IDOLATRY CONDEMNED

Charles Spurgeon on Revelation 1:17

2012-02-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

—Revelation 1:17-18

John writes, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead."

The beloved disciple was favored with an unusual vision of his glorified Lord. In the blaze of that revelation even his eagle eye was dimmed and his holy soul was overwhelmed. He was overpowered, but not with ecstacy. At first sight it would have seemed certain that excess of delight would have been John's most prominent feeling; it would appear certain that to see his long lost Master, whom he had so dearly loved, would have caused a rush of joy to John's soul, and that if overpowered at all, it would have been with ecstatic bliss. That it was not so is clear from the fact that our Lord said to him, "Fear not." Fear was far more in the ascendant than holy joy. I will not say that John was unhappy, but, certainly, it was not delight which prostrated him at the Savior's feet; and I gather from this that if we, in our present embodied state, were favored with an unveiled vision of Christ, it would not make a heaven for us; we may think it would, but we know not what spirit we are of. Such new wine, if put into these old bottles, would cause them to burst. Not heaven but deadly faintness would be the result of the beatific vision, if granted to these earthly eyes. We should not say, if we could behold the King in his beauty as we now are, "I gazed upon him, and my heart leaped for joy," but like John we should have to confess, "When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead." There is a time for everything, and this period of our sojourn in flesh and blood is not the season for seeing the Redeemer face to face: that vision will be ours when we are fully prepared for it. We are as yet too feeble to bear the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I do not say but what we are so prepared by his grace that, if now he took us away from this body, we should be able to bear the splendor of his face; but, I do say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and that when, as an exception to the rule, a mortal man is permitted to behold his Lord, his flesh and blood are made to feel the sentence of death within themselves, and to fall as if slain by the revelation of the Lord. We ought, therefore, to thank God that "he holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it." That face which shines as the sun in its strength, manifests its love by wearing as yet a concealing veil. Be grateful, that while you are to be here to serve him, and to do his will in suffering for him, he does not deprive you of your power to serve or suffer, by overwhelming you with excessive revelations. It is an instance of the glory of God's grace that he conceals his majesty from his people, and wraps clouds and darkness round about him; this he does not to deny his saints a bliss which they might covet, but to preserve them from an unseasonable joy, which, as yet, they are not capable of bearing. We shall see him as he is, when we shall be like him, but not till then. That for a while we may be able to perform the duties of this mortal life, and not lie perpetually stretched like dead men at his feet, he doth not manifest himself to us in the clear light which shone upon the seer of Patmos.

I beg you to notice with care this beloved disciple in his fainting fit, and note first, the occasion of it. He says, "I saw him." This it was that made him faint with fear. "I saw HIM." He had seen him on earth, but not in his full glory as the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. When our Savior dwelt among men, in order to their redemption, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant; for this reason he restrained the flashings of his Deity, and the godhead shone through the manhood with occasional and softened rays. But now, Jesus was resplendent as the ancient of days, girt with a golden girdle, with a countenance outshining the sun in its strength, and this even the best beloved apostle could not endure. He could gaze with dauntless eye upon the throne of jasper and the rainbow of emerald, he could view with rapture the sea of glass like unto crystal, and the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, but the vision of the Lord himself was too much for him. He who quailed not when the doors of both heaven and hell were opened to him in vision, yet fell lifeless when he saw the Lord. None either in earth or heaven can compare with Jesus in glory. Oh for the day when we shall gaze upon his glory and partake in it. Such is his sacred will concerning us. "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." To bear that sight we shall need to be purified and strengthened. God himself must enlarge and strengthen our faculties, for as yet, like the disciples upon labor, we should be bewildered by the brightness.

Here was the occasion of his faintness. But what was the reason why a sight of Christ so overcame Him? I take it we have the reason in the text, it was partly fear. But, why fear? Was not John beloved of the Lord Jesus? Did he not also know the Savior's love to him? Yes, but for all that, he was afraid, or else the Master would not have said to him, "Fear not." That fear originated partly in a sense of his own weakness and insignificance in the presence of the divine strength and greatness. How shall an insect live in the furnace of the sun? How can mortal eye behold unquenched the light of Deity, or mortal ear hear that voice which is as many waters? We are such infirmity, folly and nothingness, that, if we have but a glimpse of omnipotence, awe and reverence prostrate us to the earth. Daniel tells us that when he saw the great vision by the river Hiddekel, there remained no strength in him, for his comeliness was turned in on him into corruption, and he fell into a deep sleep upon his face. John, also, at that time, perhaps, perceived more impressively than ever the purity and immaculate boldness of Christ: and, being conscious of his own imperfection, he felt like Isaiah when he cried "Woe is me, I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts." Even his faith, though fixed upon the Lord, our righteousness, was not able to bear him up under the first surprising view of uncreated holiness. Methinks his feelings severe like those of the patriarch of Uz, when he says, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The most spiritual and sanctified minds, when they fully perceive the majesty and holiness of God, are so greatly conscious of the great disproportion between themselves and the Lord, that they are humbled and filled with holy awe, and even with dread and alarm. The reverence which is commendable is pushed by the infirmity of our nature into a fear which is excessive, and that which is good in itself is made deadly unto us; so prone are we to err on the one side or the other.

There is no doubt, too, that a part of the fear which caused John to swoon arose from a partial ignorance or forgetfulness of his Lord. Shall we charge this upon one who wrote one of the gospels, and three choice epistles? Yes, it was doubtless so, because the Master went on to instruct and teach him in order to remove his fear. He needed fresh knowledge or old truths brought home with renewed power, in order to cure his dread. As soon as he knew his Lord he recovered his strength. The wonderful person who then stood before him bade him know that he was the first and the last, the ever living and Almighty Lord. The knowledge of Jesus is the best remedy for fears: when we are better acquainted with our Lord we part company with half our doubts—these bats and owls cannot bear the sun. Jesus in his person, work, offices, and relations, is a mine of consolation; every truth which is connected with him is an argument against fear: when our heart shall be filled with perfect love to him fear will be cast out, as Satan was cast down from heaven. Study then your Lord. Make it your life's object to know him. Seek the Holy Spirit's illumination, and the choice privilege of fellowship, and your despondency and distress will vanish as night birds fly to hide themselves when the day breaketh. It is folly to walk in sorrow when we might constantly rejoice. We do not read that John was any more afraid after the Lord had discoursed lovingly upon his own glorious person and character. That divine enlightenment which was given to his mind, purged from it any secret mistake and misjudgment which had created excessive fear.

But, while we thus notice the occasion and the reasons, we must not forget the extent to which John was overpowered. He says, "I fell at his feet as dead;" He does not say in a partial swoon, or overcome with amazement: he uses a very strong description, "I fell at his feet as dead." He was not dead, but he was "as dead;" that is to say, he could see no more, the blaze of Jesus' face had blinded him; he could hear no more, the voice like the sound of many waters had stunned his ear; no bodily faculty retained its power. His soul, too, had lost consciousness under the pressure put upon it; he was unable to think much less to act. He was stripped not only of self-glory and strength, but almost of life itself. This is by no means a desirable natural condition, but it is much to be coveted spiritually. It is an infinite blessing to us to be utterly emptied, stripped, spoiled, and slain before the Lord. Our strength is our weakness, our life is our death, and when both are entirely gone, we begin to be strong and in very deed to live. To lie at Jesus' feet is a right experience; to lie there as sick and wounded is better, but to lie there as dead is best of all; a man is taught in the mysteries of the kingdom, who comes to that. Moses with dim legal light needs to be told to put off his shoe from off his foot in the presence of the Lord of Hosts, but John is manifestly far in advance of him, because he lies lower, and is like a dead man before the Infinite Majesty. How blessed a death is death in Christ! How divine a thing is life in him. If I might see Christ at this moment upon the terms of instant death, I would joyfully accept the offer, the bliss would far exceed the penalty. But as for the death of all within us, that is of the flesh and of fallen nature, it is beyond measure desirable, and if for nothing else; my soul would pant more and more to see Jesus. May that two-edged sword which cometh out of his mouth smite all my besetting sins; may the brightness of his countenance scorch and burn up in me the very roots of evil: may he mount his white horse and ride through my soul conquering, and to conquer, casting out of me all that is of the old dragon and his inventions, and bringing every thought into subjection to himself. There would I lie at his dear conquering feet, slain by his mighty grace.

Only one other reflection while we look at this fainting apostle, observe well the place where he was overpowered. Oh, lovely thought. "I fell as dead;" but where? "I fell at his feet as dead." It matters not what aileth us if we lie at Jesus' feet. Better be dead there than alive anywhere else. He is ever gentle and tender, never breaking the bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax. In proportion as he perceives that our weakness is manifest to us, in that degree will he display his tenderness. He carrieth the lambs in his bosom, and doth gently lead those that are with young; feebleness wins on him. When he sees a dear disciple prostrate at his feet, he is ready at once to touch him with the hand of his familiar love, and to revive him by his own strength. "He restoreth my soul." "He giveth power unto the faint." He saith unto our pitiful weakness, "Fear not, I am the first and the last." To be as dead were not desirable, but to be as dead at Jesus' feet is safe and profitable. Well doth our poet say, when expressing his desire to escape from all worldly bonds.

"But oh, for this, no strength have I,
My strength is at his feet to lie."

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A Continual Remembrance of Christ

2012-02-05T18:49:00.001-08:00

Christians ought to have a continual remembrance of Christ; but what way shall we obtain it? Why, set up images and pictures of him in every corner of the house and chapel, that is to bring Christ to remembrance; that way carnal men take for this purpose. But the way believers have to bring Christ to remembrance is by the Spirit of Christ working through the word. We have no image of Christ but the word; and the Spirit represents Christ to us thereby, wherein he is evidently crucified before our eyes.

—John Owen

Thomas Scott on the Second Commandment

2012-01-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

The second commandment. Verse 4. This commandment requires us to render to the Lord our God a worship and service, suited to his perfections, and honorable to his name. His incomprehensible nature cannot be represented by any similitude.—The most exquisite painting or sculpture can only give an external resemblance of a man: even animal life, with its several functions, cannot be thus exhibited, much less can a likeness be made of the soul and its operations. How dishonorable then must be every attempt to represent the infinite God, 'by silver or gold, graven by art and man's device!' The general disposition of mankind to form image's of the Deity, proves that low apprehensions of Him are congenial to our fallen nature; and the practice has exceedingly increased the grossness of men's conceptions concerning Him. The more stupid of the heathen alone worshipped the picture or image itself; others used it as a visible representation of the invisible Numen, or Deity: and all that ingenious papists have urged, in behalf of their images, is equally applicable to Israel's worship of the golden calves, or to that rendered by the Ephesians to 'the image of Diana which fell down from Jupiter.'—A material image of the Deity is likewise an affront to the Person of Christ, the only adequate 'Image of the invisible God:' and the worship of saints and angels, as mediators and present deities, by images, in every respect robs Him of his mediatorial glory.—The commandment does not prohibit the making of images and pictures, for other purposes, as some have ignorantly supposed: for God commanded several of these to be made even in the construction of the tabernacle: but the making of them, in order to men's bowing down before them, and worshipping them; and, in this case, both the maker and the worshipper of the image are involved In the guilt. The prohibition Includes every kind of creature, because all are utterly unfit to represent the infinite Creator: and there are some devices common among us, as emblematic of the Trinity, which do not accord to the strictness of this injunction.—But the spiritual import of the commandment reaches much further. Superstition of every kind is an evident violation of its spirit and intent: and so are all human appointments in religious worship, when at all relied on as acceptable with God. The use of things indifferent in religion, without command from God, leads men's minds to gross conceptions of Him; as if He delighted in that outward splendor, or those external forms, which excite in them lively but false affections, that are often mistaken for devotion: and it is commonly connected with a false dependence; it substitutes something else in the place of the appointments of God, and it tends to the usurpation of authority over men's consciences.—But, many circumstances of worship must be regulated by human discretion: every man therefore should judge for himself, which regulations lend to these evils, and which do not; and be candid in judging such as differ from him.— Hypocrisy and formality, arising from unworthy apprehensions of God, together with all unscriptural delineations of the divine character, are certainly here prohibited: for men, forsaking the light of revelation, and 'not liking to retain God in their knowledge,' frame notions of a deity according to their own opinions of excellence, warped by their predominant vicious inclinations , and then dignify this creature of their fancy with the title of the Supreme Being. But this object of their love and worship, is altogether unlike 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;' especially in respect of justice and holiness, being in general deemed so clement that He cannot hate or punish sin.—The Jews of old supposed they worshipped the God of their fathers, yet they were declared by our Lord neither to have known nor loved Him; nay, in 'hating the Son, to have hated the Father that sent Him:' and it will at lust be proved in this case also, that the worshippers of these ideal deities were as real idolaters, as they who adored the work of their own hands. In short, the second commandment requites us to conceive of God, in all respects, as far as we are able, according to the revelation which He has made of Himself to us: to realize his glorious presence to our minds, by faith, not by fancy: and to worship Him as a Spirit 'in spirit and truth;' not with corporeal representations of Him before our eyes, or low conceptions of Him in our minds; but sincerely, inwardly, with the most fervent affections, and profound reverence of his infinite majesty; in all his appointed ordinances, and in them alone; and with constancy and frequency, as performing a service reasonable in itself, and most pleasant to our own souls, as well as most honorable to his great name.

—Thomas Scott (1747-1821)

William Fenner on the Second Commandment

2012-01-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

Q. 66. What art thou commanded in the second Commandment?

A. Not to serve God with will-worship, though it seem never so wise and humble, and mortifying, Colos. 2, 23. To abhor all gross thoughts of God, Acts 17.19. as that he is such a one, as mens selves do think him to be, Psal. 50. 21. Not to make any Image, Deut. 5. 8. unless God should reveal a new Commandment, as once he did for Cherubims in the sanctuary, Exod. 25. 18. and the brazen Serpent in the wilderness, Numb. 21, 8. or unless it be in a civil use, Math. 22. 10. To abhor images of Idolaters, either to worship God before them, 2 Chron. 25.14. or in them, as the Jews did God in Baal, Hos. 2. 16. or to be put in mind of God by them, vers. 17. or being at Mass or communion of Service with them, 1 Cor. 10, 21. or housing them, 2 Joh. 10. or bidding them God speed ver. 11. or learning any of their devises or customs of them, Deut. 12, 30. or familiar reading their Books, Acts 19, 19. Unless it be to confute them by their own writers, Acts 17, 28. and to upbraid carnal Professors with their strictness in their kinds, Rom. 2. 14, 15, 16, 17, &c.

Q. 67. What else art thou commanded in the Second Commandment?

A. Not to lean to mine own knowledge, Prov. 3, 5. nor to serve God by the precepts of Men, Isa. 29, 13. nor as men bid me, Mark 7, 6. Nor according to the Traditions and customs of the lives of our Fore-fathers, 1 Pet. 1, 18. I am commanded to do, not only in matter what, but also in manner, as the Lord commandeth, Gen. 6, 22. For otherwise my prayers and services that I do unto God, and all my sacrifices and oblations are no better then murder, or a Dog's neck, or Swines blood, or Idolatry; so indeed it is, if I serve him after my own ways, Isa. 66, 3. not only sticks and stones are Idols, Levit. 26, 1. but carnal fancies, imaginations, dulness, deadness, luke-warmness; for there be idols in the heart, Ezek. 14. 3, 4. Covetousness is Idolatry, Col. 3. 5. Stubbronness is as idolatry, 1 Sam. 15, 23. A careless Christian is an Idol, there is an idol Professor, an idol Christian, an idol Shepherd Zach. 11, 17.

—William Fenner (1600–1640)

An Idol is accounted God

2012-01-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

An Idol is accounted God, who is the highest and infinitely the most perfect being, when as in truth, it hath no being at all, or is as the Apostle speaketh nothing in the world.

—Joseph Caryl

Thomas Shepard: Labor for more of such a Christ as the word holds forth

2012-01-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

Some seek for more of Christ, but it is of an idol Christ, not as manifesting himself in and by a word. For look as any act of obedience is an act,of will-worship and imagery, that we have not a particular demand for, or is not directly deducted from rule in the word; so that act of faith is an act of will-worship, which sees and chooses Christ as his own, when he has not a particular promise for it; it is an imagination of Christ, not Christ; and you have more of your own imagination, not more of the Lord Jesus. 1 Pet. i. 25. Monks had sublime contemplations of God. Luther calls them such as looked upon a Deus et Christibus absolutus, not beholding the beams of his love and glory in the word. O, therefore, labor for more of such a Christ as the word holds forth.

—Thomas Shepard

THE GREAT THINGS OF HIS LAW: "God is a Spirit"

2011-12-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

THE GREAT THINGS OF HIS LAW.

BY THE REV. JAMES OWEN.

III. "God is a Spirit."

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," &c.—Exod. xx. 4-6.

The first word on Sinai declares that there is but one God; the second word teaches us that God is not to be worshipped under any visible representation or form. Isaiah asks, "To whom, then, will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" He is an invisible Spirit, and therefore cannot be represented in any visible shape; He is everywhere present, and therefore not a figure, confined to one place. We cannot limit the Infinite: we cannot "by searching find out God."

In the early ages of history there were no images of the Deity known. Herodotus, when writing of the manners and customs of the Persians, says, "They have among them neither statues, temples, nor altars; the use of which they censure as impious, and a gross violation of reason, probably because, in opposition to the Greeks, they do not believe that the gods partake of our human nature. Their custom is to offer from the summits of the highest mountains sacrifices to Jove, distinguishing by that appellation all the expanse of the firmament." The worship of the heavenly bodies was the earliest form of idolatry, and Moses warns against it: "Take good heed lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them." The origin of idolatry may be traced to this fact, that men looked about for some visible representations of the invisible Deity, and that in course of time the image or the symbol became a substitute for the Deity Himself. Men looked for God everywhere, and they could not see Him; they could see the stars crowning the night with glory, they could see the sunlight flooding the universe; and they said, "The sun and the stars shall be to us an image of the all-glorious Deity, a symbol of His greatness, and power, and goodness." But, as time advanced, the symbols themselves were deified, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, were worshipped and served. And then, as "the carnal mind was enmity against God," and men "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened," they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

The Israelites, then, were forbidden to set up an image of the true God; not only forbidden to worship false gods, but also forbidden to make any image of the true God. "When Aaron made the golden calf, and Jeroboam the son of Nebat made similar images, in both instances it was the worship of Jehovah as represented by the image that was intended; and in both instances a connecting link with Egypt is afforded us in the sacred narrative. In the case of Aaron we have the fact of Egypt having been the birthland of the sinning people; while in the case of Jeroboam we have the fact that it was after a long residence in Egypt, in the court of Shishak, that he devised this worship. The prophets of Jehovah denounced it; and in the Second Book of Kings the fall of the kingdom is expressly attributed to the gods of Jeroboam. Animal-worship was common among the Egyptians; a multitude of beasts, birds, and fishes were regarded and served as representatives of their deities; the hawk, and the crocodile, and the serpent, and the lion, and the wolf, and other creatures, were the forms under which the gods were worshipped. The Israelites were therefore forbidden to make "any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth"; no bird, or beast, or fish was to be to them a representation of Jehovah; no likeness was to be made, no image was to be carved, no picture was to be painted. We believe that the masterpieces of art, whether in painting or sculpture, have a refining and elevating influence on those who admire and study them. But art is not necessarily religious, and some of the ages in which art has flourished were not remarkable for their purity or refinement. Some wonderful frescoes and paintings have been discovered in a city that was buried in ruins eighteen hundred years ago, whose iniquity was so great that a doom not unlike that of Sodom and Gomorrah overtook it; and when I visited Pompeii, and saw on the broken pillars, the mosaic floors of houses, and the frescoes on the walls, evidences that art had been busy there, I saw also that it had been the handmaid of sensuality and vice, and that the fire of genius had been burning on the altar of devils. There are some who speak as if they had found in art a gospel of salvation; but men crippled and shattered by sin may be laid every day at the gate which is called Beautiful, and yet left in their helplessness and misery. Painting and sculpture were not forbidden by this second word of the law—and we read of the forms of the cherubim in the temple—but no image was to be set up as an object of worship; and the influence of this prohibition upon the history of the Jews is perceived in the fact that no painters or sculptors have ever risen among them. They have had poets and musicians, but no painters; and while among the Greeks Phidias and Praxiteles were carving the statues that became the wonders of the world, on the roll of Hebrew worthies we find the name of no painter or sculptor.

It is remarkable that in the four Gospels we have no description of the person of our Lord, no hint as to His stature, or His face. Art has embodied its loftiest conceptions of that Divine face on the canvas, but Raphael's "Transfiguration," Holman Hunt's "Light of the "World," Dore's "Christ leaving the Praetorium," Muncacksy's "Christ before Pilate," marvellous as they all are as works of genius, do not satisfy the soul that has entered into fellowship with the Perfect life, and who feels that there is an unspeakable, infinite beauty in Him who

"Wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds
In loveliness of perfect deeds,
More strong than all poetic thought."

There is, indeed, one portrait which He has left of Himself, in the Supper, where He is "evidently set forth as crucified" for us. But the fact that we have in the inspired record no materials that would enable us to paint a picture or fashion a statue of our Lord, seems to add emphasis to this prohibition, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath." It is one of the strangest things in the history of the world that a rational, intelligent being should take a piece of metal, or of wood, and mould it into a certain shape, and then, investing it with the attributes of Divinity, fall down before it, and pray to it, and worship it Well might the inspired prophet wield the lash of satire when speaking of it. He says, "The carpenter stretcheth out his rule, he marketh it out with a line, he fitteth it with planes, he marketh it out with a compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in his house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; ho planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn; for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it and baketh bread; yea he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth meat, and is satisfied; yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire; and the residue thereof lie maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god." This is done, not by a little child who nurses and talks to the doll as if it were a living creature; but by an intelligent man, who can conduct business, frame wise laws for a nation, discuss great moral problems, or speak eloquently in the forum or the school; this man falls down before the idol, the toy, the nonentity, and saith, "Deliver me, for thou art my god." Idolatry robs Jehovah of His honour, and it is therefore denounced as a crime, an injustice, an offence against the Majesty on high. "Ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know that I am the Lord God." When Jesus entered the temple of Jerusalem, and Saw those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting, the blush of indignation mantled His cheek, the zeal of His Father's house kindled in His eyes, and with a sublimity and authority which none could resist, He drove the noisy, haggling hucksters out of the temple-court, and said, "Make not My Father's house a house of merchandize." And it was a live coal from the same fire of zeal that burned in the apostle's heart, as he looked upon Athens and saw the city "full of idols." Would not a true patriot look with indignation upon a foeman's flag planted on England's shore? Would not his desire be to trample that flag in the mire, or tear it to ribbons, and unfurl the old English standard that "has braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze"? And the apostle looked upon idol worship as the flag of an enemy on the territory of God, as the occupation by an enemy of the palace that belonged to God. Every idol in Athens, whether of gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device, was a challenge flung in the face of the Godhead. Every temple in which the priest sacrificed, every shady grove in which the devotee worshipped, every idolatrous rite that was practised, every idolatrous feast that was celebrated, was an insult to Him who has declared in His word, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."

It appears to us who have never seen an idol, except in the hand of a missionary, or in a museum, monstrous that a man should bow down and worship an idol; and yet we find in history that not only the most degraded and ignorant nations were guilty of this, but also the most advanced in civilization and culture. Athens was the university of the world, and yet it had more images than all the rest of Greece put together. Idolatry was the sin to which the Jews were most prone. Surrounded by heathen nations, and forgetful of the mercies they had received from Jehovah, they were often contaminated with idol-worship; and even Solomon forsook the temple of Jehovah for an idol-grove. And to-day, not only in Africa with its fetish-worship, and India and China with their millions of gods, but also in Christendom, this image-worship prevails. Prayers to the Virgin and the saints are offered in the Romish Church, and statues and images are worshipped. In the Church of Ara Coeli, in Rome, may be seen the celebrated Bambino, a figure of the infant Jesus—a large doll covered with jewels and precious stones—and that doll is worshipped by multitudes who believe in its miraculous power. In St. Peter's there is a black bronze statue which is supposed to be a statue of Jupiter or Pluto, but now it is called St. Peter, and the extended foot of this statue is reverently kissed by Roman Catholic devotees. The foot has been actually worn out of shape by the kisses. I have seen men and women of all classes, priests and monks of all orders, go up to that bronze image and kiss the foot. This image-worship is prohibited by this second word of the law; how, then, did Rome deal with this prohibition? With the cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive, it omitted this word from the Decalogue, and divided the last commandment into two, in order to make up the number ten. The idolatry practised in the Romish Church is one of the signs of its apostasy, and of the certainty of its doom; for, as Max Midler says, "One of the lessons which the history of religions certainly teaches is this, that the curse pronounced against those who would change the invisible into the visible, the spiritual into the material, the Divine into the human, the infinite into the finite, has come true in every nation on earth." The reign of Atheism in France was a "reign of terror;" and what was it but a rebound from the superstitions and absurdities of the Papacy, a protest against the substitution of death for life, of dead forms for the living God; a declaration coming out of the deepest heart of humanity that illusions are not realities, that the soul cannot be fed on the impostures and tricks of priests, that God in Christ alone can satisfy its hunger and soothe its pain? He has revealed Himself to us, not by any bronze statue or wooden image, but by words of truth and love, by deeds of righteousness and mercy, in the person of his well-beloved Son; and He now demands our faith, our homage, our service, our love.

Consider, then, the reasons by which this prohibition is enforced. 1. He is a jealous God. Our character will receive its form and impress very much from the notions we entertain of God. If we regard Him as an impassive, emotionless, heartless Being, who is too high to take any interest in this world, who is not affected by our sorrows, by our circumstances, by our entreaties, by our condition, who does not take the slightest notice of our character, who requires not our worship, who accepts it not, then the effect will be that we shall meet indifference with indifference, we shall lead careless lives, we shall not be watchful in the formation of a character that will never be inspected by the eyes of Divinity. "How doth God know? Can He judge through the dark cloud?" But if we regard Him as the righteous and merciful Father, who is looking with pity on His rebellious children, who is seeking to wean them away from their unbelief and sin, and to bring them into the light; if we believe this, if we heartily accept this revelation, the effect will be seen in our penitential return to Him, and in our desire to please Him and serve Him. Now this verse reveals to us something of the nature and character of God. He is a Personal Being, not an abstraction, not a mere force; not a tendency, or (as Matthew Arnold puts it) "a power not ourselves that works for righteousness," whatever such a phrase may mean. To worship a God who is nothing more than that would be like paying homage to a sum in Algebra, or praying to a theorem in Euclid, or worshipping the Gulf Stream. He is a Personal Being, who loves, who may be offended, who may be grieved, who is jealous; not jealous lest He should suffer any diminution of His glory and blessedness through man's sin, but jealous lest sin should deface and destroy the nature He accounts so precious. We must not think of any of the weakness and passion of man in connection with such an emotion in God. His jealousy is His love on fire, love wounded, love insulted, love incensed. God is thirsting for man's love; there is a hunger in His heart for our confidence and affection; and when an idol occupies His throne His love is grieved; He is jealous of all that would divert the current of our desires from Him. "As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him;" and as a father desires the love of His children, hungers for it, is grieved when he does not receive it, so the Lord is jealous. If your son were led astray by evil companions, if your daughter became the prey of the tempter, and fell from the fair Eden of purity to the hell of an abandoned life, would you not be jealous and angry? Man is God's child; and when the child is led astray, and becomes an Absalom, with the fire of defiance in his eye and the weapon of hostility in his hand, it is no wonder that God is jealous. When emissaries of the devil are trying to wrest His child from Him, it is no wonder that He is jealous. When pleasure is pursued, and Mammon is worshipped, and the bubble Fame is chased, and God is forgotten, is it a wonder that He is jealous? The stronger the love the more fierce the jealousy. It Is love that sounds the alarm, that rings the tocsin, that kindles the flame, that pours the vial of wrath. His anger is only another aspect of His love.

2. He punishes His enemies. "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation," etc. Right across the brightness of the world lies the dark shadow of suffering. You cannot get rid of it. It is there, whether you believe the Bible or not. We see everywhere that moral characteristics and physical infirmities and sufferings are transmitted from one generation to another. And this principle of hereditary transmission is recognized in the Bible. The Jews said, "Our fathers have sinned, and are not, and we have borne their iniquities." And it was a proverb among them, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." And these words of doom were pronounced by Christ, "That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zecharias, who perished between the altar and the temple; verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation." Do you not see this principle illustrated in daily life? Children inherit the physical constitution, the propensities, the diseases, the wealth or penury, the glory or disgrace of their parents. Sometimes men are proud of their ancestors, and they "borrow merit from the dead," and if a baronet or lord has ever appeared in their family, they forget not to proclaim the fact. Good and evil are transmitted from one generation to another. But though a man may suffer on account of the sins of his ancestors, yet the suffering is never in the nature of retribution, unless the man's own guilt has called for it. If the penalty goes down to the third and fourth generation, then they are, God says, "the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me." And although innocent children may suffer the consequences of the sins of their parents, yet those consequences are temporal; in another world, and in the coming day of account, every one will be judged personally and separately; the son will not be punished for the sins of his parents, nor will he be excused on the ground of the righteousness of his parents. A man feels, and rightly, that he is not responsible for his grandfather's sins; but he may be in some measure responsible for the conduct of his children, and even grandchildren. And men are entreated to act wisely for the sake of their descendants—to be good and to do good for the sake of others. The Israelites gathered round the base of Sinai ware the founders of a new nation, a nation that was to play an important part, that would have a name in history to the end of time, and if the fountainhead were defiled, the streams would be muddy also. The little children in the camp and unborn generations would reap the advantages or disadvantages arising from their conduct. Let me urge you who are parents, for your children's sakes, to consecrate yourselves to the service of God, to fashion your life according to His will, to yield to the impulses of His Spirit. You may be standing in the way of your children's salvation; your example, your conduct, may be inviting a curse that will be inherited by them; become learners in Christ's school, and you will thus "nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord." 8. And He blesses His friends. "And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments "—unto thousands of generations. "Where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded." "Mercy rejoiceth against judgment" There is mercy shining even in the law. In the midst of the storms of Sinai mercy is appearing like a quenchless star. I have said that moral qualities are transmitted, as well as physical features. Lying had become so characteristic of the inhabitants of Crete, that the apostle quoted the proverb, "The Cretans are always liars." Profligacy in a family may go down from one generation to another; and through its profligacy the family in the third or fourth generation becomes extinct—for sin means death and perdition. And habits of industry, and temperance, and truthfulness may go down like healthy blood from one generation to another, even to thousands of generations. But do not think that the renewing grace of God in the heart may be transmitted from sire to son, or that the spiritual life will flow down with the natural life from fathers and mothers to their children. Inherited dispositions backed by education and example may do much to secure this result, but every child must seek for himself "the good part that shall never be taken away from him." It is not the godliness of the parents, but the mercy of God, that goes down unto thousands of generations, and converts them into generations that love Him and keep His commandments.

He is now asking for our love and obedience. "Keep yourselves from idols."

"The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee."

The throne belongs to Him; and He will not remain in the palace at all unless you offer Him the throne. You have grieved Him, and still He has not forsaken you; He has not yet written over the door of your soul, "Ichabod, the glory has departed;" He has not left you with the sentence of doom, "He hath grieved the Holy One of Israel; why should he be smitten any more?" He still loves you. He desires to save you. Welcome Him into your heart "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." The alternatives are dying of thirst, or coming to the Fountain of living waters. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, then follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him."

Is He Lord or symbol?

2011-12-19T18:17:00.000-08:00

For the true Christian the one supreme test for the present soundness and ultimate worth of everything religious must be the place our Lord occupies in it. Is He Lord or symbol? Is He in charge of the project or merely one of the crew? Does He decide things or only help carry out the plans of others? All religious activities may be proved by the answer to the question, is Jesus Christ Lord in this act?

There are a great many bogus Christs among us these days. John Owen, the old Puritan, warned people in his day: ‘You have an imaginary Christ and if you are satisfied with an imaginary Christ you must be satisfied with an imaginary salvation.’

There is only one Christ and the truly saved man has an attachment to Christ that is intellectual in that he knows who Christ is theologically. For you know there is the romantic Christ of the female novelist and there is the sentimental Christ of the half converted cowboy and there is the philosophical Christ of the academic egghead and there is the cozy Christ of the effeminate poet and there is the muscular Christ of the all-American halfback. But there is only one true Christ, and God has said that He is His Son.

We are under constant temptation these days to substitute another Christ for the Christ of the New Testament.

—A.W. Tozer, Gems from Tozer

Also see these related Tozer posts:

Beyond the Symbols By A.W. Tozer

A.W. Tozer, Movies, and Knowledge Of The Holy

Thomas Watson on The Second Commandment, Roman Catholicism, Idols, Idolatry, & Idolaters

2011-12-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Click here (FiveSolas.com) to read Thomas Watson's commentary on the second commandment (called "The Second Commandment") from his writings THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, which was first published as a part of A Body of Practical Divinity, in 1692; read all of Watson's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS here (Internet Christian Library). Here are two quotes from Watson's commentary:

'Nor the likeness of any thing,' &c. All ideas, portraitures, shapes, images of God, whether by effigies or pictures, are here forbidden. 'Take heed lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make the similitude of any figure.' Deut 4: 15, 16. God is to be adored in the heart, not painted to the eye.

...

[2] To worship God by an image, is both absurd and unlawful.
(1) It is absurd and irrational; for, 'the workman is better than the work,' 'He who has builded the house has more honour than the house.' Heb 3: 3. If the workman be better than the work, and none bow to the workman, how absurd, then, is it to bow to the work of his hands! Is it not an absurd thing to bow down to the king's picture, when the king himself is present? It is more so to bow down to an image of God, when God himself is everywhere present.

...

Take heed of all occasions of idolatry, for idolatry is devil-worship. Psalm 106: 37. If you search through the whole Bible, there is not one sin that God has more followed with plagues than idolatry. The Jews have a saying, that in every evil that befalls them, there is uncia aurei vituli, an ounce of the golden calf in it. Hell is a place for idolaters. 'For without are idolaters.' Rev 22: 15. Senesius calls the devil a rejoicer at idols, because the image-worshippers help to fill hell.

Read Thomas Watson's "A Sermon Against the Roman Catholic Church (A Sermon against Popery)" here (Bible Bulletin Board). Here is a quote from Watson's sermon:

11ly. An eleventh Error is, Their Worshipping of Images; they burn {} Incense before the Image, which is a Divine worship unto the Image. Now this is directly contrary to the very letter of the Command, Exod. 20.4,5. Image-worship, and Idol-worship are terms synonimical. God saith of Idols, that they speak Vanity, Zach. 10.2. And is it not a vain thing to worship those things that are vain, and that speak vanities? None can draw the picture of a Spirit, who then [can] draw the Picture of him who is the Father of spirits? This Opinion of Image-worship hath been condemned and exploded by several Councils and Synods.

Read Watson's sermon "Roman Catholicism" here (Grace Gems). Here is a quote from Watson's sermon:

11. The next popish error, is their image-worship. Pope Stephen the Third, maintaining images in temples, proclaimed their veneration, and caused the people to burn incense to them. This is contrary to the letter of the commandment, "Do not make idols of any kind. You must never worship or bow down to them." Images are teachers of lies; they represent God in a bodily shape. God said, "Let us make man in Our image," Genesis 1:16. But the papists say, "Let us make God in our image!" When the Lord delivered the Law, the people "heard His words but didn't see His form; there was only a voice," Deuteronomy 4:12. God cannot be pictured by any image. You cannot picture the soul—much less God, Isaiah 40:18, "To whom then will you liken God?" The papists tell us they worship God by the image. I answer, if it is absurd to bow down to the picture of a king—when the king himself is present—then much more to bow down to the image when God Himself is present! Jeremiah 23:24, "Do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?"

