Book Review - "Believing God" Chapter 7: Open Windows of Heaven: Malachi 3:10

This chapter was much better than the last in that it was coherent and flowed in the context of the subject matter. This would have been a good spot to insert the idea of the devil's "simultaneous translation" strategy that he discusses elsewhere. He describes this as the difference between what our eyes see on the pages of the Bible, even familiar, perhaps memorized passages, and its meaning that we tell ourselves in our minds. He says that by such "translation", we reduce the Word and strip it of its power. Is this the devil at work? Perhaps.

Oswald Chambers calls it "belief in our beliefs". Call it what you will, correct attribution is rather difficult and at best a guess. Is it the devil actively at work, sitting aside the Christian, or is it the Christian's deceitful heart of flesh? It really does not matter. Sufficient to realize is the fact that both are at work and both must be guarded against at all costs.

This chapter is a good example of that necessity for it more than any other so far in the book is at the forefront of the tele-Christian and radio-Christian kingdoms. For here Dr. Sproul introduces another group of people who can be most visciously assaulted by the wiles of the devil and the profit-seekers of the flesh. He says, "It may well be that the greatest effect of the propagation of this foolishness isn’t found among those who fall for it but among those who don’t fall for it. In other words, the heresy is most effective among those who don’t believe the heresy." He sums this effect as, "Because we don’t believe in the health-and-wealth gospel, we may find it all too easy to not believe the promises of God."

Who is this latter group of Christians? They are those who have not decided such matters at all. They are waiting for someone to tell them what to believe. Or perhaps they are waiting to gather sufficient evidence (Biblical or otherwise) to the side they prefer, thus tipping the scales sufficiently to their side to cause them to believe the "overwhelming" evidence. The great danger in all this is that this group in reality fails to believe and exercise themselves in the sufficient teaching of Holy Spirit.

Do you trust the teaching of the Holy Spirit within you to such a degree that the word of any other man is inconsequential? Do you believe I John 2:27 above all else? "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

To answer that question, examine these two others:

To whom do you go first for answers to your Bible questions?

To who do you go most often for these answers?

If you leave it to just Sunday with your pastors and teachers you are most in danger of the devil's "simultaneous translation" and believing your beliefs rather than the truth of the Word of God. Here Dr. Sproul inserts another gem of conviction. He writes, "Once more, through the diabolical ministrations of the Serpent, we come to texts like these and see them not as occasions for repentance but as an occasions for theological debate." Perhaps we get ourselves into this behavior because we read things like this about Paul:

Acts 19:8 - "And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God."

Acts 28:23 - "And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening."

But Paul was not arguing theology. He was persuading, expounding, testifying, and disputing. The centrality of his words was the Word. He spoke of the kingdom of God and things concerning Jesus out of the law of Moses and the prophets. The one thing that we must stop doing if we are to engage in such work is this:

No more discussion of our beliefs about our beliefs. No more of our words. The only Word with any effect at all is the Word of God. Our words must be few and seasoned heavily if not exclusively with His Words. When folks come to me to dispute (and I love a good discussion) I will immediately demand they argue solely from Scripture when after a few minutes I find their words void of such but instead full of themselves. We simply must not tolerate the disputation of our beliefs and our words. They are fruitless. Only God's Word bears the fruit of salvation and life.

The end of this chapter is a great and worthwhile read for here Dr. Sproul explains in detail another failing of the flesh as it does another deceitful job of planting a false belief in our minds. Spend time here meditating before God exactly what He means by "blessing" in Malachi 3:10. The blessing is not necessarily a 1:1 correspondence with the tithe (or in this case a one to many). The blessing can take on many facets and will only be recognized when we are right and One with God. Otherwise, our beliefs creep in again and we set ourselves up with false expectations of the kinds of blessings that God "owes" us. This is particularly dangerous in this age of entitlement. We really don't believe that God is sufficient. (II Corinthians 12:9, II Corinthians 3:5, Luke 14:28-33)

Believing God - Chapter 3 - Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing I John 1:9

Do you know what a Pelagian is? Neither did I until I read this chapter. However, I disagree with Mr. Sproul that we are ALL Pelagians. It is also difficult to identify myself with Augustine save in theological arguments. However, this book was not written as a theological argument, but rather is a text to help Christians to believe God. Therefore, our sole identification must always be drawn to Jesus Christ.

