Word Games

Have you ever had a discussion about the Bible with an avowed skeptic? I have had more than my fair share. I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked about Cain’s wife. One of the common arguments I have encountered (Maybe it isn’t really common. Maybe it just gets sprung on me a lot.) is that the Bible is mistaken scientifically because it says that Jonah was swallowed by a “great fish,” in one passage – and by a “whale” in another. Whales aren’t fish therefore the Bible is wrong. That’s pretty much how the argument goes.

I usually explain – if the person is sincere and not just being a wiseacre – that the New Testament Greek word is κῆτος (kētos). This word was adapted by Latin and Latinized as cetus. The scientific names that animals and plants are given are Latin. The scientific name for the order of marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and porpoises is Cetacea. Critics of the Bible err when they cite this as mistake in the Bible. It is important to point out that both the Greek kētos and the Latin cetus were broader terms than our modern scheme for naming and classifying animals. The word kētos was applicable and acuurate to describe any large sea creature. We must never reply that people in Biblical times didn’t know that whales are mammals. The skeptic would simply point out that the Bible is supposed to be divinely inspired. If God inspired it, then He is mistaken about whales.

I can endure this sort of faulty reason from unbelievers. One cannot expect them to be aware or conversant with Bible languages. But I can’t endure this sort of logic when it is used by so-called Christians!

Throughout my childhood (I grew up in a Pentecostal church) I heard countless references to ‘Holy Ghost power.” If was not uncommon to hear that the Greek word for power is δύναμις (dunamis). This word is the source of our English word dynamite. It was then inferred that when the Spirit’s power was moving in our midst (whatever that’s supposed to mean), it would be explosive.

But this is the same mistake as the one about κῆτος. Dunamis was used long before dynamite. Dynamite derives its meaning from dunamis, not the other way around. Cetacea derives its meaning from κῆτος, not the other way around.

I propose a rule for preachers and teachers: If you are not fluent in the Biblical languages, don’t make pretensions of knowledge about them. Don’t do word studies and don’t try to explain the shades of meaning and nuances. If you don’t know what you’re talking about then don’t talk about it. 

A Wee Little Man

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. Luke 19:1-6

I am always amazed at those who preach the role of man’s free-will in salvation from this passage. Surely, the opposite is here shown.

The typical Arminian evangelistic approach to this passage goes like this: Zacchaeus was trying to get to Jesus. He was a short man so he couldn’t see over the crowd. He had to get to Jesus, so he came up with a way. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, you know. Well, Zacchaeus saw a sycamore tree and climbed up it. He was doing everything he could. He had to overcome every hindrance to get to Jesus. When Jesus saw him up in the tree, He was impressed by this man’s persistence. Then Zacchaeus invited Jesus and His disciples over to his house. Later that day, Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today.” You see you have to get fed up with your life of sin and find a way to come to Christ. And on and on – You get the picture. Let me hasten to say that I have tried to paint a better picture of that type of evangelistic appeal than I have generally ever heard. Usually, the sermons are far worse than that.

But this is the exact opposite of what this passage teaches. First of all, the passage gives not so much as a hint of anything in Zacchaeus but curiosity. We are running way ahead of ourselves to assume anything righteous to Zacchaeus’ motives. He was simply curious. A huge crowd is coming down the road, huddled around someone and everyone seems excited. Zacchaeus is short and can’t see over the crowd to see what all the buzz is about. So, he climbs a tree. That is all that this text permits us to say. As far as Zacchaeus’ character is concerned, he was a crook. The text calls him a publican, which is always a bad thing in the New Testament. Publicans were tax-collectors. They were known to be thieves because they either skimmed money off the top of their collections or charged more than was actually owed so they could keep the extra. But more than just being called a publican, he is called the chief among the publicans. That surely means he was a thief. The fact that his repentance manifested itself in repaying what he falsely collected is clear proof of this.

More important though is what Jesus actually did. Jesus stopped, looked up and called Zacchaeus by name. One wonders how Jesus knew his name. Of course, as God, Jesus knows everything. Surely it is not without significance that Jesus calls by name a man whom he had never met before. More importantly, notice that Zacchaeus did not invite Jesus to his house; Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house and pronounced that salvation had come to it with Him.

This is how it always works. Jesus invites Himself into someone’s life. They hurry to Him and receive Him with joy. Jesus brings salvation with Him. He calls whom He chooses.

God Is Motivated By His Glory

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Rev. 4:11

The Scriptures portray God’s zeal for His glory as the primary motivation behind all His acts. This is why I take issue with the very popular notion that God’s love is His central attribute. True, the Bible says that “God is love,” but it tells us this once, while it tells us the God is holy countless times. This does not mean to suggest that God is holier than He is loving, but that in the grand scheme of things, God willed to theopneustically accentuate His holiness more often than His love. God’s holiness is His glory. How many times does the Bible speak of the “beauty of holiness.” By this we mean to say that whenever God acts in any way, His principal impetus is His commitment to His glory before anything else. When God decreed the plan of salvation for His elect, His glory was the first and foremost concern. He did it out of love, but He did it for His glory first! Consider Paul’s statement that “every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.” 1 This tells us that the ultimate purpose and plan of God in the salvation of the elect and damnation of the lost is the recognition of Christ’s glory – which, since the Son is of one essence with the Father (ὁμοούσιος), brings glory to the Father as well.

