HOW TO VIEW PORN AND OTHER TEMPTATIONS AS ATTACKS ON CHRIST IN YOU

How To View All Temptation As Attacks On Christ In You

This is the approach that has worked for me in resisting temptation. I can honestly say that I have never looked at porn on the internet because Jesus Christ has empowered me to view porn with the ugliness that it deserves.

1.     You are living your life in the midst of a spiritual battle for your soul. (Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 6:11-23; 2 Cor. 10:3-5.)

2.     You are living under the domain and rule of Satan until you surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ over your life. (Eph. 2:1-10; Rom. 6:11-23.)

3.     When you trust Jesus Christ to make you righteous before God, Satan will attack you. (Eph. 4:27, 6:10-20; James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9.)

4.     Satan’s two weapons for attack are (1) deceit (Gen. 3:1-5; 1 Tim. 4:1; Col. 2:8; Acts 13:10; Dan. 8:25; Rev.12:9, 20:3, 8) and (2) accusations (Job 1:9-11, 2:4-5; Zech. 3:1; Rev. 12:10.) He wants to convince you that your identity is in something other than the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He wants to convince you that you can’t possibly live out your identity in Christ – that the Holy Spirit in you is incapable of making you holy or powerful against Satan’s schemes.

5.     As someone who professes to believe Jesus and His Word, you have two options: (1) you can give in to Satan’s lies and believe his accusations and live a severely compromised life; or (2) you can battle against the enemy of your soul with the weapons that God has entrusted to you. (2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-20; 1 Pet. 5:8-9.)

6.     Satan’s lies and accusations are seen as flaming arrows that are attempting to create weak spots in the gate of your life. (Eph. 6:11, 16, 4:27.) Satan wants footholds / weaknesses in your life which give him leverage over you. The shield against his attacks is faith (Eph. 6:16). His goal is to destroy you and destroy Christ’s work in you, making Jesus Christ as ineffective as possible in you. (See The Screwtape Letters for C.S. Lewis’ masterful portrayal of this.)

7.     Thus, every temptation, no matter how beautiful and sensual, should be viewed as an attack by the enemy of your soul who wants to destroy your life. Will you give him that opportunity or will you fight back as a victorious overcomer to claim what is rightfully yours through Jesus Christ? (See Rom. 8:26, 31-39; see the promises in Rev. 2-3 to “the one who conquers” in every church.)

8.     If you are a soldier who has responded to God’s call by enlisting in His army and you have clothed yourself with His weapons of righteousness, how should you respond to attacks by someone who wants to destroy your life and your family and Christ’s work in you? I get angry against Satan and his attacks every time I think about this. I hate what Satan does to unsuspecting and unprepared “believers” who are struggling along, giving in to temptations as if they didn’t have a choice. 1 Cor. 10:13 is true – God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to resist. Take up God’s powerful weapons and resist – fight back as a triumphant child of the living God. Satan has no power to force you to give in. You must hate the enemy and respond by going on the offensive with the Word and faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

9.     Finally, I don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit by giving in to things that Christ died to save me from and that He has empowered me to resist. (Eph. 4:30; Is. 63:7-10.) I don’t want to hold up the Son of God to “contempt” by the conduct of my life. (Heb. 6:6.) I don’t want to “profane the blood of the covenant” and “outrage the Spirit of Grace.” (Heb. 10:29.) I know that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. 10:31.)

Thus, when you are tempted to look at porn, remember that is not a naked woman, but a tool of the enemy for destroying your life. You should hate that and resist that and claim the holiness and righteousness to which you were called as a soldier and child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Once you begin to view temptation as being full of the ugliness and evil of Satan, from the pit of hell, you will be far less likely to give in and far more likely to hate Satan and hate his lies and deceit that are destroying people whom Jesus loves.

Reflections on Psalm 139

Theme – Since Yahweh “searches” everything and intimately “knows” everything, including the thoughts and intentions of the heart and mind, how then are we to live? The answer is in the way/path that is everlasting. We are to live in our heart, mind, words and actions in light of eternity. 

Structure - Yahweh is omniscient - 139:1-6. Yahweh is omnipresent - 139:7-12. Yahweh is omnipotent over all things - 139:13-18. Reflections on the eternal consequences for every person in light of the nature and character of Yahweh. 

                               Application of Psalm 139 to Contemporary Life

           A 42 year old mother of four in our church suddenly died. The kids are asking, why? We have many people in our church struggling to find work and not knowing if they will be able to afford housing. Many within our church ask why. Why did life have to be so bad for them? Why did they get cancer? Why does it seem like the evil people triumph and good people get shafted? Why do kids raised in godly homes rebel and grieve their parents? Where is this all-powerful God who is supposed to be a God of love? Doesn’t He care? Can’t He respond?

            Psalm 139:1-12 – Psalm 139 (and the book of Psalms generally) helps the pursuer of Yahweh, the follower of Jesus the Messiah, answer these universal questions. There is nothing in or about my life that Yahweh does not know. He knows exactly what I am doing, what I am thinking, the desires of my heart. He knows my words before I speak them. I cannot escape His knowledge about me. If Yahweh is good, if He loves me with a covenant love that never stops, if He knows what is best for my life, if He has the power to do what is exactly right in my life, then I can trust Him in all circumstances. I never have to fear that Yahweh forgot about me or stopped caring about me or lost the power to intervene in my life as is best for my good and His glory.

            In my despair, if I were to sink into the deepest, darkest pit of grief, Yahweh would still be there. In my joy, if I were to ascend to the highest of praise and feel like I could fly, Yahweh would still be there. For the daughter whose believing mother has died young, she can be certain that Yahweh is still with her mother, that the soul of her mother continues to be surrounded by the love of Yahweh for her. She can be certain that her believing mother is in heaven with Yahweh, more alive in the presence of Yahweh than ever before. She is now part of the great cloud of witnesses, in the joyous company of Jesus Christ, rooting on her daughter. (Heb. 12:1-3.)

            As I write this, my son has flown to the other side of the world, the Republic of Georgia, to teach English. I can be confident that as he has taken the wings of the morning (139:9) to the far side of the earth that Yahweh is there, in all of His knowledge and power and plan for my son’s life. As my friend’s son is away at sea with the Coast Guard for long stretches of time, we know that even there Yahweh’s hand shall lead him and His right hand will uphold him (139:10).

            As persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ are in the dark prisons of oppressive nations, even there the darkness is not dark to Yahweh, but the prisons are as bright as day to Him (139:12). He sees everything and is ever-present with His saints.

            As we become consistently conscious of the presence of Yahweh around us, that affects how we live. It is difficult to deliberately sin, to deliberately do what grieves and offends Yahweh when I am conscious of His presence. When I am consistently conscious of His presence, I want to please Him (2 Cor. 5:9; 1 Thes. 2:4) and become like Him (Phil. 3:10; 1 Jn. 3:2).

            Psalm 139:13-17 – When Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs, his pastor father and godly mother could have been in despair, wondering where Yahweh is in such a tragedy. Instead, they embraced the truth that their son is fearfully and wonderfully made (139:13) by a loving Heavenly Father who had a special plan for his life. Today, Nick travels the world as an evangelist, giving a powerful testimony of the joy of Yahweh in his life. He has shared Christ with millions of people and seen hundreds of thousands of people surrender their lives to Jesus as Messiah. He is now married and his wife is expecting their first child, who is also fearfully and wonderfully made. Wow! Wonderful are Yahweh’s works! (139:14.)

