In this book, Professor Douglas Kelly persuasively argues for a literal interpretation of the six-day account of creation found in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. He assesses both the biblical details and the scientific data to show that there is a convincing and scientifically viable case for this understanding. This new edition, written twenty years after the original, contains important revisions and additional chapters, bringing this insightful and relevant volume up-to-date with developments in this field.

A precise, accurate rendering of the Westminster Shorter Catechism into modern English by a respected contemporary scholar.

moral persons who acted disobediently. Thus, the Christian need never hate his or her body, seek to flee the real world, or make a god of reality.

None of this was outside the eternal counsel of God, because even before the first sin occurred, Christ was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Therefore, we do not look to the mythical evolutionary process to improve our lot, or to take the world where it needs to go. We look to the eternal creator God in faith, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, for eternal pardon of our sin, for structure and meaning in our lives lived in a fallen creation, and for an eternity of bliss in "the new heavens and new earth" (2 Peter 3:13) that His return will consummate.

A God on whom we can rely; meaning and hope in life, and beyond; freedom from tyranny; a happy view of the body and of marriage; advance in true science and a plain reading of the Scriptures; the way to eternal pardon—all of these benefits flow from the doctrine of the Creator and His creation.

the end of the age, when after a brief uprising by Satan, the final judgment takes place (20:7–11). That means that the evil one is bound from deceiving the nations until just before the conclusion of salvation history.

Why, then, does Revelation use the expression a thousand years? In terms of biblical numbers, ten represents fullness, and a thousand is ten times ten times ten, hence fullness times fullness times fullness. It seems to equal a vast number of years without being a precise chronology of human history. Nowhere else does Scripture limit the binding of Satan and the success of the church's mission to a specific period of time before the end of the age. Moreover, there are other places in Scripture where the word thousand is used without being a literal number. In Psalm 50 this same number is employed in a different context, where it says that God owns "the cattle on a thousand hills" (v. 10). This could not mean that the only thing God owns in His creation is one thousand hills, for "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (24:1). It is an expression for fullness. It is the same in Psalm 68:17, where the chariots of God are said to be "twice ten thousand." It is highly unlikely that God has only twenty thousand active angels at his behest, for Christ on the cross could have called down twelve legions of angels (Matt. 26:53), which is far more than twenty thousand. The message in Psalms 50 and 68 is one of fullness, and it is the same in Revelation 20. One day, the fullness of the elect will be brought into the church, and then the end will come. It is not a matter of literally one thousand years, but of God's secret timing as to the gathering of His people into union with Christ, however long that may take from our human perspective.

Although the evil one still has limited power in a fallen world, it is far less than what he had when he was able to bind and blind all nations outside Israel. And believers can still overcome even Satan's limited power, for James 4:7 commands us, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Revelation 12:11 testifies of the embattled saints that "they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Hence, on the foundational truth of Satan's having been bound from blinding the nations, the church may daily pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10), and find comfort in God's assurance: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession" (Ps. 2:8).

some cases, open protest in not a few evangelical (and Reformed) congregations and denominations.

Many evangelicals, in order to avoid the clear teachings of these confessions (which are based on the supernatural claims of the Bible) and not offend the reigning relativism of our culture (which, at the end of the day, is anti-supernatural), employ a sort of "nominalistic" interpretation of the standards. A "nominalistic" interpretation means avoiding the plain teaching of these biblically based confessions by formally subscribing to them while employing clever and painful endeavors to make them say something else; something that will be less offensive to the secular culture.

One instance is how theistic evolutionists engage in a sort of "Jesuit casuistry" to force the first three chapters of Genesis to say precisely what they preclude—that there was sin before the fall of Adam and that life gradually developed by chance.

