Question:

Isaiah 30:21 says, " Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left." Does this prove that the Holy Spirit speaks to us audibly today?

Answer:

This passage comes in the context of God warning Judah against trusting in other nations for salvation from Assyria. He is speaking to His rebellious children, the Jews, in this passage. Isaiah is told to write these instructions on a scroll/tablet that it would serve as a witness to the Jews (v8) because they are “a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD” (v9). They were rejecting the words that the prophets were telling them, instead desiring to have “pleasant words” spoken to them (v10). If they continue to trust in Egypt instead of repenting and turning to God, God will allow them to be crushed and taken into captivity (v12-17).

But in spite of their rebellion, God will still be gracious to them. He longs to be gracious to them (v18). When they cry to Him because of their oppression that He brought upon them, He will answer them (vs18-19). He will continue to be their teacher and bring them back when they turn off the straight way He has given them to the right and the left (v20-21). God’s words will turn them back to Him, lead them to destroy the graven images that they, the Jews, have made to worship (v22). Then the Lord would bless their land (Jerusalem and Judah) with rain so they can have crops and food and running streams (no more famines as punishment for their sins and alliances with Egypt: vs23-25). The Lord will bring light to their times of darkness and heal the bruises He has given them because of their sin against Him (v26).

Then the Lord will come with words of judgment upon His enemies, specifically Assyria. He will be a consuming fire to Assyria, and bring fear upon them because his people were again turning to Him and worshiping Him (vs27-33).


With the previous description of the context, I believe we can clearly see who the Lord is talking to in verse 21. He is talking to the Jews in Judea who were trusting in Egypt to deliver them from Assyria who had come against the land and had already taken Israel into captivity. Before and after the passage in question, the Lord speaks of their specific historical context. They were trusting in Egypt (before) and He would judge the Assyrians (after).

In verse 21, He is telling his people that if they turn off of the path of righteousness, He will call to them to bring them back to Him. Up to this point He has been doing this through the Prophets, and He will continue to do so because He cares for His people. He will always be reaching His hands out to His disobedient people and calling them back to Him through the prophets until there is no response to Him:

“The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16  but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16).

This is how scripture tells us God continued to call out to His people who have turned their backs to Him. There is no evidence that the passage is talking about a special audible voice that the Holy Spirit/ God uses to call His people to Him outside of His prophets (who later had their words recorded in scripture).

There are applications today from this passage, of course. It encourages us not to trust in things other than the Lord to be the one who delivers us. It teaches us that the Lord cares for us, even when we turn our backs on Him and leave the path of righteousness. He also, as our Shepherd, calls out to us through His servants who preach and teach His word to call us back to Him when we fall.

This particular passage is not promising an audible voice of God to us. He in those times used His inspired messengers who had their writings written down as scripture to call His people back to Him. If this is what He is referring to in this passage, why would we apply it to us differently in saying that God gives as a still small voice to nudge us in a certain direction in reference to a job choice, a person to marry, or other decision we need to make. The passage in question is not referring to these kind of situations, but only God calling His rebellious people back to Him.

In scripture, we only see God speak to Christians audibly who were inspired to the Spirit to be Apostles or prophets. This is what we also see in the Old Testament with God’s prophets. I do not know of a passage of scripture, especially in the New Testament which teaches that God or the Spirit leads us audibly or gives us messages/nudges outside of the teaching of the scriptures. This is usually just assumed into passages which talk about how the Spirit leads.

By Jason Smith

Jesus says to Pilate in John 18:37, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Those who are the sheep of Jesus Christ will only listen to the voice of the Shepherd and King. They will not listen to others who trying to take them away from the voice of their Shepherd.

When Jesus here in John 18 proclaimed to Pilate that He was born to be the King over a kingdom that is not of this world and that all who are part of this kingdom hear his voice, He was proclaiming something that in inherent in Kingship, that He as the King gives some standard of truth, a “law.” He began a New Covenant in which all who are His sheep must adhere to. Kingship and authority go hand in hand. They are inseparable. The King gives the standard that must be followed.

Paul told the Colossians in 1:9-10 that he prayed that they would “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…”

If we want to be fully pleasing to God, we need to be filled with the knowledge of His will. But where do we get this knowledge? The only way in which we can “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding…and increasing in the knowledge of God…” is to, as Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…” Only the word of Christ given through His Apostles and Prophets can equip us with the knowledge we need to be pleasing to God. We cannot know whether anything is pleasing or displeasing to God unless He reveals it to us in His word.