            Paul says that we are Yahweh’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared for us ahead of time so that we would walk in Yahweh’s plan for us. (Eph. 2:10.) Paul seems to be echoing 139:15-16. Our bodies, in fact every facet of our lives, were intricately embroidered together before birth by Yahweh. He saw the unformed substance of our lives before we were born. Every day of our lives was written out by the all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful Yahweh before our birth. Ephesians 1:4-5 says that before the foundation of the world, in love for us He predestined us to adoption as His children according to the purposes of His will.

I know a family whose 21 year old son was home from college for Christmas and suffered a tragic accident that broke his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic. He was bright and athletic and had the world at his fingertips. Now, he is dependent on a respirator and a full-time caregiver. They can be certain that this is part of the masterpiece plan of Yahweh, that this will give this young man the opportunity to affirm the glory and grace and goodness of Yahweh even out of his own tragedy and pain. Yahweh did not make a mistake, He did not forget, He is present and at work in His power for the good of His children. How many will come to Christ because of the testimony of this young man? Will he see God’s purpose and goodness in the midst of his agony? Will others see Yahweh’s work in his live and give Yahweh the glory? The Scriptures help us see all of life as a win-win situation. Every situation is an opportunity to glorify God. The unbeliever and the evil man has no such hope. There is only despair, hopeless purposelessness and eventual wrathful judgment for the enemy of Yahweh.

Yahweh is not bound by space and time and can give every person (past, present and future) His full, undivided attention. His thoughts toward us, and His instruction for us, and His plans for us, are vast and immeasurable. Even when one of His children sleeps in death, they have assurance of awaking in His presence. (139:18.) To be absent from the body is to be present with Yahweh. (2 Cor. 5:6-8.) Thus, we do not have to fear death, because Yahweh will never leave us or forsake us. (Heb. 13:5.)

Psalm 139:19-22 – While we are in this world, we are surrounded by wicked people, violent people, people whose every intent is malicious, who hate Yahweh and who are committed to rebellion against Yahweh and hatred of His saints. What is the appropriate response to such people? The natural and normal response is to hate such conduct and such people. Anyone who does not feel hatred toward the child-molester is calloused, in denial or evil.[1] The psalmist clearly and repeatedly affirms hatred for evil and the wicked.

How does that translate for new covenant saints who are told to bless those who persecute them and never to repay evil or take vengeance, but to leave room for the wrath of God? The saint is called to do good to bad people. (Rom. 12:41-21.) Is there a conflict between the imprecations of the psalmist and the call of the new covenant saint? In fact, the dissonance/turbulence of 139:19-22 may mean that it is an especially important part of this otherwise superlatively positive psalm.

There is consistency between the imprecation of these verses and the instructions for the new covenant believer. Specifically, the imprecation is for Yahweh, not the psalmist, to act in judgment on the wicked. Jesus repeatedly says that judgment will come at the end of the age, that every person will stand before Yahweh and give an account of their lives, that Yahweh will separate the goats from the sheep and the grain from the weeds, and that an eternal judgment of torment will await the wicked.[2] Yahweh and His Messiah will judge with terror and finality.

At this point, we are incapable of rendering final judgment. We know that evil must be punished in this world, but we don’t know about the souls of men and which souls Yahweh has chosen to rescue from their depravity. Which of us would have known that Yahweh would call David Berkovitz, the Son of Sam serial killer, to be a saint? Which of us would have known that Yahweh would call Ted Bundy, another serial killer to repent and confess Jesus Christ as Lord? And none of us would have imagined that Yahweh would redeem Jeffrey Dahmer, the depraved man who lured, killed and ate his young victims. What kind of God redeems people like that? All three men were justly convicted and sentenced for their crimes, but the ultimate judgment before Yahweh was taken for them by the suffering and death of the Messiah. He took their abominable sins on Himself at the cross, enabling these men to give testimony to the unbelievable mercy and grace of Yahweh toward them.

So, as we live in this present world, what is our attitude to be toward the evil and the wicked? First, we cannot set up an image of Yahweh’s love that fits our own paradigm and then filter all of Scripture through that paradigm. The passivist who believes that a loving God will never punish evil or sin, but will instead allow the unrepentant guilty to go unpunished and enjoy the blessing of heaven, has created his own filter that recreates Yahweh in his own image. Even as the suffering servant Messiah who commended His disciples to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them (Matt. 5:44-48), Jesus did not hesitate to condemn evil, rebuke the wicked in the harshest possible terms, and remind everyone of the coming and eternal judgment on all those who fail to trust Him.[3]

            Loving wicked people does not mean ignoring or condoning evil.[4] Civilized governments must punish criminal activity. Churches must punish evil activity by professing believers. However, the ultimate mercy or judgment is up to Yahweh, not us to render. Only Yahweh knows those who are His. (2 Tim. 2:19.) The Messiah is waiting to return in judgment, because He does not want any to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance – even the especially evil people. (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4, Rom. 2:4; 1 John 2:2.) As the Savior of the world, who took the sin of evil people on Himself, and Who loved us even when we were His enemies, the Messiah is entitled to patiently wait for people to be saved before coming to render judgment on the unrepentant. In the meantime, we are called to snatch people from the fire, that they might be redeemed and purified, exchanging their filthy, reeking rags for pure white robes. (Jude 1:23.)

            Jude 1:23 is perhaps the best summary of our attitude, which is to hate the filth and the evil, but to do our best to rescue evil people before the flames of hell consume them. We are called to see every person, no matter how evil, for what they could be if they were transformed by Jesus Christ. This is impossible in our flesh, but with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we can live out Jude 1:23 with a view to what evil people can become in Christ, while not forsaking the warnings of the coming judgment against all who refuse to repent and believe.[5]

             Conclusion – Psalm 139:23-24 – We come now to the last two verses of Psalm 139. Do I really want Almighty Yahweh, who will judge the living and the dead for eternity, who can crush me at will or rescue and bless me, to know my heart and my thoughts? Certainly not in my flesh, certainly not in my wickedness, certainly not in my unredeemed man. However, the Messiah has redeemed and ransomed my heart and mind from the dominion of darkness and from the prince of the power of this world system (Eph. 2:1-3; Col. 2:15) so that I am now free to choose what is good and holy and loving and kind and to reflect the fruit of the Spirit in my life.[6] Since Christ is in me, I have the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) and ready access to Yahweh’s throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16). I am empowered to put off evil from my mind and heart and to put on the righteousness of Christ. (Gal. 5:16-26; Eph. 4:25-6:9; Col. 3:1-4:1.) As such a saint, transformed, redeemed and made holy and righteous by Jesus, I can know that Yahweh will not find a grievous or evil way in me, because He will see the righteousness of Jesus instead. Therefore, I will not fear the judgment that will eternally afflict the wicked, but I will instead look forward to the way of Yahweh that is everlasting.

            In anticipation of the culmination of the way everlasting, C.S. Lewis, in The Last Battle, gives us a picture of the joy and enthusiasm and thrill of our final entry into the glory of God in that way everlasting:

            “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in! . . . But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

            For each of us who profess to follow Jesus, we should look forward to the culmination of that everlasting way. As long as we are on this earth, we are to be calling others to that way and reminding one another of that way, so that our priorities will be right, our fears will be abated, and our hope will never be quenched.[7] We are to be convinced that nothing in either the spiritual or physical world will ever be able to separate us from the love of Yahweh that is found in Jesus our Messiah. (Rom. 8:35-39.) As we live in light of eternity, in light of the things and people that will last forever, we are given over to the things that glorify God. We have a win-win attitude (Phil. 1:18-30), and others see in us the light and glory of the eternal Messiah.

