2 Corinthians 4

**Butler’s Commentary

Chapter Four**

THE PROBLEM OF DISCOURAGEMENT

(2 Corinthians 4:1-18)

IDEAS TO INVESTIGATE:

Who would tamper with God’s word?

Is there a god of this world who is not Jehovah?

What treasure did Paul have in an earthen vessel?

What is the inner nature of man?

How can unseeable things be seen?

APPREHENSION:

Was Jesus, the perfect man, ever disappointed? When? Why?

How does the word therefore beginning chapter 4 indicate the source of Paul’s disappointment? What was that source?

Does Paul infer that he once used disgraceful, underhanded ways with the word of God? When? How?

What is tampering with God’s word?

Who is a tamperer with God’s word?

How did Paul commend his ministry to mankind?

Is the devil the god of this world? In what way?

What proof is available to man that the devil is not a god?

Does Paul infer some Corinthians were preaching themselves? Why?

What does Paul mean by earthen vessels?

What is the believer’s treasure?

Did Paul experience pressure and anxiety? Why?

Why did Paul say he had experienced perplexity?

To what may Paul be alluding when he says struck down?

What death is Paul talking about when he says, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus?

How is death at work in us? What is death working in us?

What is the outer nature? How do we know it is wasting away?

When do we know that our inner nature is being renewed?

What is the direct tie between our afflictions in this life and the glory that is to come to the believer in the next lift?

What, according to C.S. Lewis, is the eternal weight of glory?

What may we surmise about the eternal weight of glory from the Scriptures?

APPLICATION:

Should preachers ever become discouraged, disappointed? Does your preacher?

Have you ever been guilty of legalism? What makes you feel alright with God?

How many people do you know who think of the devil as equal with God in power?

What does it mean, to measure themselves by one another? What is wrong with that?

Why is it that young people seldom think of their mortality?

Should Christians think of death often? Is that being morbid? Can it be good to do so?

May Christians expect to be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and knocked down? How often?

Is there an answer to such a life? What is it? Have you found it workable? Have you told anyone else about this answer?

Do you always carry in your body the death of the Lord Jesus? How?

Do you expect God to help you die to self? How do you think God will accomplish this in your life?

Do you feel like you are being renewed in your inner nature every day? Why? How? What can you do to insure that you are?

What is waiting for you when you die?

Why do you think God will say to you, after you die, Well done, good and faithful servant. ?

What is really real to you? Have you come to the place in your life yet where everything in this world is unreal?

**Applebury’s Comments

CHAPTER FOUR**

Analysis

A.

Paul explained the nature of his ministry under the glorious New Covenant (2 Corinthians 4:1-6).

His attitude toward his ministry (2 Corinthians 4:1-2).

a)

Since he had received it through the mercy that had been shown him by the Lord, he did not lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:1).

b)

He did, however, reject things that were unbecoming to such a ministry (2 Corinthians 4:2 a).

(1)

He renounced the hidden things of shame.

(2)

He did not carry on his ministry by craftiness.

(3)

He did not handle the Word of God deceitfully.

c)

He conducted himself in such a manner as to commend himself to every man’s conscience (b).

(1)

He did so by making the truth clear.

(2)

It was done openly as in the sight of God.

His attitude toward the gospel which he preached (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).

a)

He assumed that his gospel might become veiled in some (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 a).

(1)

This could happen in the minds of those who were perishing.

(2)

It was done by the god of this world.

(3)

It was the result of their being blinded by unbelief.

b)

He pointed out the result of this blindness: Those who are perishing do not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4 b).

c)

He gave his reasons for this view of the veiled gospel (2 Corinthians 4:5-6).

(1)

Based on the message he preached:

(a)

He didn-’t preach himself but Christ Jesus as Lord.

(b)

He was their servant for Jesus-’ sake.

(2)

Based on what God said:

(a)

Let light shine out of darkness.

(b)

God caused light to shine in his heart by revealing His truth.

(c)

This caused him to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

B.

Paul explained the secret of his ability to endure the trials of his ministry (2 Corinthians 4:7-15).

He was but an earthen vessel in which this treasure was carried that it might be evident that the power of his ministry was of God, not of himself (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Death was working in his case that they might have life (2 Corinthians 4:8-12).

a)

He described the trials which he endured in his ministry (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

(1)

Pressed but not straightened.

(2)

Perplexed but not unto despair.

(3)

Pursued but not forsaken.

(4)

Smitten down but not destroyed.

b)

He explained the nature of these trials (2 Corinthians 4:10-12).

(1)

They were like bearing about the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his body.

(2)

He explained that he was delivered to death for Jesus-’ sake that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his mortal flesh.

(3)

This meant that death was working in him, but life in the Corinthians.

His ministry was carried on in the spirit of faith (2 Corinthians 4:13-15).

a)

His faith was like that of the Psalmist who said, I believed, therefore I spoke (2 Corinthians 4:13).

b)

His faith was in God who raised up Christ and would raise him also (2 Corinthians 4:14).

c)

His ministry of faith was for their sakes that the multiplied grace of the many might cause thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.

C.

Paul explained his view of temporal suffering (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

He did not lose courage in face of such suffering.

He thought of them in contrast to things eternal.

a)

They were as light afflictions compared to the weight of eternal glory.

b)

Things that are seen are temporal; things that are unseen are eternal.

Questions

Why did Paul again refer to his ministry at this point?

What merciful thing had God done for Paul in connection with his ministry?

In what way had Paul’s conversion changed his Pharisaical views?

What might this suggest as to the teachers who were disturbing the church at Corinth?

What was Paul’s attitude toward the hardships which he faced?

What were the hidden things of shame which Paul renounced?

What kind of a life had he lived as a Pharisee?

How do the practices of the false teachers in Galatia show what Paul meant by hidden things of shame?

What were some of the crafty, deceitful practices of some of the false teachers in Paul’s day?

What did Paul say to the Ephesian elders about his own relation to the whole counsel of God?

How did Paul seek to commend his ministry?

Why did he speak of the possibility of the gospel being veiled?

Who is the god of this age?

How does he blind the minds of some to the truth of the gospel?

What will ultimately happen to the god of this age and to all who worship him?

On what does belief in Christ rest?

What experience did Jesus have with this kind of blindness?

What is the light of the gospel?

What did Paul mean when he spoke of Christ as the image of God?

What did Jesus say about His relation to the Father?

What did Paul mean when he said, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord?

Why did he speak of himself as their servant?

Why did Paul refer to the fact that God said, Light shall shine out of darkness?

How had God enlightened the heart of Paul? How does he enlighten hearts of others?

What contrasts may be seen between the god of this world and God who sheds light on our minds through the gospel?

What did Paul mean by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

What is the connection between this thought and that of the glory on the face of Moses?

What contrast may this suggest between the message that went forth from Sinai and the gospel that was preached on the Day of Pentecost?

What was the treasure in earthen vessels?

What were the earthen vessels?

What important view of Paul’s ministry does this give?

Why did Paul mention the frailty of the human body at this point?

What experience of Paul had caused him to be pressed on every side, yet not straitened?

How did the failure to find Titus cause him to be perplexed, yet not unto despair?

How did Paul show that the Lord had never forsaken him?

When had he been smitten down, but not destroyed?

In what way was he always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus?

What was the purpose of this?

What did he mean by saying, Death works in us, but life in you?

To what spirit of faith did Paul refer? Why?

Why was Paul cheerful even though he knew that his physical body was wearing out?

With what did he compare his light affliction?

What is the eternal weight of glory?

For Discussion

What can be done to exalt the gospel today when so many are preoccupied with human systems of thought?

How can the unseen glories of heaven be made real to us?

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 1

Machination **(2 Corinthians 4:1-6)

**4 **Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. 5For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

**2 Corinthians 4:1-2 Constraint: **Discouragement is a problem for all Christians, and especially for preachers of the gospel. We have already discussed despair in our comments on 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (see notes there). Any preacher who says he has never been disappointed or discouraged is either lying or he lives a life completely isolated from any confrontations between truth and falsehood and other human beings. Even Jesus registered disappointment. He was angry. and grieved (Mark 3:5) at the blasphemy of the Pharisees; he marveled (actually, was astounded or disappointed) at the unbelief of some Jews (Mark 6:6). Paul certainly had many discouragements (Most prominent was his discouragement at the behavior of these Christians at Corinth!); Paul was also disappointed with the Christians of Galatia (Galatians 1:6; Galatians 4:16; Galatians 5:7, etc.).

The word, Therefore in 2 Corinthians 4:1 connects what he is to say here immediately to what he has said in chapter 3. The primary cause of Paul’s discouragement and disappointment was the hardness and perverseness of the Judaizers, secretly brought in, slipped in to spy out. freedom which we have in Christ Jesus. in Corinth as they had done in Galatia (see Galatians 2:2). What disappointed Paul was the enslavement, the constraint, the circumscription, the blinding of minds that always accompanied the Judaizing of a congregation of Christians. Paul contrasts his ministry with that of the Judaizers in Corinth who were slandering his reputation as one of their methods in seducing the congregation. He says, We (my co-workers and I) have this ministry by the mercy of God.. On the other hand, They have their (the Judaizers) ministry from disgraceful, underhanded ways of cunning and tampering with God’s word.. The very fact that the Corinthians could not recognize the difference between the two was discouraging and disappointing to Paul.

Paul infers that he once was a Judaizer himself, when he says, We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.. He once was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, considered himself blameless as to the law Philippians 3:6 and had persecuted the church of God and had tried to destroy it, because he was convinced Christianity was blasphemy (Galatians 1:13; Acts 9:1-2). At one time in his life Paul gloried in his self-righteousness (Philippians 3:4; Philippians 3:9) and made void the word of God by his traditions. But when he received the grace of God he renounced all that. And he recognized that in his former life he had done disgraceful (Gr. aischunes, shameful, fearful) and underhanded (Gr. krupta, cryptic, secret, hidden) things. He had to practice cunning (Gr. panourgia, literally, all working, or doing anything thus, deceit, subtleness) and he had to tamper with God’s word (Gr. dolountes, to dilute, to water-down, to adulterate) in order to be a Pharisee (see Matthew 15:1-20; Matthew 23:1-39). Paul knew exactly how the Judaizers were deceiving the Corinthians. He knew because he had been one!

Now the Corinthians must be warned. These Judaizers are deceitful workmen (2 Corinthians 11:13); they conduct their work secretly (Galatians 2:4); they adulterate the word of God by their traditions (Matthew 15:6). The necessary consequence of adopting legalism as a way of justification is watering down the word of the gospel. By suggesting that Christians voluntarily come under the law or Pharisaic traditions the Judaizers would have to dilute the spiritual obligation of the Christian to go beyond the law (as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, and as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 1 Corinthians 9:1-27; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33), in his devotion and obedience toward God. This is always the way of legalistic living. Those who preach legalism think they are making godliness more certain, when, as a matter of fact, they are diluting the power of godliness. Legalism always creates self-righteousness and that is a drastic dilution of total righteousness imputed to believers through the grace of Christ. It is true that man needs divine guidelines and principles to help him determine what the will of the Lord is for a life of holiness under grace, but these guidelines and principles must never be perverted into legalism as a means of justification.

As Applebury points out, There are various ways to use the word of God deceitfully, or to tamper with it. Using a Bible text to preach a -sermon-’ that has little or nothing to do with the Bible is one of the common ways of doing it. Teaching it accurately, but refusing to live by it is equally deceitful. (see our notes on 2 Corinthians 2:17 for comments on peddlers of God’s word).

We usually think of watering down God’s word as an exclusive practice of liberal-minded theologians who deny the supernatural element of the scriptures, or the moral absoluteness of Christianity. Legalists always think of themselves as protecting the word of God from being adulterated. But Paul is talking about the legalists watering down God’s word! The Greek phrase, pros pasan suneidesin anthropon, could well be translated, … to every kind of consciousness of men.. Paul continually commended (Gr. sunistanontes, present tense verb, standing-with) himself to all men by his open statement of (Gr. phanerosei, manifestation of) the truth (the gospel). He openly stated the gospel to every consciousness of men; he made his appeals for their loyalty to God to every kind of judgment that men useto logic, to gratitude, to feeling, to scriptures, to common sense. He was underhanded with no one!

While Paul was discouraged and disappointed that the Judaizers were using disgraceful and underhanded ways and tampering with the word of God; and while he was disappointed that some of the Corinthians had been robbed of their freedom by these legalists, Paul did not lose heart. He did not cave in and give up his ministry. He had confidence in the gospel stated openly and clearly. He knew the seed (the gospel, Luke 8:11; Mark 4:14) had the power in itself (Mark 4:26-29) to accomplish that for which God sends it (Isaiah 55:10-11). Paul knew that the matter of sowing seed required patience, humility and faith on the part of the sower. He knew that the seed grows slowly, and in divine orderfirst the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. He did not lose heart. He knew that even if three-fourths of the seed fell on unproductive soil in Corinth he would be judged by Christ only on his faithfulness to sow the seed and not on his success in making the seed grow and mature. The responsibility for germination, and growth, lies with the soil and the seednot the sower! DO NOT LOSE HEART, PREACHER.

**2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Confounding: **Of all the machinations of the legalists, their league with the devil to blind the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel is the most insidious. The scriptural, spiritual blindness of so many is one of the most discouraging things a preacher of the gospel must face.

In spite of his open statement of the truth, Paul acknowledges that the gospel truth had not won universal acceptance. Some, even of the Corinthians, had been blinded to it. The Greek work kekalummenon is the perfect tense participle of a verb we have already seen in 2 Corinthians 3:13-14, and signifies here that the gospel had been previously veiled and continued to be veiled in the minds of these unbelievers. The perfect tense participle kekalummenon is used in both instances in 2 Corinthians 4:4. This definitely connects the subjects of chapter three to the subjects of chapter four. The veil was Judiastic legalism and it had been accomplished by the Judaizers long before Paul wrote this letter and it was continuing.

The gospel is veiled to those perishing (Gr. apollumenois, present tense participle of apollumi, to kill, to utterly destroy, to bring to nothing). They were in a continual state of perishing. Legalism as a means of justification is condemning. The legalist is under the judgment of God because he seeks to be justified by law, while the Scriptures unequivocally say, By the law shall no flesh be justified (Galatians 2:16).

The scheme by which the devil (working through legalists) brings about the destruction of the unwary is blinding the minds of the unbelievers. Legalism (the system of justification by works of the law) blinds and veils the minds of those who do not believe in justification by the free gift of God’s mercy apart from the law. The Greek word etuphlosen is translated blinded and comes from the root word tuph which means, to burn, or, to smoke. It is used metaphorically of the dulling of the intellect (John 12:41; 1 John 2:11). Paul says the god of this world puts up a smoke-screen which bedazzles the unbeliever’s mind.

