PART I, ARTICLE III: LIVING FOR THE KINGDOM; OR, A LIFESTYLE MANIFESTO, SECTION V

Part II: What about Essentials? Matthew 6.25-34.

After teaching the evil of being preoccupied with earthly treasures, the Lord continues his discourse by addressing the essentials of life. This topic is the second part of the lifestyle pattern. Life is simplified when the anxiety that worldly ambition heaps upon us is judged unnecessary. By first pronouncing the last rites on treasures, the essentials will not appear so unobtainable. 

Anyone who has had to reduce his possessions to a minimum will have noticed the freedom that resulted. When I joined the infantry, I gave my possessions away, boarded a train, traveled to Boot Camp, and lived off the army. Just knowing that all I owned could be got into a barrack box, a duffel bag, and a suitcase was a liberating experience. I could mobilize in an instant; I was free to move at once to fulfill the duties that were given me. I had gone down from treasures to essentials, and the liberty and romance of it thrilled me. I once heard a Hollywood star tell the story about how all his possessions were burned up in a fire in California. He had become a slave to the accumulation of treasures, he said, and he vowed never again to lay them up. He claimed to want nothing but essentials from that moment forward. A similar revolution needs to take place in our lives if we are unwilling to mortify the flesh that craves treasure. At the very least, might we not strive to be minimalists? If not, how do we feel about circumstances leading to minimalist living—circumstances beyond our control? 

The passage on essentials reads like so: “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6.25-34.) This passage may be paraphrased like so: “Do not worry about the essentials, like food and clothing. Life is about more than this. Your Father in heaven will feed you. Look at the birds. He takes care of them. And he loves you more than he loves the birds. To worry does not help. The lilies do not worry. Yet they are better dressed than Solomon was. God dresses grass with lilies. Will he not clothe you as well? Stop worrying about the essentials, like the unbelievers do. Don’t you have more faith than that? Your Father in heaven knows what your needs are. Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and your needs will be met. Do not add worries to the evils you already face. Live day by day.”

The transition from the subject of treasures to essentials takes place in the last sentence of verse 24 and the first phrase in verse 25: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought.” It is assumed by Jesus that the disciple does not want to end up being cold toward God by attempting to serve both God and mammon. Therefore he should be willing to go a little farther than treasure abstinence; he should take no thought for the essentials that sustain life.

It is for the disciple who lives in an affluent country to understand what his material needs are. Of what do essentials consist? Verse 25 reads, “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”

The essentials that are mentioned by Jesus are food and clothing. A roof is implied for those of us who live in harsh climates. Yet a citizen of the country in which we live is said to be entitled to much more than this. There is hardly a limit to what socialist parties say the citizens of a country are entitled to. But the essentials for us disciples are food and clothing. It is not essential for a disciple to be above the so-called ‘poverty line.’ A person can easily live below the poverty line and still have more than enough to eat and wear. I testify from personal experience that this is true. Whatever line of poverty has been suggested by one political party or another, I have been under it. But I have not suffered any lack. It is an easy thing to spend less than $100.00 a year on clothing. I have done this without effort as an adult in a post-2000 world. I remember thinking that I could have done better. It is not essential to own a house, to have bonds, and to have money in the bank. If you believe the essentials to be something more than Jesus says they are, your mind will be plagued with worry. ‘Take no thought for your life.’

PART I, ARTICLE III: LIVING FOR THE KINGDOM; OR, A LIFESTYLE MANIFESTO, SECTION IV

Fixing the Eye on the Kingdom

The first principle in the lifestyle pattern involves the eye. We get it from these words of Jesus: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6.22, 23.) This principle is the way to subject, avoid, or get rid of, worldly treasures.

We can become divided between money and God by what we take in through the eye. The word ‘single’ conveys the idea of ‘singleness of purpose.’ What we look at influences our purpose in life. If we look at good things, the light that goes in through the eye will light up the body. But if we take in evil things, light will be shut out, and the body will dim. This is true for the individual disciple as well as for a body of disciples that make up a local church. The light of the local body is only as bright as the individual bodies that are in it. When a disciple joins a church that is in darkness, he runs the risk of having his light dimmed.  

We are accountable to God and responsible to each other for the images that we allow to pass through the eye. The ‘evil eye’ of verse 23 is the eye of covetousness and envy. We look at, then we long for, what the Lord forbids us to have. When we have done this, we have coveted; we have begun to envy. Then we prepare to serve mammon to procure the treasures that we want. By this time our body is growing dark because our eye is fixed on the world.

What is the average disciple looking at today? How numerous are the evil images that are presented to the eye! How much greater are we tempted in this than were the first disciples! How much more are we tempted to look than they? But how much might our blessing be if we can resist the more formidable temptation?

It is through the eye that the colors of the rainbow remind us of God’s ancient promise to never flood the world again. But it is also through the eye that the coat of many colors identified the favorite son of Jacob. God directs our eye to the sky; but man trains his eye on his favorite treasure. In like manner, the world wants to train our eye on its coat of many colors to extract money that is entrusted to us to further God’s designs. We have a utilitarian device called the internet that will take us around the world in seconds to offer us every treasure imaginable, and the treasure may be accessed by the push of a button from the comfort of home. Many such devices are used to bring disciples under foreign dominion. How many disciples are in bondage to devices that are under the dominion of the ‘god of this world?’

To keep from coveting through the eye, we must turn away from what worldly people commonly put before it. The television is nothing but a box of images for an evil eye to look at. Who needs it? Who should want it? Who should risk having it? To protect our light we must also turn our faces from the tempting magazine covers, and resist turning a page if the cover suggests evil intent. It is not necessary to read trashy magazines or turn to gaudy sites to get our news; much that is newsworthy someone will tell us about anyway. The conscience can become darkened if we do not guard what passes through the eye. When that happens, what is good is hardly discerned from what is evil. If we answer in the affirmative to the following questions, our light has become dim by the images that we have allowed to enter through the eye. Are we familiar with the latest television programs? Are we able to discuss their plots? Can we hum today’s commercial jingles? Do we anticipate the images that we know are between the covers of the magazine that we reach for? Is our inner eye held hostage to music videos? If we feel pangs of guilt from indulging in any of the foregoing, we are not too far gone; we may reform. If we balk at such questions, we are dark indeed; our recoiling should make us wonder at regeneration, whether we have experienced one or not. If we are Christians, we don’t mind being preached to; we know that we can do better and that our light can burn brighter. By shielding the eye from evil, we can block out the temptation to lay up treasures on earth. We can fix our eye on God’s kingdom and lay up treasures in heaven instead.

Money is the way to the treasures that we want. No matter what we covet and envy, money is the conventional medium by which to acquire these treasures. This is why the text reads, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” We serve mammon to get the things that we want. But if we shield the eye from taking in the images of the items that we covet and envy, we will not be tempted to serve money to get these treasures. Treasures on earth are objects that degenerate. But not all treasures are inanimate. To the disciple who covets the woman on the street, the immoral woman on the screen, the naughty woman on the cover of a magazine, or the nude harlot between the pages of a book, she is the object of his desire. A man will serve mammon to get the women, or at least to get pictures or movies of them. To the woman who covets the latest furniture in the ‘home magazines,’ the next pair of shoes that she does not need, or the new face that the doctor can give to her, these become the objects of her desire, and she will serve mammon to get these treasures.

Whatever image we allow to enter through the eye remains with us, maybe for life. When we look, pathways along what scientists call synapses are opened, and what we see is stored in our memory. The more often the memory is recalled, the more that particular path is trod, until the path becomes a highway. Recall an image often enough, and it becomes next to impossible to push it out of the mind’s eye. Is this not why so many people commit suicide? They brood on a lost love so much that they are tempted to kill themselves rather than live without the person that they obsess over. How tragic this is when the person obsessed over and killed for is not an ideal specimen of humanity, but just another sinner come short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23.) It would make some sense if a person committed suicide on account of unity with a perfect mate being missed. But even the prettiest people are more depraved than perfect. If we saw people as God sees them, we would desire them less and desire heaven more. That is why we need to read the Bible more, for the nature of man is therein exposed to view. It is often in the dark with our eyes closed that we review the images of the day; with the inner eye of imagination we turn the images into fantasy and immoral longing. If this will not cause a suicide, it will hinder the process of sanctification. That which is looked at can be called forth to be played with years later; this is to the detriment of God’s dominion over our lives. What we look at today matters for tomorrow. The evil eye of envy can determine for us the kind of treasures that we lay up. The negative exercise of looking away from evil frees us up to store treasures in heaven. Covetousness is perhaps the best word to define this desire for treasures that we don’t have, because right now these treasures belong to someone else. The woman might belong to another man. She might belong to the devil. She might belong to God. She is not ours.   

