J. Gresham Machen (1881 – 1937), on Sin’s Wages and God’s Gift, told the story of a big businessman who shared with a pastor a criticism of the church:
“You preachers,” the outsider said, “don’t preach hell enough.”
Usually the criticism which is leveled at the church by men who know nothing about it is as valueless as ignorant criticism is in other spheres. But in this case I am inclined to think that the critic was right. We preachers do not preach hell enough, and we do not say enough about sin. We talk about the gospel and wonder why people are not interested in what we say. Of course they are not interested. No man is interested in a piece of good news unless he has the consciousness of needing it; no man is interested in an offer of salvation unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be saved. It is quite useless to ask a man to adopt the Christian view of the gospel unless he first has the Christian view of sin.
***
“The wages of sin,” says the Bible, “is death” (Romans 6:23). I shall not pause just now to consider in detail what Paul means by “death” — except just to point out this interesting fact that if you want to find the most terrible descriptions of this eternal death you will find them not in Paul but in Jesus. It is the custom nowadays to appeal from the supposedly gloomy theology of Paul to the supposedly sunny philosophy of Jesus; but the strange things is that it is Jesus, not Paul, who speaks of the outer darkness and the everlasting fire and of the sin that shall not be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come.
***
The teaching of Jesus has at the very center of it the fear of God and the fear of hell.
I could preach with great personal delight [about heaven]; but here is a dreary task to my soul, because there are gloomy words here. But, as I have told you, what is written in the Bible must be preached, whether it be gloomy or cheerful. There are some ministers who never mention anything about hell. I heard of a minister who once said to his congregation, “If you don’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be sent to that place which it is not polite to mention.” He should not have been allowed to preach again since he could not use plain words. Now, if I saw that house on fire over there, do you think I would stand and say, “I believe the operation of combustion is taking place over there?” No; I would call out, “Fire! fire!” and then everybody would know what I meant.
– Charles Spurgeon
Taken from the sermon, Heaven and Hell, by C. H. Spurgeon
In his March 7, 2010 Wall Street Journal column, “Beginning With the Word”, Stephen Miller reviews Robert Alter’s book, Pen of Iron – American Prose and the King James Bible. Miller’s article carries this subtitle: “How the cadences and diction of the King James Bible affected the prose style of American writers.”
The review is exactly that. In the last paragraph, however, Mr. Miller makes a couple of interesting comments. He asks:
Will 21st-century American novelists be influenced by the King James Bible — or any other version? Mr. Alter notes that “the Pilgrims, and their descendants for many generations, were Bible-steeped, Bible-quoting folk,” but the popularity of the Bible waned by the end of the nineteenth century. Though of course it looms large in the lives of church-going Americans, “we no longer have a culture pervaded by Scripture, where … the active memories of ordinary people are stocked with many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of phrases and verses from the canonical texts.” It looks as if, to keep this classic work of English prose alive, it will have to be read in school.
Some points to consider:
- While the King James Version of the Bible is a “classic work of English prose” it is more importantly the Word of God. I’m not a KJV-only advocate — I use the English Standard Version — but I do consider the KJV a viable translation of the Scriptures.
- Mr. Miller says the Bible “looms large in the lives of church-going Americans…” Does it?
- The article addresses the KJV’s effect on novelists and thus its potential effects on the larger American culture. While Christians should recognize and appreciate the KJV was the main tranlsation available for many years, the ultimate goal now is not to keep the KJV “alive.” Instead, Christians should 1) read, preach, memorize, meditate on, and live on the Word of God in whatever viable translations until the Lord returns; 2) believe and love the life-giving centrality of the Word of God (Psalm 119); and 3) understand the historical significance of such beliefs — the Scriptures alone [Sola Scriptura, one of the five pillars of the Reformation] are the only rule of faith and practice.
- Keeping the KJV alive for the sake of classic prose and novelists probably means that it would have to be read in schools, yes (and maybe this is a unique means of getting people to read it and getting the gospel proclaimed). Christians, however, should be bold in their love for the Word of God and Bible-saturated in every aspect of life: it is the eternal, life-giving Word of the sovereign God!
