Stopping short of a blanket endorsement of all that Henry Drummond (Free Church of Scotland 1851–97) ever wrote, I do appreciate the counsel he once gave to preachers when he warned them against “killing the old doctrine and ostentatiously calling on their congregations to attend the funeral.”
That’s what happens year after year on Easter
It happens whenever and wherever the man in the pulpit calls into question, obscures, muffles, or denies the fact of the bodily and literal resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Funeral dirges and black for mourning would befit the services in sl1ch apostate churches far better than the age-old anthems and the usual finery, frills and folderol, all of which does not befit them at all.
And this, of which Drummond warned, happens also as often as false prophets in the pulpit mutilate Scripture by tearing it to pieces bit by bit. Little do they realize that they are playing with fire -a fire that burns unto the eternal damnation of some and the eternal redemption of others.
The latter is the kind of fire to be kindled.
And the risen Lord shows us how.
• It happened on Easter Sunday. Dejected and filled with gloom, Cleopas and his companion were trudging on their way home to Emmaus. The fire of faith in Jesus the Nazarene was flickering close to extinction. Then something happened. Suddenly the dying embers of their faith burst into a flame and they sprang into action. There must be an explanation, and we had better know what really happened.
Our Lord was an incendiary—with a holy cause.
How did He go about it?
The incident on the way to Emmaus gives the answer.
By opening the Scriptures—that’s how Jesus did it.
“O foolish men,” He said to Cleopas and his companion, “and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
“Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?
“And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself . . . .
“And their eyes were opened, and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake 10 us in the way, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:25–27; 31, 32).
• That’s our cue how to kindle a fire, the fire that burns in the hearts of those who have faith in Christ as the risen Lord. This faith is the fire:
– that dispels our gloom and lights up our sky otherwise so dark and foreboding;
– that warms and cheers and comforts our long downcast and troubled minds and hearts;
– that gives a spring to our step, a song on our lips, and purpose to our lives;
– that speeds us on our way in witnessing for Christ as our risen Savior, and in serving Him always and everywhere as our eternal King!
• The Bible as the Word of the living God is highly inflammable. Both in His humiliation and in His exaltation, Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of the Word. He knew so well that the Holy Spirit is pleased to make men’s hearts catch fire only when they are ignited by the Scripture He Himself has inspired.
That’s how Jesus started the fires that began to burn all around Him and that have been spreading like wildfire ever since.
That’s how Jesus preached at Nazareth in the synagogue: “And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written . . .” (Luke 4:17).
That’s how Jesus preached when He was about to die on the cross: “For I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors; for that which concerneth me hath fulfilment” (Luke 22:39).
And that’s how Jesus immediately continued to preach on Easter Sunday as soon as He was risen from the dead: “And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself . . . And they said one to another, was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:27, 32).
• Church history does record golden eras when the fires of faith in the risen Lord were mightily kindled to illumine the darkness of a world lost in sin and shame. To mention but two instances; first, the stirring days of the early Christian church of which every member became a missionary when “there arose . . . a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1); second, the glorious age of the Protestant Reformation.
But today—well, what about today? The church is cold, moribund, of little or no account. The fires of the church have been banked for the duration.
Young people leave the church to go where the action is. William James was right when he once said that religion is always a dull habit or an acute fever. Let’s face it, it’s nothing but a dull habit today. Of course, all this is an overstatement; but, in as far as there is truth to it, we had better know what makes the difference.
• Well, what’s the answer?
Simply this: What is the church doing with the Scriptures? Do we open these Scriptures as our risen Lord did for the men of Emmaus; or do we criticize the Scriptures, chip away at them, undermine their inspiration and authority, and finally close them altogether? It’s just as simple as that to know whether the church today can still kindle a fire or not.
Take those two golden eras in history, what was the church doing? Here’s the answer concerning the early Christian church: “They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4). And anyone who knows the least bit about the great Protestant Reformation must realize that it became such a mighty conflagration only because it was a return in preaching and in teaching to Sola Scriptura!
The wholesale gimmickry by which today’s apostate preachers are trying to kindle religious fire is as pitiful and futile as the antics of the frenzied prophets of Baal who went from bad to worse as they attempted to get their idol to send fire in the showdown on Mount Carmel.
To kindle a fire, there is positively no substitute for “holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:16) in the preaching and teaching of the Bible!
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“I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING”
That’s what the man said—
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Let me tell you about it.
The meeting was held in a CHC church. The speaker was an ordained minister (not CHC), n teacher of Bible in one of our Christian schools in a neighboring town. The meeting had been announced in our church bulletin also, so we too were invited. Admittedly, we (my wife and I) went as observers because we had reason to think that the gathering would be of a “charismatic” nature.