[NOTE: The following is a more technical and detailed look at Psalm 139]

Stanza by Stanza Evaluation of the Psalm – In keeping with my Western Seminary course on the Psalms, I include a paragraph on each stanza that evaluates the verses as if they are in some way about the coming Messiah.

139:1-6: The first line of the first stanza is the thematic statement of the Psalm – Yahweh searches and knows the psalmist (and every person), from Yahweh’s position of knowledge before the psalmist was born (cf. v. 16), Yahweh has already done this before he was formed in his mother’s womb. The first stanza reflects on Yahweh’s omniscience. He searches and knows[1] everything about the psalmist, including what the psalmist does, thinks, is going to do, and is going to say. He intimately knows the psalmist’s past, present and future. The psalmist is blown away by the extent of Yahweh’s intimate knowledge. It is more than the psalmist’s mind can comprehend.

Waltke interprets v. 5 as a forceful and even hostile hemming in and pushing down of the Psalmist by Yahweh.[2] The ESV Study Bible, however, interprets this as a gentle and reassuring gesture, pointing out that the same phrase is used in Gen. 48:14, 17 in a gentle way. The impression given is that God’s knowledge is all-encompassing, like a hand that is hemming the psalmist in regardless of which direction he turns. This understanding of Yahweh’s everpresent omniscience causes the psalmist to be thrilled with this characteristic of Yahweh – it is both wonderful and mind-blowing.

Other passages in the TaNaK that describe Yahweh as searching and knowing include Job. 10:6; Jer. 17:10, 1 Chron. 28:9 and Ps. 17:3 and 44:21. Job 10 echoes similar ideas as Psalm 139, including a detailed description of how God formed Job. Job is conscious of the detailed plan and knowledge of God about his life. One wonders if the psalmist was reflecting on these words of Job when Psalm 139 was written. David passed the lesson of Psalm 139 onto his son, Solomon, in 1 Chron. 28:9: “the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.” Psalm 44:1 affirms that Yahweh “knows the secrets of the heart.”[3] This idea of Yahweh judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart is applied to the work of the Messiah in 1 Cor. 4:5 (at Jesus’ second coming) and Heb. 4:12 (a work of the Word of God as a person).

For the wicked man, if he were to contemplate Yahweh’s intimate knowledge of all of his thoughts and ways, he may be convicted to seek the way everlasting. For the follower of Yahweh, the knowledge of Yahweh is humbling, because it comes with the realization that Yahweh has accepted and redeemed him despite his unworthiness. For the follower of Jesus, there is the realization that Yahweh’s intimate knowledge of him is a knowledge of the purity and righteousness of Jesus in him. This raises the question of how well followers of Jesus know who they are (their identity) in Yahweh’s sight. Yahweh’s knowledge of followers of Jesus is wonderful because of their re-creation/rebirth in the image of Jesus.

From a Messianic perspective, the first stanza may be viewed as describing the incredibly close relationship between Yahweh and Messiah. As Jesus told Philip in John 14:9, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” From what we know about Jesus, however, the last verse of the first stanza is not true of Jesus, because he did comprehend the knowledge of the Father about the Son.[4] This instead seems to be a description of David and anyone who is seeking “the way everlasting.” While Yahweh’s omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence applies to everyone, it is the wise one who seeks the way everlasting. That way is ultimately found in the Messiah, the Lord of David – Ps. 110:1.

            139:7-12:  The second stanza follows up on v. 5, which said that Yahweh hems him in on all sides and His hand is upon the psalmist. This stanza begins with two parallel questions that make Yahweh’s Spirit and His presence synonymous – Yahweh is omnipresent through the Spirit and where the Spirit is present, Yahweh is present. The psalmist reflects on Yahweh’s omnipresence, evaluating whether there is any escape. If the psalmist were to try to flee from Yahweh’s presence, where could he go? In every part of the physical or spiritual world, Yahweh is there, including in Sheol, the place of the dead, and heaven, the place of Yahweh and the angels. Even the deepest darkness is not a hiding place from the presence of Yahweh, because the deepest darkness is as bright as day to Yahweh. The same hand that surrounded the psalmist in vs. 5 is now leading and upholding the psalmist in vs. 10.

            In Genesis, rebels tried unsuccessfully to hide or flee from the presence of Yahweh. (Adam, Eve, Cain.) Evil people will try to hide from the presence of Yahweh in the last day. (Hosea 10:8, Luke 23:30, Rev. 6:16.) The implication is that since a person cannot hide from the presence of Yahweh, every person should become a follower of Yahweh and enjoy the presence of Yahweh, or the wrath of Yahweh will prevail on that person.

            Psalm 139:7 is only one of four verses in Psalms that mention the Holy Spirit. (See Ps. 51:11, 104:30, 143:10.) From a Messianic perspective, the Spirit’s connection with the Messiah is undeniable. The Spirit’s anointing and empowerment and presence were evident in everything that Jesus did. When Jesus briefly made his bed in Sheol, the Spirit was there with Him. When he ascended to heaven, the Spirit was there with Him. There is no place that Jesus went or could go without the Spirit’s presence.

For followers of Jesus Christ who have been given the Holy Spirit as the deposit or seal of salvation, the same is true of them. While the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, there is a special presence of the Holy Spirit on and within the believer.

            139:13-18:  The third stanza explains the reason for Yahweh’s intimate knowledge of the psalmist. This is a reflection on Yahweh’s omnipotence. Yahweh formed the psalmist’s body within his mother’s womb. Yahweh intricately wove together every aspect of the psalmist’s body and soul in a wonderful and awesome way. Before the psalmist was born, Yahweh saw and recorded every aspect of his life. Thus, Yahweh’s omniscience is not just of the present and past, but also every detail of the future as if it were the present. This seems to go beyond foreknowledge to fore-planning the life of the psalmist, with the power to carry out the details of the plan.

             The psalmist concludes the stanza by reflecting on how Yahweh has devoted thoughts to him, in order to plan and purpose his life. This causes the psalmist to praise the precious and attentive immensity of Yahweh’s thoughts and knowledge. Yahweh’s thoughts and plans and power are beyond comprehension. The psalmist knows that when he awakes (from sleep or from death), Yahweh will still be with him. No spiritual or physical power or realm can separate the psalmist from the presence and love of Yahweh. (Cf. Rom. 8:35-39.)

            The verses of this stanza may be applied to the Messiah, whom Yahweh knew intimately and uniquely before He was formed in his mother’s womb. Messiah, more than anyone else, was “fearfully and wonderfully” formed in His mother’s womb through the work of the same Holy Spirit mentioned in vs. 7-12. In other words, there is a natural sequence to go from the omnipresence of the Spirit to the work of the Spirit in effecting conception in a virgin for the purpose of fearfully and wonderfully forming the Messiah, who was know by Yahweh and was eternally with Yahweh before His birth. No life was better planned or planned in greater detail by Yahweh than that of the Messiah. Certainly, Yahweh’s thoughts were constantly on the Messiah, precious, vast, unmeasureable thoughts. When the Messiah awoke, Yahweh was still present with Him.

            139:19-24:  The fourth stanza starts with imprecations against the wicked, malicious men of blood who hate Yahweh. This seems to be a sudden, radical jump in thought from the eternal preciousness of God’s thoughts to the psalmist to imprecations against the wicked. This is a point of violent dissonance in the psalm. The reader is forced to full alertness. The psalmist hates such men and asks for God’s judgment upon them, because they are dedicated enemies of Yahweh. Such men seem to surround the psalmist, because he asks that they depart from him. The fact that such men take Yahweh’s name in vain suggests that they pay lip service to Yahweh while having a malicious intent. The psalmist’s hatred for such men is apparently beyond normal hatred, but is “complete hatred.” They are the psalmist’s enemies as well as enemies of Yahweh. If the Psalms as a whole can be seen as a journey of the followers of Yahweh over time until the coming of the Messiah, when there will only be praise and thanksgiving in all of creation (Ps. 146-150), these imprecations late in the Psalms are a reminder that evil people will continue to harass the people of Yahweh until the Messiah comes.

