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NASB | 1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Timothy 4:1 But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons, |
Bible Question:
While reading Jan 10th, 2007 in "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary" Matthew 8-15, by John MacArthur, I found the following report by William Barclay in Chapter 11 The Messengers of The King(Matthew 10:1). When Martin Luther became convinced that the biblical way of salvation was by God's grace working through man's faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, he began earnestly preaching and contending for this doctrine that became the hallmark of the Protestant Reformation. A friend of his was equally convinced of this truth, and the two men agreed that Luther would spend his time in the world preaching, writing, and debating, while the friend would spend his time alone in a monastery upholding Luther and the cause of the Reformation in prayer. As Luther visited the friend from time to time and reported the difficulties and obstacles of the work, the friend would intensify his praying. One night the friend had a dream in which he saw a gigantic field that stretched over the whole earth. But only one lone figure was working in the field, and when he looked closer he realized the lone figure was his close friend Luther. When he awoke he realized that he had to also go to work with Luther as he realized that Jesus' statement in Matthew 9-37:38 "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest" applied to him and all Christians who have been assigned to go into the world and carry the good news, of Jesus, to all the corners of the earth. To say the least I was stunned because I immediately realized that this was nearly my exact dream, occurring around the 10th of November 2006, just before leaving for Su Zhou, China, for work and any evangelism I and another co-worker could squeeze in. And to make things even more God pimply my friend attends an Evangelical Lutheran church while I attend a basic non-denomination Christian church. The one difference is that I also heard a voice in my dream say either “The Harvest is Nearly Complete” or “The Harvest is Complete”. Needless to say while we were in China from November 15th through the 30th of 2006 we witnessed too many and had some truly wonderful God moments. There was one particular event that has whetted my appetite to work and see more of Gods plan unfold if only God will include me. I pray that I would be given more opportunities to work for God. I report it here in front of other Christians that they might pray for me, MWLaine, and themselves, and all Christians that they too will become workers to be sent out into The Lords harvest. I pray that all readers of this document earnestly ask themselves what they can do to be sent into the harvest. Time is short, truly. It appears the Harvest is “Judgment Day” and we who will work are but workers tending the fields. In Revelations 14:14-20 it appears that angels reap the clusters from the vine of the earth, and throw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. Also, being knowledgeable about Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13:30 in which the wheat and tares are allowed to grow up together and only at harvest are the tares separated and burned, I become confused as it appears that the truth is there may be an argument for pre-destination as there may actually be some humans who could not under any circumstances come to believe in Jesus Christ even if Jesus danced the Charleston in front of them because they are tares. So as workers tending the field our only real opportunity to see another human come to Christ is to plant wheat (our children), and/or weed, hoe, water, and fertilize around our own or someone else’s wheat. A seedling of wheat is always a seedling of wheat, and a tare always a tare. How do you change a tare to a wheat plant? Why would one human be a tare and one human be a wheat plant? But, then I have also been taught that babies and young children have a point in the lives in which they become responsible for accepting Jesus. Before that, where they to die, they would be accepted into heaven because they have no sin thus making them wheat? So do we all start as wheat plants and then eventually, because of sin, turn into tares? And can a tare be changed into a wheat plant? |
Bible Answer: Hi, MWLaine... God's own were chosen before the world was created (Ephesians 1:4). However, everyone who is saved has a moment a specific moment in time prior to which they were dead in their sin, and after which they became children of God (Ephesians 2:1-3). What you are asking about is known as the "ordo salutis." That's Latin for the "order of salvation." It is based on such passages as Romans 8:29-30. Luther and others out of the Reformation articulated it, therefore, as election, predestination, gospel call, inward call, regeneration, conversion (faith and repentance), justification, sanctification, and -- ultimately -- glorification. You can find discussion of the ordo salutis and each of these steps by using the search feature. I posted a whole series of "Theological Terms" in which I gave very basic definitions for each step. The discussion of how God deals with babies is an interesting one. There are three or four different ways to think through this question. We know a couple of things for certain: (1) Babies are in need of salvation, since they are offspring from Adam and Eve. As the old divines of my own tradition put it, "Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. (Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12, etc; Titus 1:15; Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-19)" (LBCF, 1689, Chapter 6, Paragraph 2) (2) Salvation is available through none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). Therefore, how ever our God handles it, the actual process would, necessarily, be different than that in which people normally are saved. I am unconvinced that Scripture gives a perfectly clear answer. God does not reveal to us who will be saved, but we eagerly go to the many people groups of the world knowing that our future brethren are there (Revelation 7:9). "Let us arouse ourselves to the sternest fidelity, labouring to win souls as much as if it all depended wholly upon ourselves, while we fall back, in faith, upon the glorious fact that everything rests with the eternal God." --Charles Hadon Spurgeon May the Lord bless you in your evangelical zeal. I -- and many who read this -- will be praying that God will graciously see fit to use you for His glory as He inevitably works out His eternal purpose. In Him, Doc |