"I ALONE AM LEFT!"

The great prophet Elijah’s challenge in the 9^th Century B.C. parallels the historic time in which we live today. In 1 Kings, Elijah went head to head with Ahab, the King of Israel:¹

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17)

Elijah had the boldness to respond:

“I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals.” (1 Kings 18:18)

Elijah proceeded to challenge Ahab to a contest on Mount Carmel to determine who Israel is to follow—the Lord God or Baal. But prior to the contest Elijah confronted to the people of Israel:

“How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.” (1 Kings 18:21-22)

But wait, didn’t Obadiah mention that there were 100 prophets of the Lord left from Jezebel’s killings (1 Kings 18:4, 13)? Where are they now? They were hidden away, leaving only Elijah with the adamant determination to stand up to the evil King Ahab.

Even when the challenge on Mount Carmel was won by the Lord God and he had escaped the evil Jezebel and the death threat she placed upon him for having executed her prophets of the false god, Baal (1 Kings 18:40), Elijah still believed he was the only one left of Israel’s’ faithful—stating it two times:

Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:10 & 14)

But the Lord encouraged Elijah that there was still work for him to do, that he was not alone in his struggle to counteract the evil influence upon his people, Israel. He went on to reveal to Elijah His provision during this challenging time:

“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)

The Present Perilous Parallel  

Elijah, the prophet of God, was faithful in standing up before his people, demanding that they decide who they are going to follow: the Lord God, or Baal, the false god worshiped by their evil King Ahab.

The tragedy today in Christianity is that many have decided not to follow the true God of the Bible and instead to syncretize their beliefs with the dictates of cultural trends. They have done so for a number of reasons. But mainly they desire to placate and ingratiate themselves with the unbelieving public in order to gain approval and avoid societal ostracism and persecution. Denominations that embrace this do so to attract the unbelieving element of society into joining them—to fill the pews and (more importantly) to fill their coffers—all the while providing them with entertainment, sermonettes (lacking doctrine) and the false sense of being ‘close to God.’ 

Those who have chosen to follow the Lord God, as Elijah did, should ask themselves these questions:

• Are we concerned about the false concepts that have filtered into Christianity: the social gospel; the entertainment church movement; the gospel of wealth and personal prosperity; or the Emerging Church movement?

• Do we believe that there is only a handful of Christians remaining who truly believe in historic Biblical Christianity?

The fact of the matter is that throughout the ages Christians have always been confronted with ostracism and persecution from the unbelieving culture. In this post-Christian world of the 21^st Century there are similarities with the pre-Christian world of the 1^st Century A.D. Like today, the world leaders then did not rule with Godly values. They committed cruelties upon those who opposed them: martyrdoms, tortures, imprisonment, even Christians slain as sport in the Roman Colosseum.  

The Church of Rome was also guilty of such cruelties to those who differed in their doctrines or were un-believers. They spearheaded a number of brutally vicious Inquisitions—the most notable were the Medieval Inquisition of the 12^th and 13^th Centuries; the eradication of the Cathers (1350); the 15^th Century Spanish Inquisition; and the slaughter of the Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy (1545).

It wasn’t until after the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th Century that Christianity was able to rise above the oppressive and corrupt Church of Rome. This led to the upsurge in the spread of the gospel of the grace of God. Millions were saved apart from the legalism of the Church of Rome. Christianity’s influence within the culture was realized in a profound way: the morals and legal system of many countries’ was based on the Ten Commandments. It would be naïve to assert that Christianity was embraced by all, yet it was a predominant influence in Western Culture for centuries until the 20^th Century and the rise of the skepticism of Post-Modernism.

Since God has concluded His prophetic ministry like that in Elijah’s day, we who maintain faith in Biblical Christianity are now ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) and witnesses (Acts 1:8) of Jesus Christ. So the pertinent question today is: Do we have the tenacity of Elijah to stand up to those Christians who have allied themselves with this debased culture? As ambassadors of the truth we have a responsibility to confront the erring brother in Christ:

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19–20)

Confronting them should be done in a compassionate manner: “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). But our encounter with them should be forthright and direct: “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but not this wicked culture.”

A Final Thought

We do not have the right to grumble and ask: “Am I alone left, a witness of the Lord?” No! We do not have that luxury, nor is it our calling. It contradicts all of the promises that God has provided us for this time of challenge. Just as God provided Elijah with the promise that he was not alone, that there were 7,000 true believers left, He has given us an even greater promises that we are not alone:

I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5b)

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b)

And:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. (Ephesians 3:16)

Also Paul’s apt words for our day:

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men2, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:3–5)

 

 

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[1] This confrontation is recorded in 1 Kings 18-19.

[2] i.e. The cultural dictates and its syncretization with Christian beliefs.