From Thomas Watson's The Lord's Prayer: The First Petition in the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be your name." Matthew 6:9:

(4) God's name is dishonored by the Papists. Theirs is a God-dishonoring religion. They dishonor the name of God by their idolatry, which is spiritual adultery. Idolatry is to worship a false God, or the true God in a false manner. They dishonor God by their idolatry, in making graven images, and giving the same honor to those who is due to God.Images are teachers of lies. They represent God in a bodily shape. Hab 2:18. They dishonor God by their idolatry in the mass; worshiping the host, and offering it up as a sacrifice for sin. The apostle says, "By one offering, Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified" (Heb 10:14); but as if his offering on the cross were imperfect, they offer him up daily in the mass, which is a dishonor to Christ's priestly office.

Nathanael Vincent on The Knowledge of Christ

2011-12-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

—2 Peter 3:18

This Knowledge of Christ should grow more Spiritual. He is not to be known after a carnal manner; and therefore Popish Images are very unfit representations of him; not that his flesh is swallowed up of his Divinity as Servetus dreamed: but his flesh is glorified, and as transcendently glorious we must now look upon him. We must also know him as the purchaser and bestower of all Spiritual gifts and graces, that we may be further renewed by his Spirit: the Apostle is thus to be understood when he says 2 Cor. 5: 16, 17. Though we have known Christ after the Flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more; therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature.

...

Compare all other knowledge with this knowledge of Christ, and see the vast difference in excellency. And this will stir you to grow in it. The philosophers of old, how restless were their minds, how endless their inquires! The farther they went, the more they were puz'led; and after long study, they came to understand that they fully understood nothing. The Wise King of Israel after he had diligently employed his large understanding about human knowledg; he cries out as a man exceedingly vexed and disappointed. Eccles 1:18. In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. But the knowledge of Christ is of another nature. He that rightly understands the Lord Jesus, understands how to have his guilt removed, his heart renewed, his conscience calmed, his soul secured, and that forever. This knowledge is not a vexation but a satisfaction to the Spirit, both because of its certainty, and because of the superabundant grace and fulness in Christ who is known. Here it may truly be said, Intellectus est in quiete; the better Christ is understood, the more the soul that understands Him is at rest.

—Nathanael Vincent

Spiritual conjugal friendship with the Sovereign Lord

2011-11-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

He [the Lord Jesus Christ] is not only thy Husband but Sovereign Lord, to whom all Divine Adoration and worship doth appertain: wherefore if thou reservest, in the supreme conjugal bent of thine heart, which is thy Lord's Temple and Throne, any secret haunt for old lovers, thou art guilty, not only of spiritual Adultery, but also of Idolatry: for he is thy Lord, whom alone thou must adore, or worship, with spiritual-conjugal faith, love, and obedience. Thou art mistaken if thou thinkest to mediate a league of friendship, betwixt thy New Lord, and old lovers: no, he will have his alone in the inmost bent of thine heart, which is his sacred Temple, or rather the Holy of Holies, where none may enter or Lodge but himself: there is room for other Lovers in the out-lodges of the Affections, but none here, in this sacred Bent of thine heart, save for thy Lord: he alone must be extolled and worshipped here. He that studies, and endeavours to make a composition betwixt Christ and any old friend, so as to allow them both a share in the inmost bent of his spiritually conjugal love, does but delude himself with a framed shadow, or Idol-Christ, of his own fancy. A compounded Christ is a false Christ: if we choose not a single Christ for our friend, we choose nothing, but a coined Idol of our own deluded hearts: he that adds any thing to Christ, as a co-partner in his spiritual conjugal friendship, destroys the whole of Christ, as to benefit. All this is set forth to the life in that Parable, Hosea. 3. 1, 2, 3. v. 1. Then said the Lord unto me, go yet, love a woman (beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress) according to the love of the Lord toward the Children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of Wine.

The case stood thus: The Jews had entered into a conjugal covenant of friendship, with God, as you have it, Jer. 2. 2, 3. I remember the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, &c. But Israel had broken her conjugal covenant with God, as this Prophet Hosea declareth at large, chap. 1. 2. whence She is here styled an Adulteress, because, albeit she retained the profession and worship of God in part, yet she looked to other gods, and love flagons of Wine: i.e. she found good emolument, or incomes of pleasures and riches by the flagons of Wine, or drink offerings which were poured forth to other gods; therefore she looks towards them, or gives them a share in that conjugal friendship and worship which was due to God alone, as Zeph. 1. 5. Yet for all this, though Israel had thus broken wedlock with God, yet he had an affectionate compassionate eye toward her: she was beloved of her friend though an adulteress; God had a mind to enter into a new covenant of conjugal friendship with her: but how? would God be content that Israel should lie in common for him and Idol-Gods? No; but first he redeems her Affections by out bidding other lovers; and so will have her as a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed, proper to himself. So v. 2. So I brought her to me for fifteen pieces of Silver, &c. V. 3. And I said unto her, thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the Harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. As if the Lord had said: O my backsliding Spouse, I have yet once again ransomed thee, both by price and power, from thine Idol-lovers; look well to it, that thou play not the Harlot again: be thou for me, and not for any other lover, and I will be for thee: approve thy self a loyal friend to me, and doubt not but that I shall approve myself so to thee. Thus Cant. 6. 3. I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine, i.e. I am wholly and singly for my Beloved, as he is wholly and singly for me: I am in regard of conjugal love and subjection, not mine own, but his: as he is, in point of conjugal love and care, not his own but mine. Its true, my beloved ceaseth not to be his own, when he becomes mine; but yet he demeaneth himself as if he were not his own; he assumeth such intimate Relations, and bowels, of an husband, friend, saviour, &c. as bespeaks him wholly mine, and therefore it is my duty to make over my self, my Thoughts, Admirations, Affection, Person and all to him; so that I am now to mind, admire, live in, possess, enjoy, and delight in him, and not my self; I am to reject every Idol-lover and friend.

Thence God tells the Israelites, that he would not deliver them, till they had put away their false gods, Judges 10. 13, 14. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go cry unto the gods ye have chosen, and let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. God upbraids them with their Idol-gods and false lovers. But yet when the Israelites have put away their Idols, and humbled themselves before God, it is said the Lord's soul was grieved for their misery, v. 15, 16. The like Hos. 14. 3, 4. When Israel is brought to renounce all Idol-lovers and false gods, then, and not till then, Christ comes in as a friend, promising to heal her backslidings. So v. 8. Ephraim shall say, what have I any more to do with Idols? and what follows? I have heard him, and observed him, &c. Christ will never hearken to us as a friend, so long as we have to do with Idols.

Thus Hos. 2. 15, 16, 17. when God takes Israel again into Covenant with himself, he will have her forget the names of Baalim, her old Idol lovers, and call him Ishi, her Husband. Thus the soul, that enters into a conjugal friendship with Christ, must be for him singly, and for none other: he must not add to or compound any thing with Christ; but must bid adieu unto, and abandon all old lovers, which may pretend unto, or aim at the least share in the bend of the heart, or that conjugal Affection which is alone due to Christ.

—Theophilus Gale

A Mistaken Christ

2011-11-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

Confident resting on Christ for salvation, if it be not a resting according to the word, will not serve the turn; there were some that 'leaned upon the Lord,' Micah iii. 11, whom he disclaimeth. It is a mistaken Christ they rest upon, and upon him by a mistaken faith. It is a mistaken Christ, for the true Christ is the eternal Son of God, that was born of a virgin, and died at Jerusalem, 'Bearing our sins in his body upon a tree, that we, being dead unto sin, might be alive unto righteousness,' 1 Peter ii. 24. The true Christ is one that 'gave himself for us, that he might purify us to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works,' and is now gone into heaven, there to make intercession for us, and will come again from heaven in a glorious manner to take an account of our work, Titus ii. 13, 14. But now when men lie under the power and reign of their sins, and yet pretend to rest upon Christ for salvation, they set up another Christ than the word holdeth forth. And as the Christ is mistaken, so is the faith.

—Thomas Manton

I tell you many are pleased with Christ, as Jacob was with Leah, while he thought she had been Rachel. It is a mistaken Christ whom they love, even as sure as they love their lusts. No man can serve two masters. And if a new light would spring up in their dark hearts, they would see it to be so. Many love Christ very well, to be a rest to their consciences, while they can get the world and their lusts to be a rest to their hearts. And thus they can do very well between the two. But take away these from them, and their hearts can rest no more than a fish drawn out of the water till it be in it again. Their souls can never truly say as the Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." Now was ever Christ a covering for the eyes to them. Nor did they ever find such sweetness in Christ as they have in following their lusts.

—Thomas Boston

Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from, as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is no other way sweet to them, than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world; and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ that is sweet to you, whose souls loathe that Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person.

—Thomas Boston

Isaac Ambrose on Sins against the Second Commandment.

2011-11-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

Sins against the Second Commandment.

It is the Second Commandment, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image:]

For the Duties here required.

Say, 1. Hast thou ever worshipped the true God purely, according to his Will? 2. Hast thou observed all those outward Duties of his Worship, as Prayer, and Vows, and Fasting, and Meditating, and the rest? 3. Hast thou repaired to God's house, observed Family-duties, received the Preachers of the Gospel?

Or, for the sins here forbidden.

Say, 1. Hast thou not sometimes walked after the imaginations of thy own heart, serving God out of custom, or (after the manner of thy Fore-fathers) by Will-worship, and superstitions? 2. Hast thou not committed Idol-worship, conceiving of God in thy Mind, or respecting him in thy sense in the Likness of a Creature? 3. Hast thou not mentioned the Names of other Gods, either by way of swearing, or Apology? 4. Hast thou not made an Image to liken God to it, or used any Gesture of Love and Reverence to any such Image? 5. Hast thou not been careless to worship God, to call upon the Lord, to receive God's Ministers, or to perform any of the outward Duties of God's Worship? If in any of these thou hast transgressed, then hast thou broken this Commandment, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image. Jer. 9. 14. Exod. 23. 13. Isa. 40. 18. Zach. 14. 17. Psal. 14. 4. Mat. 10. 14.

—Isaac Ambrose, Prima, media, & ultima

Thomas Shepard: True faith closes with Christ as he is.

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And there are four sorts of them that spin the finest thread of deceit to themselves, that think they believe, when yet they have not the Son.

...

3. Those that close not with promises only, but with Christ himself, but it is only with the image and fancy of him, which, they think, is himself. In true faith, the Father reveals the Son as he is, or the Son reveals himself as he is, and faith hence closes with him as he is. John vi. 40. But some there be that hear of him, hence think what he is. Hence a carnal mind imagines of him as it imagines of a king in a far country, and falls down to his image, and trusts to it, and depends on it, and joys in it, until a man comes to be converted or die, and then he sees the deceit. Or if he did see him, yet he can see no beauty in him to desire him. There is many a man in this case that trusts to, and joys in Christ, whom, if he did know, he would loathe. John came preaching the gospel to show them Christ; they all came to him, and rejoiced in his light, but it was but for a season; for when he came to show them "there he is," (John i. 29,) not one man stirs when he shows them Christ, and Verse 35, "only two;" and chap. iii. 32, "No man received his testimony." This is, beloved, the great sin and cause of all the rest, if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Christ is not seen, hence not thought of, hence not esteemed, hence men boast not in him. Nay, it is the great plague, under means, that in seeing they see not. "Lord, how long?" You say, Christ is never so clearly true, but thou in seeing mayst not see; and if it be seen thus, then look for ruin. Is. vi. 9-12. We say, Christians want not light, but life and affections. O, beg for light that will bring affections, else all affections will dry up, if not fed with this spring. John v. 37. What people had such means as they? yet they had not eyes to see.

—Thomas Shepard

John Milton on Idolatry

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IDOLATRY consists in THE MAKING, WORSHIPPING, OR TRUSTING IN IDOLS, WHETHER CONSIDERED AS REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRUE GOD, OR OF A FALSE ONE. Exod. xx. 4,5. thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. See also Lev. xxvi. 1. Deut. xvi. 21, 22. thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of Jehovah neither shalt thou set thee up any image, which Jehovah thy God hateth. xxvii. 15. cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image. Isai. ii. 8. their land also is full of idols, xvii. 8. he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands—. Acts xvii. 16. his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 1 Cor. viii. 4. we know that an idol is nothing in the world, x. 6, 7, 14. neither be ye idolaters, &c. 2 Cor. v. 16. though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Gal. v. 19, 20. the works of the flesh are these, adultery .... idolatry, witchcraft .... they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. See also 1 John v. 21. Rev. ix. 20. that they should not worship devils and idols of gold. Idolatry is described, Isai. lvii. 5. enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree. Jer. vii. 31. they have built the high places of Tophet. xi. 13. according to the number of thy cities were thy gods—. xxxii. 29. they shall burn it with the houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal. Ezek. viii. 5, &c. behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy—. Hos. iv. 13. they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains.

WHETHER OF THE TRUE GOD—. Exod. xxxii. 5. when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation, and said. To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah; compared with Psal. cvi. 19, 20. they made a calf in Horeb,....thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox. Deut. iv. 15, 16. take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female. It is indeed said, Exod. xxiv. 10. that Moses and the elders saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness; and v. 11. they saw God; and v. 17. the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel; but it is clear, from the passage of Deuteronomy quoted above, that they saw the likeness of no living thing whatever. So Ezek. i. 27, 28. I saw...from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward; where no mention is made of his face. Judges xvii. 4. the founder made thereof a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah; compared with v. 13. then said Micah, Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. 2 Kings xvii. 28. then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah. Isai. xl. 18. to whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him? xliv. 10. who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? xlvi. 5, 6. to whom will ye liken me, and make me equal? they hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. Jer. ii. 11, &c. hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Acts xvii. 29. forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. Rom. i. 23, 24. they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man. Hence to worship the true God under the form of an idol was considered as criminal as to worship devils. 2 Chron. xi. 15. he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves that he had made; although Jeroboam doubtless imagined that he was appointing priests to Jehovah, while he was in reality officiating in the rites of those which were not Gods.

OR OF A FALSE GOD. Num. xxxiii. 52. then shall ye destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places. See also Deut. vii. 5, 25. xii. 2, 3. In pursuance of these injunctions, pious rulers in all ages have opposed idolatry ;* Moses, Asa, 2 Chron. xiv. 3. xv. 8, &c. Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. 1—25. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4, &c. the whole people, 2 Chron. xxiii. 17. and xxxi. 1.

The cherubic images over the ark are not to be accounted idols; first, as being representations not of false gods, but of the ministering spirits of Jehovah, and consequently not objects of worship; secondly, as being made by the special command of God himself.

Even the brazen serpent, the type of Christ, was commanded to be demolished, as soon as it became an object of religious worship, 2 Kings xviii. 4. he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.

Hence the Papists err in calling idols the laymen's books; their real nature whether considered as books or teachers, appears from Psal. cxv. 5, &c. they have mouths, but they speak not.... they that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them. Isai. xliv. 18. they have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes—. Jer. x. 8, 14, 15. every man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them; they are vanity and the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. Habak. ii. 18, 19. what proJiteth the graven image, that the graver thereof hath graven it; the molten image and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach; behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

We are commanded to abstain, not only from idolatrous worship itself, but from all things and persons connected with it. Acts xv. 20. that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication. v. 29. from meats offered to idols and from fornication. Rev. ii. 14. who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. v. 20. to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. From a comparison of these passages, it would appear that the fornication here prohibited was a part of idolatrous worship. 1 Cor. viii. 10. if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idols temple, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat, &c. x. 14. flee from idolatry. v. 20, &c. they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. 2 Cor. vi. 16. what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? 1 Thess. i. 9. ye turned to God front idols, to serve the living and true God. 1 Pet. iv. 3. we walked in lasciviousness...and abominable idolatries. 1 John v. 21. little children, keep yourselves from idols.

A question here arises, whether it be lawfixl for a professor of the true religion to be present at idol-worship, in cases where his attendance is necessary for the discharge of some civil duty. The affirmative seems to be established by the example of Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings v. 17—19. who was permitted, as an additional mark of the divine approbatjon, to construct for himself a private altar of Israelitish earth, although, as a Gentile, he was uncircumcised. It is however safer and more consistent with the fear of God, to avoid, as far as possible, duties of this kind, even of a civil nature, or to relinquish them altogether.

—John Milton, A treatise on Christian doctrine: compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone

True Religion is the true Worship and Service of God, learnt and believed from the Word of God only.

...

Let us now enquire whether Popery be tolerable or no. Popery is a double thing to deal with, and claims a twofold Power, Ecclesiastical, and Political, both usurpt, and the one supporting the other.

But Ecclesiastical is ever pretended to Political. The Pope by this mixt faculty, pretends right to Kingdoms and States, and especially to this of England, Thrones and Unthrones Kings, and absolves the people from their obedience to them; sometimes interdicts to whol Nations the Public worship of God, shutting up their Churches: and was wont to dreign away greatest part of the wealth of this then miserable Land, as part of his Patrimony, to maintain the Pride and Luxury of his Court and Prelates: and now since, through the infinite mercy and savour of God, we have shaken off this Babylonish yoke, hath not ceas'd by his Spyes and Agents, Bulls and Emissaries, once to destroy both King and Parliament; perpetually to seduce, corrupt, and pervert as many as they can of the People. Whether therefore it be fit or reasonable, to tolerate men thus principl'd in Religion towards the State, I submit it to the consideration of all Magistrates, who are best able to provide for their own and the public safety. As for tolerating the exercise of their Religion, supposing their State activities not to be dangerous, I answer, that Toleration is either public or private; and the exercise of their Religion, as far as it is Idolatrous, can be tolerated neither way: not publicly, without grievous and unsufferable scandal giv'n to all conscientious Beholders; nor privately, without great offence to God, declar'd against all kind of Idolatry, though secret. Ezekiel 8. 7, 8. And he brought me to the door of the Court, and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of Man, dig now in the wall; and when I had digged, behold a Door, and he said unto me, go in, and behold the wicked Abominations that they do here. And verse 12. Then said he unto me, Son of Man, hast thou seen what the Ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark? &c. And it appears by the whole Chapter, that God was no less offended with these secret Idolatries, then with those in public; and no less provokt, then to bring on and hasten his Judgments on the whole Land for these also.

Having shown thus, that Popery, as being Idolatrous, is not to be tolerated either in Public or in Private; it must be now thought how to remove it and hinder the growth thereof, I mean in our Natives, and to Foreigners, Privileg'd by the Law of Nations. Are to punish them by corporal punishment, or fines in their Estates, upon account of their Religion? I suppose it stands not with the Clemency of the Gospel, more then what appertains to the security of the State: but first we must remove their Idolatry, and all the furniture thereof, whether Idols, or the Mass wherein they adore their God under Bread and Wine: for the Commandment forbids to adore, not only any Graven Image, but the likeness of any thing in Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Water under the Earth, thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them, for I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God. If they say that by removing their Idols we violate their Consciences, we have no warrant to regard Conscience which is not grounded on Scripture: and they themselves confess in their late defences, that they hold not their Images necessary to salvation, but only as they are enjoyn'd them by tradition.

Shall we condescend to dispute with them? The Scripture is our only Principle in Religion; and by that only they will not be Judg'd, but will add other Principles of their own, which, forbidden by the Word of God, we cannot assent to. And the common Maxim also is Logic is, against them who deny Principles, we are not to dispute. Let them bound their disputations on the Scripture only, and an ordinary Protestant, well read in the Bible, may turn and wind their Doctors. They will not god about to prove their Idolatries by the Word of God, but run to shifts and evasions, and frivolous distinctions: Idols they say are Laymen's Books, and a great means to stir up pious thoughts and Devotion in the Learnedst. I say they are no means of God's appointing, but plainly the contrary: Let them hear the Prophets; Jer. 10. 8. The stock is a Doctrine of Vanities. Habakkuk 2. 18. What profiteth the graven Image that the maker thereof hath graven it: The Molten Image and a teacher of Lies? But they allege in their late answers, that the Laws of Moses giv'n only to the Jews, concern not us under the Gospel: and remember not that Idolatry is forbidden as expressly, [in several places of the Gospel,] But with these wiles and fallacies compassing Sea and Land, like the Pharisees of old, to make on Proselyte, they lead away privily many simple and ignorant Souls, men or women, and make them twofold more the Children of Hell then themselves, Matt. 23. 15. But the Apostle hath well warn'd us, I may say, from such Deceivers as these, for their mystery was then working. I beseech you Brethren, saith he, mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them; for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the heart of the simple, Rom. 16. 17, 18.

—John Milton, Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration.

Again and again in the polemics of the 1640s (and as late as the 1670s, in his final tract, Of True Religion)Milton batters away at the "grossenesse, and blindnesse" of those who would return to the "new vomited Paganisme of sensuall Idolatry,"
that they might bring the indward acts of the Spirit to the outward, and customary ey-Service of the body, as if they could make God earthly, and fleshly, because they could not make themselves heavenly, and Spirituall: they began to draw downe all the Divine intercours, betwixt God, and the Soule, yea, the very shape of God himselfe, into an exterior, and bodily forme. (3:2)
Here and elsewhere Milton inveighs against the "Idolatrous erection of Temples beautified exquisitely to out-vie the Papists," against the "snares of Images, Pictures, rich coaps, [and] gorgeous Altar-clothes" (3:54), and against those who, like the impious Jews of Ezekiel 23, "go a whooring after all the heathenish inventions" because they crave a "religion gorgeously attir'd and desirable to the eye" (3:355).

—Ernest B. Gilman, Down Went Dagon, pp. 152-153

The opposition of Christ and Satan in Paradise Lost is in the same way, as John Steadman has argued, the difference between image and idol, the "eikon and the eidolon of heroic virtue." The Son is the image of the Father's glory; Satan, in his "Sun-bright chariot," is the false appearance or phantasm of that image, the "idol of Majesty Divine" (6:100-1). His fallen legions, left free to wander the earth after the Fall, will inaugurate the history of idolatry in the shape of "various Idols through the Heathen World" (1:375), and their poluted rites will become the type of Catholic mis-devotion of the political idolatry of the Stuart court.

—Ernest B. Gilman, Down Went Dagon, p. 162

The Fall, Adam learns, was the original iconoclastic act, by which men defaced their "Maker's Image" in themselves (11:510-25). It will have to be repaired by the destruction of those idolatrous images they have put in its place.

—Ernest B. Gilman, Down Went Dagon, p. 166

[Samson Agonistes]

To waver, or fall off and join with idols;
Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow,
The anguish of my soul, that suffers not
Mine eye to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest.
This only hope relieves me, that the strife
With me hath end; all the contest is now
'Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presum'd,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,
His deity comparing and preferring
Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,
Will not connive, or linger, thus provok'd,
But will arise and his great name assert:
Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted trophies won on me,
And with confusion blank his worshippers.

—John Milton, Samson Agonistes

“Many, instead of gathering to Christ, they gather to an idol of their own fancy"

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In gathering to Shiloh, people are made to act knowingly and judiciously, under the influences of the Spirit, as a Spirit of light; and to act as in a matter of the greatest concern, with judgment and understanding, saying, as John vi. 68. To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Many gather together in a confused way, and know not wherefore they meet together; but this gathering includes knowledge, and saving spiritual illumination; "They that know thy name, will put their trust in thee," Ps. ix. 10. They that know him, will gather to him: there must be a seeing of the Son, before there can be a believing in him, or gathering to him. Many, instead of gathering to Christ, they gather to an idol of their own fancy; when they hear of Christ, their idolatrous, carnal mind represents a carnal image of Christ in their own brain: as those, Hos. xiii. 2. that are said to have made idols according to their own understanding; so, many in their own imagination, form an idea of Christ; and this idea or image of Christ, that they have in their own mind, is all that they have for Christ. But, O Sirs, when Christ is externally revealed in the gospel, there must be a marvelous light discovering him in himself, making him known, though not perfectly, yet really and truly as he is; not only as he is man, but as God-man, having all the fulness of the Godhead in him, and all the glory of God appearing in his face, 2 Cor. iv. 6. so as the soul cannot but cleave and adhere to him. A painted sun will neither give light nor heat, but the real sun gives both: so a painted image and representation of Christ, in the imagination, gives no spiritual light, heat, nor communicates any transforming virtue; but the true Sun of righteousness ariseth with healing under his wings. It is true, this light is not without mists and smoke, sent forth from the bottomless pit, to darken all; but yet there is such a clear discovery of the man's inability, of God's gracious offer, and Christ's good-will, and mind to the bargain, as determines the soul to its duty.

—Ralph Erskine, "The Happy Congregation"

The next sign and discovery of unbelief, is men's receiving a false Christ, an idol of their own fancy, instead of the true Christ; they that compound Christ, or add any thing to him, make to themselves a false Christ; as they that would have Christ and the world both, Christ and their lusts too: Christ they must have to satisfy their consciences; and lusts they must have to satisfy their heart. Hence they meditate, and meditate a league between Christ and their darling idols: such a mixed Christ is a false Christ. Thus many would make their own righteousness, their tears, and melting affections, in part, if not wholly, their Christ. As the gospel hypocrite makes his very faith his Christ; so the legal hypocrite makes his duties his Christ. The political hypocrite will join his carnal prudence with Christ's wisdom, and so make it in part his Christ. The refined hypocrite will make the common assistance and influences of the Spirit rests to him, and put them in the room of Christ. Are not all these so many false Christs? Yea, a divided Christ is a false Christ, while men would receive him as Jesus, to save them from hell; but not as a Lord, to rule over their lusts: they would share in his benefits, but not in his person. There is something in Christ that they like, and something that they dislike: they like the blood that came forth of his heart, to wash their guilty consciences; but they dislike the water that came forth also, to wash their filthy hearts.

The last sign and discovery of unbelief, is men's receiving a truth Christ in a false manner; as when Christ is received, but not in his grandeur. A prince is then received aright, when he is received according to his dignity: if a subject should receive his prince, and entertain him no otherwise than he would do a peasant, or country neighbour, this would be interpreted a contempt: So, if Christ be not received according to his grandeur, and dignity, and state, he counts it a contempt rather than a right reception of him. Christ will be received as LORD, or not at all: he will be a KING, or nothing. This was the sin of the Jews, they could be content to receive Christ as a great Prophet, as the Mahometans do; but they did not receive him according to his grandeur, or that greatness and glory which he was invested with, and therefore they are said not to receive him; John i. 11. He came to his own, but his own received him not. Whereas John says of the believing Jews that received him, that they beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; that is, they received him in all his grandeur, splendor, majesty, and glory. Thus men receive not Christ, but shew their unbelief, even in receiving the true Christ in a false manner. When Christ is not received as he is offered in the gospel, he is received in a false manner: He is offered fully, freely, cordially, and constantly; and the right reception is also full, free, cordial, and constant: men may therefore receive him in a false manner, which is as good as rejecting of him; when they do not receive him fully, without dividing him; freely, without buying him; cordially, without reluctancy; and constantly, without repentance, or being dissatisfied with the bargain.

—Ralph Erskine, "The Duty of Receiving CHRIST, and Walking in him, opened."

Why is it that such honour, worship, and adoration is due to Christ? even because he is the Father's representative image as man, even as he is his essential image as God. It is gross idolatry to worship God out of this image, or by any other image, either mental or real. Ah! shall the devil make men worship the image of the beast? Rev. xiii. 1-8.; and shall not we for ever honour this ever-living, everlasting image of our God? Why is it that what honour is done to Christ, is done to the Father, and what dishonour is done to him, is done to the Father? John v. 23. Because the Father hath ordered that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father; and declares, he that honours not the Son, honours not the Father? Why? even as they that see not Christ, see not the Father; and they that know not Christ, know not the Father; so they that do not honour Christ, do not honour the Father. They that disobey Christ, disobey the Father; they that displease Christ, displease the Father; they that believe in Christ, believe in the Father; therefore, says Christ here in the context, Ye believe in God, believe also in me: which intimates this, among other things, that though one may believe in God, in some respect, without believing in Christ, yet we cannot believe in Christ, without believing in God; for, by him we believe in God, 1 Peter i. 21.

—Ralph Erskine, "The Saving Sight; or, a View of God in Christ."

Walter Lowrie, Missionary to China: No Images of Jesus Christ

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He then asked me, if we used no images of Jesus Christ? I said no; that the Roman Catholics used a crucifix, but that I thought this wrong, and that it was folly to worship any image.

—Walter Lowrie, missionary to China

Charlotte Elliott “Friend unseen"

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O holy Savior, Friend unseen,

The faint, the weak on Thee may lean,

Help me, throughout life’s varying scene,

By faith to cling to Thee.

—Charlotte Elliott, O Holy Savior, Friend Unseen

In my heart Thy words I cherish,

Though unseen Thou still art near;

Since Thy sheep shall never perish,

What have I to do with fear?

Trusting in Thy Word I stand,

None shall pluck me from Thy hand.

—Charlotte Elliott, Safe in Christ

“We love an unseen absent friend"—Thomas Kelly

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"Whom having not seen ye love." 1 Pet. i. 8.

WE have not seen the Saviour yet:
Nor shall we until life shall end;
But yet we love him for his grace:
We love an unseen absent friend.

The glorious work he wrought, endears
The Saviour to his people's hearts:
In hope they wait till he appears;
And hope a present joy imparts.

They hope to see their Lord that day,
Descend with all the hosts of heav'n;
The Lord, who bore their sins away:
The Lord, through whom they stand forgiv'n.

They hope, that what they now believe,
They then with joyful eyes shall see:
No more to doubt, no more to grieve;
But with their Lord himself to be.

'Till that bright day we'll think of him;
And may our love with fervour glow:
An unseen Lord be all our theme,
'Till with him hence to Heav'n we go.

—Thomas Kelly (1769-1855)

Andrew Gray: “Faith exerciseth itself upon an invisible object, even upon Christ not seen"

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The mysterious acting of the grace of Faith exerciseth itself upon an invisible object, even upon Christ not seen, according to that word, 1 Pet. 5:7. Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, &c. I pose the greater part to you who are here, whether or not these be two of the greatest Paradoxes and mysteries unto you? For is not this a mystery, to love him whom we never saw? Whom having not seen, yet ye love: To love an absent and unseen Christ, is a mystery to the most part of the world: and is not this a mystery, to believe on him whom we never saw? In whom, though ye see him not, yet believing. And I shall add this that Faith can hold fast its interest with God, not withstanding the most precious Christian should call us hypocrites, and not acknowledge us, this is clear in the practice of Job; And most clear from that word, Isa. 63:16. Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.

—Andrew Gray

Jesus, These Eyes Have Never Seen

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Jesus, these eyes have never seen
That radiant form of Thine;
The veils of sense hangs dark between
Thy blessed face and mine.

I see Thee not, I hear Thee not,
Yet art Thou oft with me;
And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot
As where I meet with Thee.

Yet though I have not seen, and still
Must rest in faith alone;
I love Thee, dearest Lord, and will,
Unseen, but not unknown.

When death these mortal eyes shall seal,
And still this throbbing heart,
The rending veil shall Thee reveal,
All glorious as Thou art.

—Ray Palmer, 1858. Original Trinity Hymnal, #545

David Brainerd on Imaginary Notions of Christ's Human Nature

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This sweet and surprising ecstasy appeared to spring from a true spiritual discovery of the glory, ravishing beauty, and excellency of Christ: and not from any gross imaginary notions of his human nature; such as that of seeing him in such a place or posture, as hanging on the cross, as bleeding, dying, as gently smiling, and the like; which delusions some have been carried away with.

—David Brainerd, Brainerd's Journal, Lord's day, March 9, 1746.

Yet it must be acknowledged, that, when this work became so universal and prevalent, and gained such general credit and esteem among the Indians as Satan seemed to have little advantage of working against it in his own proper garb, he then transformed himself 'into an angel of light,' and made some vigorous attempts to introduce turbulent commotions of the passions in the room of genuine convictions of sin, imaginary and fanciful notions of Christ, as appearing to the mental eye in a human shape, and in some particular postures, etc. in the room of spiritual and supernatural discoveries of his divine glory and excellency, as well as divers other delusions. I have reason to think, that, if these things had met with countenance and encouragement, there would have been a very considerable harvest of this kind of converts here.

Spiritual pride also discovered itself in various instances. Some persons who had been under great affections, seemed very desirous from thence of being thought truly gracious: who, when I could not but express to them my fears respecting their spiritual state, discovered their resentments to a considerable degree upon that occasion. There also appeared in one or two of them an unbecoming ambition of being teachers of others. So that Satan has been a busy adversary here, as well as elsewhere. But blessed be God, though something of this nature has appeared, yet nothing of it has prevailed, nor indeed made any considerable progress at all. My people are now apprised of these things, are made acquainted, that Satan in such a manner 'transformed himself into an angel of light,' in the first season of the great outpouring of the divine Spirit in the days of the apostles; and that something of this nature, in a greater or less degree, has attended almost every revival and remarkable propagation of true religion ever since. They have learned so to distinguish between the gold and dross, that the credit of the latter 'is trodden down like the mire of the streets;' and, as it is natural for this kind of stuff to die with its credit, there is now scarce any appearance of it among them.

As there has been no prevalence of irregular heats, imaginary notions, spiritual pride, and Satanical delusions among my people; so there have been very few instances of scandalous and irregular behavior among those who have made a profession, or even an appearance of seriousness. I do not know of more than three or four such persons who have been guilty of any open misconduct, since their first acquaintance with Christianity; and not one who persists in anything of that nature. Perhaps the remarkable purity of this work in the latter respect, its freedom from frequent instances of scandal, is very much owing to its purity in the former respect, its freedom from corrupt mixtures of spiritual pride, wild fire, and delusion, which naturally lay a foundation for scandalous practices.

May this blessed work in the power and purity of it prevail among the poor Indians here, as well as spread elsewhere, till their remotest tribes shall see the salvation of God! Amen.

—David Brainerd, Brainerd's Journal

“We saw him not with our bodily eyes"—Robert Rollock

2011-07-01T23:57:00.001-07:00

Then I see that all these tidings that tell us of things that are not seen, have every one of them a promise joined with them that we shall see them come to pass. Believe thou that he hath suffered, and thou shalt see that he hath suffered, and believe that he is in glory, and thou shalt see him in glory. We saw him not with our bodily eyes, but we have that blessing which the Lord pronounced to Thomas, John, chapter xx. verse 29, "Blessed are they which never saw me, and yet do believe in me." Now, blessed for ever shall that soul be that never saw the Lord, and yet believes in him, and I speak to thee a sore word; if thou believest not until thou see him, thou shalt never see him; if thou believest not that he died, until thou see that he died, thou shalt never see him but to thy damnation. Hope under hope and against hope.

Brethren, many are the impediments that will stay us; so that we will say, "I will never see him. I hear much speaking of heaven, but, alas! I fear I shall never see it. I hear much spoken of life, but, alas! I fear I shall never see life."

And these are the temptations of the most godly men and women of this world. Yet, against all these temptations believe God's promises, and hope for life; for Paul says, in the Epistle to the Romans, the fifth chapter and the fifth verse, "Faith brings forth experience, and hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts abundantly by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." No, let none of these temptations hinder us; that thing that holds back the infidels shall work for the best to thee that fearest the Lord, and if thou fearest the Lord, I promise thee, in the name of God, all these temptations shall further thee, and thou shalt be partaker of life.

—Robert Rollock, Of the Resurrection of Christ. The Thirtieth Lecture.