A great value of the Westminster Confession's teaching on creation, for example, is that in following it, we are not prey to changing paradigms of philosophical science (which is not the same thing as empirical or operational science, which, in my view, is fully compatible with the teachings of Genesis). Here the standards can help us greatly (if we abide in them realistically, rather than nominalistically evading their meaning): they plainly tell the church what the Bible has always said on creation rather than leading us on a wild goose chase of post-Enlightenment philosophies. They help the church to see that approaches such as theistic evolution come not from the Bible but from somewhere else, and need to be identified as such. Their valuable testimony helps us to continue to stand on a solid biblical foundation, which, though offensive to the secular world, is the place where we find intellectual coherence of truth in the context of Word and Spirit, which is life-giving and transformational for all of thought and culture.

of Holy Scripture and the catechisms of the church? That will do wonders to increase their ability to comprehend and concentrate in every area of truth. By returning to that and to the other biblical elements of worship and service, the church will always be ahead of the curve — a refuge for the fragmented and a mighty instrument of redemption and renewal as she moves in to inhabit the ground being vacated by the shaking down of things that can be changed by He who cannot be shaken nor changed.

have had a tendency “to live in the past” (as my wife remarked after she came into the family), so it seemed natural and easy for me to tell each child some kind of story from the huge treasury of family history. My parents, grandparents, and elderly cousins had done this to me from earliest memory, and never having moved, nor having had our houses and papers burned in the various American wars, the store of all kinds of personalities and events was so large that it kept me going from the time my children were three or four, until they reached their early teens, when that sort of work has reached its conclusion.

Every family has its own experiences, and these will usually be of interest to your offspring, simply because they perceive that we are part of our ancestors and our ancestors are part of us. It does not have to be anything grand or sublime, but just tell them about what your people were like: good and bad experiences, prayers that were answered, difficulties overcome, or weaknesses that need to be avoided. Tell them about marriages, births, deaths, wars, depressions, good and bad crop years, wonderful relatives and morose ones. Pass on sayings that have been handed down over the generations. Family lore can be used for a higher purpose: to convey in a very tender way the divine call in Proverbs: “My son, give me thy heart.”

I told them about an ancestor in 1790 who stepped on a log to cross a small Carolina stream and suddenly saw the eyes of a black panther glaring at him. He had a muzzle loader, dry powder, and one ball, and was swift and accurate enough to bring down the beast. I told each child that if the panther had killed this ancestor, none of us would be alive today (for all his children were born after that experience). I told them about another ancestor who was disciplined by the church for profanity, and about a grandmother who reported seeing Christ before she died in childbirth.

Is not story telling a way of calling our children to share in the long family heritage of Psalm 16:8? “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

say: “We do not really need to have the wedding ceremony today, since we both attended the rehearsal last night?” How many fathers-in-law would willingly pay for a rehearsal if they knew it were not to issue in a real wedding? (Yes, in some cases they would be better off to do so; but that is with the non-availability of foresight and the depressing uselessness — humanly speaking — of hindsight!) No doubt, rehearsals are necessary, but then the time comes to get on with the real thing! And to get on with the real thing, one must remove preliminary things. Hebrews 9:8 thus states clearly that “the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.”

The following verses (9:9–28) demonstrate that what the inspired author is talking about is the immediate access given to believers to the very throne of God through the finished sacrifice of Christ, something that was not available under the earlier tabernacle sacrifices.

We may summarize this glorious difference by thinking of that to which the earthly tabernacle/temple pointed and also to that which the animal sacrificial blood pointed. The pointers or parables are infinitely surpassed by the reality for which they stood; therein lies the fuller access to the heart of God. Hebrews 9:11 speaks of Christ, “the high priest of good things to come” having replaced the humanly constructed building (or “worldly sanctuary,” Heb. 9:1) with “a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands … .” Precisely what is this “tabernacle not made with hands”?