The songs were mimeographed under the heading, “Songs for Jesus’ People”—not exactly our preference, but that’s another matter. There were probably twenty couples present, obviously well-meaning, spiritually-minded, and sincere—but, I fear, several of them misguided.
• But now to the speaker. At considerable length he went on about what he believed to be the difference between those who “believe” and others who have “faith.” The former, he said, are saved alright, but their salvation is like living on wieners and hamburgers. Presumably, he meant that the latter who have “faith” are like those who dine on steak and the like; they are the people who reach forward and experience the potential of the Holy Spirit and the great power of God within them.
Speaking in tongues, the speaker went on to say, is a gift that is receiving undue mention. He told us that it has become the tail that wags the dog. However, he did refer to it two or three times in his address which gave me the opportunity to switch from a mere observer to a participant during the question period.
The speaker readily acknowledged that my inference that he too speaks in tongues was correct. Later, during the question period, a woman informed him that she too believed speaking in tongues also to be a gift for today. “Praise the Lord, another nut!” he exclaimed; and, of course, that was good for a chuckle.
“Precisely what are you doing when you speak in tongues?” I took the liberty of asking. “Well, I’m speaking.” “But what arc those tongues in which you speak? Precisely what arc you doing when you speak in tongues?” His answer: “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “Praise the Lord. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Now isn’t that admission as significant as it is interesting?
• After the meeting, when a number of those present gathered around to take issue with me or to listen, no one could say what a person is doing when he is supposed to be speaking in tongues. The only answer offered was that those people are doing the same thing the Corinthians did when they spoke in tongues. But, of course, that’s saying nothing more than that a horse is a horse when someone who has never seen one wants to know what a horse is.
Well, even though he doesn’t know what he is doing when he speaks in tongues, the speaker is sure that he is greatly edified and blessed by this experience. Now I submit that this is playing with fire and that a warning is definitely in order. I would not dare to pray for that kind of an experience for fear T would open myself up to the control of forces and influences definitely other than of the Holy Spirit.
There are so many unfortunate persons who talk. talk, talk when they don’t even know what they are doing. Think of sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers, those in a hypnotic trance, intoxicated persons, and those who become so hysterical that they don’t know what they are saying or doing.
God made us in His image, rational creatures with a mind; and, to me, it is inconceivable that the Holy Spirit (Who participated in our creation) would now lead us to speak when we are beside ourselves. If the pitiful gibberish I have heard at a Pentecostal service is supposed to be speaking in tongues, I would think it to be an insult to ascribe this to the Holy Spirit Who is the Author of order, law, and beauty in God’s creation. It ought to be obvious to a thinking person that we may well pray the Holy Spirit to spare us from anything of the kind.
• Subjective and mystical experiences of which one must acknowledge, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” can be highly dangerous. Surely, we are on much safer ground if we follow the directive the Holy Spirit gives us in the Word that He Himself has inspired.
“But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for leaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (II Tim. 3:14–17).
Daily Bible reading and study is the primary means of grace the Holy Spirit is pleased to use for the edification, inspiration, and consolation of believers in whom He dwells as in a temple. Spirit-led searching of the Scriptures provides us with the objective norm for faith and action that safeguards against the aberrations, excesses, and errors to which the resort to subjective and mystical experience so often leads.
• Of course, I am well aware that by saying all this 1 may be laying myself open to the charge of having a religion of the head and not of the heart, something intellectual and not emotional. But not so. The well-balanced Christian is always both-and, never either-or. However, we are not to lose out of sight that true, saving faith is first of all “a certain knowledge” and only after this “a hearty confidence.” Here too we must keep first things first.
Now there is no need to remind me that this has not been a full consideration of the pro and con of speaking in tongues. These lines at this time were intended as sort or a footnote to what I have written on this subject before, but they have now become of a length that I no longer dare to call them only that. My sincere hope and earnest prayer is that they may serve as a warning; and that, as a word to the wise, they may prove to be sufficient.
• One final thought. Far be it from me to pretend that all the answers about speaking in tongues, as Paul writes of this to the Corinthians, are now in. However, there is one thing of which and I may be sure, and on which we can be agreed: all of us do have one tongue. And rather than speaking in tongues without knowing what we are doing, would it not be far better to pray fervently that we may be so led of the Spirit always to use that one tongue to speak and sing our “Great Redeemer’s praise”!
“For my sake and the g0spel’s, go
And tell redemption’s story”;
His heralds answer, “Be it so,
And thine, Lord, all the glory!”
