Tag Archives: A.W. Pink

1 Corinthians, Theology

Twin Implications of Original Sin

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Having examined the doctrine of original sin, along with some of the more common objections levied against it, we turn now towards two implications that flow naturally from this neglected, yet profoundly significant Scriptural teaching.  These twin implications are the Doctrine of Total Depravity and the Doctrine of Total Inability.

As with original sin, these daughter doctrines are usually objected against strongly.  Often, some will affirm original sin, yet emphatically deny her two offspring, certainly an inconsistency, but perhaps most likely the fruit of failing to think deeply on the things of God.  Bear in mind, though I’m using the word doctrine rather freely, it shouldn’t be thought of as academic, high-browed, or otherwise reserved for the theologian.  In a sense, we are all theologians (students of God, i.e. disciples) and doctrine is simply shorthand for the “teaching of Scripture” as in 1 Timothy 4:16.

The much maligned doctrine of total depravity refers to the influence that original sin has had on an individual’s human nature, specifically corruption.  We can think of it like this, if we have a glass of water and add to it a drop of cyanide, the entire glass is polluted.

Is it as polluted as it could be?  No.  It certainly could be at a higher percentage of cyanide, but it is nevertheless polluted, completely.  Could you spoon out a little corner of the water that was untainted?  No.  Some have summarized total depravity as corruption, “not in degree, but in extent”.  Additionally, all of our faculties have been corrupted, from our exterior bodies and members to our interior thoughts, will, and desires.

Biblically, Romans 3 is the locus classicus on total depravity:

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

I’ve discussed this passage elsewhere, particularly the trajectory that the Apostle moves along from the mind, to the mouth, to the hands.

A.W. Pink summarizes:

The doctrine of total depravity is a very humbling one. It is not that man leans to one side and needs propping up, nor that he is merely ignorant and requires instructing, nor that he is run down and calls for a tonic: but rather that he is undone, lost, spiritually dead. Consequently, he is “without strength,” thoroughly incapable of bettering himself; exposed to the wrath of God, and unable to perform a single work which can find acceptance with Him. Almost every page of the Bible bears witness to this truth. The whole scheme of redemption takes it for granted. The plan of salvation taught in the Scriptures could have no place on any other supposition. The impossibility of any man’s gaining the approbation of God by works of his own appears plainly in the case of the rich young ruler who came to Christ. Judged by human standards, he was a model of virtue and religious attainments, yet, like all others who trust in self-efforts, he was ignorant of the spirituality and strictness of God’s Law, and when Christ put him to the test his fair expectations were blown to the winds, and “he went away sorrowful” (Matt. 19:22).

As to the doctrine of total inability, this refers to man’s incapacity to improve his standing with God through his own efforts, will, or exercise of his volition apart from the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to renew the heart, changing both the affections and the will.  When God says in Ephesians 2 that man is dead in his trespasses and transgressions, this implies the doctrine of total inability.  Dead men cannot choose God.

To clarify a common misconception regarding the will, man still retains his “free will”.  He is not a robot.  However, his will is consistently bent towards sin.  He is so comfortable in it, he lacks the desire to do anything otherwise.  In his own, unregenerate “free-will” he cannot and would not choose God, a total inability.

Turning again to Pink we read:

Fearful indeed are the effects of this darkness. Its subjects are rendered incapable of discerning or receiving spiritual things, so that there is a total inability with respect unto God and the ways of pleasing Him. No matter how well endowed intellectually the unregenerate man may be, what the extent of his education and learning, how skillful in connection with natural things, in spiritual matters he is devoid of intelligence until he is renewed in the spirit of his mind. As a person who lacks the power of seeing is incapable of being impressed by the strongest rays of light reflected upon him, and cannot form any real ideas of the appearance of things, so the natural man, by reason of this blindness of mind, is unable to discern the nature of heavenly things.

If we misunderstand Original Sin and subsequently Total Depravity and Total Inability we misunderstand grace, ultimately the Gospel.  It is a front line issue.  A failure to understand the sinfulness of man and rightly explain it in a biblical manner has been a great malady throughout the history of the church.  The remedy is coming face to face with the holiness of the Sovereign God.

