Providence, Preaching, and Preterism: A Story

Sometime in the late 90’s or early 2000’s, I went to a Bible conference in Gladwin, MI. Pastor Joe Wilson preached a message on the Heresy of Preterism. He passed out a flyer that a church in Florida used in advertisement for their church services promoting their doctrine. Pastor Wilson gave an interesting and informative message on what Preterism was and its dangers. I took some notes, kept the flyer and went on about my life.

In 2008, I was called to pastor a church in NC. I’m sort of a pack rat when it comes to my study notes. I have files of scribbles, outlines, skeletons, and notes from sermons I have heard or books that I have read. When I was unpacking my office, I came across the notes from Pastor Wilson and the message he had preached. “Should I toss this?” Of course not!

Only a few weeks after I had arrived (and after I had put the flyer back in my files), a man who had been attending the church came to me wanting to join. He had been preaching for the church when they were without a pastor, and wanted to talk with me about joining and preaching. I can’t recall how I found out that he was a preterist, I think he may have mentioned it when he asked me to lunch, but I did know before I went and met him. The flyer I just had put away and rang the bell that this was going to be a problem. Had I not found the flyer and notes from Pastor Wilson's message, I would not have been concerned. I had but a short time to review and to study the subject again. At the time, I participated in Baptist forum and Pastor Troy Sheppard mentioned preterism in one of the threads and spoke about how wicked a doctrine it is and can be. In the matter of weeks I found the flyer with Joe Wilson’s message, and Pastor Sheppard mentioned this doctrine that I hadn’t thought about in close to a decade. I contracted him privately and he sent me his notes from a message he preached on the subject and I dove into the study of the doctrine. I always am blessed thinking how God providential cared for me through the whole event. Finding the flyer, the warning about the doctrine, and then the online discussion all served to prepare me to meet with this man and long story short, he did not join the church.

Later, at the urging of some church members I wrote about it and placed it online. There are different shades of preterism and I wrote about consistent preterism. If taken all the way to its logical ends, this heresy is a damnable heresy. Grace Bible Baptist Church in Denham Springs, Louisiana had taken the article and put it on their website and I hadn’t thought about it since. A couple weeks ago, I was informed that a man had taken offense to the article and written the church in Denahm Springs. In that vein, the next post will be a repost of the very long article. 

Lord Bless,

Christ in Genesis

Slicing Bread with a Corkscew

There are allegories, metaphors, poetical language, and prophetical language used in scripture and the scripture itself must be the interpreter of these metaphors and symbols. And when the Bible uses this type of language, there is a literal meaning behind the words. When prophesy is fulfilled, it is fulfilled literally. When the Bible speaks of the resurrection of the body, it means resurrection of the body.

If I were to say that “Hymenaeus and Philetus were so crooked they sliced their bread with a corkscrew” you would know that they did not literally slice their bread with a corkscrew, but they were deceitful, wicked men that preached a deceitful and wicked doctrine (2 Timothy 2:17-18). There was a literal meaning behind my metaphor. Crooked did not refer to their posture but their integrity. When the Bible spoke of the future resurrection, Hymeaneus and Philetus told the churches that it had already happened. The only way to get there from here is to wrest the scripture.

Revelation 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

To read and to hear and to keep. It does no good if the reader or the hearer cannot understand what is said or needs to be a historical scholar from works outside of the Scripture to understand this book. I believe that we can know what the book of Revelation says and means and do not need books or historical works apart from scripture to understand its meaning. I don’t believe we need to rely upon those with the greatest and best imaginations, but if we rely on the same basic ways of interpreting the scripture in other parts of the Bible, we can now what this means.
 