The phrase, this world, is a translation of the Greek words tou aionos. This does not mean the devil is ruler of creation. Jehovah God is the absolute Sovereign of all creationincluding the devil. There is no religious dualism taught in the Bible. There is no Biblical doctrine of two eternal, coexisting deities, one evil and one good, engaged in a showdown for supremacy over human life. Such supernatural dualism is Zoroastrianism (Persian religion) and not Biblical. God alone is God. Satan, however, has usurped the place which God should have in some minds and deeds. Jehovah rules the world. The devil is only the pretended ruler (see Jeremiah 27:5-11; Psalms 50:10-15; Daniel 2:21-22; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17; John 12:31; John 16:11). Jesus was able to order demons (colleagues of the devil) to do anything he wanted them to do. He cast demons out of people; sent them back to the abyss; gave them permission to inhabit swine. Jesus even commanded the devil to leave him after his temptation, and the devil obeyed. The devil is referred to as a god in the Bible because some people have been seduced by him into believing they can be justified by works of lawlegalism. This is a deception by the devil. God never intended his law for justification. By this deception the devil has blinded their minds and brought them under his influence.

The phrase this world. means, this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). It means, a worldly-mentality, a fleshly orientation (see Ephesians 2:1-3,etc.). Satan is the prince of the spirit of disobedience and rebellion against God. He is the leader, the first rebel, and totally opposed to the mind of the Spirit. Out of Satan’s obsession for everything hateful, hurtful and hellish, he seeks to influence every human being he can to surrender to his wicked influence. Satan wants to rule, and pretends to rule, but he also knows he is subject to the sovereignty of God (see our comments on Revelation 12:12, in 26 Lessons on Revelation, pub. College Press). The devil is the leader (god) of rebellion against Almighty God, but he is not the ruler of anything or anyone. The devil is not even the ruler of hell. Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone along with every other rebel sinner and will suffer torment just like the others. Jehovah-God, through the Lamb, Jesus Christ, rules as Absolute Sovereign forever. He, alone, is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. He alone has the keys of Death and Hades. Of course, the devil has the major portion of the world deceived into believing that evil rules this world and will triumphthat truth and goodness has been subjected to wickedness and injustice. But the incarnation of God (Jesus Christ) and his resurrection from the dead proves just the opposite. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is precisely that light of the gospel of the glory of Christ upon which the devil focuses his most intense deception. If he can blind the minds of unbelievers as to the reality of the resurrection of Christ, he can keep them from seeing the sovereignty of God and Christ and thus seduce them into thinking he is the god of this world.

**2 Corinthians 4:5-6 Conceitedness: **A discouraging and disappointing thing to Paul, the preacher, was the conceit of those at Corinth who preached themselves. They were probably Judaizers or some who had been discipled by the Judaizers. The promotion of self was definitely a characteristic of legalism (see Galatians 6:11-16). Self-glorification is the very essence of legalism. Thinking oneself to be justified by works of the law is always accompanied by conceit, pride, hypocrisy and arrogance.

The people stirring up trouble and attacking the reputation of Paul in Corinth, whether Judaizers or not, were preaching themselves. They were comparing themselves and measuring themselves with one another instead of Christ, the perfect standard, and were, as Paul says, without understanding: (2 Corinthians 10:12).

Paul preached nothing of himself among the Corinthians. He always preached Jesus Christ as Lord, and apostles as servants (Gr. doulous, bond-slave) for the sake of Christ. Jesus was Lord, apostles were slaves serving every command of Jesus. That is the way Paul preached and lived. The Corinthian Christians could not deny that! Paul never measured himself by other human beings, nor even by his own standards (see 1 Corinthians 4:1-5). He always measured his ministry and his life by the standard of Godthe perfect Son. That is why Paul was always thinking of himself as a slave for Christ.

This conceit of the Corinthians was the cause of the divisions within the congregation (see 1 Corinthians 1:10 ff). They measured one teacher against another instead of measuring them all against Christ.

Paul always preached Christ Jesus (not himself) because God chose to enlighten the minds of men through the knowledge of Christ. Legalism blinds (because Satan uses it to blind men’s minds); knowledge (intellectual and experiential) of Christ enlightens man about the glory of God, (see John 1:4-5; John 8:12; Acts 26:12-18). God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5-10), but legalism which refuses to admit sin is a lie and is darkness. Conceit is darknessit cannot behold the glory of Godit cannot abide in God.

The Lord Jesus was disappointed and discouraged with the conceit of the self-righteous Pharisees and Jewish rulers which made them so spiritually blind (see Matthew 15:14; Luke 6:39; Matthew 23:16-17; Matthew 23:19; Matthew 23:26; John 9:39-41). Paul rebuked his Jewish brethren for their spiritual blindness (Romans 2:19). Peter warned against spiritual blindness through conceit (1 Peter 1:9). Christ accused a whole church of spiritual blindness because of its arrogance (Revelation 3:17).

The practice of legalism resulting in arrogance and self-righteous comparisons have wreaked havoc within many modern congregations of Christians and caused untold numbers of preachers of the Gospel to become discouraged and quit their ministries.

Applebury’s Comments

Paul’s Response To The Ministry Under The Glorious New Covenant Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not: 2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: 4 in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus-’ sake. 6 Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

*Comments

Therefore seeing we have this ministry.*Paul had just explained his great boldness of speech in connection with his ministry under the New Covenant. This is a continuation of his answer to those who might criticize him for his claim to be adequate for such a ministry.

*even as we obtained mercy.*Paul had already made it clear that his sufficiency for this ministry was from God. He did not hesitate to admit that in himself he had no right to make such claims, for he remembered his former attitude toward Christ and his church. As he wrote to Timothy about the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which had been committed to his trust, he reminded him that Christ had counted him faithful and had appointed him to His service. This was in spite of the fact that once he had been a blasphemer and a persecutor and an injurious person. He had readily admitted to the Corinthians that he was the least of the apostles, not even worthy to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the church of God. See 1 Corinthians 15:9. But he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. See 1 Timothy 1:11-14. God’s mercy had brought him pardon; his sins had been washed away by the blood of Christ at the time of his baptism. See Acts 22:16. Although Paul had been a Pharisee, his humility as a Christian reminds us of the publican who prayed, Be merciful to me the sinner (Luke 18:13). Paul may have had in mind those arrogant false teachers who were troubling the church at Corinth, suggesting that they, too, should have called upon God for mercy.

*we faint not.*Paul’s humility is matched by his courageous faith and confidence in the Lord. He was like David who, after he had slain the lion and the bear, fearlessly faced the giant Philistine who had been defying the army of Israel. Like David, Paul also came in the name of the Lord. He refused to act the part of a coward as he faced the hardships of this glorious ministry. Neither was he frightened by the derogatory slander of the false teachers at Corinth.

*we have renounced the hidden things of shame.*While renounce may have the sense of give up, it is doubtful that this would be true in Paul’s case.

As to the righteousness which is in the Law, Paul declared that he had been found blameless. See Philippians 3:6. This reminds us of the Rich Young Ruler who said to Jesus that he had observed all the commandments from his youth. See Luke 18:21. But he had failed to keep the first commandment which said, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Paul freely admitted, however, that before he had become a Christian he had been guilty of covetousness. Sin had dwelt in him, dominating his life and leading him to do many things he hated. See Romans 7:7-20. But he had been released from the tyranny of that master when he became obedient to Christ the Lord. See Romans 6:17-18.

Renounce also means to refuse. Even as a Pharisee, it is doubtful if Paul ever resorted to the shameful practices which he condemns in this context. But certain Judaizing teachers who had been disturbing the churches were guilty of them. Paul categorized the corrupt teachers who had been disrupting the Galatian churches as false brethren, privily brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Jesus Christ, that they might bring us into bondage (Galatians 2:4).

It is true also that Paul had persecuted the church of God and had tried to destroy it, because he was convinced that it was wrong. See Galatians 1:13. Breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord he had traveled even to Damascus hunting them down. He had obtained letters from the high priest giving him authority to arrest any whom he might find that were of the Way, men or women, and bring them bound to Jerusalem. See Acts 9:1-2.

Whatever these hidden things of shame were, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul refused to become involved in them. He gave full notice to all that he would not stoop to such practices in order to gain power over his fellowmen.

*not working in craftiness.*This is a reference to the methods of those who indulged in the hidden things of shame. See Ephesians 5:12. Some of them would do anything to accomplish their own selfish ends, even if it meant handling the Word of God deceitfully. Paul had already mentioned those who were making merchandise of the Word of God. As a fisherman uses a lure to attract the unsuspecting fish, so the false teacher used deceit in order to capture his victim. Paul, however, had said to the Ephesian elders: I am pure from the blood of all men, for I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27).

There are various ways to use the Word of God deceitfully. Using a Bible text to preach a sermon that has little or nothing to do with the Bible is one of the common ways of doing it. Teaching it accurately, but refusing to live by it is equally deceitful. Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for this very thing. See Matthew 23:1-2. Paul wrote about some of the Jews who were doing the same thing, saying, for this reason the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you (Romans 2:23).

Both Jesus and Paul demonstrated the proper use of the Scriptures. In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Himself. When He had finished reading He explained the meaning of the prophecy to the people. They wondered at the gracious words which He spoke. See Luke 4:16-21. Paul told Timothy that the inspired Scriptures were profitable for teaching, correction, instruction in righteousness, and that they completely equip the man of God for every good work. See 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Paul insisted on proclaiming the truth of God’s Word and letting that truth be seen in his life. See Galatians 2:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:1.

*commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.*Paul’s ministry was out in the open so that every man could see and know the truth for which he stood. And this is the thing that commended him to them. He was aware of the fact that as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ all that he said and did was done in the sight of God.

*even if our gospel is veiled.*He was, no doubt, anticipating the reaction to his remarks about the veil that lies upon those who hear the Law of Moses read. He frankly admitted that the gospel is veiled in the case of those who were perishing. They were perishing because they had failed to turn to the Lord who is revealed in the glorious New Covenant. The message of the gospel is about eternal life and also about eternal death. To reject the message of the Lord is to perish.

*in whom the god of this world.*Satan is properly called the god of this age because he is worshipped by those who are perishing. Of course, there is only one true God, the Father, and one true Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. See 1 Corinthians 8:6. When Gentile sacrificed to idols, Paul said that they were sacrificing to demons and not to God. Idolatry was demon worship. Satan is known as the prince of demons. See Matthew 12:44. Satan even dared to challenge the Son of God to fall down and worship him, offering to give Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would do so. See Matthew 4:8. Jesus made it clear that no one can serve two masters. He said, You cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13). Satan can be called the god of this age because of the time limit that is imposed upon his activities. At the close of this age, the devil will be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone where are also the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. See Revelation 20:10.

Christ conquered Satan at the cross and provided the means whereby His followers may also overcome him, that is, by the blood of the Lamb, the Word of their testimony, and their dedication to the Lord that is indicated by the fact that they love not their lives even unto death. See Revelation 12:11 and Hebrews 2:14.

*blinded the minds of the unbelieving.*Belief in Christ rests solidly on the evidence of His resurrection. See Romans 10:9-10. The sheer weight of that evidence compelled the apostles who had investigated every phase of it to believe that God had raised Jesus from the dead. The inspired writers have left us a reliable record of the evidence of that greatest fact of history.

Paul knew that many were blind because they did not want to believe. They were satisfied with the Old Covenant and proud of their own righteousness.

Jesus had found this same blindness among the people of His day. They did not understand what He said because they did not hear what He was really saying. Why? Because they were intent on doing the evil which their father, the devil, was suggesting to them. He was a liar and the father of liars. His offspring were not interested in the truth which the Son of God spoke. See John 8:42-46.

*that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.*Unbelief had closed the minds of those who were perishing. They would not permit the knowledge of the gospel which tells of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to enlighten their darkened minds. They loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19).

*who is the image of God.*Paul pointed out the seriousness of this blindness. To reject Christ is to reject God, for He is the image of God, that is, the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). John, also, says that No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1:18). Thus both John and Paul emphatically state their belief in the deity of Jesus. John says that the Word was God (John 1:1), and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

The Gospel of John unfolds the story of the Father as He is seen in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus declared, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). He also said no one cometh unto the Father but by me (John 14:6). When Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us, Jesus answered, Have I been so long time with you, and do you not know me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14:8-9). Indeed, if they had recognized Him, they would have known the Father. See John 14:7. The writer of Hebrews indicates that the Son is the exact representation of God. See Hebrews 1:3. The veil of unbelief prevented many from seeing this truth.

Paul declared that in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). The most complete explanation of this profound truth of Christianity is found in Philippians 2:5-11. His deity and humanity are presented by Paul in terms similar to those used by John in his Gospel and his first epistle. See John 1:1-8 and 1 John 1:1-4.

*for we preach not ourselves.*In no way did Paul preach himself. He always preached Christ Jesus as Lord. He was merely the agent through whom the knowledge of Christ had been made known in every place. He had no lordship over their faith; his task was to help them in their joyous relationship to the Lord.

Of himself he could say, I am your servant for Jesus-’ sake. In so doing he was following the standard which the Lord had set for all who would serve Him. Whosoever would be first among you, He said, let him be servant of all. The Son of Man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for the many. See Mark 10:44-45.

This attitude was the opposite of that of the false teachers who were troubling the Corinthians, for they were commending themselves and measuring themselves by their own standards. See 2 Corinthians 10:12.

*Seeing that it is God.*This is Paul’s reason for preaching Christ. In contrast to what he had said about the god of this world who had blinded the minds of the unbelieving, Paul declared that it was God who caused light to shine out of darkness and who had shined in his heart to give the enlightenment that comes from the knowledge about the glory of God as it is seen in the face of Jesus. He wrote to the Galatians to say that God had revealed His Son in him that he might preach Him among the Gentiles. See Galatians 1:16.

Several contrasts are seen in these verses: (1) The god of this age is contrasted with God who created the world. (2) The blinded minds of the unbelievers are contrasted with the enlightened heart of Paul as a believer in Christ. (3) Unbelief which prevented the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ from dawning on the darkened minds is contrasted with the faith of the opened heart that allows the enlightenment that comes from the knowledge of the glory of God which is seen in the face of Christ to shine. The shining brilliance on the face of Moses suggests the thought of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Moses-’ face shone as he spoke to Israel the message which God had given him. Christ is the One through whom God revealed His gospel to the apostles, and they preached Christ Jesus as Lord for the salvation of the believer.

Paul had been permitted to see the brilliant light and to hear the voice of Christ when He commissioned him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. See Acts 26:12-18. Jesus told him that through his preaching the Gentiles were to open their eyes, that they might turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ.

Since Paul has been discussing the Old Covenant in contrast to the New, it might be well to recall what the writer of Hebrews said about the mountain from which God spoke to Israel. That mountain burned with fire and unto blackness and darkness, and tempest and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which they that heard entreated that no more should be spoken unto them (Hebrews 12:18-19). The message that came from Mount Zion, however, brought the good news of remission of sins that had been promised to all believers from the time of Abraham. See Galatians 3:6-14; Isaiah 2:1-4.

