Beliefs That Really Matter

By Veerasammy Carpen

Beliefs That Really Matter is both exegetical and theological in nature and gives clarity to contemporary readers of subject matter that they may find themselves struggling with, in living the Christian life. Just to name a few topics, that the author has discussed in Beliefs That Really Matter are (a) God - Breathed Scripture, (b) Gods Plan of Grace, (c) A New Beginning, and (d) The Faith of One Man. Beliefs That Really Matter makes people think about why they believe certain doctrines and to examine the doctrines whether if it is biblically sound. The Christian life is unique which we cannot deny, but the real challenge for us is to live the Christian life according to Gods standards and not ours. These concerns should be relevant and timely to the practicing Christian that this book represents. Each chapter of Beliefs That Really Matter is thought provoking and engages the readers not to settle for cheap messages of the gospel that our culture is so quickly to accept that lead many astray from the Bible. For example, cheap messages of the gospel do not develop the believer into a spiritual mature person, but only leaves the believer to sink in their Christian experience and causes confusion for many and disappointment for others. No wonder many Christians face numerous spiritual challenges and find themselves drifting from the sacred writings. Beliefs That Really Matter points the professing Christian to study the Scriptures and to scoop out the meaning for themselves from Gods Word that they begin to apply in their lives as having to form a firm foundation.
Quite often, we may read a book that does nothing for our spiritual growth and does not challenge certain teachings or examine the Scripture. In Beliefs That Really Matter the author exposes shallow Christian beliefs that resemble a grab bag, and calls attention to the unique Word of God that shapes our lives for a firm foundation. Beliefs That Really Matter is written for college students, pastors and lay leaders and for those who desire to grow in their spirituality and to experience a hunger for Gods presence in their lives. For example, the reader would benefit tremendously from the book by doing a Bible study on their own, share in a small group discussion, to be used as a text for a Sunday school class or to be used as a college text book in the discipline of Christian theology, especially in the area of apply soteriology. The contents of the book are clear and specific that does not leave the reader in the dark, but rather motivate the reader to strengthen his faith and to connect with the sacred writings that feeds his soul. Beliefs That Really Matter is a wealth of information to the readers that enjoy responsible exegesis and theological explanation of words and there meanings, grammatical tenses, expressions, misunderstandings and contradictions. Each chapter is concluded with a short study guide that enables the readers to think about their need for spiritual growth and enrichment and to dig into Gods Word as hidden treasure.
Sincerely,
Veerasammy Carpen

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781469122830

Veerasammy Carpen

Veerasammy Carpen has his A.R.A. from Northeastern Bible College in 1990, B.S. from Philadelphia College of Bible in 1991, M.A. from Biblical Theological Seminary in 1995, and his M.S.Ed. from Philadelphia College of Bible in 1997. He and his wife, Lisa, are the parents of two children, Ian and Lydia.

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Copyright © 2009 by Veerasammy Carpen.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2009906055

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4415-4737-8

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                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-2283-0

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Hebrew-

Greek Key Study Bible: New American Standard Bible.

Executive Editor: Spiros Zodhiates

Printed in: Chattanooga, TN

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHIEF ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1

GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURE

2

GOD’S PLAN OF GRACE

3

A NEW BEGINNING

4

THE FAITH OF ONE MAN

5

A MODEL FOR REPENTANCE

6

THE NEW CHRISTIAN

7

THE LAW OF GOD

8

HEARING AND DOING

9

WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT

10

THE CHURCH: GOD’S FAMILY

11

UNBELIEF AND

THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

REFERENCES AND NOTES

BOOKS OF THE BIBLE INDEX

To Ian and Lydia

who have completed my joy and have given me

the highest earthly pleasure to be their father.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply appreciative of my family, Lisa, Ian, and Lydia, for allowing me the time and space for writing this book. I am indebted to their generosity. Thank you, Robert Brenneman, for your encouragement and support from the inception of this project. Thank you, Ronald Bupp, for reading the manuscript and for carefully pointing out insightful comments. Thank you, Doug Hoey, for reading the manuscript and, with a pastor’s heart, for providing helpful guidance along the way. Thank you, Dennis Fuhrman, for your assistance in providing technical computer support. Finally, I would like to thank all those saints who have been praying for me to see this project completed.

CHIEF ABBREVIATIONS

.