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.
Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.
I am thine, save me: for I have sought thy precepts.
Ps. 119:89 – 94 KJV
In contemplating the justice of God, Jonathan Edwards helps us determine if we are sensible of sin and whether we consider ourselves guilty of it. This is only a portion of his discourse. It’s a long and devastating and worthy contemplation…
Consider what you are, what light you have had, and what means you have lived under: and yet how you have behaved yourself! What have those many days and nights you have lived been filled up with? How have those years that have rolled over your heads, one after another, been spent? What has the sun shone upon you for, from day to day, while you have improved his light to serve Satan by it? What has God kept your breath in your nostrils for, and given you meat and drink, that you have spent your life and strength, supported by them, in opposing God, and rebellion against him?
How many sorts of wickedness have you not been guilty of! How manifold have been the abominations of your life! What profaneness and contempt of God has been exercised by you! How little regard have you had to the Scriptures, to the word preached, to sabbaths, and sacraments! How profanely have you talked, many of you, about those things that are holy! After what manner have many of you kept God’s holy day, not regarding the holiness of the time, not caring what you thought of in it! Yea, you have not only spent the time in worldly, vain, and unprofitable thoughts, but in immoral thoughts; pleasing yourself with the reflection on past acts of wickedness, and in contriving new acts. Have not you spent much holy time in gratifying your lusts in your imaginations; yea, not only holy time, but the very time of God’s public worship, when you have appeared in God’s more immediate presence? How have you not only attended to the worship, but have in the mean time been feasting your lusts, and wallowing yourself in abominable uncleanness! How many sabbaths have you spent, one after another, in a most wretched manner! Some of you not only in worldly and wicked thoughts, but also a very wicked outward behavior! When you on sabbath-days have got along with your wicked companions, how has holy time been treated among you! What kind of conversation has there been! Yea, how have some of you, by a very indecent carriage, openly dishonored and cast contempt on the sacred services of God’s house, and holy day! And what you have done some of you alone, what wicked practices there have been in secret, even in holy time, God and your own consciences know.
And how have you behaved yourself in the time of family prayer! And what a trade have many of you made of absenting yourselves from the worship of the families you belong to, for the sake of vain company! And how have you continued in the neglect of secret prayer! Therein wilfully living in a known sin, going abreast against as plain a command as any in the Bible! Have you not been one that has cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God?
What wicked carriage have some of you been guilty of towards your parents! How far have you been from paying that honour to them which God has required! Have you not even harboured ill-will and malice towards them? And when they have displeased you, have wished evil to them? yea, and shown your vile spirit in your behavior? and it is well if you have not mocked them behind their backs; and, like the cursed Ham and Canaan, as it were, derided your parents’ nakedness instead of covering it, and hiding your eyes from it. Have not some of you often disobeyed your parents, yea, and refused to be subject to them? Is it not a wonder of mercy and forbearance, that the proverb has not before now been accomplished on you, Proverbs 30:17. “The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”
What revenge and malice have you been guilty of towards your neighbors! How have you indulged this spirit of the devil, hating others, and wishing evil to them, rejoicing when evil befell them, and grieving at others’ prosperity, and lived in such a way for a long time! Have not some of you allowed a passionate furious spirit, and behaved yourselves in your anger more like wild beasts than like Christians?
What covetousness has been in many of you! Such has been your inordinate love of the world, and care about the things of it, that it has taken up your heart; you have allowed no room for God and religion; you have minded the world more than your eternal salvation. For the vanities of the world you have neglected reading, praying and meditation; for the things of the world, you have broken the sabbath: for the world you have spent a great deal of your time in quarreling. For the world you have envied and hated your neighbor; for the world you have cast God, and Christ, and heaven, behind your back; for the world you have sold your own soul. You have as it were drowned your soul in worldly cares and desires; you have been a mere earth-worm, that is never in its element but when grovelling and buried in the earth.