When envy matures inside of us, we want to be envied by others. We look. We envy. Then we want to be seen and envied. If we become dark with envy, how dark will our darkness be! In the passage we read, ‘how great is that darkness!’ How dark? We will end up hating God because he stands between us and the treasures that we want. We will try to serve both God and mammon, and we will rationalize our behavior with poor arguments and bad theology. We can easily find support for our ‘treasure on earth’ lifestyle. Almost any book chosen at random will support us in it. Almost any app on the computer will lend its helping hand. But to serve both God and money is to attempt the impossible. If we try to serve both, we will put a god before God. We will have violated the first and great commandment: to love the Lord God with the whole heart, soul, and mind. ‘Mammon’ is personified in the text (verse 24) to remind us that when we serve mammon to obtain treasures on earth, we are serving an entity, a master, a god: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Who is this mammon-god but the devil in money’s clothes? Serving mammon is idolatry. What we stare at determines who we worship.

What we gaze at becomes the treasure that we want. We get the treasure that we want by serving mammon instead of God. By this fact, we can understand the importance of fixing the eye on the kingdom. We must exhort one another by repeating the words of Jesus: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” Lay them up in heaven. Why should we do it? Because our heart will be where our treasure is, and our treasure should be where our Saviour is. How can we help ourselves from laying up the wrong treasures? We help ourselves by applying the principle of eye discipline. We can turn our head. We can refocus. We can moderate our lifestyle by changing what we look at. The light of our body depends on it. Our testimony depends on it. The degree of God’s dominion over us depends on it. Treasures in heaven depend on it. The eye is fixed on the kingdom of God when the eye turns away from treasures on earth.

How did Jesus resist envy? How did Jesus resist the urge to lay up treasures on earth? His eye did not become an evil eye of envy, because he kept his eye under obedience. His eye was fixed on the kingdom of God, not on the kingdoms of this world and what they have to offer. This does not mean that Jesus never enjoyed looking at things. Surely nobody enjoyed to look more than Jesus did, for he could see deeper into nature than anyone else. Given his parables, he was a keen observer. He fixed his eye on good things. He looked with the pure and discerning eye of a Man in perfect communion with his Father. His eye was single. His body was full of light. He is called, in Scripture, ‘the light of the world’ (John 8.12.) And even though he is now ascended from the world, he is still the light of the world through Christians who are in the world because Christians are themselves ‘the light of the world’ (Matthew 5.14.) They are called the light of the world by no one less than the Lord Jesus. If we are generously styled ‘the light of the world,’ our duty is to shine, lest we seem to make a liar of both Scripture and Saviour.  

Jesus’ body was full of light because his eye was single; it had oneness of purpose. He diffused that light through teaching. Jesus looked at people, cities, fields, trees, and birds; but he saw more than people, cities, fields, trees, and birds. Because his eye was perfectly fixed on the kingdom of God, Jesus looked out and saw spiritual lessons in the physical dimension. What do we see when we look at a lily? An orange flower with spots on it? In the lily, Jesus saw a moral that could help the disciple overcome anxiety and to trust God in a deeper way. The other day a friend saw snow crystals in the air where the sun shone just right; after thinking about it she deduced that the crystals must have been just as present where the sun wasn’t showing them. Likewise, there are more angels about us than men have ever seen: ministering spirits called ‘a flame of fire’ (Hebrews 1.7.) Light from above will make them visible sometimes, as it happened for Elisha and his servant (2 Kings 6.17.) Light lends visibility to a person whose eye is rightly fixed. I knew this man once who obsessed about the likelihood of seeing an angel. But how likely was he to see one since he was watching the Oprah Winfrey Show regularly? Oprah viewers are not the kind of people who witness angels. By fixing the eye on the kingdom, even God, in some real sense, will be seen one day by genuine disciples. How do we approach this vision while on earth? Maybe we go to church. But what church? What a world away from a vision of God are lying wonders in voodoo churches where miracles are as common and fake as dyed hair! The first thing to do to draw near to a vision of God is to get farther from illusions.         

If we are not careful to guard our eye from evil, we will never see the way that Jesus saw; we will not see the spiritual in the natural. All we will see are the treasures that we have or want. The next time you are in a store, look around and realize that every item you see has come from the earth. I was shocked when I first discerned this. All of it is nothing but soil, rock, or wood. Treasures are earthy, not heavenly. The person whose habit is to consume what is earthy is in danger of consuming darkness and becoming as earthy as what he consumes; he has no light with which to see spiritual lessons. The Christian should be so heavenly that every object he looks at yields a spiritual lesson. It is in this vein that Augustine says that the Christian should ‘heavenlize earthly things’ as much as the men of the world ‘earthlize heavenly things.’ It should become instinctive for us to do so. One day while walking down my street I saw this girl chase a boy. As she ran to catch him, she said, “Justice, I will do anything for you!” This confused me until I realized that the boy’s name must be ‘Justus.’ By then I was in a reverie about Jesus running after Justice in order to obey the law and to satisfy the wrath of God for the sins of fallen men. The Christian should be an observer more than a consumer. He should be detached from the earth, as it were, already ascending to heaven, looking down and judging what he sees by God’s heavenly Book. Indeed, the saint is on his way to becoming something akin to an incarnate angel, says Thomas Case, the Puritan. What better thing to call a fully saved saint? When the resurrection takes place, and along with it the redemption of the body, body and soul will reunite, and glorified saints will be the blessed result. Saints will be glorified; and it is not too much to say that they will be angelified.    

The issue of treasure must be brought under the dominion of God. This is achieved by obedience to the first principle of fixing the eye on the kingdom. Then one can proceed to trust God for the essentials, which is the second principle. The disciple who does not live out the first principle will hardly attain to the second.

PART I, ARTICLE III: LIVING FOR THE KINGDOM; OR, A LIFESTYLE MANIFESTO, SECTION III

Part I: What about Treasures? Matthew 6.19-24.

The first topic addressed by Jesus in this passage is treasure. This is the first stage of the lifestyle pattern. What is lifestyle without treasure? Is it not often by treasure that men make themselves known? Is it not often through treasure that men labor to feel worthy? Is it not based on treasure that many of us settle on a mate? Why does a man leave home but to find his fortune? If a man lays up for himself treasures on earth to quench his lust, is it not correct to say that he lives for the world that yields him these treasures? If the devil is the evil influence over the world’s kingdoms, is it not right to say that he who lays up treasures on earth is living for the devil? When Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world, the Lord did not deny that it was in Satan’s power to offer them in some sense (Luke 4.) Jesus knew precisely what the devil had in his power to give, whatever it was, though he knew that the devil always exaggerates his claims. The devil’s promise to Eve that she would not die was followed by her death, Adam’s death, and the death of their offspring and descendents. And this death was both physical and spiritual. So the devil is a liar, which is one of the earliest truths to be learned since the Fall of Man. Nevertheless, he is not called ‘the god of this world’ for nothing (2 Corinthians 4.4.) He is the god of this world in a comprehensive, malignant sense. There are ‘rulers of the darkness of this world…spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Ephesians 6.12.) There is ‘the course of this world’ through which ‘the prince of the power of the air’ works in ‘children of disobedience’ (Ephesians 2.2.) The devil may tempt disciples of the Lord. But he does not work in disciples like he does through his own children—the children of the devil (John 8.44.) Disciples have the ‘kingdom of God within,’ which implies the resident Spirit of God, to resist the promptings of their lusts, all the powers of the world, and the master of the world’s evil forces, the devil. They can resist the temptation to lay up treasures on earth.    

The text concerning treasures reads like so: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6.19-24.) This text may be paraphrased like so: “Do not accumulate treasures here where they will not last. But lay up treasures where they will last, up in heaven. Your heart will be where your treasures are. Your eye is a window through which light comes in. So look at what is heavenly and wholesome, and your whole body will light up. But look at what you lust after, and you will grow dark with envy. If your light is darkness itself, how dark are you! No man can serve money and God together. If he tries, he will vacillate. He will go back and forth between God and money; and the danger is that he will end up hating God. You cannot serve both God and money.”

This radical message is extremely challenging. The teachings of Jesus confront the lies of Satan; and they challenge Christians to live consecrated lives. The message contained in this passage is about as far as one can get from the ‘prosperity gospel.’ Those who preach that God promises material wealth point out that Jesus spoke much about money. What they do not tell us is that Jesus used the subject of money to teach spiritual lessons that are a world away from financial promises. His kingdom is not of this world. So often, neither are his blessings. The text singles out for us a life of simplicity. If we are not weighed down with the kingdoms of this world, how easy it is and how buoyant do we feel! The more we plan to carry, the greater our care; the more we acquire, the heavier we feel; the more we are persecuted, the greater our loss. A man with nothing to lose is not afraid of losing all; a man with much to lose is so afraid to lose that he can’t relax. The man that Daniel Defoe based Robinson Crusoe on was Alexander Selkirk. After more than four years alone on a deserted island, “the man frequently bewailed his return to the world, which could not, he said, with all its enjoyments, restore to him the tranquillity of his solitude” (John Howell, quoting Sir Richard Steele, who met Mr. Selkirk and talked with him, The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, p. 126.) Confessing still further, Mr. Selkirk said, “I am now worth eight hundred pounds; but shall never be so happy as when I was not worth a farthing” (Ibid., p. 127.) Eight hundred pounds was a lot of money in those days, especially considering, if it’s true, that the British pound has lost over 99% of its value since 1750, thirty years or so after Selkirk died.      