            The Messiah was certainly surrounded by such men and such men took His life. As the Messiah told His followers, if they hated Him then His followers will also be hated. (Matt. 10:22, 24:9; Luke 21:17; John 15:18, 24-25, 17:14.) Thus, Yahweh, Messiah and Messiah’s followers, as well as the psalmist, have this in common – they are all hated by evil people. For the psalmist, the acceptable response is to hate those who hate Yahweh and Messiah. Jude devotes most of his epistle to such people. Jesus commended the Ephesian church for hating the works of the Nicolatians (Rev. 2:6) and he condemned the churches that tolerated the Nicolatians (Rev. 2:15) and Jezebel (Rev. 2:20). Echoing Ps. 139, Jesus told the church at Thyatira that He is the One who searches the mind and heart. (Rev. 2:23.) The issue of hating enemies vs. loving enemies will be discussed further in the application discussion below.  

The psalmist concludes with an invitation for Yahweh to search and know his heart and thoughts for the purpose of determining if there is any sin in his life and in order that the psalmist might be led in the way/path that is everlasting – the path that leads to eternal life. This is apparently echoed in Jeremiah 16:16, where Yahweh says, “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” The phrase translated “way everlasting” is alternatively rendered, “in the ancient way.” The ancient way or way everlasting is the good way, the way that brings peaceful rest for the soul, as opposed to torment of the soul for enemies of Yahweh.

The Messiah is the way everlasting. He is the ancient way that is charted through the Torah and the prophets and the writings. (Luke 24:27, 44-45.) Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6.) Thus, the ancient way and the new covenant way are one and the same – faith in the Messiah is the way to the Father. Obviously, no mere mortals can stand the test of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, of the “grievous way,” except as they have been cleansed and purified by faith in the Messiah. (Rom. 3:23, 28, 30; Eph. 2:1-9.) Thus, the psalmist is either a person who has been purified by faith in the Messiah and Messiah’s Torah, or he is the Messiah.

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Footnotes from the second part (stanza by stanza) of the discussion above: 

[1] Waltke’s translation uses “search” and “know” in the ongoing present tense, not in the past tense. (Id., at p. 534, fn. 55.) Cf. the ESV, “searched” and “known me.”

[2] Id., at p. 549.

[3] We may compare the various passages that state that the eyes of Yahweh search the earth for those whose hearts are His. 2 Chron. 16:9; Prov. 5:21, 15:3; 1 Pet. 3:12.

[4] Alternatively, perhaps the first three stanzas can be seen as focusing on the omniscience of the Father, the omnipresence of the Spirit, and on forming of the Son in human form. In that reading, the declaration in vs. 16 that Yahweh saw the Son’s unformed substance would describe Yahweh’s pre-incarnation relationship with the Son.

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Footnotes from the first part (the application) of the discussion above: 

[1] Is there anything worse than an unrepentant child molester? Jesus said it would be BETTER for such a person if a millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the deepest sea, than what awaits them at the judgment. See Matt. 18:6, Luke 17:2.

[2] Matt. 13:30, 25:31-46; Heb. 9:27-28, 10:27; Rev. 20:12, 15.

[3] I am struck by the harshness of Jesus’ direct, face to face condemnation of the Pharisees. Whatever He meant by loving enemies did not include refraining from condemning evil people. Perhaps this is due to His unique position as Messiah and as the only man capable of rendering perfect judgment. Thus, given Jesus’ uniqueness, perhaps this is a case of do as I say, not as I do. Jesus’ condemnation of Judas and the cities of northern Galilee that failed to believe Him was equally strong.

[4] See Jude. Jesus commended the Ephesian church for hating the works of the Nicolatians (Rev. 2:6) and he condemned the churches that tolerated the Nicolatians (Rev. 2:15) and Jezebel (Rev. 2:20). Jesus said that the unrepentant man was to be treated as an unbeliever. (Matt. 18:17.) Paul admonished the church to remove the unrepentant evil person from their midst. (1 Cor. 5.) Self-centered liars were struck dead by the Spirit of the Lord. (Acts 5:1-11.) There are many other examples. The Messiah clearly cares about the purity and passion of His church for righteousness and against evil.

[5] I have heard my own pastor say that we can’t hate the sin and love the sinner, we just have to love the sinner. That, however, is inconsistent with the passages in fn. 10, and elsewhere, and is certainly inconsistent with Jude 1:23.

[6] John 8:32; Rom. 6:7, 18, 22, 8:2; Gal. 5:1.

[7] Heb. 3:13, 6:9-12, 17-20, 7:25, 10:24-25, 35-39, 11:1, 6, 16, 40, 12:1-3, 28, 13:15, 20-21. 

Reflections on Saving Faith and Miley Cyrus

On August 5, 2011, I blogged about Miley Cyrus taking stands contrary to her professed faith in Jesus Christ. On August 25, she put on a sexually charged performance that was shocking by secular standards, let alone for someone who professed faith in Jesus and who has been a model for little girls around the world. She used to publicly "thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That is a public confession of faith, right? Despite her public confession, the question has to be asked: does Miley Cyrus have a saving faith in Jesus Christ?

There are many people who confess "faith" in Jesus Christ, but their lives in no way match their confession - not even a little. What are we to make of that? One reason that the western church is so anemic is that our churches are filled with people who have confessed Christ, but who don't seem to know Him and have never determined to wholeheartedly follow Him. They have a false view of what it means to believe or trust Jesus.

Romans 10:9-10 tells us that, "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." (Romans 10:9-10 ESV) Miley confessed with her mouth, but did she "believe" in her heart?

The "heart" in Scripture is the center of the person and encompasses the will and desires. The ESV Study Bible comment on Rom. 10:10 says that "[s]aving faith is not mere intellectual agreement but deep inward trust in Christ at the core of one’s being." To believe in the heart is to believe with your whole being - to be wholehearted in trusting and relying on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Belief is not an insurance policy in order to escape hell and enter heaven. Belief is not mental agreement with a set of facts. Instead, belief involves surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ over your life. Paul repeatedly refers to those who believe as dying to self and becoming alive to Christ. (Rom. 6:2-14; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3-10.)  This is a continuing process.

We all know John 3:16, where Jesus says that those who believe in Him will have eternal life. John 3:36 goes on to link belief to obedience: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (John 3:36 ESV) In other words, saving faith is faith that brings a person into obedience to the Son of God. Paul says the same thing in Romans 1:5 and 16:26, which bookend his letter to the Romans. In both verses, he refers to his call as an apostle to "bring about the obedience of faith." Saving faith is faith that produces obedience to Jesus Christ. Hebrews 5:9 says that Jesus "became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Again, saving faith is faith that produces obedience to Jesus. This is not a message that we often hear. Seldom do we hear Gospel presentations include a call to count the cost of following Jesus. (Matt. 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 14:26-33.) Jesus called us to count the cost: "if anyone [wills to] come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matt. 16:24.) He did not want people to profess Him as Lord and Savior who were unwilling to be wholehearted followers.