Warfield on II Peter 1:21

“The term [as they were moved] here used is a very specific one. It is not to be confounded with guiding, or directing, or controlling, or even leading in the full sense of that word. It goes beyond all such terms, in assigning the effect produced specifically to the active agent. What is “borne” is taken up by the “bearer,” and conveyed by the “bearer’s” power, not its own, to the “bearer’s” goal, not its own. The men who spoke from God are here declared, therefore, to have been take up by the Holy Spirit and brought by His power to the goal of His choosing. The things which they spoke under this operation for the Spirit were therefore His things, no theirs. And that is the reason which is assigned why “the prophetic word” is so sure. Though spoken through the instrumentality of men, it is, by virtue of the fact that these men spoke “as borne by the Holy Spirit,” an immediately Divine Word.” BB Warfield. Emphasis mine.
DPN

Choice quotes from J. Sidlow Baxter

On Wednesday nights, we are doing a Survey of the Bible. The plan is to briefly take a high altitude lay of the Biblical landscape, but not take more than a month on each book. The first month, we are focusing on the Bible as a whole and in my preparatory reading, I found a few choice quotes from J. Sidlow Baxter’s excellent work “Explore the Book” I would like to share.

“We shall let each book tell us its secret and open its heart to us. We shall resolutely guard against forcing any artificial outline on any book of Scripture. To sacrifice exactness for the sake of smart alliteration is an impertinence when dealing with Divinely inspired writings. There are Bible teachers today of a certain type, who excel in ingenious “skeleton.” But an erroneous analysis, however adroitly drawn up, obscures the real and vital message of a book. As we proceed without studies we shall see how often a book or a passage lights up with new force or beauty when a true analysis is made of it.”

“We do well to realize that those sermons or books which most stir us at the time of hearing or reading often leave us little that is of permanent value, while, on the other hand, those that teach us most may not be so immediately stirring.”

“Dr. Jowett tells of a tourist who was traveling through some of Scotland’s loveliest scenery, but who was so absorbed in his guide book that he never saw the loveliness through which he was passing. There can be Bible study of that sort, too. Our great object is to know the true God, to become more like Christ, and to be more fully possessed by the Holy Spirit. True bible study will encompass that object, for the inspired pages of Holy writ live an thrill and glow with the presence of God!

DPN

Book Review: Spiritual Warfare: A Biblical and Balanced Perspective

Spiritual Warfare: A Biblical and Balanced Perspective is an excellent overview of spiritual warfare. Using Ephesians 6:10-20 as the structure and the outline of the book, authors Brian Borgman and Rob Ventura expound what Paul tells us both about the spiritual war Christians engage in, and the weapons of that war.

The “Biblical Perspective” in the subtitle comes from the exposition of the text. The authors do a good job of giving the historical background of the book of Ephesians, and then chapter by chapter lays out what the text says before applying the text to the Christian life. However, the book doesn’t read like a commentary or someone’s sermon outlines, it is both instructive and readable.

The “Balanced Perspective” in the subtitle alludes to the interpretation and view of the spiritual warfare. In the introduction, C.S. Lewis is quoted from The Screwtape Letters “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”  This book affirms the reality of our enemy and the spiritual struggles from both without and within on our Christian pilgrimage; however, the focus is not on the forces of evil, but on Christ which is the key to this book.

Spiritual Warfare is well written and engaging. The chapters are short and quick to the point, but also full of spiritual instruction. Each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and discussion, which makes this book valuable for study groups, family worship, or other small groups. The latter portion of the book is especially beneficial to preachers and pastors on the chapters on prayer, the Sword of the Spirit, and the proclamation of the Word of God.  I would recommend this book as a good place to start on spiritual warfare, or for a pastor studying Ephesians. My thanks to Cross Focused Media for providing me the review copy.

J.C. Ryle on the Prophetic Passages

J.C. Ryle

“All these [prophetic] Texts are to my mind plain prophecies of Christ’s second coming and kingdom. All are yet without their accomplishment, and all shall yet be literally and exactly fulfilled. I say “literally and exactly fulfilled," and I say so advisedly. From the first day that I began to read the Bible with my heart, I have never been able to see

these texts, and hundreds like them, in any other light. It always seemed to me that as we take literally the texts foretelling that the walls of Babylon shall be cast down, so we ought to take literally the texts foretelling that the wall so Zion shall be built up—that as according to prophecy the Jews were literally scattered, so according to prophecy the Jews will be literally gathered – and that as the least and minutest predictions were made good on the subject of our Lord’s coming to suffer, so the minutest predictions shall be made good which describe our Lord’s coming to reign.”