Take heed to this. The apostle says, "We live by faith, and not by sight;" yet, however it be, that man or women believe, they are blessed; and blessed art thou, man or woman, that believest either for hearing or seeing; and suppose thou feelest him by the hands, and believest in him as Thomas did that felt him, thou art blessed. But that is an evil thing, when thou hast the word and yet suspendest thy faith until thou seest.

It was an evil thing in Peter and John that they let the word pass, and believed it not; it was an evil thing in Thomas that he believed not until he felt Christ; and I say to thee, it is a sure thing, if thou refusest to believe until thou seest, thou adventurest and hazardest thy life and salvation; and I say to thee, if thou contemnest this word, and say this, "I will not believe until I see him," I give thee thy doom, thou shalt never see him to thy comfort nor salvation. Therefore, if he say to thee, and if he promise, he will give thee heaven, believe it, and lay hold on it although thou wert dying; and if he say to thee that he will give thee life, depend and stick by his promise. Thou honourest thy God in believing and depending on his promise, for thou canst not do him greater honour than to believe his promise. And albeit thou see little appearance outwardly, and if thou believest the word, without doubt, thou shalt get a sight of him one day to thy comfort and endless consolation.

Depend and wait on patiently with Abraham, and ever stick and lay hold on the promise, and I promise to thee, in his name, believe the promise of life, and thou shalt see life; believe in him, and thou shalt see him one day. Blessed are they who believe in him, and yet see him not. Blessed are they who walk by faith, for one day they shall walk by sight. Strive to believe in his word, and look on him, and heaven and earth shall perish, ere thou wantest that sight of him one day. Yet I may not pass by the words of John; I see in him a wonderful plainness and singleness of heart. Which of us will be contented that another register our faults, that any other might read them, "this man sinned this way and that way?" Then, who will write up his own faults with his own hands, as he does? He says, he was ignorant. So, then, if there were none other argument to tell us that this book is dited by the Spirit of God, and that it is the Word of God, this singleness of writing their own faults without affection or self-love, which ever would entice us to honour ourselves, tells us sufficiently.

But, naturally, rather than thou hadst thy parents or thy kinsfolk ashamed, thou wouldst rather have God's glory and justice smothered and defaced. But see if Moses spared to register the faults of Levi, of whom he was descended; see if he spared Aaron; see if he spared himself. No, he tells his own fault, he tells his own infidelity. And, again, see if David spares himself; sets he not down his own adultery and murder? John registrates his own ignorance. Let God be glorified, and all creatures ashamed, for to that end were we created; for except he had respected his own glory, we should never have been made. Should we not then seek his glory, although it were with our own shame? John learns us here another good lesson, how often soever we fail through ignorance. Alas! we fail often through ignorance and misbelief, and ignorance brings on infidelity. And, therefore, whensoever we fail through ignorance, lay not the blame of thy blindness upon the Scripture. In pain of thy life, say not, "I am ignorant, because the Scripture is obscure and dark," as the Pope and his shavelings blasphemously allege; but I affirm, that it is so perfect, that all things appertaining to thy salvation are contained therein. And I say, in despite of the Pope, thou who sayest it is obscure, one day thou shalt not be challenged so much for thine ignorance, as for thy blasphemy against God, when thou wilt stand up and say, "The Scripture of God is not perfect, but obscure and wanting." I tell you, one day these blasphemers, for all their out-crying, shall have their mouths sewed up, and they shall make an offer to speak, and to say, "The Scripture of God was not perfect," but the conscience of them shall so strike them with fear and terror, that they shall not be able to answer one word. Woe to them that impair the authority of the Scripture! We may pingle with them a while here, but we remit them to that great day that the Judge appear, and then they shall receive their reward for their blasphemy. But to leave them, what are these Scriptures that preach Christ's resurrection from the dead? In what part is his resurrection foretold? In the xiii. of the Acts, verse 34, Paul, preaching of Christ, he confirms it by the Old Scriptures. The first Scripture is out of the lv. of Isaiah, verse 3,1 where he says, "He will make an everlasting covenant with you, of the sure mercies of David;" then he concludes, "Therefore, it behoved the Lord to rise from death." Mark the consequent; no, there is not such a thing as that ever mercy had continued, if Christ had not risen. The apostle says, in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the first chapter, and the twentieth verse, "In him are all the promises of God yea and amen." No, thou or I should never have had faith, nor any spiritual grace, if Christ had not risen; so, so oft as ever thou feelest a spunk or motion of that spiritual life within thee, thou mayest say, "I am sure that Jesus is risen from the death;" for this is sure, all grace and life flow from the life of Jesus. So, if he had not risen, thou shouldst have had no life. He hath another Scripture out of the sixteenth Psalm, at the tenth verse, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave, neither wilt suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Then he concludes, "therefore he is risen." How follows this? It follows well enough, for if he had not risen, his body behoved to rot, and to be corrupted, as ours rot. And Peter, in the second chapter of the Acts, and verse thirty-first, uses the same testimony. Likewise in the liii. chapter of Isaiah, and the eighth verse, where he prophesies of Christ, he says, "And who is able to count his generation?"-for all his death, he is that everlasting essence; meaning, that albeit he died, he shall rise to life without end.

There is another Scripture, "Then they should have believed without sight." But, alas! who is careful to get this knowledge of this resurrection? And if we had a care to seek Christ, we would turn over these Old Scriptures to see the prophecies of Christ to come, and then we would come to the New Testament to see these things accomplished, and so would meditate in the Scriptures night and day to confirm our faith, and to get our hearts set and stablished on the Lord; for it is a matter of great difficulty to get the heart stablished with grace, and if thine heart be not established and filled with that word, thou wilt never see Christ, nor get any grace in him. So, to end this, I beseech you, as ever ye would see Christ, be diligent to seek the Scriptures, that ye may settle your hearts here upon him and believe in him, that hereafter ye may see him to your comfort and consolation at his second coming, when he shall appear in the clouds with the millions of angels. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

—Robert Rollock, Of the Resurrection of Christ. The Thirty-Second Lecture.

Now, to go forward to the third part of this narration of Cleopas concerning Christ. Before he comes to it, he makes a rehearsal of these same things which had happened that same day in the morning: "For, on the third day in the morning, there went out some women," (he himself was not so ready; it had been better for himself to have said, "I went out to the grave, and I saw and I heard this,") "and they have made us" (the disciples of Christ) " all astonied: for they told us, that they found not the body of Christ. But they told us that they found angels, and that the Lord was risen and alive; but for all this we believed not. Then some of us, who were men, namely, Peter and John, who went out and they found this, that the Lord was out of the grave." But, mark his last words, "But none of them saw the Lord." Alas! these two disciples apparently had come out of Hierusalem ere Mary Magdalene and some other women, who went out that same day, had returned and showed that they had seen the Lord. They went away over soon to Emmaus. But look what he concluded. They saw him not, therefore he was not risen. This is it that they would conclude: because they could not see him with their bodily eyes, therefore, they looked never to see him, as if we should have measured the Redeemer and the redemption by gross and carnal senses. Look if he concluded well? He should have concluded the contrary; "We could not see him with our eyes and senses, and, therefore, we believe he is the Redeemer." That is the conclusion that he should have gathered; for faith is the demonstration of things which are not seen, as the apostle speaks, Heb. xi. 1. This is a false conclusion, "We cannot see him with our bodily eyes, therefore, we cannot hope to see him." But, by the contrary, "We cannot see him with our bodily eyes, therefore, we believe and hope to see him." Then we see this in Cleopas and his fellow; suppose they were with Christ, and should have had an eye to have seen, yet they are mere carnal; for, leaning only to the senses of the body, they are more natural than spiritual, and so they conclude, they should never see the Lord. For suppose they spake not this with their mouths, yet they thought it in their hearts, and they were standing betwixt hope and despair. No, if thou be but a natural man, thou shalt believe nothing but that which thou conceivest and feelest with thy senses, but for heavenly things thou canst not believe them; heaven and hell will be but fables to thee, and all will be but folly unto thee. There are enough of these men in this town; and, therefore, as ever thou wouldst see heaven, as thou wouldst live hereafter, and as thou wouldst reign in glory, seek to have spiritual senses which may pass far beyond nature, a spiritual eye to see things heavenly, and a spiritual hand to feel things heavenly, or else thou shalt die and perish, and thou shalt never have life hereafter. Then, in time, seek to be spiritual, and to seek heaven and heavenly things. A bodily eye will never perceive these things.

—Robert Rollock, Of the Resurrection of Christ. The Thirty-Eighth Lecture.

But thou wilt say, "I cannot see him, how then can I adore him? The apostles saw his glorious presence with their eyes, therefore they ought to have worshipped him; but as for us, who live in these days, after his ascension to heaven, we see him not, and, therefore, how can we worship him?" But I answer thee, It is true, thou seest him not now with the eyes of thy body, but thou seest him with the eyes of thy soul, thou seest him with the eyes of faith, thou seest him in the word and sacraments, first crucified, and then glorified. And if thou wilt not worship him when thou seest him here present in the word and sacraments, thou wouldest not have worshipped him, if thou hadst seen him with the eyes of thy body face to face. Those profane bodies, who will not worship him now when they see him present in the mirror of the gospel, they will never get leave to worship him in the kingdom of heaven. Thinkest thou not that the Lord is seen present in his word? What means Paul, then, when he says, "That an unlearned man coming into the meetings of the faithful, where many are prophesying, finding himself rebuked and judged of all, and the secrets of his heart made manifest, that he will fall down on his face and worship God, and say plainly, that God is among them indeed?" 1 Corinth. chap. xiv. ver. 24 and 25. What sees the unlearned man among them, that makes him to fall down and give such a confession? No question, but the glorious light of the gospel shines into his soul, and Christ offers himself present to be seen by the eye of faith. The faithful, this day, by experience, find in their meetings this same presence of the Lord. And, therefore, it becomes us, in all our meetings, ever to worship the Lord, and to sit, with fear and reverence, to hear the word, and to prepare our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord promises, and offers with the preaching of the word to all his chosen.

—Robert Rollock, Of the Resurrection of Christ. The Fifty-Third Lecture.

Voddie Baucham on Images of Christ in Films

2011-06-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Is the law sin? Absolutely not!

—Romans 7:7

That is what many Christians today say—that the Law is sinful.

"Aw, naw. No Christian today would ever say that the law is sinful!"

Yes, Christians say that—that it's sinful.

There is a ministry that we hopefully will have an opportunity to partner with, to do some Bible translations. This ministry has a partnership with another ministry that translates a very famous film on the life of Christ. And this very famous film that's used in the mission field all over the place, for the life of Christ, is usually attached to their translation projects. We were talking with them about doing their specific translation project—in a specific area where we are very intimately involved. And our response to them was,

"We love the idea of a translation project, you do this very inexpensively, we could probably sponsor this project as a church, but not if it means that you translate that film on the life of Christ."

They go,

"Wh...Why?"

"Be cause of the Second Commandment and graven images."

"What? What did you just say?"

"Yeah, because of the Second Commandment and graven images. These people don't know anything about God, you show them a film about God in Christ—there is a person who is playing God in Christ Jesus. You are calling them to be worshipers of God in Christ Jesus and you've given them an image of Him in a film. We believe that's a violation of the Second Commandment and we don't want to fund that."

The response,

"Oh, that's legalism! Legalism is sinful!"

—Voddie Baucham, The law is sin? By no means!

“then do we join Teraphim, when we rest not upon Scripture alone"

2011-06-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

It is a very great and fearful evil for men in searching to know any thing of Gods mind, not to keep themselves to God's ways of knowledge, to God's own ordinances. It concerneth us much now this day. We are about inquiring the mind of God, that we may know it about matters concerning the Common-wealth, but more especially about Religion. I suppose there is none of us but will acknowledge that way that God hath appointed for the revealing of his will is the Scripture, that we must look into the Scripture, and seek to know God's mind there; that is good, but let us not join Teraphim with it; then do we join Teraphim, when we rest not upon Scripture alone, but search after rules of mans devising, and what will stand with our own carnal ends. The Lord may justly meet with us in wrath, if we presume to join our Teraphim with his Ephod. Pray that at this day where there is so much searching after God's mind, that those who are employed in it, may keep themselves to the Ephod, to the Scriptures, to that which is God's ordinance for the revealing of his mind, that they may not join the Teraphim, their own fancies and inventions of men with the Scriptures; so long as we keep to that rule, we may hope to do well enough; but if the Teraphim be joined with the Ephod, if any thing be joined with the Scriptures, though it may seem to be never so rational, we have cause to fear God will leave us.

We find this word Teraphim used sometime in Scripture for the image of any man: as 1 Sam. 19:13 when Michal took an image, and laid it to the bed instead of David, the word in the Hebrew is Teraphim: so when Rachel stole away her fathers images, the word is, she stole away her father's Teraphim, and some think they were her fathers Divining images, and that she did rather steal those then any others, because she would not have her father divine which way they were gone. Zachar. 10:2 it is said the idols have spoken vanity; the word is the Teraphim. By which we may see they were wont to ask of their idols about their successes. And sometime we find in Scripture that Idolatry is called by this name, as 1 Sam. 15:23 Stubborness is as idolatry, the word is, is as Teraphim.

—Jeremiah Burroughs, An exposition of the prophesie of Hosea

Beyond the Symbols By A.W. Tozer

2011-06-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Beyond the Symbols
By A.W. Tozer

I have noticed lately among so-called evangelicals a renewed interest in the religious gadgets that our Protestant fathers once threw away to make room for the Holy Spirit.

It is becoming more common now to see in our churches (and in some Alliance churches, I regret to say) huge pictures of Christ, crosses on the altar, candles and other symbolic objects.

This is the sure way back to formalism and death. In proportion as the Presence of Christ is felt in a congregation these things will be unnecessary, even offensive. And as the Presence lifts and withdraws, these symbols are brought in as poor substitutes.

The human heart must have something to love and fear. If it misses the true God it will make a god of its own. A crowd of persons who pray to a false god is not a church in any sense of the word, even if the word "Christian" or "church" appears on the front of the building.

Affections Fixed Upon an Unseen Saviour

2011-06-04T20:55:00.001-07:00

If I was to describe him [a Believer] from the Scripture-character, I should say, he is one whose heart is athirst for God, for his glory, his image, his presence: his affections are fixed upon an unseen Saviour; his treasures, and consequently his thoughts, are on high, beyond the bounds of sense. Having experienced much forgiveness, he is full of bowels of mercy to all around; and having been often deceived by his own heart, he dares trust it no more, but lives by faith in the Son of God, for wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and derives from him grace for grace; sensible that without him he has not sufficiency even to think a good thought. In short— He is dead to the world, to sin, to self, but alive to God, and lively in his service. Prayer is his breath, the word of God his food, and the ordinances more precious to him than the light of the sun. Such is a believer—in his judgment and prevailing desires.

—John Newton

A Hymn on 1 Peter 1:8

2011-06-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

"Whom having not seen ye love." 1 Pet. i. 8.

WE have not seen the Saviour yet:
Nor shall we until life shall end;
But yet we love him for his grace:
We love an unseen absent friend.

The glorious work he wrought, endears
The Saviour to his people's hearts:
In hope they wait till he appears;
And hope a present joy imparts.

They hope to see their Lord that day,
Descend with all the hosts of heav'n;
The Lord, who bore their sins away:
The Lord, through whom they stand forgiv'n.

They hope, that what they now believe,
They then with joyful eyes shall see:
No more to doubt, no more to grieve;
But with their Lord himself to be.

'Till that bright day we'll think of him;
And may our love with fervour glow:
An unseen Lord be all our theme,
'Till with him hence to Heav'n we go.

—Thomas Kelly (1769-1855)

Thomas Goodwin on False Christs

2011-05-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

We must labour to have our minds and faith well established in the true knowledge of the person of Christ, since it is a truth of so great moment unto us, and the mischiefs of erring about it will be destructive to our souls.

And the weight or importance that our faith be set and kept right in this point appears in that errors and mistakes herein, as they have been frequent, so fatal in all ages, and to all sorts of men that have had the knowledge or hearsay of our Christ.

1. To the Jews 'Christ was a stumblingblock,' 1 Cor. 1:23, both in what his person should be, as appears John 10:33 and other places, as also that his righteousness alone, through faith, should be the righteousness of a sinner, is in like manner said to be a stumbling block, Rom. 9:33. Their heads were mightily then taken up and busied who that man Jesus should be; and how many various opinions did the devils buzz into their minds to divert them from that which was the truth, and alone was to save them! Some said he was John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. And thus it is now at this day. The Jews, according to the principles and fancies of that age, had those forementioned several opinions of him, and perhaps many more. And in this age, according to other principles which Satan possesseth men's brains withal, several opinions are raised up, what this Christ should be, whilst all are zealous to profess him.

Then, again, Christ himself foretold it, as a forerunning sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, that the Jews having rejected him, the true Christ, they should be given up to many false Christs, [Gk.]. Now, those days, and the occurrences thereof, afore Jerusalem's destruction, are made types of the like to fall out (even in this particular point) in the days preceding the end of the world (whereof Jerusalem's destruction was itself a type in Christ's intention in that chapter). And accordingly these days now. Although Jesus at Jerusalem is more generally acknowledged by almost all that profess Christianity, yet in assigning what and wherein his being Christ consists, herein men have and shall run into as many several sorts of Christs as the Jews had done; one saying, Here is Christ, another, There is Christ; one that this is Christ, another this.

And such buddings and sproutings forth of such errors began in those first times, whilst Paul and other apostles were on earth, amongst those that pretended to Christian profession, witness those more than hints in several epistles, which Paul plainly styleth the 'preaching of another Christ' than what himself and the other apostles had preached. What else meaneth that passage, 'For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another Spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him,' 2 Cor. 11:2-4. That in these passages he glanceth at some false teachers that had come in among them, as those words, 'if he that cometh to you preach,' &c., ver. 4, evidently imply, that at least such were then abroad in the world, and have been in other churches, and were ready to come to theirs, which Paul was afraid of. But more plain and directly, 'For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,' ver. 13-15. And these expressions do import that the doctrines which these had vented concerning Christ were framed and raised up to so high an appearance of spiritualness, as were not only apt to take with believers, and deceive them, as ver. 3, which made Paul so jealous over them, ver. 2; but further, they seemed so angelical and seraphic, that in these, if ever in any (his depths, as they are called), Satan had shewed his depths, and had played the counterfeit of an angel of light, and transformed himself thereunto in his inventions of them; and when yet, as Paul plainly tells them, that it was but a counterfeit Christ, 'another Jesus than he had preached,' 'another Spirit,' and 'another gospel.' So as the Christ which these false apostles had dressed up, had so high an appearance of Christ's spirit and gospel, as seemed to vie with that true Jesus, &c., which the apostles taught, for glory and spiritual excellencies. And this also, that new form of an oath which the apostle useth upon that coherence, ver. 10, a new one framed to this occasion, 'As the truth of Christ is in me,' &c., says, he which he speaks to import that in those other teachers there was a false Christ, and not the true.

And to affect the Corinthians the more, and arm them with wariness against, and shew them the danger of entertaining any new doctrines about Christ's person, he presenteth and enforceth the moment hereof, under the similitude of marriage, 'I am jealous over you with godly jealousy' (the subject which jealousy is increased about, is fear of what may rise to the breach of the marriage-knot), lest you should entertain the embraces of another; and so it follows, 'for I have espoused you to one husband, and I would present you a chaste virgin to him,' that is, to Christ, to whom as yet you are but espoused. And it is as if he had said, There is but one spiritual husband, and there can be but one, your only husband, Christ. It is not as in the case of other marriages, if you have not such a man you may have another as good, yea, perhaps a better. But if you mistake here in obtaining this one, only one for your husband, you are undone. There can be no greater errors committed in marriage than error personæ, a mistake of the person you are to marry; and when thinking you marry such a man, you marry another. Yea, and if after marriage to one husband you should be deceived, as many women (as stories and experience shew) have been, when their husbands have been long absent and out of sight, others, that have had some resemblance of the true husband, or some privy mark of him, have put themselves upon their wives, and they entertained their embraces. How fatal a thing is this! 'But I fear,' says he, 'lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Even through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,' ver. 3. The devil hath a special malice at the person of Christ, of all other truths concerning him; and to put this high abuse upon him, specially goes about to deceive his spouse in his person, to misrepresent him and deform him; yea, and if possibly he can effect it, put this trick upon him, and great imposture on her, that she should take another Jesus for him, the devil's Jesus instead of God's. and to effect this, of all other, he will use his utmost subtilty. And having been himself an angel of light, he will transform himself in pretended manifestations, and incomes, and ravishments of spirit, that shall accompany the entertainment and embraces of his Christ. He will use all means ('if by any means,' says Paul) to second, credit, and help forward this new match.

And one great occasion of their aptness to be deceived is the simplicity that is in the person of our Christ, not only in his human nature, a carpenter's son, a crucified man, a Christ in flesh, but that when besides for his divine nature, they think they have heard and known already well enough what God's nature is, by what is said of him in the Old Testament, and so in the Father, and to know but the same over again in Christ; this is no great addition to their knowledge. And that no other thing can be affirmed of him but that he is God, and that to think that he should have but the same simple uncompounded nature that God hath, and not be distinct from God therein. They think they are but as wise as they were in this, and so are apt to listen after such representations of a Christ, as shew him to be some divine Spirit that comes out of God, differing from God, which they fancy will afford matter of some new and manifold wisdom, besides that knowledge they have of God by other means. And thus the simplicity of his person (as they esteem this) is apt to cause them to listen after some other story of him. Whereas the glories and wisdom which ariseth from that union of God and man in one person is such, as transcends all other imaginations, though never so raised, which either angels, men, or devils have or could for ever invent concerning him.

And the deceits and trains that Satan lays herein, he compares to those wherewith the serpent deceived Eve, 'Lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve,' &c. He put it into their heads that there was a higher knowledge they might attain than in that keeping of God's law, they had already, or could attain thereby: and further, that themselves should be gods; so seducing them from God. And thus here there is not only a promise of a higher and more spiritual knowledge than that simple story of Christ God-man affords; but that themselves should be Christs. And they frame such a story of Christ as should serve to persuade this, and their capacity of this advance. For a Christ in flesh, which this man Jesus is, say they, you shall have a Christ in spirit. For a Christ without you, that is, God substantially, you shall have, every one of you, a Christ within you; yea, and if need be, they will not stick to affirm, yourselves shall be God substantially; and not be united only to God and Christ, but so united, as to exist in the form of God, and to be one and the same with God. Such or the like workings of this mystery of iniquity, deforming and perverting of the true Christ into another, you find in Paul's time amongst the Corinthians, or of which from false teachers then gone abroad, they were in danger of.

Something answerable, or like to this, the Church at Colossus also were in danger of. Those philosophical teachers which, chap. ii. 8, he gives them warning of, 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' Their doctrines perverted not only the purity of the worship of the gospel, but were intended to the misrepresenting the person of Christ, as appears by many characters; both 1. In that in the very next words, 'For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' He gives them a perfect definition or description of the person of Christ, as in himself considered, and in his fulness to us, ver. 10, 'And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.' And this in a direct opposition (as the coherence shews) unto their philosophical Christ, which they for wisdom and excellency would needs compare with the apostle's Christ. And, 2. In opposition to their counterfeit Christ, it is, that he also sets out his Christ in all the personal excellencies and fulness, the like nowhere in all his epistles, Col. 1:15-18. And then also of his gospel, which is the revelation of him, Col. 1:23, 26, 27 to the end; and as it is the mystery of God the Father, and of Christ, Col. 2:2, 'In whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' Exhorting, that as they had received Christ, so they would walk in him, ver. 6, as in matter of order, so for faith; for unto both those that exhortation is directed, as appears by the coherence with ver. 5, but especially in their faith about the person of Christ, with which he therefore begins, ver. 7, 'Stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving,' being thankful to God he had revealed such a Christ, his Christ to them; for they could not have a better or another. And then follow those words, 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, after the tradition of men, rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' Some of the teachers of those times, finding in philosophers (then in credit) in Plato, Orpheus, Hesiod, Pythagoras, and in the Jewish traditions, many divine things about [Gk.], the Word, and of emanations, and genealogies, and descents from God, as Irenæus shews, of him from God, and of the creatures from him, they dressed up a Christ and a divinity with those philosophical clothes, and colours, and paint, which the apostle says, was not 'after Christ,' as you say a false picture of a man is not after the man, being not taken from him, nor resembling his person, but another clean. They were descriptions of him, not taken from the life or truth that was in him. Whom, therefore, Paul sets out in the substance of him, 'In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' or (you shall give me leave to translate it) 'personally.' And so it was another Christ. And therefore, Col. 3:19, these are said not to hold the head, that is, him, ver. 10, he had styled 'the head of all principalities and powers;' and Col. 1:18, 'the head of the body of his church,' they having clean perverted him to another Christ. And as it was then, so it is now. Men have gone about to bring Paul's, the Scripture-Christ, to Plato's; and as such would obtrude him on the saints.

Thus it was in Paul's time; but John lived longer, after all the apostles, and saw these seeds and buddings then sown come to a greater ripeness, and open and more gross discovery, from blade to ear; and writing that first epistle to the Christian Jews in a more special manner, he seeing what Christ had foretold should fall out about the time of Jerusalem's destruction, both afore and after it, to be fulfilled, doth therefore, 1 John 2:18, give this warning: 'My brethren, it is the last hour' (because the last period of time afore that fatal overthrow of that nation), 'for even now there are many antichrists' (as our Lord had foretold), 'whereby we know that it is the last hour,' we seeing it thus fulfilled. And, 1 John 2:22, 'Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is, [Gk.]' the Christ, the sole and only Christ? And he is an antichristjhat denies the Father and the Son, the distinction of these two, and the personalities. 'And whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.' And, 1 John 4:1, 'Many false prophets are gone out into the world.' And what was the great false point of odds which they endeavoured to sow and diffuse? 1 John 4:3, ' They confessed not that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh,' and that Christ was God; and therefore the catholic faith of all true believers, in opposition to those errors about his person, he gives us; 1 John 5:20, 'And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.' They had other doctrines about their Christs whom they held forth, which were a full denial of all this. You have the like in his second epistle, ver. 7, 9. And to obviate those errors about the person of Christ was it that he wrote those epistles, and his gospel of John, after all the other evangelists and epistles written, exhorting them to hold fast to that Christ whom they had heard and known from the beginning, as himself and the holy apostles had set him forth, 1 John 1:1-8, 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.' And 1 John 2:24, 'Let that therefore abide in yon which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall also continue in the Son, and in the Father.' The like Epistle 1 John 2:9, declaring those that fell into such errors, and continued in them, to be such apostates as never had truth of grace: 1 John 2:19 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us;' and hints how some of them so sinned therein, as that withal they sinned the sin unto death, never to be recovered, 1 John 5:16, 17 (though not all; those words ver. 16 do imply), 'If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.' And of all he judgeth them such, as, without repentance, the saints should have no communion with, 1John 2:9, 10, 11, 'Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed: for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds.' Of this consequence is true faith in this doctrine.

Now, as it was then, so it is now; those times, and the occurrences which then fell out (foretold by Christ) among Jews and Christians afore Jerusalem's destruction, being types of what should now fall out in the last days afore the end of the world; and we have yet but the buddings of what perhaps will grow up to greater ripeness and spreadings, as then they also did.

Multitudes of those that are orthodox in their opinions, or speculative judgments about the person of Christ, yet perish, because they know not, apprehend not, this true Christ, as he is in himself really and spiritually. They know not 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' as Eph. 4:20, 21, the apostle speaks. And this hath and doth fall out amongst all that live in the church. But others begin to err about the very notion of his person, coining other Christs, by diminishing from or adding unto the person of him, as they would represent him to us. And this is as easy as it is dangerous, even as it was an easy thing to make another gospel, and to entertain it, as in the Galatians' example appears, Gal. 1:6, 'I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.' And in that forementioned 2 Cor. 11:15, the apostle speaks the like of preaching another Christ, considering men's aptness to err herein; it is no great thing (says he), though great in respect of the moment of it, yet easy and soon done. And that is the apostle's scope in that speech. And again, as some churches then embraced another gospel (as the Galatians), so upon other churches the devil endeavoured to obtrude another Christ.

And he is soon (in the doctrine about him) made another Christ, either by taking away from him, or adding to him.

1. By taking away from him, as if you take away his Godhead, this alters the person quite, as taking away the reasonable soul from the body of a man, takes instantly away the man, and leaves a brute beast in his room. It turns him into the carcass of a Christ; let him be set forth in words never so gorgeously or gloriously, the substance of his person is stolen away. Or else,

2. By adding to him; for if the joining works to Christ's righteousness, in matter of justification, made another gospel, as the epistle to the Galatians shews, then surely adding the persons of all the saints to the individual one Lord, one husband, Christ, and that they all should be Christ as well as he, equal with him, their union with God the same that he is, this is to un-Christ him.

—Thomas Goodwin, THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST

Primitive Baptists on “Pictures of Jesus"

2011-05-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

(Source: Primitive Baptist Online)

Question: Why do Primitive Baptists not have crucifixes or pictures of Jesus in their churches and homes?

The scriptures unequivocally forbid images of God of any kind (Ex 20:4-5, I Cor 10:14, Gal 5:19-21, I Jn 5:21). Since Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore equal with God (Jn 5:18, Philip 2:5-8), pictures of Jesus must also be censured by these commandments.

Pictures of Jesus are in every sense idols. The popular portraits of Jesus are products of man's imagination, and misrepresent Jesus in dishonoring ways. If Jesus' hair had in fact been long, then Paul would have never condemned this practice (I Cor 11:14).

“The Image of the Invisible God" by W.M. Mitchell

2011-05-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

(Source: Primitive Baptist Online)

The Image of the Invisible God
Written by W.M. Mitchell
The Gospel Messenger—January 1881

Col. 1:15

There are many Scriptural expressions which appear contradictory and paradoxical. The believer in Christ is himself a paradox. That which he would not do, is that which he does, and the good that he would do, is that which he does not. He is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; troubled on every side, yet not distressed; cast down but not destroyed. He endures as “seeing him who is invisible.” Heb. i i: 27. How can that be? That which is invisible is that which cannot be seen. Yet Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. Heb. 2:27.

Natural men and women, as creatures of God, endowed with reason, may see and know much of God as their great Creator from the light of nature: They do see his handiwork in the visible heavens and earth. “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God-head.” Rom. 1:20.

But the light of nature does not, nor can it make known to sinful men the invisible God in his character as “God manifest in the flesh.” It cannot make known the riches of that “hidden wisdom” which God ordained before the world unto the final and eternal glory of his chosen people.

That which is presented in the gospel of our salvation is entirely hidden, and invisible to the natural mind. No light of nature, of reason, science or philosophy, can see or search out that heavenly wisdom which is “hid from all living.” “It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof” Job, 28: 15, 21. It is unsearchable riches. In order to salvation, or of having any assurance of our interest therein, it is important that we know God, in some other and higher sense, than it is possible for us to attain unto by the light of nature, science, human reason or works. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” John 17: 3. To know Jesus Christ in his true character in all his relations to God and to his people is a divine revelation above the brightness of all created things. It is a special revelation by the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. He that seeth the Son of God seeth the Father also. One of the Apostles once said to Jesus, “Lord show us the Father and it sufficeth us;” to which Christ replied, “Have I been so long with you Philip, yet hast thou not known me? He that seeth me seeth the Father also.” “He is the image of the invisible God.” Not merely as to his human form, or as to his physical frame and fashion as a man; but he is the image of the in visible God in character. All the divine perfections of the God-head center in him. He is before all things and by him all things consist.

Could we but see the character of Jesus as embodying in himself all the fullness of the God-head as to its eternity, immensity, immutability, unlimited power, infinite wisdom, everlasting love, perfect righteousness, holiness, justice and truth, we could then see him as the image or likeness of the invisible God. Invisible to our natural senses, it is true, but made known by revelation to faith. By faith we look at and see that which is invisible to our natural understanding. “No man hath seen God at any time.” He dwells in the light which no man hath seen nor can see. He must be seen in his own light. “In thy light we see light.” And that light is not the light of man nor any created light. The Lord is thy light and thy salvation. This light is what Saul of Tarsus saw when he was converted to God. “A light above the brightness of the sun.” The sun is the greatest of all created lights from which all other bodies receive their light. To be illuminated, therefore, by a light above the brightness of the greatest of all created lights is to have the “Lord God for thy sun and shield.”

It has become very common of late days to have images or pictures of the human form of Christ incorporated in our Bibles as though human artist could give the image or likeness of the invisible God. It is nothing short of a desecration of most holy sacred things for any man to attempt to palm off such pictures and paintings as the picture or likeness of Christ Jesus—who is the “brightness of his Father’s glory and the express image of his person" Heb. 1:3. But what is it that the love of money will not induce man to do? Doubtless it was the inordinate love of money, more than hatred to Jesus that induced Judas to betray him for thirty pieces of silver. And doubtless it is the same love of earthly gain rather than a desire to circulate the Bible for truth’s sake that has induced so many to engage in making merchandise of the Sacred Book. Under color and pretence of circulating the Scriptures it is turned into a grand speculation in various ways. Pictures of Christ and his prophets, apostles and martyrs, and many other things, according to the fancy and imagination of the artist, are presented to us in most of the Bibles. These cuts, drawings, painting pictures and images, strike the natural sight and senses and are more adapted to the views the carnal mind has of God, than what is presented in the letter of the word. They are therefore highly commended by the publisher, the merchant, the religious speculator and Bible colporteur.

Instead of presenting the Scriptures of truth on their own merits, they use the sacred name and character of the Bible to put off wares of their own. And they even have the heaven-daring effrontery to give these pictures and gilded bindings as the chief inducement and highest reason why their Bibles should be purchased. They will tell you, “They are so are as an ornament.”

I have been a little astonished to find so many people, especially Primitive Baptists, caught with these gilded baits and fictitious pictures. They are induced to purchase a Bible for the sake of these gaud looking things at a big price, when they would not purchase one alone for the sake of its truth as revealed from heaven, even though it could be bought for a very moderate price. Costly Bibles with rich paintings and or bindings are seldom bought with any other than carnal motives, to gratify the pride and vanity of the sinful heart. Bibles thus purchased are seldom read. In fact, they tend greatly to keep children and many grown people also from reading, by taking up their time in looking at the images and pictures.

Where is the artist who can give us the image or outlines of the features of him whom “no man hath seen nor can see, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto?” 1 Tim. 6: 16 . Who can give us the likeness of his immutability and eternity as he exists the same “yesterday, today and for ever?” Who can take the picture of him who sits upon a great white throne, from whose face the “earth and the heaven fled away and there was no place for them?” Rev. 20:11

The truth is these pretended pictures of the Virgin Mary, of Jesus Christ and others, are all a cheat; they are false drawings and pictures, bearing those noted names only to make them sell the more readily with unsuspecting and thoughtless purchasers. “No man knoweth the Son but the Father, and no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” Mat. 11: 27 . He cannot be revealed to natural men and women by pictures drawn by any human artist. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God, therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” John 3:1.

How then can the world take his likeness or picture? “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” These remarks are submitted for the candid consideration of any who may read them.

