SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.” Isa. 65:21-23

Complete Social justice Will Become a Reality -                Even if it were possible for men without God to put an end to the staggering economic waste of war, there would still remain two obstacles to the realization of social justice: First, the experts must know what to do. Economic experiments may work immeasurable disaster to society. Recently the leaders of Communist Russia have been confessing with great fanfare that many of their policies under the long leadership of Stalin were wrong. But in their glib statement of penitence there is no mention of the untold human suffering and destruction that was the awful price of their economic "mistakes." But, second, even if the experts had the infallible answers to all our social problems, there would still be needed some higher and beneficent power to enforce the remedies without leaving the patient in worse condition than before.

                There is nothing inherently wrong with the central thesis of classical Socialism. No intelligent man of good-will would wish to deny that every person on earth ought to have at least as much as he produces. But the twin errors of Socialism are: first, that they have left the true God out of their panaceas; and, second, they have had an unwarranted confidence in the alleged "goodness" of sinful men. Even professed Christians have supposed that the social ideals of the Kingdom of God could be fully realized without the wisdom and power of the divine King personally and visibly manifested on earth. Yet the Word of God is unmistakable on this point: nowhere short of the established Kingdom under the personal control of Christ will complete social justice rule on earth.

                In Old Testament prophecy of the Kingdom a large place is given to social justice. In that day, Isaiah writes very specifically, "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat" (Isa. 65:21-22). Amos asserts the same idea. Looking ahead to the day when the historic "tabernacle of David" is re-established on earth and Israel is finally restored to their own land, the prophet declares not only that men shall "build . . . cities," "plant vineyards," and "make gardens"; but also that the people who do the work shall enjoy the benefits (Amos 9:11, 14). The wastrels and parasites will not be living at the expense of others, and labor will acquire a new dignity and worth.

                But social justice in the prophetic Kingdom will be something more than an exact quid pro quo. As long as men live in the flesh on earth, there will be differences in abilities and needs. Even with the Kingdom established on earth there may be attempts on the part of selfish men to deprive the less able of their rights. Hence we read that under the gracious rule of the coming King, the "poor" and the "needy" will be given a special protective care, which will extend beyond all mere legal considerations (Psa. 72:4,12,13). We are at present finding it very difficult, even with all our advanced social laws, to preserve a proper balance between strict justice and the virtue of benevolence. In the administration of social benefits, government agencies tend to swing either toward legalistic harshness or toward sentimental laxness. Under the all-wise rule of the coming King such problems will be solved with unerring skill. In Him the world at last will find a perfect balance between the "strong hand of the law and the gentle arm of the One who is the great Shepherd of the sheep" (Isa. 40:10-11).

There are no welfare cases in the Kingdom.

SELF CONTROL AND THE REWARD

SELF CONTROL AND THE REWARD

“And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” 1 Cor. 9:25

self-control  To an almost incredible degree; using the most rigorous self denial in food, sleep, and every other sensual indulgence. A perishable crown - A garland of leaves, which must soon wither. How a life is lived and who they choose for their Leader determines the outcome of the race that all compete. Some exert little or no control based on the leadership of whom they follow. The follower of Christ the Master and Lord of John 13:13 show the same life traits of the only Leader to follow (Matt. 23:10). And their ability to exert this self-control receives power from the Spirit that was the controller of Him who set the example (John 13:15) even to the Apostle Peter (1 Pet. 2:21).

all things  One would have to follow the Leader to know this self-control.

perishable-imperishable The rewards for the self-controlled last forever and are never taken away by decay of any sort, due to a differing judgment seat. The “judgment seat” (Greek bema) for the self-controlled (believer) (2 Cor. 5:10) is not the “great white throne” (Rev. 20:11) where unbelievers that are marked by uncontrol are to be judged by their works and then sent into hell, but a judgment for rewards, or loss of rewards, to believers.

Rev. 20:12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done."