The conclusion drawn from the association to Pelagius is that we Christians are perfect and able to perfectly obey the commands of God. He says, "Pelagius thought otherwise, arguing that God could command, morally speaking, only that which we have the ability to do. He declared that God would be unjust if He commanded us to do
something we aren’t able to do. Based on this reasoning, Pelagius argued that
we have the capacity in ourselves to keep even God’s command that we must
be perfect, that we must obey the whole of His law. Pelagius denied the doctrine of original sin. He held that Adam’s sin affected Adam only, and that all men born after him have it in themselves to obey God perfectly. Pelagius’ view eventually was roundly condemned as heresy by the church, but he still continues to haunt us."

Again, I soundly disagree with this generalization. It may be true that some Christians suffer from this belief. Sproul's conclusion of the matter later on leads me to believe their is a better generalization applicable to Christians regarding their unbelief of Gods forgiveness and cleansing.

He got it half right when he described Pelagius' denial of the doctrine of original sin. Had he gone on to describe just what that sin is, and its effect in the lives of all mankind (including Christians), he would have concluded a better argument.

That SIN was described in Genesis 3:4-6, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

Eve willingly, freely choose to turn her back on the LORD God to herself, that she might be like god. Ever since, with that nature upon us, we all turn from God. Only He can turn us back. Only He, by the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, can save us from that SIN. Post salvation, the only reason we have any hope at all, any reason to believe that we are forgiven, cleansed, and free from sin is because God commands us to repent. We are able to repent. We are able to turn from that nature that tells us, "I am god", just as the Thessalonians were in I Thessalonians 1:9.

Because we still have the nature to turn to our own selves as god, we are not struggling with believing that we can earn God's favor. When a Christian allows that "dead man" of sin, his whole being is focused upon himself, seeking self-favor, self-satisfaction, self-glorification. The problem is, that "dead man" is indeed dead and cannot give what we want. But without repentence, we continue to struggle with ourselves for this gratification. Sproul skirts around this point but never comes out and says it. I think it is critical to understanding what he is saying. And what he is saying is very important.

We must indeed KNOW that we are forgiven, clean, and free. We must experience that freedom in Christ. When we reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive unto God through Christ Jesus, we must do more than simply give mental ascent to the fact. We must LIVE it experientially. Sproul says powerfully, "Even if we aren’t convinced that after conversion we ought to be able to keep the law, we do tend to diminish the reality of the sin that remains in our lives." This is the warning. Do NOT diminish that remainder of sin. It is just as powerful and deadly as always. It will kill you no matter how small you think it is. And listen to this:

Just when you think it is small enough for you to handle, realize that you have just turned again to yourself, your god, and the futile belief that you can forgive, cleanse, and set yourself free from this little thing.

The rest of the chapter provides many excellent Biblical examples of experience. Like these men and women, we know that there will be times when we turn from God and do not believe Him. When the Holy Spirit speaks and checks, listen to His Words. To obey, turn to God. Repent. Seize the moment of mental ascent and act in obedience by faith. Do the thing God says to do. Believe He can. Believe He gave you just the right amount of faith to believe and do the thing. Turn it to experience before your eyes. If you do not, your mind will always, always, always, deceive you to turn back to your own dead god.

God says at the end of the book of I John, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." This is the conclusion of the matter regarding I John 1:9. Stay away from your dead god. I find it most effective to allow the Holy Spirit to convict me not only of this ultimate deed, but also of those things that would draw me to it. "Lead us not into temptation...."