How much of a spirit of pride has appeared in you, which is in a peculiar manner the spirit and condemnation of the devil! How have some of you vaunted yourselves in your apparel! others in their riches! others in their knowledge and abilities! How has it galled you to see others above you! How much has it gone against the grain for you to give others their due honour! And how have you shown your pride by setting up your wills and in opposing others, and stirring up and promoting division, and a party spirit in public affairs.
How sensual have you been! Are there not some here that have debased themselves below the dignity of human nature, by wallowing in sensual filthiness, as swine in the mire, or as filthy vermin feeding with delight on rotten carrion? What intemperance have some of you been guilty of! How much of your precious time have you spent at the tavern, and in drinking companies, when you ought to have been at home seeking God and your salvation in your families and closets!
And what abominable lasciviousness have some of you been guilty of! How have you indulged yourself from day to day, and from night to night, in all manner of unclean imaginations! Has not your soul been filled with them, till it has become a hold of foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird? What foul-mouthed persons have some of you been, often in lewd and lascivious talk and unclean songs, wherein were things not fit to be spoken! And such company, where such conversation has been carried on, has been your delight. And with what unclean acts and practices have you defiled yourself! God and your own consciences know what abominable lasciviousness you have practised in things not fit to be named, when you have been alone; when you ought to have been reading, or meditating, or on your knees before God in secret prayer. And how have you corrupted others, as well as polluted yourselves! What vile uncleanness have you practised in company! What abominations have you been guilty of in the dark! Such as the apostle doubtless had respect to in Ephesians 5:12. “For it is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret.” Some of you have corrupted others, and done what in you lay to undo their souls, (if you have not actually done it;) and by your vile practices and example have made room for Satan, invited his presence, and established his interest, in the town where you have lived.
What lying have some of you been guilty of, especially in your childhood! And have not your heart and lips often disagreed since you came to riper years? What fraud, and deceit, and unfaithfulness, have many of you practised in your own dealings with your neighbours, of which your own heart is conscious, if you have not been noted by others.
And how have some of you behaved yourselves in your family relations! How have you neglected your children’s souls! And not only so, but have corrupted their minds by your bad examples; and instead of training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, have rather brought them up in the devil’s service!
How have some of you attended that sacred ordinance of the Lord’s supper without any manner of serious preparation, and in a careless slighty frame of spirits, and chiefly to comply with custom! Have you not ventured to put the sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ into your mouth, while at the same time you lived in ways of known sins, and intended no other than still to go on in the same wicked practices? And, it may be, have sat at the Lord’s table with rancour in your heart against some of your brethren that you have sat there with. You have come even to that holy feast of love among God’s children, with the leaven of malice and envy in your heart; and so have eaten and drank judgment to yourself.
What stupidity and sottishness has attended your course of wickedness: which has appeared in your obstinacy under awakening dispensations of God’s word and providence. And how have some of you backslidden after you have set out in religion, and quenched God’s Spirit after he had been striving with you! And what unsteadiness, and slothfulness, and long misimprovement of God’s strivings with you, have you been chargeable with!
Now, can you think when you have thus behaved yourself, that God is obliged to show you mercy? Are you not after all this ashamed to talk of its being hard with God to cast you off? Does it become one who has lived such a life to open his mouth to excuse himself, to object against God’s justice in his condemnation, or to complain of it as hard in God not to give him converting and pardoning grace, and make him his child, and bestow on him eternal life? Or to talk of his duties and great pains in religion, as if such performances were worthy to be accepted, and to draw God’s heart to such a creature? If this has been your manner, does it not show how little you have considered yourself, and how little a sense you have had of your own sinfulness?
– Taken from Jonathan Edwards, The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners
Doesn’t Christ’s atonement for sin and righteous life seem all the more precious now?