As one of my seminary professors always said, "saving faith is abiding faith." In John 8:31-32, "Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" Jesus expanded on this in John 15, when He explains that those who abide in Him bear much fruit and those who do not abide are like dead branches that are thrown away and burned. The life of Christ in us as the branches comes from abiding in Him. Abiding branches bear good fruit. The lives of disciples are marked by consistent surrender to Jesus, not by consistent efforts that work against Jesus and His word.

In Matthew 18, Jesus called a child to Himself and told His disciples that whoever wants to enter the kingdom of heaven must humble himself and become like a little child. He then said that "whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matt. 18:6 ESV) In other words, people who cause little children to sin instead of come to Jesus are people for whom being thrown into the deepest sea with a millstone around their neck would be a better outcome than what they will face from God. In 18:7, Jesus says, "woe to the one by whom the temptation comes." Even hardened criminals in prison seem to understand this in that they hold child molesters in special contempt.

So, when Miley Cyrus, a role model to many young girls, makes herself a source of temptation and stumbling for children, is she placing herself under God's judgment and wrath instead of under His grace and mercy? If the Word of God means anything, I think we can say that Miley does not abide in Jesus and has not surrendered her heart to following Jesus. Their is no fruit of a life transformed by Jesus, but instead she has put herself directly under God's judgment. Her former words do not match the fruit of her life.

Fortunately, as long as she has breath, there is still hope. Matthew 18 also tells the parable of the lost sheep and of the Heavenly Father's desire that no sheep perish. In Ezekiel 18:23, 32 and 33:11, God makes it clear that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but His desire is that they turn to Him and live. Jesus took every wicked act and thought of every person on Himself at the cross, bearing the punishment for the sin of the world, and demonstrating His authority over death by rising from the dead. His sacrifice for each of us, however, must be appropriated by faith - a wholehearted surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior that involves a life of following Him and abiding in Him. Such a faith dies to self and becomes alive to Christ. That is a process with bumps and challenges, but we can be certain that as believers God has given given us everything that we need for life and godliness on that journey. (2 Pet. 1:3.)

The Holy Spirit with whom believers are sealed gives us the strength and desire to live a holy life, not a life given to those things that offend the God who demonstrates such costly love toward us. Hebrews 6:6 says that those who have professed Christ but who have not lived for Him are holding Jesus up to "contempt" before the world. Hebrews 10:29 speaks of conduct by professing believers that tramples underfoot the Son of God, profanes the blood of the covenant, and outrages the Spirit of grace. Hebrews 10:26-31 refers repeatedly to the fear of punishment that such people should have before the living God.

These are words of Scripture that Miley Cyrus has apparently never contemplated. We expect depravity from depraved people. We should never expect it from people who have died to self and are alive to Christ. God has called all of us to a life of faith that reflects the "righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:16-17). Paul uses the word, "righteousness," 31 times in Romans to describe the righteousness of God, the righteousness given to us in Christ, and the character of our life on our journey of faith. "The righteous shall live by faith." (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38.) This is the life of faith to which Scripture calls everyone who confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray that Miley Cyrus will come to understand the truth of those words before it is too late.

Romans 7 - Are We Captive Slaves To Sin Or Freed From Captivity?

Several years ago a friend who was an elder in his church told me that he didn't believe that he would ever be free from his addiction to pornography because of Paul's captivity to sin in Romans 7. I have another friend, who was also an elder in his church, and he was a closet alcoholic, convinced that he was like Paul in Romans, and unable to overcome that addiction.

There are undoubtedly multitudes of other believers convinced that they are destined to live as captives to sin in some form until they are transformed in heaven. Is the power that raised Jesus from the dead so anemic that it cannot transform the way that we live? When we accept this reasoning, we allow ourselves to be defeated and to live defeated lives, believing that we are enslaved to things that should have no domain over followers of Jesus. As one friend says, sin has no power to enslave saints except by deceit. If Satan can convince you that you are a slave to sin, then you effectively are a slave.

C.S. Lewis had this to say about the issue in The Screwtape Letters:
        “For as things are, your man [the human that Screwtape has been assigned to afflict] has now discovered the dangerous truth that these attacks don’t last forever; consequently you cannot use again what is, after all, our best weapon — the belief of ignorant humans, that there is no hope of getting rid of us except by yielding.”

Well over half of the pastors that I have heard on the subject, believe that Paul was speaking about his life in Christ when he said:

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"  (Romans 7:15-24 ESV)

A long line of the church's best known theologians, from Augustine to Luther to Calvin, believed that Paul was speaking about his life as a follower of Christ. If we just look at these verses by themselves, without looking at the rest of the context, it is easy to come to that conclusion. There are many very good reasons, however, to believe that Paul was speaking about his life under the law as a Pharisee, as someone who could not live up to the righteousness of God on his own strength. He is addressing Jewish believers and gentile believers influenced by Jewish believers - people tempted to continue to try to achieve the righteousness of God in their own strength, instead of by the grace of God through faith in the completed and empowering work of Jesus Christ for them. Romans 6:1-7:6, and chapter 8 seem to make that clear if we look at Paul's bigger argument

In our personal experience we often feel like we are captive to the law of sin in our flesh, so we seem quick to believe that Paul is referring to his struggles in his walk with Christ. Paul does not make such a statement anywhere else in the New Testament, and it is inconsistent with most of what Paul has to say about the power that we have to live in righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. So, a careful look at the context is essential to understanding this passage. There is a danger in interpreting Scripture from our personal experience, rather than allowing the truth of Scripture to form our experience. Our personal struggles with sin do not mean that is what God intended for our walk with Christ. This is clear when we look at the text.

Romans 7:1 – Paul is "speaking to those who know the  (Mosaic) law" – the law is binding on people as long as they live. Are we alive to the law of Moses or dead to that law? Paul has just emphatically explained that we who trust Jesus Christ are "no longer enslaved to sin" (6:6) because we "died to sin" (6:2) and are to consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (6:11). "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions." (6:12.) "Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under (the Mosaic) law but under grace." (6:14.)

Romans 7:4 – Paul goes on: “you have died to the law through the body of Christ . . . in order that you may bear fruit for God.” When you (the Jewish believers and gentile converts) “were living in the flesh,” “sinful passions, aroused by the (Mosaic) law,” were at work “to bear fruit for death.” (7:5.) However, all who believe have now been “released from the law, having died to what held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (the letter of the law). (7:6.) Romans 7:6 states two different ways - the old way of the written code and the new way of life in the Holy Spirit. Romans 7:7-25 then reviews the old way under the written code - frustration and agony trying to live righteously on our own strength - and the new way under the Spirit, upon which he elaborates beginning at 8:1.

The purpose of the law given my Moses was that we may understand the holy, righteous character of God. The law helped people understand their separation from God and their need for a sacrifice to cleanse them of sin and make them right with God. What they were missing, however, was the means or power of living in the righteousness of God. Paul has already established that it has always been through faith that the righteous have come to God. (Romans 4; see also Hebrews 11.) However, the Holy Spirit was not yet given as a deposit and enabler of the righteousness to which we are called by God. Leading up to chapter 7, Paul has established that we deserve the wrath of God, but by His grace shown to us in Jesus Christ, we can enter a position of the righteousness of God through abiding faith in Jesus. Paul is now helping the reader understand how to live out that faith that produces a life that reflects righteousness. (Rom. 1:17.)