From Trinity Hymnal
That’s what happens year after year on Easter
It happens whenever and wherever the man in the pulpit calls into question, obscures, muffles, or denies the fact of the bodily and literal resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Funeral dirges and black for mourning would befit the services in sl1ch apostate churches far better than the age-old anthems and the usual finery, frills and folderol, all of which does not befit them at all.
And this, of which Drummond warned, happens also as often as false prophets in the pulpit mutilate Scripture by tearing it to pieces bit by bit. Little do they realize that they are playing with fire -a fire that burns unto the eternal damnation of some and the eternal redemption of others.
The latter is the kind of fire to be kindled.
And the risen Lord shows us how.
• It happened on Easter Sunday. Dejected and filled with gloom, Cleopas and his companion were trudging on their way home to Emmaus. The fire of faith in Jesus the Nazarene was flickering close to extinction. Then something happened. Suddenly the dying embers of their faith burst into a flame and they sprang into action. There must be an explanation, and we had better know what really happened.
Our Lord was an incendiary—with a holy cause.
How did He go about it?
The incident on the way to Emmaus gives the answer.
By opening the Scriptures—that’s how Jesus did it.
“O foolish men,” He said to Cleopas and his companion, “and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
“Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?
“And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself . . . .
“And their eyes were opened, and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake 10 us in the way, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:25–27; 31, 32).
• That’s our cue how to kindle a fire, the fire that burns in the hearts of those who have faith in Christ as the risen Lord. This faith is the fire:
– that dispels our gloom and lights up our sky otherwise so dark and foreboding;
– that warms and cheers and comforts our long downcast and troubled minds and hearts;
– that gives a spring to our step, a song on our lips, and purpose to our lives;
– that speeds us on our way in witnessing for Christ as our risen Savior, and in serving Him always and everywhere as our eternal King!
• The Bible as the Word of the living God is highly inflammable. Both in His humiliation and in His exaltation, Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of the Word. He knew so well that the Holy Spirit is pleased to make men’s hearts catch fire only when they are ignited by the Scripture He Himself has inspired.
That’s how Jesus started the fires that began to burn all around Him and that have been spreading like wildfire ever since.
That’s how Jesus preached at Nazareth in the synagogue: “And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written . . .” (Luke 4:17).
That’s how Jesus preached when He was about to die on the cross: “For I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors; for that which concerneth me hath fulfilment” (Luke 22:39).
And that’s how Jesus immediately continued to preach on Easter Sunday as soon as He was risen from the dead: “And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself . . . And they said one to another, was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:27, 32).
• Church history does record golden eras when the fires of faith in the risen Lord were mightily kindled to illumine the darkness of a world lost in sin and shame. To mention but two instances; first, the stirring days of the early Christian church of which every member became a missionary when “there arose . . . a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1); second, the glorious age of the Protestant Reformation.
But today—well, what about today? The church is cold, moribund, of little or no account. The fires of the church have been banked for the duration.
Young people leave the church to go where the action is. William James was right when he once said that religion is always a dull habit or an acute fever. Let’s face it, it’s nothing but a dull habit today. Of course, all this is an overstatement; but, in as far as there is truth to it, we had better know what makes the difference.
• Well, what’s the answer?
Simply this: What is the church doing with the Scriptures? Do we open these Scriptures as our risen Lord did for the men of Emmaus; or do we criticize the Scriptures, chip away at them, undermine their inspiration and authority, and finally close them altogether? It’s just as simple as that to know whether the church today can still kindle a fire or not.
Take those two golden eras in history, what was the church doing? Here’s the answer concerning the early Christian church: “They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4). And anyone who knows the least bit about the great Protestant Reformation must realize that it became such a mighty conflagration only because it was a return in preaching and in teaching to Sola Scriptura!
The wholesale gimmickry by which today’s apostate preachers are trying to kindle religious fire is as pitiful and futile as the antics of the frenzied prophets of Baal who went from bad to worse as they attempted to get their idol to send fire in the showdown on Mount Carmel.
To kindle a fire, there is positively no substitute for “holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:16) in the preaching and teaching of the Bible!
a id=”set-post-thumbnail” class=”thickbox” href=”https://outlook.reformedfellowship.net/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=57208&type=image&TB_iframe=1″ aria-describedby=”set-post-thumbnail-desc”>
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING”
That’s what the man said—
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Let me tell you about it.
The meeting was held in a CHC church. The speaker was an ordained minister (not CHC), n teacher of Bible in one of our Christian schools in a neighboring town. The meeting had been announced in our church bulletin also, so we too were invited. Admittedly, we (my wife and I) went as observers because we had reason to think that the gathering would be of a “charismatic” nature.