Jesus Christ was clearly speaking of Himself, when, at the beginning of His ministry, He said: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). And John showed that the

Incarnate Christ fulfilled all that the tabernacle had stood for: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us …” (John 1:14). He accomplished in His human nature, in closest personal union with His eternal deity, what only the God-man could accomplish, and what anything less could only point towards. He perfectly fulfilled the holy will of God for a life of sinless devotion and total obedience, and then paid the infinite penalty for sin against that law. In so doing, He reconciled us, body and soul, to God, and now gives us immediate access to the heart and eternal favor of the heavenly Father. To turn our backs on that for something considerably less would constitute a supreme disaster, one that we will not contemplate if we fix our eyes on Him.

probably give some money to someone suffering with a disease or to a newly released prisoner, but we would be less likely to invite him to live in our homes. But that is precisely what Jesus does; He says: “Come unto me.” And this almost unbelievable generosity of Jesus is exactly what the heavenly Father is like (John 14:9). Paul knew that rest, which brings us “Near to the heart of God,” as the old hymn says.

Such rest empowered Paul to encircle the known world of his time in never-ceasing proclamation of its benefits to all who would receive it. Thus, he says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Several verses in Hebrews chapter 4 speak of us “entering into” this greatest of all treasures: God’s rest (for example, vv. 1–10). Once we were whirling about on the gerbil wheel of life, never able to find true satisfaction, for the wicked [i.e., those who are self-centered rather than God centered] are “like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 57:20–21 KJV).

But, in the sheer loving kindness of God, somehow, somewhere we heard the Gospel message, and by faith “entered in.” The Holy Spirit invisibly and secretly, down in the deep places of our lives, created a vital “mixture” of responsive faith with the good news about Jesus dying and rising for us sinners, so that like oil and flour being mixed together to form a loaf of bread, a miraculous chemistry occurred in us. We were born again; we became a new creation; we entered into the eternal rest of God that God Himself secured for His people. Thus, in the midst of our earthly troubles, we constantly experience the peace of God that passes all understanding.

And this serene rest that belongs to those whose consciences are sprinkled in the blood of the One with whom the Father is well pleased (see Heb. 10:22) will expand (as Samuel Rutherford said) “to an ocean fullness in Immanuel’s Land.”

sons. He emphasizes Melchizedek’s superior standing to Aaron by anchoring Melchizedek’s ability to bless in terms of eternity rather than in terms of physical descent from previous priests. The order of Aaronic priests derived their true, but very limited, authority by being born of earlier priests and by passing on their functions to their sons and grandsons (Heb. 7:23).

Thus, they were severely limited in their representative capacities by time in two different ways. First, during their lives they could get into the Holy of Holies where they sprinkled blood on the mercy seat for their own sins and for the sins of the people only once per year. The animal blood they offered temporarily covered sin but did not remove it; only Christ’s blood could do that (Heb. 9:12–14). Therefore, their sacrifices had to be repeated over and over.

Second, their ministry was limited by their own physical deaths, at which time they were replaced by other priests. But the Puritan commentator John Owen once wrote to the effect that while the Aaronic priests died from being priests, Christ, after the order of Melchizedek, died as our priest, totally completing to highest perfection that shedding of blood that conveys eternal remission of sin (Heb. 9:22).

No genealogy is given for Melchizedek. His priesthood is unique in time; it depends not on ancestors but on God alone, and thus it represents eternal efficacy. Christ, being of the tribe of Judah (and not of Levi, the father of Aaron) is in the line of Melchizedek, the representative of eternal and constant blessing who operates “in the power of an endless life” rather than in the temporally limited, “carnal” descent of Aaron (Heb. 7:16). Because that endless life catches us up in union with Himself in highest glory (Eph. 2:6), sweet sister hope reminds us, along with the writer of Hebrews, every hour of every day, that we are “drawing near” to God (Heb. 7:19). And so this upward drawing of “the better hope” perfects that which justification by faith has inalterably established in those for whom Christ died.

royal heart is never stingy!

This generous God is well able to make it up to them! Hebrews 13:2 reminds us of Abraham, who once — in kindness to strangers — actually entertained angels “unawares.” And Jesus says that we in some real sense take Him in, when we do it “unto one of the least of these” (See Gen. 18 and Matt. 25:40). These passages of Scripture must be taken literally, and that means acting them out literally (rather than cleverly explaining them away) if a selfish world is to find our Gospel credible. Words are not enough; action is called for, if we are truly to demonstrate the royal character (see James 2:15–18).