END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS

LINES IN THE SAND-END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.” 1 Cor. 9:22-23

That would seem a lofty application of the principle of accommodation, and it is somewhat startling. Moreover, it is none the less so when interpreted by Paul's illustrations of its working in his own case; to the Jews, under law, he had become as one under law; to the Gentile, without law, he had become as one without law; to the weak he had become weak. The question arises as to how far we may go in this direction. Many applications might be suggested which would seem to us in danger of imperiling our testimony and our usefulness. A second look at the apostolic word will save us from all doubt in the matter. Paul became all things to all men that he might save some. The purpose in view must for ever qualify our accommodations. To go so far with men as to imperil our chances of saving them is wrong. Thus the idea of these words is, not that the end justifies the means, but rather that the end qualifies the means. In our modern life, it means that I may travel sympathetically with men along the pilgrimage of their doubts but I must not go so far as to deny my faith. If I do, I cannot help them to faith. Or again, it means that in order to save men I may enter into their social life and share their recreations, but never in such ways as to imperil my power to help them in spiritual matters.

Paul’s obsession to “gain” people for Christ had constrained him to learn how to approach all types of prospects in terms of their own particular backgrounds and concerns. This can be a great example to modern Christians provided they do not carry it beyond the bounds set by the apostle. That is, his purpose was always “for the gospel’s sake” (1 Cor. 9:23), and it was vital to him that the gospel was not “another gospel” and that the Christ he preached was not “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4). Being “made all things to all men” does not involve compromise of God’s truth concerning Christ and His gospel, as is often the case today. People are not really won to the true Christ and His saving gospel by compromising with the beliefs and behaviors of the ungodly world. Lines are drawn in the sand on how far to go with the gospel. Many draw people to another Jesus with another gospel.

THE ONE GOD AND EVOLUTION

THE ONE GOD AND EVOLUTION

“Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one……yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”  1 Cor. 6:4, 6

One's faith needs to be placed in the One God of the Bible instead of that which takes more faith who is the god of science or the coming god of artificial intelligence in the computer realm.

In contrast to both the evolutionary pantheism of the ancient pagans and the evolutionary atheism of modern intellectuals, the testimony of both Scripture and all true science is that there is only one true God of creation, who created all things, including us, by His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, all idols—whether wooden representations of the forces of nature and the evil spirits that influence them, or the philosophical constructs of modern humanists—are in reality “nothing in the world” (1 Cor. 8:4).

The Father planned the original creation as stated here. The Son and the Spirit assisted in its implementation. The unity of the Godhead is on display with the creation, all in one accord, one purpose as the revealed one God of the Bible.

FREE AT LAST-IN SOME THINGS

FREE AT LAST-IN SOME THINGS

“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” 1 Cor. 6:12

Paul, the great champion of Christian liberty, must often have said, "I am out from under the bondage of the law, I am free from all legal demands; all things are lawful to me." But, in this context he makes it clear that when he says "all things" he is not using that term in its broadest sense. There are some areas where Christian liberty applies; for example, in the matter of meats or food. "Food for the belly, the belly for food." These two correspond to each other. They suit each other. Both are temporary. God will put both of them out of use (Greek, katargeo). In the resurrection food and stomachs will not be needed. In other words, food and eating are matters which are morally indifferent, and a proper realm for Christian liberty to act. Finally, free at last.

But not so in the next example which Paul adduces. "The body is not for fornication." We may imply that some in Corinth were saying, "The body is for fornication, just like food is for the belly. Both are natural appetites (a very liberal train of thought) and it is proper to seek satisfaction for both alike." Paul vehemently denies this analogy. This is an entirely different situation. The body belongs to the Lord. They correspond to each other; they suit each other. Notice how he calls the body a temple of God. It is His body (vs. 15; cf. Eph. 5:30). The body is not temporary, but permanent (vs. 14). It is going to be resurrected, transformed, and glorified, and we are going to keep it throughout eternity, unstraightened. Therefore, the use that we make of our bodies is not morally indifferent, and its abuse is outside the realm of Christian liberty. Christian liberty does not include fornication. Free at last-to use my body as He desired it to be used and that for eternity to rule and reign with Him.