But the question arises, how does our King in His word communicate these things to us? I believe He communicates His will to us the same way any of us communicate our will to others. Parents, whenever you want to communicate to your kids that something is pleasing to you, how do you do it? Can I suggest you do it in one of three ways. You will either TELL them that what you want them to do, SHOW them what you want them to do, or IMPLY something to them in what you tell them or show them. Is there another way but these three ways to communicate your will to someone? This is how God in His word communicates His will to us.

• He TELLS us what pleases or displeases Him in direct statements and commands;
• He SHOWS us what is pleasing or displeasing to Him with illustrations or examples; or
• He IMPLIES something to us. He desires that we make logical conclusions from what He has told us or showed us.

This is how our Lord communicates to us in scripture. Let’s look at an example. Let’s look at what God reveals about baptism:

TELLS

He tells us, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). If we want to be pleasing to God, we will do what He tells us to do here in this direct statement to be saved. God uses both direct statements and commands to show us that baptism is something we must do to be pleasing Him.

SHOWS

Jesus gives us a multitude of examples in scripture of people being baptized. We learn in these examples that a way of baptizing that pleases God is by immersion. John was baptizing because it was a place where there was much water (John 3:23). When the Ethiopian Eunuch was baptized, we see that they went down into the water and then came out of the water (Acts 8:38-39). We are not given any examples of other modes of baptizing that are pleasing to God other than immersion. It is also the only mode that is inherent in the definition of the word.

IMPLIES

God also implies certain things to us in scripture about baptism. God implies to us that preaching about baptism is included in “preaching Jesus.” We are told that Philip preached Jesus to the Eunuch, and the Eunuch responded by saying as they travelled, “look, water, what hinders me from being baptized?” This implies that Phillip told him about baptism. Another thing God implies to us in scripture about baptism is that babies cannot be baptized. Since he tells us that one must believe, repent, and confess Jesus as Lord before baptism, then it logically follows from this that an infant cannot be baptized because they are not able to do those things. Also, when God tells us Mark 16:16 that we need to believe and be baptized to be saved, and when He shows us in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost that one must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, God is implying to us that these passages apply to us if we want salvation and the remission of our sins. We must us the ability to reason and the logic that God gives us as we come to commands, direct statements, and examples within the Bible as to whether they apply beyond their original audience to us.

How our King reveals His will on baptism shows us how He reveals what is pleasing to Him regarding every Biblical doctrine/teaching. Once again, what other way is there for our King to reveal His decrees to us other than these three ways? This is how communication works, and this cannot be denied. It is a self-evident truth. One cannot communicate their will about anything without telling you something, showing you something, or implying something to you, and if you disagree that God communicates in these three ways, try to do so without telling us something, showing us something, or implying something to us.

By Jason Smith

What is our goal as Christians? Why is it that we do what we do? How we answer this question is important. We need to have the right reason as to why we choose to do what we do in service and worship to God. I believe the Apostle Paul sums up pretty well what that reason should be in 2 Corinthians 5:9

“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”

In everything we do, is this our desire? This needs to be the motivation we have in approaching the will of God and the Authority of Christ. Each one of us as Christians must make it our goal and aim to be pleasing to Him in EVERYTHING we do. This must be where we begin because it can become easy for us to want to please others in what we do, and in so doing, lose our focus on pleasing our King. There are many other things and people in life at times that we tend to put on the throne and make "king" in our lives. These things are not our source of authority:

• Our feelings or intuition. No matter where we believe these feelings are coming from, they are not the ultimate source of authority. Saying “I feel God would like it if we do this” when God does not speak on the matter or says something else on the matter is dangerous. Our feelings are not King.
• Our personal experiences. I have recently been studying with someone who allows their personal experiences to be their King above Jesus when it comes to miraculous spiritual gifts. Because he had seen guys on TV do miracles or he himself had learned to speak in some kind of heavenly language led him to reject what King Jesus and His Apostles say about those things.
• What we have always done as a church. Traditions are not our King. They must be submitted to what He says also. Just because we have done something a certain way for so wrong does not make it right.
• What our families have always believed. Our parents, grandparents, and other families members are not our King either. When we become Christians, we make the decision to take Jesus’ words above even what those closest to us say. Jesus says, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26) Our allegiance to Him as King needs to far surpass our allegiance to anyone else.
• What preachers and elders say. Even those who we look up to and respect in the church are not King.

If any of these contradict what the true Authority and King says, then we are wrong. Plain and simple. We are wrong. If we allow these things to take precedence over Jesus by using these things as our source of authority, we are putting these things on the throne of our lives. We will not allow this to happen if we truly want to please our King. Everything that we think or feel must be submitted to Him.

We need to choose each and every day who it is that will be the One who reigns in my life and leads me to make decisions in what I do in my service to God. This is what we must decide as individuals and as local churches. This is what authority is all about. It is all about pleasing our King instead of pleasing ourselves and making ourselves and those around us King.