 

Mankind and Their Pets

God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:25)

 

People choose to adopt all sorts of pets: dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, fish, snakes and even ferrets. Some people couldn’t care less about owning a pet—to this I say: “To each their own prerogative.” They will obviously never know the joys (and heartaches) involved in sharing time, nurturing God’s creatures.

Speaking from experience, my wife and I have had an assortment of pets throughout our 37 years of marriage. We have had 6 cats, 4 dogs, 4 parakeets and a few ‘flushable’ fish. Only a few times had any of these varied species overlapped in our domicile.

The most recent members of our household are two Springer Spaniel brothers that we adopted from the Marion County Animal Shelter in 2008. They were only 3 months old and had been abused. With a ‘little’ arm twisting—from my wife, grand-daughter, Annika, and niece, Tabitha—we became pet owners of two wonderful jumping, wrestling, biting puppies.

We gave them royal names: Baron von Waggerschmidt (AKA: Waggs, or Wagger Baggins) and Fu Dogchu (AKA: Chewey or Chew-boy). They were welcomed into our home by a seven-year old calico, Pickles. Needless to say she was not in the least bit impressed. But they eventually got along: she taught them how to groom; they taught her how to get off our laps. Unfortunately, our Pickles entered eternity just a few years later.

What our cat could not do for them, we did. Like the daily rations of food and water, walks in the yard or park, baths and clippings, and constant attention. It also included providing the medicines and preventative measures for warding off fleas and ticks.

For 11 years we never once really thought there would be any interruption in our care for our boys. Until 2 years ago our Waggs came down with a mysterious illness that even the doctor could not determine its cause. The only thing we could figure is that he ate something outdoors that affected his entire physical condition. It had weakened him to the point that he had difficulty walking and climbing steps, causing arthritic pain and an irritable itching. He was simple deteriorating from pain pill to pain pill. We made the decision to relieve him of his misery, allowing the vet to mercifully let him sleep the eternal sleep. He was a great dog and will be missed and remembered.

On Waggs’ death bed I whispered to him that God takes care of all of His creatures. I know he probably didn’t know what I was saying. Yet I am confident that since the creatures of God’s were pronounced as “very good” (Genesis 1:31) then they must be very good even after death.

Where do they go after death? I do not know, the Scripture really doesn’t say. Will our pets be in heaven? Again, I do not know, the Scriptures are silent. Will there be animals in heaven? The apostle John provides a hint in Revelation 19:11:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.” (Revelation 19:11)

Notice: A white horse comes out of heaven carrying the Lord Jesus Christ! This is not meant to be symbolism, as is common in the Book of Revelation.

But that is not all, armies will follow him on white horses:

 “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.” (Revelation 19:14)

Does this mean our pets will be in heaven? Not necessarily, we will just have to wait and see.

But all of this speculating about our pets calls to mind God’s original intention of mankind’s relationship with His creatures. For Scripture does speak of this:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. (Genesis 2:18–20)

Adam was given the tremendous task of naming all of the living creatures which God had made. But more than that, Adam was given dominion (rule) over all the living creatures:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

John MacArthur points out:

This defined man’s unique relation to creation. Man was God’s representative in ruling over the creation. The command to rule separated him from the rest of living creation and defined his relationship as above the rest of creation (cf. Psalm 8:6–8).[1]

Therefore, since man was created in the image of his Creator and man has been given rulership over God’s creation, than it stands to reason that we should emulate the same manner of care for His creatures as He would.

So when it comes to our pets our responsibility is to provide all that is necessary for their livelihood—a caring environment; food and shelter; medication (when needed); compassion (i.e. mourning their loss). When we neglect our responsibility we fail to demonstrate the love of the Creator.

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[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Genesis 1:26–28.

 

APOSTASY IN OUR LAND

 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)

Dr. Francis Schaeffer maintained that we in the Western Hemisphere live in a post-Christian world. That humanism has consumed the thinking and pursuits of modern man. He defines humanism as “the system whereby men and women, beginning absolutely by themselves, try rationally to build out from themselves, having only Man as their integration point, to find all knowledge, meaning and value”1

In other words, humanism disregards the God of the universe. It is a godless philosophy of life, characterized by the repudiation of His revelation to mankind—that which provides absolute meaning, purpose and value to life. This viewpoint of life has affected the thinking of every sector of our culture: world leaders, civic leaders, business leaders, public school administrators and families. Sadly, it has also infiltrated the visible church: leaders of denominations, seminary professors, pastors—even filtering down to the individual in the pew. The focus of this study contemplates this intrusion of humanism within the Church of Jesus Christ.

Making The Case

The departure from the doctrines of inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture and true spirituality is evidence of how many denominations that claim to be representatives of Christianity have embraced the humanistic values of the culture. This is substantiated by their rejection and compromise of Biblical truth, condoning degenerate sexual perversions such as homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, transsexualism, gay marriage and openly gay ministers.

