The Clipboard: Gossip

One way type of damaging communication is gossip. Gossip presents a great threat because of several reasons. First, it is difficult to control our tongues (James 3:5-8), secondly, it is easy to let information slip out, and, finally, people just like to give their opinion.

Why do we gossip?

• To boost our ego by showing others that we have the scoop
  
• To elevate ourselves by putting others down (Pharisee v. Tax Collector)
  
• A desire to bring dishonor or make fun of someone

What the Bible says...

He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. (Proverbs 20:19)

...he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3b)

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (Ephesians 4:29)

Application

As we go about our daily lives we need to think through our words carefully. My pastor provided several questions that you can use for self-examination.

1. Do we have all the facts?
2. Do I know what I am being tempted to gossip?
3. If I need to say something, am I talking to the right person?
4. As a listener will I make the decision to quit enabling the one who gossips?

I hope this information has been helpful, I would highly recommend examining the articles and messages that I have linked to in the Resource section of this post.

Resources

Westminster Confession on Gossip

The Plague of Talebearing within the Christian Community

You can download my Pastor's sermon on "Gossip" by choosing either mp3 or the Windows Media Stream here or you can download the sermon by right-clicking here and hitting "Save Link As..."

You may also want to purchase the Vision Forum's message Gossip: The Plague of the Church (CD Version, MP3 Version)

Knowing God: Part I

I introduced this mini-series last week by linking to the Our Daily Bread devotional for August 1st. I was taken aback when I read Dave Branon's concluding words: "Get to know God. Be His biographer. It will teach you more about Him than you ever thought possible." The problem lies here: if you equate "get to know God" with "be His biographer".

First of all, though, let me say that I'm not bashing ODB or Dave Branon in this post. I do think that he would agree with what is written here. I'm writing to give the broader context for his words.

Today, the word "know" is thrown around flippantly; sometimes, even to mean "I've heard about/am familiar with him." Sadly, even the word "believe" is used this way!

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Sure, definitely (ever since I was born).

Q: Do you know/believe in Jesus?
A: Yes (and Mohammad and Buddha, too)!

We must not stop here - we will end up in hell!

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." - James 2:19 (KJV)

This lower-case "know" is a mere knowledge about God, or a general belief that he exists. God calls us not to just know about him, but to know him in an intimate way.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." - Psalm 34:8 (KJV)

Many biographies have been written - about good men and bad men. Autobiographies have also been published, but only a fool would encourage his readers to "taste and see that I am good." Knowing God must go beyond being His biographer.

An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephone me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. Knowing however that I speak Russian, he had given me my address. The next day this man came to me. he loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He never attended religious services (churches in Russia are very scarce). He had no religious education. He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, "What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!" It was the first time that I saw someone so rapturously joyful in Christ. (Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, page 18 - © 1969)

An officer in the Russian army, dancing around the room because now he truly knows Christ! Knowing God cannot be limited to a purely academic exercise. Yet, we do need to know about Him; this Biblical knowledge leads us to having a personal relationship with the Lord. It leads us to the cross of Christ, to salvation and regeneration, to glorifying and delighting in Him here on this earth, and living throughout all eternity in His presence.

In the end, a balance is needed - both having a Biblical theology, and knowing God. In the coming posts, we'll look at both of these aspects in greater detail.

News Flash: Defacement of Scripture

Regrettably, an art exhibit in Glasgow, Scotland has facilitated the defacement of the Bible. You can read the news articles covering this on the following news websites:

Fox News

News.com.au

The Bible as you are aware is the divinely inspired Word of God, you can read A Generation for Truth's position on taking God's name in vain here.

The Glory of The Lord

Normally in the middle of the week, we post another hermeneutics post, however, the research that I have been doing for my weekly post (and my schoolwork) forces me to delay that, so instead I will post my weekly post.

In our world today, the number one attribute of God that is discussed is His love. In fact, modern “Christians” seem to focus on God’s love to the exclusivity of any other attribute. The modern church in its infatuation with nothing but love, have forgotten one of God’s most striking, awe inspiring, and majestic attributes: His glory.

The Bible discusses God’s glory quite often and seems to lift it up as the most important aspect of our God. 1 Corinthians 2:8 refers to Jesus as the Lord of glory. In several verses Jesus makes it clear that He will return with power and glory. In fact the glory of the Lord is said to be our highest goal and what we should strive for above everything.

In the next few articles, I’m going to be exploring the glory of the Lord and how we as Christians are responsible to give as much glory to God as possible in everything that we do.