John wrote of Christ saying In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not (John 1:4-5). Jesus said, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12). All this seems to say the same thing that Paul did when he spoke of the enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:7-15

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 2

Mortality **(2 Corinthians 4:7-15)

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus-’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.

**2 Corinthians 4:7 Of The Dust: **The servants of the Lord have their treasure (the glory of God in the Spirit of Christ) in earthen vessels. The Greek word ostrakinois is translated earthen and is the word from which we get the English word ostraca (inscribed potsherds)a word familiar to archaeologists. The Greek word skeuesin is the regular word for vessel.

Paul is reminding the Corinthians of the mortality of human beings, even of apostles, for the purpose of puncturing the inflated egos of the Judaizers in their midst. Human mortality is a stark reality that often produces moments of discouragement and depression for all preachers of the Gospel. The Judaizers were proud of themselves. They gloried in their own greatness (self-righteousness). The apostle states a truth that all human beings should remember constantly man is as frail as the dust from which his earthly body is made. He is worthless when compared with the treasure he holdsthe glory of Christ. This constant fact demonstrates that the power available to man through Christ in him transcends anything of which he is mortally capable. The gospel transforms the very being of man. It regenerates and renews him. He sees nothing from a human point of view after the gospel has been received in his heart and mind. He has a divine perspective (see 2 Corinthians 5:16 ff). He has hope, faith, and power to overcome wickedness. But he has all this in an earthen vessel that is dying, wasting away. So he knows the power does not come from himself. Legalism, on the other hand, has only self-righteousness and is powerless because it is self-condemning. It has only the earthen vessel to glory in and aggrandizeand that is manifestly futile!

If Christians did not have the precious promises of God’s grace through the Spirit of Christ, the fact of their mortality would be depressing and unbearable. There are still moments, in every Christian’s life (even of apostles) if they are honest, that their mortality is discouraging and depressing. Only by resting in the hope of eternal life in heaven is such depression overcome. The grace of God is the treasure believer’s hold in earthen vessels.

**2 Corinthians 4:8-10 Often Downtrodden: **Paul, and his co-workers in the Gospel were continually, and in every way, pressured. The Greek word thlihomenoi is translated afflicted but means pressed, compressed, squeezed. In addition to all the emotional and mental pressures brought to bear upon Paul from his enemies, there was his constant anxiety (Gr. merimna, care, 2 Corinthians 11:28) for the churches, and for individual brothers-in-Christ. There is tremendous pressure upon the emotions and mind of any person in the ministry. The constant carping and criticism most preachers and missionaries have to endure just from church members is enough to cause ministerial burn-out. Couple criticism with the miserly financial remuneration most full-time gospel workers are often grudgingly allotted, no wonder that many of them pursue other vocations for the spiritual and physical survival of their families. Many faithful preachers struggle mightily under pressure, refusing to follow personal inclinations to quit the ministry while they watch their own children rebel against the church, destroy their own marriages, and occasionally suffer untimely heart-attacks or other diseases which cripple them in the prime of life.

Perhaps part of the fault for ministerial burn-out may be attributed to a lack of commitment or lack of faith on the part of the preachers. But the churches must bear part of the blame for this tragedy, too, just as the congregation at Corinth was part of the reason for the constant pressure experienced by the great apostle Paul. Although Paul literally experienced the pressures of the ministry, he never considered himself crushed. Actually, the Greek word is stenochoroumenoi and means, crowded into a narrow place. We get our English word stenography from the two Greek words, steno and graphe, meaning, shortened writing. It is impossible to eliminate pressure in the ministry. It will never cease this side of Glory. But it is possible for ministers to endure pressure until the Lord calls them home. Paul learned to be content in whatever state he found himself (Philippians 4:10-13). He cast all his cares upon the grace of God and found that when he was weakest, he was strongest (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Paul rested in the fact that while God allows men to be tested under pressure, God also provides a way of escape so that no man is tested beyond what he is able to endure (1 Corinthians 10:13). Let no preacher think he is tested or pressured where no other preacher has ever been pressured, or that he cannot endure it.

Next, Paul declares he has been perplexed (Gr. aporoumenoi, from two Greek words, a privative, and poros, a way, meaning literally, deprived of a way, or without means), but not despairing (Gr. exaporoumenoi, a compound of the previous word aporoumenoi, this time with the prefix, ex, out from attached). Paul is saying there were times when he was perplexed but he always came out from his perplexity. Barclay paraphrases, We are at our wit’s end, but never at our hope’s end. Indeed, every minister of the gospel has experienced perplexity, puzzlement, confusion and perhaps doubt. And he gets discouraged. He sometimes blames himself, sometimes he blames others. Occasionally he burdens himself with guilt because he believes that he, as a spiritual leader of God’s flock, should never experience confusion or doubt. But the preacher (and every Christian), even though experiencing times when he does not know what is to be done, can be faithful to Christ never doubting that something can be done, and will be done, ultimately by the Lord to serve his glorious purpose. Even Jesus experienced perplexity and a troubled soul (John 11:33; John 12:27; Matthew 26:38; Luke 12:50). But Jesus endured it (did not resolve it) by resigning himself to the care of God’s blessed will (… nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.).

The next statement is: persecuted but not forsaken; (Gr. diokomenoi all-’ ouk egkataleipomenoi). Diokomenoi may be translated, pursued. That is what a persecutor doespursues in order to catch and abuse or destroy. The Pharisees pursued Jesus like a pack of hounds. The Jews pursued Paul from city to city trying to destroy him and his ministry. Persecutors never give up, they stay hot on the trail of their victim. Egkataleipomenoi is an intense form of the word which means to leave behind. Jesus used this word on the cross when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? While God forsook Jesus, punishing all sin in him, God will never forsake the minister of the gospel or any other Christian because of Christ’s gracious death in their place. It is a real temptation for any servant of the Lord who is persecuted for his loyalty to Jesus to despair and consider himself abandoned by the Lord. Elijah, hounded by Jezebel, believed he was all alone because God had not come down in a whirlwind or fire (1 Kings 19:1-21). Jesus has promised that he will not leave us desolate (John 14:18, Gr. orphanous, orphans). Jesus has promised that he will be with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). The question, when we are being hounded by the persecutors, is: DO WE BELIEVE HIM. DO WE TRUST HIM?

The apostle’s last phrase in this quadruplet is poignant with allusion to boxing in the Greek games. Paul says, … struck down but not destroyed (Gr. katahalloumenoi all-’ ouk apollumenoi). J.B. Phillips translates, … we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! That is a good translation. Barclay says, The supreme characteristic of the Christian is not that he does not fall, but that every time he falls he rises again. It is not that he is never beaten, but he is never ultimately defeated. He may lose a battle, but he knows that in the end he can never lose the campaign. Paul, himself, was knocked down many times, but never knocked out. And when he was in prison, apparently facing the executioner’s axe, he eagerly anticipated the ultimate victorythe crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

This is the only recourse for the knocked down minister of the gospel today. There are no quick fixes or sure-fire defenses against being knocked down if one takes up full-time service in the vineyard of the Lord. There is only the assurance that there will be knock-downs, bumps, bruises, persecutions (see Mark 10:30; Matthew 20:22-23; John 15:18-21; 2 Timothy 3:12). Life is full of defeats for every Christian (and especially preachers) just as well as for non-Christians, but the Christian hopes in the blessed assurance of Christ’s word that finally, and eternally, he will have nothing but victory in the next life. That is a hope the non-Christian does not have. The Bible promises the unbeliever an existence in the next life of eternal defeat! The eternal destiny of the unbeliever is to be crushed, despairing, forsaken, destroyedjust the opposite of Paul’s hope.

Finally, the Christian minister, as Paul states, may be tempted to despair because he has covenanted with Christ to always carry in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested.. Paul is not talking about the physical death of Jesus here. No man, not even Paul, may duplicate in his body the substitutionary, atoning death of Jesus on the cross. Paul is talking about the death to self that Jesus accomplished in the flesh on earth in total surrender to the will of God. Paul states the idea clearly in Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14. Paul discusses it at length in Romans, Chapter s 6 through 8. Jesus demanded it of those who would follow him (Matthew 10:38-39; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 14:25-33; Luke 17:33). Jesus demonstrated it in his every action, but especially in his willingness to put self to death and go to the cross (see John 12:27; Matthew 26:36-39). For the finest discussion of this in writing today, see Learning From Jesus, by Seth Wilson, chapter XVI, New Life Through Accepting Jesus-’ Death. pg. 495, pub. College Press.

Paul is talking about bearing about (Gr. peripherontes) in his life (body) the same surrender of self (death to self) demonstrated by Jesus. Paul was eager to share (participate) in his (Christ’S) sufferings (Philippians 3:10-11), and become like him (Christ) in his death, in order to attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul died every day! (1 Corinthians 15:31). By all this Paul did not mean, of course, the kind of death Jesus dies on the cross, which only Jesus, exclusively, could die. Paul meant the kind of death Jesus died every day to self.

One of the reasons the preacher sometimes despairs in his daily crucifixion of self, is the seeming injustice and unfairness in such constant abnegation. He often questions, Will my sacrifice of self ever be vindicated? Will it ever be rewarded with something besides the exploitation I experience on this earth? Jesus, the Messiah, experienced the same depression (see Isaiah 49:1-7; Isaiah 50:4-8; Isaiah 53:1-12)! But God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead!

The only way the preacher and the Christian manifests the life of Jesus while he is dying to self in this mortal body is by his faith in the word of God as he trusts it and obeys it. There is no physical, material way for mortal man to manifest eternal life which Jesus manifested in his physical resurrection. No one has risen from the dead since Jesus (and those resurrections performed by the apostles). Not one of the apostles literally, physically arose from the dead. Paul, then, is talking about a manifestation of faith in obedience to God’s word. That is how we manifest the life of Jesusin dying to self!

**2 Corinthians 4:11-12 Obviously Dying: **Paul says, while we live (not after we die, but while we live) we are always being given up to death for Jesus sake. In 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul spoke of the death the Christian chooses when he decides to follow Jesus. It is the self-surrender made by deliberate, free choice of the individual. In 2 Corinthians 4:11 Paul tells us God also places us in circumstances where we have to die whether we like it or not. The Greek verb paradidometha (being given up) is passive!

Everyone experiences, sooner or later, situations in which no matter how much they want to exalt self they cannot. God knows how to give us all thorns in the flesh to keep us from being too elated (2 Corinthians 12:7 ff). That is exactly where God wants every person, occasionally, because out of such situations and experiences God is slaying the sinful self so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortality.

And, as Paul said of his dying. others are perhaps being given life because of the death to self we are dying (2 Corinthians 4:12). We must die (spiritually), not only in order that we may live, but that others may live also! Our death to self must be obvious so that others may see and glorify God in their own lives. God in his providential disciplining offers us ways and means to make that death obvious. But it takes strong faith to accept the ways and means! It seemed to Paul that he was always being slain by God (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; 2 Corinthians 11:22-33; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10). The Greek work energeitai, present tense, middle voice, means, death is operating, or being energized, in the Christian as he daily dies to self.

The death of self is not easy. Christ never pretended following him would be without pressure, persecution and provocation. The way of self-surrender is narrow and difficult (Matthew 7:14; Matthew 19:24). But look what happens!

In 2 Corinthians 4:13 Paul quotes from Psalms 116:10. That entire Psalm should be read to get the benefit of the context. The Psalmist declares by faith that the trials and pressures he is going through are going to have some effect and impact in his surroundings. He cannot see it yet, but he says it is going to be true because God has promised it. Paul affirms that since Christians have the same spirit of faith as the Psalmist, they may believe just as surely that their dying to self will produce the same praise for God and his Son in the life of the believer and in others to whom it is obvious.

2 Corinthians 4:14 is one of the most precious promises in the New Testament. On the basis of the historical, actual, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the believer may anticipate being presented by Jesus to God the Father. Our resurrection and ushering into the presence of our gracious Heavenly Father is dependent upon Jesus-’ atoning redemption and justifying resurrection. He is the first fruits of our glorification (1 Corinthians 15:20 ff). Peter wrote that Christ died for us that he might present us to God (1 Peter 3:18). And Paul wrote, And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has not reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him (Colossians 1:21-22).

If we die to self through faith in Jesus, because of his resurrection, it will be obvious, and it will be not only for our sake but for the sake of all others who know us. And as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. Has anyone thanked God lately, because they know you have died to self through the grace of Christ?

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

Applebury’s Comments

Paul’s View Of His Ministry Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:7-18. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; 8 we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; 9 pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; 10 always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus-’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak; 14 knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.

16 Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

*Comments

But we have this treasure.*Paul’s ministry as an apostle in connection with the New Covenant had been obtained through the mercy of God. He, therefore, did not hesitate to declare that he was in no way shrinking from the responsibilities involved in it. To him, it was a privilege to proclaim the gospel of the glory of Christ, for it is this gospel that gives enlightenment to the believer as he comes to know about the glory of God as it is seen in the Person of Christ. This gospel message is the treasure in such earthen vessels as the apostles. God had committed it to them as a trust. See 1 Timothy 1:11.

Paul wrote to Timothy telling him to guard that which had been committed to himthe gospel which was the precious treasure which had been given to him in trust for safe keepingurging him to turn away from profane bablings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith (1 Timothy 6:20-21). The human being is indeed a fragile vessel in which to entrust the precious message of eternal life, but such is the confidence that God had in Paul and others who dedicate themselves to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said to Timothy, The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).

*the power may be of God and not from ourselves.*This is the secret of Paul’s ministry. The power of his message was not in himself but in God. He had written to the Corinthians in the first letter saying, I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of men’s wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Corinthians 2:4). To the Romans he wrote, For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).

Paul’s enemies at Corinth were evidently proud of their personal appearance, their ability as orators, and their power to persuade the Corinthians to believe them rather than the gospel which Paul had preached. Paul did not bother to defend himself against their insinuations that his bodily presence was weak. He took it as an occasion to point out that his power was from God, not from himself. This power could be seen in the miracles which the apostles performed. The miracles demonstrated that their message came from God. Its effect had been seen in the transformed lives of those whose sins had been washed away by the blood of Christ. They were living a life of separation from sin and dedication to the service of God. They had been pardoned in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God. See 1 Corinthians 5:11.

There was another side to this ministry that had to do with life and death. It was that of human frailty facing the hardships of this ministry, facing them in such a manner that the power of God might be seen in His servants. Paul pointed out five examples of this human weakness. In none of them was he preaching about himself, for his faith and hope were in God throughout all his trials. The first four examples present contrasts between the hardships he faced and the relief that always came. The last explains his attitude toward all the hardships which he suffered in preaching the gospel.

*pressed on every side, yet not straitened.*This begins the list of physical hardships which Paul suffered in his ministry. He had been in tight places, but always found the way out. The not at Ephesus is a good example. See Acts 19:23-41. The town clerk quieted the mob that would have destroyed Paul and made it possible for him, after having exhorted the disciples, to go on to Macedonia. The arrest in Jerusalem was another tight spot in which Paul was saved from the violence of the angry crowd by the Roman soldiers that policed the temple area. See Acts 21:35. The pressures of his ministry finally resulted in his imprisonment. On the night following his arrest in Jerusalem, the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, for as thou hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome (Acts 23:11).

