Pure Church

The cause of Abraham's sin was lack of faith in God. He did not believe that God could take care of him in this new situation. But of primary interest in this episode are the consequences of his lack of faith--first, in regard to Abraham, and second, in regard to God.

So far as Abraham is concerned, the lack of faith disturbed everything. We sometimes think of our lives as existing in separate, watertight compartments, so that a sin in one area does not necessarily affect another. But life in not like that, and the situation of Abraham shows what is actually the case. When Abraham began to doubt God, thinking less of him than he should have thought, his view of himself was also altered, for he began to think more of himself than was proper. It was the old principle of the seesaw in theology. So long as our view of God is up, our view of ourselves will be down. God will be sovereign, wise, and holy. We will see ourselves as weak, foolish, and sinful. But if our view of God goes down, so that he becomes less than sovereign in our thinking, then our view of ourselves will go up and we will begin to imagine that we are generally quite able to take care of ourselves. This is what Abraham imagined. Thinking the God could not take care of him, he assumed that he would have to take care of himself, and this got him into the foolish predicament of this episode.

More than this, as his opinion of himself rose, his sensitivity to other people declined, and he began to look down on them when he did not have any reason to do so. We see this in his attitude to Abimelech. When Abimelech caught him in his deception, Abraham replied, "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife'" (v. 11). this was a slander on Abimelech. Abimelech had a great deal of reverential fear for God and a very commendable sense of right and wrong. Abraham was blind to this because of his own foolish pride and disobedience.

Abraham's lack of faith disturbed everything so far as he was concerned. Yet--this is a glorious point on which I end--Abraham's lack of faith disturbed nothing so far as God was concerned. Abraham may have doubted God's ability to take care of him, but God's ability to do so was not altered in the slightest. He may have doubted God's grace, but God remained as gracious as he had ever been.

I am especially impressed by the way God showed his grace to Abraham. God did so when he spoke to Abimelelch. When Abimelech learned the truth about Sarah, he must have thought of Abraham as a cowardly, hypocritical, two-faced charlatan--or worse. He had cause to. but this is not the way God spoke of Abraham to Abimelech. God said, "Return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live" (v. 7). God was not indifferent to Abraham's sin. He would deal with it as he had on the occasion of its appearance in Egypt. But the sin did not change God's view of Abraham. Abraham was still "a prophet." He was still God's man.

Moreover, in all the references to Abraham that we have in the remainder of the Bible, never does God bring up this incident as if to highlight Abraham's failure--not in Romans, not in Galatians, not in Hebrews 11 (where the faith of Abraham is discussed at great length). In that last passage, Abraham is praised for the faith he showed in four situations: (1) leaving Ur for an unknown, promised land, (2) staying in the land even in times of great deprivation and danger, (3) believing that God could give him a son when he and Sarah were past the age of having children, and (4) being willing to offer up Isaac, counting that God could raise him from the dead. Not once in all this great survey of Abraham's progress in the life of faith does God refer to his past sin as if to shame him by a remembrance of it. It was forgiven and gone. It was forgotten.

It is good to serve a God like that, a God who remains sovereign even when we doubt his ability to care for us, a God who remains gracious even when we sin. to serve a God like that is this world's greatest joy and opportunity. To know that he is like that is the greatest incentive you will ever have to keep from sinning.

What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you; and in particular yours.

I’m all for a healthy theological debate…however I will not even begin to entertain a discussion into the integrity and validity of God’s Word. The truth is that not everyone will see the gates of Heaven…and Hell is real. Our repentance of sin and acceptance of Christ our Savior…by the grace of God…is the only way out of eternal damnation. Any teachings to the contrary is…heresy.

Before returning to sleep, it is wise to review the actions and mercies of the day past, so that you may be thankful for all the special mercies and humbled for all your sins. This is necessary in order that you might renew your repentance as well as your resolve for obedience, and in order that you may examine yourself to see whether your soul grew better or worse, and whether you are better prepared for suffering, death, and eternity.