W. M. MITCHELL.

Martin Luther's Preface to the Prophets

2011-05-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

From Martin Luther's Preface to the Prophets:

God himself tells us that the children of Israel did not in their public worship intend to commit idolatry, but to worship the one true God. For Hosea says (ch. 2, v. 16)—Thus says the Lord: thou shalt call me my husband, and no longer call me my Baal; for I will take away the name Baalim from their mouths; the name of Baalim shall no longer be remembered. here we may perceive that the children of Israel were not conscious and did not intend the public service to be idolatrous, but to represent the worship of the one true God, since in Hosea God plainly declares they shall no longer call him my Baal. Now, the worship of Baal was the most extensive, the most conspicuous, and the most splendid in Israel. And yet it was pure idolatry, although they actually supposed they were celebrating the worship of the one true God. It is, therefore, no sound argument on the part of our clergymen when they allege they have no idols in their churches, but that they spiritually worship the only one true God. It is not, therefore, to say or even to delude ourselves into the thought—I do all this for the honour of God, or I am now serving in the spirit the true God, because all idolaters do and think the same. It is not a question of intention or of thought, otherwise those who martyred and persecuted the first Christians would be equally the servants of God, for they believed, as Christ himself says (John, ch. 16, v. 2), that by this they were doing God service. St. Paul also (Romans, ch. 10, v. 2) bears testimony to the Jews that they were zealous for God. Again (Acts, ch. 26, v. 7) he says that they serve God day and night in hopes to attain the promised salvation. Every one should be satisfied and convinced that the mode in which he serves God is in conformity with the Word and ordinances of God, and not the produce of his own imagination and good intentions. For he who worships God in a manner which is unsupported by the testimony of God or the Holy Scriptures ought to know that he does not worship the one true God, but an idol of his own imagination, namely, his own thoughts and favourite opinions; or, in other words, the Devil himself,—and thus renders applicable to himself the denunciations of all the Prophets.

"GOD NOT TO BE WORSHIPPED AS REPRESENTED BY AN IMAGE" by Benjamin Needler

2011-05-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

The selection below is from the sermon "GOD NOT TO BE WORSHIPPED AS REPRESENTED BY AN IMAGE." BY THE REV. BENJAMIN NEEDLER, B.C.L. SOMETIME FELLOW OF ST.JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

If any should say, "But doth not nature teach us, that the honour or dishonour done to a picture or image, reflects upon the person represented by it? Is it not an honour to a prince to kiss his picture, and a dishonour to abuse it, or deface it? And therefore is it not an honour to God to do the like, and to give due veneration and adoration unto his image?" For answer to this, take into your consideration these following particulars:—

That it is supposed by this querist,. that an image or picture may be made of God; which ought to be denied, and not taken for granted. "All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." (Isa. xl. 17.) And it follows: "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" (Verse 18.) And why should we make an image of God that is not like him? But our adversaries tell us, that images or pictures made with reference unto God, may be considered two ways: in a proper sense: as if a man should conceive God to have eyes, and ears, and hands, and other bodily parts, as we have, and represent him accordingly by an image. And this our adversaries themselves acknowledge to be an infinite disparagement unto the divine nature; because God, being infinite and invisible, can by no means be represented as he is in himself by any corporeal likeness or figure. Or in a metaphorical and allusive sense: as representing such things as bear a certain analogy or proportion to some divine properties, and thereupon are apt to raise our minds to the knowledge and contemplation of the perfections themselves: as, when God appeared to Daniel as "the Ancient of days," this was to manifest his wisdom and eternity; (Dan. vii. 9 ;) and the Holy Ghost as a dove, this was to signify his purity and simplicity. (Matt. iii. 16.) "Now," say they, "to make an image of God in this sense, is no way dishonourable to him, because it is not made to represent the divine nature by an immediate or proper similitude; but by analogy only, or metaphorical signification; and these images are usually called, by way of distinction, 'symbolical images of God.'" Unto which we say,

1. That the making of any image of God is forbidden in scripture.— "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female:" (Deut. iv. 15, 16:) where God did not forbid them the making of the images of false gods, or that any veneration or worship should be given unto them. This is plain from the text: "Ye saw no manner of similitude ;" the meaning is not that they saw no similitude of any false god, but of the God that spake to them in Horeb. Whereupon the Lord gives them this caution: "Take ye therefore good heed to yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure," &c.

If it be said, that "they were to take heed lest they corrupted themselves by making an image of God in a proper sense, as is before explained, but they were not forbidden to make a symbolical image of God," it is replied,

(1.) I demand where there is any ground in that text for such a distinction between a proper and a symbolical image of God. The words of the law are comprehensive and general: "Take heed, lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure :" and the reason rendered by God is, "For ye saw no manner of similitude in the day the Lord spake to you in Horeb." Mark !" no manner of similitude," no, not so much as symbolical.

(2.) Such an image of God is forbidden, that we are to take great heed to ourselves lest we corrupt ourselves in the making of it. Now there is no such great danger for a man to represent God to himself by an image in a proper sense, as if God had eyes, and hands, and feet, as we have; at least, such are not in danger that are any thing acquainted with the holy scriptures, which expressly tell us, that "God is a Spirit," and that he will be worshipped "in spirit and in truth." (John iv. 24.) It is to be feared, indeed, that the poor ignorant laity amongst the Papists may be in some danger by this means: but knowing persons amongst the Protestants, even those of the laity, are not. If it be said, "It is true, the people of Israel saw no similitude on the day that God spake to them in Horeb; but afterwards God made himself known to them by outward figures and similitudes: to Daniel, as the Ancient of days; (Dan. vii. 9 ;) to our Saviour, in the shape of a dove: (Matt. iii. 16 :) and, besides, the parts and members of man's body are sometimes in scripture ascribed unto God, as eyes, and hands, and feet, &c.: and why may not we represent God as he hath been pleased to represent himself?" to this it is replied, that God may, as he pleaseth, make known himself unto his people by some visible tokens of his extraordinary presence; but then consider,

(i.) That which God was pleased to do sometimes for holy reasons best known unto himself is not the rule of our actions: the word of God is a sufficient rule, and the only rule; and if we would know what sin is, and what duty is, we must take our measures from thence. That in matters of worship we may sin, in imitating God himself otherwise than he hath commanded in his word; we have a famous instance for this in Jeroboam: "Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah;" (1 Kings xii. 32;) and yet you see he is branded for this by the Spirit of God in the scriptures.

(ii.) We never read that Moses and the prophets took care that any figure or image should be made of God, no, not a symbolical image; and it is very strange that they should be so much wanting to themselves, and to the generation wherein they lived, if they were such excellent helps to devotion as some pretend.

(iii.) Though God sometimes by outward figures and similitudes gave notice of his extraordinary presence, yet it was to persons eminent for holiness, and of great and singular wisdom in divine things; as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, and such-like worthies, and such as were able to give a right judgment of things of this nature: but when God spake unto the people in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, they saw no manner of similitude, lest they might corrupt themselves in the making of a graven image, and might have gross and carnal notions concerning God. And, indeed, I cannot but wonder at our adversaries, when they call images "laymen's books," or " the books of the unlearned." Had the use of images been appropriated to the more knowing and learned persons, it would have been more tolerable; there might be some pretence that such persons might from sensible and material representations be raised up to divine and heavenly meditation, even of things surpassing sense: but to conceive that the vulgar and ignorant sort of people, (and the generality of people are so, and ought to be so according to the Popish principles,)—I say, to think that they who are in a manner made up altogether of sense should be taught to worship an infinite, spiritual, invisible Being, by fixing their eyes upon finite, corporeal objects of sense, seems to me to be the first-born of incredibilities.

And whereas it is said that we cannot conceive of God but by forming ideas of him in our minds, which are so many pictures and representations of God: this is true; but then withal we must consider, that these forms and representations of God in our fancies arise from our natural constitution, from our finite and corporeal nature, and ought to be bewailed; and therefore [this] is no argument for worshipping God in any corporeal form; for this may betray us so much the more to gross and undue notions and conceptions concerning God. Nor are our imaginations to guide our understanding; but our understandings must rectify and regulate our imaginations.

(iv.) These outward figures and signs of God's special and extraordinary presence continued only for a time, and for some extraordinary service for which God had designed them, and then disappeared; and it is absurd for any to think that which was by peculiar and extraordinary dispensation should become a constant and ordinary rule unto all generations.

(v.) It is true, that the parts and members of man's body are sometimes ascribed unto God in scripture, as eyes, and hands, and feet, &c.; but it is ridiculous from tropes and metaphors and figurative expressions to form an argument for pictures and images. For if so, we may represent God as the sun, as a fountain, as fire, as a rock; and Christ as a hen, with chickens under his wings; for these are ascribed to God and Christ in scripture; and yet I conceive that Papists themselves would not give any countenance to pictures of this nature. Unto which might be added, that it is not likely that we should be misled into error by such passages as those, when the scripture elsewhere tells us expressly that "God is a Spirit:" but these pretended images of God speak not, nor give us any notice of our danger. Yea, in those very places of scripture, at least some of them, where eyes and hands and feet are ascribed unto God, we may find enough to prove that God is infinite and incomprehensible. For instance: when it is said that heaven is God's throne, and the earth his footstool; (Isai. lxvi. 1 ;) where at first view it seems to be insinuated, as if God had feet, and made use of the earth as his footstool; yet if we seriously consider the whole as it is ascribed unto God, we shall find that it plainly enough speaks God to be an infinite Being. For when it is said, that the whole heaven is God's throne, and the whole earth his footstool, it would not only be absurd, but monstrously ridiculous, for any to conceive that a body like unto man's should be capable of such qualifications, as at the same time to make heaven its throne, and the earth its footstool. So when God is said to deliver Israel by a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm, there is no man can understand it thus, as if God stretched forth his arm out of heaven upon the earth for the deliverance of his people; but that by God's "arm" is meant God's "power," and that it is called his "hand" or "arm" improperly and after the manner of men. Thus the holy scriptures have well provided for the people of God against errors and mistakes concerning God. But how the pretended images of God may acquit themselves in this particular, our adversaries should do well to advise. And therefore let me caution you in God's name, lest you corrupt yourselves in making any graven image of God; and I do it so much the rather, because men have a great fancy to have a god that they may see with their eyes, or at least some visible representations of God; for they think, if he should be out of sight, he would he out of mind also. And hence Papists, and Popishly-affected persons, are more for being at Mass, than for hearing of a sermon; they had rather see their God, than hear another speak eloquently of him: and therefore take heed, lest ye corrupt yourselves in this kind.

And this is the first thing that I would say to this inquiry,—whether it be not an honour to God that due veneration and adoration be given to his image or picture; namely, that this supposes that an image or picture may be made of God, which we deny.

2. The second thing that I would say by way of reply to this inquiry, is this: that civil honour may be paid to the images of kings and princes; but it doth not follow from hence, that the images of Christ and of the saints may have a religious respect paid to them.—The images of kings and princes are civil things, and therefore may have civil honour. If the images of Christ and the saints were sacred, as the other are civil, there might be some colour for what they say; but that they are sacred or holy is to be proved, and till then we leave it to our adversaries to take it into consideration.

3. That it is granted that the abuse or the defacing of the image of a prince redounds to the dishonour of that prince whom it represents; but I hope no indignity is offered to a prince by breaking apieces those pictures that he had expressly forbidden should be graven, or painted, or made, and that under a severe penalty.—Indeed the abuse of those things that are of divine institution, as of the elements in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, or the water in baptism, doth redound unto God himself; but what is this to an image of man's devising, and that not only without any warrant from God, but expressly against his will and commandments? If a man should break a-pieces or throw into the fire the coin that comes into his hands that is false or counterfeit, though it had the prince's image or stamp upon it, yet it would be no dishonour to the prince to deal so by it, but rather a piece of homage and reverence to his authority.

For the further clearing of this matter in controversy between us and our adversaries of Rome, concerning the veneration and adoration that they say may be given to images, we will consider that images may be worshipped two manner of ways.

1. Terminative; that is, when people "terminate" their worship on an image, as if it were God, without looking any further than it. And this is likely to be the sin of the more brutish sort of the blind Heathens, and of many ignorant Papists to this day. And this kind of idolatry is forbidden by the first commandment. This is plain upon this ground: if the first commandment expressly enjoins us to have no other gods but Jehovah, then to worship an image as God is forbidden by this commandment: so that by "making a graven image," in the second commandment, and "falling down before it," and worshipping of it, something else must be understood than the worshipping of it terminative as God; and therefore,

2. Images may be worshipped relative, and "with respect" to the true God; and in this sense our adversaries of the church of Rome would maintain their worship of images. Now this also is unlawful, and forbidden by the second commandment. In this sense the Papists in our days are guilty of idolatry, and the Jews of old were guilty of idolatry; for the Jews, at least many of them, did not worship the images themselves, but the true God by them; and this will appear by instances out of the Sacred Scripture.

(1.) The first instance that I shall give you shall be that of the golden calf, of which we read in Exod. xxxii. That the worshipping of the calf was idolatry, is plain: "Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play;" (1 Cor. x. 7;) where the apostle refers to the people's worshipping of the calf: "They rose early on the morrow, and offered burntofferings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play;" (Exod. xxxii. 6 ;) and yet the Israelites did not fall into the heathenish idolatry by so doing, that is, they did not worship the calf as God, but worshipped the true God by the calf. I know, the Papists with great bitterness inveigh against the Protestants for teaching of this doctrine; nor do I wonder at it; for what is likely to become of the Popish darling principle of worshipping the true God by an image, if the Israelites, for doing the same thing, according to the judgment of God himself, were idolaters? Now therefore that which will be proved is this, that the Israelites did not worship the calf as God, but the true God by the calf; and that will appear by these following considerations :—

(i.) Because the calf was dedicated and consecrated to the service of the true God, as appears by what Aaron said and did in that case: "When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord," or "unto Jehovah;" (Exod. xxxii. 5 ;) and Aaron useth the name Jehovah, that he might make the best of a bad matter, that the people might not terminate their worship on the idol, but on the true God. And our adversaries seem to yield to the force of this scripture, when they do acknowledge, that Aaron perhaps, and some of the wiser amongst the Israelites, might not be so sottish as to worship the calf as God. But they should consider also, that Aaron did not speak so much his own sense, but by this means would give notice to the people how to regulate and order their devotion; and if they would be so mad as to worship the calf, in so doing they should have respect unto the true God, unto Jehovah, and worship him by it; and accordingly he makes "proclamation," and says, " To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah."

If it be said, "The idol was called by the name Jehovah, and therefore they worshipped that as God ;" we reply, that this is gratis dictum, "said, but not proved :" for Aaron doth not say, "To-morrow is a feast to the calf Jehovah," but, "To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah." And suppose it were so, that the calf was called Jehovah, this may be understood of that religious worship and honour which they gave unto the calf, which is so proper and peculiar unto God,-that either that is God which we thus worship, or else we make it so. In Psalm cvi. 19, 20, it is said of Israel, "They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass." The meaning is not, that the Israelites thought that God in his nature and being was like unto an ox; but by giving the calf religious honour, by worshipping the graven image, by giving that glory which is due to God unto an ox, they did, in a sense, "change their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass." Thus when Israel is charged with "saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth," (Jer. ii. 27,) this is not to be understood strictly: surely, they had been grosser stocks than those that they worshipped, if it entered into their thoughts that a stock made them, or was their father, or a stone brought them forth; but because they gave some religious respect to those stocks and stones, they did in a sense change the glory of God into a stock, and into a stone; and, by interpretation, say "to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth."

(ii.) It further appears, that the Israelites did not worship the calf itself as God, but the true God by the calf, as by what Aaron said, so by what the people said: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (Exod. xxxii. 4.) Now though they say "gods," because the word in the Hebrew is in the plural number; yet, according to the usage of the word in other places of scripture, we must understand by it "one God ;" and so the scripture expounds it elsewhere: "This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt." (Neh. ix. 18.) They called the calf " God" by an usual metonymy, by giving of the name of the thing signified unto the sign; as the images of the chcrubims are called "cherubims," (Exod. xxv. 18,) and the images of oxen are called "oxen." (1 Kings vii. 25.) So then the meaning of this scripture is this: "These be thy gods, O Israel;" that is to say, "This is the sign and token of the presence of thy God, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." And, indeed, had the calf been God, according to the notion of the idolatrous Heathens, the calf would rather have kept them in Egypt, than have brought them out of Egypt. For look: as those of the church of Rome have their tutelar saints, some to preside over some countries, and some over others; some to be helpful and assistant in one case, and some in another; so the Heathens had their tutelar and topical gods. The gods of Egypt themselves would not stir out of Egypt; much less were they likely to bring Israel from thence. The Heathens thought that the whole world was of too large a compass for one god to take care of; and therefore .their notion was, that several countries had several gods; yea, several places, it may be, in one and the same country, had several gods. "Their gods," say the Syrians of the Israelites, "are gods of the hills," (possibly collecting the same from the Jews' usual sacrificing in high places,) and not the god of the plain; "let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." (1 Kings xx. 23.) "It is likely that one god cannot be the god of the hills, and the god of the plain." And hence it is that the people that the king of Assyria sent to the cities of Samaria, and placed there, are said not to know the manner of the God of the land, that is, the God of Israel, as distinct from the God of Judah. (2 Kings xvii. 26.) These were the notions that the Heathens had of their gods; and therefore if the Israelites were such gross idolaters as our adversaries pretend they were, how could they say?—"These are thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

(iii.) It appears yet further, that the Israelites did not worship the calf itself as God, but the true God by the calf, from that text of scripture: "They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven." (Acts vii. 41, 42.) It is said, that sacrifice notes the highest piece of worship and devotion; this is said; but it is more than evident that the Israelites had a respect to the true God, even when they offered sacrifice unto the idol: for it is said, when the Israelites offered sacrifice unto the calf, that "God gave them up to worship the host of heaven." Now if their idolatry had consisted in worshipping the calf as God, it will be found to be more gross and absurd than to worship the host of heaven; at least, it could not have been an aggravation of their sin that they worshipped the host of heaven above their worshipping of the calf, which is St. Stephen's scope in this place. The meaning therefore of this scripture is this,— that because they corrupted the worship of the true God in worshipping of the calf, contrary to his command, therefore God in judgment gave them up to the worshipping of those that were not gods, namely, the host of heaven.

"But is it not said that 'they forgot God their Saviour?' (Psalm cvi. 21.) And doth not this imply that they had renounced the worship of the true God, and worshipped the calf as God?" I answer, No; this must not be understood as if they did not remember God at all; no, nor yet the great things which he had done in Egypt: hut they are said to forget him, because they were not mindful of his precepts, and had no regard unto his laws; and particularly that law, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image." They who do not obey God, do not, as they ought, remember God; and in this sense the Israelites are said to forget God, not because they worshipped the calf as a false god, but transgressed, in worshipping of the calf, the law of the true God.

"But what need had the Israelites of the calf, as a sign of God's presence going before them, when they had already the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, designed by God for this very end?" But what trifling is this! What need had they to long after the garlic and onions of Egypt, when God had provided for them manna, the food of angels, bread from heaven? What need had David to contrive the death of his good subject Uriah, and after this to marry Bathsheba his wife? Yea, what need have the Papists themselves of crucifixes, when they have the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, memoirs, of divine appointment and institution, of Christ's death and passion? Would it not be ridiculous to say?—"They had no need to do it; therefore they did it not."

And supposing that the people should be so stupid, as some pretend they were, as to think that there was a divine virtue inherent in the calf; yet this doth not prove that they worshipped the calf as God: for if so, the Jews might conclude that the hem of Christ's garment, and the handkerchief and shadow of the apostles, were gods, because a divine virtue seemed to go forth from them; yea, and the brasen serpent might be thought to have been God, because the stung Israelite was healed by looking up to the brasen serpent.

And whereas it is urged that "the Israelites served the gods of the Egyptians whilst they were in Egypt: 'Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth : and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt;' (Joshua xxiv. 11;) and the scripture, speaking of Israel, tells us, 'They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image;'" (Psalm cvi. 19;) in answer to this, we say, that it is not unusual for God to charge a people going on in ways of wickedness and disobedience with that which is suitable enough with what they do and the intention of the work, though far enough off from the design and intention of the worker. Thus the apostle tells us, that covetousness is idolatry, and that there are some that make their belly their god; and yet the persons concerned [are] far enough off either from professing or designing any thing of this nature. Thus the Israelites "made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image," because they gave religious worship to it; though their design and intention was far different from the idolatry of the Heathens, that worshipped idols, or false gods. Thus I have endeavoured to clear the first instance that may be given of the Jews' committing idolatryby their worshipping of images, though they did not worship the images themselves, but the true God by them ; and having been so large in this, there needs but a few words to be spoken to the rest.

(2.) A second instance may be that of Jeroboam, in his infamous sin in setting up calves at Dan and Bethel, whereby he made Israel to sin. Now it was not Jeroboam's design to withdraw the people altogether from the worship of the true God, or the worshipping of those calves as gods; but to worship the true God by them: and that for these reasons :—

(i.) The great design of Jeroboam in this was, that he might secure the ten tribes unto himself, so that they might not think of returning to unite themselves any more to the house of David, which might possibly come to pass by their going up to Jerusalem; as appears from 1 Kings xii. 26, 27: "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people return again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah:" and hence that saying of his: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem;" (verse 28 ;) as if he should say, "Ye may worship God nearer home."

(ii.) That it was not Jeroboam's design to withdraw the people altogether from the worship of the true God will further appear, because the idolatry of Jeroboam is distinguished from the idolatry of the Heathens abroad that worshipped false gods; yea, from the idolatry of their idolatrous kings at home, as that of Ahab: "And Ahab the son of Orari did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him;" (1 Kings xvi. 30 :) so that Ahab's idolatry was more heinous than Jeroboam's. And what other reason can likely be rendered for it than this, namely, Ahab's setting up of false gods? For whereas it is pretended that "Ahab's sin was greater than Jeroboam's, because Ahab's sin was the worshipping of many gods, whereas Jeroboam's sin was worshipping the calf; as he is a greater and more heinous sinner that commits adultery with many, than he that commits it but with one:" this is but a pretence; for it remains to be proved, that the Israelites did at any time, yea, in the worst of times, altogether renounce the true and living God; but, in their conceit, yea, in their profession, [did] acknowledge the true God still. And hence it is that you shall read, that Ahab's prophets, that were the prophets of Baal, did yet prophesy in the name of the Lord: "And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper; for the Lord will deliver it into the king's hand." (1 Kings xxii. 11, 12.) So that the difference between Jeroboam's and Ahab's idolatry lay here: Jeroboam's idolatry consisted in worshipping of the true God by an image; but Ahab's idolatry was not only in worshipping the true God by an image, as Jeroboam's did, but in worshipping other gods beside him, namely, Baal-gods.

(3.) A third instance might be that of Micah and his mother. (Judges xvii.) Though his mother made a graven image, yet that it was for the worshipping of the God of Israel appears by the whole story. She professes, in verse 3, that she had wholly dedicated the silver that was to make a graven image and a molten image unto the Lord; and Micah himself consecrates a Levite for his priest, that is, seeming thereby to have respect to the true God in the worship he had designed; and when he had done so, he professes, "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest:" (verse 13 :) yet upon this account his mother and himself also were idolaters.

...

Now the counsel that I give you, or rather St. John [gives you], is this: "Keep yourselves from idols:" they that would not be idolaters, must keep themselves from idols, from, all things that may be enticements to that sin: in the commandments where a sin is forbidden, all enticements and provocations to that sin are also forbidden. When God says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," the meaning of this commandment, according to the exposition that our Saviour himself makes of it, is, that we must not "look upon a woman to lust after her." And Solomon, speaking of a harlot, gives this counsel: "Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house." (Prov. v. 8.) And holy Job "made a covenant with his eyes," not to "think upon a maid." (Job xxxi. 1.) When God would forbid the sin of injustice, see how he expresses it: "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small." (Deut. xxv. 13.) It was a sin for a man to have a great and a small weight in his bag: and why so? Suppose a great and a small •weight were found in a man's bag, he might say, "How doth it appear that I have sold wares by one weight, and taken up wares by another?" But God would not have them lay such a snare before themselves; and therefore forbids them to have in their bags "divers weights, a great and a small." So it is in this case, when we have a caution given us against idols: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols;" the Holy Ghost seems to meet with a secret objection that might be made by some: "We hate idolatry: but yet to have images to put us in mind of God, and to quicken our devotion, provided we give them not religious worship, as others do,—we hope there is no harm in this." Yes, there is. You must not only keep yourselves from idolatry, but you must "keep yourselves from idols." Those of the church of Rome charge Protestants as if they had a mind to abolish and root out of the minds of men the memory of the blessed apostles, confessors, and martyrs, by inveighing against sacred images and holy relics; but this is just as if a man should take upon him the boldness to say, that because God buried the body of Moses "in a valley in the land of Moab, and no man knoweth of his sepulchre to this day," (Deut. xxxiv. 6,) God's design in all this was to blot out the memorials of Moses from the face of the whole earth.

Use Vii. Let us pray unto God, that he would famish all the gods of the earth.—Famishing of idols is a scripture-phrase: "The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him." (Zeph. ii. 11.) The Psalmist, speaking of God's providence over his creatures, tells us: "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season:" (Psalm cxlv. 15 :) but an idol is none of God's creatures: an idol hath eyes and sees not, ears and hears not, mouth and tastes not. But you will say, "How then can God famish them?" Thus: if we would know what it is to famish the gods of the earth, then we must consider what their meat is: their meat is that worship, and service, and honour, which is given them by the sons of men. Now, when God is made the sole object of religious worship, when men turn from dumb idols to serve the living God, and him only, then God famishes the gods of the earth, takes away their meat from them, and then men shall worship him: and let all good people say, "Amen. So be it."

Biography

NEEDLER, BENJAMIN (1620-1682), ejected minister, son of Thomas Needler, of Laleham, Middlesex, was born on 29 Nov. 1620. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School on 11 Sept. 1634, was head scholar in 1640, and was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, on 11 June 1612, matriculating on 1 July. He was elected fellow of his college in 1645, but appears to have been non-resident, as his submission is not registered. Joining the presbyterian party, he was summoned to assist the parliamentary visitors of the university in 1648, and was by them created B.C.L. on 14 April of the same year. On 8 Aug. he was ppointed to the recotory of St. Margaret Moses, Friday Street, London. It is not known whether he took episcopal orders or not. he was one of the ministers in London who in January 1648-9 signed the 'Serious and Faithful Representation' to General Fairfax, petitioning for the life of the king and the maintenance of parliament. On his marriage in 1651 with Marie, sister of Nathanael Culverwell [q. v.], Needler resigned his fellowship at St. John's College.

In August 1662 he was ejected from his rectory by the Act of Uniformity, and afterwards retired to North Warnborough in Hampshire, where he preached privately till the time of his death. He was buried at Odiham, near Winchfield, on 20 Oct. 1682. Needler had several children. The baptisms of six are recorded in the registers of St. Margaret Moses between January 1651-2 and May 1662, and the burials of two of them in 1658 and 1659 respectively.

He was an able preacher, and, according to Baxter, a very humble, grave and peaceable divine (SYLVESTER, Reliq. Baxt. iii. 94). He published 'Expository Notes with Practical Observations towards the opening of the five first Chapters of Genesis,' London, 1655, and three sermons which are reprinted in various editions of 'Morning Exercises' (cf. these of 1660, 1661, 1675, 1676, 1677, and 1844). Dunn speaks highly of all these sermons. Needler also wrote some verses on the death of Jeremiah Whitaker, which were published in Simon Ashe's funeral sermon on Whitaker, entitled 'Living Loves between Christ and Dying Christians,' London 1654.

(Dictionary of national biography, Volume 40 by Sir Sidney Lee)

James Ussher on the Voice

2011-05-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

God in the delivery of the law did purposely use a voice only, because that such a creature as that was not to be expressed by visible lineaments, as if that voice should have said unto the painter as Echo is feigned to do in the Poet:

Vane, quid affectos faciem mihi ponere, pictor?
Si mihi vis similem pingere, pinge sonum.

—James Ussher

Vain painter, why does thou essay to limn my face,
If thou wouldst paint my likeness, paint sound.

—Ausonius, Epigram.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Pictures of Christ

2011-05-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Our Lord said in John 15 that we are bound to Him as are the branches to the vine; His life is in us, and it is a part of this blessed work of the Spirit. Then He goes on to work in us, sanctifying and perfecting us. "Work out your own salvation," says Paul in Philippians 2:12-13, "with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." He even helps us in our prayers: "We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26). He then goes on to produce the fruit of the Spirit in us: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23).

The work of the Spirit is to make the Lord Jesus Christ real to us. So do not waste your time trying to picture the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not go and look at portraits of Him that are wholly imaginary. There is a sense, I believe, in which nobody should ever try to paint Him—it is wrong. I do not like these paintings of Christ; they are the efforts of the natural mind. If you want a photograph of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will give it to you in the inner man. Christ said Himself, in John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." That is the work of the Spirit—to make Christ living, to make us certain He is there, so that when we speak to Him, and He to us, the Spirit makes Him real, and He is formed in us.

—Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Assurance of Our Salvation

Leonard Ravenhill on Pictures of Christ

2011-04-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

I do not have any pictures of Christ in my home, because I don't think you should make any graven... likeness of any graven image. And nobody knows what Christ was like. You see pictures of Jesus as a baby. You seem him as a young man. You see him, sometimes, on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem. But there's a picture I've only ever seen once and it was so grotesque I didn't look a second time. At the voice of the Son of God they're all going to rise and face the eternal Judge. What will He be like? In Australia they show me the picture that they have. Beach... Beachcroft... or somebody... Beach... painted a picture of Christ in Australia. He's got lovely blond hair and bright blue eyes and a lovely flaxen beard. Well, I don't think that was a picture of Jesus. And the Chinese have an interpretation of Christ through their artists. And there are some dreadful pictures I think, that have been given by the "great masters" so-called. And they've given us pictures of Jesus, but I'll tell you what: it's a very different picture in the word of God. I believe the Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God! This is what? This is the King of kings and He's the Judge of judges and He's the Tribunal of tribunals! And there's no court of appeal after it; the verdict is final. There will be no bias judgment. Two people at least have said to me this week 'There is no justice in the earth today!'—maybe there isn't, but I hang on a word that says "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" [Gen. 18:25]. The Apostle Paul got a picture of Jesus, not with a lamb in His arms, not like the stained glass windows in our so-called cathedrals, where Jesus looks pathetically feminine! He sees Jesus and he says, here He is, He is the King immortal, invisible, the only wise God, to whom be praise and glory forever. So, we're going to see the King of Kings. He's the Judge of judges in the Court of courts. In the final tribunal—there is no tribunal after this—this is finish. And when I hear people singing, you know, 'put your hand in the hand of him that walks on the water'—forget it. Or the new song that's out, 'shake hands with Jesus'—listen, when you see Jesus you're not going up and say, 'Hey, buddy, I'm glad you died for me'. When you see Jesus you'll be almost paralyzed with fear, unless you have a glorified body and a glorified mind! Who is writing the book? This is a revelation to a man on an island—on a devil's island—the worst place, the gathering of the scum of the Earth. And here he is. And if you had gone to him that morning and had seen him sitting on a rock contemplating, you might have said to him, 'Well, John, I didn't expect to find you in this hell-hole, with all these demon possessed men. And here you are in the isle of Patmos'. He says, 'No, I'm not'. 'Where [then] are you?' He says, 'I'm in the Spirit'. He was in the Spirit when this enormous revelation was given to him. The picture of Jesus here is not the picture of a pathetic individual pushed around by anybody who want to push Him around. I think sometimes we think we're going to march up and say, 'Well, you know Jesus, do you know how many years I served you, and how many souls I won for you, and how many sermons I preached for you?' Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Well what will He be like in Heaven? Well, I'll tell you what the Book says He'll be like: he says His hair is as white as snow, His feet are like burnished brass, His face is like the Sun in its strength, His eyes are living coals of fire, His tongue is a sharp two-edged sword—and here is John, who use to lean his head on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat—the man that I believe knew more about Jesus than anyone else—and when he saw Jesus there on His throne in His majesty, with His face brighter than the Sun, with His feet like burnished brass, with His eyes like flames of fire, with His tongue majestic and His voice like the sound of many waters—John, the man who had walked with Him and talked with Him for three years, says that "When I saw Him, I fell down at His feet as dead." [Rev. 1:17] What do you think you and I are going to do?

—Leonard Ravenhill, The Judgment Seat of Christ (video) (audio)

TURRETIN ON IMAGES

2011-04-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Francis Turretin on Images (SOURCE):

TENTH QUESTION
Whether not only the worship but also the formation and use of religious images in sacred places is prohibited by the second commandment. We affirm against the Lutherans.

I. In the preceding question we treated of the worship of images. It remains to inquire further concerning their use—whether by the precept concerning images, besides the adoration, the making of them is also prohibited. Here we come into collision not only with papists, but also with Lutherans who (although they are opposed to and condemn the worship of images as unlawful and superstitious) endeavor to defend the making of images (eikonopoiian) and their use in sacred places as legitimate (if not for worship, at least for history and as the reminders of events).

Statement of the Question.
II. The question is not whether all images of whatever kind they may be (even for a civil and economical use) are prohibited by God (as if the plastic [plastike] art and all pictures as well as statues were condemned). Although this was the opinion of some of the ancients, Jews as well as Christians (as appears from many passages of Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and others who thought that all use of images should be absolutely interdicted in order to withdraw Christians the more easily from the dreadful idol-mania of the Gentiles), still that this is a false opinion even the structure of the tabernacle and temple alone can teach (in which various figures of cherubim, oxen and other things were ingeniously wrought by skillful artists under the direction of God). Thus we do not condemn historical representations of events or of great men, either symbolical (by which their virtues and vices are represented) or political (impressed upon coins). But we here treat of sacred and religious images which are supposed to contribute something to the excitation of religious feeling.

III. The question is not whether it is lawful to represent creatures and to exhibit with the pencil historical events (either for the sake of ornament or for delight or even for instruction and to recall [mnemosynon] past events) for this no one of us denies. Rather the question is whether it is lawful to represent God himself and the persons of the Trinity by any image; if not by an immediate and proper similitude to set forth a perfect image of the nature of God (which the papists acknowledge cannot be done), at least by analogy or metaphorical and mystical significations. This the adversaries maintain; we deny.

IV Finally, the question is not whether it is lawful to have in our houses representations of holy men for a recollection of their piety and an example for imitation. Rather the question is whether it is right to set them up in sacred places; for instance in temples and oratories, not for worship and veneration, but for strongly impressing believers and exciting their affections by bringing up past things (which the Lutherans hold with the Council of Frankfort; we deny).

Proof That the Use of Images is Unlawful.
(1) From the Second Precept (Ex. 20).
V The reasons are: First, God expressly forbids this in the second commandment, where two things are prohibited-both the making of images for worship and the worshipping of them. Nor can it be replied (a) that such images are meant by which men endeavor to express the essence of God; not, however, those by which either God or the saints are represented in appearance. The falsity is evident from this—that there would be no necessity of prohibiting this because no one is so simple and insane as to wish to represent the spiritual essence of God by any external and corporeal symbol. If we would speak accurately and philosophically, not even the smallest essence of the creature can be set forth, but only the external lineaments. (b) Nor can it be replied that it refers only to images of false gods. Moses himself clearly explained not representing God (Dt. 4:12); yea, even God himself (the best interpreter of his own law) intimates this (Is. 40:18). Hence the Israelites representing God by the image of a calf were sharply rebuked and heavily punished (Ex. 32). Pious kings of the Jews no less than of the heathen removed idols, even as God had laid both commands upon his people that they should demolish the altars of the Canaanites, break the statues and not make molten gods for themselves (Ex. 34:13, 17).

2. From the Nature of God.
VI. Second, God, being boundless (apeiros) and invisible (aoratos), can be represented by no image: "To whom will ye liken God? or what likeness" (or "image" as the Vulgate has it) "will ye compare unto him" (Is. 40:18). Paul refers to this in Acts 17:29: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." Hence God in promulgating the law wished to set forth no likeness of himself, that the people might understand that they must abstain from every image of him as a thing unlawful; yea, even impossible: "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you . . . lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female" (Dt. 4:15, 16*). This the apostle condemns in the Gentiles "who changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:23). Indeed this was not unknown to various Gentiles, who thought it unlawful to wish to represent the deity by an image. Plutarch: "He (Numa) however, forbids any image of God, like man or any animal; nor was there before among them any sculptured or graven representation of God. Indeed during all those preceding 160 years they continually built temples and erected sacred buildings, or shrines; still they made no corporeal representation, judging that it was not holy to liken better things to worse, and that God could be apprehended by us in no other way than by the mind alone" (Plutarch's Lives: Numa 8.7-8 [Loeb, 1:334-35]). Thus Antiphanes: "God is not discerned by an image, is not seen by the eyes, is like to no one, wherefore no one can learn him from an image" (De Deo+). And Herodotus: "The Persians have neither statues nor altars, and think those who make them insane, because they do not (like the Greeks) think the Gods to be the offspring of men" (Herodotus, 1.131 [Loeb, 1:170-71]).

3. Because It Is Connected With the Danger of Idolatry.
VII. Third, that ought to be distant from sacred places which does not belong to the worship of God and is joined with danger of idolatry. Now images in sacred places do not belong to the worship of God, since indeed God has expressly removed them from his worship by the law and they are connected with the most imminent danger of idolatry. For men (especially uneducated men prone by nature to superstition) are moved to the worship of them by the very reverence for the place, as experience shows. As Brochmann properly acknowledges, "Rather ought all images of whatsoever kind to be removed than that we should permit them to stand in a public place for the sake of religious worship against the express command of God" ("De Lege," 7, Q. 1 in Universae theologicae systema [1638], 2:46). In vain is the reply made here that indeed the occasion of sin per se is prohibited, not like wise that which is by accident; otherwise the sun ought to be taken away from the heavens since it has afforded the occasion of idolatry to innumerable persons. Therefore the abuse should be removed, but not the lawful use of them. For the abuse indeed ought not to take away the legitimate use, if any such is granted from the appointment of God (which the adversaries suppose; we deny). Second objection: that only worship makes images unlawful, from which Lutherans profess that they shrink. We answer that although they are not expressly worshipped by them (as by the papists) by bowing the knee and burning incense to them or offering prayers, still they cannot be said to be free from all worship; if not direct, at least indirect and participative because they hold that by images and the sight of them they conceive holy thoughts concerning God and Christ (which cannot but belong to the worship of God, so that thus they really worship God by images). Finally, if they are not worshipped by them, they can be worshipped by others (namely by papists if they enter their churches) and so render the use of them in churches unlawful (exposed to the danger of idolatry) by which idolaters are confirmed in their error and innumerable persons-not only unbelieving Jews and Mohammedans, but believing Christians-are scandalized.

VIII. Our ancestors cannot therefore be blamed for their zeal at the time of the Reformation in causing all images to be removed from sacred places. They did nothing here which was not commanded by God (Num. 33:52; Dr. 7:5; Ezk. 20:7) and confirmed by various examples of kings and emperors. In destroying idols and purging all sacred places of every kind of idolatry, the latter labored diligently, as was done by Hezekiah, who "removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it" (2 K. 18:4). For this reason various emperors obtained the name of "imagebreakers" (iconoclastarum).

IX. Although God sometimes manifested himself in a visible form and in such an appearance is described to us in Scripture (when members and bodily actions are ascribed to him), it does not follow that it is lawful to represent him by an image. (1) The same God who thus appeared nevertheless strongly forbade the Israelites to fabricate any representation of him (to wit, God could employ speech, bodies and symbols, in order to testify his special presence; yet not on that account may man make unto God an image and statue in which he may exhibit himself to man). (2) Those bodily appearances were exhibited only in vision, shadowing forth not the essence of God, but in some measure his works and external glory; indeed extraordinary not ordinary, temporal not perpetual, not presented openly to all, but shown to individuals, especially in the spirit. Therefore they have nothing in common with images. (3) It is one thing to speak metaphorically concerning God in accommodation to our conceptions; another to form a visible representation of him as if true and proper and exhibit it publicly to the eyes of all.

X. The making of images is not absolutely interdicted, but with a twofold limitation-that images should not be made representing God (Dr. 4:16), nor be employed in his worship. Therefore to make images and to worship them are not to be regarded in the second commandment only as means and end, but as two parts of the divine prohibition. Images are prohibited not only inasmuch as they are the object or the means of worship, but inasmuch as they are made simply for the sake of religion or are set up in sacred places.

XI. From a mental image to a sculptured or painted image, the consequence does not hold good. The former is of necessity, since I cannot perceive anything without some species or idea of it formed in the mind. Now this image is always conjoined with the spirit of discernment by which we so separate the true from the false that there is no danger of idolatry. But the latter is a work of mere judgment and will, expressly prohibited by God and always attended with great danger of idolatry. Hence it is falsely asserted that it is no less a sin to present images of certain things to the mind or to commit them to writing and exhibit them to be read, than to present them to the view when painted. For there is a wide difference between these things.

XII. The consequence does not hold good from the figures of the temple at Jerusalem to the images of Christians. The former were commanded and the latter not; those typical and fulfilled in the New Testament, these not; the former placed almost out of sight of the people and danger of adoration, which cannot be said of the latter. Nor is Christian liberty to be brought up here (which is not the license of doing anything whatsoever in relation to the worship of God, but is the immunity from the malediction of the law and the slavery of ceremonies). Since the former figures pertained to these, they also are to be considered as equally abrogated in the New Testament.

XIII. So far from images being rightly called "books of the common people" and aids to piety and religious devotion, the Holy Spirit testifies that they are "teachers of vanity and lies" (Jer. 10:8; Hab. 2:18). There is another book to be consulted by all (learned as well as unlearned) which makes us wise and teamed (to wit, Scripture, which is to be continually read and meditated upon by believers that they may be made wise unto salvation). But the pope takes this away from the people that they may be involved in inextricable error and that he may not be convicted by it. He substitutes other dumb books by which ignorance is not removed but nourished because he does not fear that they will mutter anything against it. So while for teachers he gives stones, the people are turned into stones and become no wiser than their teachers. Hence Augustine treats of the images of Peter and Paul (by occasion of which certain persons fell into error): "Thus forsooth they deserved to err, who sought Christ and his apostles not in the sacred writings, but on painted walls" (The Harmony of the Gospels 1.10 [NPNFl, 6:83; PL 34.1049]). (2) It would have been bad for the Jews to whom God denied those books (to whom nevertheless as more simple they were more necessary).

XIV Whatever may be said of the utility of images in sacred places cannot and ought not to be opposed to the command of God forbidding them. That is taken for granted, not proved. Sacred signs are the sacraments, not images. The ornaments of churches are the pure preaching of the word, the lawful administration of the sacraments and holiness of discipline. The means for keeping the mind attentive are the presence and majesty of God himself and the difficulty and excellence of sacred mysteries.

XV It is not sufficient to cast images out of the heart by the preaching of the word unless they are removed also from sacred places (where they cannot remain without danger of idolatry).

"That which God alone effects no image ever can."—Andreas Karlstadt

2011-04-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

If someone should come along and say that images teach and instruct lay persons, just as books do scholars, you must answer, "God prohibited images, therefore I intend to learn nothing from them." If someone should come along and say that images remind us of, and recall for us, the suffering of the Lord and often cause someone to pray an "Our Father" and think of God when otherwise he would not pray or think on God, you should reply, "God has prohibited images." Similarly, Christ says that God is spirit. Everyone who truly worships God, prays to God in spirit, Jn. 4:24.
All who worship God through images worship falsehood. They are focusing on the appearance and external signs of God. Yet, their heart is far from God, creating its own idol in the heart and being full of lies, as Isa 44:10 says, "In their foolishness and ignorance [nerrisch und tolh hertze] they worship them [images], neglecting to say, "I have falsehood in my right hand."
No Christian can deny that spiritual prayer is a divine work which God alone effects. It is written in Jer 33:6, "I will show them the prayer and adoration of peace and truth." That which God alone effects no image ever can. You also must not say that an image of Christ brings you to Christ. For it is eternally true that "no one comes to me unless my Father draw him." All who come to Christ must have learned from God," Jn 6:44. They cannot have been admonished or taught by images to come to Christ. Even if all images on earth were to stand together, they would still not be able to elicit from you as much as a small sigh toward God.

—Andreas Rudolff-Bodenstein von Karlstadt, "On the Removal of Images"/The Essential Carlstadt. Translated and edited by E.J. Furcha.

R.A. Torrey Against False Christs

2011-04-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

R.A. (Reuben Archer) Torrey (1856-1928) was the second dean of Biola University. Below are selections from some of his writings, which condemn false christs.

But this morning we are to study a marked characteristic of our Lord that is of a very different sort, His Manliness. In most of the paintings of our Lord the face is not only to a marked degree womanly, it is positively effeminate and weak. The same is true of the pictures of Christ Jesus drawn in words in many pulpits. It is not a true picture of The Real Christ. I cannot endure the paintings of the face of Christ, they make me indignant. They dishonor my Lord. [emphasis mine]

...

Just what I mean by "Manliness" will be clear as we come to consider how the Manliness of The Real Christ (not the Christ Whom artists paint from their own fancy, but the Christ Who actually lived on this earth and Whose perfect portrait God Himself has drawn in the Bible) was manifested.

—R.A. Torrey, The Real Christ

So then if we accept the teaching of Jesus Christ, we must accept the entire Old Testament and the entire New Testament. It is either Christ and the whole Bible, or no Bible and no Christ. There are some in these days who say that they believe in Christ, but not in the Christ of the New Testament. But there is no Christ but the Christ of the New Testament. Any other Christ than the Christ of the New Testament is a pure figment of the imagination. Any other Christ than the Christ of the New Testament is an idol made by man's own fancy, and whoever worships him is an idolater.

—R.A. Torrey, The Bible and its Christ

There are many today who stumble at things they find in the Bible. They say that these things cannot be God's Word, and so they give up the Bible and, ultimately, they give up Jesus Christ; for anyone who gives up the Bible is bound to give up Jesus Christ sooner or later. They may use His name still, and speak in a very complimentary way about Him, and they may call themselves "Christians" and even pose as preachers, but they have really given up Him; they have given up the only Real Christ there is—the Christ of the Bible. Any other Christ than the Christ of the Bible is a fictitious Christ, a pure figment of the imagination, a false Christ, an Anti-Christ. They give up, first, His Virgin Birth, then they give up His literal Resurrection from the Dead, then they give up His Atoning Death, then they have no Christ left, only a shadow, an empty dream. The Real Christ has gone. They have no Real Christ, Christ Jesus, and they are "without Christ . . . having no hope, and without God in the world." (Eph. 2:12.) They are doomed and ultimately damned.

Now, this is no new thing. It is not at all peculiar to our day, as many seem to fancy. It is not peculiar to the twentieth century, nor to the nineteenth century. In our text we see the same thing in the first century. We see that when the Lord Jesus Himself was here on earth, those who had been "His disciples," those who had followed Him, those who had come to Him and professed to be "learners" in His school, stumbled, even at what He Himself said, and shook their heads and said, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" and then we read, "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." If men who professed to be disciples of Christ and saw Him with their own eyes and "beheld His miracles," and who on the immediately preceding day had been of the five thousand who saw the five small loaves and two small fishes multiplying in His hands, stumbled at something He said, just because, with their dull, puny brains they could not take it in and, therefore, stupidly and wickedly threw it overboard, because, as Jesus Himself said to them, they had not faith (vs. 64) and, therefore, had not sense enough to just trust the Son of God, when they could not see, is it any wonder if men today are so foolish as to throw the words of Jesus Christ overboard because they cannot fully take them in, and throw the Bible overboard because there are in it what appear to them, "hard sayings"?

—R.A. Torrey, Is the Bible the inerrant word of God

There is no Christ but the Christ of the Scriptures; any other Christ is a mere figment of the individual imagination.

—R.A. Torrey, Will Christ come again?

G. Campbell Morgan on the Second Commandment

2011-04-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

From The crises of the Christ:

Project the ruined man into immensity, and a ruined god is the result, only the ruin is worse than the ruined man. In the magnified man there is magnified evil and intensified failure. That is the history of all idolatry. Man having fallen, demanded a god, and having lost the knowledge of the true God, has projected into immensity the lines of his own personality, and thus has created as objects of worship, the awful monsters, the service of which, in process of time, has reacted in the still deeper degradation of the worshiper. All false deities are distortions of the one true God, and the distorted idea is the result of the ruin of the image of God in man.
Referring to the idolatry of Ephraim, the prophet Hosea declared, "And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsman." "Idols according to their own understanding." That understanding being darkened, the idol resulting was a libel upon God.

—G. Campbell Morgan

Download and read G. Campbell Morgan's commentary on the Second Commandment here (p. 177-181). The work is from Morgan's commentary on the Ten Commandments; however, William Revell Moody provided it in Record of Christian Work. From Morgan's commentary:

When God said, ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form; thou shalt not bow thyself unto them nor serve them,’ it was because he knew that if men, who had lost their sense of Him and His presence, made something to represent Him, it would be a false representation, and men would thereby get false notions of Him, even as they sought to worship.

...

The essential fact of God is that He is limitless, that He is eternal, that He is self-existent, there being no end to His being, and no limit to His power. Limitlessness lies at the heart and center of the thought of God, and the moment a man makes an image, he denies the essence of God. For that reason God forbade that there should be the making of any images; for, not only is the image false, it is misleading.

J. Vernon McGee's book Love, Liberation & Law, also quotes Morgan:

To pass on to children a wrong conception of God . . . is the most awful thing a man can do . . . When a man puts something, as the object of his worship, in the place of God, he passes on the same practice to his offspring. What a terrible heritage he is thus handing down to the child!

But notice the gracious promise standing side by side with the waring: . . . "Showing mercy unto a thousand generations of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."... Here is a remarkable comparison-God visits the iniquity to the third and fourth generation; but He shows mercy unto the thousandth generation! If a man will commit to his posterity a worship which is true, strong, whole-hearted, and pure, and will sweep away all that interferes between himself and God, he is more likely to influence for good the thousandth generation that follows him than a man of the opposite character is to touch that generation with evil.... Whenever a man stops short of that face-to-face worship of the Eternal God, he is working ruin to his own character, because he is breaking the commandment of God. (Morgan, The Ten Commandments, pp. 34, 35)

Albert N. Martin Against Celluloid Jesus

2011-04-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the audio. Below is the transcript via SOVEREIGN GRACE BIBLE CHURCH OF CEBU (sgbc.faithweb.com)

A Transcript, The Passion Movie: not to see
Albert N. Martin | Sunday School Class
Trinity Baptist Church, Montville, New Jersey

This is a minimally edited transcription of a message delivered in the Adult Bible Class of Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday, February 22, 2004. The full recording is available on the church’s website at www.tbcnj.org.

Ash Wednesday, one of the most important days in the Roman Catholic Church calendar, was chosen as the date for the premiere showing of Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ. For many weeks magazine articles, newspaper columns, TV interviews, and Internet websites discussed and debated both the virtues and the potential vices of this film. The movie itself is a two-hour, graphic, brutal, and shocking attempt to visually capture the last twelve hours of our Lord’s life, culminating in His death upon the cross.

Michael Medved, the nationally known film critic, columnist and radio broadcaster and a practicing Orthodox Jew, has stated regarding this film:

It will draw eager audiences and become a box-office hit; due in part to prerelease controversy, the "must see" factor has reached an almost unprecedented level of intensity among both committed Christians and the cinematically curious. Mainstream Christian leaders of every denomination will embrace the film as the most artistically ambitious and accomplished treatment of the crucifixion ever committed to film. Some critics and scholars will criticize Gibson for his cinematic and theological choices in shaping the film. But any attempt to boycott or discredit the movie will, inevitably and unquestionably, fail.

No one who has actually seen the movie, as I have, would seriously challenge these conclusions . . .

Gibson financed the film on his own precisely due to his determination to realize his own traditionalist Catholic vision of the gospel story without compromise to the sensitivities of profit-oriented accountants or other religious perspectives. Jewish leaders feel wounded that he never consulted them on the script or historical details, but he also left out Protestant and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

Some of you have asked your pastors to give you guidance about seeing the film and whether you should encourage members of your family to view it. What I present to you is just that: it is your pastors’ attempt to set before you the biblical precepts and principles which ought to guide your conscience in making a well-informed and righteous decision for yourself and for your family. And so I have entitled my lecture, The Passion Movie: To See or Not to See.

First of all, let me address four things for which we ought to be thankful in connection with the production of, widespread interest in, and subsequent showing of this film.

FIRST, we can be thankful in our hearts and thankful to God that the historical events central to the gospel of Christ have become the subject of national awareness, widespread discourse, and public engagement. Since the cross of Christ is central to the Christian message — as Paul said, "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2) — we as the people of God ought to be thankful that the historical events of His passion are now a subject of widespread discussion and public discourse. Frankly, this is much better than the discussion about Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl several weeks ago and about "A-Rod" coming to the Yankees. We should thank God that people are talking about something of worth.

SECONDLY, we can and ought to be thankful to God that Mel Gibson has determined to produce a film that for the most part seeks to reproduce the biblical narrative concerning the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus with a good measure of literary integrity. Note that my words are qualified. However, Mr. Gibson has resisted the pressures of political correctness and historical deconstructionism that would re-write the gospel records and completely alleviate any thought that the Jewish leaders had any special responsibility in the crucifixion of our Lord. I have watched his interview with Diane Sawyer, and his manly determination to do what he felt was right was refreshing in a wimpish age. In fact, I find myself drawn to a man who acts like a man. In his manliness Mr. Gibson has determined not to be bullied from his vision and desire and, as a result, for the most part there is a good measure of literary integrity in handling the gospel records.

THIRDLY, we can be thankful that this film has forced serious disciples of Christ to wrestle with critical issues that are central to an uncompromising, comprehensive obedience to the Word of God. A true disciple of Christ is determined that in every area of his life the Word of God will govern his steps. He gladly confesses, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway." The fact that something has become a "must see" movie should count for nothing. The child of God should not be pressured by the "must see" climate created by clever marketing techniques, but he is pressured by his Bible to do what is pleasing to his Lord.

FINALLY, we can be thankful that this film will afford Christians some unusual opportunities to speak to unsaved associates regarding the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving work. For example, when I went to pick up some medication yesterday my pharmacist, who is a Middle Eastern man, asked, "Are you going to see the movie?" He did not even give the title to it, because it is so much the part of public discussion. I responded, "For good reasons I am not going. Tomorrow morning in our Bible class, I will be laying out some biblical perspectives which will indicate why I cannot in good conscience go. Perhaps some time we will have opportunity to talk about the matter." So the door is wide open for further opportunity to witness of my Christian faith to this man.

So, since we believe that this is God’s world, governed by His providence, we must look upon the reality of this movie as an outworking of the sovereign decree of God by which He governs all men and their actions according to His sovereign will.

But beyond the things for which we can give thanks, we must address the foundational biblical issues which ought to be seriously considered in deciding whether or not to see this movie, or to encourage others to see it. We are not to consider emotional, psychological, or societal issues, but the biblical issues which lay claim to your conscience as a Christian. And I trust that your prayer would be that threefold prayer that I mentioned last Lord’s Day:

Where I am ignorant, Lord, teach me.
Where I am wrong, Lord, correct me.
Where I am right, Lord, confirm me.

I am not so naive as to think that everyone sits here with a neutral attitude. Some of you are waiting for me to be your "champ" because you have already been persuaded that you shouldn’t go and no one else should. Others of you are fearful that I am going to be your "chump" because I may discourage you from attending this movie. Dear friends, I have no desire to be champion or chump. I am a minister of the Word of God and you are professed disciples of Christ. My one desire is to set before you principles which I trust will help you better to determine the will of your Master as revealed in the Scriptures.

Many man-hours have been spent by your pastors in bringing these things together. We believe that the following concerns are the foundational biblical issues which ought to be seriously considered by any child of God before he views this movie now or fifty years from now.

1. The film’s dominant preoccupation with the physical brutality and the physical sufferings of Jesus is inconsistent with the Bible’s emphasis upon the reality and dominant nature of his spiritual sufferings. Mr. Gibson has said in a number of interviews that this film is meant to shock. It is intentionally, unabashedly brutal. Not only are the biblical narratives carried out in visual representations, but even additional acts of brutality are shown that are not at all mentioned in the Scriptures. This assertion could be documented.

W hen we open our Bibles, however, there is a modest restraint with respect to the details of Jesus’ physical suffering. For example, in Matthew’s account we read these words, "Then he released Barabbas to them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified" (Matthew 27:26). As the Holy Spirit has embalmed in ink from the pen of Matthew what He wants us to know about the sufferings of Christ, He says, "When he had scourged Jesus." That’s all! There are no gruesome details, no gory specifics, no attempt to create a mental image of lash after lash after lash, and the blood spurting from His back. "When he had scourged Jesus." Then verse 35 says, "Then they crucified Him, and divided his garments, casting lots." There is a modest restraint with respect to the depiction of His physical sufferings on the cross.

But when we turn to the biblical record with regards to the suffering of the soul of Jesus, beginning in Gethsemane, God gives us unusual details in three different gospel accounts. Jesus begins to be sorely troubled and says to His disciples, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death" (Mark 14:34), and he falls upon the ground. He comes back to the disciples, and says, "Could you not watch one hour?" and He staggers again. Luke gives us this unusual detail of His continuing agony in Luke 22:44: "Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." The first mention of His blood in an explicit way does not have anything to do with any physical sufferings. No one has laid a hand on Him. No wound has been opened. It is the suffering of His soul. "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death."

Likewise with the ongoing account of the crucifixion, there is no record that our Lord cries out under any of the horrors of physical abuse. But it is at the end of the three hours, when He is plunged into darkness and in His soul is drinking in the dereliction, abandonment and forsakenness of God, that He cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). The soul of His suffering was the transaction between Jesus and his Father, and not that which was laid upon Jesus by men. An older writer stated it accurately when he affirmed, "the soul of His suffering was the suffering of His soul."

I am not discounting the horror and the brutality of Jesus’ physical sufferings. What I am saying is that this film gives undue emphasis upon the physical sufferings of Christ. It is inconsistent with the Bible’s emphasis upon the reality and dominant nature of His spiritual sufferings. Those sufferings are described for us in the language of 2 Cor. 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us," or Gal 3:13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." In the language of the hymn we sing, "But the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave."

Any Christian jealous for God’s emphasis with regard to the suffering of his Lord must ask the question, "Do I want to subject my mind and the walls of memory to a film which has an emph asis inconsistent with the emphasis of my Bible?" That is a question you need to ask.

2. The film’s detailed depiction of the death of Jesus on the movie screen is an unwarranted re-enactment and representation of His death. On the eve of His crucifixion Jesus himself gave us a physical and visible means of representing His death: "This is My body which is given for you" (Luke 22:19). At the supper He took the cup saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you" (Luke 22:20). Jesus did not give any directive that someone should go with a charcoal pencil and capture visually the details of His death. He said that He would give His followers the means of remembering Him as their crucified Savior. The Lord Jesus gave one physical, visual representation of His death.

As the Synod of Constantinople in 753 decreed, "The only admissible figure of the humanity of Christ, however, is bread and wine in the holy Supper. This and no other form, this and no other type, has He chosen to represent His incarnation."[2] It is not without significance that this detailed depiction of the re-enactment and representation of our Lord’s death is in the mind of its very devout Catholic director, Mr. Gibson, a parallel to the re-enactment of the death of Christ in the blasphemous action of the Mass. A current article comments, "It is crucial to realize that the images and language of The Passion of the Christ flow directly out of Gibson’s personal dedication to Catholicism in one of its most traditional and mysterious forms "the l6th century Latin Mass."[3]

Listen to Mr. Gibson’s own words: "'I don’t go to any other services,’ the director told the Eternal Word television network [that is the Roman Catholic conservative television network]. ‘I go to the old Tridentine Rite. That’s the way that I first saw it when I was a kid. So I think that that informs one’s understanding of how to transcend language. Now, initially, I didn’t understand the Latin" But I understood the meaning and the message and what they were doing.’" According to Tridentine theology, when the priest with his back to the laity holds up the host, he is offering Jesus Christ afresh. Hence, so often the priest faces a crucifix above the altar in which there is an organic connection between Christ upon a cross and Christ offered up in the consecration of the host. There is an intimate, conscious connection. Quoting again from the article, "The goal of the movie is to shake modern audiences by brashly juxtaposing the ‘sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the altar — which is the same thing,’ said Gibson. [4] As a devout Catholic of the old school, Mr. Gibson is accomplishing his goal.

So I say that the detailed depiction of the death of Jesus on the movie screen is an unwarranted re-enactment and representation of His death and leaves people open to be sympathetic to the blasphemy of the Roman Mass.

3. The film’s visual re-enactment of Christ crucified, as a medium of conveying the message of the gospel, is a radical and arrogant substitute for the God-ordained medium of presenting Christ crucified to a sinful world. How is Christ crucified to be presented to a sinful world? Listen to this quote from Mr. Gibson that is on a flyer from nearby Clearview Cinema: "This is a movie about love, hope, faith, and forgiveness. He [Jesus] died for all mankind, suffered for all of us. It’s time to get back to that basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little more love, faith, hope, and forgiveness."[5]

According to Mr. Gibson, it is time to get back to the message of Christ suffering for us. And what is his medium of getting that message out? His film. That is his passion, and that is his purpose. In Mel Gibson’s own experience he was fascinated as a boy with the mystery of the Mass. It wasn’t anything conveyed by language to the understanding, it was the mystery and subjective mystical experience of the Mass. He acknowledges that he departed from that practice for years and went into a horrible lifestyle of addictions of one kind and another. In his own words, speaking to Diane Sawyer, he said, "I stuck my proboscis into every pool of that which the world had to offer, and it left me empty." It was moving. But do you know what brought him back and rescued him? It was coming back to the Mass, coming back to the experience of his childhood, with a fascination and pre-occupation with a crucified Christ.

Many Protestants also view this movie as an effective means of communicating the gospel. Listen to one pastor who says, "This is a window of opportunity we have. Here’s a guy who’s putting his money into a movie that has everything to do with what we do. Churches used to communicate by having a little lecture time on Sunday morning. People don’t interact that way anymore. Here’s a chance for us to use a modern-day technique to communicate the truth of the Bible."[6] Everywhere we hear that evangelicals are buying up seats in local theaters, encouraging their people to go and bring their seeker friends to it. This movie, they say, is a marvelous tool of evangelization.

But I ask the question, my dear fellow believer: is this the God-ordained medium of conveying to a lost world the knowledge of Christ crucified as the way of salvation? The Scriptures answer unequivocally, no.

We read in 1 Cor. 1:18 that "The word" (that is, the logos, or the message) "of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Is the power of God to be seen in the cross as presented visually? No, the power of God comes in the cross presented as a word, a word defined by God. Paul continues in verse 21, "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." Here Paul uses the Greek word "kerugma" - the "thing preached" - which means both the message, and the method. Verse 22 continues, "For Jews request a sign" - they say, "W e are visual people; bring your gospel to us with visual validation." God says, "No, I have chosen a message, and a method, and I won’t capitulate to your demands."

Galatians 3:1 says, "O foolish Galatians...before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." Paul said that the Galatians had Christ set before their eyes as crucified. How did he do it? Did he come to Galatia with a traveling "passion play" troupe? No! Read on: "This only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Christ was set forth crucified by a message that they heard. It was by apostolic proclamation, by "the word of the cross."

Dear people, you and I must have the spiritual fortitude to stand with God’s method. We must refuse to allow men, however sincere they may be, to replace the wisdom of God. "In the wisdom of God it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."

4. The film’s graphic and extended portrayal of the physical brutality involved in the sufferings of Jesus, culminating in His crucifixion, has produced and will continue to produce a plethora of spurious spiritual experience. Certainly you are aware of the fact that we live in a day of the resurgence of ubiquitous spirituality - New Age spirituality, another dimension beyond the physical, stroking rocks to stimulate your spirituality. People are always prone to false religious experiences, but in such a climate of heightened spirituality how much more are people vulnerable to spurious spiritual experiences. Our forefathers were very conscious in times of revival, when there was heightened contagion of emotion, that people were vulnerable to spurious experience. They wrote essays and preached sermons on how to distinguish between true and spurious spiritual experience. Jonathan Edwards’s Religious Affections was his effort to sort this out. He recognized that the devil can come, as Paul says, as an angel of light and a minister of righteousness. No more wide an avenue does he have than when emotions are highly agitated. And when emotions are highly agitated in a religious context, people are most vulnerable to having a spurious religious experience.

Now, what is going to happen? People are going to sit in theaters and react emotionally. If they were all alone it would be bad enough, but human emotion is contagious. And even if you were seeing all the same things done to one of those malefactors who were crucified to the left and right of Jesus, unless you were dead as a human being you could not help to be moved to tears that a fellow human being would be so brutalized. But because the one being brutalized is this central religious figure, this innocent man, there will be multitudes that will experience a spurious religious experience. I say it will be spurious because there will be no biblical conviction of sin; there will be no biblical understanding of the gospel; there will be no repentance; there will be no saving faith; there will be no new creation in Christ; there will be no baptism leading to involvement in evangelical, Bible-believing churches. People will return to Rome by the droves. Then they will go back to the Super Bowls and to their salacious movies on Sunday afternoons. But they will say that they have had an experience, and surely all must be well.

Jesus said in Luke 23:28 to those who were seeing Him being brutalized and were weeping, "Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves." My blessed Lord does not need your sympathy, nor mine or anyone else’s in a movie theater. He demands that we weep for ourselves - our sin, our alienation from God, our wretched pride and rebellion. Then we would we fall at His feet, not with human sympathy but with adoration and worship because the Holy Spirit has shown us who Jesus really is in His person and in His work.

5. The film undermines the biblical doctrine of the absolute sufficiency of Scripture. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." God gave a complete Bible to make complete men. Or read the last words of the Book of the Revelation where the curse of God is pronounced upon any who subtract from the words of the book or add to it (Rev. 22:18-19).

I said in my opening positive statement that there are things for which we can give thanks, that there was a "good measure" of literary integrity and "for the most part" a reproduction of the text of Scripture. But Mary has a place in this film that she does not have in the Word of God. There are incidents in an attempt to depict the devil that are totally unfounded in the Word of God. In fact, they have their roots in a visionary nun who claims to have the stigmata - the marks of Christ - upon her. I quote from a recent article, "The Passion of Mel Gibson: Why Evangelicals are Cheering a Movie with Profoundly Catholic Sensibilities," in the March 2004 edition of Christianity Today by the editor, David Neff: "Mel Gibson in many ways is a pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic. He prefers the Tridentine Latin Mass and calls Mary co- redemptrix" - and may I add, he does so without shame. "Gibson told Christianity Today: ‘I’ve been actually amazed at the way I would say the evangelical audience has - hands down - responded to this film more than any other Christian group.’ What makes it so amazing he says is that ‘the film is so Marian.’ Gibson knows Protestants don’t regard Mary in the way Catholics do, and Gibson goes beyond many Catholics when he calls her ‘a tremendous co-redemptrix and mediatrix.’"[7]

Where does Gibson get some of this fill-in stuff? According to the article by David Neff:

Gibson told how actor Jim Caviezel, the film’s Jesus, insisted on beginning each day of filming with the celebration of the Mass on the set. He also recounted a series of divine coincidences that led him to read the works of Ann Catherine Emmerich, a late-18th, early-19th - century Westphalian nun who had visions of the events of the Passion. Many of the details needed to fill out the Gospel accounts he drew from her book, Dolorous Passion of Our Lord.

Here is one such detail from Emmerich: [A]fter the flagellation, I saw Claudia Procles, the wife of Pilate, send some large pieces of linen to the Mother of God. I know not whether she thought that Jesus would be set free, and that his Mother would then require linen to dress his wounds, or whether this compassionate lady was aware of the use which would be made of her present... I soon after saw Mary and Magdalen approach the pillar where Jesus had been scourged;...they knelt down on the ground near the pillar, and wiped up the sacred blood with the linen which Claudia Procles had sent."[8]

Neff continues,

Gibson does not follow Dolorous Passion slavishly, and at many points he chooses details that conflict with Emmerich’s account. But the sight of Pilate’s wife handing a stack of linen cloths to Jesus’ mother allows Gibson to capture a moment of sympathy and compassion between the two women, and the act of the two Marys wiping up Jesus’ blood gives Gibson the opportunity to pull back for a dramatic shot of the bloody pavement.

Another detail picked up from Dolorous Passion is just as dramatically powerful, but much more significant theologically. Emmerich writes that during Jesus’ agony in the garden, Satan presented Jesus with a vision of all the sins of the human race. "Satan brought forward innumerable temptations, as he had formerly done in the desert, even daring to adduce various accusations against him." Satan, writes Emmerich, addressed Jesus "in words such as these: ‘Takest thou even this sin upon thyself? Art thou willing to bear its penalty? Art thou prepared to satisfy for all these sins?’"

Gibson shows Jesus being tempted by a pale, hooded female figure, who whispers to him just such words, suggesting that bearing the sins of the world is too much for Jesus, that he should turn back. And from under the tempter’s robe there slithers a snake. In a moment of metaphorical violence drawn straight from Genesis 3:15, Jesus crushes the serpent’s head beneath his sandaled feet.

These details from the film's opening sequence announce Gibson's acute consciousness of the cosmic battle between good and evil - between God and the devil - that is played out behind earthly scenes of violence against the innocent Jesus.[9]

But where does the Bible say that the devil was tempting our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane? There is not a word! To me it is incomprehensible to think that Christians who claim to believe in the absolute sufficiency of Scripture can sit passively and allow words to be put into the mouth of our blessed Lord, and actions to be portrayed by an actor representing our Lord, and not rise up in holy anger. Our forefathers spilled blood for the absolute sufficiency of this blessed Book. The reason we can come here this morning with an open Bible because of their blood which was shed in martyr doom against those who would add to Scripture such visions and phantasms and the decrees and counsels of men. This movie, I say, denies the absolute sufficiency of the Word of God.

One author says in another Christianity Today article concerning prior films that portrayed Jesus too humanly:

Where those films failed, partly because they demystified Jesus so thoroughly that he seemed to lose his divine authority, Gibson succeeds, by shooting much of the film from Jesus' own point of view and by using flashbacks to create the impression that we are being drawn into the flow of Jesus' own memories. When Jesus sees a man with carpentry tools, he thinks of his days as a carpenter; when he sees the street filled with people shouting at him, he thinks of his Triumphal Entry a few days before; when he sees Golgotha, he thinks of the sermon he gave on another mountain in which he told his followers to love their enemies."[10]

But who is Mel Gibson to get into the head of my blessed Lord, and tell me what He thought? Has he become God? Do you feel this, dear people? Here is a man who professes to get into the mind of my sovereign, omniscient, divine savior and wrongly represents those thoughts as "fact" to multitudes who will never read their Bibles. As far as they are concerned, the Jesus on the celluloid is the Jesus that is. but that is not the Jesus of Holy Scriptures.

6. The film promoted and will continue an undiscerning ecumenical climate. Whether Mel Gibson is a true Christian through all of his Catholicism, that is, whether he has come to cast his soul in naked faith upon the Son of God revealed in Scripture, I am of no position to answer. But that question and its answer are totally irrelevant with regard to evaluating the film. As a devout Catholic, Mr. Gibson is seeking to promote a film that even the front page of Christianity Today acknowledges to be a catholic film. Subtle and not-so-subtle nuances of Rome percolate through this fil. And because we live in an age of pragmatism people say, ":Oh, it did so much good, I know that this person was concerted as a result," and so on.

What are we doing? We are saying that the issues that were brought into focus in the Reformation are merely a tempest in a teapot. The issues for which men died at stake are really irrelevant. The real issues is, "Does it work?" But you see that the Apostle Paul did not have that disposition. In Galatians 1:8 he wrote, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Let him be accursed of God. The decrees and the pronouncements of the Roman Catholic Church place the curse upon you and me for believing that we are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ. By contrast, the apostle Paul pronounces the curse upon those who propagate a gospel at variance with the true, biblical gospel of salvation by faith alone. With this wholesale jumping into bed with Romanism, this film has and will continue to promote an undiscerning ecumenical climate. It will more and more marginalize those of us who do believe that the issues of reformation theology are still vital issues.

7. This film gives unquestioned approval to the arrogant and blasphemous activity of a sinful man attempting to portray the sinless God-Man. "Blasphemy" means to speak irreverently or profanely of or to God. the Jesus of the gospel records was true man, but He was equally true God. He was the Word made flesh. Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the father" (John 14:9). deity is mirrored in and through His sacred and holy humanity. He is truly human, yes, and no one emphasizes that more than I do. But He is true God! The compassionate look in His eyes was not mere human compassion, but was divine compassion. When anger reflected in His eyes, it was divine anger.

Yet of this actor it is said, and here I quote Lorenza Munoz of the Los Angeles Times with regard to Jim Caviezel:

Unlike Willem Dafoe's conflicted Jesus in "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) or Jeffrey Hunter's sweet-natured Jesus in "King of Kings" (1961), Caviezel's Jesus could be a character in a silent film. He evokes emotion mainly through his eyes and through haunting visuals that could have served as paintings than scenes from a motion picture.

In fact, Caviezel's ability to stir emotion with a glance has become his trademark. "You look into his eyes and there is a whole lot going on," says Rowdy Herrington, director of "Stroke of Genius," in which Caviezel plays golf great Bobby Jones... "It makes you imagine a lot of things."

In the brief moments during the two-hour Passion in which Caviezel in not drenched in blood, he emits sincerity with a smile and tenderness with a glimmer in his eyes (which were colored brown in post-production for the part). But it is hard to say whether the average moviegoer will notice him over the unrelenting violence. More than launch his career as a mainstream star, The Passion may ignite a fire for him among evangelical Christians and Conservative Catholics.

And perhaps it was a role Caviezel, a devout Catholic active in the religious community, was raised to play . . . Caviezel has no qualms about letting the world know he is religious. He is proud of his faith and relishes talking about it - even though Hollywood publicists have asked him to refrain from proselytizing in interviews . . . He has raised eyebrows among journalists for talking about visions of the Virgin Mary, and for not wanting to do nude scenes with Jennifer Lopez in "Angel Eyes" or Ashley Judd in "High Crimes" for fear of offending his wife of eight years, Kerri, a schoolteacher.

He waves away a question about where he worships. he said he attends mass in both Latin Tridentine and in English.

How did he prepare for the role of Jesus? "I walked on my pool twice a day - it's hard to do," he says, smiling.[11]

For this man to be placed on the screen and for any Christian to go and sit and watch him without objecting, I cannot imagine. For it then gives unquestioned approval to the arrogant and blasphemous activity of this sinful man attempting to portray the sinless God-Man.

8. The film constitutes a blatant violation of the Second Commandment. This is the capstone issue, and one that I trust you will wrestle with before God. Some would rest the whole case on this, I have tried to build up to it, rather that work down from it. But when the Lord God spoke from heaven and wrote with His own finger upon tablets of stone He said, Exodus 20:4, "You shall not make unto thee a graven image nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down yourself unto them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God." God would have no visual representations made of Himself as God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.

There is an excellent article by Professor John Murray called, "Pictures of Christ," and I urged every believer to read it. Its structure is relatively simple. He sets out the thesis that is anyone presents a picture of Christ it certainly must increase our understanding of who Christ was and to increase our love and devotion to Him. To present it for any other reason it would be blasphemous, would it not? To present a picture of Christ to make people ignorant of Him, and to think less of Him than they should, is blasphemous. Mr. Gibson would say yes, the purpose of his film is to accurately portray the Lord Jesus so that people may appreciate Him and love Him more.

Professor Murray then lays out the case for the use of pictures, and then he has three powerful arguments against them. I think they are unanswerable. The last two rest firmly down upon the Second Commandment. And then he summarizes:

What is at stake in this question is the unique place which Jesus Christ as the God-man occupies in our faith and worship and the unique place which the Scripture occupies as the only revelation, the only medium of communication, respecting him whom we worship as Lord and Saviour. The incarnate Word and the written Word are correlative. We dare not use other media of impression or of sentiment but those of his institution and prescription. Every thought and impression of him should evoke worship. We worship him with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God. To use a likeness of Christ as an aid to worship is forbidden by the second commandment as much in his case as in that of the Father and Spirit." [12]

Furthermore, I would be grieved because of what I fear may happen should you view the movie. The next time that we come to the Lord's table and sing, "When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died," would there not be a great temptation to bring to mind the actor's face? Image worship would go on in this very building, as much as if you projected his face on the back wall and said, "Look, there is Christ." Idolatry begins in the image of the heart.

I have struggled for years to get out of my mind Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ" that was hung in a place of worship when I was a child. When I became a Christian and thought of my Lord at the right hand of my father as I directed my prayers to Jesus who has physical form in heaven, Sallman's "Head of Christ" kept coming into my mind. It took years to scrub it out, but with a little flip of the switch it could be there again. I am not to worship Jesus according to the half-effeminate artistic sensibilities of Mr. Sallman. I am to worship Him as He is revealed in the Word of God and in the full glory of His godhood and His manhood.

As we close, let me give some practical counsel in order to seize the opportunity to witness. First, don't attack the movie with uncoverted people or with Christian friends who go to see it. A servant of the Lord must not strive. Secondly, use the interest in this movie to direct conversation to the central issues of the gospel. The movie does not answer the two most important questions about the death of Christ: who was it that died, and why did He die?[13] Direct the conversation towards these topics. And thirdly, use the tools we are going to make available to you such as John Piper's book, "The Passion of Jesus Christ". Prayerfully distrubute such tools and seize this opportunity to witness.

Notes
1. Michael Medved, "Gibson's Right to his 'Passion,'" Christian Sceince Monitor, February 2, 2004, page 9.
2. Quoted by John Leith in Creeds of the Churches.
3. Andrew J. Webb, "Five Reasons Not to Go See The Passion of Christ," posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/bbwarfield/message/16961.
4. Ibid.
5. Advertising Postcard, Clearview Cinemas.
6. See note 3.
7. David Neff, "The Passion of Mel Gibson" Why Evangelicals are Cheering a Movie with Profoundly Catholic Sensibilities," Christianity Today, Volume 48, Number 3, March 2004, page 30
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Peter T Chattaway, "Lethal Suffering," Christianity Today, March 2004, page 30.
11. Lorenza Monuz, "In the Eye of the storm," Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2004, page E8.
12. John Murray, "Pictures of Christ," posted at http://www.datarat.net/DR/pic.html as reprinted from the Reformed Herald, February 1961.
13. Pastor Martin seeks to address these questions in a subsequent message titled, "The Passion: What the Movie Doesn't Tell You," Sermon #TE-178, available online at www.tbcnj.org.

Credit
This transcript is from a Sunday School class led by Pastor Albert N. Martin on Sunday, February 22, 2004 at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey, USA. copyright 2004 Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, NJ. All rights reserved, www.tbcnj.org. With thanks for various contributions from other sources. Audio of this message is available on our website.

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John Lightfoot's Concise Exposition of Romans 1:23-32

2011-03-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

It is observable, what Paul saith; that because the heathen had brutish conceptions concerning God, abasing him, he gave them over to brutish abasing their own bodies by bestiality,—or, indeed, by what was above bestial. And so he shows plainly, that God's giving up men to such filthiness, especially sodomy, was a direct plague for their idolatrous conceptions of God, and their idolatry. And to this purpose, it may be observed, that, when the Holy Ghost hath given the story of the world's becoming heathenish at Babel, for and by idolatry; he is not long before he brings in mention of this sin among the heathen, and fearful vengeance upon it. Apply this matter to the case of Rome, and it may be of good information.

—John Lightfoot

C.H. Spurgeon, The Second Commandment, Graven Images, & Idolatry

2011-03-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Read C. H. Spurgeon's "Idolatry Condemned" here. Also, read Spurgeon's "Idols Abolished" here.

Iconoclast Sermon #960 Volume 16

THE First Commandment instructs us that there is but one God, who alone is to be worshipped. And the Second Commandment teaches that no attempt is to be made to represent the Lord, neither are we to bow down before any form of sacred similitude.

The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Sermon #1653

The Resurrection of Christ is vital, because first it tells us that the Gospel is the Gospel of a living Savior. We have not to send poor penitents to the crucifix, the dead image of a dead man. We say not, “These be thy gods, O Israel!” We have not to send you to a little baby Christ nursed by a woman. Nothing of the sort. Behold the Lord that lives and was dead and is alive for evermore, and hath the keys of hell and of death! Behold in him a living and accessible Savior who out of the glory still cries with loving accents, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.” I say we have a living Savior, and is not this a glorious feature of the gospel?

From Spurgeon's Puritan Catechism:

46 Q What is forbidden in the second commandment?A The second commandment
forbids the worshipping of God by images (De 4:15,16). or any other way not
appointed in his Word (Col 2:18).

From Spurgeon's Exposition of Exodus 32 (link, Spurgeon's exposition at the end):

Verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wet not what is become of him.
What a terrible speech to be made by the people whom God had chosen to be his own! "Make us gods. Make our Creator." How could that be?
2. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Poor Aaron! He never had the backbone of his brother Moses. He was a better speaker; but oh, the poverty of his heart! He yields to the will of these idolatrous people, and bows to their wicked behests at once.
3. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Idolaters spare no expense; there is many a worshipper of a god of wood or mud who gives more to that idol than professing Christians give to the cause of the one living and true God. It is sad that it should be so.
4. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
This was an Egyptian idolatry, the worship of God under the fashion of an ox, the emblem of strength; but God is not to be worshipped under emblems at all. What a poor representation of God any emblem must be!
5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
They were going to worship Jehovah under the emblem of an ox. This is what you will hear idolaters say; they do not worship the image, they say, but the true God under that image. Yet that is expressly forbidden under the second commandment.
6. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people eat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Lascivious games were sure to accompany idolatrous worship, for idolatry always leads to filthiness in some form or other, as if it were inevitable.

Here is a section from Spurgeon's exposition of Isaiah 44. and 55; and 2 Samuel 23:1-5 (the text can be found here at The Spurgeon Archives; however, please note that I do not approve of the blatant popish idolatry used on the banner at the bottom of the website; I hope they consider Spurgeon's words):

20, 21. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: You who fear God, remember these things, and keep clear of idolatry,—the setting up of crucifixes, the hanging up of crosses or any kind of symbol whatever. Even though it be merely the simple triangle, or the sacred Alpha and Omega, away with it, for the people of God must be clear from even the slightest traces of idolatry. See how many so-called Christian churches are nothing better than congregations of idolaters, such as the Church of Rome, and even the Greek Church the one with her images and her relics, and the other with her pictures and her icons. We must have none of these things, for the command still stands, "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." In days like these in which we live, the people of God should be more particular than ever not to countenance any form of idolatry lest, by slow degrees, we come back to the old abominations which God abhors.

The following quote is from the sermon "A Jealous God" (No. 502). Delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, on Sunday Morning, March 29th, 1863, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington (the full text can be read here (Bible Bulletin Board); note: The sermon is, for the most part, a good sermon; however, I abhor Spurgeon's idea of asking the question: "Can you put yourselves in God's place for a moment?" Although I understand his use of it, the answer is no, because that is what an idolater does. Idolaters change "God" into what they think He should be; idolaters attempt to make God a creation of man -- they attempt to put themselves into the place of the eternal uncreated Creator.):

Our text is coupled with the command—"Thou shalt worship no other God." When the law was thundered from Sinai, the second commandment received force from the divine jealousy—"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." Since he is the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth, he cannot endure that any creature of his own hands, or fiction of a creature's imagination should be thrust into his throne, and be made to wear his crown. In Ezekiel we find the false god described as "the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy," and the doom on Jerusalem for thus turning from Jehovah runs thus, "Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head." False gods patiently endure the existence of other false gods. Dagon can stand with Bel, and Bel with Ashtaroth; how should stone, and wood, and silver, be moved to indignation; but because God is the only living and true God, Dagon must fall before his ark; Bel must be broken, and Ashtaroth must be consumed with fire. Thus saith the Lord, "Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves;" the idols he shall utterly abolish. My brethren, do you marvel at this? I felt in my own soul while meditating upon this matter an intense sympathy with God. Can you put yourselves in God's place for a moment? Suppose that you had made the heavens and the earth, and all the creatures that inhabit this round globe; how would you feel if those creatures should set up an image of wood, or brass, or gold, and cry, "These are the gods that made us; these things give us life." What—a dead piece of earth set up in rivalry with real Deity! What must be the Lord's indignation against infatuated rebels when they so far despise him as to set up a leek, or an onion, or a beetle, or a frog, preferring to worship the fruit of their own gardens, or the vermin of their muddy rivers, rather than acknowledge the God in whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways! Oh! it is a marvel that God hath not dashed the world to pieces with thunderbolts, when we recollect that even to this day milhons of men have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. With what unutterable contempt must the living God look down upon those idols which are the work of man's hands—"They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat." God hath longsuffering toward men, and he patiently endureth this madness of rebelhon; but, oh! what patience must it be which can restrain the fury of his jealousy, for he is a jealous God, and brooks no rival. It was divine jealousy which moved the Lord to bring all his plagues on Egypt. Careful reading will show you that those wonders were all aimed at the gods of Egypt. The people were tormented by the very things which they had made to be their deities, or else, as in the case of the murrain, their sacred animals were themselves smitten, even as the Lord had threatened—"Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah." Was it not the same with ancient Israel? Why were they routed before their enemies? Why was their land so often invaded? Why did famine follow pestilence, and war succeed to famine? Only because "they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was Froth, and greatly abhorred Israel." (Psalm 78:58-59.) How was it that at the last the Lord gave up Jerusalem to the flames, and bade the Chaldeans carry into captivity the remnant of his people? How was it that he abhorred his heritage, and gave up Mount Zion to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles? Did not Jeremiah tell them plainly that because they had walked after other gods and forsaken Jehovah, therefore he would cast them out into a land which they knew not?
Brethren, the whole history of the human race is a record of the wars of the Lord against idolatry. The right hand of the Lord hath dashed in pieces the enemy and cast the ancient idols to the ground. Behold the heaps of Nineveh! Search for the desolations of Babylon! Look upon the broken temples of Greece! See the ruins of Pagan Rome! Journey where you will, you behold the dilapidated temples of the gods and the ruined empires of their foolish votaries. The moles and the bats have covered with forgetfulness the once famous deities of Chaldea and Assyria. The Lord hath made bare his arm and eased him of his adversaries, for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
With what indignation, then, must the Lord look down upon that apostate harlot, called the Romish Church, when, in all her sanctuaries, there are pictures and images, relics and slivines, and poor infatuated beings are even taught to bow before a piece of bread. In this country, Popish idolatry is not so barefaced and naked as it is in other lands; but I have seen it, and my soul has been moved with indignation like that of Paul on Mars' Hill, when he saw the city wholly to idolatry; I have seen thousands adore the wafer, hundreds bow before the image of the Virgin, scores at prayer before a crucifix, and companies of men and women adoring a rotten bone or a rusty nail, because said to be the relic of a saint. It is vain for the Romanist to assert that he worships not the things themselves, but only the Lord through them, for this the second commandment expressly forbids, and it is upon this point that the Lord calls himself a jealous God. How full is that cup which Babylon must drink; the day is hastening when the Lord shall avenge himself upon her, because her iniquities have reached unto heaven, and she hath blasphemously exalted her Pope into the throne of the Host High, and thrust her priests into the office of the Lamb. Purge yourselves, purge yourselves of this leaven. I charge you before God, the Judge of quick and dead, if ye would not be partakers of her plagues, come out from her more and more, and let your protest be increasingly vehement against this which exalteth itself above all that is called God. Let our Protestant Churches, which have too great a savoar of Popery in them, cleanse themselves of her fornications, lest the Lord visit them with fire and pour the plagues of Babylon upon them. Renounce, my brethren, every ceremony which has not Scripture for its warrant, and every doctrine which is not established by the plain testimony of the Word of God. Let us, above all, never by any sign, or word, or deed, have any complicity with this communion of devils, this gathering together of the sons of Behal: and since our God is a jealous God, let us not provoke him by any affinity, gentleness, fellowship, or amity with this Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.
With what jealousy must the Lord regard the great mass of the people of this country, who have another God beside himself! With what indignation doth he look upon many of you who are subject to the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world! To you Jehovah is nothing. God is not in all your thoughts; you have no fear of Him before your eyes. Like the men of Israel, you have set up your idols in your heart. Your god is custom, fashion, business, pleasure, ambition, honor. You have made unto yourselves gods of these things; you have said, "These be thy gods, O Israel." Ye follow after the things which perish, the things of this world, which are vanity. O ye sons of men, think not that God is blind. He can perceive the idols in your hearts; he understandeth what be the secret things that your souls lust after; he searcheth your heart, he trieth your reins; beware lest he find you sacrificing to strange gods, for his anger will smoke against you, and his jealousy will be stirred. O ye that worship not God, the God of Israel, who give him not dominion over your whole soul, and live not to his honor, repent ye of your idolatry, seek mercy through the blood of Jesus, and provoke not the Lord to jealousy any more.

Read Spurgeon's sermon "The Ascension of Christ" (delivered March 26, 1871) here (I do not endorse the banner graphics). From the sermon:

Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone from us. We return again to the thought. We cannot speak into his ear and hear his voice reply in those dear accents with which he spoke to Thomas and to Philip. He no longer sits at feasts of love with favored friends, such as Mary and Martha and Lazarus. He has departed out of this world unto the Father, and what then? Why he has taught us by this the more distinctly, that we must henceforth walk by faith and not by sight. The presence of Jesus Christ on earth would have been, to a great extent, a perpetual embargo upon the life of faith. We should all have desired to see the Redeemer; but since, as man, he could not have been omnipresent, but could only have been in one spot at one time, we should have made it the business of our lives to provide the means for journey to the place where he might be seen; or if he himself condescended to journey through all lands, we should have fought our way into the throng to feast our eyes upon him, and we should have envied each other when the turn came for any to speak familiarly with him. Thank God we have no cause for clamor or strife or struggle about the mere sight of Jesus after the flesh; for though once he was seen corporeally by his disciples, yet now after the flesh know we even him no more. Jesus is no more seen of human eyes; and it is well, for faith's sight is saving, instructing, transforming, and mere natural sight is not so. Had he been here we should have regarded much more the things which are visible, but now our hearts are taken up with the things which are not seen, but which are eternal. This day we have no priest for eyes to gaze upon, no material altar, no temple made with hands, no solemn rites to satisfy the senses; we have done with the outward and are rejoicing in the inward. Neither in this mountain nor in that do we worship the Father, but we worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth. We now endure as seeing him who is invisible; whom, having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. In the same fashion as we walk towards our Lord, so walk we towards all that he reveals; we walk by faith, not by sight. Israel, in the wilderness, instructed by types and shadows, was ever prone to idolatry; the more there is of the visible in religion, the more is there of difficulty in the attainment of spirituality. Even baptism and the Lord's Supper, were they not ordained by the Lord himself, might be well given up, since the flesh makes a snare of them, and superstition engrafts on them baptismal regeneration and sacramental efficacy. Our Lord's presence might thus have become a difficulty to faith, though a pleasure to sense. His going away leaves a clear field for faith; it throws us necessarily upon a spiritual life, since he who is the head, the soul, the center of our faith, hope, and love is no more within the range of our bodily organs. It is poor believing which needs to put its finger into the nail-prints; but blessed is he that hath not seen and yet hath believed. In an unseen Savior we fix our trust, from an unseen Savior we derive our joy. Our faith is now the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Let us learn this lesson well, and let it never be said to us, "Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Let us never attempt to live by feeling and evidence. Let us banish from our soul all dreams of finding perfection in the flesh, and equally let us discard all cravings for signs and wonders. Let us not be like the children of Israel, who only believed while they saw the works of the Lord. If our Beloved has hidden himself from our sight, let him even hide everything else, if so it pleases him. If he only reveals himself to our faith, the eye which is good enough to see him with is good enough to see everything else with, and we will be content to see his covenant blessings, and all else with that one eye of faith, and no other, till the time shall come when he shall change our faith to sight.

A section from "Scala Santa" by C. H. Spurgeon from the January 1874 Sword and Trowel (emphasis mine; note: Isaiah 42:8 and Isaiah 48:11):

Our abhorrence of Popery and everything verging upon it rose to a white heat as we saw how it can lower an intelligent nation to the level of fetish worship, and associate the name of the ever-blessed Jesus with a groveling idolatry. If our mild milk-and-water Protestants could see Popery with their own eyes, they might have less to say against Orange bigotry; and if those who play at ornate worship could see whither their symbolism tends, they would start back aghast, and adhere henceforth to the severest simplicity. Perhaps Luther would never have become a Reformer had it not been for his visit to Rome and his ascent of these very stairs. In the city where he expected to find the church of God in all its holiness, he found sin rampant beyond all precedent. "It is almost incredible," says he, "what infamous actions are committed at Rome; one would require to see it and hear it in order to believe it. It is an ordinary saying that if there is a hell, Rome is built upon it. It is an abyss from whence all sins proceed." Nor did he speak as an exaggerating enthusiast, for Machiavelli's witness was that the nearer you came to the capital of Christendom the less you found of the Christian spirit. "We Italians," said the great historian, "are chiefly indebted to the church and the priests for our having become a set of profane scoundrels."

Spurgeon's sermon "The Blind Befriended" (delivered on Thursday evening, March 9th, 1876, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington) can be read here (pdf.) and here (pdf.). Here is a quote from the sermon:

But I think I hear you say, "You are telling us rather of a blindness that we used to be afflicted with than of one from which we are now suffering."Well, the figure will not run on all fours. We must use it, however, to set forth the present truth and this is as it ought to be used. Surely, the description "blind" may well be applied to the Christian, for this reason — that now he does not expect to see that upon which he builds his hope. All that he sees is nothing to him. That which is to him substantial and real is that which he believes. If you ask any believer what he rests his hope upon, he will tell you that it is upon an unseen Christ, "whom having not seen we love." He will tell you that there is a promise, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed;" and he has realised the sweetness of that word. He does not rest his confidence on a crucifix which he can see with his eyes, but on the Savior who is not here, for he is risen and ascended into heaven. He does not rest upon a priest whose voice he can hear — a man like himself; but his confidence is in another priest who has gone within the veil, and entered into the glory. He depends no longer now upon his own doings. These he can see, but what he sees of them makes him despond. He dares not rest in his own works, but he rests in the works of another who has gone up to the throne of God, and carried a matchless righteousness into Jehovah's presence. He will tell you that he does not even depend upon his own feelings; he is very conscious that they are fickle — they change like the weather. As one day we have a little bright sunshine, and perhaps in an hour we have a hailstorm, and by-and-by are brought back to the very cold of winter, so is it with our feelings. Our experience is always varying, and the man that knows himself aright dares not trust in his feelings, nor rely upon his experience. No, he rests in the feelings of him who sweat great drops of blood in the garden. His confidence is in the anguish of one who was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and not in his own anguish. He rests in the death and resurrection — in the wounds and in the triumphs — not of himself, in any respect, but of Christ whom, having not seen, he nevertheless trusts and relies upon. Oh, it is a blessed thing to be thus blind, so that you cannot see any good in yourself, cannot see any good upon which you could rest; cannot discover, even in God's work, apart from Christ, any foundation on which to build; cannot find in heaven or earth any prop and pillar for the soul, save Jesus crucified. Ransack the universe, and where others can see grounds of confidence these truly blind men are unable to see anything, and only say, "These we count dross and dung that we may win Christ and be found in him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith." Oh, blessed blindness, never more to be able to see a solitary ray of hope except in Christ — never more to be able to find any confidence anywhere but in him whom God the Father hath set forth to be a propitiation for sin, through faith in his precious blood!

From Spurgeon's sermon " The Anchor" DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, MAY 21, 1876:

Where is your hope, Brothers and Sisters? Do you believe because you can see? That is not believing at all! Do you believe because you can feel? That is feeling, it is not believing! But “blessed is he that has not seen and yet has believed.” Blessed is he who believes against his feelings, yes, and hopes against hope! That is a strange thing to do, hoping against hope, believing things impossible and seeing things invisible. He who can do that has learned the art of faith! Our hope is not seen, it lies in the waves, or, as the text says, “within the veil.” I am not going to run the figure too closely, but a mariner might say that his anchor is within the watery veil, for a veil of water is between him and it and so it is concealed. Such is the confidence which we have in God, whom having not seen we love—
“Let the winds blow, and billows roll,
Hope is the anchor of my soul.
But can I by so slight a tie,
An unseen hope, on God rely?
Steadfast and sure, it cannot fail,
It enters deep within the veil,
It fastens on a land unknown,
And moors me to my Father’s Throne.”
Although our anchor is gone out of sight, yet, thank God it has taken a very firm grip and “entered into that which is within the veil.” What hold can be equal to that which a man has upon his God when he can cry, “You have promised, therefore do as You have said”?
What grasp is firmer than this, “Lord, You have sworn it, You can not run back. You have said that he that believes in You is justified from all sin. Lord, I believe You, therefore be pleased to do as You have said. I know You cannot lie and You have sworn that Christ is a Priest forever. I am resting in Him as my Priest who has made a full atonement for me. I therefore hold You to Your oath—accept me for the sake of Jesus’ sacrifice. Can You reject a soul for whom Your own Son is pleading? He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto You by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for me! My Lord, this is the hold I have upon You! This is the anchor which I have cast into the deep mysterious attributes of Your wondrous Nature! I believe You and You will not make me ashamed of my hope.” Oh, Brothers and Sisters, what a hold you have upon the living God when you rely on His oath and promise! Thus you hold Him as Jacob held the Angel and the blessing you will surely win at His hands!

From Spurgeon's sermon "And Why Not?" DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 12, 1876:

Faith is not born of sight, nor can it be nourished by it.

...

We ignorantly desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but Divine Providence kindly denies us our wish and tells us plainly, “You shall not see it.” “Ah,” but you have said, “Only to see our blessed Lord once! Just to cast eyes upon His beloved Person for a moment! To hear but once the tones of His heart-moving voice! Oh, if I might but once unloose His sandals or kiss His feet, how would my spirit feel confidence and joy all her days! How would faith grow if she could but have a little actual and intimate communion with the Well-Beloved! I would gladly give all that I have for one glance of His eyes.” I know you have indulged that thought, for I have often had it myself, but dear Brothers and Sisters, if the Lord Jesus were to come upon earth, I am not sure that you could have much of His company, because there are so many of His people—and each one would wish to entertain Him.
He could, as a Man, be but in one place at one time, and you might get to see Him, perhaps, once in the year, but what would you do all the rest of the year, when you might not be able to hear His voice because He would be in America or in Australia? How much better off would you be? Surely none at all! It is far better for you to continue to say, “Whom not having seen we love; in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” The fact is, Brothers and Sisters, the great battle of the Lord has to be fought out upon the lines of faith and, for us to see with our eyes would spoil it all. That sight of the eyes and hearing with the ears which we desire, just to break the monotony of the walk of faith, would, in fact, spoil it all, and amount to a virtual defeat. Our God is saying to us, “My Children, can you trust Me? Can you obtain the blessing of those who have not seen and yet have believed? Abraham trusted Me, but he heard Me speak with an audible voice. Moses trusted Me, but he saw My wonders in Egypt and in the wilderness. Can you trust Me without voice or miracle?” The Lord has spoken to us by His Son, who is better than all voices or wonders! Can we now believe Him? Is the spiritual life within us strong enough to believe the Lord without any further evidence? Can we honor Him by resting upon His sure Word without seeing signs or wonders? We, upon whom the ends of the earth have come, are set to work out the great problem of defeating the powers of darkness and walking throughout an entire life by simple, undiluted faith—can we accomplish it? By the Spirit’s help we can! I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, say unto the Lord, “Lord, increase our faith, and grant that we may so trust You that from now on we may neither ask for sight nor sound, nor anything else that would prevent our resting on Your bare Word.” You have fallen into that mistaken condition and wished for one of the days of the Son of Man, but you shall not have it, for your heavenly Father has reserved some better thing for you, that you, to the end, with simple, unalloyed faith in Him, should endure and conquer through the blood and the power of your unseen Redeemer, who is really with you, though you see Him not!

...

Faith is now the watchword and the order of the day. Sight is for unbelievers, but patient trust is for the saints. This is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith. This it is which glorifies God and overthrows the powers of evil! Believe, and so shall you wax valiant in fight and put to flight the armies of the aliens. Believe, and so shall you be established. Ask not to see, for sight is wisely denied you. Heaven will be the brighter and eternity the more glorious because we hope for what we see not, and do with patience wait for it.

From Spurgeon's sermon "Jesus Christ Himself":

It is not passing through baptism, nor bearing the name of Christ, it is having Jesus himself in our hearts that makes us Christians, and in proportion as he is formed in us and the new life grows we become more and more like him. And this is our prospect for eternity, that we are to be with im and like him, for "when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Think of him, you that mourn your imperfectness to-day—think of Jesus Christ himself, and then be assured that you are to be like him. What a picture! Come, artist, bring your best skill here. What can you do? All pencils fail to depict him. It needs a poets eye as well as an artist's hand to picture the Lovely One. But what can the poet do? Ah, you also fail; you cannot sing him any more than your friend can paint him. Fruitful conception and soaring imagination may come to your aid, but they cannot prevent your failure. He is too beautiful to be described—he must be seen. Yet here comes the marvel—"We shall be like him"-like Jesus Christ himself. O saint, when thou art risen from the dead how lovely thou wilt be! Wilt thou know thyself?

From Spurgeon's sermon Mourning for Christ DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, JULY 1, 1877:

Alas, my Lord, why are You thus blasphemed by the worldly wise? Why is Your Truth despised among the learned and ridiculed by the scribes? I do not know when my grief has been more stirred for my Lord and Master than when brought actually to see the superstition by which our holy faith is impregnated and His blessed name blasphemed!Turning from skepticism, where He is wounded in the house of His enemies, you come to superstition, where He is wounded in the house of His professed friends—and what wounds they are! I have felt, sometimes as if I could tear down the baby image held in the Virgin’s hands when I have seen men and women prostrate before it!

What? O you sons of Antichrist, could you not make an idol, like the Egyptians, out of your cats and dogs, or find your gods in your gardens? Could you not make a golden calf, as Israel did in the wilderness, or borrow the fantastic shapes of India’s deities? Could nothing content you till the image of the holy Child Jesus should be made into an idol and Christ upon the Cross uplifted should be set up as an image for men to bow before? The idolatry which worships the image of the devil is less blasphemous than that which worships the image of Christ! It is an awful sacrilege to make the holy Jesus appear to be an accomplice in the violation of the Divine Commandment—yes, and to turn that blessed memorial of death into an idolatrous rite in which Divine honors are given to a piece of bread!

Was there ever sin like unto this sin? O You, innocent Savior, it is grief, indeed, to think that You should be set up in the idol temple, among “saints,” and that men should think that they are honoring Your Father by breaking His First and Second commandments! This must be to our Lord the most loathsome of all things under Heaven! How does He, in patience, bear it? Let not His people behold it without a mourning like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, because our blessed Christ is so blasphemed by Antichrist that the image of the Incarnate Son of God is set up as an object of idolatrous worship it its churches!

Below is a quote from Spurgeon's Lectures to my Students (downloadable here). Please note that an image made to represent God is forbidden whether or not it keeps us from God; however, it is an important point that such pictures don't bring people to Christ, rather they are 'teachers of lies' (ref. Habakkuk) and 'the stock is a doctrine of vanities' (ref. Jeremiah 10:8). Indeed, such images beget a false concept of God. We are to know God through His Word. Here is the quote:

"[...]the image with the Roman Catholic is intended to make him think of Christ, and in effect keeps him from Christ[...]"

Read Spurgeon's commentary on Psalm 78 (especially verses 58-59). Spurgeon's commentary is from his work called The Treasury of David. From the work:

Psa_78:58

“For they provoked him to anger with their high places.” This was their first error - will worship, or the worship of God, otherwise than according to his command. Many think lightly of this, but indeed it is no mean sin; and its tendencies to further offence are very powerful. The Lord would have his holy place remain as the only spot for sacrifice; and Israel, in wilful rebellion, (no doubt glossed over by the plea of great devotion,) determined to have many altars upon many hills. If they might have but one God, they insisted upon it that they would not be restricted to one sacred place of sacrifice. How much of the worship of the present day is neither more nor less than sheer will-worship! Nobody dare plead a divine appointment for a tithe of the offices, festivals, ceremonies, and observances of certain churches. Doubtless God, so far from being honoured by worship which he has not commanded, is greatly angered at it. “And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” This was but one more step; they manufactured symbols of the invisible God, for they lusted after something tangible and visible to which they could shew reverence. This also is the crying sin of modern times. Do we not hear and see superstition abounding. Images, pictures, crucifixes, and a host of visible things are had in religious honour, and worst of all men now-a-days worship what they eat, and call that a God which passes into their belly, and thence into baser places still. Surely the Lord is very patient, or he would visit the earth for this worst and basest of idolatry. He is a jealous God, and abhors to see himself dishonoured by any form of representation which can come from man's hands.

Psa_78:59

“When God heard this, he was wroth.” The mere report of it filled him with indignation; he could not bear it, he was incensed to the uttermost, and most justly so. “And greatly abhorred Israel.” He cast his idolatrous people from his favour, and left them to themselves, and their own devices. How could he have fellowship with idols? What concord hath Christ with Belial? Sin is in itself so offensive that it makes the sinner offensive too. Idols of any sort are highly abhorrent to God, and we must see to it that we keep ourselves from them through divine grace, for rest assured idolatry is not consistent with true grace in the heart. If Dagon sit aloft in any soul, the ark of God is not there. Where the Lord dwells no image of jealousy will be tolerated. A visible church will soon become a visible curse if idols be set up in it, and then the pruning knife will remove it as a dead branch from the vine.
Note that God did not utterly cast away his people Israel even when he greatly abhorred them, for he returned in mercy to them, so the subsequent verses tell us: so now the seed of Abraham, though for awhile under a heavy cloud, will be gathered yet again, for the covenant of salt shall not be broken. As for the spiritual seed, the Lord hath not despised nor abhorred them; they are his peculiar treasure and lie for ever near his heart.

Also, read Spurgeon's commentary on Psalm 106 (especially verses 19-22). From the work:

Psa_106:19

“They made a calf in Horeb.” In the very place where they had solemnly pledged themselves to obey the Lord they broke the second, if not the first, of his commandments, and set up the Egyptian symbol of the ox, and bowed before it. The ox image is here sarcastically called “a calf”; idols are worthy of no respect, scorn is never more legitimately used than when it is poured upon all attempts to set forth the Invisible God. The Israelites were foolish indeed when they thought they saw the slightest divine glory in a bull, nay, in the mere image of a bull. To believe that the image of a bull could be the image of God must need great credulity. “And worshipped the molten image.” Before it they paid divine honours, and said, “These be thy gods, O Israel.” This was sheer madness. After the same fashion the Ritualists must needs set up their symbols and multiply them exceedingly. Spiritual worship they seem unable to apprehend; their worship is sensuous to the highest degree, and appeals to eye, and ear, and nose. O the folly of men to block up their own way to acceptable worship, and to make the path of spiritual religion, which is hard to our nature, harder still through the stumbling-blocks which they east into it. We have heard the richness of Popish paraphernalia much extolled, but an idolatrous image when made of gold is not one jot the less abominable than it would have been had it been made of dross and dung: the beauty of art cannot conceal the deformity of sin. We are told also of the suggestiveness of their symbols, but what of that, when God forbids the use of them? Vain also is it to plead that such worship is hearty. So much the worse. Heartiness in forbidden actions is only an increase of transgression.

Psa_106:20

“Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.” They said that they only meant to worship the one God under a fitting and suggestive similitude by which his great power would be set forth to the multitude; they pleaded the great Catholic revival which followed upon this return to a more ornate ceremonial, for the people thronged around Aaron, and danced before the calf with all their might. But in very deed they had given up the true God, whom it had been their glory to adore, and had set up a rival to him, not a representation of him; for how should he be likened to a bullock? The Psalmist is very contemptuous, and justly so: irreverence towards idols is an indirect reverence to God. False gods, attempts to represent the true God, and indeed, all material things which are worshipped are so much filth upon the face of the earth, whether they be crosses, crucifixes, virgins, wafers, relics, or even the Pope himself. We are by far too mealy-mouthed about these infamous abominations: God abhors them, and so should we. To renounce the glory of spiritual worship for outward pomp and show is the height of folly, and deserves to be treated as such.

Psa_106:21, Psa_106:22

“They forgat God their Saviour.” Remembering the calf involved forgetting God. He had commanded them to make no image, and in daring to disobey they forgot his commands. Moreover, it is clear that they must altogether have forgotten the nature and character of Jehovah, or they could never have likened him to a grass-eating animal. Some men hope to keep their sins and their God too - the fact being that he who, sins is already so far departed from the Lord that he has 'actually forgotten him. “Which had done great things in Egypt.” God in Egypt had overcome all the idols, and yet they so far forgot him as to liken him to them. Could an ox work miracles? Could a golden calf cast plagues upon Israel's enemies? They were brutish to set up such a wretched mockery of deity, after having seen what the true God could really achieve. “Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.” They saw several ranges of miracles, the Lord did not stint them as to the evidences of his eternal power and godhead, and yet they could not rest content with worshipping him in his own appointed way, but must needs have a Directory of their own invention, an elaborate ritual after the old Egyptian fashion, and a manifest object of worship to assist them in adoring Jehovah. This was enough to provoke the Lord, and it did so; how much he is angered every day in our own land no tongue can tell.

The Treasury of David on Psalm 135:18,

The idol-worshippers are as bad as the idol-makers;

Also, THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO. 2553 A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JANUARY 23, 1898. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER. 26 1884:

I. First, let us enquire, WHAT IS THIS CROSS OF CHRIST to which some men are sadly said to be enemies?

Of course, it is not the material cross. It is not anything made in the shape of the cross. There are some who can fall down and adore a cross of wood, or stone, or gold, but I cannot conceive of a greater wounding of the heart of Christ than to pay reverence to anything in the shape of a cross, or to bow before a crucifix! I think the Savior must say, “What? What? Am I the Son of God and do they make even Me into an idol? I who have died to redeem men from their idolatries, am I, Myself, taken and carved, and chiseled, and molten, and set up as an image to be worshipped by the sons of men?” When God says, “You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them,” it is a strange fantasy of human guilt that men should say, “We will even take the image of the Son of God, or some ghastly counterfeit that purports to be His image, and will bow down and worship it, as if to make the Christ of God an accomplice in an act of rebellion against the commandment of the holy Law.” No, it is not the material cross to which Paul alludes—we have nothing to do with those outward symbols! We might have used them much more, but they have been so perverted to idolatry that some of us almost shudder at the very sight of them!

Below is a section from "A Portrait No Artist Can Paint" (No. 2498), intended for reading on Lord's-day, January 3, 1897. Delivered by C. H. Spurgeon,at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newignton,on Lord's-day evening, April 26, 1885 (the full text can be read here at Spurgeon Gems or heard here at SermonAudio.com; note: Christ is the image of the invisible God (ref. Col. 1:15 & Heb. 1:3); Spurgeon isn't saying that Christ shouldn't be worshipped). Here a section from the sermon :

I believe that this difficulty of giving a truthful representation of the Lord Jesus Christ is according to the Divine purpose. Nothing, it seems to me, can be more detestable to the Lord's heart and mind than the worship of His image in any shape or form. If any are determined to break the Law of God about making graven images and bowing down before them, then let the idol be the image of something that is beneath the earth, or in the water under the earth, but, O, you idolaters, pray do not, as it were, make the Lord Jesus Christ accessory to your idolatry! That, He never really can be, for He abhors it! "Get you behind Me, Satan," would be His answer to every proposal that His image should be worshipped, for He could not endure it! It is a dreadful thing that men should ever dare attempt to make any likeness of the Son of God, Himself, to be the occasion of sin. If you must make an image, make it, if you will, of a serpent, or of an ox, but not of the Son of God who came on purpose to redeem us from this, among other sins! Let us not degrade His sacred Personage by making even it to be an image before which we prostrate ourselves!
I know it is said that idolaters do not worship the image and that they worship God through the image, but that is expressly forbidden. The First Commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before Me." Then the Second Commandment forbids the worshipping of God by or through any symbol or image whatever—"You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them." The worship of the image of Christ appears to me to be not the more excusable form of idolatry, if there is any that is less evil than others, but it seems to me to be the more intensely wicked form of it since it is making even the glorious Personage of the Lord Jesus subsidiary to an act of transgression against the Commandments of His Father. If we cannot say concerning the Divine and human Personage of our Lord, "You saw no similitude," yet we can say, "You saw no similitude such as can be engraved in any way whatever."

Being God's Friend by Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), pp. 113-115. Whitaker House, 1997:

The Savior, who is wise, knows what is in men, and He also knows what is the surest test of true love for Himself: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." This is a much more difficult thing than to follow out the dictates of a crazy mind.

Why does the Savior give us this as a test? I think that one reason is because it proves whether you love Christ in His true position or whether your love is for a christ of your own making and your own placing. It is easy to want a half-christ and to refuse a whole Christ. It is also easy to follow a christ of your own making, who is merely an antichrist. The real Christ is so great and glorious that He has a right to give commandments. Moses never used an expression such as our Savior employs here. Moses might have said, "Keep God's commandments," but he never would have said, "Keep my commandments." That dear and divine person whom we call Master and Lord says here, "Keep my commandments." What a commanding person He must be! What lordship He has over His people! How great He is among His saints! If you keep His commandments, you are putting Him into the position that He claims. By your obedience you confess His sovereignty and divinity, and you say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

I am afraid that a great many people know a christ who is meek and lowly, their servant and savior, but they do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Alas! My friends, such people set up a false christ. We do not love Jesus at all if He is not our Lord and God. It is all whining pretension and hypocrisy, this love for Christ that robs Him of His deity. I abhor that love for Christ that does not make Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Love Him, yet belittle Him? It is absurd. Follow your own will in preference to His will, and then talk of love for Him? Ridiculous! This is only the devil's counterfeit of love. It is a contradiction of all true love. Love is loyal and crowns its Lord with obedience. If you love Jesus properly, you view His every precept as a divine commandment. You love the true Christ if you love a commanding Christ as well as a saving Christ, and if you look to Him to guide your life as well as to pardon your sin.

This test, again, is very judicious, because it proves the living presence of the object of your love. Love always desires to have its object near, and it has an ability to bring it object near. If you love someone, that person may be far away and yet, to your thought, he is close at hand. Love brings the beloved one so near that the thought of this beloved one exerts influence over a person's life.

R.A. Torrey on 1 Peter 1:8 and the Unseen Saviour

2011-03-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

—1 Peter 1:8

WHAT THE EPISTLE TEACHES ABOUT THE BELIEVER.

...

In what he rejoices:
(1) in the salvation prepared to be revealed in the last time, 1:6.
(2) Because of his faith in the unseen Jesus Christ, 1:8.
(3) In fellowship in Christ's sufferings, 4:13.

—R.A. Torrey, How to study the Bible for the greatest profit

This text informs us (and many of us do not need to be informed of it, for we know it by blessed experience) that one who really believes on Jesus Christ, our unseen, but ever living Lord and Savior, rejoices with "inexpressible and glorious joy."

...

II. How to Get This Inexpressible and Glorious Joy

Now arises the question, "What must anyone here tonight who does not have this inexpressible and glorious joy do to get it?" I have really answered that question several times in what I have already said, but to be sure that we all really understand it, let me answer it again, or rather let my text answer it, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." The text tells us that the way to obtain this "inexpressible and glorious joy," the way to be inexpressibly happy at all times and under all circumstances, is just by believing on the unseen Christ Jesus. What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? There is no mystery at all about that. It simply means to put confidence in Jesus Christ to be what He claims to be and what He offers Himself to be to us, to put confidence in Him as the One who died in our place, the One who bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and to trust God to forgive us all our sins because Jesus Christ died in our place; to put confidence in Him as the One who was raised from the dead and who now has "all power in heaven and on earth," and therefore is able to keep us day by day, and give us victory over sin, and to trust this risen Christ to give us victory over sin day by day; and to put confidence in Him as our absolute Lord and Master, and therefore to surrender our thoughts and wills and lives entirely to His control, believing everything He says, even though every scholar on earth denies it, obeying everything He commands, whatever it may cost; and to put confidence in Him as our Divine Lord, and confess Him as Lord before the world, and worship and adore Him. It is wonderful the joy that comes to him who thus believes on Jesus Christ. But one must really believe on Jesus Christ to have this joy.

Merely being a member of a church is not enough. Merely being baptized is not enough. Merely reading your Bible is not enough. Merely praying is not enough. Merely going to church is not enough. Merely going to the Lord's table and partaking of the Lord's Supper is not enough. But if you are a real believer on Jesus Christ, if you have put all your trust in the Lord Jesus as your atoning Savior and your risen Savior, and your risen Lord and Master, and surrendered your thoughts and life to Him utterly as your Lord and Master, and are confessing Him as such before the world, if you have thrown your heart's door wide open for the Lord Jesus to come in, and live, and rule, and reign there, you will have "inexpressible and glorious joy" at all times and under all circumstances.

All anyone has to do, then, to be inexpressibly happy at all times and under all circumstances, is to believe on Jesus Christ. It does not make any difference what his circumstances may be: he may be rich or he may be poor; he may be highly educated, or he may be ignorant; he may be in good health or he may be a hopeless invalid; he may have been a moral, clean, upright man, or he may have been the vilest of sinners, it matters not. Everyone who believes on the unseen but living Christ will find "inexpressible and glorious joy."

—R. A. Torrey, How to Be Inexpressibly Happy, How to be saved, and how to be lost: the way of salvation and the way of condemnation made as plain as day

Michael S. Horton on the Second Commandment

2011-03-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Not only the worship but even the making of images is strictly forbidden in the Decalogue. The "god" who is made present for the human gaze and manipulation is never the true God, Yahweh. Hence, the close connection between the first and second commandments: worshiping the right God (i.e. Yahweh) is dependent on worshiping God in the right manner (i.e., giving ear to his word). In fashioning images, the worshiper is the judge; as a hearer of God's voice, the worshiper is judged—and in this judgment, is saved by the Good Shepherd. "The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out, ...and the sheep follow him because they know his voice" (John 10:3-4).

...

Torah smashes idols. "A theology of Name is opposed to any hierophany of an idol. Hearing the word has taken the place of a vision of signs." [Ricoeur, Figuring the Sacred, 56.] The idol, as the prophets routinely point out, is the expression of the inner self's felt needs. Idols do not come to us from the outside and address us; rather, they come into existence from our own experience, longings, representations, and delusions.

...

Barth expresses well part of the rationale for the Reformed rejection of all visible representations of deity: "It is almost inevitable that such static works should constantly attract the eye and therefore the conscious or unconscious attention of the listening community, fixing them upon the particular conception of Jesus Christ entertained in all good faith no doubt by the artist." This draws attention away from the proclamation of Christ, directing our gaze to the artist's conception of Christ rather than to "the ongoing proclamation of His history as His history with us, so that it moves from one provisional Amen to another, in the wake of His living self-attestation pressing on from insight to insight."
Supremely, however, even the most excellent of plastic arts does not have means to display Jesus Christ in His truth, i.e., in His unity as the true Son of God and Son of Man. There will necessarily be either on the one side, as in the great Italians, an abstract and docetic over-emphasis on His deity, or on the other, as in Rembrandt, an equally abstract, ebionite over-emphasis on His humanity, so that even with the best of intentions error will be promoted. [Karl Barth, CD IV/3.2:868.]
It is significant that pictures and images of Christ were not permitted in the church until the sixth century. [Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, vol. 2, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 99-133; Ernst Kitzinger, The cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 7 (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC: Trustees for Harvard University, 1954), 85-150; Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity AD 200-1000 (Oxford: Blackwell; 1997), chap. 14.] They arose as part of a general trajectory of looking away from the historical Jesus, as detailed in chapter 1 (above), precisely as the church increasingly lost its sense of precariousness in being lodged between the two ages.

Idols of vision certainly do not have to be material artifacts; they can be intellectual concepts. Edward T. Oakes notes concerning Balthasar's view that "the subordination of sight to hearing automatically closes off certain avenues to human speculation (and how telling is that word: speculation!)." [Edward T. Oakes, SJ, Pattern of Redemption: The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthsasar (New York: Continuum, 1994), 140.] Preaching not only subverts idols of the outer eye, but also idols of the inner eye of speculation, forbidding us from domesticating or mastering the Stranger who has met and claimed us along the way.

—Michael Horton, People and place: a covenant ecclesiology

God had barely finished inscribing the Ten Commandments on the tablets before the children of Israel were dancing around a golden calf. Israel had become impatient with Moses, and therefore, with God. Why was he loitering on top of the mountain for so many days?

We must remember that God's infant nation was only recently liberated from slavery in Egypt, where the worship of foreign gods was omnipresent. And, even while the second commandment was being entrusted to Moses, the people below were breaking it. As R. Alan Coe put it, "As later Israel wanted a human king, not the invisible divine king (1 In actual fact, they were Sam. 8: 4-8), so now they want a god 'with a face,' like everybody else. The last thing that they want is to be different, by their new relationship to God: yet this is God's aim (Ex. 19:5, 6)."

In actual fact, they were not worshipping a false god (a violation of the first commandment); rather, they were worshipping Yahweh falsely. Those who suggest that it does not matter how we worship God, just so long as we worship the correct God, seem to forget the second commandment: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below" (Ex. 20:4).

—Michael Horton, In the Face of God

The most obvious violation of the second commandment since its institution is the practice of establishing physical representations of the eternal God. When God commanded the construction of the temple, He insisted that there be no physical representations of deity. There was much use of color and shapes and images from the natural world (fruit, trees, flowers, land, water), but there were no images of God Himself (1 Kings 6:16-18).

As we saw in the last chapter, the essence of paganism was (and is) a plurality of gods. The God of Israel is what we mean when we say we believe in "God." It is not enough to simply be a theist; one must believe in the one true God. But here we see that another aspect of paganism is the commitment to physical representations of deity as points of contact between the heavenly and earthly realm. Through this pole or that totem, this bronze statue or that gold figure, the gods carry on a relationship with the people. Whoever controls the point of contact controls the deity. The idol becomes a means of manipulating the gods into service. In paganism, the worshipers insist on having a direct relationship with their deities, experiencing them through powerful display of blessing and cursing. The idol becomes the object through which this direct, sensual encounter can take place.

The religion of Israel was committed, however, to a mediated relationship with God. Individual Jews had a relationship with God only because they were part of a community of faith. This community was represented by mediators: prophets, priests, and kings. In the New Testament, the final prophet, priest, and king-mediator appears. Jesus Christ is the point of contact between God and humanity. Because God is holy and worshipers sinful, the only way worshipers can stand in God's presence is through the intercession of a mediator. Idolatry, on the other hand, promises a direct encounter with deity. But ultimately more is desired. People insist on having power over the idol so that they can control their own destinies. In most ancient pagan religions, for example, the name of the god itself was said to have magical powers. To know the name of a particular spirit was to have control over that being and manipulate it for one's own ends.

...

At least one purpose in forbidding the use of images is the fact that any representation of God other than Christ is not only false but an insult to His exclusive claim that "he who has seen Me has seen the Father"; "I and My Father are one" (John 14:9 NKJV; 10:30 NKJV)."

Jesus Christ is called "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). The Greek word used for image in the passage is eikon, from which we get the word icon. Jesus Christ is the only exact icon or physical representation of the invisible and unrepresentable deity. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). This is what paganism attempts with its idols-having a point of contact with God. By being close to the idol, the worshiper hopes to be close to God, for to his mind the idol possesses some degree of deity in itself. But just as God ridiculed the pagan idols as being blind, deaf, and dumb, so surely did Jesus Christ not only possess sight, hearing, and speech, but give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the dumb. He was God in the flesh, walking among us, talking to us, eating with us, weeping with us.

For us to set up our own images after Christ has come is even more of an affront to God than it was for the ancient pagans.

—Michael Horton, The Law of Perfect Freedom

Daniel de Superville père on the Second Commandment

2011-02-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

Péchez contre le second commandement
Sins against the Second Commandment.

A Voir rendu, foit par crainte, foit par complaifance, quelque culte & quelque honneur aux Images, ou à la Croix.
To have made, either by fear, either by complacency, any worship & any honor to Images, or the Cross.

Avoir signé, qu'on emraffoit une Religion, qui viole manifeftement le II. Commandment, par le Culte public & particulier qu'elle rend aux Images.
Signing, they embrace a religion that clearly violates the Second Commandment, the Public Worship particularly they make to Images.

Avoir aidé à violer ce Commandmement, & à gater l'imagination des Homes, en peignant, en figurant, & en imprimant des Tableaux, où la Divinité eft representee fous des Images humaines & corporelles.
Helping to violate this Commandment, and to spoil the imagination of men, by depicting [painting], by representing [figuring], and by printing tables, where the Godhead [la Divinité] is represented by Human images and bodily.

Aimer trop la pompe, les cérémonies; & le Culte charnel dans la Religion.
Loving too much pomp and ceremony & the worship carnal in the Religion.

Ne rendre pas à Dieu le vrai Culte intérieur, en efprit & en vérité.
Do not make God the true worship inside, in spirit and in truth.

Négliger le Service extérieur, fous prétexte d'une prétendue spiritualité.
Neglecting the External Service, under the pretext of an alleged spirituality.

—Daniel de Superville père

LOVE TO AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR

2011-02-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

LOVE

AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR.

BY ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, D. D.

—

"Whom having not seen ye love."—1 Peter i. 8.

—

The strangers dispersed through Asia Minor, to whom this epistle was addressed, had never seen the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. But having been induced to attend on the ministry of the apostles and evangelists, who represented to them the facts relating to the Saviour of the world, and confirmed their testimony by miraculous signs, they, under the illumination of the Spirit, believed in him; and their faith was accompanied by love to him whom they had not seen. "Whom having not seen, ye love; and in whom believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
It is related of the great Augustine that he was wont to express his regret that he could not see three things which had occurred before his time, namely, "Christ in the flesh, Paul in the pulpit, and Rome in its glory." As it regards the first of these, it is probable that most Christians have experienced something of the same pious curiosity. We are very naturally inclined to envy the condition of those who were contemporaneous with our Lord; and who is there among living Christians, who would not consent to perform a long pilgrimage to enjoy the sight of this divine Personage, even for an hour? Such a curiosity was felt by many who resided in distant countries, while he was upon earth. Thus, we read, that certain Greeks, no doubt proselytes, as soon as they arrived at Jerusalem to attend one of the Jewish festivals, began immediately to inquire for him, saying: "We would see Jesus;" and others said, "Where is He?" Earnest search was therefore made for him; and when it was understood that the Lord Jesus was approaching by the way of the Mount of Olives, multitudes went out to meet him, and, for the moment, were filled with enthusiastic affection, and cried out with a loud voice, "Hosannah to the Son of David! Hosannah in the highest!"
But however natural the curiosity may be, there is reason to think that its gratification would be attended with very little benefit. When Christ tabernacled in the flesh, he was seen by unbelievers as well as believers; by bitter enemies as well as by friends. Judas was not in the least benefitted by familiar intercourse with him for several years. He was seen by the chief priests, scribes, and elders, when arraigued before the Sanhedrim; also by the soldiers who apprehended him and bound him. By Pilate, and by Herod and his men of war. By the executioners who scourged him, and then nailed him to the cross; and by the multitudes, who were witnesses of his crucifixion; but the sight of the Saviour had no beneficial effect on any of these. And if Christ should again be manifested (as he will be) to the world, not in humiliation but in glory, unless the Holy Spirit should renew the minds of the beholders, there would be no love to the Saviour generated by the external vision of his majesty. Indeed, when he shall come, "every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him," and the only effect will be that all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. The whole human race shall see Christ on the judgment seat, but only they who believed on him here, will rejoice in his appearance.
A sight of Christ's body is not at all necessary to the exercise of a true faith. This he emphatically taught after his resurrection, in the case of Thomas, who was not with the other apostles when Christ first appeared to them collectively. But eight days after, when Thomas was present, "came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you." Then saith he to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God! Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed, Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
It is not even necessary to a true faith, nor auxiliary to it, that a lively image of the Saviour be formed in the imagination. Faith is no fancy. And if the sight of Christ himself, whether in his habiliments of humility, or robes of light and glory, would have no tendency to generate a true faith, then certainly, no picture or painting of Christ—which must be fictitious—ever can afford us any real aid in believing, or in spiritual worship. People are indeed affected and excited by such representations, but these effects have little or no affinity with the true spirit of devotion. They rather hinder than help by turning the attention of the worshipper to an external object, when it should by faith be contemplating the spiritual beauties of the Son of God.
Some, perhaps, may find a difficulty in conceiving how a person never seen can become the object of affection. But a little reflection will make this matter plain. Eminent benefactors are often highly esteemed and loved by those who never saw them. The blind, who never saw their nearest relatives, have as strong affection for their parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, as any others.
If a parent should conceal himself from the view of his children, and yet should often speak to them, giving them lessons of wisdom and piety, and bestowing on them daily favours, would not such parent be loved by dutiful children? Indeed, in all cases where we do see those whom we most highly esteem, it is not the visible bodily frame which is the object of our affection, but the invisible mind which manifests its sentiments and feelings, through the countenance and actions of the body. Where there is rational affection of esteem, founded on the perception of moral worth, the body may change, and its beauty and freshness may be turned into deformity and decrepitude, and yet there shall be no diminution of our esteem. All that is most amiable in the most beautiful face, has relation to the dispositions of the heart, of which the countenance is the expressive index. A person far off and never seen may be loved—therefore a person who really lives in another world may be sincerely loved. God is necessarily invisible, because he is a pure spirit, but he is supremely loved and adored by all the heavenly hosts.
Love to an unseen Saviour includes a knowledge of his true character. We cannot truly love a being of whom we know nothing. And it will not answer to substitute our own imaginations for the true knowledge of Christ. The word, being the fountain of all truth, must be our guide in thinking of the Saviour. Here Christ is set forth in all his personal and official characters. Here his divine virtues, his discourses, and his patient sufferings are recorded. Many are for turning from the written word to some delusive light which they fancy to be within them. They turn away from the true Christ to a false one, which they have formed to themselves. Be exhorted then, to behold the character of your Lord, as portrayed in his word.
Love to an unseen Saviour is by faith. Faith works by love. Where an object is not seen it must be believed in, otherwise there can be no affection exerted.
Love to an unseen Saviour includes a high veneration and esteem for his character. The sentiment called esteem is known to all. We feel it toward men of excellence; and it is a feeling which we naturally desire to have exercised toward ourselves. When excellence superior to human, and united with great power and wisdom, is found in any person, this esteem rises to reverence. There is experienced a holy awe, and an humble sense of inferiority. This may especially be called, "the religious feeling." It is the emotion of which we are most conscious, when we obtain any clear impressive views of the character of God. Whenever God is felt to be near, this feeling predominates. It is, therefore, often put for the whole of internal religion, and becomes the characteristic of sincere worshippers. They that fear God are, in the language of the Scriptures, the truly pious.
As love to any one includes a desire to come into the presence of the beloved, so especially love to an unseen person is accompanied with an ardent desire, if he cannot be seen, yet to be near him. The believing soul, smitten with the love of Jesus, is full of desires. Like the spouse, its language is, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? I sought him but I found him not." These desires are not only after the comfortable presence of the Saviour, but after conformity to him, and after the possession of those gifts by which the person may be enabled to glorify his name. There is no surer characteristic of a sincere lover of Christ, than a habitual desire to be like Christ, and an ardent zeal to promote his glory, and this every sincere soul is conscious of, in some degree. "My soul thirsteth after God, the living God." "When shall I come and appear before God?"
Delight in God is also included in love. Indeed, this may be said to be the very essence of love. It is a holy complacency in Christ. The soul reposes in the contemplation of his character, and enjoys a sweet pleasure. All the traits of his character are pleasing. "He is the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely." One bright view of his excellence and beauty ravishes the soul with unspeakable delight. "Whom having not seen, ye love, and in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Joy and love are twin sisters, and they are very much alike, and cannot be separated. "Delight thyself in God, and he will give thee the desires of thy heart."

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear."

"His name is like ointment poured forth."
Another exercise of love to Christ is gratitude. The Redeemer is exhibited as a Chief Benefactor. All that is said of him in the Scriptures relates to his grand work of redeeming human sinners. Here we read of his love, his eternal love, which put him on this work of salvation. Here we have the history of his deep humiliation, when he became incarnate in our nature. Here we behold the man of sorrows, the persecuted, despised Nazarene; the man whose visage was more marred than that of any man—burdened with our griefs and sorrows, and at last crucified, in circumstances of overwhelming disgrace and agony. Now, all this love, all this suffering, exhibits the benefactor of man. All other Saviours are eclipsed, when compared with the Son of God. Their services are lost in insignificance, in comparison with his work.
Now as Christ is exhibited as performing the part of a benefactor, in all his mediatorial work, of course the feeling, above all others, which corresponds with his revealed character, is gratitude. Much of the exercise of true religion, therefore, consists in gratitude; and much, very much, of our sin consists in ingratitude. A thankful, penitent heart is, therefore, the frame which becomes us. For such love as that of Christ's there should be an everlasting flow of gratitude from our hearts, and a continual song of praise while we have a being. And this feeling of gratitude, though often sadly deficient now, will hereafter overflow from the redeemed to all eternity, and there shall be a song of praise commenced which shall never cease—"To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood."
The only inference which I would deduce from the foregoing discourse, is, that if we here love a Saviour whom we have never seen, and whom we can only approach by faith, how strong will be our love when we shall see him face to face, and find ourselves not only in his real presence, but inclosed in his affectionate embrace! And when we see him, we shall be like him, both in soul and body, "for we shall see him as he is." And "beholding his glory we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."
God being a Spirit cannot be seen with corporeal eyes, either in this world or the next; but his glory shines illustriously in the face of his Son. And whosever seeth the Son seeth the Father also, for the Father and Son are one. Here our views of Christ are only by faith, but in heaven we shall see him face to face, and know as we are known. Here our love to the Saviour is feeble, on account of the dimness of our vision, and often interrupted by dark clouds, and earthly affections which draw us away from the contemplation of the character of our Redeemer; but in heaven there will be no interposing obstacles to veil his glory, or counteracting affections to enfeeble or interrupt our perfect love. Happy, happy condition of those who loved a Saviour, whom they never saw, when they shall see him as he is, and be like him. They will never be weary of gazing on his lovely face—they will never cease to give him thanks and praise for his unparalleled, unspeakable love, to which they will forever acknowledge their indebtedness for salvation.

Burgess on Gross Idolatry & How We May See Jesus

2011-01-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

It is gross idolatry to make the works of God, a God; and it is but a more subtle idolatry, to make the works of Christ, a Christ.

—Burgess de Lege

Our understandings are of such a low stature, that we must climb up to the tree of life, the scriptures, to see Jesus. They are the only ladder whereby we climb up.

—Burgess

Benjamin Keach's CHRIST THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF THE FATHER

2011-01-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

CHRIST THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF THE FATHER

και χαρακτήρ της υποστασις αυτου. And the character of his substance: we translate it,
"The express image of his person,"—Heb. i. 3.

THE term character, is a metaphor taken from the Image, figure, or impression of a seal, representing the proto-type, or first pattern, in everything. The word is derived of χαρακτήρ, which signifies to engrave; the Father having (as it were) most indelibly engraven his whole essence and majesty upon this his eternal Son, and drawn his own effigies upon him from everlasting, being his substantial Image and exact representation. Which explication fairly agrees with this mystery, leading our mind to such discoveries, as will stir us up to desire the gracious participation of its fruit and efficacy; for it opens the secret of eternal generation, and the love of the heavenly Father. A seal is more highly valued, and more closely kept, than other things. See Isa. xlii. 1, Matt. iii. 17, and xvii. 3, John iii. 35, and xvii. 24. Through a union with this blessed Image, the lost Image of God is restored in believers; now inchoatively, or with respect to beginning; after death, consummatively, or with respect to perfection, Col. iii. 10, 1 Pet. i. 4, not by essential transmutation, but by a mystical union.

METAPHOR. PARALLEL.
I. AN Image is the likeness of, or doth represent and express the person whose it is.
I. CHRIST is the likeness of the Father, the true form, figure, character, or representation of him.* This similitude (saith a reverend divine) relates to the Persons of the Godhead; it is borrowed from the impression of a signet. The Son in himself is ευ μορφη θεός, in the likeness of God.†

*See Ark of the covenant, p. 164.
† Dr. Owen on Heb. vii. 3, p. 55.

II. An express Image represent a person unto others.
II. Christ is εικων θεου, the Image of God, representing him unto men; he manifesteth God unto us. He is said to be εικων του θεου του αορατου, "the Image of the invisible God," Col. i. 15, because partaking of the nature of the Father, the goodness, power, holiness, grace, and all other glorious properties of God, do shine forth, or are represented, declared, and expressed to us.

III. An express Image represents a person unto us, whom we many times cannot see personally, because absent, and at a great distance from us.
III. Christ represents God the Father to believers, in his true form, character, or likeness, whom we see not as he is in himself, nor can see, he dwelling in inaccessible light, at an infinite distance of divine nature, and manner of being, from our apprehensions and conceptions. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," John i. 18.

IV. An Image, and the person it represents, are not the same.
IV. Christ respecting his essence, is the same God with the Father; but the subsistences or Persons of the Father and Son are different, and so not the same.

V. An express Image brings him, who is held forth or represented by it, into our mind, whereby we call to remembrance what manner of person he is, and thereby contemplate upon his beauty, and excellent accomplishments, which before, probably might be forgotten.
V. Christ being the express Image of the Father; brings into our minds what kind of manner of God the Almighty is; his excellencies, and glorious perfections, are hereby presented as it were to our view: 2 Cor. iii. 18, 2 Cor. iv. 4, 6. By which means we are taken up into holy meditations and contemplations of him, whom by reason of sin, we had forgotten, and lost the true knowledge of.

VI. An express Image, if it represents some noble or renowned person, one that hath an endeared love and affection to him or her to whom it is sent, their great and only Benefactor, or a dear relation, is exceedingly prized and valued by the receiver.
VI. Christ being the express Image of God the Father, who is the blessed and only potentate, and the glorious King of heaven and earth, who hath dear and tender love to us his poor creatures, who is our Friend, Husband, Father, gracious and chief Benefactor, causes all true believers greatly to prize, love, and esteem the Lord Jesus, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of him whom he doth resemble and represent.

VII. An express Image of a person is curiously drawn, and is a most rare and admirable piece of workmanship; it is viewed and commended by all skillful and discerning persons in that art.
VII. Christ, God-man in one Person, or "God manifested in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16, the glorious representation of the Father to sinners, is the admiration of saints and angels; 'tis a great mystery, and comprehends the depths of God. That the glory of God should shine forth in the nature of man, is, and will be the wonder of both worlds; it is judged by all the godly, to be the master-piece of divine wisdom.

METAPHOR. DISPARITY.
I. Among men, the substance of a thing hath the precedency, or is before the sign or Image of it; the person, and then the picture or emblem of it.
I. THAT which is said of Christ, ευ μορφη θεός υπαρχω, being or existing and subsisting in the form of God, that is, being so essentially; for there is no μορφη form in the Deity, but what is essential unto it: this Christ was absolutely, antecedently to his incarnation, the whole nature of God being in him, and consequently he being in the Son of God.

II. An Image, figure, or character among men, cannot fully and perfectly, in everything express or represent the person it is made for; it duffers in matter, life, and motion.
II. Christ is a lively, perfect, and complete Image, character, and representation of all the glorious attributes, excellencies, and perfections of the Father; "The fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him," Col. ii. 9. Were it not so, he could not gloriously represent unto us the Person of the Father; nor could we, by contemplation of him, be led to an acquaintance with the Person of the Father.
1. The Father is from everlasting; so is the Son.
2. The Father is perfect and Divine Person, or subsistence; so is the Son.
3. The Father hath life in himself: so hath the Son life in himself.
4. The Father created the world; so did the Son.
5. The Father upholds all things by the word of his power; so doth the Son.
6. All things were made for the Father; so all things were made for the Son.
7. The Father is to be worshipped; so is the Son.
8. The Father knows all things and searches the heart; so doth the Son.
9. The Father is in the Son; so is the Son in the Father: "The Father is in me, and I in him," John x. 38. The Father being thus in the Son, and the Son in the Father, all the glorious properties of the one shine forth in the other. The order and economy of the blessed Trinity in subsistence and operation, requires, that the manifestation and communication of the Father to us, be through the Son.
10. All other perfections of the Father shine forth in Christ; it is he that makes them manifest to us, according to that of the apostle: "For God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv. 6. The wisdom of the Father is great and infinite many ways; but, wherein doth it shine more gloriously, than in the Son's working about our redemption, in reconciling justice and mercy, in punishing sin, and pardoning the sinner? "To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God," Eph. iii. 10.
11. The Father is full of goodness and love to man; this appears in his making of him supreme over all creatures on earth. But what is this favour and goodness, to that which is manifested in and by Christ? in raiding him up (when a rebel and vile traitor) to the honour and dignity of a Son, and to accomplish this, to give his only begotten Son to die in his stead! "He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. v. 21. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13. There was much favour and love in the blessings and privileges of Creation; but in redemption, mercy is magnified likewise to admiration, and shines in equal glory.
12. God the Father is infinitely holy, just, and righteous. His holiness and justice appeared in casting off the fallen angels, and by executing his severity upon our first parents, and by destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, and in several other respects: Yet, how much more abundantly doth his holiness and justice shine forth in the Son, the Image of the Father, when he came forth to redeem mankind? in that "he made his soul an offering for sin," Isa. liii. 10. "God letting out his wrath upon him, "sparing him not," Rom. viii. 32, when he stood in the place of the sinner: "For the transgressions of my people was he stricken," Isa. liii. 8. As Mr. Burroughs observes, there is nothing sets out God's justice , holiness, and infinite hatred of sin, like this, &c. Our nature is united to the divine nature of God, that so by that mystical union, grace and holiness might be communicated in a glorious manner unto us.
13. The power and condescension of God is wonderful, many ways demonstrated, but nothing like what it is in Christ, in taking our nature into personal union with himself; that the Son of God should become man! The Ancient of days become a child! He that made the world, born of a woman! When Satan had done his worst that he might destroy man, man is by the power of God advanced to greater glory and happiness than he had before he fell.
14. Moreover, I might speak of the patience, forbearance, and faithfulness of God; all which, and many more of the glorious attributes of the Father, shine forth most lively in Jesus Christ. Besides, the Persons or subsistences of the blessed Trinity are more clearly discovered by Jesus Christ, than ever before.
First, in his own Person.
Secondly, in his doctrine.
Thirdly, in his baptism, or when he was baptized.
Fourthly, in his commission, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.
Fifthly, in their distinct offices, operations, and workings.
Lastly, the will of God, and his holy laws and institutions, are only made known by the Son.