The songs were mimeographed under the heading, “Songs for Jesus’ People”—not exactly our preference, but that’s another matter. There were probably twenty couples present, obviously well-meaning, spiritually-minded, and sincere—but, I fear, several of them misguided.
• But now to the speaker. At considerable length he went on about what he believed to be the difference between those who “believe” and others who have “faith.” The former, he said, are saved alright, but their salvation is like living on wieners and hamburgers. Presumably, he meant that the latter who have “faith” are like those who dine on steak and the like; they are the people who reach forward and experience the potential of the Holy Spirit and the great power of God within them.
Speaking in tongues, the speaker went on to say, is a gift that is receiving undue mention. He told us that it has become the tail that wags the dog. However, he did refer to it two or three times in his address which gave me the opportunity to switch from a mere observer to a participant during the question period.
The speaker readily acknowledged that my inference that he too speaks in tongues was correct. Later, during the question period, a woman informed him that she too believed speaking in tongues also to be a gift for today. “Praise the Lord, another nut!” he exclaimed; and, of course, that was good for a chuckle.
“Precisely what are you doing when you speak in tongues?” I took the liberty of asking. “Well, I’m speaking.” “But what arc those tongues in which you speak? Precisely what arc you doing when you speak in tongues?” His answer: “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “Praise the Lord. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Now isn’t that admission as significant as it is interesting?
• After the meeting, when a number of those present gathered around to take issue with me or to listen, no one could say what a person is doing when he is supposed to be speaking in tongues. The only answer offered was that those people are doing the same thing the Corinthians did when they spoke in tongues. But, of course, that’s saying nothing more than that a horse is a horse when someone who has never seen one wants to know what a horse is.
Well, even though he doesn’t know what he is doing when he speaks in tongues, the speaker is sure that he is greatly edified and blessed by this experience. Now I submit that this is playing with fire and that a warning is definitely in order. I would not dare to pray for that kind of an experience for fear T would open myself up to the control of forces and influences definitely other than of the Holy Spirit.
There are so many unfortunate persons who talk. talk, talk when they don’t even know what they are doing. Think of sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers, those in a hypnotic trance, intoxicated persons, and those who become so hysterical that they don’t know what they are saying or doing.
God made us in His image, rational creatures with a mind; and, to me, it is inconceivable that the Holy Spirit (Who participated in our creation) would now lead us to speak when we are beside ourselves. If the pitiful gibberish I have heard at a Pentecostal service is supposed to be speaking in tongues, I would think it to be an insult to ascribe this to the Holy Spirit Who is the Author of order, law, and beauty in God’s creation. It ought to be obvious to a thinking person that we may well pray the Holy Spirit to spare us from anything of the kind.
• Subjective and mystical experiences of which one must acknowledge, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” can be highly dangerous. Surely, we are on much safer ground if we follow the directive the Holy Spirit gives us in the Word that He Himself has inspired.
“But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for leaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (II Tim. 3:14–17).
Daily Bible reading and study is the primary means of grace the Holy Spirit is pleased to use for the edification, inspiration, and consolation of believers in whom He dwells as in a temple. Spirit-led searching of the Scriptures provides us with the objective norm for faith and action that safeguards against the aberrations, excesses, and errors to which the resort to subjective and mystical experience so often leads.
• Of course, I am well aware that by saying all this 1 may be laying myself open to the charge of having a religion of the head and not of the heart, something intellectual and not emotional. But not so. The well-balanced Christian is always both-and, never either-or. However, we are not to lose out of sight that true, saving faith is first of all “a certain knowledge” and only after this “a hearty confidence.” Here too we must keep first things first.
Now there is no need to remind me that this has not been a full consideration of the pro and con of speaking in tongues. These lines at this time were intended as sort or a footnote to what I have written on this subject before, but they have now become of a length that I no longer dare to call them only that. My sincere hope and earnest prayer is that they may serve as a warning; and that, as a word to the wise, they may prove to be sufficient.
• One final thought. Far be it from me to pretend that all the answers about speaking in tongues, as Paul writes of this to the Corinthians, are now in. However, there is one thing of which and I may be sure, and on which we can be agreed: all of us do have one tongue. And rather than speaking in tongues without knowing what we are doing, would it not be far better to pray fervently that we may be so led of the Spirit always to use that one tongue to speak and sing our “Great Redeemer’s praise”!
“For my sake and the g0spel’s, go
And tell redemption’s story”;
His heralds answer, “Be it so,
And thine, Lord, all the glory!”
From Trinity Hymnal