When we come to Christ, what happens to our relationship with sin? We die to sin - it is no longer master over us. See Romans 6:2, 6:6, 6:11-12, 6:14, 6:18, 6:22. In 6:1-7:6, Paul says that the follower of Christ is empowered to walk this way:

“in newness of life” – 6:4
“no longer enslaved to sin” – 6:6
“dead to sin” – 6:11
So that sin does not “reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” – 6:12
“as instruments of righteousness” – 6:16
“having been set free from sin” “become slaves of
righteousness” – 6:18
“present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification” – 6:19
“set free from sin” “slaves of God” – 6:22
In “the new way of the Spirit” – 7:6

7:7-25 – Paul’s argument is that it is NOT possible to walk that way by trying to live under the law. Paul's argument flows right out of 7:6, where he says that we do “not (serve) in the old way of the written code (the letter of the Mosaic law).”

What about the law – when we come to Christ, what is the role of the Mosaic law? We are "released from the law." (Romans 7:6.)

In 6:4, Paul commands us to “walk in newness of life.” In 7:6, we are given the means for doing this – the Holy Spirit. Rom. 8 expands on what it means to walk in the Spirit.

The old way was to walk by the written code. (7:6.) That ended in frustration and disaster. Jesus came to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law for those who could not fulfill them. (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:4.)

Before Jesus Christ grabbed him and transformed him, what was Paul’s relationship with the law?  See Phil. 3:4-9. Romans 7:7-24 describe Paul's life as a Pharisee. Romans 7:18 makes this clear when he says that he did not have the "ability" "to do what is right." The ability comes through the HOLY Spirit.

So, why does Paul state his struggle in the present tense?
1. To make it more vivid – as a rhetorical device.
2. Because there were Jewish Christians reading his letter who were still struggling to satisfy the requirements of the law on their own strength and they were trying to get others to do the same. Paul wanted to make it clear that he understands their situation.

When the light comes on and a person comes to realize that the law is there to establish our inability to achieve the righteousness of God on our own strength, then that person can see their need for a Savior who satisfies the righteous requirements of the law on their behalf. Paul wanted to please God with his mind, but his flesh got in the way. He needed a Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life in order to live out the position of righteousness that he received by faith in Jesus Christ.

This does not mean the Christians do not struggle at times with sin (see 1 John 1:8-10), but it does mean that the lives of believers should not be characterized by sin. Immorality, greed, self-centeredness, hatred of others, anger, etc. should not be things that characterize our lives. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, our lives should be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of righteousness. There should be an upward trajectory of growth in righteousness. Sin should be losing more and more of its appeal as we grow in our relationship with Christ. We should be more and more conscious of those things in us that do not conform to the image of Christ, and our desire should be to bring them into obedience to Christ. We can only live like this through death to self and surrender to Christ by faith.

Only as we understand what God has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ, and as we understand our empowerment by the Holy Spirit to live out our identity in Christ, can we truly reflect the righteousness of God in our lives.

Romans 8 then demonstrates the triumphal position that we have in Christ, a position that would seem contradictory if Romans 7:8-24 reflected Paul's life in Christ. Romans 8 is triumphal because of the struggle of Romans 7 that was overcome by the victory that Christ for us who trust Him.

God has empowered us to live in a way that reflects the righteousness of God, not enslaved to the domain of sin:

        2 Pet. 1:3-7 – “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. . . . you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. . . . supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

Romans 8 is one of the triumphant, victorious passages in the Bible. The triumph of the Holy Spirit in us in Romans 8 is possible only because Jesus Christ freed us from the domain of slavery to sin:


"So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'” (Rom. 8:12-15 ESV)

In Romans 8:31-39, we can be more than hyper-victorious over the spiritual powers that oppose us because Jesus Christ is our advocate. Our hyper-victorious position is inconsistent with any idea of slavery to sin.

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) paints a vivid picture of who we were before Jesus saved us:

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

That is NOT who we are after Jesus saved us. Rather,

". . . we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2:10 ESV.) We will be blessed if we pursue the works for which we were saved as we abide in Christ Jesus.

My description of Romans 7 was the perspective of the early church up to Augustine, and it was initially his perspective.  It was not until the Pietist movement in the 1600s, however, that a larger group of believers began to again read this passage as referring to Paul’s past life under the law, and not applying to followers of Jesus Christ. John Wesley reached a similar conclusion and carried it into Methodist doctrine. Nowhere else in the New Testament are we told that we do not have the ability in Christ to follow Christ’s commands to us.

Douglas Moo, Ph.D, professor of New Testament at Wheaton Graduate School, is the author of one of the definitive treatises on Romans, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary, Eerdmans, 1996. He reviews the history of interpretation of Romans 7, finding that the early church fathers viewed Paul's description as reflecting his old life under the law, not his life in Christ.  Moo reviews the best arguments for each of the conflicting views on the passage, and concludes that the passage is most likely referring to Paul's past attempts to achieve the righteousness of God under the Mosaic law.

Dr. Moo's personal philosophy of interpreting Scripture is: “Apply yourself wholly to the text. Apply the text wholly to yourself.” Romans 7 is a perfect example of how we should allow the text to shape our interpretation, not to allow our experiences to shape how we understand the text.

More on Witness by Whittaker Chambers

I am almost finished reading this nearly 800 page autobiography. There is a great need for this story to be accurately turned into a screenplay and movie. I am struck by the pervasive influence of Communism in higher education, government and media that is strongly documented in this book. There were many Communist sympathizers in the US who were not party members going back to the early 1900s. The driving force of Communism in all its forms was atheism - a strong desire for an economic and governmental system that rejected God and Christian influence in every aspect of life. It was Chambers' realization of the gracious presence and power of God that turned him from Communist espionage and caused him to be a "witness" in order to protect the nation.

The book was written in 1952, but is still relevant today. Sen. Ted Cruz, the newest United States Senator from Texas, has stated that there were 12 Communist professors at Harvard Law School when he attended there in the early 1990s. Witness documents the pervasive influence of Communism at Harvard and in other arenas of higher education. My son has told me that many of his professors at UC Irvine were avowed Communists or Marxists. The same continues to be true at many of our most respected universities.

Harvard attorneys and professors, as well as the chairman of the school of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, all rallied around the accused communist defendants in Witness, using every aspect of their influence to protect Communist spies at the highest levels of the United States government. Communist sympathizers in the media did the same thing. By God's grace, there were those gifted, determined and often isolated individuals whom God empowered to pierce the lies and confusion caused by their communist apologists, which resulted in the conviction of Alger Hiss as a Communist spy, an assistant Secretary of State for Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. Communists in the US government influenced the policy toward China, allowing Communist China to come into existence. Hiss was influential at the Yalta conference, leading the US to allow the Soviet Union to take so much of eastern Europe. Harry Dexter White, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and head of the World Bank, is portrayed as an active Communist spy and espionage leader for the Soviet Union.

Despite the attacks on McCarthyism and "witch hunts," atheistic, communistic ideas now prevail in much of our government, higher education and media. Witness explains how this happened, and also the solution - a turning back to our Creator and Redeemer as our only real hope. The totalitarian necessity of atheistic and communistic ideas is laid bare in the book. Under Communism, people become no more than functional animals, with no soul and no ultimate hope. They are merely pawns to be manipulated.