INTRODUCTION

The Christian life is both rewarding and challenging and, at times, leaves us wondering about what in the world God is doing in his universe. As followers of Christ, we are called to live a unique life that is centered in Jesus Christ, which sets us apart from any other dogma or religious experience. In our postmodern world, the Christian life is summoned to questioning from all geographical corners of the globe. Many of us ask ourselves, what is the Christian life and how are we to live this life that God has so graciously called us to? At this point, we begin to think back and retrieve to our religious upbringing, perhaps what we have been taught at home or in Sunday school classes. Others may hold on to their theological presupposition or their denomination bylaws. Yet there are those who just don’t know where they stand when it comes to living the Christian life.

On many fronts, our religious practices and experiences do not always reflect the pristine teachings of the Sacred Scripture. We are somewhat twisted in our beliefs in living out our relationship with God and his Word. One is inclined to argue that it really doesn’t matter how they live their lives as long as they love God or have placed their trust in something other than the supreme God of the universe; the Creator of heaven and earth. In reality, not all Christians believe the same thing. If we are to be Christians of like faith, we must learn to let the Scripture do the talking. The Scripture should cultivate in our hearts and minds, in the purest form, an eternal dwelling place where the Spirit of God resides and to convict us of any wrongdoings or presuppositional beliefs that contradicts his Word. When our beliefs do not reflect the teachings from the Word of God, we then trade places with the animal kingdom and we gradually behave like them, living our lives without a convicted conscience whereby nothing seems to matter. Instead of looking up, we begin to look down. Looking down is synonymous with the idea and equal to the characteristic found in animals.

In my own pilgrimage of the Christian life, I came to the understanding that everyone has an implicit belief about who God is and the meaning of his Word, regardless if they study the Bible or not or if they believe in a sovereign God. Our belief about God should not only shape the way we think, but it should also shape our behavior and our attitude and the way we communicate with another human being. Our affirmed lifestyle must be derived from the words of the divine author. The implication from the Sacred Scripture should be life changing and affects our thoughts, emotions, and will. We should be able to give complete, conscious awareness to God rather than to choose our own lifestyle in a world that is constantly moving away from God that holds to different world views one over another.

In a changing world, I believe that we, as followers of Christ, need to refocus on the fundamental teachings of the Scripture, of what makes Christianity great in the first place rather than to follow the ways of the world. It is better to believe what Scripture teaches rather than to believe in a whole lot of things that our culture throws at us. In a secular culture, people perish morally and spiritually when they lose sight of God and his Word.

Furthermore, the great redemptive work of Christ accomplished at the cross is a constant reminder for all those who believe in him as their Savior, but our redemption story does not stop here by accepting Christ into our lives. There should be an earnest desire in all of us to study the Sacred Scripture and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and to match up our lifestyle practices with God’s Word. Obviously, there are many contemporary churches that are filled with spiritually immature and underdeveloped Christians that have no clear understanding of what it means to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

There are many topics to be considered for a Christian belief that really matter. The topics that I have chosen to address are timely and should encourage the reader to grow in their Christian orientation and to challenge them to think and act biblically. I only hope that the reader finds the same. It is my prayer that you find wisdom and direction for your life in the Lord and enrich your spiritual growth by studying his Word and drawing closer to him.

V. CARPEN

May 4, 2009

1

GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURE

Inspiration and the authority of the Sacred Scripture are the most fundamental issues that Christianity faces at large. There are numerous writers who have written on the subject of inspiration and the authority of the Sacred Scripture that challenges the content and the extent of inspiration. Since there are many notable evangelicals—scholars who have passionately responded to the writers’ misunderstandings, contradictions, and rejections—it is not necessary for me to elaborate on their system of thought, but rather to focus our attention on 2Timothy 3:16-17, for this is where the discussion begins.