Jesus is the King. He is the One who created us. We belong to Him. He is the reason why we can become citizens in the Kingdom. He is the One who God exalted and sat at His right hand. Jesus is the King, not us or anyone else! Jesus is the Ruler and King of everyone, whether they like it or not. Jesus is the King of the atheist whether they choose to submit to His Lordship in their lives or not. Paul says in Philippians 2:9-11 about Jesus:

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Because Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross, God exalted Him and made Him King over all. He was given all authority on Heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:19-20). If Jesus has all authority on Heaven and on earth, how much does that leave for you and me? Zero. Zilch. None. He is the only One deserving of being the King of our lives, and He is the only One deserving of being the head of His church. As Paul says in Colossians 1:18, “in all things He (speaking of Jesus) is to have the preeminence.”

Jesus is the anointed One of God, God’s chosen King. He is the authority we must submit to, and He is the One who we must desire to please.

The Origin of the Sinner's Prayer
 

by Ryan Hasty

   

No method of conversion has gained such popularity amongst mainstream denominations in the last century than that of the “Sinner’s Prayer”. It has been said that thousands of people utter this prayer daily in response to alter calls and one-on-one conversations between friends, relatives, co-workers, and school mates. To find the origin of this method of conversion, one must rely on extra-biblical evidence as neither the term “sinner’s prayer” nor the concept can be found in God’s holy word.

The beginning of this conversion method has its foundation in the middle 18th century as the First Great Awakening was underway. It was in 1741 that a preacher named Eleazar Wheelock devised a technique called the “Mourner’s Seat” by which to draw the penitent believer. Wheelock would target sinners by having them sit in the front pew while pronouncing from the pulpit “salvation is looming over your heads.” Not only were these individuals susceptible to further counsel, they were vulnerable to whatever method of conversion Wheelock prescribed. False conversions from his revivals were numerous though it took almost a hundred years for other preachers to begin mimicking his process.

In 1801, the “Cane Ridge Revival” began in Kentucky and lasted for several weeks. The temperature outside was so hot and attendees endured such long periods without food that many became delirious and began rolling around in the aisles and barking like dogs. Such an abuse of the emotions by the preachers at this revival gave thousands of individuals a mistaken notion about their rebirth. Some ministers such as J. V. Coombs rightfully condemned such behavior as a mockery to Christianity. However, other ministers caught on to the fact that gospel preaching could be modified to manipulate the emotions of the listeners into “conversion”. Others in pews around the country placed unreasonable expectations on preachers to produce the same “religious experience” that was found at the Cane Ridge Revival.

It wasn’t until 1835 that another preacher named Charles Finney emerged on the scene to develop a hybrid system of conversion by combining Wheelock’s “Mourner’s Seat” with the experience of the Cane Ridge Revival. This traveling preacher named his technique the “Anxious Seat” and developed an entire theological system around it. The practice was essentially a psychological technique in that it manipulated people's emotions to make a tearful profession of faith without a true conversion. Its success was entirely dependent upon the ability of the preacher to stir up his audience's emotions. Finney did not attempt to hide his confidence in this man-made system when he stated, “The church has always felt it necessary to have something of this kind to answer this very purpose. In the days of the apostles, baptism answered this purpose. The gospel was preached to the people, and then all those who were willing to be on the side of Christ, were called out to be baptized. It held the place that the anxious seat does now as a public manifestation of their determination to be Christians.”

In the 1860s, the concept of the “Anxious Seat” was modified further by a preacher named Dwight Moody. Moody’s method was named the “Inquiry Room”. Moody utilized the same psychological techniques that preyed on emotions, but in addition asked those who responded to his teaching to join him and his trained counselors in another room. In this “Inquiry Room”, questions were asked, certain scriptures were read, and then Moody and/or his counselors would pray with the potential converts. Moody considered prayer to be the last step in the conversion process. A man named R. A. Torrey succeeded Moody in 1899 and he modified Moody’s system by taking the “room” out of the equation and performing “on the spot” street conversions. Torrey’s method of conversion made popular instant salvation with no strings attached.

In the early 1900s, well known baseball player Bill Sunday had a conversion experience in Moody’s Chicago mission and therefore left the diamond to pursue preaching. Sunday was one of the most popular, charismatic, and entertaining speakers of his generation. He used various antics, showmanship, and humor to stir up the emotions of his listeners. Sunday preached that one could be saved simply by walking down his tent’s “sawdust trail” to the front where he was standing. Later on, people were said to have received salvation simply by publically shaking Sunday’s hand and stating that they would follow Christ.

