“THE DOCTRINE OF FREE AGENCY EXAMINED”
(Part V - Continued)

In spite of these plain, positive statements of holy and inspired men of old we are told that man is a free moral agent. Such teaching tends to exalt man above that which is seemly and to reduce Christ to the status of being only a “would be” Saviour, or a co-saviour. Man by nature is estranged from the womb in a wicked condition, he is without spiritual strength and dead in sin. Yet we are told that even in that condition he can believe if he will.
We are told that he can repent if he will. He can hunger and thirst if he will. He can love if he will. He can be righteous if he WILL. He can hope if he WILL. I am yet to find an advocate of free moral agency that does not, in the analysis, make these spiritual fruits dependent on the will. So for all practical purposes the doctrine of free moral agency is nothing more than the old doctrine of free will dressed up in a new suit and sent out to deceive the nations.

Is faith dependent upon the will? Is the will free? Upon the answers to these questions the doctrine of free will, or free moral agency, will stand or fall. And right here we can make a simple test that will prove that faith is not dependent upon the will and that the will is not free. I have in my pocket a ten dollar bill. Now let me submit this question to the reader, “do you believe this ten dollar bill is yours?” Do you? Of course not. Why do you not believe that it is your? Because there is not any evidence or testimony that it is yours.
In the absence of such testimony can you believe it is yours? Of course you cannot. If you did believe that it is yours would that make it yours? Certainly not. If you did believe that it is yours would that make it yours? Certainly not. The truth is if people get to believing that other folks’ ten dollar bills are theirs their belief is apt to get them in trouble.

Now this question: Are you willing to believe this ten dollar bill is yours? I would dare to say that you are willing to believe it is yours, but you cannot believe it is yours because there is not any evidence to that fact. Thus, what you believe about it is not necessarily dependent on what you are willing to believe about it.

On the other hand, let me ask, “Do you believe that many people will be injured and killed in car wrecks this year? Sure you do? Is it your will to believe that many people will be injured and killed in car wrecks? Of course it is not. On this point you do believe something, but you do not will to believe it. We should all rather not believe it, but the evidence points to the other way and we cannot keep from believing it. So again, faith, or belief, does not depend on the will.

Will the advocate of free moral agency tell us that faith that is not in harmony with the will avails salvation? He will be, of all men, most embarrassed if he does. The teachers of free agency build their entire theory upon a wrong application of the text “Whosoever will,” not realizing that the text says, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” They teach that it means for the dead alien sinner to come and take life.

The text, however, is speaking of a thirsty child of God and invites him to come and take the water of life freely. Only a thirsty person can take water freely. And never in this world did a person will to take the water of life before he had the life. Will is an evidence of life. It springs from life, and as far as I know it can spring from no other source.

As a matter of fact however, the advocates of free moral agency do not actually believe in it. They just think they do. To substantiate that statement I now present the following for the consideration of the reader: recently this question was submitted to the famous evangelist, Billy Graham, for him to answer:

“In one of your radio sermons you said that men is a free moral agent. What does that mean?” – Signed, A. M. S.

Here is Billy’s answer:

“God created man with the freedom of choice. He did not make us puppets automations or robots. At the very best, this would have been a very low form of creation. But, He created us in His own image with the capacity to choose, to will to make decisions. That is what is meant when we say that man is a free moral agent. But, because of sin Bible calls the servants of sin. However, God still gives us the privilege of turning back to Him. We cannot do this in our own strength but God’s Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of men, urging them to repent and turn from sin and believe in Christ as Saviour. The Bible contains a series of events where men are urged to choose, to stand on God’s side and to accept Him. For instance in the Old Testament we find these words of Moses to the children of Israel: ‘I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ In the New Testament John writes: ‘If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of Myself.’ Almost the last verse of the Bible says: ‘And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely’. The choice is for you to make.”

                                                                 –Signed, Billy Graham.