Hebrews 13:3 takes our train past the prisons and refugee camps of a suffering world. The heart of God reflected in His servants must beat with compassion for our fellow humans who are locked-up in bad places. This speaks of tenderness in our deepest motivations as we contemplate those in dire need. J.B. Phillips translates this verse as, “Think of all who suffer as if you shared their pain.” At the very least, we can be praying for Christians (and for others) suffering in China and Sudan, and take whatever action we can to help them physically and politically. The royal heart “rejoices with those who rejoice, and weeps with those who weep.” It is impossible to be close to the now glorified “Man of Sorrows” and be unmoved at the desperate plight of so many across the world.

The honorable and uplifting state of marriage will be upheld by sharers of the royal Heart (Heb. 13:4). The current denigration of marriage in western society by legalizing abortion, pornography, and homosexuality is the very opposite of the royal character of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is a malign expression of the heart of Satan, who wishes to destroy all that is beautiful, and all that shows the intra-trinitarian love of God. Every good Christian marriage plays its own little part in exhibiting the divine holiness and goodness without which human society is sucked down into rot and devastation.

Submission to the legitimate authority of our church leaders is another aspect of the royal character that must be exhibited among the people of God. Insofar as — by the continually appropriated grace of God (v. 9) — we run our train down this royal track, the God of peace, who through the blood of His Son paid for our sins and raised Him to give us eternal life, will always be with us; so that for us to live, will be to show who He is (vv. 20–25).

(genetic and environmental) that they derived from unsaved families, they could never have become what they were made in the kingdom of God. Is it any wonder that Satan is so viciously attacking normal family life in our declining Western culture? It is a means of common grace, whence those who are chosen to saving grace are so often taken, and for that reason alone, the enemy of men’s souls hates it.

The broad stream of human culture has always been a means of non-saving grace that has benefited the saints and glorified the Lord. Saint Augustine spoke of using pagan culture similar to the way that the departing Israelites “spoiled the Egyptians.” Basil the Great, in an address called “The Advantage of Pagan Classics for Young Christians,” spoke of Moses benefiting from Egyptian learning and Daniel from Babylonian science (chap. 3). Saul of Tarsus was “graced” by the teaching of Rabbi Gamaliel, as John Murray has pointed out (Works, II, p. 115). It has been a two-way street: although the church has made possible viable law codes, science, technology, parliaments, universities, and hospitals, it could not have done so without considerable raw material from the broader culture.

Human government was ordained by God to prevent anarchy by punishing the wicked and praising the good (1 Peter 2:14). Thus, as believers we are to pray for the government (1 Tim. 2:1–2) and pay our taxes (Rom. 13:6–7) that we may live godly and honest lives. Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship in order to avoid an unnecessary flogging (Acts 23:24–29), and he appealed to the court of Caesar to avoid being torn apart by the Jerusalem Jews (Acts 25:11). Thus the Apostle to the Gentiles lived to preach more sermons, write more letters, and win many a soul to Christ. So, while legal systems cannot convey saving grace, they may well convey non-saving grace (not to be belittled in the advancement of the Gospel).

God’s Church is primarily focused on providing the means of saving grace to the elect. Yet it has always conveyed very gracious benefits even to those who will not be saved. Sir Winston Churchill is alleged to have said that the British Empire began collapsing when the pulpits no longer proclaimed the realities of heaven and hell. Where the Church is strong, crime is low and good manners prevail. These alone may not save the soul, but they are gracious benefits from God that keep life on earth from being hellish for all persons, and establish an atmosphere in which many find the Lord. Like other channels of common grace, they provide the context for many for entrance to that city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11: 10). And they show the human race something of who God really is (Matt. 5:45), and nothing could be more significant for all of His image-bearers.

of God’s own holiness! The Saviour stood, and in my stead He died, My soul to bless.