For more see these posts:

http://voiceoftruthblog.com/sermon-total-depravity-voddie-baucham

This post summarizes several posts, including answering some key objections brought against it.

http://voiceoftruthblog.com/summarizing-total-inability

 

Book Reviews, Devotions

Take Heed What you Read

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An appropriate follow up to the post Christian Nominalism and the Christian Bookstore:

By Arthur W. Pink 

“Take heed what you hear” (Mark 4:24): the word “hear” obviously includes what is read, for that which is written or printed is addressed to the ears of our intellect. Few people today realize the urgent need for “taking heed” unto what they read. Just as the natural food which is eaten either helps or hinders the body—so the mental food we receive either benefits or injures the mind, and that, in turn, affects the heart. Just as it is harmful to listen to the rubbish and poison which is being served from the great majority of present-day pulpits—so it is exceedingly injurious to the soul to read most of what is now being published. “Take heed what you hear” and read! But let us seek to be more specific.

The only thing which is really worth calling “religion” is the life of God in the soul-commenced, carried on, and consummated solely by the Holy Spirit. Hence, whatever does not bear the impress of the Spirit’s unction, should be rejected by the Christian: for not only can unctionless messages do us no good—but what proceeds not from the Spirit—is of the flesh. Here, then, is the test which God’s children ought to apply unto all they hear, and here is the balance in which they should weigh all that they read. True, there are varying degrees of the Spirit’s unction. As it is in the natural so it is in the spiritual—there will be a varying amount of wetness from the faintest moisture of dew—as compared to the copious shower. As there had to be “salt” in every sacrifice (Lev. 2:13), so every discourse or article proceeding from the Spirit’s aid, is “seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6). But O how very much today is devoid of spiritual savor and flavor!

Some of God’s dear people may suppose that it would be presumptuous to set themselves up as judges of what they hear or read—but that is a serious mistake, being both a false humility, and a shirking of duty. The Apostle rebuked the Hebrews because their senses (spiritual faculties) were not developed so as to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:13). With as much reason, might it be termed pride for anyone to pass judgment upon the groceries or meats purchased from the stores. Others may ask, “But how are simple and unlearned souls to distinguish between the different religious publications of the day?” Very simply: in sampling your natural food how do you determine whether or not it be seasoned? By your natural taste, of course. So it is spiritually: the “new man” has a palate too! If the God of creation has given us natural palates for the purpose of distinguishing between wholesome and unwholesome food, the God of grace has furnished His people with a capacity, a spiritual sense, to distinguish between nutritious and unwholesome soul food.

“Just as the mouth tastes food—the ear tests the words it hears” (Job 34:3). Does yours, my reader? Are you as careful about what you take into your mind—as what you take into your stomach? You certainly ought to be, for the former is even more important than the latter. If you eat some material food which is injurious, you can take a purgative and get rid of the same; but if you have devoured mental food which is injurious, it stays with you! “The ear tests the words it hears.” Again, we ask, Does yours, dear reader? Are you learning to distinguish between “letter” and “spirit;” between the “form” and the “power;” between that which is of the earth and that which is from Heaven; between that which is lifeless and unctionless and that which is instinct with the breath of God? If the answer is ‘No’, then you are greatly the loser.

How many of God’s dear children listen to the automaton “letter” preachers of today, and yet find nothing suited to the needs of their poor souls! And how many are subscribing for one magazine after another, hoping to find that which will the better furnish them to fight the good fight of faith—only to be disappointed? What they hear and what they read does not penetrate and grip—it has no power—it neither breaks down nor lifts up—it produces neither godly sorrow nor godly joy. The messages they hear or read, fall upon their ear like an idle or twice-told tale—it completely fails to reach their case or minister to their needs. They are no better off after hearing a hundred such “sermons” or reading through a hundred such periodicals, than they were at the beginning! They are no farther from the world—and no nearer unto God!

It is often a long time before God’s children are able to account for this. They blame themselves; they are exceedingly loath to say, “This message is not of God.” They are afraid to act in the spiritual, as they do in the natural, and condemn and discard that which is worthless. While they feel a lack of power in the sermons they hear, or the articles they read, and while their souls steadily get dried up like a potsherd—they are slow to realize that this is the inevitable effect of the unctionless preaching they listen to, or the unctionless literature they read; and that such dryness and leanness of soul is inevitable—by their association with unhumbled and empty professors. But in due time God opens their eyes, and they see through the flimsy veil and discover that both the sermons they hear, and the literature they read—are only the product of a dead profession!