In spite of the many times that the Lord mentioned money during his ministry, we find that the exhortation to abstain from treasures is consistent throughout his teachings. ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth’ is an unrelenting theme that easily disproves the opinion that Jesus recommended or promised material wealth. For instance, on the surface, The Labourers in the Vineyard (in Matthew 20) teaches us to be content with the wages that we have agreed to work for, regardless of what others are being paid. On the deeper level, the parable is about reward for service for those who are effectually called and a lesson on the sovereign right of God to distribute goods and grace as he sees fit. On no level at all are treasures on earth promised here. The Parable of the Talents (in Matthew 25) is about future accountability for how we use our opportunities, resources, and means of grace. Again, no earthly treasures are promised. The Two Debtors (in Luke 7) is about gratitude to God as the mark of having been pardoned. But no treasures are promised. By The Parable of the Unjust Steward Jesus teaches the ‘children of light’ to make friends with the ‘mammon of unrighteousness.’ Even here we find no license to lay up treasures on earth. We know that there is no such license because of the reaction that these words elicited among Pharisees:  “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him” (Luke 16.14.) The parable is about being as wise in the welfare of our soul as a shrewd man might be in worldly affairs. The parable right after this, if we may call it a parable, is the example of the consequences of serving mammon in the place of God. The ‘rich man’ selfishly ate his fill while Lazarus suffered hungry at his gate, for which manner of life the rich man was condemned to a miserable end in a ‘place of torment.’  The abundant life that Jesus came to give by dying is eternal life, not prosperity on earth (John 10.10.) The truth is that ‘a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 19.23.) There is a pronouncement of woe for those who live for treasures: “But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation” (Luke 6.24.) When Zacchaeus told Jesus that he was giving half his goods to the poor and making restitution at a heavy price, Jesus replied, “This day is salvation come to this house” (Luke 19.9.) About John the Baptist, Jesus said, “But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses” (Matthew 11.8.) The ‘certain rich man’ of Luke 12 planned to build bigger barns to store his treasures in, and his soul was required of God, and not for good. Such are some of the chief instances of our Lord’s teaching on money. When Jesus spoke about money, he was not teaching about money. He spoke of what men esteem in order to teach the way of grace. He spoke of unrighteous mammon in order to lead men to his own righteousness, which may be appropriated without price, by faith alone. Right after pronouncing salvation to Zacchaeus, Jesus pointed to himself as the agent of salvation: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19.10.) When Jesus was asked to arbitrate an inheritance, he warned of covetousness (Luke 12.13-15.) We do not go to Jesus for things of the world, but to obtain a passage to another world. The prosperity gospel is ‘another gospel.’ The appropriate action to be taken against those who preach it is this one: “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1.9.) Prosperity preachers may, and should, be shunned and abandoned just like that. If any of them come back repenting, we rejoice over lost sheep being found, and we help to turn them to the Lord for sure this time for a saving reception.        

It is more blessed to give than to receive; and it is better to have nothing to give than to be all out for gain. There is a kind of person who gives, moreover, but not from a gracious heart. There is such a thing as giving all that you have and yet not being any further ahead with God: ‘it profiteth me nothing’ (1 Corinthians 13.3.) Counterfeit philanthropy is not limited to misguided monks of the Middle Ages. How many among us give to charities, thinking to help pave our way to heaven by doing so? How many of us who give even check to see if we are giving to honest, prudent charities? I even heard on Radio Canada (where truth seldom gets to voice its opinion) that ‘institutionalized charities’ are corrupt. Giving is often nothing but a handmaid to stealing. Giving, in any case, is not a sure sign that grace from God has been received, that saving faith is in possession, and that the giver is on his way to heaven. Providing is the best form of giving. If a man, presumably an able-bodied man, does not provide for his household, he is not to be reckoned a man of faith, but ‘worse than an infidel’ (1 Timothy 5.8.) So while giving will not save, refusing to provide is a mark of unbelief. The more difficult it is for a man to provide bread, the less time he has for treasures on earth, which have a tendency to occupy the mind so much as to imperil the soul. If people are overtaxed, however, they may become depressed and even desperately melancholic, which is another snare leading to its own sins and fatal end. The poor man is just as lustful to get and spend as the rich man is lustful to accumulate. Poor people typically spend more on lottery tickets than do the better off. And many of these people are not lazy, but of that segment called the working poor. In a country whose government takes 30-50% of a citizen’s earnings off the top, then 5-10% of what’s left in sales tax, more thousands each year in property tax and gas tax, more still to cover sham pensions, and still more in other ways like the carbon tax, it is safely said that even a business owner may have a hard time getting by and that few people should feel obliged to give. It is a blessed thing that philanthropy is not a way to heaven since overmuch is taken by the government already. And it is a blessing that the inability to amass treasures or to pay the bills may lead to a search for God’s pearl of great price instead: the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13.46.) Once a man understands that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a pearl to possess, not a fable to dismiss, his frame of mind should be such that he will sacrifice everything in view of seeing, by faith, the sacrifice of Christ for his sins; of having the righteousness of Christ laid to his account; and of finding himself on the sure and safe passage to heaven. The kingdom of heaven must be owned before it can be entered.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” This is the beginning of the passage in question. No matter how little or how much we own, that little or much might mean more to us than God. Possessions may alter into treasures; and subsequently, transform into idols. I have often read or heard this passage on treasures reduced to something like this: “Own what you like, just do not allow your possessions to push God from the center.” A statement like this allows the disciple to be ambitious to a fault, and to ignore his conviction that to pursue wealth is to walk away from the Lord’s kingdom. It seems like a clever way of allowing treasures on earth to be laid up, after all. There are treasures that vie with God for dominion over one’s life. The preacher may avoid reference to what exactly a disciple should and should not own. But still he is duty-bound to say that a sinner must give up whatever stands between him and God, whether in between as an obstacle to faith, or whether in between as an obstacle to growth. The question might not merely be, “What can a person do to prevent his possessions from becoming treasures?” It might be this more radical one, “What should a person give away to eradicate the temptation that possessions pose?” The convicted sinner knows what he must give up. Maybe God will be so merciful as to use a thief to help him do it. Today I heard about an old man who was swindled out of his retirement savings. He was planning to buy a condo in Palm Springs with his $800,000.00; but he lost all this money to a crook. It must be a painful blow to be cheated out of all that hard-earned money. What a heavy burden to be made so light! But what if this money was the man’s obstacle to faith? What good would it do for a man to go from Palm Springs on his way to hell—from a balmy climate to a place on fire? 

What were the treasures of the average disciple to whom Jesus spoke? Did the disciple have two cloaks instead of one? Did the fisherman own a boat? What treasure does the Lord convict us of laying up? What do we need besides a roof to live under, a mode of transportation to get to work, access to the acquisition of knowledge, some food, and clothes to wear? One day while sitting in the kitchen, I was startled by a loud thud out in the yard. Then I heard a man hollering and cursing as if the world were coming to an end. Because loud cursing in the French language sounds like an emergency requiring an ambulance to be called, I thought that the man had at least run over a kid. So I ran outside as fast as I could to see what the matter was. To my shock, the disturbed man had merely backed his car into his truck. I was awed at how upset he could be about two hunks of used metal. Were this man’s vehicles not his treasures? I know this other man whose brand new truck was rear-ended while sitting at the lights in front of a mall. When next I saw him, he showed me the bumper that had to be replaced on account of the collision. Standing not more than two feet behind the truck, I told him that I could not see the dent. I bent down, and still I could see nothing. It just looked like a new bumper on a new truck. The man then used his finger to point to a depression in the bumper that a deerfly could not have filled. Canadian deerflies are notoriously large. But compared to a bumper they are nevertheless tiny. This truck was this man’s treasure. Before it had a chance to rust, he replaced it with a new one, and then that became his treasure. I know a third man whose car was backed into by another car while he was sitting at an intersection. What did this man do? To the relief of the offending driver, he simply gave her a nod, and both drivers went on their way as if no accident had occurred. The man did not even step outside to check for damage. His car was not his treasure. It was posing no problem to his soul. 

How many sinners, among them professing Christians, pursue lives of sport to obtain treasures on earth? What more befits an object that ‘rust doth corrupt’ than the medal that is received on the podium? This is a medal, by the way, that is so worthless that a thief would get almost nothing for it if it were melted down. Would Daniel and his three friends bow down to the Olympic gods to receive a medal? Would Paul run a race to obtain a corruptible crown? Would the son of Zadok run for sport? ‘Intoxicating’ is the adjective used by a young Olympian to describe what it feels like to compete in the Olympics. The corruptible prize, as worthless as it is, is intoxicating to win. This is reason enough not to pursue it. A man seeking God’s pearl of great price will be intoxicated by drafts of the Holy Ghost. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5.18.)