O love of God, O wondrous grace, That such an angry death of anguish sore Should pay my penalty and make me whole — O boundless store!_

As God’s dear children, we, who are by grace adopted, are called into the fellowship of suffering, soon enough to be followed by stupendous glory, with the only begotten Son. The suffering precedes the glory; the cross precedes the crown, both in the order of experience of the eternal Son of God and also in that of adopted sons and daughters of God. Similarly, 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 says: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Although Jesus’ death alone, received through faith, plus nothing else, saves us body, soul, and spirit, yet somehow the earthly suffering of believers in fellowship with their Lord helps make that salvation real to others. What Colossians 1:24 says about the apostle Paul is certainly true in its own way for every believer: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church.”

Beatings, stonings, accusations from false brethren, imprisonments, a “thorn in the flesh,” and shipwrecks broke open “the clay vessel” of the apostle’s life, so that the divine light of the risen Christ could shine out and be apprehended by lost men and women (see 2 Cor. 4:6 –12). With this goal in mind, Paul could finally say about all of his chastisement and sufferings: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me … for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).

John Calvin wisely said that progress in Christian experience involves three things: self-denial (we choose to take that step ourselves), cross-bearing (God’s wise providence puts this upon us), and meditation on the future life — to which Scripture constantly calls us (see Institutes book 3, chapters 6–10). If this was the divinely chosen way for Christ and for His Apostle to the Gentiles, how could we expect it not to be God’s way for all of us? By it, we are made “partakers of his holiness.” And that is something a cynical world needs to see more than anything else. The holiness of Christ worked down deep into His people through their identification with Him in His self-sacrificial suffering is a most mighty weapon to break hearts of stone!

is to be reversed.

So, the Levitical ritual, with its blood shedding of lambs and goats, and the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary to a certain degree proceed on similar principles in conformity with the loving and holy character of God, that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” We must note here that the shedding of blood for the gracious remission of sin — whether of animal substitutes or of the very Son of God — is a provision of the love of God, not a cause of His love. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son … .” Because of God’s love, He Himself provides the very sacrifice that His holy character requires for the sinner to be saved. In no sense does the sacrifice of blood cause God to love us. On the contrary, the love of God provides the sacrifice by means of which sinners can be forgiven and transformed to live once more in the divine love. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The author of Hebrews shows that animal blood did not get Christ into the heavenly Holy of Holies, where — upon the divine acceptance of the completed sacrifice of His own precious blood — the once crucified, now risen One has obtained eternal redemption for all His people (Heb. 9:12). He shows that animal sacrifices could not “perfect forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14); only the once- for-all offering of Christ could do that.

Why then “is it not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin?” (Heb. 10:4). Old Saint Anselm can help us here. As he pointed out in Cur Deus Homo (Why Did God Become Man?), since God is an infinite Person, sin against Him involves the sinner in infinite guilt. But no mere human (being finite) can purge away this infinite guilt. Two things would be required at the same time to do so. First, the sin must be paid for in the same nature where it was committed (human personality) — and thus, animal sacrifices are not sufficient. Second, the human person who purges that infinite guilt must be infinite Himself in order to have such limitless effects. And that is precisely who the Lord Jesus is: an infinite person — infinite God in true human person. Animal blood no doubt could temporarily cover sins, but only the blood of Jesus Christ could totally remove sins.

It is a sign of regeneration when we value what God values. Hebrews 9 and 10 show us that for this reason, the Christian heart will always magnify the blood of Christ.

Word. Or, this text says to those otherwise sophisticated Westerners who go to fortune tellers or rely on horoscopes: to do such is to seek a final word beyond Jesus, and that is as spiritually disastrous as what happened to apostate King Saul.