What choice? To take of the water of life freely? I will agree with that, but, as I have already pointed out, that invitation is to the thirsty child of God. It is not to the dead alien sinner. As far as Moses’ admonition to the Israelites is concerned, had the evangelist read a little farther he would have noticed these lines: “for he is thy life and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them.”

So the choice that was set before Israel was not whether or not to be born again, whether they should be obedient and live in the land of Canaan in peace, or be disobedient and be dispersed among the nations and live in confusion and suffering. Now, to whom was this choice presented? To the nations? No. To the Gentiles? No. It was to the Israelites – the covenant children of God.

In this connection, if the great evangelist, Billy Graham, or anyone else on earth, knows of a text anywhere in the Bible in which God ever has, or does today, offer eternal life to anyone for them to accept or reject on any condition wherever, I am now calling on them to produce it. Failure to do so will be considered by me as evidence that it cannot be done. Unless and until it is done, free agency falls, never again to be resurrected. The scholarship of the world awaits the answer.

From a study of Billy’s answer the careful reader will notice the following:

1. He fails to give a proper definition of the term “free moral agency.”
2. He has not proven more than I am contending for.
3. He has surrendered his doctrine.

For the sake of brevity and in order to save space I will notice only item number three at this time. Let me now copy again from Billy’s letter:

“But because of sin in our hearts, the result of our inheritance and also of our choice, we are now what the Bible calls the servants of sin. However God still gives us the privilege of turning back to Him. We cannot do this in our own strength but God’s Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of men, urging them to repent and turn from sin and believe in Christ as Saviour.”

Now notice, speaking of turning back to God, Billy says, “we cannot do this in our own strength.” To which statement, the earnest seeker of truth will answer, “why can’t we, if we are free moral agents?” Here Billy Graham gives up the very point he was trying to prove and thus surrenders the cardinal premise upon which his doctrine is built.

Man a free moral agent – yet a sinner by inheritance and cannot turn to God. A flat contradiction. I I do not expect to ever live long enough to see harmony brought out of the two. If a person cannot turn to God in his own strength he is simply not a free moral agent. The proposition is not that he does not have a legal right to turn to God, but rather, as we will see later, he has not the ability, neither has he the desire to do so.

So Billy says that God’s Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of men urging them to repent, etc. To which I reply, Correct, Amen, I will go along with that, that is right, but the question is: “What is the condition of those in whose hearts God’s Holy Spirit is working?” Let Paul answer: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God;” and “The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, “ Romans, chapter eight.

Unless Paul has misinformed us, and unless the Spirit bears false testimony, all those in whose heart the Spirit of God is working are children of God. If children of God, they are sons of God and are already saved from the standpoint of the new birth. By Billy’s own admission, without the Spirit they cannot turn to God. But these are the people he is trying to appeal to. And they cannot come. His preaching is therefore in vain. The Spirit obviously must work ahead of the preacher.

Here then is where free moral agency leaves us: Man is a sinner by inheritance and choice, yet a free moral agent. He must turn to God or be lost forever. Yet in his own strength he cannot turn to God. His salvation therefore is dependent on his doing that which he does not have the strength to do. If this be true the entire human race will be lost. That, my friends, is free moral agency. And these people call Primitive Baptist “Hardshells!” This is another absurdity to which a false doctrine reduces itself when examined. Free moral agency and depravity are incompatible. The Bible teaches depravity. It does not teach free agency.

“But the natural man recieveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” writes the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 2:14. One has only to introduce the plain language of this text to prove that man is not a free moral agent. Here is something the natural man cannot do; he cannot know the things of the Spirit of God.

Now if the gospel is a thing of the Spirit of God, which it is, and if Paul told the truth in this text, which he did, then the natural man does not receive the gospel, it is foolishness unto him, and he cannot know it. If the gospel then is necessary to his salvation, he will never be saved. Free agency? Not exactly. On the other hand, if the natural man recieveth not gospel, then those who do receive it are not natural men. They are spiritual.