Not long ago—just a few decades—men were paid thousands of dollars a year to play sports. Now they play for millions, and even tens of millions. The evil of hedonism is contributed to each time we watch these millionaires and cheer them on. How many similarities could be drawn between the Roman Coliseum of the first century and our hockey and baseball stadiums? We may be easily struck by how unspiritual the life of sport is by imagining the apostles Peter and John going to enjoy an evening at the Coliseum. How absurd is the picture? Time spent watching sports are moments that we treasure in our mind. These memories are our treasures. That is why we get so excited when we talk about them. Treasures are things that we cling to that we have no need of. A man polishes his memories just as much as another man polishes his car. We go over the games that we saw in order to keep our treasured memories from fading. This preoccupation is not in line with praying ‘thy kingdom come.’ Looking forward to a hockey game is like hoping the kingdom will wait awhile.        

The Son of God never laid up treasures on earth. When he went back to heaven, no one had to go to his house to sort out his treasures and to distribute them. He never owned a treasure and he had no house to store them in. Jesus demonstrated that the kingdom to live for is the one that is not of this world. His only treasure was to do his Father’s will. His heart was where his treasure was: with his Father in heaven.

Jesus warns, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” How can the heart be with God while the person is surrounded by treasures on earth? Treasures on earth draw and maintain our attention. They encourage us to live for the world and not for God. Treasures are laid up to be enjoyed later. But so often the soul is required of God before the treasures can be enjoyed. When treasures are laid up in the yard, are we not gratifying ourselves in the prestige of ownership? Do we not take pleasure in being envied for our treasures? Treasures must be laid up in heaven, where disciples are certain to go—where disciples will be given an eternity to enjoy what is laid up. I know of a woman who, while knowing her death was imminent, was anxious to have her son trade his rusting vehicle in for a newer one. She had a profession of faith. But is that faith genuine which concerns itself with appearances and corrupting treasures at the point of death?   

It is hard to distinguish children of the kingdom from children of the devil these days. Professing Christians often complain that there is no way to stand out and be noticed for the sake of the gospel. Should our lack of treasures not be a distinguishing mark? What message do children receive from Christian parents who are laying up treasures on earth? It is right to doubt the worth of religion that is without distinction, without moderation, without abstinence, and without sacrifice. There is such a thing as to have religion choked by the ‘deceitfulness of riches’ (Matthew 13.22.) A man whose religion is choked bears no fruit. Is that sinner who bears no fruit regenerated by God? Is God such a husbandman whose boughs are fruitless? “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away” (John 15.2.) One time an ailing doctor came to visit me. His household of three was seriously ill and worsening. Indeed, two members of that household died of their diseases a couple of years after he came to see me. During his visit he told me the sad story of how he had tithed to his church for decades, only to have his church give him the cold shoulder when he came to it for help. He called that church ‘a mile wide and an inch deep.’ What does a church fitting this description have but rootless members? That which has no root yields no fruit. That which bears no fruit is not fit for the Lord. The Psalmist calls it ‘chaff’ (Psalm 1.) 

Jesus identifies treasures as objects that deteriorate or that can be stolen. But he does not identify the treasures that we are to lay up in heaven except to say: ‘lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.’ Treasures are laid up in heaven by obedience to whatever Jesus commands, for example, in Matthew 25.35-39: feeding the hungry and giving the thirsty drink; clothing the poor; visiting the sick and imprisoned. It is that religion which we find commended in the practical book of James. This is mistaken today for feeding lazy thieves; giving money, needles, and even drugs to drug addicts; voting for politicians who let impenitent criminals out of prison before their terms are served; and voting, through these politicians, for judges who let criminals off the hook even for the most heinous crimes. Works like these are not treasures laid up, but trespasses that we need pardon for. Instead of identifying treasures in heaven, Jesus commands obedience to his teachings. The question is not, “What are these treasures that I am to lay up in heaven?” Nor is it so much, “How exactly do I lay them up?” The question is, “What lifestyle is required from the disciple who is commanded to lay them up?” Or, “What principles can I employ that will enable me to lay up heavenly treasures?” 

If the lifestyle commanded by Jesus is lived out, the disciple will be laying up treasures in heaven. Godly lifestyle must align with the works that we do for God. Our lifestyle affects our work. It reflects our work. One time I phoned a Christian man’s house in order to find out how his ailing son was getting on. The woman who picked up the phone shrieked at me about how they were too busy to answer my question. In truth, she could have used fewer words to answer my question than she used to rail at me. Do as many things for God as we will, our works will not become treasures in heaven if lifestyle is askew. A person will never be secure in the knowledge that he is doing the work that God has for him to do if the way he lives is different from the pattern laid down by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has a certain lifestyle for the disciple to live because works are not good if wrought in a miserable temper. From God’s perspective there is to be little distinction between our Sabbath habits and our week away from church (assuming that Sabbath habits are what they should be.) Spiritual life is daily life in fellowship with God. A pattern for living is needed for the whole week. The pattern is needed to keep the disciple from living a divided, inconsistent life. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

PART I, ARTICLE III: LIVING FOR THE KINGDOM; OR, A LIFESTYLE MANIFESTO, SECTION II

The theme of the passage that I have chosen to call, Living for the Kingdom, is widely and firmly upheld by the rest of the New Testament. This ethical passage is for members of the Church today. Its principles are presently applicable.

In Matthew 6.19-34 we have instruction from Jesus on the lifestyle of a disciple. The climax of the passage highlights the pattern’s aim, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6.33.) There are two topics addressed in the lifestyle pattern: treasures and essentials. For each one a principle is given by which to bring about the desired end. These principles are: fixing the eye, and fixing the mind. Disciples of Jesus ought to live lives that reflect the dominion that God is said to have over them. They are commanded to live under God’s dominion, in light of his kingdom to come. By properly fixing their eyes and mind, God’s will may be done in their lives, his blessed dominion may reflect outward to onlookers, and his kingdom will be made attractive to at least some of the sinners who are eating, drinking, and making merry on their way to hell. 

Before looking at the passage of which Matthew 6.33 is a part, an important qualification must be solicited from another part of Scripture. In Acts 5 the right to private property, and therefore of its disposal as the owner sees fit, is unmistakably affirmed. Ananias and Sapphira are not reproved for not giving all their property away, but for lying about doing so. “Whiles it remained, was it not thine own?” A justification for confiscation cannot be gotten from Scripture ‘whiles’ Acts 5 remains a part of the New Testament. Any law requiring any person to give anything that he owns is not a biblical law. Persuasion is the only medium that the New Testament endorses with respect to what a Christian should or should not own. There is an obligation to pay taxes; that is another matter. A Christian may become as rich as he wants to become. No one has the biblical right to stop him. The question is: Should he pursue this course? A Christian may pursue this course in order to procure the means to bless the less fortunate. The question is: Is he really motivated by a desire to relieve the poor? A Christian might become rich by way of inheritance, reward for service in his calling, or even by accident. The question then is not: How should his money be wrenched from him? The question is: What is the Holy Ghost prompting him, through his devotional exercises, to do with his gains? And what progress is he making, while rich, in a religious sense? Are millionaires more attached to, or more detached from, their Bibles? We all know the answer to that question. You know of an exception? The exception proves the rule. Televangelists are rich; but they are, for the most part, prosperity promoters, not Bible teachers. These Bible wavers are seldom Bible lovers; and rarely are they ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8.17.) Televangelists are not entirely bad; no one is; this is why my remarks on them are qualified. As wrong on eschatology as Jack Van Impe was, nonetheless he was used by the Lord to draw me into God’s kingdom.

PART I, ARTICLE III: LIVING FOR THE KINGDOM; OR, A LIFESTYLE MANIFESTO, SECTION I

 

After spotting neat divisions between subjects in the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, I stopped to develop what I discerned was a manifesto for living the Christian life. The basic teaching in the passage that I worked up contains the doctrinal incentive for minimalist living. Practical necessities make minimalist living somewhat idealistic in a climate as cold as Canada is. But a pilgrim on his way to heaven should at least appear to be a sojourner more than a settler because the kingdom that he is a member of, is, as the Lord says, ‘not of this world.’  

Introduction

‘Kingdom’ is an enormous biblical theme. It is a multi-faceted subject that does not yield to a linear framework. The dominant kingdoms of the Old Testament are Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Israel, and Judah. The dominant, nearly exclusive, kingdom in the New Testament is called the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. These two terms may have particular and associate definitions; but they are generally interchangeable. We can be certain of this: The New Testament kingdom is the sphere of God’s dominion over his creatures, his special dominion in the hearts of his children, and the future rule of God everywhere and everlastingly. The kingdom is internal; the kingdom is external; the kingdom has come; the kingdom is present; and the kingdom is yet to arrive. All of this is true; all of this is relevant. The disciple of Jesus Christ is under the dominion of God, not only as a creature, but as a child through saving grace, anticipating the establishment of his government around the world in the hearts of his elected ones, and then everywhere else, in one form or another, in the never-ending hereafter. The literal one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on earth that some Christians look forward to is likely not going to happen, as this belief seems insupportable. I used to believe in a literal reign on earth of that duration. Though I do not believe in it anymore, I am not dogmatically opposed to the possibility that I am wrong. It would be naïve to say otherwise, for even to the most serious Bible student, and maybe especially for him, the minutiae of eschatology is, if not more fluid than fixed, then fluid to a degree at least. And yes, even one thousand years is a minor matter compared to the full scope of history and the Lord’s everlasting reign. In any case, this article is not about eschatology, but about living for the kingdom right now, regardless of whether or not we are headed for a thousand years of peace on earth before the final separation between good and evil occurs at the judgment. Right now a disciple has the kingdom of God inside him, which is in continual conflict with sin, the world, and the devil; he strives to live for God’s kingdom in light of the fact that everything that is presently opposed to it will soon be entirely beaten down and forever put away. 

“Neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17.21.) This is the kingdom to be acquainted with. Lo! can it be found inside of us? Lo! are we conscious of God’s dominion in our soul, especially as we live in the midst of, and as we face, the godless kingdoms of this world? “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1.11.) Immediately preceding this verse is a warning to diligently make sure that we have, indeed, been called to faith in Christ. And preceding this are the fruits by which we may test the authenticity of our profession of faith. Have we been elected to glory by grace? Have we begun to live for God through faith in Jesus Christ? If virtue has been added to our profession, plus knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (verses 5-7)—and if we have been extricated from worldly corruption (verse 4)—then the kingdom of God does indeed reside inside of us, and we shall have ministered unto us an entrance into God’s glorious kingdom. It behooves us to make sure that we are on our way toward ultimately entering in. The kingdom of the beast is full of darkness spiritually. Because of this it will be full of darkness judicially (Revelation 16.10.) Unless the kingdom of God gets inside of us, our kingdom must be of this beastly character, and our destiny will be to endure darkness forever.          

In the Old Testament, a kingdom on earth is promised by God to Israel; for many years, though intermittently and to various degrees, the children of Israel enjoyed it. In the New Testament, the Son of David offers the kingdom of God (salvation) to Israel with the words, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4.17.) The Jews, refusing to turn from their sins, rejected their King, and the Scriptures say that “through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Romans 11.11.) Thus it was that the New Testament Church was born into God’s kingdom. This turn of events was neither accidental nor reactionary. Why is Abraham called the father of the faithful? (Romans 4.16.) Genealogically, Jesus of Nazareth, the object of faith, may be traced back to Father Abraham. It was prophesied that through Abraham ‘all families of the earth’ would be blessed (Genesis 12.3.) The blessing comes through Jesus Christ, who loved, initiated, and gave himself for, the Church (Ephesians 5.2, 25.) 

Dispensationalists are wrong to assert that Jesus was extending a political kingdom to Israel when he declared that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The kingdom that Jesus offered was ‘not of this world’ (John 18.36.) This is why when certain men attempted to ‘make him a king,’ he ‘departed’ (John 6.15.) It had been prophesied that he would be a sacrificial victim, not a revolutionary. The Jews did not see this in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. The Messiah they had in mind was not one who would be compassed by dogs, pierced in his hands and feet, despised and rejected, and forsaken by God. The Messiah they looked for was not one who would be wounded for the transgressions of others and led as a lamb to the slaughter. They were not hoping for that kind of Messiah. The Jews were wrong in the Messiah they hoped for; the Dispensationalists are wrong in what they say the Messiah offered and the Jews rejected. Jesus did not offer a political kingdom; and the Jews did not reject the setting up of one. The kingdom at hand through the ministry of Jesus was the kingdom of God within, which could only be obtained through the miracle of regeneration.     

Entrance into the kingdom is by the new birth. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John. 3:3.) The reign of God within is a new beginning for penitent sinners born into God’s kingdom. The sinner who is born again today, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, becomes a member of the Church, under God’s dominion, and will enjoy the kingdom of God everlastingly, subsequent to the great judgment. This kingdom is spoken of from the Gospels to Revelation. Persons who have received the Spirit and who are led by the Spirit are called ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:17.) Heirs participate in a reign: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him [Christ Jesus],” wrote Paul to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:12.) The apostle Peter called the elect of God ‘a royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 1.2; 2:9.) So these heirs are both royal and holy. “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:5, 6.)  

Near the close of Revelation, the apostle John discloses some final thoughts about this reign; unfortunately, his words have often been taken inflexibly and superficially, because out of context.  “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20.6.) These ‘thousand years’ may seem, on the surface, like a specific reference to a distinct theocratic-political reign on earth for a particular amount of time. And this ‘first resurrection’ seems literal as well. However, since the book of Revelation has been falsely interpreted, even by cautious exegetes, for two thousand years, we should have become wise enough by now, when treating this last book of God’s word, to focus on principles more than seasons and times. We should be especially wise after so many predictions have been proven false since the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948 and since the Six-Day War of 1967. Both of these dates have been used by prophecy pundits as watersheds from which to predict when all the ‘last things’ of Revelation will occur. By the reckoning of so many ‘end-time’ aficionados, we should by now be enjoying the reign of peace on earth with Jesus ruling from the sacred city. If we were to go back near the brink of 2000 A. D., take these prognosticators seriously, and then come back, we should right now be on the other side of a Y2K disaster, the rapture, and the great tribulation, enjoying worldwide peace through a blessed rule of iron from Jerusalem. Listen to old recordings of Jack Van Impe, for example, and see. During the mid to late nineties, I listened to him regularly. I remember well what this man taught. Has anyone been raptured? Has a millennium of perfect peace begun? No, but what is happening? Through political malfeasance, Europe is being invaded by Muslim migrants; half the population of America is resisting a Constitutional president (Donald Trump); Canada, through its Liberal prime minister (Justin Trudeau), is determined to be as socialist as Cuba and as post-national as Germany; the globalists are behind it all, overruling national sovereignty everywhere they can; and the peoples of Europe and North America are at risk of being economically crushed by the rising cost of sustaining border jumpers and by being made to pay additional taxes through hoaxes like global warming. Why are Western countries being flooded with uncivilized migrants? On the surface it’s about politicians collecting a voting bloc and foolishly supposing that uneducated, opportunistic third-world people will peacefully assimilate and one day contribute more money in taxes than they cost the taxpayer. Below the surface it’s about financial corruption and blackmail. On another level it’s about God using the invasion as a method to judge Westerners for their sins of blasphemy, idolatry, abortion, adultery, fornication, perversity, and acts of wickedness generally. Western nations have become, practically speaking, atheistic. If God demonstrated his intolerance of idolatry and polytheism in Old Testament times, why should we believe that he will tolerate practical atheism today? If we live as if God doesn’t exist, why should God permit us to prosper, endure, or even survive? We are not basking in a matter-of-fact millennium of peace; the millennium of worldwide peace is not at the door, near the door, or approaching the door. It seems more rational now, to read the Bible as if an imminent rapture and a subsequent thousand year reign on earth are imaginary. The kingdom of God is not a millennium of absolute peace on earth, and probably not a literal millennium. We should consider other options of how to interpret such events as great tribulation, the first resurrection, and a thousand years. Whatever one might believe concerning the ‘great tribulation’ that recent prophecy experts have no doubt misinformed us on, there is a kind of tribulation that each and every Christian must prepare himself to face. We like to gather up and stack promises from the Bible, don’t we? Why not claim the following one? “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16.33.) Tribulation should mark the Christian, and authenticate his profession of faith. There is such a thing as to have companions in tribulation (Revelation 1.9.) The kingdom of God is through tribulation’s door (Acts 14.22.) Until we figure out what the ‘great tribulation’ of Revelation 7.14 refers to, and even after we think it to be figured out, we had better be focusing on this other tribulation that we know for sure that Christians are promised to have to suffer through. Otherwise we will be undone when calamity strikes or when we are attacked for being Christian; in fact, without preparing for, and experiencing, tribulation, we shall be discomfited if the ‘great tribulation’ happens during our lifetime. As for the ‘first resurrection’ of Revelation 20.6, is it true that it refers to the dead in Christ rising first, and immediately after that every living Christian? (1 Thessalonians 4.16, 17.) We should grant that resurrection often means regeneration in Scripture, and that therefore it might be possible that this resurrection is called ‘first’ in Revelation 20.6 in order to distinguish a spiritual resurrection (regeneration) from the actual resurrection of the body that must happen later. There are many verses to choose from to show that to be risen is not always to have one’s body given life from the dead. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3.1.) To seek those things which are above, we must be still below; indeed, the Colossians were not risen from the dead bodily when they received this letter of exhortation. They had been regenerated, born again from being spiritually dead. Each regenerate sinner should be seeking those things which are above, as the church at Colossae was encouraged to do. In consideration of the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20.6, we should know that the book of Revelation is of the apocalyptic-allegorical genre, as is much of the book of Daniel, and as are sections from the book of Isaiah. The book of Revelation is by nature figurative. Therefore, just as the lion eating straw like the bullock (Isaiah 65.25) might be meant figuratively, as denoting, not a change of palate, but a transition from instability to peace (examine the context and see), is it not possible that the thousand years of Revelation 20 could mean something else than a number of years that make up one thousand? In Scripture, a lion does not always mean a lion. Jesus is called ‘the Lion of the tribe of Juda’ (Revelation 5.5.) Is it not possible that the lion of Isaiah 65 is not a real lion? A lion eating straw is about as improbable as the promise that we shall literally ‘tread upon the lion’ and the ‘dragon’ (Psalm 91.13.) Who supposes that he will tread on actual lions and dragons? Obviously, we do not need to advert to apocalyptic texts in order to prove the use of figurative speech in Scripture. But why stop at the Psalms? Job 9.3: “If he will contend with him [God], he cannot answer him one of a thousand.” If by this thousand is meant an actual thousand times, we can answer back to God the time after that, and we can prosper by doing so. The number thousand here is plainly meant to inform us that we can never successfully contend with God. If God owns ‘the cattle upon a thousand hills’ (Psalm 50.10), does this mean that the cattle on the rest of the hills are not at his disposal? The number thousand in this verse signifies ‘everything.’ In the same vein, ‘a day in thy courts is better than a thousand’ (Psalm 84.10) is a way of pointing to an infinite number. The same is true of the ‘thousand generations’ mentioned in Psalm 105.8. Could the one thousand years in Revelation 20 not be figurative, then? Maybe it isn’t. But couldn’t it? A glance at the number thousand in the concordance should convince anyone that the figurative use of that number could be shown to occur ‘a thousand times’ in the Bible. Is it necessary to tell the reader to take this last sentence figuratively? A child reading his Bible might think that Saul slew his actual thousands, but that David slew his actual ten thousands (1 Samuel 18.7.) But the adult knows that this is part of a song that certain women sang because they favored David over Saul. The Holy Ghost never intended anyone to believe those numbers were actual. If the number thousand is used figuratively even in a historical book, will we not grant that the number could be used figuratively in the most figurative book in the Bible? We are gone aside, in any case, if all we can see of the kingdom of God is a thousand year reign of peace on earth. Prophecy programs have led us for years to believe things that have not, and will not, come to pass. Maybe one of those things is the kingdom of God on earth in the sense of this literal millennium of peace. When we see the modern prophecy seers failing in their predictions, why do we not question their mode of interpreting Scripture? Jack Van Impe (nicknamed ‘The Walking Bible’), in his own indirect but emphatic way, predicted that Juan Carlos, former King of Spain, was the Antichrist in waiting. That prophecy never materialized, and it never will. Could the great Jack Van Impe, along with his companions in trade, have errantly interpreted Scripture? Isn’t it wise to distrust a man’s use of Revelation if that man has falsely predicted that the King of Spain would be the Antichrist and that his performing this role was so imminent as to be at hand, even at the door? This king abdicated in 2014. It seems certain that he will die before fulfilling the role of Antichrist. Jack Van Impe and other Millenarians were wrong about the Antichrist, the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, Babylon, Armageddon, and so on, but especially the Millennium.   