Amen. 

Incontinent

I'm going through II Timothy in my morning reading and did a word study on incontinent found in chapter 3 verse 3. No comment, just the notes I took studying the word. Very appropriate word for our times, I think.

Webster's definition is as follows:

INCONTINENT, a. [L. incontinens.] Not restraining the passions or appetites, particularly the sexual appetite; indulging lust without restraint or in violation of law; unchaste; lewd.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2Ti 3:1-5)"

Vine's Expository Dictionary says of the Greek work from which it is translated, that it "denotes "powerless, impotent;" in a moral sense, unrestrained, "without self-control." 

This is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. It is used in the Septuagint once in Proverbs 27:20.


Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. (Psalm 12:7-8)

DPN 

Book Review: Life in Christ by Jeremy Walker

What does it mean to be a Christian? In his new book Life in Christ, Jeremy Walker walks us through what

the Bibles tells us about the most important of all subjects; salvation and union with Christ. Jeremy puts on display many areas of Christian life and experience, drawing out the realities of the new birth, implications of saving faith, blessings of union with Christ, and changes God works in the believer as a new creature in Christ.

Starting with the gospel and saving faith, we are guided through what it means to have been saved, to be saved, and to look ahead to the glories that await those who are in Christ. He begins by explaining the gospel- that Jesus is the object of our faith, to whom we look. Then, as a born again child of God, the life we have, our identity, our hope, our righteousness is in Christ. Jeremy points out that when we begin to think of what it entails to be “in Christ” we see that this is not a superficial decision one makes, but Christ is the unsearchable, fathomless, and glorious treasure whose depths we will spend an eternity exploring. Salvation is bringing a dead sinner to life, implanting a heart of flesh, and giving the person a new nature to love what he once hated, and hate what he once loved. In Christ, we are not merely pardoned slaves, but made to be sons of God. Our identity in Christ has changed both our position and our nature and because the perfect work of Christ, we can be assurance that He will accomplish what He set out to do, and we can know that we know Him. Since life in Christ is real, then life in Christ has a real effect as we continue to be conformed to His image, until we have run the race and finished the course and He brings us home.

This book is theologically sound, and wonderfully written. It is a rare occurrence to have both a theologically sound work that is also just a pleasure to read. Life in Christ is steeped in Biblical passages and Biblical language and gets straight to the point, which I appreciated.

No book, no volume of books could ever begin to plumb the depth of what union with Christ fully means, however this book is a wonderful way for a new believer to learn more of what he has in Christ, and for the mature Christian to adore and worship the Beloved. I could see this book being a wonderful guide for the babe in Christ, a devotional book, or a great book for a Bible saw group. I highly recommend picking up a copy.

You may also enjoy listening to the THIS interview Jeremy gave on the Janet Mefferd Show talking about the book. Jeremy also blogs at Reformation21.org

P.S.

Also, to whoever is ultimately responsible for the footnotes instead of the endnotes; I give you a hearty well done, well done. There is nothing that quite dampens the Newell spirit as to see a book with endnotes, but alas, dear reader; rejoice. You will not be burdened by flipping back and forth in the needless scavenger hunt. “Will this be a reference to another book? Is this more vital information that I need to know? Will this the endnote merely be yet another ibid?” There will be no interrupting of the reading by flipping back and forth, for you will conveniently find that information at the bottom of the very page to which it is referenced. My heart, upon seeing the footnotes, as it were, slowly stood from its reading chair with an approving ‘slow clap’ and a nod of the head.

A Realistic Self-Assessment of Scriptural Knowledge

There is a danger in assuming we have a vast knowledge of Scripture rather than ensuring we have it. On an unfounded assumption, you can frame your opinions and beliefs on what you think the Bible says rather than what it actually does. Christians assuming they know more than they do, or thinking they know all the important stuff construct their lives and thoughts and actions what they think is right, then say we are following the Bible. If a Christian believes they have a vast knowledge of scripture, they assume their actions and opinions are Bible based. If they don't like something, it must not be true and it must not be Bible. Instead of finding out what the Bible teaches, and then forming our opinions based upon the Word. 

