Devotion
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 10 months ago
“The secret things belong to Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”
Deuteronomy 29:29.
Here we have wrapped up in a tidy package both the (a) decretive will of God, and the (b) preceptive will of God.
God decrees (or foreordains) “whatsoever comes to pass” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 3.1). Why? Because of the counsel of His own will. Not yours, not mine, not according to anything in the creature, and not according to what he foresaw would happen.
God forbids us to try to see His decretive will. He calls this sorcery, witchcraft, and idolatry, and such things are to be shunned.
God ordains His law, and that is ours for obedience forever. He says so in the passage.
Do you see the mistaken notion of the Charismatic movement ideations of trying to pry into the secret things? Do you see that what God has given us in His Holy word is enough? Would that Christians work a little harder trying to obey His revealed will and leave His secret will to Him.
“All Scripture is inspire by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
For pleasing God, you don’t need to know what He has decreed and somehow discern it through any means other that the Scripture. God does not tell you what job to take, what college to attend, or even whom to marry. Not in a secret voice, not in your prayer closet, not in happenstances, not in getting a “peace” about things (Christians are seldom at peace, and for good reason, we are in a spiritual war).
He gives you rules, laws, requirements, that govern all of the above. You cannot take a job where you must be dishonest or engage in tyranny. You cannot cheat homeowners by putting studs on center any measurement but code (or less). You cannot attend a college where you must deny Him. And you cannot marry in such a manner as to be unequally yoked.
Scripture is sufficient.
Sola Scriptura.
On February 2, 2021 at 7:32 am, John said:
I agree that 99% of that is true. However, I know personally that God touches us directly from
time to time, especially when we are trying very hard for understanding of his will for us.
A few critical times in my 70 years I experienced this happening in such a way that no
coincidence or strange oddity could account for what occurred. I saw God’s miracles occur
and thank him always that they happened when they did.
He gave us his Laws to obey and expects us to do so, but every once in a while he adjusts
his rules for a good cause. After all, they are HIS to to with as He pleases.
On February 2, 2021 at 10:25 am, billo said:
Except, that’s not what Jesus said. When asked by the disciples about His absence, he didn’t say “Hey, don’t worry, I have a book coming out in a hundred years or so.”
What he said was: ” But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. ”
It’s wrong to say that the Holy Spirit can no longer teach us new things, and that it is wrong to ask Him to do teach us.
In the book of Acts, it was the Holy Spirit that spoke to the Disciples to give them direction. And as Paul notes in 1 Corinthians: “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”
This idea that we should not allow the Spirit to speak to us or teach us directly but instead we should reduce the Him into the religious equivalent of an online commentary is a problem for me.
On February 2, 2021 at 10:39 am, Herschel Smith said:
@billo,
You’re ascribing things to Jesus that He didn’t say. Jesus explained the gift of the Holy Spirit, the “Paraclete,” or, the helper, in illumination and help in obeying the word given. But illumination isn’t the same thing as new revelations. New revelations are forbidden.
See WCF. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/westminster-confession-faith/
The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.(m) Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word:(n) and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.(o)
At the time of the Acts of the Apostles, revelation was still being given. Revelation is now closed. At the end of revelation to John on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation, it was finished. You are not an apostle. Neither am I. Apostolic succession is a doctrine of Rome, not the reformation.