*perplexed, yet not unto despair.*The difficulties involved in communication between himself and the Corinthian church left him at his wits end. He was eager to help them and to prevent the false teachers from making havoc of the church of God. But he did not despair; he took the necessary action that finally led him to Macedonia where he found Titus and learned about the situation at Corinth.

*pursued, yet not forsaken.*Paul’s enemies pursued him wherever he went; but he was never left in the lurch, for the Lord was always with him. His enemies pursued him until they succeeded in having him arrested, but this led to his being sent to Rome where he presented his caseactually, the case for the gospelbefore Caesar. In the stormy crossing of the sea that threatened the lives of all on board the ship, an angel of God said to Paul, Fear not, Paul, thou must stand before Caesar. And lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee (Acts 27:23-24). In the trial that followed, when all other had forsaken him, the Lord stood by Paul. See 2 Timothy 4:17. Out of confidence of victory, Paul wrote this message to Timothy, Be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at the last day; and not to me only, but to all that have loved the Lord’s appearing (2 Timothy 4:5-8).

*smitten down, yet not destroyed.*Paul knew what it meant to be struck down like a soldier on the battle field. At Lystra the enemy stoned him and dragged him out of the city thinking that he was dead. But as the disciples stood around him he rose up and entered into the city, and on the next day went on to Derbe. See Acts 14:19-20.

*always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus.*The Jews were constantly seeking to kill Jesus. See John 5:18; John 7:1. When they could not meet the logic of His wisdom in open debate, they took up stones to cast at Him. See John 8:59; John 10:31. They would have done it too, except for the fact that it was not His hour to die. He had the right to lay down His life and the right to take it again. See John 10:18; John 7:30. But they were determined to put Him to death; their only problem was how to get it done. Judas gave them the opportunity they had been looking for when he offered to betray Him into their hands. Their charge of blasphemy on which they agreed that He was worthy of death meant nothing to Pilate, and they knew it. Therefore they brought such charges as insurrection against Caesar that they might force the governor to sentence Jesus to die on the Roman cross. But He arose in triumph from the dead and ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25) As an apostle of Christ, Paul was always facing death at the hands of his persecutors. They finally succeeded; but for Paul, death simply meant being absent from the body and at home with the Lord. See also Colossians 1:24 for further information on Paul’s attitude toward suffering for Christ.

*that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.*The life of Jesus is His life which survived the experience of death, for God raised Him up.

*So then death worketh in us, but life in you.*The earthen vessel was subject to death and persecution. But it held the glorious message of eternal life for the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was their servant for the sake of Jesus Christ.

*the same spirit of faith.*Defending his courage to speak even in face of death, Paul turned to the message of Psa 116:8-11 to show that he had the same attitude of faith as the Psalmist who faced the threat of death. Paul’s confidence was in God and in the power of the gospel to save. He knew that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, for he had seen the risen Lord. He was also certain that God would raise him up from the dead and present him to Christ along with the saints at Corinth. See Ephesians 5:25-27.

*For all things are for your sakes.*All that God had done through the Lord Jesus Christ was for the sake of the believer. All that Paul had suffered in order to bring the gospel to them was for their sakes. God’s grace multiplied by the many who were brought to life in Jesus Christ caused thanks to abound unto the glory of God.

*Wherefore we faint not.*Paul declared again his courage to carry on the ministry of the gospel of Christ. He had faced hardships, even death itself, in fulfilling his ministry. He courageously continued on his course knowing death would overtake him some day. He develops this thought beginning in 2 Corinthians 4:16 and continuing through 2 Corinthians 5:10.

*our outward man is decaying.*By outward man Paul meant the physical body in which he had endured so many hardships. See the list in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28. It leaves us wondering how any man could have endured all this. But it was a different story with the man who lived in that body, that is, the inward man. While the body was subject to death, the inward man was being renewed day by day. Paul said, For which cause I suffer also these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day (2 Timothy 1:12).

*our light affliction.*As we think of the affliction suffered by Paul, we wonder how he could have called it light. It was light as compared to the eternal weight of glory which he anticipated at the close of his faithful ministry. The affliction was for the moment, but the glory will be forever, eternal in the heavens. The afflictions could be seen, but the glory cannot be seen with the physical eye. The things that are not seen, however, are eternal. Paul discusses these things in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.

Summary

Explaining his attitude toward the ministry of the New Covenant, Paul showed why he preached Christ, even though his gospel was obscured in the minds of some. He had obtained this ministry through God’s mercy, not by any merit of his own. He was determined not to act like a fainthearted coward in discharging his obligations to it. He renounced methods and motives not in harmony with the gospel and rested his case on the presentation of the truth. He refused to resort to the secret things that belonged to the shameful practices of false teachers. He did not resort to craftiness, nor did he deceitfully use the gospel. By making the truth clear to his hearers, he commended himself to the consciences of men before God. Paul had said that some were blind to the true nature of the Old Covenant, and he readily admitted that the gospel might be obscured in the minds of those who were blinded by the god of this age. The sin of unbelief kept the glorious light of the gospel from dawning oh them. Even so, Paul was determined not to preach himself, but Christ Jesus as Lord. He was their servant for Jesus-’ sake. God caused the light of the knowledge of His glory to shine through the preaching of the apostle that it might bring enlightenment to the believer. This gospel was like a precious treasure which God kept in earthen vesselshis apostles and preachers of the Word. Paul trusted, not in -himself, but in God for strength to endure the hardships of his ministry. He was hard pressed, but not to the extent that he could not move. He was perplexed, but never gave up. He was pursued by men, but never forsaken by God. He was struck down, but never left to die until his time to go home to be with the Lord. Paul, just as Jesus had done, faced death constantly at the hands of his persecutors. But he was delivered from death that he might continue to tell of the risen Lord, for this meant life for the Corinthians who believed. As the Psalmist believed in God who delivered him from death, so Paul also believed that God would deliver him. He spoke with boldness and confidence about his hope that God who raised up Jesus would raise him also from the dead and present him in the resurrection with the faithful Corinthians. He reminded them that he had endured all these things for their sakes in order that God’s grace which was multiplied by the many trials through which the faithful go might abound in thanksgiving on their part to the glory of God. Paul was not afraid to face the hardships of his ministry, even the constant danger of death. He knew, of course, that his physical body was wearing out. But this was more than offset by the fact that his inward man was being renewed constantly. These afflictions were a momentary light load as compared to the eternal weight of glory to which he looked after patiently enduring the trials of this life. He did not look at these perils as one who keeps his eyes on things which can be seen, for he was thinking of things that cannot be seen with the physical eye, that is, the things that are eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

**Butler’s Commentary

SECTION 3

Misgivings **(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

**2 Corinthians 4:16 Wasting: **Paul looks back to the statements he made earlier about the life that is available in Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 4:10). This life is verified by the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the basis upon which Paul is able to say, So we do not lose heart. Without this historical basis depression and despair sets in when one contemplates his mortality.

One of the great problems which each of (including preachers) has to face is, I am going to die! Sooner or later, it strikes all of us that our outer nature is wasting away! Infirmity, disease, the death of loved ones or close friends, or even the knowledge of the death of those in our own neighborhoods or communities makes us ever aware that our turn at death is inevitable. We often make concerted effort to sublimate such thoughts, but they keep recurring nevertheless. And even Christians occasionally succumb to depression when contemplating their wasting away. Depression at the contemplation of death was most certainly a temptation to the saints of the Old Testament (see Isaiah 38:9-20; Job 17:1-16, etc.). Almost everyone, if they are completely honest, have moments of misgiving, fear, anxiety and discouragement knowing they must die.

But, says Paul, we need not lost heart. The Greek word Paul used was egkakoumen, from ek and kakos, literally, eviled out. In other words, there is no need for the Christian to be wiped out or completely devastated by the fact of his physical mortality. There are times when even Paul was at the point of despair over his mortality (see 2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 4:9-16). But he always conquered that temptation by remembering the life that was his in Christ Jesus.

The outer nature is, in the Greek text, ho exo hemon anthropos; literally, the outer of us, mankind. Paul is speaking of the humanness or the fleshly part of our beingour mortal bodies. That part is wasting away (Gr. diaphtheiretai, being disabled). Our disabilities prove our mortality.

But while our body is decaying, our inner nature (Gr. ho eso hemon, lit. the inner of us) is being renewed (Gr. anakainoutai, lit. again made different). The Greek word anakainoutai does not mean renewed in the sense of recently, but in the sense of differently. It is best explained in Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 3:18… being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.. This renewal is not something that is determined emotionally or mystically. It is something that may be judged objectively by comparing the transformation that is taking place in our minds and wills and choices as we compare our lives with the life of Jesus Christ documented in the Bible. It is the process of sanctification. We are sanctified by the truth (see John 17:17) John wrote his first epistle to tell Christians that they may know when they are being renewed. John says we know it when we know we are keeping Christ’s commandments. God created us and sent Christ to redeem us in order that we may be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:28-29). And God works that conformity in our lives through disciplining our minds so we set them on the things of the Spirit (see Romans 8:1-25). Thus when our inner man (our spirit) is in agreement with His Spirit (according to His written word), (Romans 8:12-17) we know we are children of God and we know our inner man is being made different (renewed). The experience is not to be judged subjectively, but objectively.

This renewal is not something that only happens at mountain top moments of spirituality. The apostle says it occurs, hemera kai hemera, day after day. It happens in the every-day experiences of life. It takes place during the sufferings of this present time (Romans 8:18). It takes place when we share in his (Christ’S) sufferings (Philippians 3:10-11). It takes place during our earthly chastenings (Hebrews 12:1-17). Even the constant reminder of our wasting away contributes to it. But primarily, it happens in the every-day conformity of our minds and lives to the commandments of the Spirit of God in his word.

**2 Corinthians 4:17 Weariness: **Next Paul mentions the slight momentary affliction. It is slight and momentary, but it is affliction nevertheless! There is a depressing weariness about the constant afflictions reminding us of our wasting away. It haunts us and tires us out as it hounds us every day of our life on earth. It may come in many forms, but it is always there.

Paul was always in a strait betwixt the two (Philippians 1:23) when he contemplated his mortality. The Greek word sunechomai is translated strait in Philippians 1:23. It means, pressed together, pressurized. The thought of departing this life for the next bothered and pressured Paul.

And another pressing problem by all mortals (including preachers)surfaces in this text. What is waiting for me when I die? Most atheistic philosophies answer, Nothing! They believe (they believe because they have no empirical knowledge about after death) human beings perish or cease to exist after death. There is no life beyond death for the atheist. Such belief leads to hedonism (see 1 Corinthians 15:32-34) which leads to immorality and ultimately, to despair. Atheistic unbelief in eternal life has spawned the existential meaninglessness of life in our century which has produced so much despair, depression, civil disobedience, and suicide. (For illustrations, of this, see Special Studies, Evolution; Unscientific & Immoral; Unbelief Is Deliberate; and, God - Fact or Fiction at the end of this chapter.) On the other hand, the common philosophy of Main Street U.S.A. is that in the after-life, anything can happen! The possibilities are so multitudinous you simply live your life and take your choice (or your chances). This view is based on wishful thinking and the delusions of human self-righteousness. It is also kindled by uncertain and controversial experiences of people (perhaps demonic deception) who claim to have died and returned to life. Such experiences are so vague, contradictory and non-verifiable, they are not worth considering genuine. They are based on no objectivityonly the individual’s subjective experience. The resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, was verified objectively and empirically by hundreds of eyewitnesses.

Because of Jesus-’ historically verified resurrection, we believe his claims. We therefore believe the claims of his apostles that what they have written is divine revelation, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, and inerrantly delivered to mankind in human language. What the apostle Paul says about the existence of life after death and the nature of that life is acceptable as a reality. Faith (the Christian faith) is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). The Christian faith in the nature of life after death is based on the teaching of the only man (Jesus Christ) who, as far as history records, has ever clearly, openly, and ultimately survived death. According to the eyewitnessed record of his life, this Jesus not only raised others from the dead, he completely conquered death himself. He sent his apostles to promise a glorious existence for all who believe in him and keep his commandments after the death of their bodies. They are promised paradise with him (see Luke 23:43).

We must never forget, however, that there is a direct tie between the afflictions of our wasting away in this physical life and the glory that is to be ours in the next life. The one is preparing for the other. No matter how great the trial may seem to us, compared with what is coming it is relatively slight. No trial, no pain, no isolation, no heartache, no loneliness, no weakness or failure, no sense of being put aside, is without significance. All of it is playing its part in accomplishing God’s work in our lives and the lives of others. It is building for us an incomparable weight of glory. This one verse (2 Corinthians 4:17) is perhaps the most majestic verse in all the Bible! The hope of the Christian is a glory that has nothing on earth by which it may he compared! Gather together all the fame, riches, power, beauty, glory and capabilities ever experience in all of historyput all this in one huge pile, and it is not even worth comparing with the glory that shall belong to the Christian in the next life! It staggers the imagination! It is beyond human language, beyond human experiencenot even an apostle could find words to describe it (see 2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

The Greek verb katergazetai (is preparing or is achieving, accomplishing, producing, working) describes the action being done by the subject of the sentence which is to parautika elaphron tes thlipseos, the slight momentary affliction. It is the affliction of this present life which is producing for us the eternal weight of glory. The Greek verb katergazetai is present, active, indicative, meaning that the affliction is continuing, is constantly, working or preparing our glory. The preparation (affliction) never ceases so long as we are in this life.

Affliction, trial, testing can never defeat the faithful believer in Christ. God uses it all to work out ultimate good. That which seems bad and undesirable becomes man’s servant through the merciful grace of God. The believer’s afflictions are working an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. That phrase, beyond all comparison, is in the Greek test: huperholen eis huperholen. The phrase might be translated, excessively unto excess. The word huperholen literally means, cast beyond. It is a magnificent sequence of Greek words to express the incomparablethe unimaginable, the incomprehensible. What God has laid up for the faithful believer is inexpressible. It is unsearchable (see Job 5:9; Psalms 145:3; Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:8).

That literary giant, C.S. Lewis, has given perhaps the best human attempt (outside the Scriptures) to describe the eternal weight of glory. beyond all comparison in his book entitled, The Weight of Glory. Lewis says it is fame with God, approval or. appreciation by God. He continues:

… no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child. as its great and undisguised pleasure in being praised. and that is enough to raise our thoughts to what may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and the moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever will also drown her pride.. If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself.. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination (the judgment), shall find approval, shall please God. To please God. to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness. to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his word or a father in a sonit seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. In another paragraph, C.S. Lewis waxes even more eloquently: We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already. You can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much moresomething the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into wordsto be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. (And then he adds these words:) The door on which we have all been knocking all our lives will open at last.