The persons who are said in Revelation 20 to ‘live and reign with Christ a thousand years’ are persons who were ‘beheaded’ for the witness of Jesus (verse 4.) They are disembodied. The emphasis here, then, is living and reigning with Christ in heaven, not on earth. So the thousand years is likely a figurative period of time to indicate a reign in heaven while matters come to their conclusion on earth. ‘The first resurrection’ of verse 6 right here refers to regeneration: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” This kind of resurrection (regeneration), then, suits these disembodied souls of verse 4: “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded.” These disembodied souls have no resurrected bodies yet. The souls of these persons have been regenerated; but their bodies have not been resurrected. They will get their bodies back after the thousand years (in heaven) have ended, at which time the Lord will come back to judge the quick and the dead. So what is the ‘first resurrection’ that ‘the second death’ has no power over? (verse 6.) It is regeneration. What is the second resurrection? It is the resurrection of the body. “He, therefore, who would not be damned in the second resurrection, let him rise in the first” (Augustine, The City of God, 20.6.) Resurrection sometimes means regeneration in Scripture. And at least once regeneration means something else than being born again (Matthew 19.28.) Recognition of distinctions like these helps to clear up our foggy understanding of Scripture, not the least of which includes our hazy view of eschatology. “The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called the Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies” (Augustine, The City of God, 20.7.) Why does it speak of beheading in Revelation 20? It may be a general term to indicate the disembodiment of souls upon death. And it certainly denotes a mode of death that many Christians were suffering in the first century when John’s apocalyptic letter was written. John the Baptist was beheaded. James the brother of John was beheaded. The apostle Paul was beheaded. And so we see how encouraging this Revelation must have been to the Church in that day. These disembodied souls were now safe in heaven with Jesus Christ for a thousand years; that is, until the consummation of things on earth. And of course this good news implied to Christians then living that they had an everlasting consolation to look forward to, no matter how they died or no matter how they were martyred. Upon death these Christians, for a thousand blessed years, would join in voice with the martyred throngs in heaven: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6.10.)        

I once believed that heaven itself would be interrupted to usher in the millennium of worldwide peace on earth. In fact, this very article was of that opinion before this revision of it years later. I had used the following quote from Oswald J. Smith, an author/hymn writer, to lend support to my belief: “I used to think I would some time die and go to Heaven, there to be with God throughout Eternity. Now I know that I am to spend a thousand years upon this earth....” (The Voice of Prophecy, p. 65.) I used to think as Oswald Smith thought, but now am convinced that we both were wrong. As Christians going about to live for God, we ought to be charitable toward our fellow believers, for there is nothing more likely than that we, at some point in our pilgrimage, will err concerning the nature and timing of God’s kingdom. The Church is a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2.9.) Even members of this royal nobility will disagree amongst themselves about when they will actually take possession of ‘all things’ (1 Corinthians 3.21) and what these ‘all things’ are.     

That God will increase his kingdom and establish it broadly is certain. How can the future be otherwise with an omnipotent loving God? But life on earth might never include a literal millennium of peace on earth. Tares and wheat, or infidels and converts, grow together in mixed multitudes until the end. “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13.30.) The former tries to choke out the latter as the latter strives to receive light and heat from above. The devil interrupted the dominion that God gave to Adam and Eve; under the permission of God, Satan subsequently assumed a qualified, controlled authority over the kingdoms of the world; and the kingdom of God grows gradually in the world nevertheless, on the strength of what Jesus Christ accomplished in his life and on the cross. Indeed it has grown particularly and significantly since Jesus’ ministry on earth, as we know from Church history, among the Gentile nations. This historical fact informs the clause about the devil in Revelation 20.3: ‘that he should deceive the nations no more.’ And so the promise to Abraham has been in the process of fulfillment: “In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3.8.) This is the growing kingdom of God, even among heathen nations all over the world. This kingdom will become as filled as God has ordained from eternity, until near the end of the world when the devil is permitted to deceive the nations one last time for ‘a little season’ (Revelation 20.3, 8); in other words, to cause widespread apostasy among Gentile nations where the gospel has been, by thousands and even millions, received in former times. This Adversary opposes the dominion of God, and has only one battlefield where he can, with God’s permission and to a degree, be victorious. Even his victories, however, happen through the will of God to accomplish what God has ordained to happen from eternity past. Whatever the devil thinks to have won will become ‘the chaff which the wind driveth away’ (Psalm 1.4), while for the saints it will be finally seen, not merely believed, that ‘all things work together for good’ (Romans 8.28.)  The devil’s warfare is directed at the kingdom of God in the daily life of each disciple. The saint’s faith in Christ is more or less perfected depending on the degree of his resistance to Satan, and his perseverance to live up to his holy titles of priest and king under God. That all things work together for good does not mean that each disciple does as good as he could. “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3.14, 15.) It is much more important that we live for the kingdom—and that we live for it as obediently as we can—than to be bothered and busied about its future location and duration. To live in light of the kingdom is to live for our King.   

The lifestyle practiced by the Christian demonstrates the dominion that God has over him. If the Christian does not live as the word of God orders him to live, God’s dominion is not only less surrendered to than it should be, it is less visible in the eyes of the sinners that the Christian hopes to draw into God’s kingdom. A testimony may be a verbal statement; but it is, more importantly, a daily exhibition. 

“And his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9.10; Psalm 72.8.) Whether this verse points to a worldwide administration of peace for a thousand years, or to the introduction of the gospel into the world, in either case the children of God are presently under the rule of God in a world of evil. As I said, I will not dogmatize against the possibility of a future worldwide rule by God in the person of Jesus Christ for a thousand literal years on this present earth; however, right beside Zechariah 9.10 is a prophecy whose fulfillment is now long past, of a certain King riding ‘upon a colt the foal of an ass’ (verse 9.) As foretold by the prophet Zechariah, “Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written” (John 12.14.) If our chief concern should be the demonstration of God’s dominion over us, then his dominion from one end of our heart to the other should be the kingdom that we are most concerned to establish. Any kingdom that is yet future will not refuse to come while we are occupied with extending the one inside of us. 