Lest there be, in this day of modernism, some question as to the meaning of the term “natural man” in the text, the reader is referred to the celebrated Revised Standard Version of the Bible which renders the text as follows: “The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Then the marginal rendition of the word UNSPIRITUAL is NATURAL.

The American Standard Version says “natural.” The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament by the late George Ricker Berry, Ph. D. of the University of Chicago & Colgate University Department of Semitic Languages renders the original as “natural.” I take the position therefore that it means natural.

Webster says that natural means “pertaining to, produced by, or in the course of, nature.” It is obvious then that a natural man is a man produced by, or in the course of, nature. Such a character cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He therefore is not a free moral agent. So long as this text is in the Bible, no man will ever be able to establish the doctrine of free moral agency. He may teach it, but he will never prove it.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:6. And “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other,” Gal 5:17. This is the reason that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit. He is born of the flesh and is fleshly. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and is contrary to it. The natural man is not compatible to the Spirit, his nature is inclined the other way. The man who tries to prove free moral agency has undertaken the hardest job in the world. He tries to harmonize flesh and spirit, which thing is a spiritual and physical impossibility.
The above was copied from a booklet by Elder Glen Williams. (To be continued next issue)

The series of articles on the subject of the New Birth will continue in the next issue.
 

“Jesus’ Promise of the Holy Ghost - Part I”

In John chapter 14:26, Jesus gives a most wondrous promise, He says that “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

There is no doubt that there has been much misunderstanding about the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, and yet it’s also true that this is a subject that we, as God’s people need to understand. Otherwise we will be as those of whom the Apostle Paul wrote about in Eph 4:14, that are “children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” It’s my intention to try to dispel some of the current confusion concerning the understanding of the work of the Holy Ghost, as we look at the Lord’s promises concerning Him in John 14. These are the words of spiritual truth spoken to us…whom He says in verse 15, where He says, “if ye love Me, keep my commandments.” Notice that the Lord says, “IF…ye love Me keep My commandments.” These words are directed at those who are His followers, the ones who have denied themselves, and taken up their crosses, and followed Him. The promise of our Lord Jesus is NOT to the world, but only to His elect, and further more it is specifically to the “very elect” (see Mat 24:24). And He goes on to give us many answers to such questions as; who is the Holy Ghost? Is the Spirit a person, or simply a power? Why does the Holy Ghost come? And why does it matter to me?

We as Old Baptist are not to live our lives without understanding; we have the words of Jesus as our guide, and so it’s my desire to understand the PERSON of the Holy Ghost, as well as his ministry.

To start with lets look at a passage of scripture preceding chapter fourteen. John 13:31 down to verse 36, Jesus is telling His disciples that He is about to go away, and Peter in verse 36-37, says to the Lord, “whither goest Thou?” And Jesus answered saying, “whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.” To which Peter said, “Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.”

Which brings us down to chapter 14, verse 1, with the words of Jesus again, He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” Troubled? Troubled about what? The answer to that question was that Jesus was about to die and be buried and then ascend into heaven. And that’s why He was giving them His assurance that even though He was leaving them; He was not going to leave them abandoned and all alone. Yes, He was going away, and now understandably His beloved disciples were of a heavy heart, and Jesus knew this, and now He was giving them the comfort of a very special promise. And we can also take comfort in the knowledge that because it’s Jesus who was making the promise, and that He’s not only willing to make the promise, but that He also has the eternal integrity and ability to keep His promise.

Among the many profound and significant promises our Lord made during His life and ministry on earth, few have more of a day-to-day and an immediate impact on us than His promise of the Comforter, which He declares to be the Holy Ghost? Jesus was saying “Yes, even though I'm going away, the Holy Spirit is coming to minister to you in My place.”
In verse 12 Jesus says,” I go unto My Father.” The fact that they couldn’t follow after Him was giving the disciples much trouble. But He told them that they would understand it all later on. Then He went on to say, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also,” (John 14:1-3). This is the reason that He came and now it’s perfectly clear that now He was going away.