The three apostles, Peter, James and John, were permitted to glimpse a veiled portion of that incomparable glory when they saw Jesus transfigured (Gr. metamorphothe, changed in form) (see Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:29). It will be, as nearly as human language can describe it, somewhat similar to John’s description of the pre-existent Christ (John 1:1-18) and the risen, glorified Christ (Revelation 1:12-16; Revelation 5:14-14; Revelation 19:11-16). Peter describes his experience of Christ’s transfiguration from mortality to immortality in 2 Peter 1:16-21. Paul describes what he experienced of the glory of Christ in Acts 9:3-9 - Acts 22:6-11; Acts 26:12-15; 2 Corinthians 12:2-4). And even those fall short. For our eternal weight of glory is, by definition, beyond comparison, outside human experience. All intelligible descriptions of it, however, must be of things within our experienceand all the while we must believe it is beyond that. If Heaven could tell me no more of my future glory than my own experience in this life would lead me to expect, then Heaven would be no higher and greater than my experience and no greater than this creation. But it is higher and greater. And that I trust on the word of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. And that is Paul’s next point. There is a weariness while we suffer this slight momentary affliction. But we must not lose heart. We must believe that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

**2 Corinthians 4:18 Wistfulness: **One of the problems preachers often face is a temptation to case a wistful (pensive, melancholic) eye on the things of the world. He is occasionally tempted to look back, after having put his hand to the plow, and wish he could find relief from his affliction by indulging in the things that are seen. This text (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) deals with that problem.

The Greek participle skopounton may be interpreted as having conditional force. The RSV clearly translates 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 as a conditional sentence when it separates the two verses with only a comma and connects them with the word because. 2 Corinthians 4:18 is the conditional clause (or, the protasis) which modifies the principle clause (or, the apodosis) of 2 Corinthians 4:17. In a conditional sentence, the conditional clause states a supposition and the principle clause states the result of the fulfillment of this supposition. In the sentence before us (2 Corinthians 4:17-18), the protasis Isaiah 2 Corinthians 4:18, and the apodosis Isaiah 2 Corinthians 4:17. In other words, the preparing of our eternal weight of glory is conditioned upon our looking not at the things that are seen but looking to the things that are unseen. It is not enough that believers suffer afflictionthis in itself does not work glory. Affliction works glory only if the believer focuses his mind’s eye intently on the things that really matter. To keep from losing heart in the throes of affliction and mortalness, and to have the blessed hope of the incomparable glory, the believer must set his mind on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5 ff)on the things that are above (Colossians 3:1-4).

The Greek phrase, me skopounton hemon ta hlepomena, may be translated, … because we are not contemplating the things being seen.. Both participles are present tense and active. The Christian, rather, looks to the things not being seen (Gr. ta me hlepomena). Does this mean the Christian is not to look at trees, stars, sky, houses, physical bodies or other natural objects? Not at all! It would be absurd to interpret Paul’s statement into such a meaning. Paul means the Christian is not to set his mind on the values and standards of worldliness. Paul means the Christian must decide that the things of Heaven, the values and standards and promises of God (disavowed by the worldly mind-set) are the realities. What the carnal mind-set calls realities (materialism, sensuality, atheism) are not realities at all because they are transitory. All that is physical and material (although not unreal and not evil in itself) is not abiding. All of it, too, shall pass away. Paul calls all that is being seen transient (Gr. proskaira, temporaryPaul uses the same word in Hebrews 11:25 to speak of the fleeting pleasures of sin). Only that which is unseen by the physical eye, and of God, is real! Only what is in heaven last forever. All that is real is promised and described, as nearly as human language can describe the unseen, in the Bibleand in the Bible only! The unseen (and unseeable) things of Heaven are present realities to the Christian by faith (see Hebrews 11:1). And that faith is founded on empirically-verified evidence that such unseen powers and qualities do exist beyond the realm of the physical and empirical.

It has always been difficult for men to believe that there are unseen realities, invisible to human eye and investigation, but nevertheless very real and very important. The mind of man struggles with the descriptions of the supernatural and the promises of life beyond death (both as to its existence and its quality) because it all seems to be contrary to his experience. But man must learn not to trust his own presuppositions and limited experiences. Even the physical sciences (uninterpreted by evolutionism) teach man that there is a reality beyond that which is seen with the physical eye. As man realizes his mortality, and as he approaches more surely the end of his existence in this life, these unseen realities become more and more significant to him. And nothing is more encouraging to a person with the problem of discouragement than to realize that when he believes the word of God he has found eternal reality. This is what life is all about.

Special Study

UNBELIEF IS DELIBERATE by Paul T. Butler Introduction

First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, `Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.-’ They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 2 Peter 3:3-6

I.

UNBELIEF ALMOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE

A.

Faced by what seems so logical and reasonable, so sensible and so beneficial evidence. so true and right. we do not understand why there is unbelief.

Why do so many people who seem sensible, sincere, reasonable, not acknowledge the same truths we hold to be so self-evident? Why, in a world of so many intelligent, relatively moral and upright people, is there so much unbelief?

B.

Peter, in our text, I believe, shows the primary cause of unbeliefDELIBERATE IGNORANCE

The Bible has a great deal to say about this. we will discuss it in just a moment from the aspect of Peter’s entire 3rd chapter of this 2nd epistle.

II.

SOME UNBELIEF IS DUE TO A SIMPLE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

A.

Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. Romans 10:17

B.

Often times children grow up, even in Christian homes, without ever having been given a faith with foundations in facts or evidence (cf. Deuteronomy 6:6-25)

C.

The church has not fulfilled her mission until she has presented the good news founded on the evidences of factual history.

D.

But even a lack of knowledge will not be accepted as an excuse by God since all men have had enough knowledge of God revealed to them that they stand condemned by God if they disbelieve (cf. Romans 1:18 ff)

SO, PRIMARILY SPEAKING, UNBELIEF IS MORAL REBELLION

Discussion

I.

UNBELIEF IS DELIBERATE

A.

For this they willingly are ignorant of. another translation says, They purposely ignore this fact. 2 Peter 3:5.

Unbelief comes to men because they deliberately choose to ignore the facts as these facts reveal a God to whom they have a moral responsibility

Romans 1:21 men. became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Romans 1:5, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. Romans 1:28 they refused to have God in their knowledge.

But 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 Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Men may deny the facts if they wish. but they are without excuse because God is so sufficiently revealed even in nature that unbelief condemns men. the evidence, the facts are so abundant that any man who says there is no God is a fool, for only a fool is willingly ignorant. Dr. G.G. Simpson, famous Paleontologist from Harvard once said concerning some highly improbable evidence as to the origin of the horse, it is improbable as to be unacceptable unless we can find no hypothesis more likely to explain the facts. IN OTHER WORDS, HE IS WILLING TO ACCEPT AN UNACCEPTABLE EXPLANATION IF THERE IS, IN HIS ESTIMATION, NONE BETTER!

Jesus once made a most shocking accusation against the Pharisees, But because I say the truth, ye believe me not John 8:45

The very reason they would not believe Jesus was the fact that He told them the truth. There is hardly a worse state man can get himself into than this!

Those who hate the truth will be deceived and believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). These do not love the truth therefore they are not attracted to it and even when they see it, they hastily reject it and rationalize their reaction.

The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). These refuse to listen to the truth when it condemns the unrighteous things in which they find pleasure and which they are determined to continue.. Thus they seek for some message which will assure them that the unrighteous thing is right and thus permit them to continue in it without being rebuked by their conscience. God sends such people strong delusions. He has ordained the laws of man’s heart and of morality, and that person who has no love for the truth and who lives in and takes pleasure in unrighteousness will unfit his heart for the reception of truth and fit it for the reception of strong delusions which comfort and assure him in his error and unrighteousness.

Dr. Henry Morris, when on the OBC campus for the 1966 Science & Scripture Forum, emphasizing the impact of the 2nd law of thermodynamics upon theories of evolution concluded that ANY SCIENTIST AWARE OF THIS LAW (AND ALL SHOULD BE) WHO REMAINS AN EVOLUTIONIST OR UNIFORMITARIAN, MUST DO SO BY DELIBERATELY IGNORING THIS FACT!

Jeremiah put it this way.. Behold their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it. Jeremiah 6:10 (see also Jeremiah 6:16-19).

B.

scoffers. walking after their own lusts. 2 Peter 3:3.

Unbelief comes to men because they choose to walk after their own lusts (Romans 1:1-32). God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts. unto vile affections. they not only do these things but even take pleasure in seeing others do them.

The people of Israel cried out to Moses as Pharaoh approached, It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full. Exodus 14:10-12; Exodus 16:1-3.

Desire to satisfy the flesh chokes out the word. Matthew 13:13-23

Unbelief is due to the fact that men choose deliberately to have physical security, or sensual pleasure, or pride

Agrippa’s lust for a woman not his own caused him to deliberately refuse to believe Paul, Acts 26:28

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved (exposed for what they really are). John 3:19-20

For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

One of man’s lusts which causes him to deliberately disbelieve is PRIDE

a.

Pride from wealth, Deuteronomy 8:1-20

b.

Pride from power, Exodus 5:2; Daniel 4:30; Daniel 5:23

c.

Pride from security, Obadiah 1:3

d.

Pride from self-righteousness, Job 33:9; Luke 18:11; John 9:39-41; Revelation 3:17

e.

Pride from self-sufficiency, James 4:13-17

f.

Pride is man’s desire for human autonomy over against the sovereignty of God. a proud man does not need a Provider, Protector, Guide and Saviour. BUT HE IS NOT FREE FOR HE HIDESONE WAY OR ANOTHER HE HIDES

ANIMAL LUSTS OF MEN DECEIVE THEM INTO DELIBERATELY DENYING GOD, THE BIBLE, HEAVEN AND HELL, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SATISFY THEIR FLESHLY DESIRES.. THEY DO NOT NEED GOD FOR THEY ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT. THEREFORE THEY WANDER (deliberately) INTO THE MYTHS OF EVOLUTION, HUMANISM, COMMUNISM, AND JUST PLAIN STUBBORNNESS. ALL OF US HAVE HEARD PEOPLE SAY, I KNOW THE BIBLE IS HISTORY AND IT’S TRUE AND I OUGHT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT ITS DEMANDS, BUT I-‘M NOT READY TO GIVE UP THIS AND THAT, AND SO ON. OR SOME WILL SAY, I CAN-‘T BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS TRUE BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS IT CONDEMNS WHICH I FEEL ARE ALRIGHT.

C.

they that are unlearned and unstable wrest the scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Peter 3:16

Unbelief comes to men when they wrest the scriptures

Satan, the father of unbelief, perverted the scripture at the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:5-6)

Paul had to contend with the Judaizers who corrupted (2 Corinthians 2:17) and dishonestly handled the word of God deceitfully (2 Corinthians 4:2).

The prejudiced and biased mind is a form of deliberate unbelief (cf. John 8:12; John 7:24) so also is the one who allows himself to be influenced by rumor or opinions of so-called intelligentsia (cf. John 7:12; John 7:40-43; James 1:6-7; Ephesians 4:13-14).

Cowardice or conformity also leads to deliberate unbelief (cf. John 12:41-43; John 9:1-41)

Liberalism, Modernisma result of men who have deceitfully and dishonestly handled the Word of God has infected hundreds of thousands of gullible people who feel they must conform in churches all around us and within the Restoration Movement.

Existentialism, by deceit, has duped many into unbelief

Men, by their traditions, have made void the word of God and led many unto belief.

THE WRESTING OF THE SCRIPTURES TO MAINTAIN DIVISION WITHIN CHRISTENDOM BRINGS UNBELIEF. JESUS PRAYED IN John 17:1-26. THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE, THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME!

WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES IS CERTAIN EVIDENCE OF DISRESPECT FOR GOD AND, ON THE OTHER HAND PRIDE IN SELF! WHEN MEN EXCHANGE THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE, THEY BEGIN TO WORSHIP THE CREATURE RATHER THAN THE CREATOR. PERHAPS NOT FROGS AND CROCODILES LIKE THE EGYPTIANS. BUT MAN WORSHIPPING MAN IS JUST AS DESPICABLE FOR IT IS CREATURE WORSHIP!

The Jews of the Prophet’s days wrested the scripture by interpreting the promise of the Messiah and His kingdom as one of fleshly indulgence. their hearts were filled with unbelief

The Pharisees wrested the scriptures to declare their goods Corban. they deceitfully handled the Word of God to take oaths by the gold of the altar rather than the altar itself and robbed people and refused to pay pledges (Matthew 23:1-39)

THE SEEMING SLACKNESS OF GOD IN BRINGING JUDGMENT UPON DISOBEDIENCE OR PERVERSION OF GOD’S WORD, CAUSES MEN TO FEEL THEY CAN USURP GOD AND DO AS THEY PLEASE WITH HIS WORD. WRESTING IT TO SERVE THEIR LUSTS. It is clear that the evidences for Christianity are of such nature that they bring to the surface what is in a man! If one is unwilling to follow Christbecause of the demand which such would make on his life he can think up reasons to justify his unwillingness. The real reasonhis unwillingnesswill be hidden from others by these rationalizations and finally even from himself because he does not think beyond these reasons. The fact that one must love the truth indicates that the attitude of heart has something to do with whether or not one will believe. He who wants a careless, immoral life, will not want the faith which is a constant rebuke to such a life.

II.

BELIEF IS DELIBERATE

A.

Saving faith is voluntary. Had the revelation of God been so strong that anyone beholding could not disbelieve, it would have overridden moral freedom and this would be evidence unsuitable to moral subjects

B.

The true purpose of God is not to produce obedience by force, but to treat men as free moral agents.

C.

Belief comes to an informed mind

Peter writes to stir up their mind and to call to remembrance the revealed word of God. 2 Peter 3:1

God’s revelation was made intelligently and he expects man to apprehend it with the use of intelligence (Romans 10:17)

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 1:3

Paul reasoned with the Jews from the scriptures about the Christ (Acts 17:1-4; Acts 18:3; Acts 18:19).

WE MUST DELIBERATELY LEARN AND RECEIVE THE FACTS ABOUT GOD, JESUS, AND THE BIBLE, BEFORE WE CAN BELIEVE. PETER IS ONE WHO PUTS A PREMIUM ON KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST THROUGH THE WORD FOR HE KNOWS THAT BELIEF COMES THIS WAY! (1 Peter 1:22-25; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Peter 1:3-21; 2 Peter 3:18)

B.

Belief come to a submissive will

If any many will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17

The Pharisees of Jesus day were filled with unbelief because they would not let the word of Christ have free course in them. John 8:37

THIS SAME STUBBORN UNWILLINGNESS TO DO GOD’S WILL LED THE PHARISEES TO REJECT THE COUNSEL OF GOD, REFUSING TO BE BAPTIZED OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Luke 7:29-30)

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments 1 John 2:3

GOD GAVE MAN A WILL. HE GAVE HIM A FREE WILL. MAN IS FREE TO SURRENDER TO WHATEVER HE WISHES. BELIEF OR UNBELIEF

C.