For many of us, this might only be a watershed issue because we have already made up our minds as to the subject matter that is before us. But what really matters is that do we believe the Scriptures to be God’s Word in its entirety? Is the Scripture held in the highest regards as a rule of faith and conduct? Do we consider certain books of the Bible to be more inspired than others? Perhaps you have been taught that only the red letters words of Jesus in your Bible are most important, or passages that speak only of salvation, or that the Old Testament is not relevant to your moral and spiritual growth. If this is the case, then you are denying the inspiration and the authority of the Scripture and, as a result of this, you do not consider the entire Bible to be the inspired authoritative Word of God. Warfield defined inspiration as that extraordinary, supernatural influence (or, passively, the result of it,) exerted by the Holy Ghost on the writers of our Sacred Books, by which their words were rendered also the words of God, and, therefore, perfectly infallible.¹

A. The Three Words

The three words are pasa graphē theopneustos, which are the most controversial words in discussing this topic. Our text read,

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

1.   All Scripture is divine product. The adjective pasa means all or every, which denotes that the whole or everything written or documented in the Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. The adjective does not mean that certain books are more inspired and authoritative than other books or that we should consider certain parts of a sacred text to be more inspired and authoritative than others. The adjective all describes for us the activity of God in redemptive history as he communicates his words as his divine product to holy men borne along by the Holy Spirit. In order for the Word of God to have any relevancy and transformational change in our lives, we ought to consider the Scripture as a divine product from the mouth of God. When we approach the Scripture in this manner, we show reverence to God and his Word. We don’t worship the Word, but we honor and respect God because of who he is and what his Word means to us as his divine product. For example, the five different kinds of sacrifices that are described for us in Leviticus 1-7 is equally important to the defeated kings listed in chapter 12 of the book of Joshua. Even though these documents have their own specific purpose, significance, and are written in a different environment and style in redemptive history, they are considered equally important and inspired. These are facts documented whether they related to sacrificial offerings or a result of military actions.

2.   All Scripture is equally inspired. The adjective all also described for us that every word and all of the parts of the Scripture are equally inspired by God. Warfield proposed that Scripture as a unitary book of Divine oracles, every portion and passage of which is clothed with the Divine authority which belongs to the whole and is therefore manifested in all its parts. When the entirety of Scripture is ‘Scripture’ to us, each passage may readily be adduced as ‘Scripture,’ because ‘Scripture’ is conceived as speaking through and in each passage.² The Scripture cannot be reduced to a mere product by the will of man. God is the ultimate source of all Scripture, and to consider anything less, then the difference is great. The decision to determine which parts of the Scripture is inspired and which parts are not inspired does not depend on the intellectual faculties of men and women or armchair theologians. The determination of the inspiration of the Scripture came from the mouth of God. He divinely expired the Sacred Scripture. The Scripture is not the word of men (1Thess. 2:13) that we should decide for its trustworthiness, source, or authenticity. Scripture is God’s definitive revelation to man.

Jesus said, the Scripture cannot be broken (Jn. 10:35). What Jesus means is that the Scripture cannot be viewed as having no authority and reduced to nothing. We cannot diminish its trustworthiness. To put it differently, in our contemporary language, we cannot pick and choose as to what parts of the Scripture we consider inspired. Christ views the Old Testament as a collective body of sacred writings that he consistently made reference to in the New Testament. What is written is the authoritative Word of God, and it remains written because it is inspired by God. The Scripture, as a whole, is the written record of God that is made available to all human beings. It is God’s storehouse of great treasures of wisdom where you and I can read of his interaction with men in the past and in the present and in the future to come.

For centuries, many people tried to destroy the Bible and its authenticity, but it is God who preserved his Word. The Scripture is not man’s word about God, but rather God’s Word about fallen mankind and the redemption he has provided through his Son, Jesus Christ, for the benefits of fallen mankind. Furthermore, the Word of God cannot be put aside because it rubs against our belief system and our lifestyle. The Word of God is authoritative, which ought to be our rule of faith and conduct. Individuals who advocate a partial inspiration or a conceptual inspiration of the Scripture go against biblical inerrancy. We cannot view Scripture in bits and pieces.

Once we begin to advocate a lesser view of the Bible, we no longer consider the Scripture as the inspired authoritative Word of God. God’s Word is authoritative because he divinely expired the Scripture. This is the unchangeable fact. The problem for many of us is that we do not believe the entire Bible to be the inspired authoritative Word of God, and we think that we can change what the Bible says to fit the way our culture thinks and acts and to reach our felt needs. And for this reason, many of us pick and choose as to what parts of the Scripture we consider inspired. This only leads us to a relativistic system of thought whereby whatever satisfies our intelligence and subjective experiences has become the authoritative source for our lives, and from this point forward, everything becomes human, and each man begins to do what is right in his own eyes.

