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Kirkers Read 13: Enjoy the View

Ben Zornes on August 27, 2018

When you go for a hike it doesn’t work to take a step, turn around and enjoy the view. For one, the view doesn’t change that much with each step, and secondly, you’ll likely never make it to the top of the mountain if you spend all your day trying to appreciate how far you’ve come. It is far better to put your head down, plow forward, and at regular intervals take in the progress that’s been made. As you tackle the final week of the challenge, take a look back over the terrain we’ve covered from the vista of reading the whole New Testament. If you’ve never done something like this before, a special congrats are in order.

Hopefully this summer’s reading plan has helped spur you on in forming, cultivating, and maintaining the discipline of reading the Bible. Moving forward, remember that the Christian life isn’t defined by the number of pages turned, the number of days in a row, or the amount of verses you remember from that day’s reading. Your life, from top to bottom, is defined by Christ. He is what the Word proclaims. He is Who you are seeking by reading Scripture. It testifies of Him.

John tells us that, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (Jhn. 17:3).” Never swerve from that path. Tread it out day by day. There will be vistas of enjoyment where you can survey how far the Lord has brought you. There will be dark valleys, full of thickets, where it feels like your progress has slowed to a crawl. But He shall sustain you to the last. Here’s to many more treks through the forest of His Word, and to glorious views of our glorious Lord and Savior Jesus.

Grace & Peace: Revelation 109

Douglas Wilson on August 21, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:7–10).

And so John saw a great white throne, upon which Christ is seated in glorious splendor. We know that Christ is the one on the throne because of the numerous ways Scripture indicates this. Christ was earlier associated with a white cloud (Rev. 14:14), and he was seen riding on a white horse (Rev. 6:2; 19:11). Here it is fitting that He is established as Judge on a white throne.

More to the point, this scene is obviously the last judgment (“the earth and the heaven fled away”), and the Bible is explicit that Christ is the one who will rule at that judgment. For example, Christ has the authority to “execute judgment” (John 5:27).

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matt. 25:31).

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:1).

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).

“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

So this is the final judgment, and we have a contrast—between one book on the one side, and “the books” on the other. That one book is the Book of Life, and the one specific thing we are told about it is that it contains a list of names.

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

“To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven . . .” (Heb. 12:23).

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Rev. 3:5).

So the issue here is simple and binary. Either your name is in the Book of Life, or it is not. If a person’s name is not in the Book of Life, then he is judged in accordance with the other books, and these other books are histories, detailed biographies. These people are judged “according to their works,” which is repeated twice, in both verses 12 and 13. Anyone whose name was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire, with the degree of punishment a function of the works they had done or left undone.

The sea gave up her dead, and so also both Death and Hades gave up their dead. This is the resurrection of the unjust. Earlier we saw that through His resurrection from the dead Christ came into possession of the keys of both Death and Hades (Rev. 1:18). He is the ultimate conqueror, and now in this final triumphant act, He throws both Death and Hades into the lake of fire. This indicates, incidentally, that Hades was a place for departed shades, a temporary place of judgment, until the time should come for that judgment to be made permanent. Death and Hades were thrown into the final death, the second death, the lake of fire, or Gehenna.

Kirkers Read 12: Generational Hand-Off

Ben Zornes on August 21, 2018

This week we wrap up the book of Hebrews and read through Paul’s pastoral letters to two young pastors (Timothy and Titus). Whenever I read the book of Hebrews, I’m reminded of that verse in Luke 24:27 which describes Jesus’ words to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” One of the big picture things going on in Hebrews is putting the glory of the Mosaic Law under the brighter light of Christ. There are some a pieces of art that once put under a black light the variegated colors become more vibrant and the whole painting comes alive in a way that it doesn’t under normal light. Hebrews is like that with the Law of Moses. It takes all those OT patriarchs, sacrifices, and types and shines the light of Christ upon them exposing that, all along, they were all intended to show forth His glory.

In Paul’s pastoral letters we see a profound picture of what it looks like to hand off the faith. He tells Timothy to “guard the deposit entrusted to you (1 Tim. 6:20).” In Titus 2, Paul commissions Titus to make sure that older women are teaching younger women to godly women, and for young men to be exhorted by older men to be godly men. In 2 Timothy 2:2 he instructs Timothy to commit the Gospel “to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” In essence, the sin of covenant presumption which often was the bane of the Israelites, must be hunted down and expelled from the Christian church. Notice in that last verse that Paul is telling Timothy to raise up men who can then raise up other men to be faithful to proclaim and teach the Gospel; that’s four generations of discipleship.