This is not the only time that there has been rebellion among God’s people. In the Age of Israel, the Jewish prophet spoke of disastrous problems having overtaken his nation. Note Jeremiah’s lament:

We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. All our enemies open their mouths against us; panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Lamentations 3:42–48 ESV)

This lamentation of Jeremiah’s is regarding the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Israel at that time was God’s representative nation to the world, just as the United States had been for two centuries. Just as the Jews rebelled against God, so has a large segment of the Christian community. And just as God warned them and executed His judgment upon Israel, fundamental Christianity today is being warned by the not so subtle harassment from the political left.  

Schaeffer describes this rebellion as apostasy and explains:

The book of Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations show how God looks at a culture which knew Him and deliberately turned away. But this is not just the character of Jeremiah’s day of apostasy. It’s my day. It’s your day. If we are going to help our own generation, our perspective must be that of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet...who in the midst of his tears spoke without mitigating his message of judgment to a people who had had so much and yet turned away.2

This apostasy or turning away that Schaeffer mentions is what the apostle Paul had wrote to the Thessalonians, that the day of the Lord, the end times, “will not come unless the apostasy comes first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)3. The Greek word translated ‘apostasy’4 appears only twice in the New Testament, here and in Acts 21:21. Other modern English versions render the word as ‘rebellion’5 or ‘falling away.’6 It is a compound word meaning literally a “standing away from.”

In Acts 21:21 it is translated in most English versions as ‘forsake’, where Paul is accused of instructing the Jews “to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs [the Old Testament Judaistic practices].”

The Greek lexicons corroborate that the meaning of this word 'forsake' refers specifically to religious apostasy—the falling ‘away from the faith’ (1 Timothy 4:1). But what it does not imply is a loss of salvation or a departure “from the outward profession of Christianity” (2 Tim. 3:5).7 For the word faith refers to: “That which is believed, body of faith or belief, doctrine.”8 It is fully explained by Thomas Constable:

This is a revolt, a departure, an abandoning of a position once held. This rebellion, which will take place within the professing church, will be a departure from the truth that God has revealed in His Word...a specific distinguishable apostasy that will come in the future.9

The religious apostasy prevalent in modern 'Christian' churches today does not necessarily suggest that the Day of the Lord is at hand, since the Christian church has been beset by apostasy almost from its inception. This is made obvious from the historical account of the early Church of Rome’s persistent departure from Scripture which prompted the Protestant Reformation. But just because the apostasy of this day may not be a signal for the end times, it doesn’t mean we should stand by and do nothing.

Our Directive

We have a two-fold responsibility: first, on a personal level, we are to continue to advance in our knowledge of doctrine—acknowledging the authority of Scripture and utilizing the literal principle of interpretation. And above all, being mindful that:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

Secondly, we must continue to speak out against false doctrine—the present day departures from God’s truth. Jude advises us to “contend earnestly10 for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3).

But what does it mean to contend? The Greek word Jude employs is only found here in the New Testament and means to fight for or in reference to something.11 Richard Lenski’s observation is insightful:

Jude states it in a positive form: “to keep earnestly contending for the faith,” and not negatively: “against the heresies or heretics.” The negative is implied, for one contends for something when there are antagonists.12

So what Jude implies that must be contended with is stated in verse 4, ungodly persons:

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)

These ungodly persons (call them what they are: apostates) are indicative of those today who distort God’s Word in order to ingratiate their church, their denomination with this godless culture inundated by secular humanism. In so doing they deny the truth—for the truth is Jesus Christ (John 14:6), “our only Master and Lord.”

The Appeal

If the United States of America is to maintain its status as God’s representative nation, there must be a revival within the Body of Christ—one that returns to teaching the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith and earnestly contending for the faith by exposing and eliminating these modern heresies.

Only when this happens will there be real unity within the Body of Christ. And only then will the Truth of God’s Word have its intended impact upon this culture: by the preaching of the gospel so that a person can be saved and by the exposition of the Christian faith that provides purpose and definition to this life.

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[1] Schaeffer, Francis A. (1982). The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1.9.

[2] Schaeffer, 4.213

[3] As translated in the New American Standard Bible and the Catholic New American Bible translation.

[4] The Greek word ἀποστασία comes from the noun aphístēmi meaning to depart.

[5] English Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version

[6] King James Version and the New King James Version

[7] Scofield, C. I. (1996). The Scofield Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 1281 note.

[8] Arndt, W.F., Gingrich, F.W. (1957) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 669 §3.

[9] Constable, T. L. (1985). In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck, Eds.), Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 2.718).

[10] “The word speaks of a vigorous, intense, determined struggle to defeat the opposition.” Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 16.235.

[11] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G1864.

[12] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.610.