Ah, it is a great thing when once the Holy Spirit teaches a soul—that it is power which is lacking from the lifeless preaching and lifeless articles of dead professors. It is power which the renewed soul seeks—a message which has power to search his conscience, to pierce him to the quick, to write it upon his heart; a message which has power to bring him to his knees in broken-hearted confession to God; a message which has power to make him feel that he is “vile”; a message which has power to drive him to Christ, for the binding up of his wounds, for Him to pour in “oil and wine,” and send him on his way rejoicing. Yes, what the renewed soul longs for (though at first he knows it not) is that Divine message which comes to him “not simply with words—but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction!” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

Sooner or later, every Christian comes to value “power,” and to count as worthless, whatever lacks it. It is by Divine power, that he is taught in his own soul, by which he is made to feel acutely his sinnership, his carnality, his beggarliness. It is Divine power working in his heart—the same power which brought Christ again from the dead (Eph. 1:19, 20)—which draws his affections unto things above and makes his soul pant after God “as the deer pants after the water brooks” (Psalm 42:1). It is this Divine power working in him which reveals to his burdened spirit the Throne of Grace, and causes him to implore mercy and to seek grace “to help in time of need.” It is this Divine power working in him, which makes him cry “Make me walk along the path of Your commands—for there I find delight” (Psalm 119:35).

Those who are partakers of this Divine power (and they are few in number) can never be satisfied with a powerless ministry, either oral or written.

“Those who live according to the flesh—have their minds set on what the flesh desires,” (Romans 8:5). They are charmed with oratorical eloquence, catchy sayings, witty allusions, and amusing illustrations. On just such “husks”, do the religious “swine” feed!

But the penitent prodigal can find no nutriment therein! Men “of the world”—and they may be graduates from some “Bible Institute” or possessors of a diploma from some Bible Seminary, now styling themselves “preachers of the Gospel”—will speak of the things of the world and “the world hears them” (1 John 4:5). But those who are seeking to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling” obtain no help therefrom, yes, they perceive clearly that such sermons and periodicals are “broken cisterns, which can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

“Take heed what you hear” and read! More than forty years ago the saintly Adolph Saphir wrote, “I think the fewer books we read—the better. It is like times of cholera, when we should only drink filtered water.” What would he say if he were on earth today and glanced over the deadly poison sent forth by the heterodox, and the lifeless rubbish put out by the orthodox? Christian reader, if you value the health of your soul, cease hearing and quit reading all that is lifeless, unctionless, powerless, no matter what prominent or popular name be attached thereto. Life is too short to waste valuable time on that which does not profit. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of the religious books, booklets, and magazines now being published, are not worth the paper on which they are printed!

To turn away from the lifeless preachers and publishers of the day—may involve a real cross. Your motives will be misconstrued, your words perverted, and your actions misinterpreted. The sharp arrows of false report will be directed against you. You will be called proud and self-righteous, because you refuse to fellowship empty professors. You will be termed censorious and bitter—if you condemn in plain speech—the subtle delusions of Satan. You will be dubbed narrow-minded and uncharitable, because you refuse to join in singing the praises of the “great” and “popular” men of the day. More and more, you will be made to painfully realize—that the path which leads unto eternal life is “narrow” and that FEW there are who find it. May the Lord be pleased to grant unto each of us—the hearing ear and obedient heart! “Take heed what you hear” and read!

 

Book Reviews

Book Reviews for February 2012

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Below are some short reviews from books I’ve recently finished.

Backslider – Andrew Fuller

This short book, by Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) showed up as a recommended read on Amazon.com while I was looking for another book of a similar theme.  I was surprised to find out that Charles H. Spurgeon “did not hesitate to describe Fuller as ‘the greatest theologian’ of his century.” Fuller was widely considered by others to be the greatest Baptist theologian of the 1800’s.  In his short work, Fuller wastes little time in expounding on his theses, “The Backslider: it’s nature, symptoms, and means for recovery.”  If the reader didn’t realize this was a work over 200 years old, reading chapter 1 would’ve seemed like an address for the modern day Church.  Fuller states, “professors [of Christianity] are continually falling away from Christ; either totally, so as to walk no more with him [Christ], or partially, so as greatly to dishonor his name.”  This assertion is no doubt evidence of today as well.  Fuller points out it is, “the work of a faithful pastor to strengthen the diseased, to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, to bring again that which is driven away, and to seek that which is lost.”  As he  begins his dissection of the varieties of backsliding, he emphasizes that backsliding “originates in a departure of heart from him [God].”  Andrew Fuller goes on to describe the nature of backsliding before delving into some of the symptoms and effects.  He concludes his brief work by summarizing means to recovery from backsliding which begins with reading the word of God, especially those passages that relate to the backsliders current situation, i.e. Jeremiah 2, or Psalm 25, 32, 38, 51, and 130.   To Scripture reading, Fuller wisely (and biblically) suggest the addition of prayer.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but as he points out they “mutually assist each other.”  A second means of recovery is reflection upon the “circumstances of thine offences”, while thirdly Fuller recommends reflecting on “the goodness of God in having hitherto borne with thee.”  As he works through this final chapter, he adds 5 more helpful suggestions for backslider recovery, each of which are rooted in Scripture.  Overall this is a highly recommended, extremely helpful book for not only the backslider or one who has backslidden but everyone who is wondering how best to bring backsliders back.  James 5:19-20 