The Clipboard: The Words We Choose to Use

Regrettably, our culture has become littered with filthy language. The decline of vocal purity displays the impact that culture has on communication as the meaning and implication of words make a myriad of tongue twisting obstacles for speech. Today I would like to address a biblical approach to what words we chose to use, expanding on a point that Anthony mentioned last week. I would like to begin by noting an interesting definition of profanity:

Profanity thus includes filthy speech, false swearing and cursing, and also polite and courteous speech and action which is outside God and which does not recognize His sovereignty (R.J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, Vol. 1, Pg. 107)

We will now look at what Scripture says about foul language and euphemisms.

Scripture

The 3rd Commandment

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

To take the name of the Lord in vain is to commit blasphemy and to profane the name of the Holy.

Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, (Leviticus 22:32)

We should not swear by anything according to the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5: 33-36)

Euphemisms

Regrettably, due to social pressure many people use euphinisms for profanity. These so-called minced oaths, Christian curses, or sentence enhancements do nothing except reveal the heart of the black tongued speaker.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45)

It is important to note that we will be held accountable for every word.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)

Summary

We can see that both minced oaths and outright profanity is to be avoided. I have listed some discussion points and questions that may spur some conversations.

• What motivates people to use profanity?
  
• What are some examples of worthless or idle chatter that is present in our culture?
  
• How can we encourage edifying speech?
  
• Do you or your family have certain standards for speaking?

Knowing God

This afternoon, I read the daily devotional from Our Daily Bread - not something I make a habit of, but once in a while it makes for a refreshing change of routine. Today’s devotional - entitled “Biography of God” - is about knowing God by examining three areas: what God says about Himself, what the God-inspired writers in Scripture say about God, and the countless and glorious things God has done in infinity past, is doing at the very moment you read the words, and will continue to do throughout all eternity.

Reading Dave Branon’s short devotional led me to think about what exactly it means to know God. The answer to this is critical to our relationship with Him, and the way we live in this world. Thus, may this post serve as a very brief introduction to a series of posts that I will be writing in the coming weeks about this subject.

History of Biblical Hermeneutics From the Reformation to the 1700's Part 1

In this series of articles, I will continue from where Anthony ended in his history of pre-reformation hermeneutics. I will be discussing the Reformation through the 1700s.

In the late 1400s the Roman Catholic church was as far from biblical hermeneutics as possible. At this point the Catholic church had become a worldly enterprise, the pope chose to rule over the government, and bishops were chosen because of the power they had - not for any other qualification. And the Roman church had decided that it was the most important and ultimate authority in deciding what the Scripture says. This led to a time in which biblical hermeneutics was completely discarded and some of the most tragic and damnable heresies were not only propagated, but also were enforced through threats of excommunication, torture, and death.

During this time the Roman church had all but despised the Bible, and certainly didn't apply true biblical hermeneutics. They had added many doctrines to the Bible, and the chief among these was the heresy that a person must work toward they're salvation. The truth from scripture that a person is saved by faith, through grace alone, was completely rejected at the time of the zenith of the Catholic church. The church taught that working - especially in relation to the Catholic church - would merit God's favor, and thus obtain a person entrance into heaven. The biblical concept that God would graciously forgive sinners by faith alone was was an impermissible doctrine which was shunned with utter hatred.

"Salvation is by faith alone through Christ alone through God's grace alone. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God declares you righteous. Not because you are, but because He imputes the righteousness of Christ to you, because He imputes your sin to Him. Christ bears your sin, you receive His righteousness. This is the glory of the great doctrine of justification. Roman Catholicism doesn't believe that. The Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563, came out with statements. Listen to some of them. "To those who work well unto the end, and trust in God, eternal life is to be offered." That doesn't sound like anything I just read. To those who work well unto the end, and trust in God, eternal life is to be offered. Listen to this. "It is given as a reward, promised by God Himself to be faithfully given to their good works and merits. By those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life and to have truly merited eternal life." Eternal life in the Catholic system is something you earn by your works, you merit it and you receive it because of your merit. That is absolute and total contradiction. That is another gospel." [1]


This rejection of the grace of God, inescapably led to a false biblical hermeneutic, and the elevation of the Catholic hierarchy, writings, and traditions over scripture in almost every area. "Roman Catholics since the Council of Trent, flatly deny that Scripture is the supreme authority in all matters of faith, conduct and doctrine. The words of Vatican II, quote: 'The Roman Catholic Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truth from the holy Scriptures alone, but both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal feelings of devotion and reverence.'" [2]

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