My Wisdom & Strength

[dave c]

simpletruth #138aq Revisited 18SEP10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Forty Three: My Wisdom & Strength

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

While Calvinism teaches that it doesn’t matter what we do, if you are created/elected/predestined to be saved, you are always saved—Armenianism teaches that once we choose obedience to the Gospel, we must constantly struggle to hang on to our salvation through the pursuit of holiness. The Bible is way, way too full of statements indicating that Heaven is open to any and all who will seek God with their whole persons to believe the former—and there are way, way too many examples of people with occasions of miserable failure during their walks with God, yet whom God ultimately regarded as mighty men/women of faith, to believe the latter. Please consider Second Chronicles 30:18-20: Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God--the LORD, the God of his fathers--even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people (NIV).

The essence of Hezekiah’s prayer, and the Lord’s subsequent response to his request, contradicts both Calvinism and Armenianism. “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God.” Yes, these verses concern the Hebrew Nation as the chosen people of God, so some argument could be made that they were predestined to be forgiven and saved, but Scripture is clear that just being a Jew was not sufficient for forgiveness and salvation. The same as today, salvation required the individual’s obedient decision, commitment, and surrender to the Word of God. “Setting his heart on seeking God” was the necessary condition for being pardoned—not being the biological descendent of Abraham. “...Even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary. And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.” What? How can this be? Hundreds of years before Christ set us free from the Law, God looked at the cleanliness of the heart over the cleanliness of the hands. While the constraints of contemporary holiness movements may look good, the inside of the cup is of greater concern to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Mt 23:25-28). It would seem to be a short leap back from radical Armenianism to the leaven of the Pharisees (“I must look right, sound right, talk right and act right to be righteous.”), and from radical Calvinism to the leaven of the Sadducees (“I need do nothing—I was, and am, predetermined for righteousness.”).

While we witnessed the first recorded instance of God seeking after Man in Genesis 3:9, in Genesis 4:25&26 we read: Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him." To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD (NAS). With the advent of Adam’s grandson through Seth, people began to call out to God, that is, they began to seek Him. By the sixth generation of this Godly line we are told in Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away (NIV). This is in stark contrast to the sixth generation from Cain where we encounter the Godless Lamech who epitomizes the heart, head, and hands of humanistic eclectic pragmatism (Ge 4:19-24). Just as then, the 21st Century is witness to these same two strains of humanity: There are those who seek after God, who call upon His name—and those who look to their own rational and materialistic skills.

Did God create the bodies, minds, and spirits of Cain, Abel, and Seth? Did God build into the brothers their genetic tendencies? Did God place them into the environment of the post Fall first generation? Yes, on all counts. Did God predestine Cain to reject righteousness and so lead him to murder Abel? Let’s take a look at Genesis, Chapter Four, beginning with verse 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (NIV).

“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” While God created Cain to have specific personality traits, it is obvious that He did not predestine him for rejection. From out of his arrogance, Cain chose to disregard the loving exhortations from the Lord. It is this same willful arrogance that forms the bedrock for all Divine rejection—beginning with Lucifer (Is 14:13&14) and passing down through all generations to the time and place where I am sitting writing these words. It is this arrogance that forms the real leaven of the Pharisees (“I am able to obtain and/or retain salvation through my own efforts.”); and the Sadducees (“There is nothing I can do to abstain, obtain, or retain my salvation—I was eternally conceived and born with it.”). Whether I am predisposed to obedience like Abel, or to disobedience like Cain, I must still and always call upon the name of the Lord; and, through the power of the Holy Spirit within my own, I must master the sin that crouches at my door (ref. 1Pe 5:6-10). “Jesus, I ask You to be my wisdom and strength to do both. Amen.”