Belief comes to a pure heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Does not Jesus mean believe in God?

The honest and good heart is the soil upon which the seed (the word of God) falls and brings forth much fruit, Luke 8:1-56

But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21

A HEART CALLOUSED BY IMPURITY, GREED, LASCIVIOUSNESS, AND SIN IS HARDENED AGAINST ANY KIND OF BELIEF EXCEPT UNBELIEF! THE HEART THAT IS PURE, CLEAN, AND WHOLESOME IS MALLEABLE, SOFT, COMPASSIONATE, EASILY ENTREATED, RESPONSIVE TO THE HIGHEST AND NOBLEST. RESPONSIVE TO THE DIVINE LOVE LETTER. GOD’S BOOK OF LOVE!

Conclusion

HOW DOES MAN, SNARED IN THE TRAP OF THE DEVIL, BLINDED BY THE DEVIL, DECEIVED BY THE DEVIL INTO UNBELIEF, COME TO BELIEF??

I.

There must be an a priori which must be admitted. Man must admit that he is rational and that there are objects and facts to be known. To deny he thinks he must think. Even to represent himself to irrational he must think rationally!

II.

Many facts (truths) are MORAL FACTS. That is they exhibit, form or display moral character or attributes. All of God’s works (both natural and supernatural) exhibit His moral attributes and character. His wrath upon sin; His love for the sinner (cf. Romans 1:18-22; Acts 14:15-17; Acts 17:22-31; John 3:16, etc.)

III.

The Will or the Heart or the Mind of man must be changed or moved or transformed by a presentation of moral facts (cf. Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Romans 10:17)

IV.

Man then makes a choice or gives assent to what he knows to be true and moral and right. An emotion is an experience brought about by the prospect of some value’s being gained or lost. We become emotional about something after receiving the moral facts and reasoning on themthen we make a choice. WHICH IS MOST TO BE DESIRED. MATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL?

V.

MAN THEN COMES TO FAITH. Faith is trust, love, obedience, commitment. Faith is an experiencebased squarely on the foregoing steps (See chart on page 123.)

The infamous Madalyn Murray O-‘Hair, drop-out from humanity, speaking on the campus of Drake University, asked why she speaks on college campuses, replied, To corrupt the youth! Mad-at-God-Madalyn says, I believe this would be the best of all possible worlds if everybody were an atheist or an agnostic or a humanist. I don-’t think the church has ever contributed anything to anybody, any place, at any time. I can-’t pinpoint a period in history or a place in the universe where religion has actually helped the welfare of man. There is absolutely no conclusive evidence that Jesus ever really existed, even as a mortal. I don-’t believe he was a historical figure at all. Until someone proves otherwise, therefore, these stories about him must be considered nothing more than folk tales consisting in equal parts of legend and wish fulfillment. But there is never going to be any way of verifying them one way or the other. WOULD YOU SAY THIS WOMAN IS A FREE-THINKER. ALWAYS WILLING TO INVESTIGATE EVIDENCE. OPEN-MINDED. OBJECTIVE!!!? Also, I reject the idea of a life hereafter on the same grounds. Do you know anybody who has come back with a first-hand report on heaven? If you do, let me know. Until then you-’ll pardon me if I don-’t

HOW DOES A PERSON BELIEVE IN GOD?

The central problem in today’s theological scene lies in the area of epistemologythe truth questionJohn Warwick Montgomery in a book review in Eternity magazine, January, 1968.

buy it.

I agree with Mark Twain, who wrote about the hereafter, that there is no sex in it; you can-’t eat anything in it; there is absolutely nothing physical in it. You wouldn-’t have your brain, you wouldn-’t have any sensation, you wouldn-’t be able to enjoy anythingunless you were queer for hymn singing and harp playing. So who needs it? SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, I-‘D RATHER GO TO HELL.

UNBELIEF CAN-‘T GET ANY MORE DELIBERATE THAN THAT! It is a matter of choice! Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Why go ye limping between the two sides if Baal be God worship himJesus depicted life as a choice between two waysnot three (no neutrality)

Special Study

GODFACT OR FICTION?

(Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning, God..

(Hebrews 11:6)

Introduction

I.

THE HUMAN MIND IS ABLE TO COME TO REST IN A FIRST CAUSE

A.

Some say we cannot argue at all about the First Cause which is Uncaused since we have no faculties for comprehending the Infinite

This may be true but it is only part of the truth. His nature and attributes are too great for any human mind to fully comprehend and for any human language to express completely

But the same is true of many finite things also

a.

Man cannot even know himself in any ultimate sense

b.

The forces of nature are all unseen and unknowable in themselves. simply for lack of knowledge of the ultimate essence of the force which holds the world in place we have called it gravity.

Reminds me of a discussion Dr. Harry Rimmer was having with a reknowned physicist who was criticizing the Bible for its unscientific nature. Dr. Rimmer asked the good Dr., What holds the world in place. Gravity, of course, came the erudite reply. Then what is gravity, said Dr. Rimmer. Well, I suppose the best answer I can give is it is that which holds the world in place, said the reknowned scientist.

c.

Man is still at a loss to understand all he knows about the atom and the sub-atomic particles, and DNA, and RNA and LSD and on and on we could go. YET WE KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT ALL OF THIS FROM THE EFFECTS.. AND IN EACH CASE WHAT WE KNOW IS NOT INCORRECT BECAUSE IT IS YET INCOMPLETE OR INCOMPREHENSIBLE. IN MOST CASES EVEN THIS PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE IS SUFFICIENT FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES

B.

And so, it is true that the existence of a person or a thing may be proved although its nature may not be perfectly understood. The great truth of the existence of God is capable of being established in the same rational certainty which assures all the great verities, duties and practical interests of human life and welfare.

II.

BELIEF IN GOD IS TIED TO RATIONALITY AND OBJECTIVITY

A.

Some erroneous ideas of what faith Isaiah 1.

Something mystical, indefinable and beyond grasping in any reasonable fashion.

Something that cannot be defined because it is something subjective, something you feel, and cannot be tied to anything objective.

Something that enables a person to go on in the face of all the evidence to the contrarya movement out of relationship to the known and into the unknown. a leap in the dark

B.

The correct way to faith

Faith (trust, commitment) must, by its very nature, be tied directly to objectivity, to evidence, to knowledge. BY FAITH WE MAKE JUDGMENTS WHICH ARE BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS SUPPLIED BY EVIDENCE!

WHEN REASON PLAYS UPON THE EVIDENCE SUPPLIED BY GOD IN NATURE, HISTORY, THE BIBLE, MAN, IT IS PLAYING ON EVIDENCE EQUALLY OBJECTIVE TO THE EVIDENCE BROUGHT TO CONSIDERATION BY ANY BIOLOGIST, GEOLOGIST, ETC.

C.

Edward J. Carnell says, … all belief (faith) rests on authority. the authority can be direct or indirect. and what is authority if it is not the power of sufficient evidences to elicit assent?

CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP AT ITS BEST IS THE APPLICATION OF THE METHODS OF SCIENCE TO THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, A SIFTING AND RESIFTING OF ALL THE EVIDENCE AND OBJECTIVE MATERIAL THAT CAN BE FOUND AND CONSIDERED. IF WHAT A MAN BELIEVES IS NOT SUPPORTED BY OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE THEN WHAT HE BELIEVES IS UNWORTHY, AND HE MAY WELL BE LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD.

Discussion

I.

GOD KNOWN FROM THE FACTS OF NATURE (cf. Romans 1:18 ff; Psalms 19:1-6; Acts 14:14-17; Acts 17:22-34)

A.

Our judgment that God exists from reasoning upon the evidence supplied in nature begins with what we call the cosmological argument or reasoning from effect to cause.

For every effect there has to be an adequate cause

Effects are all about us. we are an effect. the universe is an effect. neither made themselves. each is dependent upon some higher cause.

Any given entity is either dependent or not dependent. If it is not dependent it is self-contained, self-caused and is therefore an Uncaused First Cause. If an entity is dependent then it is an effect from some extraneous force, which is again, either dependent or not. and so on to an Uncaused Cause

It is irrational and unreasonable to talk about an infinite regression of causes and effects.

a.

The very statement of such a proposition is self-contradictory..

B.

The observed 2nd law of thermodynamics proves the universe to be an effect. YOU CANNOT HAVE A RUNNING DOWN PROCESS UNLESS AT SOMETIME OR ANOTHER IT WAS WOUND UP OR BEGUN. AND WILL AT SOME FUTURE TIME RUN DOWN OR STOP!

Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, made a model planetary system showing the earth and the planets nearest it. Many astronomers copied it to use in their studies. One day an atheist friend saw it and asked, Who made it? No one made it, replied Franklin, it made itself, it just happened. What, cried the man, you-’re joking. And so is the man who says the universe just happened, without a cause, said Franklin.

Two friends slept in their tent on the desert. One put his head out the following morning, Some camels passed here last night. How do you know, did you see them, replied his friend. No, but I see their tracks. EVEN IF WE CANNOT SEE THE INVISIBLE GOD WE SEE HIS HANDIWORK AND KNOW HE HAS BEEN HERE!

C.

Our judgment that God exists from reasoning upon the evidence supplied in nature comes secondly from what is called the teleological argument or the argument from design.

This argument is appealed to in scripture: He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye shall he not see? Psalms 94:9

a.

In other words, can we believe that the purposiveness of OUR sensory organs can be explained without an Intelligent Purposer or Designer who also hears and sees?

Nature, large and small, shows adaptation of means to endsit shows purpose, design, intelligence, balance

a.

If there is no Intelligent purposive Mind as originator of both man and the universe, two unbelievable things happened: (1) Man developed an intelligence, sense of purpose, design from that which was nonintelligent, illogical, non-purposive, and (2) man, having thus miraculously gained intelligence from non-intelligence, was able to read in the cosmos vast and continuous meanings, rational to him, which had never been put into the universe by any mind or power whatever, and had never been thought at all until man discovered them or read them into that which was non-intelligent, non-purposive BUT REASON REJECTS BOTH PROPOSITIONS!!

b.

And yet, Haeckel (an evolutionist) had the audacity to say, No where in the evolution of plants and animals do we find any trace of design..

Evidences of purposive design

a.

The embryo of the hen makes provision for 2 ovaries and 2 oviducts, but only the left ovary and its duct reach maturity! Why? H.G. Wells was probably right when he said, Female birds have only one ovary and oviduct doubtless to provide against the accidents that might occur if two large and brittle eggs were to knock about simultaneously in their insides.

b.

The Yucca moth and the yucca plant. each is dependent upon the other for its very existence in exclusive manner. the yucca plant is the only food the moth can survive on. while the yucca moth is the only insect which pollenizes the plant.

c.

There are certain types of insects (wasps or bees) which alone can pollenize certain kinds of imported fig trees. these wasps had to be imported to bring the imported fig trees to bear fruit.

d.

Another type of wasp stings the grasshopper in exactly the right spot so that it is paralyzed but not dead. In this way the meat is preserved. The wasp then buries it in the spot where she will lay her young later on. The larvae will then feed on this grasshopper. THINK, NOW, THE VERY FIRST WASPS MUST HAVE DONE THIS ON COMMAND FROM THEIR CREATOR OR THE WASPS WOULD HAVE CEASED TO EXIST.. IT WAS NOT A SLOW LEARNING PROCESS THROUGH TRIAL AND ERROR!

e.

The Venus fly-trap. A carnivorous plant. When a fly alights upon the leaf it closes over it and sucks the fly dry. If a dead fly is dropped on the leaf, the plant closes and then reopens immediately having discovered it to be dead. The plant knows when it has had enough to eat to satisfy it for present, and will not close upon flies when it has had enough. The plant will not close in the rain. unless it is fooled by a drop of water when the sun is shining. It never closes when it is raining normally during cloudy weather because it would miss too many good meals.

f.

The spider weaves the outer spiral portion of his web in a sticky substance and any insect alighting upon it is stuck. But the inner web is non-adhesive. Why? The spider needs a place to rest where he will not be trapped in his own sticky web. But if an insect is caught in the sticky portion, how does the spider get his meal? He has little glands in his legs which secrete just enough oil substance to allow him to do this without getting trapped. But too long a stay on the outer web would cause just enough of the adhesive material to cling to the spiders legs to hinder his work. so he weaves a non-sticky place to which he may retreat.

Statements by famous scientists:

Sir Isaac Newton: This admirably beautiful structure of sun, planets and comets could not have originated except in the wisdom and sovereignty of an Intelligent and Powerful Being. Edwin B. Frost: In a purposeful creation, I find it not at all inconsistent to believe that there must be a Mind behind it developing the purpose. Sir Oliver Lodge: … there must be some Intelligence in all the processes of nature, for they are not random or purposeless, but organized and beautiful. Sir James Jeans: If the universe is a universe of thought, then its creation must have been an act of Thought.

II.

MAN HIMSELF IS EVIDENCE THAT GOD EXISTS

A.

Man’s body (Alexis Carrel in Man, The Unknown.)

An organ builds itself by techniques very foreign to the human mind. It is not made of extraneous material, like a house. Neither is it a cellular construction, a mere assemblage of cells. It is, of course, composed of cells, as a house is of bricks. But it is born from a cell, as if the house originated from one brick, a magic brick that would set about manufacturing other bricks. Those bricks, without waiting for the architects drawings or the coming of the bricklayers, would assemble themselves and form the walls. They would also metamorphose into windowpanes, roofing slates, coal for heating, and water for the kitchen and bathroom. An organ develops by means such as have been attributed to this magic brick. It is engendered by cells which, to all appearances, have a knowledge of the future edifice and synthesize from substances contained in blood plasma, the building material, and even the workers. (DNA and RNA)

B.

Man’s moral nature bespeaks a Moral Creator (Romans 2:14 ff)

He has a sense of right and wrong. When he does what he thinks is wrong, his conscience condemns; when he does what he thinks is right, his conscience approves.

He believes justice will be done, some way, somewhere, sometime.

NOW IF WE HAVE THIS SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG, THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMEONE WHO MADE THIS SENSE IN MAN. THAT WHICH IS MORAL CANNOT ORIGINATE FROM THAT WHICH IS NON-MORAL OR AMORAL

Man is also placed in the midst of an environment that integrates with his moral nature, giving him a chance to choose between right and wrong and to develop and discipline moral character.

The red claw of nature is one of predators and prey. there is balance and design there. but nature knows nothing of justice or morality. TO DESTROY THE BELIEF THAT RIGHT WILL TRIUMPH, THAT THERE IS A GREAT MORAL RULER, GOD, WHO WILL SEE THAT TRUTH PREVAILS, IS TO REMOVE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL AND SOCIAL RECTITUDE IT IS UNTHINKABLE THAT ALL THE SPLENDID CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN SUCH AS JUSTICE, LOVE, FREEDOM AND OTHERS (MARRED BY SIN THOUGH THEY BE) SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRODUCED BY AN AMORAL ABSTRACTION OR BLIND, UNGUIDED, UNFEELING CHANCE!