Oh, how His heart must have ached for His FRIENDS, (see John 15:13-15) who were now so troubled and confused because they felt like He was abandoning them! He was indeed going away…but NOT to prepare a place for them in heaven’s glory world. He was preparing a place for them in His Kingdom Church.

But what Peter and the others couldn’t see right then, was the bigger picture of the work of Christ. And its no wonder, after all they’d been together for three years now. This small band of disciples had shared experiences together that went beyond their ability to fully understand or describe. They’d had experiences that would not even be clear to them until after His resurrection: John 12:16 says, “These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him.”

The miracles that Jesus had done were still fresh in their memories. Also the thunderous shouts of the multitudes saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest,” (Matt. 21:9,) were still ringing in their ears, but right then all they could see was the moment. All they could do was stare at the One who, at His greatest moment of recognition, seemed determined to walk away from it all.
Only Jesus, and Jesus alone could see beyond the agony of the next few hours. Only He could see why it was so important for Him to die and then to return to the right hand of His Father (Matt. 26:64). He knew that He must go away because:

• He had to return to the Father as our great Mediator and Advocate (1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 2:1).
• He had to return to the Father so that He could prepare the home in His Kingdom that He has promised (John 14:2).
• He had to go to the Father so that He might enter the heavenly sanctuary as our Great High Priest (Heb. 6:19-20).
• He had to go to the Father to receive the glory that was His even before the foundation of the world, as the obedient, victorious Son (John 17:24).
• He had to go to the Father so that He could gloriously return and gather up all of the elect. (Matt. 26:64).

When Jesus said that He MUST go to the Father, this wasn’t just a matter of Him changing His location, no this was a change of operation. The eternal plan of the Godhead for our redemption, and for the glory of God, was never less than the work of Christ on the cross--but it was eternally more.

Jesus Christ, in His wonderful priestly ministry, promised as He prayed to the Father on behalf of His own elect: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). We can’t take such intercession lightly. Jesus Christ is even NOW, just as He prayed for His disciples, praying for all those who are His elect from before the foundation of the world!

Jesus Christ, our High Priest is even now present as our Advocate to God the Father. The writer of the Book of Hebrews tells us in Heb. 7:25, “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

When Jesus said, in John 14:16, “I will pray the Father,” we see this priestly ministry for us as the intercessory ministry of our Great High Priest. He was saying that He must go to the Father and this being true, that He would then send the Holy Ghost to be with His children.

But what is the work of the Holy Ghost? Before we look at that question we need to understand that the Holy Ghost has not been idle up until this point in time, no not at all, in fact He’s been active throughout all history. For example in Genesis 1:2, we find that when “God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God’ [the Holy Spirit] ‘moved upon the face of the waters.” And again when God created man from the dust of the earth, it was the Holy Spirit which “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul,” (Gen 2:7, see also Exod. 31:3; 1 Sam. 19:23; 2 Chron. 24:20). And even in the New Testament in Matthew 1:18, at the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary, His natural mother “was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” And then in Matthew 12:28, Jesus declares to us that Jesus had the authority to “cast out devils by the Spirit of God.”
But we can clearly see that this promise was no doubt a new work in and among all those who would come into the Church Kingdom of God, to those who had taken up the cross of Christ into discipleship (see Matt. 10:38; 16:24; 27:42; Mark 8:34; 10:21; Luke 14:27; John 19:19).

The Holy Ghost has always been the One who brought about the new birth to all that the Father had given to the Son even before the world began. Now He was about to do a new work in and among all those of the elect who are led by Him, enabling them to see and embrace the true gospel of God, and be baptized into the body of Christ, i.e. the church.

In the New Testament, God the Father is seen as the first person in the Godhead, of which the Apostle Paul says that in Jesus “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). The Father planned in eternity past and provided for His elect family on earth whom He gave to His Son. In the incarnation, Christ is seen as the Son of the Father who redeems the elect by paying the ransom price for their sins. The Holy Spirit brings spiritual life to those whom the Son brings to the Father; each member of the Godhead works in perfect harmony to carry out His distinct role for the accomplishment of the eternal purpose.

