The Evangelical Universalist Forum

C.S. Lewis On Helping The Needy

Theology Biblical Theology
#21

True, we must suffer with Christ, if we would partake of His glory; but what of it? Look, we Christians are out of step with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and so we will suffer here sometimes because of that. However, when our sufferings are set over against the coming glory, they are insignificant! Hardly worth mentioning!

Suffering is not where we should camp out. We are not to seek or embrace suffering; but when suffering comes, we must EXCHANGE IT for joy:

Remember The Divine Exchange of Isaiah 53?

The victory has been won, by Jesus. It must be enforced, by the Church. We are to take it to the devil. We are not to be fatalistic about the devil and his attacks:

Step by step, with our privileged participation, the “leaven” of life is displacing death, throughout the “flour” of Creation:

As to the misunderstood sovereignty of God; again, God is not in control of everything—by His own free choice! God has chosen to delegate limited sovereignty to man, to give him a certain amount of control.

The all-powerful Creator entrusted the title deed of earth to man, who lost it to Satan. And Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, successfully came to get it back, as a man. And, in a time of his own choosing, the Lamb will begin to break the seals of that property deed scroll, to officially evict Satan (Rev. 6).

To say that “God is in control of everything,” is to say that whatever happens, happens because God wanted it that way. That everything that happens—both good and evil—IS God’s will, by virtue of having been permitted by Him to happen!

Where that thinking can lead may be seen in the teaching of Calvinist John Piper in this

[quote]
(http://www.christianpost.com/news/what-made-it-ok-for-god-to-kill-women-children-in-old-testament-68737/):

Yet Hebrews 2:14 shows us it is actually Satan who has the power of death, not God:

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.”
And 1 Corinthians 15:26 shows that God considers death an enemy: *“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” *

However, if we wrongly think these bad things are permitted by God’s sovereignty, or ordered by God, because they are God’s will, we will not oppose them. By that wrong thinking of God’s true nature, we must embrace evil (by redefining it as “good”); to oppose evil would be to oppose God!

Regarding Piper’s thinking, I would have to say with John Wesley, “Your God is my devil.”

Blessings.

#22

We do oppose evil because we don’t live by God’s sovereign will. We live by His revealed will.

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. Deut.29

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways ~~ Romans:11-33

I simply try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and trust God and do mercy and justice:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ~~ Micah 6:8

The only sense in which God is said to kill anything is by His permission not positive agency:

1 Samuel 2:6-10

“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.

He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them inherit the throne of glory.

When God allowed Satan to torment job and kill his family Job says:

The lord has given and the lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the lord. To which the writer explains:

In all this job did not sin with his lips ~~ Job 1:22

God permits evil for justifiable reasons known only to Him. Ultimately God is responsible in that he permitted evil to destroy. But Satan did the destroying. God doesn’t directly cause evil but permits it for morally justifiable reasons. One act two intentions. God’s holy intentions are good man’s intentions are evil. Nonetheless, He is in control:

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Deut. - 30:6

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. - Job 42:2

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. - Proverbs 19:21

A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way? - Proverbs 20:24

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. - Proverbs 21:1

declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. - Isaiah 46:10-11

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. - Jeremiah 24:7

all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” - Daniel 4:35

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. - John 6:44

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. - Romans 9-16

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” - Romans 9:19

for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. - Revelation 17:17

The victory has been won at the cross but it must work itself out in time. It will be complete at the new heaves and new earth when there is no more curse and all things are reconciled. God will do this because He’s in control:

Col.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

#23
#24

I believe the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (e.g., the gift of discerning of spirits) are still available, still vital to the Church, and so are still to be ‘earnestly desired’ today.

But there is a difference between the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12) and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5). They are both to edify; they are both perfectible, and so need development. But fruit relates to Christ-like character, whereas gifts relate to Christian service. Fruit is eternal, gifts are temporary.

The fruit of the Spirit, especially love, should be the context for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, but that is not always the case. Spiritual gifts are under the control of the user, who may be immature or carnal; and so they can be abused or simply neglected.

Furthermore, the counterfeit betokens a genuine. And so there are indeed prosperity charlatans on TV working to separate fools from their money, as they,

-pray in tongues and declare false prophecies,
-tell people that, *“operators are standing by right now to take your faith pledge,” *
-and then fly away in private jets.

What’s new about that? We are to recognize false prophets by their fruits, not their gifts. So let’s not throw out the** baby** (e.g., genuine charismatic gifts, the Acts 20:24 gospel of GRACE, divine health and divine prosperity à la Prov. 10:22–AMP “The blessing of the Lord brings [true] riches, And He adds no sorrow to it [for it comes as a blessing from God]”), with the bathwater (false prophets).

We are to earnestly desire the Gifts (1 Cor. 12:31, 14:1), and not be afraid to do so: