The writer states: "Young...preachers today preach what the older preachers before them preached, and the older preachers...etc., therefore, the doctrines and traditions of men are handed down from generation to generation." The Apostle Paul told Timothy: "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men, who shall be able to teach others" (II Tim.2:2). In verse 15 he further instructs: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." One that does not study the word can easily be led astray.
The writer quotes Matt. 7:13-14: "'Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' God had to know all those that were going the wrong way or he would not have known which way they were going." If that were true, why did Jesus admonish them to "Enter ye in at the strait gate?" In verse 15, he warns: "Beware of false prophets...". If God knew which individual person would enter the strait gate, why the warning?
The writer says that God "predestinated people before the foundation of the world, it says nothing about choosing a plan...God predetermined and predestinated after he had foreseen through his perfect foreknowledge who would believe and obey and who would not." God did choose a people, but the verses that the writer uses for his text, tells us who the people are. He overlooks this in Eph. 1:3-7. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world...unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." To be "in Christ" is to be in the church (Eph. 1:22-23; Col.1:18). We are adopted into the family of God by obedience to "his will." "In whom [in Christ], we have redemption." Redeemed from what? From our sins. When does that remission of sins take place? "Repent and be baptized...for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38; 22:16). One with his sins removed is saved. The Lord adds all the saved to the church (Acts 2:47).
We read in Eph 3:10-11: "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:" God planned the church "before the foundation of the world." The church consists of people. To get into the church, one must follow the "plan" that is set out in the New Testament. Rom. 8:30 says: "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called...". II Thes. 2:14 teaches that we are called by the "gospel." The church that God predetermined, had its beginning on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts chapter two, when God's plan for redeeming man was first preached. One cannot separate the church from the plan. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness" (Rom 6:16)?
"If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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