Good Bereans

[dave c]

simpletruth #138ab Revisited 21JUL10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Twenty Eight: Good Bereans

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).

Beginning with Part Twelve, we have been discussing the subject of God’s chesedh (Strong’s #2617); that is, His mercy, His kindness, His steadfast and unfailing love toward His human creation. Yahweh's greatest demonstration of this chesedh, is, of course, the reality of the Father sending His blameless Son to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (yours and mine). This is clearly stated in John 3:16-18, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (NIV).

John 3:16’s Gospel message is not ambiguous. “If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be saved...if you do not believe, you stand condemned.” Questions arise, however, as soon as we read such statements as those of Peter in the Second Chapter of Acts: ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,’ (Ac 2:21 as quoting Jo 2:32; NASV), when compared to his statement just a few verses later in Acts 2:39: “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (NAS). There is a certain inevitable theological tension between these two apparently contradictory statements. These papers are an attempt to come to some understanding of what is being communicated from God Our Father to us by the many such statements. I am in no way attempting to “explain God.” My desire is that as we have met this issue within the pages of Scripture, so should we be willing to search for an understanding within those same pages. If we arrive at a consensus...amen. If we are not able to resolve the matter even within our own hearts...again, amen. The reality of the truth of God’s Word has not been affected either way.

I did not enter these discussions predisposed to either Calvinism, nor Armenianism, and I remain outside either camp. We need to remember that the verses generating these two theological poles existed some 1,500 years before either philosophy of God’s mercy was developed. It is my hope that we read the subject verses within context and without the prejudice of either view. If we hold a position on this matter that is based on what we think, or feel, should be God’s Word, we need to make a concerted effort to renew our study without cultural, or personal, entrenchment. I pray that we can be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11 as we study Scripture for verification and clarification of what we are overtly and subtly taught by the voice of man as we all work for an understanding of God’s grace and mercy. This was the Holy Spirit driven head and heart of Martin Luther whom God used to spark the Reformation of the Church. Let us approach all of the Bible in prayer that God open the eyes of our understanding—without an ax to grind, nor a product to sell, and without a trumpet to sound for what has become the traditions of man.

Over the past few years elements of the Church have made much of the Hebrew mind and culture, as opposed to the Greek...always with the attitude that we should seek a more “Hebrew” approach to the Gospel. This includes simple acceptance of that which is paradoxical. A “both/and” instead of an “either/or” paradigm. I would point out that it was the Hebrew mind and culture that produced the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians who jointly rejected and crucified Jesus Christ. The same God who chose Israel as the linage of the Messiah, is the same God who chose and raised-up the Greek culture as the backdrop of the New Testament, and who chose and raised-up the Roman Empire as the medium to spread the Gospel throughout Europe and western Asia. Perhaps God intended to combine these cultures in order that the Church might be all the greater for their being grafted together.

Although we shake our heads in truly humble acceptance of what we do not understand as we hold in one hand the passages that demonstrate God’s call to all who will respond to the salvation message of the Gospel, and the passages that clearly speak of His election of those whom He predestined for salvation in the other—it is clear that Christ, and at least some of the writers of the New Testament, did not suffer from such a dilemma. Over the past month or so, we have been taking a look at verses that quote Jesus, Paul, and Peter as they first comfortably speak concerning the freewill of all of humanity, and then equally comfortably speak of God’s preordination of those whom He has selected...sometimes within the same sentence. Whatever lack of comprehension we may have regarding this issue, due to a lack of explanation of what is being stated by these verses, the writers/speakers apparently anticipated little, or no difficulty in comprehension on the part of the primary recipients of their writings. This suggests to me that there is a message in these verses that is within our reach: Whether we are called directly by God the Father, or called by the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Church, the invitation to forgiveness and salvation is the same and requires equally the power of the Holy Spirit for each individual to decide, to commit, and to surrender to that call.