Saving Faith (Kindle Edition) – A.W. Pink (1886-1952)

Saving Faith is an excerpt of Pink’s larger work Studies on Saving Faith and was assembled by www.monergism.com. It is available as a free download from their site.  Let me just say that after reading this book, I most likely will purchase the expanded version because of Pink’s writing style, pastoral care, and brilliant exegesis.  This was the first book I’ve read of the classic books of Pink and it’s easy to see why he is such a well thought of theologian.  I will admit, I was a bit confused with Pink’s direction at the beginning of Saving Faith, but this could be due to its extraction from a larger work.  This difficulty hinged on Pink’s definition of saving faith and its distinction from counterfeits.  Boiling down his argument and exegesis true saving faith is a product of regeneration, or being born again.  The counterfeits, or those who possess non-saving faith, “are willing for Christ to save them from hell, but are not willing for Him to save them from self.  They want to be delivered from the wrath to come, but they wish to retain their self-will and self-pleasing.”  Once Pink established his thesis and drew distinction between the various “types of faith” this book soared.  In my opinion, what Pink seems to be addressing is the “no-Lordship Controversy” that was sparked and dealt with severely by Pastor John MacArthur several years ago.  Essentially, this viewpoint states that one can have Christ as Savior, but need not submit to Him as Lord of their lives, thus dividing Christ through an unbiblical distinction.  Perhaps the term had not been coined yet when Pink wrote his work, but I cannot help but see this as a potential audience he’s addressing.  Perhaps best summarizing his position, Pink draws distinction between 3 groups of people identified in the Old Testament: 1) Heathen Gentiles 2) National Israel 3) Spiritual remnant Israel (see Romans 9:6).  He then draws parallel to John’s Gospel 1) Hardened leaders of the nation (scribes, Pharisees, priests and elders) 2) Common people who “heard Him gladly” 3) Those who received Him as their Lord and Savior.  In using these examples from the Old and New Testament, Pink compares them to those of today: 1) Those who make no profession at all 2) Those attracted to Christ in a natural way, i.e. not openly antagonistic 3) Those “few” who deny themselves and take up their cross daily.  Pink goes on to say that counterfeits to genuine saving faith can often be more than a historical knowledge or head knowledge of Christ, but nevertheless falls short of being a quickening and saving faith.  If you’ve ever preached or taught to a wide-variety of people, this distinction is important because it seems so many people fall into the second group, yet have not been born again or truly saved.     

The Reformed Faith (Kindle Edition) – Lorraine Boettner

This short book is available for free download from www.monergism.com and provides a succinct, yet well-developed introduction to the reformed faith, or more commonly called Calvinism.  Boettner begins his study with a discourse on the sovereignty of God, then proceeds to discuss man’s totally helpless condition, Christ’s atonement, and the foreknowledge of God.  He likewise addresses some common objections in the form of passages that appear universalistic and then contrasts the common, widespread Arminianism beliefs with the subject of his work, Calvinism.  Many people are probably once like I was and at the very mention of the word Calvinism are immediately repulsed and reject it as a system invented by man.  The problem is, most, like I did, do not fully understand what it is.  Simply put, Calvinism was a point by point response to 5-points of beliefs laid out by the Remonstrants (The 5 Articles of Remonstrance), followers of Jacobus Arminius.  Those points, known as Arminianism, were rejected and considered heresy at the Synod of Dort (1618).  The subsequent response was the Canons of Dort, or more commonly called the 5-Points of Calvinism.  This debate between the two sides has been well chronicled throughout Church History and continues to this day.   It should be noted that this senate, verdict, and response occurred more than 50 years after the death of Calvin, so those who view him with disdain because of Calvinism, do so erroneously.  Boettner has written a very helpful book that provides a good introduction into the biblical basis for the 5-point response.