And in God’s eternal purpose He created a perfect man…Adam; able to stand, but liable to fall. He placed him in a wonderful garden with only one commandment; “of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” (Gen 2:16-17). Adam sinned, and fell, and we fell in him, [AND GOD DID NOT CAUSE THE FALL!] but even before the fall the perfect sacrifice was already provided as the remedy.

And in this eternal purpose, God the Son is the Creator (John 1:1-3), and He is the source of His chosen people’s provision. He was, and is the One and only perfect sacrifice for sin, becoming a man and sacrificially dying in our place, by doing for us what we could never do for ourselves!

In God’s eternal purpose, the Holy Ghost gives eternal life to the redeemed. In giving spiritual life the Spirit provides divine strength to all of those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, enabling them to believe and to follow after the Son as their example and Saviour.

And once Christ returned to the Father, the Holy Ghost came down in His place in the Church Kingdom of heaven to bring understanding of God’s wonderful eternal purpose for all of the elect. Through this eternal purpose all the elect receive eternal forgiveness. Every believer receives understanding of the gift of that forgiveness. They also are able to possess the abundant life in Jesus Christ their Saviour while they live in this time world. This is the promise spoken of by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:33, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”
Jesus’ promise, “I will pray to the Father,” to His disciples was that the Holy Ghost would come and wrap them up in His love and open a new chapter in His dealings with His disciples who had chosen to follow Him and live in His blessed Kingdom. The Holy Spirit is profoundly at work for the glory of the Son helping them to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” We see that “HE WILL GIVE!” Oh, what a wonderful promise! And this is a promise that He has fulfilled. Let’s notice again the relationship in the Godhead. The Son is absolutely equal to the Father, and yet He, the Son submits to Him His request for His will to be done. And look at the Holy Ghost who, though He too is absolutely equal with the Father, is sent forth by the Father to accomplish the Father's will. This is the Godhead in its pure form-NOT three gods, but ONE eternal God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost! The Son prays to the Father and the Spirit is dispatched, and it’s the Father who gives the Spirit to His people. Again, I say not three gods, but one eternal being who is God!

Next time we will continue by God’s grace to explore Jesus’ Promise of the Holy Ghost. May the Lord bless us to have a better understanding of the Person and work of the Holy Ghost.

Elder Thomas McDonald     Jesus’ Promise of the Holy Ghost – Part II
 

Passing of Elder Cecil Johnson

On Monday, December 26, 2005 Elder Cecil Johnson, the beloved pastor of Farmersville Primitive Baptist Church, died after a fifteen year battle with cancer, followed by a battle with ALS. Throughout his struggles, he did as Paul stated in 2 Tim. 4:7 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Cecil likewise fought the good fight of faith. Despite the hardships of disease and physical suffering he finished his course with joy. Also, he never wavered in his desire to keep the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Despite his afflictions, he come to realize by experience what the Lord told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." It seemed that the more that Brother Cecil suffered the more that he was able to comfort those who were facing trials and troubles in their lives. The Lord blessed Brother Cecil to minister not only to the membership of the churches that he pastored, but also to the needs of those he worked with, and to the needs of many in the community in which he lived. While he was a brother to me in the flesh, yet he was an even closer brother to me in the Spirit and I greatly miss the many spirit-filled conversations and visits that we have had with one another over the years. I request you pray for his family and the church at Farmersville.
 

New Church Constituted

The Old Paths Primitive Baptist Church of Clarendon, Texas was constituted on the Saturday before the 2nd Sunday in December. The constitution meeting was held at Amarillo Primitive Baptist Church, which had extended an arm to the body of people meeting at Clarendon. The church was constituted with 13 charter members with regular attendance of about 20 people. Elder Lyman Little was elected as pastor of the Old Paths Primitive Baptist Church. Please pray for this church as they endeavor to worship and serve the Lord in Spirit and in truth.