Some enlightening quotes from Witness:

p. 444: "No man lightly reverses the faith of an adult lifetime.... He reverses it only with a violence greater than the force of the faith he is repudiating."

p. 489: "I could never be a complete man without God. I suspected that the same fatal deficiency that I had known was at the root of all the troubles of modern man and must result inevitably, as I was to write later on in Time, 'in intolerable shallowness of thought combined with incalculable mischief in action.' Evidence of that mortal incompleteness I found in most of the minds around me." Note: Chamber was a senior editor for Time after he came out of Communism.

p. 491: "No one is so competent a witness to the substance of Christianity as the sinner; no one, except, perhaps, the saint."

p. 505: "... man's occasional lapses from God-seeking end inevitably in intolerable shallowness of thought combined with incalculable mischief in action. Modern man knowns almost nothing about the nature of God, almost never thinks about it, and is complacently unaware that there may be any reason to ...."

p. 506: "The idea that man is sinful and needs redemption has been subtly changed into the idea that man is by nature good, and hence capable of indefinite perfectibility. . . . The more abundance increases, the more resentment becomes the characteristic new look on 20th century faces. . . . Men have never been so educated, but wisdom, even as an idea, has conspicuously vanquished from the world."

p. 616: Henry Luce, publisher of Time, and supporter of Chambers, his senior editor: "By any Marxian pattern of how classes behave, the upper class should be fore you and the lower classes should be against you. But it is the upper class that is most violent against you. How do you explain that?"

Response by Luce's European friend: "You don't understand the class structure of American society, or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists."

p. 617: In order to encourage Chambers with a word from Scripture, Luce, publisher of Time Magazine, shared John 9:3 with Chambers, concerning why the young man in the passage was born blind: "that the works of God should be made manifest (displayed) in him." Chambers understood that Henry Luce was telling him that he was born spiritually blind, but that He had been given spiritual sight in order that the work of God would be evident to the world through Chambers' life! 

p. 700: "At the heart of the crisis of our times lies the cold belief of millions, avowed or unavowed, that the death of religious faith is seen in ... that it has lost its power to move anyone to die for it. I sensed that the deepest meaning of the Case, and the meaning of my life for myself and for all other men, was the degree to which I could be so moved to act (to die for my faith)."

p. 715: "I am a man who, reluctantly, grudgingly, step by step, is destroying himself that this country and the faith by which it lives may continue to exist."

p. 720: "In Communism the individual is nothing." This is true of any atheistic perspective. This is in stark contrast to Christianity, where every individual is made in the image of God, and for whom the God-man Jesus Christ, died that the individual may live.

Reflections on Witness, by Whittaker Chambers

When you are a brilliant, atheistic, Communist spy who comes face to face with the fact of a holy, personal, all-powerful God, what do you do? “Witness” is the testimony of Whittaker Chambers, who “outed” his fellow spy and mole, Alger Hiss. Hiss served in the highest levels of the US State Department and Justice Department. Hiss was at the Yalta Conference, where eastern Europe was allocated to the Soviet Union. To this day, liberal apologists claim that Hiss was innocent and that Chambers was not a believable witness. Hiss was convicted of perjury, but not of treason. While Witness covers the evidence against Hiss and the ordeal of the various high stake political and legal maneuvers, the primary importance of the book goes far deeper, to the heart of the religious, philosophical and political debates that continue to divide people. This is the book that caused Ronald Reagan to move from being a liberal Democrat to a conservative Republican.

Chambers wants everyone to know that Communism is the natural ideology that flows from the rejecting God in order to worship a closed humanistic system of science and technology. Nazism and Communism are two sides of the same philosophy, where the ends justify the means and there is no eternal accountability to a holy God. Chambers’ reflections on his own journey from a hard-core atheistic Communist to a follower of Jesus Christ are compelling and powerful. The comments below are reflections upon Chambers’ forward to Witness, which is written to his children in the hope that they will understand his heart, not just the facts of his life. Chambers’ reflections do two things: (1) they demonstrate the grace and power of God to rescue someone as lost as he was; and (2) they expose and gut the philosophical heart of humanism in all its godless forms. Q=quote; C=comment.

Reflections on the Foreword:

Q: This “is a terrible book. It is terrible in what it tells about men. . . . it is more terrible in what it tells about the world in which you live.”

C: As much as we want to believe in and hope for the best in ourselves and our fellow men, the reality is that we are wretchedly evil apart from the transforming power of Jesus Christ in us. Paul begins his doctrine of salvation in the book of Romans with the sin and depravity of mankind. The Gospel is not good news until we first understand the really, really bad news of sin.

Q: “Two faiths were on trial. Human societies, like human beings, live by faith and die when faith dies.”

C: All of life is the continuing struggle between faith in man or faith in the Judeo-Christian God. When God is at the center of life, all of life and eternity is given perspective. When man is at the center, the depravity of man is accepted as normal and the unaccountable power and influence of elite people are allowed to suppress and destroy others in the name of progress. We all have to choose faith in something – whether it be (1) in a gracious, loving, holy God who has created man immortally in His image, to live for His glory; or (2) in mankind, where everything is measured by what man thinks and does – there is nothing more. Nazism and Communism both arose from the latter view.

Q: “This terrible book is also a book of hope. For it is about the struggle of the human soul – of more than one human soul.” The “tragedy [of this case] will have been for nothing unless men understand it rightly, and from it the world takes hope and heart to begin its own tragic struggle with the evil that besets it from within and from without . . . .” The whole world “is sick unto death” and needs to deal with the evil that has made it so sick.

C: Here, he is referring to western civilization. Francis Schaeffer traces the Enlightenment ideas that have led to death instead of life in western culture. Again, the terrible nature of our societal predicament must be seen before we are ready to embrace the hope of the Gospel.

Q: “I was a witness.” Not so much a witness against something, but “a witness for something.” “A witness . . . is a man whose life and faith are so completely one that when the challenge comes to step out and testify for his faith, he does so, disregarding all risks, accepting all consequences.”

C: “Witness.” In Greek, the word is martyr. A witness gives testimony for truth. So often, the Bible’s message of hope is seen as a message against sin and evil, and it is, but that is only the beginning of the message. The totality of the message is that God has called us to a glorious, confident, joyful right relationship with Himself that begins in this life and continues on forever, from one degree of glory to another. As we walk with Jesus, our life is a witness for the power and presence and peace of God. We are ultimately witnesses for God, for truth, for hope. The world must hear the message of its sin, but then rejoice in the hope-filled rest of the story. If our life and faith are completely one, we will accept the challenge to step out and testify for faith, disregarding risks and accepting all consequences.

Q: “I do not know any way to explain why God’s grace touches a man who seems unworthy of it. . . . I am an involuntary witness to God’s grace and to the fortifying power of faith.”

C: Time and time again God reaches down and touches and rescues and redeems the most unlikely people. No one is beyond His reach. His touch enlightens and illumines and gives light and life where there is nothing but hopelessness and darkness. Chambers knew that he was such a man. Each of us, in our own ways, are such people. We can’t explain God’s grace, we only thank and praise Him for it. Our response to God’s unexplainable grace is to live by faith – faith in Who He is and what He has done and faith in His call on our lives. There is no other acceptable way to live for the person in awe of God’s unmerited grace.

Q: Karl Marx: “Philosophers have explained the world; it is necessary to change the world.” Communism is “the power to hold convictions and act on them.” Such a power is “an unfailing power to move men . . . to bear witness – for its faith.” The faith of Communism is the faith that “ye shall be as gods” – the faith in a “vision of Man without God. . . . the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world.” It is the vision of man without the image of God – man, not God, is the ultimate sovereign.

C: The deceptive message of the snake in the Garden of Eden is the same message bombarding us every day in our schools, our media, our government, in almost very source of influence on our society: you can control your own destiny, you don’t have to believe in a God who has revealed what is true. Communism is just one manifestation of that philosophy, which has become sufficiently sophisticated that it now goes by more acceptable alternative names. There is either God’s truth or we create our own truth. All of life is a battle between those two ideas. Our choice makes all the difference in this life and the next.