Sadly, many Christians look for:

More Sentimentality than scripture.

Hold to the verses of Hank Williams over verses of Hebrews.

Prefer the prophets of Hollywood over the Prophets of the Holy Lord.

Listen more to the sweet psalmists of Nashville than the Sweet psalmist of Israel

More Papaw than the apostle Paul.

Lean more on emotion than on inspiration.

Take the TV over the Testaments;

feelings more than foundational truth.

We need a realistic self-assessment of our scriptural knowledge in which we can honestly say we do not know or do not understand something in scripture. Only then can we grow in knowledge.

Ddpn

Gra

God's chisel and hammer!

J.R. Miller, "Evening Thoughts" via Gracegems.org

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Malachi 3:16-17

In the prophet Malachi's time, when nearly all the people had forsaken God, there were a few who were faithful. These met together and spoke one to another. They became very dear to God, and a book of remembrance was kept in which their names and their faithfulness were recorded.

"These shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels!"

Jewels are valuable. God gave His beloved Son for the redemption of His chosen people.

Jewels are prepared by cutting, grinding, and polishing, until they shine in brilliant beauty. God's people are subjected to many painful trials and experiences in preparing them for their heavenly home.

Jewels are used for adornment and for honor. They shine in the king's crown. The saints in Heaven shall shine as jewels in Jesus' crown!

If only we knew how precious we are to God, and what hidden glory shall be ours, waiting to shine out at last--we would rejoice with unspeakable joy!

What do a few troubles and pains matter now, if it is only the work of God's chisel and hammer cutting away the hindering crust, to reveal the precious diamond!

Mortification of Sin

"Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self invention, to the end of a self righteousness is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world."
John Owen

Reggie Moore

Today was the funeral for Elder Reggie Moore. David Collier, Paul Jackson, and John Pruitt gave brief messages and Sam Wilson preached the concluding message of the service. 

I did the the following graveside service.

As it has pleased our Sovereign God,

who hath determined the times before appointed,

and the bounds of our brothers habitation;

We commit Elder Reggie Moore’s earthly tabernacle to the earth.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

but the soul has returned to the God who gave it –

our brother, now absent from this body,

is now present with the Lord Christ who redeemed Him with His blood.

Here we immerse the body,

which will wait for the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ;

Who died for sins, was also buried

But the grave could not hold Him.

Conquering death, rising from the dead for our justification,

   

He gives us a living hope in a living Saviour.

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Amen.

Every Chapter Better

CS Lewis - The Last Battle

“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. 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 title page: now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has ever read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before”

To Live is Christ

Another beautiful song by Nathan Clark George.

An Extraordinary Saviour

An excerpt from the sermon at a baptismal service 12/15/13.

We get bogged down in the daily workings of life that we miss the wonderfully obvious, that this world, even in its broken state, is a pretty wild place. We are on a rock that is spinning 1,000 miles an hour hurling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour. That sun that we journey around every year, gives us heat and gives us light, in which trees turn into oxygen, in which we breathe out laughter at a nine month old learning experimentally about gravity. We see these things, but don’t see them.

This world and this life is wonderfully extraordinary and is all around us and we miss it staring at our phones, or becoming so preoccupied with things that don’t matter. Our problem is much deeper than not paying attention, though that is a big problem. Our problem goes all the way down into the core. Some of you listened to me preach this morning and heard a message of the gospel, and it was established in your heart. Some of you were daydreaming and haven’t the foggiest idea what I was preaching. Some of you listened and heard me, but did not hear what I was saying, you did not perceive the Words, you heard the concept, but did not perceive. Hearts have grown dull, and you have ears they can barely hear, and have closed your eyes; lest you should see with your eyes and hear with your ears and understand with your heart and turn from your sin unto the Saviour and be healed.