Outline of an essay on Christian parenting by Gardiner Spring (1785—1873):
I. ESSENTIAL TRUTHS TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN
- Subjection to Authority
- Sacred Regard for Truthfulness
- Industrious Habits
- Temperance
- Selection of Friends
- Proper Estimation of the World and Its Culture
- A Generous Spirit
II. MEASURES TO TAKE IN TEACHING OUR CHILDREN
- Set an Example
- Provide Vigorous Instruction
- Gain Their Confidence
- Train Your Children to Be Under Authority
III. COURAGE! TAKE COURAGE!
- Do Not Get Weary in Well Doing
- Be a Correctable Parent
- Children, Consider Your High Obligations
Note: Gardiner Spring writes to Christian parents, those who believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Non-Christian parents may appreciate some of this material, borrow the moral principles, and even experience some benefit to themselves and their children, but not well and not in any sense that is ultimately of any spiritual good.
In his March 4, 2010 column, “How to Ruin a Child,” George Will opines that that current efforts to bolster self esteem in children are wrong-headed and that a stream of constant praise from parents actually teaches children to put forth no effort, whether in school or play. He suggests driver’s education programs as premature for most teens and typical early-start school days as detrimental to thinking.
On the praise of children, Will says:
…the theory that praise, self-esteem and accomplishment increase in tandem is false. Children incessantly praised for their intelligence (often by parents who are really praising themselves) often underrate the importance of effort. Children who open their lunchboxes and find mothers’ handwritten notes telling them how amazingly bright they are tend to falter when they encounter academic difficulties. Also … overpraised children are prone to cheating because they have not developed strategies for coping with failure.
On the surface, these are excellent points and worthy for all parents to consider. He closes the article with this:
…perhaps the soundest advice for parents is: Lighten up. People have been raising children for approximately as long as there have been people. Only recently — about five minutes ago, relative to the long-running human comedy — have parents been driving themselves to distraction by taking too seriously the idea that “as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” Twigs are not limitlessly bendable; trees will be what they will be.
Aside from Will’s nod to an evolutionary time frame and his seemingly important goals of higher IQs and lower body weights and better drivers and such, I mostly agree with some of the problems he identifies. I don’t, however, agree that the best overall advice to parents is to “lighten up.” Further, while the problems noted in his article are indeed problems, I would hesitate to say that they would “ruin” a child. (Side note: Will’s final sentence seems to suggest that it doesn’t matter what parents do.) What ultimately ruins any child, or any person, for that matter, is if they rebel against the command of God to repent and then die in their sins. Moreover, there is a right kind of self-esteem to be discovered in a life of gospel holiness and obedience.
Read the words of John Angell James [author of A Christian Father's Present to His Children] in 1825 as he, as a Christian parent, pleads with his children:
Almost every parent has some one object, which he desires, above all others, on behalf of his children. Some are anxious that their offspring may shine as warriors; others, that theirs may be surrounded with the milder radiance of literary, scientific, and commercial fame. Our supreme ambition for you is, that whatever situation you occupy, you may adorn it with the beauties of holiness, and discharge its duties under the influence of Christian principles. Much as we desire your respectability in life (and we will not conceal our hope that you will occupy no base place in society), yet we would rather see you in the most obscure, and even menial situation, provided you were partakers of true piety, than behold you on the loftiest pinnacle of the temple of fame, the objects of universal admiration — if, at the same time, your hearts were destitute of the fear of God. We might, indeed, in the latter case, be tempted to watch your ascending progress, and hear the plaudits with which your elevation was followed, with something of a parent’s vanity; but, when we retired from the dazzling scene to the seat of serious reflection, the spell would be instantly broken, and we would sorrowfully exclaim — “Alas my son, what is all this, in the absence of true religion — but soaring high, to have the greater fall!”
Why does Angell desire his children’s holiness?
1. It will make him, as a parent, happy.
…our piety is the only thing that will make us rejoice that we are your parents. How can we endure to see our children choosing any other ways than those of wisdom — and any other path than that of life? How could we bear the sight, to behold you traveling along the broad road which leads to destruction, and running with the multitude to do evil? “O God, hide us from this sad spectacle, in the grave, and before that time comes, take us to our rest.”