NOT DONE YET

NOT DONE YET

“"Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'” John 13:33

See also John 7:34; 8:23; 13:33. Also Mat 5:20; 1 Cor. 6:9; 15:50; Rev 21:27

 

You can't come because you have one final part of My ministry to be performed at this point. You are in need of a transformation that gives you an eternal body. The problem for men who choose to serve the Son of Man in an everlasting Kingdom is that they die. Death or rapture brings about the transformation and the unstraightening needed. You have need of a change. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the eternal kingdom, for you need an imperishable body to serve Me and My Father without interruption. You need to be unstraitened as I was.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit (i.e. to become a ruler in it) this Kingdom. Just as it is with the Head, the Mighty One, that the covenant and promises demanded an immortal Ruler, so it is with His members, the body. As King He is to be manifested in His gloried form-a David's Son possessing all that is requisite to fulfil the Word; so also the saints, as co-heirs, kings and priests must be in their glorified condition before they receive the Kingdom. Hence, while in the church, in flesh and blood, they only await the promises---hope and pray for their realization. They await death to unstraighten their limitations or the rapture when they shall be perfected before entrance along His side to rule. The church, then, instead of possessing a Kingdom, as actually existing according to promise, only possesses it in anticipation, in looking for and expecting its arrival.

DEPLORABLES

DEPLORABLES

“When we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.” 1 Cor. 4:13

Being a deplorable is not a new term. Hillary borrowed it from the NT. Did Paul become a Christian for reputations sake? No; those with whom he united were held in universal contempt; their Leader had been put to death as a criminal among thieves; the chiefs of the cause that he had espoused were illiterate men. On the other hand, the wisest and the greatest men in all the land indignantly rejected the teachings of this new sect. The preaching of Christ crucified was to the Jew a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. There was no reputation for the great disciple of Gamaliel in parting with his splendid honors and identifying himself with a lot of ignorant fishermen. He would only be execrated as a deserter and betrayer of the Jewish cause, and he might rest assured that the same bloody knife that slew the Shepherd of the scattered flock would soon be unsheathed against himself. All the reputation that he had so zealously built up was gone the hour that he went over to the new religion, and from that day on contempt was his portion. He was accounted as the filth of the world and the off scouring of all things. He became a deplorable.

And did Paul enter Christianity for the sake of wealth? No, all the wealth was in the keeping of those whom he had forsaken; the poverty was on the side of those with whom he now identified himself. So poor had they been, that those among them possessed of any little property sold whatever belonged to them in order to provide for the dire necessities of the rest. Indeed, one of the burdens afterwards laid upon Paul was to collect means for those who were threatened with starvation. Such was the humble condition of these early Christians, that he often refused to take anything from them even for the bare necessities of life, but labored himself to provide for his scanty needs. To the Corinthians, he writes, "Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and we toil working with our hands." (1 Cor. 4:11, 12, 13. See also 2 Cor. 12:14; 1 Thess. 2:4-9; 2 Thess. 3:8, etc.) In his farewell to the elders of Ephesus, he appeals to them as knowing it to be true that, "I coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Ye yourselves know that these hands ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me" (Acts 20:33, 34). He forsook the great Jewish hierarchy with its gorgeous temple and its overflowing treasuries, where his zeal in putting down the hated sect of the Nazarene would have been almost certainly rewarded with a fortune. He cast in his lot among the poverty-stricken disciples of Jesus Christ, among whom it was his ambition to be poor. Near the end of his life he presents to us the picture of an old man shivering in a Roman dungeon and pathetically asking for a cloak to be sent him to cover his naked and suffering limbs during the severity of an Italian winter.