Finally, as we wrap up the Summer Bible Reading challenge over the next two weeks, remember Paul’s words and, by God’s grace, emulate them, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).” The best way to show forth Christ and impart Him to the next generation is to fight a good fight.

Grace & Peace: Revelation 108

Douglas Wilson on August 14, 2018

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:7–10).

Just a few verses before, we were told that Satan was locked up in the Abyss such that he would no longer be able to “deceive the nations.” That this was the nature of his restriction is reinforced here—when he is released from his prison at the end of the thousand years, he goes out and resumes his lying activities. Once again, he deceives the nations.

So at the very end of the long period of Christian ascendancy, Satan is permitted to lead the nations astray again. The nations involved are described as being at the “four quarters of the earth,” meaning all the nations hither and yon. The name given to them is taken from Ezekiel 38 and 39. In Ezekiel, this referred to an unbelieving and savage nation from the north. The prophecy there is against Gog, the prince of that people, and Magog, the people themselves. When they attacked Israel (in overwhelming numbers), they were nevertheless defeated. Thus they serve as a fitting type for this international version of the same kind of thing. One time the old Israel was assaulted by Magog, and Magog was overthrown. And here, the new Israel is assaulted by an international Magogian confederacy, and they too are thrown down immediately.

Satan’s deception was initially successful, in that he was able to gather an army like the “sand of the sea.” One question might be why God allows for something like this after the world was successfully evangelized. The best explanation appears to be that He is showing us that salvation is all of grace. After centuries of gospel glory, it would be easy for men to start taking credit for what the gospel alone accomplished, and so God illustrates for us the fact that apart from grace, the human heart remains exactly what it has always been—by nature an object of wrath.

So after a long period of gospel glory, Satan is permitted one last attack on the object of his malice, which is the Christian church. This is pictured by two images—the “camp of the saints” and the “beloved city.” The camp of the saints brings the period of the wilderness to mind, and the beloved city is talking about the New Jerusalem, the Christian Church. Both descriptions are of God’s beloved people, the apple of His eye. Because the church of the faithful will at that point be located all over the earth, we see the enemies of God going up “on the breadth of the earth.” Christians will be attacked in the same way that the Jews were attacked by Haman in the Persian empire—attacked, that is, in every town, every city, every province, and every nation.

But the outcome of this attack is not in doubt. This is an attempted murder, not a murder. The faithful are surrounded, and so they have a full opportunity to trust the Lord. But the Lord will defend His people, and will rain down fire on the enemies of God. I don’t believe there is any reason to assume the fire here is merely figurative. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8). I take this destruction of Satan, and of “Gog,” and of “Magog,” as the Second Coming of Christ.

The beast and the false prophet had been thrown into the lake of fire, the final death, sometime earlier. Now Satan is consigned there—no longer in the Abyss, he is now in final death. In that place, he is tormented day and night forever and ever. This is as good a place as any to mention that Satan is not the king of Hell. Jesus is the ruler of Hell, and Satan is in torment there.

“In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Is. 27:1).

Kirkers Read 11: Distance Learning

Ben Zornes on August 14, 2018

We’re closing in on reading the entire New Testament in thirteen weeks. Finish strong, and continue to cultivate this discipline in your life. You will certainly never regret time in God’s Word. As we look at this week’s reading you’ll note that you’ll be blazing through four different epistles and get a third of the way through another one.

What is striking when you read through these shorter New Testament books is that these are letters written to real congregations and people. One thing to pay attention to as you read the epistle is to keep a keen eye out for what issue(s) Paul is addressing. Then remember, none of this is in a vacuum. There are current events and cultural influences which must be address and combatted and that is exactly what Paul––a master builder (1 Cor. 3:10)––sets out to do, time and time again. As he mentions in Philippians 3:1, it is “no problemo” to write the same things repeatedly.

God, in giving us His Word, wants us to learn and grow via distance learning. We are now 2,000 years removed from the writing of these letters, but still they exhort us, reprove us, and spur us onward in knowing Christ. Never forget that the whole goal of the Bible is that you would know Christ. Not just know about Christ, or know things about Christ. But know Him. Christ is the Sun of the Solar System of Christianity. Every revolves around Him. In Philippians 3:7-11 we have, what I like to call “the Mt. Everest of Paul’s writing.” For Paul, this is what it is all about: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”