2. It will be good for the church and the cause of Christ.
…The moral condition of the world is too bad for description. If it be ever improved — it must be done by Christians. True piety is the only real reformer of mankind.
Most importantly, however…
3. It will make you, the child, happy. That’s right — it’s the ultimate and best kind of self-esteem.
…true godliness will save you from much present danger and trouble, promote your temporal interests, prepare you for the darkest scenes of adversity, comfort you on a dying bed, and finally conduct you to everlasting glory. The lack of true piety ensure the reverse of all this. Sooner or later such a destitution will bring misery on earth, and be followed with eternal torments in hell.
Dying in one’s sins and going to hell is a much better understanding of “ruin.” As such, parents should not “lighten up” at all in terms of their child’s eternal destiny; rather, they should bring the light of the Word of God to bear on their children — keeping their need for the gospel of Jesus Christ at the forefront of their lives. At that point, the ultimate self-esteem is esteem for the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry:
The words associated with Hell
Gehenna
In the OT the word for hell is ‘ge-hinnom’, meaning “Valley of Hinnom.” It was a place to the southwest of Jerusalem. This place was once “called ‘Topheth’ and derived from an Aramaic word meaning ‘fireplace.’ It was here that some pagan kings practiced human sacrifice by fire (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 32:35).1 This is probably why in the NT the word came to be associated with destruction by fire. The word ‘gehenna’ is found in the NT 12 times and every instance is spoken of by Jesus. In the NT, “gehenna” is used of a condition and never of a place.Hades
This word only occurs in the NT, ten times, and corresponds to the OT word “sheol.” Jesus uses the word four times: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23. The other six occur in Acts 2:27,31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13,14.It was probably the “subterranean abode of all the dead until the judgment. It was divided into two departments, paradise or Abraham’s bosom for the good, and Gehenna or hell for the bad.”2 In particular, in the account of Lazarus and the Rich man of (Luke 16:19-31), it is the place of the conscious dead who are wicked.
Sheol
“The Hebrew word Sheol is probably derived from a root “to make hollow,” and was seen as the common receptacle of the dead and in the great many places the word appears in the OT, it is referring to the grave.3 It is a place and is mentioned in Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30,33; Psalm 16:10, etc. Sheol has many meanings in scripture: the grave, the underworld, the state of the dead. It was supposed to be below the surface of the earth (Ezek. 31:15,17; Psalm 86:13).
- Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.
- 2. Unger, Merrill F., Unger’s Bible Dictionary, (Chicago: Moody Press), 1966, p. 437.
- 3. Vine, W. E., Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell), 1981.
Dr. Al Mohler recently blogged on the threat to parental rights in the case of a homeschooling family. You should read the whole story (link below). In the context of this story, he makes an important point about parental rights. He says:
Christians must recognize and contend for the right of parents to determine the education of their own children. Otherwise, we subvert both parental authority and parental responsibility. The Romeikes [the family who is the subject of the matter] are determined to educate their children according to their Christian convictions, and to do so through homeschooling. Not all Christian parents will make the same choice, but all Christian parents do share the same responsibility to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. On this ground, all Christians should contend for the right to make the decision the Romeikes made. Otherwise, we quietly accept conditions for the forced indoctrination of our own children.
Read Dr. Mohler’s blog post, “Where Homeschooling is Outlawed — Asylum?” in its entirety.
The matter of parental rights is not about which mode of education parents might choose for their children. Rather, it is about the right and responsibility of parents to make these and a hundred other decisions for the sake of their children.
Check out ParentalRights.org for information on a proposed constitutional amendment to address this matter. Join up if you agree.
Amanda Rose — member of Five Points Community Church where I serve as an elder — was in Chile when the earthquake hit, very close to the epicenter. Listen to her tell the story to WJR 760 AM radio host Frank Beckmann.
We thank God for protecting her!
- If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
- — C. S. Lewis