METAPHOR. DISPARITY.
III. It is gross idolatry to worship Images, or the likeness of any thing in heaven above, or the earth beneath.
III. Christ, who is the Image of God, ought to be adored and worshipped by men and angels. "And when he brings in the First-begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him," Heb. i. 6.
IV. Other Images are soon marred and pass away.
IV. Christ, the Image of God, abides for ever; time, nay, eternity, will not alter or change him, nor mar his beauty.

INFERENCES.
1. WE may from hence perceive the wonderful love, goodness, and condescension of God to mankind, who seeing how unable we are to understand, comprehend, conceive, or take in the knowledge of himself, (who is so infinite and inaccessible in his being, glory, and majesty) is pleased to stoop so low as to afford us a figure, Image, and lively representation of himself, that so we might not frame false ideas of God, or entertain any vain or unworthy apprehensions of him in our minds.
2. This also abundantly demonstrates, how exceedingly willing the blessed God is to reveal, or make known himself unto his creatures.
3. This discovers the necessity of coming unto God by Christ, and what advantage the Christian world have above the heathen nations: for though he hath in the visible creation implanted some resemblances or characters of his excellencies, and left some footsteps of his blessed and sacred properties, that by the contemplation of them, men might come to have some acquaintance with him, as Creator, which might encourage them to fear and love him, and make him their last end; yet, all expressions of God, besides this is of Christ Jesus, are partial, short, and insufficient to discover all that is necessary to be known, that we may live to him here, and enjoy him hereafter.
4. It may caution all men to take heed they do not imagine to come to the true knowledge of God any other way but by the Lord Jesus: "For no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him," Matt. xi. 27. All miss of happiness, that seek it not by Jesus Christ. We must seek the Father in the Son, and by him; labour to believe in, or come to God by Jesus Christ. This is for direction to us in all religious worship.
5. The godly may from hence also see, what reason they have to love and delight themselves in Jesus Christ. Brethren, study the knowledge of Christ, look often upon this glorious and blessed Image. Many are taken with pictures and representations of things and persons; but how vain is that? Here is the Image you should delight yourselves in; look to Jesus; much profit, as well as you and comfort, will redound to you hereby. This is an Image that abides for ever, which God allows you to worship and adore him by.
6. Prize Christ, value him above all things in this world; can you too highly esteem him, who is the express image of the Father's Person?
Lastly, Let all take heed how they slight Jesus Christ, or contemn the knowledge of him; because this mystery is above their reach. and shallow apprehensions; and indeed it may caution all not to seek too curiously into these great mysteries and depths, lest they be drowned: the best of men know but in part.

—Benjamin Keach, Tropologia

Ralph Erskine's Gospel Sonnets on 1 Peter 1:8

2011-01-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

Ralph Erskine's Gospel Sonnets on 1 Peter 1:8,

My life's a pleasure and a pain:
A real loss, a real gain;
A glorious paradise of joys,
A grievous prison of annoys.

I daily joy, and daily mourn,
Yet daily wait the tide's return;
Then sorrow deep my spirit cheers,
I'm joyful in a flood of tears.

...

I'm poor, yet stock'd with untold rent;
Most weak, and yet omnipotent.
On earth there's none so great and high,
Nor yet so low and mean as I;
None or so foolish, or so wise;
So often fall, so often rise.
I, seeing him I never saw,
Serve without fear, and yet with awe.

...

In fears I spend my vital breath,
In doubts I waste my passing years;
Yet still the life I live is faith,
The opposite of doubts and fears.

'Tween clearing faith and clouding sense,
I walk in darkness and in light.
I'm certain oft, when in suspense,
While sure by faith and not by sight.

"the characteristic of love to the Saviour is love to an unseen Christ"

2011-01-09T23:04:00.000-08:00

If the characteristic of love to the Saviour is love to an unseen Christ, A Christian Ought NEVER TO FEEL UNHAPPY AT HlS SUPPOSED ABSENCE FROM HIM.
We should so feel toward Christ as to warrant those words being addressed to us when cast down : " In whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Let Him manifest Himself as much or as little as He pleases, we should not allow our feelings to depend on this.
Much of the despondency in Christians is owing to their not understanding one object which there evidently is in these words: "Whom not having seen ye love." We are to love Him by faith; love Him unseen as though we saw Him; for faith is a substitute for sight. "Ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

—Nehemiah Adams

William Gurnall on 1 Peter 1:8

2011-01-09T23:00:00.001-08:00

As faith succours the Christian when his other graces fail him most, so it brings in his comfort when they most abound. Faith is to the Christian as Nehemiah was to Artaxerxes, Neh. 2:1. Of all the graces this is the Christian’s cup-bearer. The Christian takes the wine of joy out of faith’s hand, rather than any other grace. ‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,’ Rom. 15:13. It is observable, I Peter 1, to see how the apostle therefore doth, as it were, cross his hands, as once Jacob did in blessing his son Joseph’s children, and gives the pre-eminence to faith, attributing the Christian's joy to his faith, rather than to his love ver. 8: ‘Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ Mark, ‘believing, ye rejoice.’ Here is the door, the Christian’s chief joy, yea, all his fiduciary joy comes in at. It is Christ that we are in this respect allowed only to rejoice in, ‘For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,’ Php. 3:3,—where Christ is made the sole subject of our rejoicing fiduciarily, in opposition to all else, even our graces themselves, which become flesh when thus rejoiced and glorified in. Christ’s blood is the wine that only glads the heart of God by way of satisfaction to his justice, and therefore only that can bring true gladness into the heart of man. When Christ promiseth the Comforter, he tells his disciples from what vessel he should draw the wine of joy that he was to give them: ‘He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you,’ John 16:15. No grape of our own vine is pressed into this sweet cup. As if Christ had said, When he comes to comfort you with the pardon of your sins, ‘he shall take of mine,’ not anything of yours—my blood by which I purchased your peace with God, not your own tears of repentance by which you have mourned for your sins. All the blessed privileges which believers are instated into, they are the fruits of Christ’s purchase, not of our earnings. Now, the Christian's joy flowing in from Christ, and not anything that he, poor creature, doth or hath; hence it comes to pass, that faith, above all the graces, brings in the Christian’s joy and comfort, because this is the grace that improves Christ and what is Christ's for the soul’s advantage. As of grace, so of comfort. Faith is the good spy, that makes discovery of the excellences in Christ, and then makes report of all to the soul it sees in him and knows of him. It is faith that broaches the promises, turns the cock and sets them a running into the soul. It doth not only show the soul how excellent Christ is, and what dainties are in the promises; but it applies Christ to the soul, and carves out the sweet viands that are dished forth in the promises. Yea, it puts them into the very mouth of the soul; it masticates and grinds the promise so, that the Christian is filled with its strength and sweetness. Till faith comes and brings the news of the soul's welcome, O how maidenly and uncomfortably do poor creatures sit at the table of the promise! Like Hannah, ‘they weep and eat not.’ No, alas! they dare not be so bold. But, when faith comes, then the soul falls to, and makes a satisfying meal indeed. No dish on the table but faith will taste of. Faith knows God sets them not on to go off untouched. It is though an humble yet a bold grace, because it knows it cannot be so bold with God in his own way as it is welcome.

...

The more the Christian can lose or suffer upon the credit of the promise, the stronger his faith is. If you should see a man part with a fair inheritance, and leave his kindred and country where he might pass his days in the embracements of his dear friends and the delicious fare which a plentiful estate would afford him every day, to follow a friend to the other end of the world, with hunger and hardship, through sea and land, and a thousand perils that meet him on every hand, you would say that this man had a strong confidence of his friend, and a dear love to him, would you not? Nay, if he should do all this for a friend whom he never saw, upon the bare credit of a letter which he sends to invite him to come over to him, with a promise of great things he will do for him; now, to throw all his present possessions and enjoyments at his heels, and willingly put himself into the condition of a poor pilgrim and traveller, with the loss of all he hath, that he may come to his dear friend, this adds to the wonder of his confidence. Such gallant spirits we read of—‘Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice,’ I Peter 1:6-8. Observe the place, and you shall find them in sorrowful plight —‘in heaviness through manifold temptations’—yet, because their way lies through the sloughs to the enjoyment of God and Christ, whom they never saw or knew, but by the report the word makes of them, they can turn their back off the world's friendship and enjoyments—with which it courted them as well as others—and go with a merry heart through the deepest of them all. Here is glorious faith indeed. It is not praising of heaven, and wishing we were there, but a cheerful abandoning the dearest pleasures, and embracing the greatest sufferings of the world when called to the same, that will evidence our faith to be both true and strong.

—William Gurnall

WHOM HAVING NOT SEEN YE LOVE (a hymn for the day of sorrow and weariness)

2011-01-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

WHOM HAVING NOT SEEN YE LOVE.

How strange is Heavenly Love!
I never saw his face,
I never trod his courts above,
I have but known his grace,
Yet my affections cling
To his beloved side,
I feel He is my God, my King,
And I his ransomed bride.

How strong is Heavenly Love!
Stronger than ought below,
Though wide and wild my passions rove,
I will not let Him go;
What though I see Him not,
I feel the ardor burn,
He hath for me the victory wrought,
I love Him in return.

How sweet is Heavenly Love!
'Tis all in all to me,
I muse on Him in field and grove,
Or sailing o'er the sea.
I walk with Jesus here
Not lonely though alone,
Till in his presence I appear,
And know as I am known.

ANON.

(From Horatius Bonar's Lyra consolationis: or, Hymns for the day of sorrow & weariness)

Matthew Poole on 1 Corinthians 10:20

2011-01-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

The heathens might not intentionally offer sacrifices to devils, (such a thing can hardly be supposed of men), but actually they offered sacrifices to devils; for they were devils, that is, evil angels, which deluded the poor heathen, and gave answers from the images and statues which they worshipped, believing the true God to be in them: which answers they accounted for oracles. Besides, the apostle saith, they sacrificed to devils, because in God’s esteem it was so, though not in their intention; God judgeth of men’s acts of worship and homage pretendedly done unto him, not according to their intention, but according to the truth and reality of the thing: now, really the heathen in their sacrifices paid a homage to devils, though such a thing was far from their intention; and this deserves the consideration, both of the papists, who worship images, and also of those protestants (if any such be) who would excuse the papists in their idolatries from their intentions. The nature of idolatry doth not lie in men’s intending to worship the creature instead of the Creator, (there were hardly every any such idolaters in the world), but in their actual doing of the thing; and except they can find a direct rule in holy writ ordering the adoration of the Creator in the creature, or before the creature, it is much to be feared, that in the last day God will judge their homage performed to the creature, not to him. Now, saith the apostle, you had need take heed that, by this action, you prove not yourselves to have fellowship with devils, instead of Christ and the true and living God.

—Matthew Poole

J. Vernon McGee and Thomas Carlyle on Pictures of Jesus and Idolatry

2010-12-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

McGee on Deuteronomy 4:12,

The Lord Jesus stated it very clearly: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). People were never to have any likeness of God whatsoever. The Lord Jesus became a man, but the Bible does not give us any physical description of Him. Now you will probably think I am picayunish, if you haven't already come to that conclusion, but I do not believe in pictures of Jesus. I know that many lovely people feel that a picture of Jesus helps them to worship Him. Let me tell you what was said by an old Scottish commentator: "Men never paint a picture of Jesus until they have lost the presence of Him in their hearts." We need Him in our hearts today, not in color on a canvas. These are tremendous and eternal truths which God is giving us in this chapter. The instructions which were given to Israel in that day are great principles for us to carry over for ourselves today, because truth is eternal.

Download the audio of McGee's commentary on Deuteronomy 4:12-29 here.

The Scottish commentator McGee has in mind is Thomas Carlyle, who turned from the faith; Carlyle's observation is still perceptive though. From a footnote from a biography on Thomas Carlyle by John Morrow (Hambledon & London, 2006):

After viewing Holman Hunt's Life of Christ, Carlyle commented that he disliked 'all pictures of Christ: you will find that men never thought of painting Christ till they began to lose the impression of him in their hearts'; The Life of Thomas Carlyle (1881), p. 15.

Carlyle on the face of Christ as 'The Light of the World' by Holman Hunt (The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, Volume 105, p. 218):

Thomas Carlyle expressed his views with his usual frankness. 'You call that thing, I ween, a picture of Jesus Christ. It is a poor misshaped presentation of the noblest, the brotherliest, and the most heroic-minded Being that ever walked God's earth. Do you suppose that Jesus ever walked about bedizened in priestly robes and a crown, and with yon jewels on His breast, and a gilt aureole round His head? Ne'er crown nor pontifical robe did the world e'er give to such as Him.' Carlyle said he had a screen at home on which he had put the best portraits he could find of 'all the men that ever were on earth who have helped to make us something better than wild beasts of rapine and havoc; but that grandest of all beings, that Jesus of heavenly omens, I have no means whatever of raising up to my sight with any accredited form.'

McGee on Isaiah 40:18 (he uses Carlyle's observation again),

You and I know very little. All we know is what He has revealed in the Word of God, and I don't think He has told us everything. To begin with, we can't even comprehend what He has told us.

Isaiah is contrasting God to idols. "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" Look around you at the pictures of Him. Personally, I don't care for any pictures of Jesus because they are not pictures of Jesus. I don't become very popular when I say this. Stores that sell such pictures and people who are rather sentimental think I am terrible. But, my friend, we don't need pictures of Him. I agree with the old Scottish philosopher who said years ago, "Men never thought of painting a picture of Jesus until they had lost His presence in their hearts."

Download the audio of McGee's commentary on Isaiah 40:12-26 here.

McGee's sermon "What Does God Look Like?" (a slightly different text of the same sermon is available here) uses Carlyle's name this time. Also, McGee is quite clear in his denunciation of purported pictures of Christ, which, as McGee explains, is something hard to hear for modern "Protestants". Below is my transcript of the audio from the sermon:

May I say to you, God's warning is repeated again and again to His own people and He forbids us today to make an image. That is the thing that Paul said to the Athenians: God is not like these things made of silver and gold; He doesn't look like that at all. God is Spirit. God is Spirit and any likeness or representation of Him is wrong, whether it be a totem pole, an idol of Baal, or a statue of Zeus, or a sitting Buddha, or icons, or a plaster-of-paris saint. Those things are wrong! God says, "Make nothing that represents God."

Nineteen-hundred years ago God broke through into human history; He took upon Himself human flesh. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

Have you noticed? I cannot find in any one of the Gospels that there was born to Mary a nine-pound baby boy with blue eyes and light hair or brown eyes and dark hair. I can't find it. Pictures of Christ are not accurate. Oh, I know, Sallman's Head of Christ is a beautiful thing, the only thing is Christ didn't look like that.

Thomas Carlyle, that Scottish philosopher, said when men lose the image of Christ on their hearts, they start painting His picture! I'm sorry today—I'm not really being ugly. Now, I know that this won't go over with a great many people—especially if you run a Gospel bookstore—you won't like me now. I think it's wrong to use pictures of Christ today. "Oh," somebody says, "But, you know, I have a little altar and I've put a picture of Jesus up there, and I like to go and bow down before it." You're nothing in the world but an idolater. "Oh, yeah, but, I need that to help me." If you know Him as Saviour, you do not need that to help you. Now, I know that's not popular today. I was interested back at Winona Lake—I watched the bookstore there—I watched them 'cause they was selling my books. And I watch people, when they came in—you think they bought my books? Well they bought 'em—they bought all they had there. But the thing was that they bought twice as many of these little plaster-of-paris pictures of Christ. Some of them had mottos on them—some didn't. "But, oh, you've just gotta have a picture of Jesus!" How did He look? Would you tell me?

Isn't it interesting that nothing that was physical that was connected with Him has survived? God saw to that! I just well get it all off my chest this morning. Let me say something else. Somebody told me, said, you know, said "I went to Palestine and I went down there to the Garden Tomb, and it was so wonderful, I just got down on my knees and had a wonderful prayer." You mean you had to make a trip to Palestine to have a wonderful prayer? Now how do you know that's the spot? I'm not willing to take the word of another Church that 'here's where He was crucified' and 'here's where He was buried'—I don't think they know. The Lord got rid of all of that stuff! And I'm waiting today for a personally conducted tour! And my Lord is going to take me over there someday! And He says "Here McGee is where I was crucified! And here is where I was buried!" I'm waiting for that tour. I've lost your friendship now, haven't I?

Well, somebody needs to say these things today. We're developing a group of Protestants today that are running around looking for sacred spots and pictures and that sort of thing. Have you lost the Saviour?! Why do you have to have these things today? God is Spirit!

McGee on Romans 1:21-23,

Actually, idolatry is a cartoon of God; it is a slander and a slur against Him. Personally, I do not like to see pictures of Jesus, as Paul said that we know Him no longer after the flesh (see 2 Corinthians 5:16). He is the glorified Christ. He is not that picture you have hanging on your wall, my friend. If He came into your room, you would fall on your face before Him. He is the glorified Christ today. Don't slur our God by having a picture of Him!

Download the audio of McGee's commentary on Romans 1:21-23 here.

McGee against the effeminate Jesus of the Liberals (my transcription from his sermon The Eyes of Jesus):

And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and he began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And he would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

He said this temple. We gave it to you in order that the nations of the world might come here and worship God. And what have you done? You've made it a regular counting house, you've made it a marketplace, you've made it a bazaar—that place that should be holy. And He drove 'em out. Why do you think they got out? Don't give me the ole' adage that they got out because of the fact that He said for them to get out. My beloved, they didn't leave their place of business that easy. They got out because, when they looked at Him, they knew He could put 'em out. And He could. And He did. O, if you could only have seen His eyes. May I say to you, He had eyes of compassion for the sinner. But I tell you He had eyes of condemnation for that which was phony and that which was false and that which was sham. And I think when we see this it will deliver us from thinking of Him in terms of weakness. Many pictures today reveal Jesus as rather effeminate. And the liberals today have touched up the picture. They've made him a real sissy. If I may use the common colloquialism of the street—I say to you this morning He was no milquetoast—He was no first century Ghandi. These pictures today and the way the liberal speaks of Him drips with honey and saccharin sweetness. And may I say to you, that kind of cheap sentimentality it's shabby, it's shoddy, it's shaggy, it's shallow, it's shifty, it's sloppy, it's slobbery, it's slimy, it's shady, and it's sickly. And if there are any other adjectives you can put them with it too, because I want to tell you—this One had eyes that could burn with anger for that which was wrong. We need that today. In Matthew 23, the harshest language that's recorded in the Bible is our Lord's condemnation of the religious rulers:

Ye Pharisees! Ye Scribes! Ye Hypocrites! Ye blind leaders of the blind! Ye generation of vipers! You make the outside of the cup clean, but inside you haven't even washed it. You're like a sepulcher white-stone and monument on the outside, but inside dead man's bones.

May I say, those are fightin' words! And you may be sure the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Scribes just didn't like it. Fact of the matter is, they finally nailed Him to the cross, because they did not like that. But may I say that even the glorified Saviour—and this is the thing that's the carryover—He still has eyes that are like a flame of fire. And when John who had reclined upon His bosom, John who had been so familiar with Him, John saw the glorified Christ on the Isle of Patmos. And among the tremendous pictures that we have of Him, one is His head and his hairs were white like wool—as white as snow—and His eyes were as a flame of fire. That's the picture of Him. His eyes are as a flame of fire. And you know where that picture is? That is the picture of Him walking among the lampstands—walking in the Church today. We got a lot of believers today that think—that is if they are believers—think they're getting by with it. My friend, you're getting by with nothing! He sees you! My God seeth me. And He sees you. And His eyes are as a flame of fire. When He's speaking to that church in Thyatira that had departed from Him in Revelation 2:18, He says:

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

That's His picture today. That doesn't end it all. That's for the saved, if you please. He intends to judge His own—not for salvation, but He intends to judge His own. Paul was disturbed about it. Very few believers are disturbed today. Paul says:

I'm afraid that when I preach to others I might be disapproved and, therefore, I discipline myself.

How many Christians make it a real [inaudible]? It's a sideline with us today! If we feel just right and if the weather is just right, we'll go to church. But we never make a sacrifice for Him! I tell you, He sees you today! You think He is dead? O, what a surprise you gonna' to have someday, when you're brought into His presence.

From McGee's book Love, Liberation & the Law:

Is God being unfair? Will He punish the children of sinning parents? Dr. G. Campbell Morgan gives a fine interpretation of this:

To pass on to children a wrong conception of God . . . is the most awful thing a man can do . . . When a man puts something, as the object of his worship, in the place of God, he passes on the same practice to his offspring. What a terrible heritage he is thus handing down to the child!
But notice the gracious promise standing side by side with the waring: . . . "Showing mercy unto a thousand generations of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."... Here is a remarkable comparison-God visits the iniquity to the third and fourth generation; but He shows mercy unto the thousandth generation! If a man will commit to his posterity a worship which is true, strong, whole-hearted, and pure, and will sweep away all that interferes between himself and God, he is more likely to influence for good the thousandth generation that follows him than a ma of the opposite character is to touch that generation with evil.... Whenever a ma stops short of that face-to-face worship of the Eternal God, he is working ruin to his own character, because he is breaking the commandment of God. (Morgan, The Ten Commandments, pp. 34, 35)

...

There are too may folk today who are supposed to be Bible teachers ad preachers and witnesses for Him, even among the laity, who do not know the Word of God. I am sorry to say that, but it happens to be true. As a result of not knowing the Word of God, they don't really know God. It is necessary to know the Word of God in order to know Him.

From McGee's Questions and Answers program (link):

Q: How Did God Speak to Moses?

A: In the formulation of the canon of Scripture, God spoke in many ways. He spoke sometimes through an angel. He actually spoke sometimes through dreams; He spoke to Joseph by dreams. And sometimes He spoke audibly to the individual. I believe that on the top of Mount Sinai God spoke audibly to Moses. Moses couldn’t see anyone – God is a spirit, as you know. In fact, Moses finally asked! And when anyone says that Moses saw God, all he saw was the glory of God. God manifested His glory, and that glory was visible in the tabernacle. Those were the only people that ever have had a visible presence of God. Now the church does not have a visible presence. The Lord Jesus drew down the curtain on that. When He came, He laid aside His glory. When they talk about what it was the Lord Jesus emptied Himself of, it wasn’t His deity but His glory. The glory was not manifested at all. A lady told me recently she had a dream and the Lord Jesus stood at the foot of her bed and talked to her. I suggested to her that she probably ought to pay attention to what she had for dinner the night before, because He didn’t speak to her. I asked her, “What did He look like?” And she said, “Just like He does in all His pictures!” But the pictures we have of Jesus are not of Him but of some Italian in the Middle Ages who posed for the picture. Today God is speaking in His Word. But then He spoke many ways in getting His Word through to man, and one of them was to speak audibly as He did to Moses.

Jeremiah Burroughs on Idolatry & Adultery (Hosea 1:2-5)

2010-12-24T13:28:00.001-08:00

Idolatry it is as the sin of whoredom, and I cannot open this Scripture except I shew you wherein idolatry is like the sin of whoredom: The idolatry of the Church, not the idolatry of heathens is whoredom. One that committeth adultery doth give her self to another: The Heathens because they were never married to God, their idolatry is not adultery; but the people of God being married to the Lord, their idolatry is adultery.
Adultery first, because it breaks the marriage bond, there is nothing breaks the marriage bond between God and his people but the sin of idolatry, as not between man and wife. Though a wife may be guilty of many failings, and be a grievous trouble and burden to her husband, yet these do not break the marriage knot except she defile the marriage bed: So though a people may be guilty of notorious and vile sins, yet if they keep the worship of God pure, they are not guilty of whoredom, but still God is married to them.
Secondly, Whoredom is a loathsome things, though delightsome to men, yet loathsome to God: Idolatry is so, therefore the Scripture calleth the idols that men set up by a name that signifieth the very excrement that comes from creatures, Ezek. 22, 3. Idolaters think their way of idol-worship to be very delightsome, but that which they call delectable, God calleth detestable, so you shall find if you compare these two Scriptures, Isa. 44. 9. they call their Idols delectable things, but in Ezek. 5. 11. God calleth them detestable things. Idolatry is a detestable loathsome thing.
Thirdly, There is nothing wherein a man is so irreconcilable as in the point of the marriage bed, the defiling of that by adultery causes an irreconcilable breach: Jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will take no ransom. There is nothing wherein God is so irreconcilable to a people, as in the point of false worship.
Fourthly, Adultery it is a besotting sin, Whoredom and new wine take away the heart, saith the prophet, and in that 44. Isa. 19. there, saith God, he hath no understanding to consider and say, What have I not taken one part and roasted flesh with it, and with another part have baked bread upon the coals, and warmed my self with another, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination, and fall down to the stock of a tree? He hath no understanding to consider this. Idolatry is a besotting sin as well as adultery. And therefore we need not marvel though men of great parts and abilities continue in their superstitious way of worship, for nothing besotteth mens hearts so much as that doth.
Again 5. Whoredom is a most dangerous sin. We have a most dreadful place for that, Prov. 32. 14. The mouth of a strange woman is as a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. Oh most dreadful place to an Adulterer! if there be any Adulterer in this place this day, when thou goest home turn to that Scripture, and let it be as a dart to thy heart, the mouth of a strange woman is as a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein; A sign of a man abhorred of God, and so is Idolatry, for in 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. God gave them over to believe a lie that they might be damned. Those that follow the Idolatries of Antichrist are given over by God to believe a lie, That lie of Popery altogether is one lie. Hence it is that the Popish party invent so many such strange lies, all to uphold that great lie. Why is this? that they might be damned. It is a dreadful dangerous sin the sin of Idolatry, though they think they please God in and by such ways of worship, yet they are given over by God that they may be damned. If this prove to be a place that concerns those that follow Antichrist, and if Rome proves to be so as by that place is described, it is a dreadful place to all Papists.
Again, Whores use to deck themselves up in pompous attire, in dainty, glorious raiment. So Idolaters use to deck up their Idols in bravery, and lavish gold (as the Scripture speaks) upon their Idols; whereas the Kings daughter is all glorious within, and the simplicity of the Gospel will not permit such things.

And lastly, as whores though they go a whoring from their husbands, yet still they retain (before the divorce) the name of wives, and their children (though bastards) retain the name of children, and bear the fathers name: So Idolaters, they will retain the name of the Church, the Church, and those that they beget, must still be called the only sons of the Church.
But how are his children said to be children of whoredoms? for suppose his wife were a wife of whoredoms, yet being married to her, wherefore should the children be called children of whoredoms?
To that is answered first, some think upon this ground, because the children when they grow up would follow the way of the Mother, as it is an usual thing for children to do. Therefore you need to take heed how you enter into the estate of marriage for your childrens sake, for they will follow the way of the Mother.
Or rather this, because though they were begotten after marriage, yet they will lie under suspicion as those that are illegitimate; the children of one that hath been a whore are always suspected, and so in repute they are the children of whoredom and fornication: so sayeth God, these people are to me as if their children were accounted children of fornication.
For the whole land hath gone a whoring from the Lord.
In going a whoring they go a whoring: Or as Arias Montanus reads it, In going a whoring they will go a whoring. They not only Have, but Will, they are set upon it, they are stouthearted in the way of Idolatry, and it is the land that hath done it, the people of the land.
But why the land?
It is a secret check to them, and an upbraiding them for their unthankfulness, that when God gave them so good a land, the land of Canaan that flowed with milk and honey, the land of promise, that was given to them for that end to nourish up the true worship of God, yet they made this land of God, this land of promise to be a land to nourish up most vile Idolaters.
Gone away a whoring from the Lord.
From Jehovah.
The more worthy the husband is, the more vile and odious the adultery of the wife. What, to go a whoring from God, the blessed God, in whom is all beauty and excellency, and turn to blind Idols? What, change the glory of the invisible God, into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass? with what indignation doth God speak it? Oh you that go a whoring after your sinful lusts, this one day will lie most dreadfully upon your consciences, that it was from the Lord that you departed, from that infinite glorious eternal Deity, the fountain of all good, to cleave to whoring after base, sinful, and unclean lusts.

—Jeremiah Burroughs, An exposition of the prophesie of Hosea

Thomas Manton on the Second Commandment and the Spiritual Idolatry of Christians

2010-12-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

God giveth quite in another manner than man doth. It is our fault to measure infiniteness by our last, and to muse of God according as we use ourselves. The soul, in all her conclusions, is directed by principles and premises of sense and experience; and because we converse with limited natures and dispositions, therefore we do not form proper and worthy thoughts of God. It was the gross idolatry of the heathens to 'turn the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a man.' Rom. i. 23; that is, to fancy God according to the shape and figure of our bodies. And so it is the spiritual idolatry of Christians to fancy God according to the model and size of their own minds and dispositions. I am persuaded there doth nothing disadvantage us so much in believing as this conceit that 'God is altogether like ourselves,' Ps. 1. 21. We, being of eager and revengeful spirits, cannot believe his patience and pardoning mercy; and that, I suppose, was the reason why the apostles (when Christ talked of forgiving our brother seven times in one day), cried out, Luke xvii. 5, 'Lord, increase our faith,' as not being able to believe so great a pardoning mercy either in themselves or God. And therefore, also, I suppose it is that God doth with such vehemency show everywhere that his heart hath other manner of dispositions than man's hath: Isa. Iv. 8, 9, 'My thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor my ways as your ways; as far as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts:' I am not straitened in bowels, nor hardened, nor implacable, as men are; as there is a vast space and distance between the earth and the firmament, so between your drop and my ocean. So Hosea xi. 9, 'I am God, and not man; and therefore Ephraim shall not be destroyed;' that is, I have not such a narrow heart, such wrathful implacable dispositions as men have. Well, then, consider, when God giveth, he will give like himself. Do not measure him by the wretched straitness of your own hearts, and confine God within the circle of the creatures. It is said of Araunah that he gave as a king to David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 23. Whatever God doth, he will do as a God, above the rate and measure of the creatures, something befitting the infiniteness and eternity of his own essence.

—Thomas Manton

For the second point, picturing the Trinity, God hath not only forbidden it, but argued against it: Deut. iv. 15, 16, 'Take therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no similitude, when the Lord spake to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of anything male or female.' See how cautelous God is to prevent this abuse, and yet how boldly men practise it.

—Thomas Manton

Carnal men at the same time approve what they seem to condemn; they hate and fear strictness: "Herod feared John, because he was a just man, and a holy, and observed him" (Mark vi. 20). They scoff at it with their tongues, but have a fear of it in their consciences: they revile at it while they live, but what mind are they of when they come to die? then all speak well of a holy life, and the strictest obedience to the laws of God: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his" (Num. xxiii. 10); "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out" (Matt. xxv. 8). Oh, that they had a little of that holiness and strictness which they scoffed at, whilst they were pursuing their lusts. How will men desire to die, as parnal and careless sinners, or as mortified saints? Once more, they approve it in thesi, and condemn it in hypothesi. All the scoffers at godliness within the pale of the visible church, have the same Bible, baptism, creed, pretend to believe in the same God and Christ, which they own with those whom they oppose. All the difference is, the one are real Christians, the other are nominal; some profess at large, the others practise what they profess; the one have a religion to talk of, the others to live by. Once more, they approve it in the form, but hate it in the power. A picture of Christ that is drawn by a painter they like, and the forbidden image of God made by a carver they will reverence and honour, and be zealous for; but the image of God framed by the Spirit in the hearts of the faithful, and described in the lives of the heavenly and the sanctified, this they scorn and scoff at.

—Thomas Manton

IDOLATRY CONDEMNED

Charles Spurgeon on Revelation 1:17

A Continual Remembrance of Christ

Thomas Scott on the Second Commandment

William Fenner on the Second Commandment

An Idol is accounted God

Thomas Shepard: Labor for more of such a Christ as the word holds forth

THE GREAT THINGS OF HIS LAW: "God is a Spirit"

Is He Lord or symbol?

Thomas Watson on The Second Commandment, Roman Catholicism, Idols, Idolatry, & Idolaters

Nathanael Vincent on The Knowledge of Christ

Spiritual conjugal friendship with the Sovereign Lord

A Mistaken Christ

Isaac Ambrose on Sins against the Second Commandment.

Thomas Shepard: True faith closes with Christ as he is.

John Milton on Idolatry

“Many, instead of gathering to Christ, they gather to an idol of their own fancy"

Walter Lowrie, Missionary to China: No Images of Jesus Christ

Char­lotte El­li­ott “Friend unseen"

“We love an unseen absent friend"—Thomas Kelly

Andrew Gray: “Faith exerciseth itself upon an invisible object, even upon Christ not seen"

Jesus, These Eyes Have Never Seen

David Brainerd on Imaginary Notions of Christ's Human Nature

“We saw him not with our bodily eyes"—Robert Rollock

Voddie Baucham on Images of Christ in Films

“then do we join Teraphim, when we rest not upon Scripture alone"

Beyond the Symbols By A.W. Tozer

Affections Fixed Upon an Unseen Saviour

A Hymn on 1 Peter 1:8

Thomas Goodwin on False Christs

Primitive Baptists on “Pictures of Jesus"

“The Image of the Invisible God" by W.M. Mitchell

Martin Luther's Preface to the Prophets

"GOD NOT TO BE WORSHIPPED AS REPRESENTED BY AN IMAGE" by Benjamin Needler

James Ussher on the Voice

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Pictures of Christ

Leonard Ravenhill on Pictures of Christ

TURRETIN ON IMAGES

"That which God alone effects no image ever can."—Andreas Karlstadt

R.A. Torrey Against False Christs

—R.A. Torrey, The Real Christ

G. Campbell Morgan on the Second Commandment

Albert N. Martin Against Celluloid Jesus

John Lightfoot's Concise Exposition of Romans 1:23-32

C.H. Spurgeon, The Second Commandment, Graven Images, & Idolatry

R.A. Torrey on 1 Peter 1:8 and the Unseen Saviour

Michael S. Horton on the Second Commandment

Daniel de Superville père on the Second Commandment

LOVE TO AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR

Burgess on Gross Idolatry & How We May See Jesus

It is gross idolatry to make the works of God, a God; and it is but a more subtle idolatry, to make the works of Christ, a Christ.

—Burgess de Lege

Our understandings are of such a low stature, that we must climb up to the tree of life, the scriptures, to see Jesus. They are the only ladder whereby we climb up.

—Burgess

Benjamin Keach's CHRIST THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF THE FATHER

Ralph Erskine's Gospel Sonnets on 1 Peter 1:8

"the characteristic of love to the Saviour is love to an unseen Christ"

William Gurnall on 1 Peter 1:8

WHOM HAVING NOT SEEN YE LOVE (a hymn for the day of sorrow and weariness)

Matthew Poole on 1 Corinthians 10:20

J. Vernon McGee and Thomas Carlyle on Pictures of Jesus and Idolatry

Jeremiah Burroughs on Idolatry & Adultery (Hosea 1:2-5)

Thomas Manton on the Second Commandment and the Spiritual Idolatry of Christians

Charlotte Elliott “Friend unseen"