Why does God Almighty place such infinite and eternal weight upon our hearing His Last Word in His Son? Why is that concentrated hearing the divine remedy for our own weaknesses, our deliverance from trial and temptation, and the hidden spring of all our fruitfulness as His people? It is because the Lord Jesus Christ is the very best God has to offer! The Old Testament prophets were honored to look forward to Him (Heb. 1:1). As Luther once said, “Israel was the womb in which the Son of God was prepared.” Now, the enthroned Christ (after He has purged our sins with his own blood, sitting “at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Heb. 1:3) is the fullest fruit from the womb of truth. He is the fulfillment of every divine promise (2 Cor. 1:20). He is the fullest and final revelation of who the invisible God truly is, for John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (that is to say, Jesus “brought out” or “exegeted” in His own person exactly who God always is!) There is nothing beyond that — the final, divine Word, indeed!

H. R. MacKintosh of Edinburgh once said: “When I look into the face of Jesus Christ and see the face of God, I know that I have not seen that face elsewhere and could not see it elsewhere, for he and the Father are one … All creation in heaven and earth, all the divine ways of history, all time and eternity — they meet and converge in this one transcendent Figure.” Or, in other words, when, by the Holy Spirit’s help, we look at Christ as He is set before us in the Scriptures, we see the very heart of the Father! That, in a word, is eternal salvation (as Jesus Himself said in John 17:3). Therefore, all that really matters in getting us to the right place is hearing Him, seeing Him, contemplating Him.

In brief, he points out that our death is caused as a result of our sin against a holy God. The seriousness of sin is determined, he says, by the greatness of the person against whom one commits that sin. Since God is infinite, then sin against Him is infinite sin.

Although our superficial and frequently silly secular culture does not know it (and would resent being reminded of it if they did know it), this is the greatest — and in that sense — the only eternally weighty problem of the human race: sin against an infinitely holy and good God. For it means that we finite (limited) human personalities are guilty in our own selves of infinite sin! Finite persons (who, in addition to that limitation, are sinful) are in no position to get rid of infinite guilt! That is why hell is endless — for finite suffering could never adequately purge infinite guilt.

As a descendant of Adam and Eve, I need help, and so do you! Anyone who really loves you would tell you to get straight the only thing that finally matters for your never-ending destiny and for the glory of the One who made you!

But see how wonderful are the wisdom and love of our triune God, says Anselm! Since infinite guilt could only be taken away by an infinite person (for his sufferings are worthy enough and vast enough to more than purge the most infinite guilt), the Father in boundless mercy sends His eternal Son (who is an infinite person) to our rescue. Yet not only must the One who purges the guilt be an infinite Person, he must make restitution in the same nature where the sin was committed in order to redeem that very nature. And so God the Son becomes man in order to die as man — the infinite for the finite, the innocent for the guilty, the one for the many (cf. Heb. 2:14; 2 Cor. 5:21). And in so doing, the death of Christ became “the death of death” (to quote the grand Puritan theologian, John Owen). Thus, all that is left for believers in the Lord, is His own resurrection life in place of their death. What happy freedom they now have from the fear of death, which all their lifetime kept them in bondage (Heb. 2:15). Angels and men must praise Him forever for that (Rev. 5:12–14)!

so, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high in order to apply His work to the end of time.

The essence of this better, or new, covenant is that, in and through it, the Lord Jesus brings us into the immediate presence of God and always keeps us there! Those chosen to be in the new covenant can never fail to abide in it because Christ their Mediator abides on the eternal throne, and He keeps them securely in intimate and lasting union with Himself.

On the basis of His finished work, the sins of His people are remembered no more (Heb. 8:12). The One who died for His people sends down His Holy Spirit to apply all that He accomplished within their hearts. Hebrews 8 (following Jeremiah 31) shows that what God does, as one commentator says, is to convert the external law into an inner life. If that is what the tiresome, popular expression “get a life” meant, then I might be willing to begin using it!