The kingdom of God is within each follower of Christ. When speculating on the kingdom of God ‘to come,’ are we not standing in need of hearing what Jesus told the Pharisees? “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” he said. “Neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17.20, 21.) This does not mean that there is no kingdom other than this internal one. Jesus’ use of absolute language, though, means that this inner kingdom so concerns us that it is as if no other kingdom exists that we should be paying attention to. Only through our possession of this kingdom will we possess any other. Present ownership is the beginning and evidence of the eternity of peace that will follow. As Christians, we have an inheritance within us. Shall we appear to the world as heirs waiting for a kingdom to be ushered in? Or shall we also look as though our kingdom has come? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed the subject of present lifestyle with respect to future glory. The Sermon is not the gospel for the lost, and not a rule of life for a kingdom to come, but an ethical code—a code of conduct—for disciples presently. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as in heaven” (Matthew 6.10.) There is a kingdom to come as well as a kingdom within. But how may we help God’s will to be done until the future kingdom comes? We get the will of God done by doing his will—by obeying the rules that are explicitly imparted to the heirs of God. By the parable of the pounds, Jesus taught his disciples to occupy in light of his return. Jesus, like ‘the nobleman’ in the parable, was about to go ‘into a far country’; that is, up to heaven, maybe for a long time, maybe for a ‘thousand’ years. “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, occupy till I come” (Luke 19.13.) The kingdom to come is a couple of thousand years closer than it was in the days of the first disciples. But like they did, we must occupy as conscientiously as we can while we patiently wait for the consummation of this probationary period. No generation of Christians, perhaps, than the one that is now passing away, has been more convinced that it would witness Jesus return bodily from heaven to set everything right and to start off a literal thousand years of peace on earth. No generation has produced more books on prophecy that have been so wrong. If this generation of Christians had really been living for the kingdom, such books would never have been read, much less believed.

PART I, ARTICLE II: COUNTING THE COST, SECTION VI

Counting the manifold cost of being a disciple is the dark side of following the Lord, if it may be called that; it is a parcel of truth that is as lost, especially in the West, as the lost tribes of Israel are falsely supposed to be (Acts 26.7; James 1.1.) Moreover, prospects like privation, excommunication, desertion, and persecution are not as attractive to sinners as are promises of wealth, health, acceptance, miracles, and popularity. Worldly ministers who accumulate income and admirers instead of steadfast followers of Jesus Christ, have themselves not counted the cost in the way that a would-be disciple should. Their final reward will not be a pass into heaven, but the penalty of hell. Their sole purpose will be to magnify the justice and holiness of God by their perpetual burning in brimstone. And they, being blind leaders of the blind, will magnify these divine attributes more than most, and from the deeper, hotter parts of hell. Any sinner who has taken the Christian label in order to have something of the world to count, be it money, approval, admiration, or what have you, will be unveiled as an opportunist who should have counted the cost instead. False professors, if they know themselves so to be, have the Bible and prayer for their means of grace unto salvation. If they will not turn to these means and to godly sermons also, then the next best thing for them to do is to renounce their profession of faith, give up whatever sins they are able to turn from without the special grace of God to assist, and live as morally as they can in their own strength. This is different from working for salvation, and incurring debt thereby (Romans 4.4.) No doubt debts will pile up even without trying to merit salvation by good works. But renunciation of Christianity is better than the Christianity of pretence, and may contribute to a mitigation of misery in hell. “Nor do we know the measure of the ‘riches of God’s grace and mercy;’ how far he may think fit to exert it beyond the conditions and promises of the new covenant, at least to the lessening of such a person’s misery in another state” (Bishop Burnet, A Discourse of the Pastoral Care, p. 134.) That is to say, the less a person sins, the less he will be punished; if he throws off his hypocrisy, his hell will be less hellish. What we profess and how we live are matters that will affect us forever. There are degrees of status to come for the saved; there are degrees of torments to come for the damned. Equality of outcome is an ungodly, impracticable, socialist daydream; this is why it will have no place in the divine system of adjudication. Belief will be weighed against infidelity, hypocrisy against apostasy, merits against demerits, and good deeds against bad.    

Disciples are called the ‘salt of the earth’ by the Lord (Matthew 5.13.) They are a good savor to society; they preserve the morals of a nation. Like salt that has lost its savor, conversely, a false disciple is less than useless; tasteless and preserving nothing, he will be cast out. He is like the lukewarm Laodicean, of whom the Lord says, “I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3.16.) He is good for nothing, in the end, not even for a dunghill. His kind of salt “is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out” (Luke 14.35.) An impulsive professor of faith who neglects to count the cost is a professor with a heart of stone, not flesh. He is not the salt of the earth. He is so far short of being a good savor to society and a moral preservative, that he is not even fit to fertilize the ground. When a faithful preacher sows his gospel seed (Luke 8.5), therefore, and a good plant springs up, the yield will not be on account of any dead salt that was cast in with the fertilizer. The professor of faith who has not counted the cost will have had nothing to do with any good result from his own evangelism or anyone else’s. He needs himself to be evangelized. But he is a hypocrite; and a hypocrite hates nothing more than to be told that he is not a father in Israel, even though he is not born again, much less a babe in Christ. He needs to be saved; but he takes it as an insult if you tell him so. 

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” How can a tower get finished by someone who only thinks he’s building it? Or to ask a question by the use of the next illustration in Jesus’ argument: How can a person win a war when he only thinks he’s in the fight? Or to ask one by the use of a figure of speech from Paul: How can a person win a race who only fancies himself a runner? The warning to count the cost is for persons who have not been born again; it is for the purpose of preventing sinners from becoming hypocrites: from becoming twofold more the children of hell than they presently are (Matthew 23.15.) The warning is also a stimulus to Christians—for them to be pricked to live up to their profession. It would do each disciple good to be driven by the Spirit to count the cost from every conceivable angle. ‘Lead us not into temptation’—this is our prayer. But ‘help us to make our calling and election sure’—that should follow. If that prayer is answered, either our hypocrisy will be exposed, or we will gain a blessed assurance of salvation. With assurance or without it, it is certain that a dedicated life of separation from the world and sin is the way of laying up treasures in heaven. The more dedicated the life, the more treasures laid up; the more treasures laid up, the more rewards and responsibilities hereafter; the more of that, the more joy in, and glory to, God.     

The absence of privation, excommunication, desertion, and persecution in the life of a professing disciple is something that should make him suspicious of the state of his soul. In the apostles’ time, some payment would soon be exacted for professing Christ. Whether the cost has really been counted may be harder to determine in a time of peace and prosperity. With peace and prosperity, however, come declension in churches; in the setting of a declining church, the true disciple will be found out, and he will be defied and defamed. The world, moreover, will show its hatred of him, if not by throwing him to the lions, then by obstructing his way in whatever arena he sets his foot in. There is always a way to tell if you have counted the cost.

PART I, ARTICLE II: COUNTING THE COST, SECTION V

Persecution 

In 2018, our Canadian Liberal government denied summer jobs grants to professing Christians and moralists. The prime minister accomplished this persecution by requiring all applicants to declare that they respect abortion and an assortment of other evils, which conscientious pro-life advocates would not do. Even though there have been times when the persecution of saints has been minimal, as in this case of denying grants, the norm is persecution of a more extreme degree. Men are born in sin. They are born with a proclivity to commit sin. It is consistent with their sin nature to take offense at calls to repent, the presence of righteousness, and especially Spirit-filled preaching of an apostolic character. Therefore there is persecution. 

Silence from God in a trying time is the worst thing that a saint can endure. Desertion, then, is good preparation for persecution; persecution, in turn, is the surest way out of desertion. It is the surest way, because then the face of God is sought as never before. The saint is likely to hear the voice of God during persecution more than at any other time. Of persecuted brethren on their way to grisly deaths, John Foxe relates, “The faithful proceeded with cheerful steps…the others [who had denied the Saviour during tortures] went on dejected, spiritless, and forlorn” (John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Volume I, p. 686.) Infinitely better is it than hell, to suffer desertion by God and persecution at the hands of men on our way to heaven, especially considering that where severe persecution begins, the comforting presence of God is more likely than at any other time. “But there shall not an hair of your head perish” (Luke 21.18.) The meaning is that all things work together for good for persons for whom death is termed ‘sleep in Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 4.14.) For them the sting of death has been absorbed by their Saviour; it is as if they do not die, Christ having died in their place. If they are martyred, they are merely put to sleep, as it were, so safe for a good eternity that even the hairs of their heads are accounted for. If the would-be disciple counts the cost, even the hairs of his head will be counted by God both here and hereafter, and each one preserved.        