Q: The vision “is an intensely practical vision [the tools of which are] science and technology, whose traditional method, the rigorous exclusion of all supernatural factors in solving problems, has contributed to the intellectual climate in which the vision flourishes. . . .” “For the vision is shared by millions who are not Communists (they are part of Communism’s secret strength).”

C: Just this morning I heard President Obama say that his policies are “expedient.” In other words, they are practical for the moment. With expedience, the ends justify the means. That is the modern morality and it will justify anything. The starting point of humanistic science is the a priori assumption that there is no God and there cannot be a supernatural explanation for anything. Any explanation of anything that includes a reference to God is assumptively wrong and those who make such assumptions are labeled as stupid and dangerous.

Q: Communism provides people with “a reason to live and a reason to die. No other faith of our time presents them with the same practical intensity.”

C: We all need a reason to live, something to give perspective and hope to life. Material things will fail to give purpose and satisfaction – there must be something more. A faith in man that is so intense and so complete that it caused people to live and die for that faith is such a reason to live. I am convinced that people admire conviction, even if it leads to violence and atrocities. It is hard to justify the modern fascination of youth with Che Guevara  and other violent humanistic revolutionaries, apart from the willingness of such “heros” to thoroughly act on their beliefs. Evan radical Islam becomes attractive for that reason. For the Christian, when we boldly and confidently live governed by the truth of the Gospel, and empowered by the consistency of our faith in Christ, there is an unmistakable attraction for a world looking for meaning.

Q: “. . . spiritual vagrants of our time, whose traditional faith has been leached out in the bland climate of rationalism.”

C: Are you a spiritual vagrant? Has your faith in Jesus Christ and the truth of Scripture been leached out by the relentless rationalism of our culture? Every person who meanders away from Christ fits in this category. Instead, we are called to daily abide with Christ and to measure everything by the Word of God.

Q: “. . . man without God is just what Communism said he was: the most intelligent of the animals . . . man without God is a beast, never more beastly than when he is most intelligent about his beastliness.” “Man . . . uses [reason] to be more beastly than any beast.”

C: Man without God can never be good, only an intelligent beast. Without God, there are no absolutes, no right and no wrong, only what is expedient for the moment or for the goal. There is never ultimate accountability and there is no basis for judging any person or nation as evil. Hitler and Stalin are only evil if there is a God who created mankind in His image for His glory. Otherwise, Hitler and Stalin were only effectively expedient in accomplishing their purposes and they faced no accountability when they died.

Q: Chambers tells the story of the humanistic Communist sympathizer whose perspective was changed only because of the screams of those being expediently tortured. The screams of tortured souls pierced beneath the humanistic logic and touched his own neglected and forgotten soul. As soon as anyone admits that there is something beyond reason, something like a soul, the light of Almighty God begins to dawn in their lives. This is why Communism persistently and thoroughly uses all available and expedient means to “re-educate” such people.

C: God always calls, but never compels. God’s effective call penetrates and kindles light in the soul. Only Satan and his demons attempt to compel, lest the image of God in every soul awakes and seeks after its Creator and only hope.

Q: Initial awaking of the presence of God in Chambers’ testimony:

“My daughter was in her high chair. I was watching her eat. She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life. I liked to watch her even when she smeared porridge on her face or dropped it meditatively on the floor. My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear – those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: ‘No, those ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature (the Communist view). They could have been created only by immense design. The thought was involuntary and unwanted. . . . I had to crowd it out of my mind. . . . Design presupposes God. I did not then know that, at that moment, the finger of God was first laid upon my forehead.”

C: God reveals Himself in so many ways: the sunrises and sunsets; the ordered mechanics of the universe; the highly intelligent, systematic and beautiful design of humanity and animals; the complex, yet highly programmed nature of cellular structure, atomic and subatomic worlds; and in a multitude of other ways. If we stop, look and listen; if we contemplate what we see and reflect on the implications, we will see the handiwork of God and know that there is a creative, powerful, loving God who is the author of everything. Chambers caught a glimpse of the image of God in the life of his two year old daughter.

Q: All ex-communists broke with Communism “because they wanted to be free. . . . Freedom is a need of the soul, and nothing else. It is in striving toward God that the soul strives continually after a condition of freedom. God alone is the inciter and guarantor of freedom. He is the only guarantor. External freedom is only an aspect of interior freedom. Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible. Religion and freedom are indivisible. Without freedom the soul dies. Without the soul there is no justification for freedom. . . . A Communist breaks because he must choose at last between irreconcilable opposites – God or Man, Soul or Mind, Freedom or Communism.”

C: Jesus said, “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32.) Truth is found in God’s Word. Abiding in the Word and in daily relationship with Jesus Christ is the only ultimate source of freedom. In that abiding relationship, even persecuted and oppressed followers of Jesus can rejoice in their freedom – freedom unknown to their oppressors. Without a foundation in the Word of God, what poses as external freedom is transitory and illusory. Today is the day to choose both God and freedom.

Q: “Communism is what happens when, in the name of Mind, men free themselves from God.” A nation’s view of God is what shapes and gives character to the essence of a nation. “. . . history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that became indifferent to God, and died. . . . The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God. It exists to the degree in which the Western world actually shares Communism’s materialist vision, is so dazzled by the logic of the materialist interpretation of history, politics and economics, that it fails to grasp that, for it, the only possible answer to the Communist challenge” is Faith in God instead of Faith in Man.

C: In watching the Amazing Race this year, I learned that Moscow has more billionaires than any other city in the world. How is that possible when Moscow used to be the capital of all things Communist – including the ideal of economic equality? The answer, perhaps, is that the material ideals at the heart of Communism have been externally remade, but have the same humanistic heart. Those who were in power under Communism seem to have managed to stay in power as capitalists, and continue to use the system for their own benefit. What is missing is a spiritual renaissance (rebirth) that encourages people to live in light of their eternal accountability to a holy God. At the same time, in many former Communist nations, it was a spiritual awakening that led to the casting off of Communistic oppression.

Q: Addressing his children directly and reflecting on his ten years of post-Communist life with them: “you experienced two of the most important things men ever know – the wonder of life and the wonder of the universe, the wonder of life within the wonder of the universe. . . . you knew them with reverence and awe – that reverence and awe that has died out of the modern world and been replaced by man’s monkeylike amazement at the cleverness of his own inventive brain.”

C: Are you still thrilled with sunrises and sunsets and the vast array of stars? Are you still in awe of how your fingers move in response to your thoughts and your diaphragm can force air through your throat, mouth and tongue in order to make complex and intelligible sounds that your ears communicate to your mind? We are surrounded by intelligent complexity that reflects extraordinary design, for our benefit and for God’s glory. Are you giving Him the glory and awe and wonder and praise that He deserves, or is the white-noise of this world drowning out awe and wonder in your life?

Q: “True wisdom comes from the overcoming of suffering and sin. All true wisdom is therefore touched with sadness.” Again, directly addressing the journey of life faced by his children: “. . . in the end, if I have led you aright, you will make out three crosses, from two of which hang thieves. I will have brought you to Golgotha – the place of the skulls. This is the meaning of the journey. . . . For when you understand what you see, you will no longer be children. You will know that life is pain, that each of us hangs always upon the cross of himself. And when you know that this is true of every man, woman and child on earth, you will be wise.”

C: We all painfully deserve the cross, but Another took our place, and in painful agony bore our sin so that we might bear His righteousness. The cross that hangs on those who receive this supernatural gift of atonement and salvation is the reminder of the love of God for us, love that spared no expense to rescue and redeem. We now take up the cross as the anchor of our souls, the basis for our confidence as we live this life in light of our knowledge of the glory of God. Only in that cross is there ultimate wisdom for every person on this earth.