Did the Saviour Pay the Penalty for our Sins Prior to the Cross?
A common teaching of Reformed men is that the Lord’s death on the cross was not the only place where sin’s penalty was paid. They connect the payment of this penalty with our Lord’s sufferings apart from and prior to Calvary’s cross. They often point to the Lord’s sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane as being a time when the Lord Jesus was suffering as the Divine Substitute for man’s sins.
As the world continues to get crazier, at least to our perception, Christians begin to wonder, “Is this the end?” We look to the Scripture for answers to wars and deception on the earth.
The Bible describes the Antichrist as a prominent End Times figure, a sign that things are coming to a close. As believers notice many powerful and evil leaders in different nations today, they seek more information about the Antichrist. Often, they try to match a modern figure with that evil figure.
Thousands of years prior to the establishment of the Lord’s Church, and long before Paul addressed the conduct of Christian slaves in the first century, various forms of slavery were commonplace. In fact, virtually every ancient civilization used slaves.1 Slavery was prevalent enough in Babylon in the 18th century B.C. to be mentioned numerous times in the Code of Hammurabi.2 The Egyptians enslaved hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the 16th century B.C. (Exodus 1; cf. Numbers 1:46). Historians estimate that, by the time Paul wrote his New Testament epistles in the first century A.D., five to eight million slaves resided within the Roman Empire,3 including 15-25% of the total population of Italy.4
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THE PAPACY AT THE TURN OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM
The following is a description of the conditions existing at the turn of the first millennium AD: “In the tenth century the dominion of the Roman pope had exceedingly obscured, and taken possession of, nearly all the churches in Europe, so that everything had to be done according to his pleasure, both in spiritual and secular governments; hence, great darkness prevailed at this time, in which but very few learned, virtuous, and celebrated men lived. For fear of the great tyranny, one dared scarcely speak the least word of the adulteration of the doctrine, or the abuses in the false worship, and the increase of the abominable blasphemies; for, as soon as those who knew better, and feared God, uttered the least word of opposition, the pope instantly thundered, with hail and lightning as it were, excommunications from the Roman chair, so that everyone was terrified, since also the secular lords were bewitched and controlled by him” (Martyrs Mirror, 5th English edition, p. 248).
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Matthew 6:1-4 says not to “practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” Matthew 23:5 condemns the Pharisees: “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.” Matthew 5:16 and other verses such as 1 Peter 2:12 however say to let your works be seen by others to maybe convert them. Which is it? The answer is within the verses themself: works that are meant to be seen by others to make you look good (Matt. 6:1) aren’t real works, but ones that are really because of your obedience to God are good to be seen by others to glorify God not you. This is why Matt. 6:1 says, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” The warning is for the motivation, not the result of being seen. There is always a clear difference between doing things just for publicity, however minor it may be, and things that are done for the good they are meant to do. And this is the difference between the Pharisees in Matthew 23:5 and the people who are exhorted to practice good in front of people so that they may bring them to Christ (1 Peter 2:12, Matt. 5:16).
How old did the earth look five years after the creation? Geologists tell us that it takes hundreds of thousands of years to wear down new rock into sand and soil and for the sea to cut a beach. If this were true, one would not expect to see beaches or soil on an earth that was only five years old. Or would we?
Peter writes, “You are a chosen race” (1 Pet. 2:9). Does this imply that Christians are “chosen” for heaven, and non-Christians are “chosen” for hell?
We wish to see Jesus. (John 12:21)
No, neither 1 Peter 2:5 nor 2:9 are referring to an office of “priest” within the New Testament church. Instead, these verses refer to all Christians collectively as a “priesthood” in precisely the same way that Old Testament Israel was collectively called a “kingdom of priests.” It has nothing to do with offices within the church, nor is the focus on leaders. This passage is about the church as a whole. The church has no office of priest.
The discovery of tiny pollen grains in rock shows just how inflated the billions of years claimed by evolutionists really are. This discovery, by a creation scientist, has turned those pollen grains into tiny time bombs that continue to damage the theory of evolution.
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Twice in the New Testament one can read of the drought of Eljiah’s day that lasted for three and a half years. Jesus once referred to this famine while addressing fellow Jews in His hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:25-26), while James mentioned it near the end of his epistle (5:17-18). Some have a problem with the drought of “three years and six months,” because 1 Kings 18:1 says: “The word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, ‘Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth’” (emp. added). Soon thereafter, “there was a heavy rain” (18:45; cf. 18:15). The question is, did the rain come “in the third year” (1 Kings 18:1, emp. added) or after “three years and six months” (Luke 4:25; James 5:17)?
“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” (Titus 2:4-5)
Here the text says that Elijah met king Ahab in the third year of the drought which would remove it. In James 5:17 says that the drought was three and a half years. Is there a contradiction?
It occurred to scientists only about 30 years ago that insect pests might be controlled through hormones. If, for example, a hormone that prevented a destructive insect from reaching maturity was applied to a crop, the interrupted life cycle of the insect might prevent damage to the crop. Yet the hormone would be a safe, natural substance.
I have heard it stated that in the New Testament book of James, the writer referred to a quotation from the Old Testament that actually does not exist. Is there a “missing quote” from the O.T. to which James was referring?