God repeatedly calls Himself, “a jealous God.” 2 If we ask for what is He jealous, the obvious answer is: His glory. In Exodus 20:5 when God first declares His jealousy, it is in connection with the ban against idolatry. Idolatry is demeaning to God’s character in that it suggests that the image is a suitable substitute for the Reality. We are accustomed to viewing jealousy as sinful, but it is because our jealousy is always misdirected. People very seldom are as zealous for God’s glory as they are for their own. The few times it has occurred, God has taken special notice of it. 3 

This is a difficult concept for some people because of the apparent selfishness on God’s part in being thus motivated. Human self-centeredness is sinful precisely because it puts self before God. It places the interest of an insignificant, finite worm of a man before the interests of the great, ineffable, inscrutable glory of God παντοκράτωρ! In this, it is idolatrous. Likewise, it would be idolatrous (if such a blasphemy could be imagined!) for God to place any interest before His own. It is an unsullied, utterly wholesome selfishness: it is a commitment to the Greatest, All-Perfect Self: the source of all inferior selves, indeed selfhood itself.

If God is so committed to the advancement and display of His glory, we are quite mistaken if we do not do the same thing.

In Psalm 19:1, David proclaims, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” There are physical phenomena in the design of the universe that absolutely stagger the human imagination. Astrophysicists and cosmologists refer to these marvels as the “anthropic principle.” This is a sophisticated way of saying that all of the various design characteristics of the entire universe are so perfectly suited for human life, that this must be the reason behind them. In other words, whether the universe was created by God or simply evolved, it exists in order to support human life. Many non-Christian physicists unashamedly advocate this.

Yet, even though Christian apologists are correct when they note that such meticulous attention to detail shows God’s unfathomable love for His creation, the Psalmist tells us that this is more an expression of God’s glory than His love.

1 Phil. 2:9-11

2 Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Nahum 1:1

3 Numbers 25:10

An Observation on Election, by B.B. Warfield

“The marvel of marvels is not that God, in his infinite love, has not elected all of this guilty race to be saved, but that he has elected any. What really needs accounting for—though to account for it passes the powers of our extremest flights of imagination—is how the holy God could get the consent of his nature to save a single sinner. If we know what sin is, and what holiness is, and what salvation from sin to holiness is, that is what we shall feel.

“That is the reason why meditation on our eternal election produces such blessed fruits in our hearts and lives. That God has saved me, even me, sunk in my sin and misery, by the marvels of his grace, can only fill me with adoring praise. That he has set upon me from all eternity to save me, wretched sinner that I am, how can I express the holy joy that fills my heart at every remembrance of it? This is the foundation of all my comfort, the assurance of all my hope.

“‘Sure I am,’ says John Arrowsmith movingly, just to the point, ‘Sure I am that our blessed Savior once said to his disciples, ‘In this rejoice, that your names are written in heaven’; and that nothing doth more inflame a Christian’s love than a firm belief of his personal election from eternity after he has been able to evidence the writing of his name in heaven by the experience he hath had of an heavenly calling and an heavenly conversation. When the Spirit of God hath written the law of life in a Christian’s heart, and therewith enabled him to know assuredly that his name is written in the book of life, he cannot then but melt with flames of holy affection, according to the most emphatic speech of Bernard — “God deserveth love from such as he hath loved long before they could deserve it;” and, “his love to God will be without end, who knoweth that God’s love to him was without any beginning.” ’ ”

From the sermon: Election, God’s Grace Before Time, by B.B. Warfield

Contentment With Divine Sovereignty

Lamentations 3:37-38

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?

We must see and acknowledge God’s hand in all the calamities that befall us at any time, whether personal or public. This fact and Christian duty is laid out here as the plain truth and as a great truth. It goes a long way to quieting our restless spirits under our afflictions and to sanctify these afflictions to us to acknowledge:

1. That, whatever men's actions are, it is God that overrules them.

2. That, whatever men's lot is, it is God that orders it.

We must not quarrel with God for any suffering that He lays upon us at any time. (v. 39)

1. We are human. Let remember that. And let us behave appropriately. We are men, not animals. We are reasonable creatures who should act with reason. We are men, and not children that cry about everything that hurts them or frustrates their happiness.

2. We are alive. Through God’s hand may be upon us, we are still alive, though dying daily. Should a living man complain when he has more reason to be thankful? Our lives may be frail, but we are still alive.

3. We are sinful men, and what we complain of is the just punishment of our sins. At any rate it is far less than we deserve. We have little reason to complain of our trouble since we have ourselves to thanks for it.

We must align ourselves to God's intention in afflicting us. This is none other than to bring sin to our remembrance and to bring us to Himself. (v. 40)

Our afflictions and troubles should cause us to reflect on these two things:

1. A serious consideration of ourselves and a reflection upon our past lives.

2. A sincere repentance. Let us turn again to the Lord, to Him who is turned against us and whom we have turned from; to Him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and ruler.

Matthew Henry writes “We must offer up ourselves to God, and our best affections and services, in the flames of devotion.”

When we are in affliction, we must look to God as a God in the heavens, infinitely above us, and who has an incontestable dominion over us. He rules and is therefore not to be quarreled with, but submitted to. But also we must pray with a believing expectation to receive mercy from Him. That is what is implied in verse 41 when it tells us to lift our hands. Lifting our hands to Him (a gesture commonly used in prayer) signifies our request of mercy from Him and our readiness to receive that mercy.