge in the new world. Their founding of a commonwealth in Plymouth would foster a close church-state relationship in what would become Massachusetts. Before their landing, they drew up an original ‘compact’ in which they acknowledged themselves to be loyal subjects of the crown of England and on 11 November, 1620, wrote,

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience (emphasis added).⁶⁵

Puritans making their landing in the New World

Later in 1630, John Winthrop, a prominent Puritan lawyer and leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, admonished his fellow pilgrims with these words:

We shall be as a city on a hill. The eyes of all the people are upon us, so that if we shalldeal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him towithdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through allthe world.⁶⁶

Winthrop’s intent was to prepare the people for the planting of a new society in the midst of a dangerous and uncertain environment. Whereas, his words tellingly represent a people who recognize that mankind is intrinsically bad, the prominent naïve view of most Americans in our society today would say that mankind is basically good. This contrast will be developed more in chapter two.

As the colonies experienced an influx of settlers, many of which sought freedom of religious expression, a wide scope of conceptions regarding the integration of politics and religion began to take shape. In Virginia, for example, the common faith of the colony was Anglicanism, the state church of England, which was legally protected by Virginia’s governing body, the General Assembly.⁶⁷ Additionally, Presbyterianism was brought to America by those of Scots-Irish descent, but unlike their Anglican friends, they, along with the Baptists, entertained no such dreams of a union of church and state.

It would seem as if the multiplicity of religious groups in the American colonies served to prevent not only religious persecution from occurring but tended to preclude any one denomination from monopolizing church matters as well. Thus, ecumenical Christianity in early colonial America tended to stave off any religious persecutions that had plagued England and the rest of Europe for centuries. At variance with all the positive aspects of colonial ecumenicalism in America, the condition of the Church, even on both sides of the Atlantic, had become Laodicean – in dire need of revival.

Whereas, the first settlers had come to America with a devout faith and a vision of establishing a God-honoring nation, a city on a hill; within a scant hundred years their fervency had all but cooled. Now their progeny had become worldly, looking to mammon rather than the Kingdom of God and falling into a sleep of spiritual carnality. To further exacerbate their moral decline, the philosophical rationalism of the Enlightenment was beginning to spread its influence, ushering in a wave of religious skepticism and Deism.

The Great Awakening

In the early eighteenth century, a religious phenomenon swept through Europe and North America, one that revitalized Christianity. Early revival tremors⁶⁸ had been felt in New England during the 1730s but what has been coined the Great Awakening began in earnest with the preaching of Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts and continued on later with the arrival of George Whitefield.⁶⁹ The spiritual climate of the American colonies before the revival has been described as a long season of coldness and indifference, into which the Great Awakening broke like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky upon the slumbering churches.⁷⁰

George Whitefield preaching in 1749.

The revival strengthened belief in all the fundamentals of the Christian faith emphasizing two themes: the necessity of spiritual rebirth and the demands for holy living; staples of pietistic preaching and teaching.⁷¹ The Great Awakening brought America back to the Scriptures and the central doctrines of Christianity such as the inerrancy of Scripture, the Deity of Christ, His virgin birth, atoning death, literal resurrection, ascension, and His literal physical coming again.⁷² Scholars have noted that Whitefield combined local sporadic revivals to form a generalized awakening, solidifying a new colonial identity. However, we would be remiss to credit Whitefield as the sole influence of the Great Awakening; his success was largely built upon the faithful ministries of Theodore Frelinghuysen, Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent and others.

The evangelical revival of the 1730s and 40s played a key role in the development of American democracy. First, it challenged the traditional social structure by preaching that all men are created equal; that man’s true value lies in his moral behavior, not his class; and that all men can be saved if they repent and believe the gospel. This aspect of the revival did much to clear away social boundaries. Second, though the revival was not indifferent to denominational attachments it however emphasized the necessity of being born again and holy living thereby promoting above all a loyalty to the Gospel of Christ.

This aspect of the revival lowered the denominational walls and created a greater ecumenical spirit of American Christianity. Third, the revival ushered in key democratic developments by promoting beliefs in both free speech and free press. What may be seen therefore as the long-term effects of the Great Awakening, in addition to the great harvest of souls and increased church attendance, was that it dissolved socio-ethnic impediments and established conduits of communication which would be used to usher in a common American identity; hence the First Great Awakening may be seen as a major contributing precursor to the American Revolution.⁷³

The Lockean Experiment and Common Sense

What gave America an identity was not so much a Declaration of Independence, albeit for all intents that did efficaciously render asunder our allegiance to England, but that we were a people, who contracted together in a unified belief in the authority of God’s Word and a belief that each man, being made in the image of God, was entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. John Locke, the British Empiricist, had a profound impact on the political philosophy of the American Colonies.⁷⁴ Locke’s version of the social contract placed citizens under a ruling legitimate government which had been elected by the people for the express purpose of protecting their natural rights.

According to Locke, natural rights are inalienable, and power resides from the consent of the governed. Hence, a morally legitimate government protects the fundamental moral rights of those it rules. If not, says Locke, the citizens are obliged to dissolve any government that becomes illegitimate and elect a new legislative body that will guarantee and maximize those inalienable rights.⁷⁵ It appears to be clear, that our Founding Fathers, thoroughly influenced by Lockean political philosophy, used Locke’s social contract theory to not only justify the American revolution, but to integrate his ideas into the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as well. Locke’s influence extended beyond these foundations to sagaciously frame amendments which tackled thorny issues such as political and religious tolerance and separation of church and state.

This however says nothing of the united opposition to the new system of imperial taxation initiated by the British government in the 1760s. Awakened by a sense of individual liberty and the inalienable rights of