C.

Man is a person who enjoys and creates beauty. The ability of the human mind to perceive and appreciate beauty is not accidental but the purposeful plan of a Master Artist who made both for man’s benefit.

WHEN ANYONE TRIES TO DENY MAN IS MORAL, ASK HIM IF OUR STATEMENT THAT MAN IS A MORAL BEING IS RIGHT OR WRONG, OF IF HIS DENIAL IS RIGHT OR WRONG!!

D.

Man exhibits a universal belief in a Higher being or a Religious Instinct

No animal, not even the most intelligent, has ever been known to have built an altar or worshipped a higher being. but all histories of man, written or otherwise, speak of worship

When any group of people is discovered, it is always found that they have a god or a system of gods

When the communication lines with Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl, were finally established and she was told that there was a God, she replied, I knew it all the time.

If there is no God, how could the idea of God ever have arisen in the human mind? Could a God-idea evolve of its own accord out of a non-God ground or basis?

The atheist occupies an untenable position. Over him there will always hang the possibility that there is a God. He alone claims there is no God. Before one can proclaim there is no God he must have made extensive explorations in every inch of heaven and earth, in every essence of both material and spiritual (including the realm of thought), in all time and eternity. Before a man can KNOW there is No God he would himself have to be Godomniscientor THE ONE THING HE DID NOT KNOW MIGHT BE THAT THERE IS A GOD. and omnipresent, or THE ONE PLACE WHERE HE WAS NOT, MIGHT BE THE PLACE WHERE GOD IS!

III.

GOD IS KNOWN BY HIS SPECIAL REVELATION OF HIMSELF

A.

The abundance of evidence that leads to an unshakable faith in the Divine Being and in His Revelation of Himself is overwhelming.

Even more surely do we seek His handiwork in His special revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ, and His word, the Bible

Merely to believe in God is not enough, we need to know Him, His personality, His purpose, His will for our lives (Hebrews 11:6)

When we have definite evidence that God has spoken, do we need any further argument that God exists?

B.

God has invaded the natural with the supernatural.. He has stepped into history in many ways and in many specific times to demonstrate to man His existence, His power, His wisdom, His will, His nature.

C.

He has, in His Son, performed miracles (also in O.T. through angels)

The flood, passing through Red Sea, healings, resurrections, conquest of enemies (cf. Hebrews 11:1-40)

Jesus stilled tempest, walked on water, changed water into wine, fed 5000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish, healed all manner of diseases

Jesus raised at least three person from the dead in presence of both friends and enemies

Jesus commanded the spirit world, predicted His own death and resurrection, His betrayer was predicted, the destruction of Jerusalem was predicted

D.

The Bible is its own best proof containing hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. history written 1000s of years before its fulfillment

History of the Jews, Deuteronomy 28:1-68

Destinies of Gentile nations, Daniel 2:1-49; Daniel 4:1-37; Daniel 9:1-27; Daniel 10:1-21; Daniel 11:1-45

Destinies of individuals before they were born, Isaiah 44:1-28; Isaiah 45:1-25

Life, birth, ministry, death, words, birthplace of Jesus. His whole life could be reproduced from O.T. prophecies

The church, beginning, nature, purpose predicted and fulfilled

E.

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. THE BEST ESTABLISHED FACT IN ALL OF HISTORY

Conclusion THE FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, THERE IS NO GOD!

No, we cannot prove Jehovah is the god for which the philosophers and scientists have searched, but we believe the evidence is sufficient to lead the honest philosopher, honest scientist, and ALL HONEST MEN AND WOMEN to believe Jehovah is God. We accept God by faith, but that faith IS BASED UPON THE INTELLIGENT CONSIDERATION OF AN OVERWHELMING ABUNDANCE OF EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF HIS EXISTENCE.

The unbeliever lives in the world of myth, make-believe, inconsistency. The unbeliever is the schizophrenic (withdrawing from reality) John 3:19-21. He lives in the darkness of ignorance and sin (in most cases willfully!) He does not find God for the same reason a thief does not find a policeman! BUT GOD HAS REVEALED HIMSELF TO ALL WHO WILL INVESTIGATE THE FACTS AND ACCEPT THE FACTS. The Bible is the record of God’s intelligent revelation to the intelligent portion of His creationmankind.

GOD IS! HE CREATES, HE JUDGES, HE LOVES, HE FORGIVES, HE SAVES, HE SPEAKS ONE OF THE GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS OF HIS EXISTENCE AND HIS POWER IS THE CHANGE HIS WORD WORKS IN THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF MEN.. HE WILL CHANGE YOUMAKE YOU A NEW MAN OR WOMANOLD WAYS, OLD FEARS, OLD ANXIETIES, OLD THOUGHTS, OLD INCONSISTENCIES, OLD FAILURES WILL BE DONE AWAY. GUILT WILL BE LIFTED. INSTEAD OF DARKNESS THERE WILL BE LIGHT. INSTEAD OF DESPAIR THERE WILL BE HOPE. Henry R. Luce, founder of Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune Magazines, worth 106 million when he died in early 1967, said before his death when asked about the current God is dead theology, After all the argumentation is done, I believe that God revealed in the Scriptures is, quite simply, God; and therefore, not only living, but the creator and source of all life. Contrast with this the statement of Russian Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, May 6, 1962 in Seattle, Washington, when proclaiming his disbelief in God he said, In my seventeen orbits of the earth I saw no God or angels. We seriously doubt that Mr. Titov could have seen every square inch of space in 17 orbits; furthermore, neither Mr. Titov nor anyone else can explain or understand everything they see; and last of all God is Spirit, so Mr. Titov could have orbited the earth 17 thousand times, 17 million light years out and still not have seen God with his physical eyes! IT IS THE CONSISTENT, INTELLIGENT, RATIONAL, HONEST-HEARTED PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN GOD SO IT SEEMS THAT, IN LIGHT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF EVIDENCE, THE INCONSISTENT, UNINTELLIGENT, IRRATIONAL, SELF-DECEIVED PERSON WHO DISBELIEVES!

Special Study

EVOLUTION, UNSCIENTIFIC & IMMORAL Introduction

I.

THIS PSEUDO-KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTED BY EVOLUTION IS NOT SOMETHING NEW

A.

Paul had to deal with it among the philosophers of the first century

Read Colossians 2:8 and 1 Timothy 6:20

A literal translation of Col 2:8 would go something like See to it that no one victimize you, or carry you off as his prey or booty, through philosophy or false, foundationless deception, according to traditionary assumptions of man by deceiving you into believing that the elementary, rudimentary things of the universe are the ultimate truths, denying that Christ is THE ULTIMATE

Paul told Timothy, literally, to Avoid, or, Turn Away from profane (polluted), false, foundationless discourses (babblings) and oppositions (antitheses) of pseudo-knowledge.

B.

There were theories of uniformitarianism or evolutionism being proposed by men who walked in the darkness of sin long before Charles Darwin. Dr. Henry Morris says the Devil was the first evolutionist

Democritus and Aristotle were proposing such theories in the Greek civilization at least 300 years before Christ

Before them the Persians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites were all proposing such theories

II.

SCIENCE, PER SE, MAY BE USEFUL: A BLESSING TO MAN AND A GLORY TO GOD

A.

Scientism, and all the other God-denying isms attached thereto is our enemy

B.

Although I am not a scientist, I believe the information I shall present in attacking evolutionism is valid since

Many of the statements made are well-known and established findings and laws of science

Some of the statements and propositions may be verified by your own experience

Practically all the statements are quotations from widely recognized scientists, even by admitted evolutionists!

C.

This presentation of the FOUNDATIONLESS, EMPTY, IMMORAL bases of evolution is to keep you from being victimized by the false, pseudo impractical, irrational, irrelevant, unreasonable, immoral claims of evolutionary doctrines!

III.

SOME WOULD OBJECT TO THIS TYPE OF DISCOURSE FROM THE PULPIT, DECLARING THAT IT IS NOT PREACHING THE GOSPEL

A.

The apostles spent a great deal of time exposing vain philosophies

B.

We are promised, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought unto obedience to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

C.

If the church doesn-’t take up the battle against evolution, who shall? HOW MANY OF YOU ARE DOING SO? THE TELEVISION? THE NATIONAL MAGAZINES? IT SEEMS AS IF EVERY AVENUE OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (AND EVEN GREAT SEGMENTS OF SO-CALLED CHRISTENDOM) ARE BEING USED IN VERY ATTRACTIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE EVOLUTION!!

IV.

DEFINITIONS

A.

Science: the search for, observation of, and recording of natural phenomena (facts)I recognize this may over simplify science but I insist that anything beyond this and one leaves the realm of pure science and gets in the realm of philosophy (especially when the scientist seeks to determine means and ends or meanings and values).

B.

Evolution: a one-way process, irreversible in time, producing apparent novelties and greater variety, and leading to higher degrees of organization, more differentiated, more complex, but at the same time more integrated. Julian Huxley, evolution’s chief present-day spokesman

C.

With these definitions in mind, let us examine the question of whether there is any evidence that such a process as Huxley defined is NOW taking place or has ever taken place. As Dr. Henry Morris says, we shall find, in the evidence investigated, that the answer both Scripturally and Scientifically, is, unequivocally, NO, NO, NO!

THIS EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSLEADING TO HIGHER DEGREES OF ORGANIZATIONFROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX HAS NEVER BEEN OBSERVED AND RECORDED AS A NATURAL FACT!!! IT IS NOT SCIENTIFIC. AND, AS WE SHALL SEE, THE DOCTRINES OF DARWINISM, IF APPLIED TO MANKIND LEAD TO WAR, CHEATING, BREAKDOWN OF ALL STANDARDS EXCEPT THAT MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!

Discussion

I.

PHYSICS

A.

There are three basic laws of science; no laws of science are more firmly fixed and established than these three laws. They hold priority over all other laws of science. They are so basic they are referred to as the first, second and third laws. THERE ARE NO KNOWN VIOLATIONS OF THESE LAWS!

They are; biogenesis1st law of thermodynamics2nd law of thermodynamics; we shall discuss the law of biogenesis in a later section on biology.

B.

For now let us deal with the first law of thermodynamics which is the law of the conservation of energy.

Energy can be transformed in various ways, but it can be neither created or destroyed.

This universally observed and accepted law squarely contradicts the evolutionary theory that creation (i.e., increasing organization and complexity and development, or bringing something out of nothing which is really what creation is) is continually taking place in the present.

The creation of the physical universe must have preceded this observed first law and therefore scientific law testifies to creationnot evolution

Matter and energy cannot be created, while the 1st law of thermodynamics is valid. This law is observable. subjective whims or wishes or extralogical statements of the evolutionists cannot over-ride the cold facts of observed nature.

C.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics: there is an irreversible tendency for processes in a self-contained system to go toward lower ordertoward decay, disorder, disintegration, a running down. Systems run down hillthey don-’t wind themselves up.

Dr. Morris says, It would hardly be possible to conceive of two more completely opposite principles than the one of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the theory of evolution.

NOW IT IS A LAW OF LOGIC AND REASON THAT TWO CONTRADICTORY PROPOSITIONS CANNOT BOTH BE TRUE. BOTH MAY BE FALSE, BUT BOTH COULD NOT POSSIBLE, RATIONALLY BE TRUE! And yet the 2nd law of entropy is the best established law of science known to man! Even evolutionists are forced to admit its validity, Biologist Harold Blum says, One way of stating this law is to say that all real processes tend to go toward a condition of greater improbability (disorder).

It is hard to believe that evolutionary-minded scientists overlook this universal law through ignorance, yet in the great Darwinian Centennial in 1959, held in Chicago, in three volumes of scientific papers published from this meeting, it is almost impossible to find any mention of this problem at all! SCIENCE ACTUALLY PROVES THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY TO BE FALSE. EVOLUTION ACTUALLY CONTRADICTS THE THREE BEST KNOWN, UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED LAWS OF SCIENCE!!! EVOLUTION IS NOT ONLY NOT SCIENTIFIC IT IS DISPROVED BY SCIENCE!

II.

BIOLOGY

A.

Consider next the universally accepted law of Biogenesis which says, life comes from lifeevery living organism came from some other living organism. This is observed and demonstrated in every instance and there are no known violations of this lawso called spontaneous generation of life has never been observed.

In fact, Louis Pasteur demonstrated conclusively that there was no such thing as spontaneous generation of life by laboratory experiments

Prof. Geo. Wald (an evolutionist) says, … there are only two possibilities: Either life arose by spontaneous generation, which the professor had just refuted: or it arose by supernatural creation, which he probably regarded as anti-scientific. for my part, I think the only tenable scientific view is that life originally did arise by spontaneous generation.. HE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE SAID, IT IS MY SUBJECTIVE OPINION. because that is all it is. the law of biogenesis says NO!

B.

It used to be that evolutionists tried to prove man’s biological and evolutionary descent from ape by comparing blood

In the first place all claims for the evolutionary process by comparing blood did not take place with tests of whole blood but with tests using blood serum (the watery substance of the blood) and this is far different from using whole blood.

In the second place the primary factors of heredity do not lie in the blood but in germ and sperm cells so evolution cannot be proved by blood.

Blood types are so different that there are two ladies (one in Canada and the other in the Philippines) who alone have the same type of blood in all the world. any other blood type injected would kill either one of them.

C.

Variations

The minute variations between species and within species as observed by Darwin:

a.

Kellogg says, The results of modern biological study have shown that many of these small variations are not inherited. They are merely fluctuations around a mean to which the offspring tend constantly to return.

b.

A classic example of Darwin’s foggy thinking: He cited the long neck of the giraffe as an outstanding example of natural selection. As a result of recurrent and extended droughts the supply of green leaves from the lower limbs of trees diminished so that the shorter animals died off and after centuries of natural selection, the long-necked giraffes survived, and grew long necks in stretching after remaining green leaves. BUT THE FEMALE GIRAFFE IS ABOUT 2 FT. SHORTER THAN THE MALE SO THAT ALL THE FEMALES WOULD HAVE PERISHED LONG BEFORE THE MALES. SO HOW ARE BABY GIRAFFES BORN!? AND EVEN IF THEY WERE BORN HOW DID THE LITTLE ONES SURVIVE?

Acquired characteristics

a.

They are not inherited, consider the small feet of Chinese womenwhy are they bound generation after generationwhat about circumcision, scars, missing limbs?

b.

Even if we suppose they might be inherited, no new kind or species has ever been known to have originated from such variation!

D.

Mendel’s Law

What Mendel has proven both as to animals and plants is that NO VARIATION OUTSIDE THE LIMITS OF SPECIES IS POSSIBLE

It is now a fixed law of biology that the factors which the individual receives and none other are those which he can transmit to his offspring.

Weismann, an evolutionist who experimented with mice cutting off their tails for 19 generations gave up in disgust for the tails of the last were just as long as the first.

There are no known violations of Mendel’s law!!

E.