Since my conversion at age 19, I have had many opportunities to share my testimony. The story of how my hatred toward other men was broken by the power of God has been featured on a couple television shows including the 700 Club. My testimony was once printed in The Messianic Times which is distributed in the United States and throughout Israel. And I’ve share it briefly on this website, in churches, and on the streets with people I have witnessed to.

What is often overlooked is how I was also (and primarily) a God-hater and a blasphemer! For much of my teenage life I hated God and glorified His enemies. All things evil and wicked were my desires. Being involved as a neo-nazi skinhead who hated certain groups of men was just a drop in the bucket compared to the intensity of my enmity toward God. Scarring my flesh with racist tattoos was a small thing compared to my lust for sin.

When I look at the present state of my sanctification, I often forget what it was like when I loved myself so much that I despised God. I give myself a hard time over little things while not too long ago I was happily headed to hell and joyously celebrating my depravity. Psalm 103:12 tells me, “…as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” I am so grateful for the Lord’s mercy, working righteousness and justice for those who, like I once was, are oppressed!

When the pressure to 'contextualize' the gospel jeopardizes the message of the cross by inflating human egos, the cultural pressures must be ignored. (p. 34)

And all I want to suggest is if American Christians say -- they want to identify with that cross, they have to see the cross as a lynching. Any time your empathy, your solidarity is with the little people, you're with the cross. If you identify with the lynchers, then, no, you can't understand what's happening. That in the sense of resistance-- what resistance means by helpless people. Power in the powerless is not something that we are accustomed to listening to and understanding. It's not a part of our historical experi-- America always wants to think it's gonna win everything. Well, black people have a history in which we didn't win. We did not win. See, our resistance is a resistance against the odds. That's why we can understand the cross.

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BILL MOYERS: Do you believe God is love?
JAMES CONE: Yes, I believe God is love.
BILL MOYERS: I would have a hard time believing God is love if I were a black man. I mean, those bodies swinging on the tree. What was God?Where was God during the 400 years of slavery?
JAMES CONE: See, you are looking at it from the perspective of those who win. You have to see it from the - perspective of those who have no power. In fact, God is love because it's that power in your life that lets you know you can resist the definitions that other people are being-- placing on you. And you sort of say, sure, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Sure, there is slavery. Sure, there is lynching, segregation.

But, glory, hallelujah. Now, that glory hallelujah is the fact that there is a humanity and a spirit that nobody can kill. And as long as you know that, you will resist. That was the power of the civil rights movement. That was the power of those who kept marching even though the odds are against you. How do you keep going when you don't have the battle tanks, when you don't have the guns? When you don't have the military power? When you have nothing? How do you keep going? How do you know that you are a human being? You know because there's a power that transcends all of that.
BILL MOYERS: So, how does love fit into that? What do you mean when you say God is love?
JAMES CONE: God is that power. That power that enables you to resist. You love that! You love the power that empowers you even in a situation in which you have no political power. The-- you have to love God. Now, what is trouble is loving white people. Now, that's tough. It's not God we having trouble loving. Now, loving white people. Now, that's-- that's difficult. But, King -- you know, King helped us on that. But, that is a-- that is an agonizing response.

In a case that may be the first of its kind, the wife of a pastor from Baldwin is hoping to win assets from her husband’s church in their divorce proceedings, saying he uses the church as his “personal piggy bank” and that any money he makes from it is partly hers.

In a decision published this week, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Diamond agreed to hear arguments at trial in Mineola about whether Grace Christian Church in Brooklyn should be considered a marital asset, and ordered that it be appraised. It is one of the first times in New York State history — if not the first — that someone going through a divorce has tried to call a religious institution a marital asset, lawyers in the case said.

A Texas pastor who was sued after exercising church discipline has been handed a victory by that state's supreme court. The lawsuit was brought by a church member who refused to repent following a divorce and remarriage.

A Franklin County judge who thought he was delving too deeply into religious matters dismissed a lawsuit accusing a local pastor of taking nearly $1 million from his congregation, which hoped to get the money back in a judgment. (Read entire story here)