Jesus sees this miracle of inward change as the new birth (John 3:3, 5); Paul calls it “the new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Hebrews 8:10–11 indicates that God Himself so changes our innermost motivations and renews the very well-springs of our personality that now we truly delight in His will, and we wish to carry out the principles of His moral law. Jesus says that love to God and man is the fulfillment of the Law (Mark 12:28–31), and that in His chosen time, He sends down His Spirit upon His chosen ones to spread abroad in their hearts the love of God (Rom. 5:5). It is a divinely imparted love that makes all who receive it profoundly wish to obey Him (John 14:15), for that is who they really are now.

Thus, the true Mediator in the true sanctuary keeps our hearts united to Him in this new covenant relationship by which, for time and eternity, He is our God and we are His people. This is the basis of the church’s life and mission on earth, and all its joy in heaven! “Near, so very near to God, more near I cannot be, for in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.”

“became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” by living his life on the foundation of things not seen.

Abraham was called from the familiar comforts of home to follow God to a country he had never seen, and “he went out, not knowing whither he went.” He deemed the promises of God to be more important than his own limited human experience. But his faith in the goodness and eternal trustworthiness of the promises of the invisible God was never more evident than when the Lord called on him to sacrifice Isaac, his long-awaited and beloved son of divine promise. Hebrews 11 tells us something that we do not find in the Genesis text about Abraham’s heart as he prepared to offer up Isaac on the altar. Abraham had faith in the resurrection (v. 19). No doubt, Abraham’s son was spared because in the fullness of time “God spared not his own Son” (Rom. 8:32). Faith in the God we do not see, even when it seems to take us through the breaking of every precious dream (that we do see), ultimately brings us through to resurrection glory (whether figuratively now, or literally hereafter). Then the best dreams really are fulfilled with exquisite pleasure in fellowship with God’s beloved Son!

Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph pronounced their last blessings upon their families in light of a glorious future they could not then see, but they knew it was real, and worth losing everything else for, because God was preparing it for those who trust in Him (see John 14:1–4).

By faith, Moses, Pharaoh’s adopted son and presumed heir to the world’s greatest throne, gave it all up in order to lead the suffering people of God out of slavery, simply because “he endured as seeing him who is invisible” (v. 27). The prostitute Rahab had enough faith in the unseen God of Israel to disdain the thick walls of Jericho and risk everything for Him. Hence, she became the ancestress of King David and of King Jesus!

The judges, prophets, and holy martyrs — without human weapons, and often against all worldly wisdom and even natural laws — “subdued kingdoms” and “obtained promises” (v. 33). It was because they were in touch — through faith —with the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth, who is also in Christ the covenant Redeemer and “Captain of Salvation” for all who believe in Him. He has chosen to put forth His infinite power into this world through even the weak faith of very lowly persons, who nevertheless will “lift up their eyes unto the hills from whence cometh their help” (Ps. 121:1). The look of faith constitutes the only grounds of meaning in earthly life and eternal joy in the halls of heaven. With it, all is gained; without it, all is lost.

for His lasting kingdom of grace. This principle of “shaking down those things that can be shaken in order to make room for that which cannot be shaken” did not cease to operate in the year A.D. 70. Was it not at work when Rome itself came down in the fifth century? Was it not at work when the political power of Roman Catholicism was, to a considerable degree, broken through the revival that constituted the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century? When Rome was shaken down, the Christian church had room to spread the Gospel to all of Europe, thus establishing something that “cannot be shaken.” When Roman Catholicism had much of its political power shaken down, the Reformation, with its teaching of salvation by the grace of God through faith alone, had room to spread throughout much of northwestern Europe; thence it spread into the new world of America, and later on into every continent of the world (to varying degrees).

The point is this: to have stood with the Gospel of Christ in hard times (whether under late, unbelieving Judaism, the persecuting Roman Empire, or the Spanish Inquisition much later) insured ultimate victory over the most impressive political, military, and cultural powers. Such powers (and there are legions of them with different faces in every generation) are granted temporary ability to hound the people of God — sometimes all the way to death. But their time and power are divinely limited.

