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"'. . . that He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.'
For from Zion will go forth the Law
Even the Word of God from Jerusalem."
Micah 4:2
The diluted "gospel" of the 20th century has its clearest roots in that period of church history known as the "Protestant Reformation." We owe much to the great Reformers, Luther, Calvin, and others, but they did not have a clear understanding of the Bible as "marching orders from King Jesus," or as "blueprints" for all of life. For their heirs, as well as for most Christians today, the Bible is a manual of "theology." The Reformers believed that certain areas of life, such as politics or economics, were to be governed by a (Christian-influenced) "natural law" rather than the strict application of Biblical Law. They might have said, with many today, "The Bible is not a text-book of politics," or, "The Bible is not a text-book of economics," or, "The Bible is not a text-book of (pick your discipline)." These areas are left to the "experts" in the ivory towers of the university or the closed corridors of the bureaucracy. Because of this unScriptural attitude, they radically misunderstood the threat from the Roman Catholic Church.
The problem with the Roman Catholic Church was not that they believed in the doctrine of justification by works. The Bible teaches that (James 2:24). Rome's problem was with the kind of works they claimed justified a man. They believed that a man was justified by repetitious prayers counted on beads, the veneration of relics and statues, or contributions to the dome of St. Peter's. But the Bible nowhere commands those things. The "good works" that characterize the people of God (Titus 2:14) are very clearly spelled out in the Bible. We need turn to no other book or ecclesiastical pronouncement. Every area of our lives, every personal, financial, and social need, is addressed with concrete direction and guidance in the Scriptures.
Unfortunately, the Reformers, without such a comprehensive view of the Law of God, reacted against the perceived errors of the Roman Catholic Church with an equally erroneous doctrine of "justification by faith." Now the Bible teaches a doctrine of justification by faith, but the thrust of the Reformed doctrine is an imbalanced reaction, and deemphasizes good works, that is, obedience to the weightier matters of the Law of God. Both the Bible and the Roman Catholic Church teach that man's eternal destiny is ultimately dependent upon the mercy of God. Both teach that without God's gracious bestowal of the Holy Spirit no one's actions can please Him.
But what the Church taught in theory was diluted in practice. The message that needed to be heard in the sixteenth century was that no man is justified by superstitious obedience to any ecclesiastical legislation. "Justification by faith alone" may have been too broad a statement of the issue (though the Roman Catholics understood the indictment against them).
What modern Protestant Churches teach in theory is also diluted in practice. The message that needs to be heard in our day is that a man is justified by his works, and that no man can expect to spend eternity in the Presence of God unless he perseveres in obedience to the Word of God until the end. A Theonomic statement of this message will not likely give anyone the impression that man is justified by the accumulation of Madonna videos and beach-front timeshares, nor by tireless efforts for an Amway-evangelism program at a "local church."
Unfortunately, this kind of thinking disturbs many people. They are shocked to hear us say that a person cannot be a Christian if he envies the rich, slanders people, is disrespectful of parents, covets the latest fashions, fails to render appropriate love and affection to his spouse, is a danger on the highways after parties, depends upon government loans and benefits, supports homosexuality and sex with children, delights in the Hollywood mentality of anti-marital sex, and makes no effort to get along with others, or resolve conflicts between them. Romans 1:29-31, Ephesians 5:5, Galatians 5:19-21, and I Corinthians 6:9-10, which speak of all these idolatries, are suppressed and unknown passages. In our day those who call themselves "Christians" are not a force for peace, responsibility, self-control, support of the weak, or harmony. They are instead, along with the worker-drones of an anti-Christian Empire, a force for threatenings, intimidations, disunity, addictions, materialism, irresponsibility, selfishness, and covetous wastefulness. These concerns are at the heart of God's Law.
Modern Protestant churches don't know true justification - the liberating, life-igniting gut-felt feeling that a Perfectly-Holy omnipotent God accepts you - because they don't know faith: True faith obeys all of Scripture and only Scripture.[164]
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cf. Acts 5:29; 2 Timothy 3:16-17.