Finally in the 1940s, the next big crusade preacher hit the scene. A young man named Bill Graham trained counselors to encourage those who responded to his “altar call” to pray that Jesus would come into their heart. This concept of praying for your salvation came from a tract Graham developed called “Four Steps to Peace with God” which merely originated from another tract 50 years prior called “Four Things God Wants You to Know.” In the 1950s, Bill Bright took this concept and coined the expression, “The Four Spiritual Laws” which ends with the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer”. This prayer goes something like, “Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”

Sadly, the concept of the Sinner’s Prayer can be found neither in Jesus and the Apostles’ teaching nor seen in the’ numerous conversions found in the book of Acts. It is entirely man made and falls under the category of “another gospel” that Paul confirms and then reaffirms in Gal 1:6-9 will condemn those who proclaim it.

The true method of conversion can be found in our Lord’s teaching in the Great Commission and then following the “Acts” of the Apostles as they attempted to follow our Lord’s instruction. Jesus taught the apostles in the Great Commission that they were to teach belief, repentance, and baptism (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-47). We know the Apostles followed His instruction because we see this being done in the conversion of the 3000 Jews on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:36-39), the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:35-39), the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 22:16), the conversion of the Philippian Jailor (Acts 16:29-35), etc. And while the temptation is great to listen to the words of men as they tell us a simple prayer will do the trick, let us instead listen to the simple words of God and put our trust in His plan and no other.

By Jason Smith

There are people in this world that say that Jesus was a mythological figure who never existed in history. They say He is nothing more than a legend whom a group of men in the first century made up to fool the world. But is this true? Is Jesus mentioned in historical writings? The answer is YES.

To begin, we have 27 writings that mention Him, four of which are in depth accounts of His ministry. The New Testament is Historical Literature. Whether you look at it as the word of God or not, it is historical eyewitness testimony of the events of Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection. Many unbelievers like to deny these accounts of Jesus’ life are historical accounts. This is unwarranted. They only do this with the New Testament documents. If they held all of history to this standard, they would need to disregard all of history. There is no justifiable reason to reject the main source documents of Jesus’ life as a historical witness while accepting other primary source documents of other historical events.


Here are some examples of Jesus being mentioned in historical accounts outside of the New Testament documents:

• Tacitus, one of the greatest historians of Rome wrote speaking of how Christians were made scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. He wrote concerning the death of Christ
  • “…Christus, from whom the name (Christians) had it’s origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of procurators, Pontius Pilatus…” (Annals 15.44.2-4)
• The Jewish Talmud, written between 70AD and 200AD speaks of Jesus Christ, although in hostile language. This proves that the enemies of Christ believed that he was a historical figure!
  • “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu (Jesus) was hanged [on a cross]. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.’ But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged [on a cross] on the eve of the Passover.” (The Babylonian Talmud, translated by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, p. 281)
• The Jewish historian Josephus,writing for the Roman government in the 70′s A.D. records some incidental things regarding Christ and the church. He confirms that John the Baptist died at the hand of Herod (this same incident is recorded in the gospels) as well as the death of, “The brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James. . . he delivered them to be stoned.” He also speaks of “marvelous deeds” that Jesus did. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, ch. V, p. 20; Book XX, ch. IX, p. 140 ).
• Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness which followed the crucifixion of Christ (Extant Writings, 18).
• Pliny the Younger, in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper.
• Lucian of Samosata was a second-century Greek writer who admits that Jesus was worshiped by Christians, introduced new teachings, and was crucified for them. He said that Jesus’ teachings included the brotherhood of believers, the importance of conversion, and the importance of denying other gods. Christians lived according to Jesus’ laws, believed themselves to be immortal, and were characterized by contempt for death, voluntary self-devotion, and renunciation of material goods.
• We have late first century and early second century writings of the Early Church Fathers which include many references to Jesus and His teachings. The majority of the New Testament could be reconstructed from their writings
• We have all the Gnostic writings (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, etc.) that all mention Jesus.

The historian, Will Durant, certainly no friend of Christianity, wrote:

“That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic, and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the gospel (1944, p. 557).

These are just a few of the historians that have mentioned Jesus Christ and His disciples. The question must be asked, “How many historical accounts of someone do we need to have to believe He is a real historical figure?” All of the documents outside of the New Testament that talk about Jesus, even if you take away the early church fathers, are enough to show that Christ was doing amazing things, was crucified by Pilate, and the tomb was found empty.

The only reason to reject the existence of Jesus is not a rational one, but an emotional one. There is a lot at stake if the historical accounts of Jesus’ life are true. If Jesus is who He claimed to be (God), there is only One God and One way to eternal life, there is an absolute standard of truth and morality in which we all we be held accountable to, miracles are possible, and the heavens and earth were created by God (not by evolution).

“If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.” -F. F. Bruce