As part of the mysterious process of shaping His people into the image of Christ, God lets evil powers test and hurt them to a divinely limited degree (see Rom. 8:28–39). Then the evil powers will be broken to make room for the very church they hated and persecuted, so that the saving Gospel may spread yet more widely, thus building up that kingdom, which can never be shaken, over the rubble of sinful, temporal powers that must be shaken down in due season.

Hebrews 12 shows us that it could be different. Those who look in obedient faith to the Mediator of the new covenant in hard times and good, and those who take their cross to self in order to follow Him and bless others, are the forerunners of a brighter, holier, and happier day. For the sake of Christ, they have given up what they cannot keep in order to gain what they cannot lose (to paraphrase Philip Henry). May God grant us the grace to be in their number!

the secret counsel of God as though we could discern what lies ahead. Our place is to be constantly at the mercy seat, pleading His promises. That will be our ordained part in shaping the future, for “ ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law’ ” (Deut. 29:29).

rocky ground, received the word with joy, grew rapidly, but soon dried up because it had no roots (Matt. 13:5–6, 20–21).

As the Holy Spirit ministers in the life of the church, the seeds of truth are spread everywhere. Even unbelievers are profoundly influenced as the Spirit ministers to His people. The Spirit ministers in answer to prayer (Luke 11:13), He ministers in worship, and He ministers in Word and Sacrament. In His work among the sheep, His power is felt by all — even by those who are not sheep but goats.

People who are never born-again by the Holy Spirit can be touched by His tender and mighty power in such a way that causes them to break down and weep. People who never submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord are able to feel the anointed preaching of the eternal Gospel of God. Thus, they have really been enlightened; they have tasted of the powers of the world to come and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, as wonderful as such impressions are, some are never born-again. The feelings and impressions get no deeper than seed on stony ground. There will be superficial growth for a time, and many will express joy that comes as a result of being around the ministry of the Spirit. But, as a seed without roots dries up, the professing faith of the unregenerate vanishes.

It would take a greater mind than my own to comprehend pastorally and psychologically how people can have such spiritual impressions and not believe. Indeed, I have grieved to see it more than once. But as tragic as it is to see, the experiences listed in Hebrews 6 in no way constitute an argument against the perseverance of the saints. Rather, it shows how high some can go in terms of spiritual experiences, without going all the way to a saving knowledge of God in Christ.

What must we say to those who have strayed? It is the same thing that the author of Hebrews says to us: If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firmly unto the end, we can rest assured that we are the house of Christ (Heb. 3:6). If those who have strayed humble themselves in prayer and repentance, they will find a throne of grace and a seat of mercy (Heb. 4:15–16).

The December 2013 issue of Tabletalk examines the biblical doctrine of the millennium. Chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation has been the source of controversy for almost two thousand years. The interpretation of this chapter, the only place in the Bible that speaks explicitly of a thousand-year reign of Christ, is made particularly difficult because it is found within a book that is filled with imagery, symbolism, and allusions to Old Testament apocalyptic texts. Well-meaning Christians, therefore, have interpreted the millennium of Revelation 20 in a number of different ways. This issue of Tabletalk will seek to explain the main views of the millennium as well as assist readers in understanding some of the details of the prophecy in Revelation 20.Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Keith Mathison, Cornelis Venema, Douglas Kelly, Dennis Johnson, Eric Watkins, R.C. Sproul Jr, J.D. Bridges, Mark Jones, Al Mohler, and Ed Stetzer.Subscribe or renew your subscription

The April 2010 issue of Tabletalk looks at how the rapidity of change in our culture has affected many of its institutions, for good and ill. Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Scott Anderson, Walter Chantry, Andrew Davis, Douglas Kelly, John Muether, Robert Strimple, and Carl Trueman. Tabletalk features articles about topics central to the Christian faith and daily, in-depth Bible studies with featured columns by contributors such as John Sartelle.The 2010 Bible studies engage in a thematic and biblical-theological study of the Old Testament, looking at various characters, events, practices, and other elements of old covenant religion that are fulfilled in the new covenant.Subscribe or Renew your subscription