We are about to witness a baptism, and I wonder what you will see? When John Baptized, some saw a religious symbol, and nothing more. Some saw a wild man dunking people under the water, and nothing more. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. But those who were truly saved and truly waiting for the coming of Messiah saw something more.

Baptism tells the story of such a miracle that goes unnoticed and forgotten, even by those people who have experienced it. Baptism paints a picture for those with eyes to see the most beautiful tale of love, heroism, and devotion the world will ever know. Baptism tells the story of death and sacrifice. Justice and mercy. Burial and repentance. Resurrection and newness of life. Baptism does not save, baptism speaks.

The miracle of regeneration, where a human spirit, that cannot live, is given life to really live for the first time is put on full display. The miracle of dead bodies coming out of their tombs and walking about. The miracle of new creations, new creatures having been born again and seen the kingdom of God. The story of a Man, who called a dead man from his grave, and that man answered and obeyed and hopped out of the tomb. The story of this Man who entered into the world, but was bigger than the world itself, and died at the hands of wicked men (though they did not take His life from Him) and He laid down His life voluntarily as a sacrifice to present sinners blameless before God. Whose dead body was made alive again and walked out of the tomb securing the death of death by the death of Christ.

You have heard this story, but have you really heard it? Have you really believed it? Has it been confirmed in your soul that Jesus died and rose again? Will you see a woman getting wet in the front of a church, or will you see a picture of Jesus dying and rising out of the tomb? Will you see a women getting wet, or will you see a woman who was made alive by grace? Who God has quickened from the dead, from death to life to the spiritually dead. A picture of the new birth, and walking in newness of life.

What will you see?

Will you see the gospel?

Will you see the working of Grace?

Will you believe what we will show you?

This is the gospel of grace. All have sinned and come short of the perfect standard that God has demanded from His creation. From birth, our hearts are bent and broken towards sinfulness. Even our best efforts are tainted by sin. We have fallen from God and are guilty having broken His commandments. We are a sinful people estranged from a Holy God and we have no way to fix what is broken. We can’t do better, we can’t repair the past. We are guilty before God and deserving to be punished and to go where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But listen to me, really listen because I want to tell you how awesome God is. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this Earth that He might seek and save those lost souls to whom the Father had given Him. He didn’t look for good people because there were not any good people. All were ruined and thrust into sin. But Jesus, born of a virgin, the Word made flesh, lived a life of perfection, obedient to every law of God. Jesus did what Adam could not do, He was born perfect and stayed that way. Never the slightest hint of sin from the Lord, a perfect man who lived for the purpose that when the fullness of time had arrived, He would offer Himself to God, a sacrifice for sins.

When the hour had come, Jesus was taken to Golgotha and nailed to a cross. The father had taken the sins of the elect and laid them on the sinless Saviour. The Son bore the wrath and the punishment and paid the penalty completely for the sins that we committed. When God’s wrath was satisfied, Jesus gave up the ghost.

After three days and three nights, Jesus rose from the dead, alive. Not a spirit, not a ghost, but bodily arose and walked about walking in newness of life. This is the good news, for if you repent of your sins, if you trust in what Jesus did, and trust that this testimony is true and cry out to God to save you knowing He is the only true and sufficient perfect Saviour, then you will have life and life eternal. By God’s grace, die to self, and are born again, raised to walk in newness of life, to follow your Lord and your Saviour, all the days of your life.

This is an extraordinary world. Only because we have an extraordinarily awesome Saviour.

The Calvinist by John Piper

I tweeted out a link to this poem a few days back, and the folks at Desiring God have updated their video with subtitles.

Both a beautiful poem and video.

With a special "two for the price of one" deal here at the blog, I'm going through in, absolutely free, this quote from Spurgeon. Also, if you object to the term Calvinism, then coin a single word to describe the doctrines of Grace and God's sovereignty and get the rest of the world to catch on and replace it. Let me know when you do (or would you have to let me know?) but until then, we live in a world with words and words have meanings. Right now, the term Calvinist has a meaning and I don't have to define it because you know what it means too.

 "I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."

