Michael-Grams: M-G: 12.13.18 // Am I Subject to the Right Rule of Life, Part 1 of 2

“‘This precious book I’d rather own

Than all the golden gems

That e’er in monarchs’ coffers shone,

Or on their diadems.

And were the seas one chrysolite,

This earth a golden ball;

And gems were all the stars of night,

This book were worth them all.

‘Ah, no, the soul ne’er found relief

In glittering hoards of wealth;

Gems dazzle not the eye of grief,

Gold can not purchase health.

But here a blessed balm appears,

For every human woe;

And they that seek this book in tears

Their tears shall cease to flow.’”

Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906)

Everyone bases their lifestyle on some authority as a rule of life. There are only three authorities that people are willing to submit their hearts to as a guide or moral compass for living: God’s law, a different law, or self-law.

There are three types of people attending any Bible-believing church: genuine believers (knowing and doing the will of God for their lives according to the Scriptures), carnal believers (HI-HO’s, half-in/half-out of the Christian life, holding onto Jesus with one hand and the world in the other), and tares (agents of the devil, not having the Holy Spirit, the natural or sensual man, knowingly or unknowingly creating problems for a local body of believers.

Now, I seriously doubt if anyone in our church is going to claim to be carnal or a tare, but genuine believers are, in my estimation, the minority in most, if not all, Bible-believing churches. Before I share briefly with you some recent surveys on people’s misunderstandings of the Bible, I have been writing for nearly a decade that the greatest threat to the body of Christ is not from without but from within; it is the willful ignorance of the Word of God. The ramifications of this are concerning because of the rising tide of apostasy (the rejection of the Word of God as a rule of life) among the citizenry of our “one nation under ‘God.’”

The reality is this; you and I cannot be a biblical success in the eyes of God apart from knowing and doing His will which is always according to His Word. There is a dissident movement that is departing from accepted Christian beliefs or standards. Here comes the kicker; among Bible-believing folks who claimed that Jesus was the only way to heaven, and the Bible was the highest authority, there were startling results of a recent survey that are leading people to believe that America is more heretical rather than Christian.

Make no mistake about this; we are living in a Jdg 21:25b-world (“Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”) that is swiftly moving toward a Gn 6:5 reset,

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

The rainbow reminds us of God’s covenant with Noah that He will not destroy the world again with water, but God never said anything about not bringing the fire like He did to Sodom and Gomorrah the next time of gross wickedness across the globe. It is high time for us and all believers to put a stop to the nonsense of willful ignorance, and return to Solomon’s words and admonition found in Eccl 12:13-14,

(Ecc 12:13) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all.

(Ecc 12:14) For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

My good friend, Michael Womack, B.A., Th.M., D.Min., commented on this passage in our study of Ecclesiastes at my church,

“The whole duty of man is to fear/follow; it is a life of trust and faith that will not stop. Faith is real; trust is obvious.” He also quoted a famous line from Mark Twain, “It's not the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bothers me; it's the part I do understand that bothers me.”0

We need to live in the fear, or reverential trust, of God and express our love for Him (the first or great command) by obeying His Word for our lives, spontaneously and completely with every ounce of our being (Mt 6:10b; Mk 12:30; Jn 14:15). How can Yahweh be our Lord if we are defining what is right by our own understanding rather than basing all that we think, say, and do on the Scriptures? Whenever we go worldly, we dethrone God in our lives or challenge His right to rule in our lives.

“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered” (Prov 28:26).

Wouldn’t it be so cool if every believer did what was right in God’s eyes! But if we choose to remain willfully ignorant of the Scriptures, we simply cannot do what we don’t know. Seeing the world through the Word is the only way to know what is right in the eyes of God, evaluating and interpreting the world around us through the lens of Scripture by taking a historical/grammatical approach to interpreting the Word of God.

This prevailing ignorance of the Word among those claiming to be Christians in our country is not about Bible trivia but about doctrines that are essential to the faith of historic Christianity.

“A new Pew Research Center survey of more than 4,700 U.S. adults finds that one-third of Americans say they do not believe in the God of the Bible, but that they do believe there is some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe. A slim majority of Americans (56%) say they believe in God ‘as described in the Bible.’ And one-in-ten do not believe in any higher power or spiritual force.”1

“…, LifeWay used more stringent criteria for evangelical faith, as defined by some group called the National Association of Evangelicals. Only participants who called the Bible their highest authority, said personal evangelism is important and indicated that trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way of salvation, were labeled ‘evangelical.’ They totaled 586 survey-takers.”2

“Everyone expected them [evangelicals] to perform better than most Americans. No one expected them to perform worse. Seven in ten evangelicals—more than the population at large—said that Jesus was the first being God created. Fifty-six percent agreed that ‘the Holy Spirit is a divine force but not a personal being.’ They also saw a huge increase in evangelicals (28 percent, up from 9 percent) who indicated that the Third Person of the Trinity is not equal with God the Father or Jesus…”3

The sad result of this last survey among “evangelicals” was this. “In knowing both the content of the Bible and the doctrinal foundations of Christianity, we Americans… are… a nation of heretics.”4

Reading the article helps to understand why they came to that depressing conclusion.

What needs to be considered is the answer to this question, “Am I subject to the right rule of life?” Many people claim to be Christian but claiming and being can be two separate things as you well know. My placement of varying ideologies in these three respective categories of authority may not be as precise as a theologian or philosopher, but in actuality, it boils down to either all things God or all things man.

Then there is the matter of obedience; a tree is known by its fruit, right (Mt 12:33; Lk 6:44)? There may be some necessary recalibrations that need to take place (cf. 1 Jn 1:9). Only you know if a 1 Jn 1:9 encounter is necessary, but I can assure you that God already knows, and since we live in a free and open society to follow a path of our own choosing, others may already know what authority we are basing our lifestyle upon. Let’s talk about these three authorities.

(1) Theonomous authority

Theonomous is a compound word made up of (theos) God (nomos) law, meaning subject to the nature and norms of God’s law. The context of Scripture determines if it is referring to the Mosaic law, Gospel, or a principle. Technically, nomos can be more extensive in its meaning at times.

I think we realize that those who honor God with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him or those that cherry-pick the Scriptures or willfully ignore them do not recognize, acknowledge, or submit to theonomous authority. If we are not subject to theonomous authority, then we have to be subject to one of the other two authorities. We simply cannot claim to love God and purposely ignore in part or whole or mishandle the Scriptures (cf. Jn 14:15). Our treatment and obedience to the Word of God are indicators of whether or not we are under theonomous authority as a moral rule of life.

God’s will is linked directly to His Word; both go hand in hand. You would think that believers would understand this, but the greatest threat to Christianity is not from without but from within – willful ignorance of the Scriptures which leads to a variety of heresies among so-called evangelicals. There has been such a dilution of the meaning of words in our culture by the enemy so as to make the meaning of words relative and confusing, like the nouns: Christians or evangelicals, for example.

There are numerous believers who have fallen into this snare of deviating from the teaching of historical Christianity without even realizing it due to willful ignorance of the Scriptures. To say, “I believe in the Bible” is analogous to saying, “I believe in God.” People make those statements as if to validate they are Christians.

But consider this; if demons believe there is one God and tremble (Jas 2:19), you know they are not going to glory (Mt 25:41). Demons are essentially orthodox in their understanding of God, but even having a right knowledge of God is not proof of saving faith. In reality, the devil and his demons hate God and anyone or anything related to Him! <><