Mutations (freaks, etc.) caused by mixing up of genes

Mutant forms are almost exclusively lethal. those that are not lethal offer no help to the specie for the struggle for survival.

In all mutations no genes can be shown to have originated or to have changed. mutations are simply mix-ups of genes transmitted from the parents (probably caused by radiation)

Experiments with fruit fly for 1000s of generations shows evolution from one species to another does not happen, even given many generations in which to occur

All mutations, even if inherited (and there is some question about this), are fully in line with the 2nd law of thermodynamics so a mutation is A DISORGANIZATION. NOT HEADED TOWARD ORGANIZATION OR COMPLEXITY. A MERE RESHUFFLING OF GENETIC FACTORS ALREADY PRESENT BY INDUCED RADIATION IS NOT EVOLUTION

F.

Fixity of Kind

The species are fixed, rigid. Varieties do not pass beyond certain limits. They do not transform into species. There are no transitorial forms to be found. Evolutionists have never produced complete evidence of any one species from a preceding form unrelated to its successor!!

To the contrary, present species as far as all observable evidence thus far discovered, are identical with their oldest ancestors.

Furthermore, all present varieties within one species, left to natural breeding, will eventually revert to one species. This has been demonstrated by observed experiments.

Evolutionists are constantly vacillating between one line of alleged evidence and another. For awhile they appealed to paleontology as the most likely evidence to support their theories. now it seems the paleontologists are turning to biology to produce the best evidence. G.G. Simpson, reknowned paleontologist of Harvard wrote in the Ency. Brit. Yearbook, 1965, Molecular and organismal biologists are now beginning a cooperation that will surely prove fruitful. Numerous efforts have been initiated in the last year or so to interpret molecular biology in evolutionary terms. It is too early to say just what the results will be, but they are certainly promising. Mr. Simpson is an ardent evolutionist and a world reknowned paleontologist and yet in 1965 he admits the fossil record does not prove evolution and cites us to the field of biology, hopeful it will soon bear fruit to prove evolution. Simpson even returns to the disproved theory of spontaneous generation hoping to save his theory, saying, The spontaneous generation of the first living things did occur. BUT WHAT PROOF DID HE OFFER? NONE! JUST AN EMPTY ASSERTION. Isn-’t it strange indeed that evolutionary scientists leave their own field and point the student to another for the proof of this theory of evolution?

III.

GEOLOGY (Paleontology)

A.

The whole geological series as theorized and charted in textbooks by evolutionary geologists can be found intact in not ONE PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH SO FAR INVESTIGATED!

B.

Literally any rock system in the so-called geologic series or column may be found lying directly on the oldest or youngest rocks or reversed, or in any combination of arrangements at any given location

In fact, in an area covering some 10,000 square mi. in north U.S. and Canada the geologic scale of evolution is found UPSIDE DOWN, COMPLETELY REVERSED! YOUNGEST ON THE BOTTOM AND MOST ANCIENT ON TOP!

Dr. Walter E. Lammerts, among others, have investigated thoroughly the various places where scientists have tried to explain these reversals by thrust faults and reports that there is absolutely no evidence for suchthe rock strata gives no evidence of any grinding, disturbing process but each strata lies conformably undisturbed on top of the other.

C.

At least some paleontologists have been honest enough to admit the fallacy of the geological argument in a circle. R.H. Rastal of Cambridge U. says in Ency. Brit., 1956, Vol. 10, pg. 168, It cannot be denied that from a strictly philosophical standpoint geologists are here arguing in a circle. The succession of organisms has been determined by a study of their remains buried in the rocks, and the relative ages of the rocks are determined by the remains of the organisms they contain. THEY USE THE ROCKS TO PROVE THE AGE OF THE FOSSILS AND THEN SAY THE AGE OF THE FOSSILS PROVE THE AGE OF THE ROCKS.

D.

Again from the famous paleontologist, Simpson, an evolutionist, Fossils are abundant only from the Cambrian onward.. The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views (evolution) here entertained. from Great Books of the Western World, pub. by Ency. Brit.

BESIDES ALL THIS, NORMAL RATES OF SEDIMENTATION AS POSTULATED BY THE UNIFORMITY PRINCIPLE ARE MEANINGLESS AS FAR AS THE FOSSIL RECORD IS CONCERNED BECAUSE FOSSILS ARE NOT FORMED BY NATURAL PROCESSES OVER LONG PERIOD OF TIME. BUT BY SUDDEN CATASTROPHIC EVENTS!

E.

The geologic evidence observed thus far shows a sudden outburst of living forms exactly like the species we have today with a few minor exceptions.

Dr. Austin H. Clark, of U.S. National Museum, No matter how far back we go in the fossil record of previous animal life upon the earth, we find no trace of any animal forms which are intermediate between the various phyla.. Since we have not the slightest evidence, either among the living or the fossil animals, of any intergrading types following between major groups, it is a fair supposition that there never have been any such intergrading types. NO INTERMEDIATE FORMS MY FRIEND! LIVING OR DEAD!

AND THE PROBLEM IS NOT TO FIND ONE MISSING LINK, BUT TO FIND 1000s AND 1000s OF MISSING LINKS WHICH WILL CONNECT THE MANY FOSSILS SPECIES WITH ONE ANOTHER!

In 1938 deep-water fishermen, who were fishing off the coast of S. Africa, brought to the surface a fighting, threshing fish 5 ft. long and 127 lbs. such as they had never seen before. Scientists, being called to investigate, called it the Coelacanth, identical in every respect with the Coelacanths whose fossils are found in considerable numbers buried in the strata of the U.S., Germany, and elsewhere. These strata are said by evolutionists to have been formed in the Triassic Age, and the fish whose fossils these strata contain are said to have become extinct 90 million years ago! Another fish of the exact same type was caught off Madagascar in Dec. 1952.

IV.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN

A.

When we examine the evidence upon which evolutionists have reconstructed the different pre-historic ape or pre-ape men we find things both ludicrous and dishonest.

In the first place their evidence is extremely fragmentary: only a scraps of skulls, bits of bone, teeth and sometimes a whole bone. yet whole men, whole races, whole civilizations have been constructed with a bone fragment or two and a wild, bizarre imagination!

B.

Prof. E.A. Hooton of Harvard says, Some anatomists model reconstructions of fossil skulls by building up the soft parts of the head and face upon a skull case, and thus produce a bust purporting to represent the appearance of the fossil man in life. When, we recall the fragmentary condition of most of the skulls, the faces usually being missing, we can readily see that even the reconstruction of the facial skeleton leaves room for a good deal of doubt as to details.. To attempt to restore the soft parts is even more hazardous. The lips, the eyes, the ears, and the nasal tip leave no clue on the bony parts as to their appearance.. These alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little, if any, scientific value, and are likely only to mislead the public.. We do not know anything of the minutiae of the appearance of the Pithecanthropus, Heidelberg, Neanderthal types. We have no knowledge of their form, hair distribution, pigmentation, and the detail of such features as have been mentioned.

C.

Mistakes (the convincing finds of science)

Pithecanthropus Erectus, found in Java, 1891, consisting of a part of a skull cap, a fragment of a left thighbone and 3 molar teeth. NOT FOUND TOGETHER, SCATTERED 50 ft. apart, numerous other bones of animals found scattered among them. The skull unusually large and the thighbone too small for it proportionately, yet 7 eminent men pronounced it the skull of a man; 6 others that of an ape; 7 others divided between ape and man. undaunted by disagreements, they bundled up the bones, made a bronze bust of their imagination, put it in the American Museum of History and proclaimed that a whole race of ape-men had been discovered to exist half a million years ago

Second Java Man, found 1926, near same as first, a skull cap ONLY was found. Vouched for by 2 eminent English scientists and heralded all over the world as the most important discovery of the decade. THIS SUPPOSED MILLION YEAR OLD SKULL OF NEAR HUMAN TURNED OUT TO BE, AFTER SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION, THE KNEE CAP OF AN ELEPHANT!

Hesperopithecus: from a tooth found in 1922, in Nebraska and introduced into the famous Scopes Monkey Trial as evidence of a race of men who lived in No. Amer. millions of years ago, men discovered only a few short years after Darrow had tried to humiliate Bryan that the tooth was that of a species of extinct pigs!

Readers Digest, Oct. 1956 shows how the famous Piltdown Man regarded until recently as one of the 3 most important of the missing links in man’s evolution, has now been formally declared to have been a clever hoax which fooled all the anthropological specialists for 40 years!!!! A DELIBERATE TRICK BY MANIPULATING THE BONES, ARTIFICIALLY AGING THEM ETC.

Byron C. Nelson, in After Its Kind, shows how the profile of Marquis de Lafayette, Rev. war hero could be placed in exact conformity, slanted forehead and all, right over a supposed Neanderthal skull fragment. The Cro-Magnon man’s skull has an even higher and nobler forehead and larger brain capacity than the so-called brilliant Charles Darwin! What do we have then when we sum up all the evidence: NOT ONLY IS THERE NO EVIDENCE TO SUBSTANTIATE THE THEORY, THERE IS, IN FACT, SCIENTIFIC, OBSERVED, DEMONSTRATED EVIDENCE THAT SUCH A THEORY IS FALSE. SUCH A THEORY IN NO WAY CONFORMS TO OBSERVED, PROVEN SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENA JESUS SAID OF TEACHERS AND TEACHINGS. BY THEIR FRUITS SHALL YE KNOW THEM.. LET US LOOK AT THE FRUIT, THE CONSEQUENCES, THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING AND LIVING THE GREAT LIE. EVOLUTION! DOES IT BRING FORTH GOOD FRUIT OR EVIL FRUIT!?

V.

THE FRUITS (CONSEQUENCES) OF EVOLUTION

A.

Bernhardi and Nietzsche

War is a biological necessity of the first importance. War gives a biologically just decision. Might is at once the supreme right. Bernhardi

Man shall be trained for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly. Nietzsche

Hitler (Nietzsche’s follower) The whole of nature is a continuous struggle between strength and weakness, an eternal victory of the strong over the weak.

B.

Clarence Darrow and Loeb and Leopold

In May, 1924 two youth, Loeb and Leopold, cruelly murdered a 14 year old boy, Bobby Franks, by name, in Chicago. At their trial in the following August these 2 young men were defended by the celebrated criminal lawyer (himself an evolutionist) Clarence Darrow. His speech is regarded as one of the greatest judicial materpieces in American history. During the course of his remarks in defense of Leopold, Darrow said, I will guarantee that you can go down to the Univ. of Chicago todayinto its big libraryand find over a 1000 volumes on Nietzsche, and I am sure I speak moderately. If this boy is to blame for this, where did he get it? Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche’s philosophy seriously and fashioned his life on it? And there is no question in this case but what it is true. Then who is to blame? The University would be more to blame than he is. The scholars of the world would be more to blame than he is. The publishers of the worldand Nietzsche’s books are published by one of the biggest publishers of the worldare more to blame than he. Your Honor, it is hardly fair to hang a 19 yr. old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university.

C.

Bertrand Russell: Brief and powerless is man’s life; on him and on his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its rentless ways; for man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that enoble his little days..

D.

H.G. Wells: In spite of all my desperation to a brave looking optimism, I perceive that now the universe is bored with him (man), is turning a hard face to him, and I see him being carried less and less intelligently and more and more rapidly, suffering as every ill-adapted creature must suffer in gross and detail, along the stream of fate to degradation, suffering and death.

E.

Will Durant: Life has become in that total perspective which is philosophy, a fitful population of human insects on the earth, a planetary eczema that may soon be cured; nothing is certain in it except defeat and deatha sleep from which, it seems, there is no awakening..

EVOLUTION BEARS FRUIT ALRIGHT. WAR, SLAVERY, MURDER, PESSIMISM, DESPAIR! IT BRINGS A PHILOSOPHY OF SUB-HUMAN MORALS. EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE TO THE INDIVIDUAL’S DESIRES. MAN CLAIMS HE CANNOT HELP BEING WHAT HE IS. FREEDOM MEANS DOING AS EACH ONE LIKES. IT BRINGS SENSUALITY, CRUELTY, IGNORANCE.

Life magazine, May 25, 1962, editorial of a reporter interviewing students in some of America’s most prestigious Prep-schools heard them say to him: Nothing’s solid; there are no values to depend upon. I have no values because there is no basis for them. I haven-’t any goals because I don-’t know what to aim for. Everything’s gray; there aren-’t any values. WHERE DID THEY GET THESE STANDARDS? BY THEIR OWN MOUTH, CHARLES DARWIN, SIGMUND FRUED, SARTRE, CAMUS, ARTHUR MILLER, J.D. SALINGER. READ IT YOURSELF!

F.

Evolution is IMPRACTICAL AND IMMORAL

It has no basis in fact or truth therefore it is a lie.

It is inconsistent with known fact and is therefore impractical.

It has never been a help but in every instance a hindrance.

Conclusion

THE WORD OF GOD, ON THE OTHER HAND.

I.

Is a revelation of God, much of which took place in HISTORY, seen and heard by eyewitnesses and is FACTUAL AND DEPENDABLE

A.

The propositions and truths which are not verifiable by experience in the Bible may therefore be trusted since it substantiates its claims to be a divinely revealed book from God.

B.

The Bible does not ask us to formulate a philosophy of life based upon theories and assumed pre-historical happenings. BUT ON VERIFIED, OBSERVED EVIDENCES OF A SUPERNATURAL GOD AND CHRIST!

II.

Agrees with other true and pure scientific observables

A.

Fixity of kind; Aqueous cataclysm forming fossils

B.

Anthropological discoveries; Three basic laws of science

III.

Shown to be accurate in all its history by archaeological finds

IV.

Traceable to almost the very hands of the eyewitnesses who wrote it

A.

No other literature of antiquity can make that statement

B.

Preserved, believed in, proclaimed, practiced by millions, many of whom have gladly died to do so.

V.

Supernaturally verified by fulfilled prophecies; hundreds of years of history written 1000s of years before it occurred, yet fulfilled to the very detail.

VI.

Is Practical

A.

Promotes love, compassion, truth, justice, freedom, law & order

B.

It is reasonable and consistent

C.

Brings morality, hope, satisfaction, fulfillment, answers to life’s perplexities

Billy Graham tells of a young college girl, just recently voted Queen of her campus here in America, who had been involved in a fatal automobile accident. The mother was summoned to the dying girl’s side only to hear these heart-rending words, Mother, you taught me everything I needed to know to get by in college. You taught me how to light my cigarette, how to hold my cocktail glass and how to have intercourse safely. But Mother, you never taught me how to die. You better teach me quickly, Mother, because I-’m dying. EVOLUTIONISM IS TEACHING YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER THAT THERE IS NO GOD. THEY ARE MERE ANIMALS. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. ALL MORALS ARE RELATIVE TO SATISFYING ANIMAL PASSIONS. WAR. MURDER! MOTHER AND FATHER, YOU-‘D BETTER BE TEACHING THEM HOW TO PREPARE FOR ETERNITY!