DP Newell

Dying of Dignity

"It is easy enough among Dissenters to find regulations as rigid as could be invented by any bench of bishops; you may not vary the length of the hymn or the order of the service by a hair’s breadth, or you will sin against your own reputation and the feelings of the conservative portion of the congregation. There are few of such places now, but quite enough. and, where the evil rules, the good folks are as tenacious of their established nonsense as ever the Church of England can be of her printed prayers and rubrics; and the preacher must submit to all the regular fudge as if it were Scripture itself, or be pronounced eccentric and wanting in decorum. A man that is a man will yield for peace sake as far as his soul is unhampered, but beyond that he will ask, “Who makes these regulations, and to what end are they made?” Finding them. to be worthless and injurious, he will put his foot through them, and there will be an end of the rubbish. Some congregations are dying of dignity, and must be aroused by real life. People said that Mr. Hill rode on the back of order and decorum, and therefore he called his two horses by those names, so that if he could not ride on the back of them he might make the saying nearly true by being dragged behind them. Order and decorum, in some of our churches, have manifested themselves to be deadly sins; dead and burying the dead. Some congregations are so very orderly that they are like a vault in which the corpses lie, each one in due place, and none dares to move or lift a voice loud enough to be called a chirp. This will not do. Bring the trumpet! Sound a blast and wake the sleepers! Eccentric! Yes, eccentricity, if you like to call life by that name. Heaven knows it is sadly wanted."

C.H. Spurgeon from Eccentric Preachers




DPN

Baptism

Excerpt from the sermon I preached at Elijah's baptism. 

We have come today to replay an ancient picture. For going on 2,000 years, believers have gathered about a body of water to witness this very same baptism. You have an ancient heritage, church. You don’t have to go search out your genealogy to find a connection to your past. Here is your connection.

Upon baptism you will join the ranks of Peter, James, John, Andrew, Stephen, Philip, Apollos, Timothy, Paul, and those men and women who followed their doctrine. Every church planted that sent out its own men to preach the word, make disciples and baptize them as the Lord's churches spread like wildfire. Down through the ages and through the dark valley of persecution. Across the continents, men have confessed their sins, trusted in the Christ, and followed Him in baptism.  Starting in a muddy river in Israel by a man sent from God, to Jerusalem, through Samaria and Asia. Down southward to Africa and westward across the mountains plains into the land of the Barbarians believers were immersed upon profession in Christ and united with the church. On to Europe, then to the Americas this same ordinance was give for the same purpose. Age after age, church after church acting out this drama, making this confession, Jesus Saves.

Silently, yet publicly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Confessing that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, came, born of a virgin and entered into His own creation to save His people from their sins. We declare in baptism that the Godman was nailed to the cross and was the Lamb of God, the substitutionary sacrifice and completely saved every single person for whom the sacrifice was intended. On that terrible afternoon, Jesus cried it is finished and gave up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.

Jesus, the Lord, the Saviour, the King, the Christ was dead. They took his lifeless body from that wretched tree and laid His lifeless body in a rich man’s tomb. Sad, dejected, and faithless, the disciples had given up in despair.

But lo, at the dawning of the first day of the week, the two Mary’s came to the tomb but the stone was rolled away. They were terrified, but the angle said “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” The reports were flying about, the tomb is empty! Jesus had risen! He met with them, spoke with them, ate with them, and preached to them. He was alive! He had the power to lay his life down and he took it right back up. This same Jesus, in His same body spoke to these same disciples, bodily risen and forever defeating death for those He had died and risen for.

The same Jesus who had the power to raise himself from the dead has the power to give life. To give life to the dead to raise them from spiritual death unto spiritual life and to one day raise their bodies from the dirt.

As a church, we are to go with this message of the gospel and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ. We have been charged to make disciples and baptize them.  We baptize them symbolizing how we are made disciples. As Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected – we symbolize that in the water. We are buried in baptism. As Jesus rose from the dead for our justification, we come up out of the water raised to walk in newness of life.

Baptism symbolizes what Christ has already done. We baptize the believers, the disciples of Jesus to show the world that we have died to the old life (repentance) and have been born again and are new creatures in Jesus.