Shedding blood is a popular response to preaching, and the presence of God in, or about, saints. It was popular before the time of Jesus Christ, even ‘from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias’ (Luke 11.51.) It has been popular since Jesus Christ prophesied tribulation to his disciples. “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Luke 21.17.) All four gospel records include some version of this prediction. Persecution is a cost that every would-be disciple should count on. We used to laugh and scoff in our platoon room at the possibility of going to war. The idea seemed absurd. About a dozen years after that, men from that very platoon (not me) were fighting in Afghanistan. Saints can go from enjoying peace to suffering persecution just as surprisingly as that. Our churches would be persecuted much more than they are if our pastors actually preached the gospel, and reproved sin as boldly as John the Baptist did just before he was beheaded. We are not greatly persecuted; the reason is that our gospel is not greatly preached. In fact, it is hardly preached. What is our gospel nowadays but something other than a Christological proclamation? A gospel without Christ is no gospel. And what is no gospel but a false gospel? What are pastors without a gospel but false prophets? Imagine the uproar if, after so much niceness and negligence among pastors, a bold man of God began suddenly to preach as he ought? Cowardly pastors make it hard on faithful preachers who, we hope, are on their way. 

Much persecution is going on in the Middle East against professing Christians: in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq particularly. Their villages are destroyed; their livelihoods are rendered impossible to practice; some are kidnapped and raped; others are tortured; multitudes are slaughtered. Only alternative media sources report on this because as far as the mainstream media is concerned, that which calls itself Christian is deserving of persecution of whatever sort and to whatever degree. Moreover, when Muslims are the culprits, mainstream media outlets not only ignore the crimes, but cover them up if they are exposed. As near as I have been able to tell, these professing Christian sects who are being persecuted, though, are not much different in belief and practice from Roman Catholicism. What a pity to suffer persecution for being merely nominal in the Christian Faith! Sadly, it appears that nominal faith is generally the case with persecuted members of these sects. A church member is not likely to believe above the standard of his church; therefore, if the standard is heretical, the member is likely a beguiled hypocrite. A theory of salvation by ceremonies, rituals, and works is not effectual for getting to heaven merely on account of persecution being appended to one’s life. Perfunctory prayers in Mary’s name will get the sinner nowhere near the kingdom of heaven. Rosary beads and Mary are poor substitutes for faith and Jesus Christ. What good are substitutes like those when no one but Jesus bore ‘our sins in his own body on the tree’? (1 Peter 2.24.) Jesus took the place of sinners; he is the sole substitute for them. He who prays through some other substitute than Jesus has no faith in what the biblical substitute did. If he does have faith in Jesus, why does he continue to pray to Mary? While reading through an old book from 1842 about a mission of inquiry concerning Jews in Israel in 1839, I came across some interesting, though not surprising, facts regarding churches of the superstitious, ritualistic, liturgical kind. There is an anecdote in there of a man, mistaken for a Jew, who saved his life only by agreeing to kiss a picture of the Virgin. This persecution by monks is an example of the satanic hatred that can creep into a soul through the adoration of Mary—Mary, a holy woman who has been made into a perpetual virgin-goddess by counterfeit Christianity. “The professing Christians here—Greeks, Armenians, and Roman Catholics—are even more bitter enemies to Jews than Mahometans; so that in time of danger, a Jew would betake himself to the house of a Turk for refuge, in preference to that of a Christian. How little have these Christians the mind of Christ! Instead of His peculiarly tender love for Israel, they exhibit rooted hatred, and thus prove that they are Anti-christ” (Andrew Bonar & R. M. M’Cheyne, Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839, p. 149.) In Lebanon, ‘Greek priests threw obstacles’ in the way of a man attempting to settle on the land to evangelize (Ibid., p. 169.) Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism are squabbling, persecuting sisters, not sisters in the Christian Faith. False beliefs yield persecution, not good fruit. In her stunning account of growing up in Lebanon during the war there in the 1970s, Brigitte Gabriel tells about how she was indoctrinated to hate Jews. She is of the Maronite persuasion, which is a Roman Catholic sect. How much the Maronites contributed to this anti-Semitism, she does not say. But it is obvious that her religion did not counteract the aversion to Israel that had been instilled in her; only by a true experience of Israel’s kindness did Brigitte realize that she had been brainwashed. “The [Israeli] doctor treated my mother before he treated an Israeli soldier lying next to her because her injury was more severe than his. The Israelis did not see religion, political affiliation, or nationality. They saw only people in need, and they helped” (Brigitte Gabriel, Because They Hate, p. 77.) Religions whose adherents are brainwashed to hate Israel are little connected with, much less rooted in, the Bible. They have not been schooled to count the cost of loving the heritage that Christians are said to be grafted onto. “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee” (Romans 11.18.) Persecution of Israel does not agree with being grafted onto its stock. 

When counting the cost, the would-be disciple must count on being persecuted; if he becomes a disciple who persecutes, it is likely that he has counted the cost amiss, and is a false professor of faith. And if a disciple happens to be persecuted for nothing but his profession, which profession is false, how foolish he is! No one pretends to be a social conservative at a convention of violent leftists. The person who professes faith but has none is even more foolish than a man pretending to conservatism, for he adds to whatever faults he is guilty of, the grand fault of being a spiritual hypocrite, and greatly increases the judgment that he will receive for his hypocrisy. Hypocrites “take away the gospel’s good name. Therefore the Lord reserves the most deadly arrows in his quiver to shoot at them. If heathens be damned, hypocrites shall be double-damned. Hell is called the place of hypocrites (Matt. 24.51), as if it were chiefly prepared for them and were to be settled upon them in fee-simple [unconditional inheritance]” (Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, p. 69.)                      

During times of terror, some persons are glad to run toward death rather than live any longer on a loveless earth. Had France’s Reign of Terror continued for much longer, some historians allege that despairing citizens would have begun to line up, without being ordered to do so, to have their heads taken off. A young widow, says Du Broca, “being come to the foot of the scaffold, she ascended the steps with resignation and even unaffected pleasure. She received the fatal blow [of the guillotine] without appearing to have regarded what the executioner was doing” (H. N. Moore, The Reign of Terror, pp. 241, 242.) This is like the Christian martyr tripping along to the stake because the Holy Spirit has endued him with a lively sense of imminent hope. Anecdotes like this one from the French Revolution are not rare; but there is no reason that I have been able to find to believe that such victims were Christians. This woman, the narrative shows, was merely anxious to follow her husband, who had been killed some time before. Being glad in the face of death is no sure sign of being a saint. Since our uncritical churches have adopted the habit of crediting faith at the faintest hint of some parallel with Scripture, this observation is not casually annexed.

The average pastor is not fond of being known as a Protestant; he does not protest what Protestants once protested against and does not want anyone to be turned off by an ‘intolerant’ spirit. Reformers are now broadly regarded as men who took doctrine too seriously. If Reformers are mentioned in our churches, it is usually only generally done. A pastor will sometimes mention a Reformer in his sermon in order to make a show of historical knowledge or to keep his congregation awake. But mark how careful he is to avoid telling why exactly the Reformer was persecuted or burned alive. How seldom will he drop an excerpt like this: “I believe that the Holy Supper of the Lord is not a sacrifice, but only a remembrance and commemoration of this holy sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore it ought not to be worshipped as God, neither as Christ therein contained; who must be worshipped in faith only, without all corruptible elements. Likewise I believe and confess that the Popish Mass is the invention and ordinance of man, a sacrifice of Antichrist, and a forsaking of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that is to say, of His death and passion; and that it is a stinking and infected sepulcher, which hideth and covereth the merit of the blood of Christ, and, therefore, ought the Mass to be abolished, and the Holy Supper of the Lord to be restored and set in his perfection again” (J. C. Ryle, Five English Reformers, pp. 65, 66.) This is the kind of belief that the Reformation was about. This is what John Hooper was burned for believing and professing. This is what being a Protestant is. The Reformation was not about being persecuted for beliefs that a Christian can afford to be ignorant, open-minded, or undecided about. Salvation hinges on doctrines that are in conflict with the Roman Catholic Mass. “Rather than admit the doctrine of the real presence of Christ’s natural body and blood under the forms of bread and wine, the Reformers of the Church of England were content to be burned” (Ibid., p. 27.) It is offensive to be this frank and graphic in the account of a Reformer because Transubstantiation is still Rome’s dogma, and so-called evangelical pastors commonly fraternize with Roman priests as if they are brothers in the same Christian Faith. They extend the right hand of fellowship in spite of the fact that Transubstantiation denies the finished work upon the cross, which final, sufficient act is a doctrine necessary to salvation, if any doctrine is. So the pastor will mention the part about the martyr’s death and perhaps a funny story about him if that can be found, but will include nothing about why he was excommunicated and burned and what the significance of these things are. Pastors who pal around with Roman priests as if their Mass is not a denial of Christ’s once and for all sacrifice upon the cross, are not Protestant Christians; and they are not evangelicals, though this is what they are called. The lamentable truth is that the conduct of so many of our pastors is more in line with how priests live than the lives of the heroes they quote for effect. They have not so much as counted the cost of losing a popish priest for a friend. If these pastors and their pals, the priests, are brothers in the same faith, that faith is not Christian, and therefore not saving faith.