3.   All Scripture is God’s Word. Graphē is a feminine noun, which is the subject of our text. Graphē means writing or scripture. The subject is modified by the adjective pasa, which refers to the fact that all writings are declared to be sacred both in the Old and New Testaments. Warfield tells us that the NT writers were well aware that the category ‘Scripture,’ in the high sense, included also the writings they were producing, as along with the books of the OT constituting the complete ‘Scripture’ or authoritative Word of God.³

The writings of the Old and the New Testaments were not similar to that of J. R. R. Tolkien or, as a matter of fact, any popular writers of our time. The entire Old Testament is considered to be the living oracles of God (Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2). The apostle Peter writes, And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts… for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (2 Pet. 1:19,21).

a.   No prophecy in the Scripture ever came from the prophets themselves. Peter affirms that we have the prophetic word, which is also rendered by the RSV. The NIVSB reads, We have the word of the prophets. The plural pronoun we indicates to us that Peter, along with the other apostles, has in their possession a copy or copies of the Old Testament Scriptures. While Paul was in a prison in Rome, he urged Timothy to bring along with him the books, especially the parchments (2 Tim. 4:13). The books (ta biblia) are probably the papyrus sheets or rolls, and the parchments (tas membranas) are better quality rolls or books made from skins. The parchments may have been Old Testaments portions.⁴ Furthermore, the books of the prophets are read every Sabbath (Acts 13:27). Jesus himself entered a synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath and stood up and read from the prophet Isaiah (Lk. 4:16-21). Philip also explained the Scripture from the book of Isaiah, the prophet to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39), and Timothy from his childhood have known the sacred writings (2 Tim. 3:15). For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Rom.15:4).

      There is no reason to believe that the Old Testament writings were not considered to be Scripture by the first-century New Testament believers. Peter, who was addressing predominantly Gentile churches of Asia Minor when he wrote his second epistle, instructed his readers to pay close attention to the prophetic word. The expression the prophetic word refers to the whole of the Old Testament Scripture that anticipated the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Peter himself acknowledged the writings of the apostle Paul as Scripture written to the same readers (2 Pet. 3:15-16), and he put the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles on the same level (2 Pet. 3:2). Both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles spoke from God.

b.   No human will was involved in the prophecy. Verse 21 reads, For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Here, Peter is referring to the original autographs. The original autographs were the inspired authoritative writings that were without mistakes and were incapable of errors and falsehood. Clement of Rome, one of the apostolic fathers, a contemporary of the apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Corinthians, Ye have searched the scriptures, which are true, which were given through the Holy Ghost; and ye know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them.⁵ The sacred writings were not the production of mechanical dictation or by the writer’s intuition into religious matters or by the subjective experience of the writers. The revelation of God cannot be reduced to mechanical dictation, human intuition, and subjective experience. The writers were not reporters of religious events. They were not journalists. The Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David (Acts1:16). Paul had made this final statement: The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet (Acts 28:25 NIVSB). Peter was very clear that no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. The human will is free-spirited unless God the Holy Spirit intervened and began to influence and guide the will and mind of man.

c.   Holy men carried along by the Holy Spirit. The writers were holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. They were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they spoke from God. The book of Acts described for us Paul’s voyage as he sails for Rome. Their ship was literally carried along by the wind (Acts 27:15-17). This explanation gives us a glimpse of how the Holy Spirit may have worked in the lives of the writers in the production of the Scripture. The Holy Spirit was actively involved in a supernatural process in superintending the will and mind of the writers as the prophecies were given, and preserving the writers of the Scripture from committing any errors or mistakes in their writings. All that was intended to communicate by the writers were documented and free from any falsehood, and nothing was omitted by the Holy Spirit.

      Furthermore, under the supernatural direction of the Holy Spirit, the writers of the Scripture were able to use their own personality and writing styles to document it. The Holy Spirit enables the writers to document God’s Word in revelatory truth form, which are reliable and trustworthy to believers of all ages and in every culture. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1Cor. 2:10 NIVSB). The Holy Spirit assured us of the infallibility and the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Scripture has a divine origin, which the Holy Spirit bears witness to. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is superior to human will and moved beyond human reason, judgment, and subjective experience. The Scripture is its own witness that calls attention to the unique work of the Holy Spirit in preserving the sacred writings.

d.   Holy men spoke from God. The prophets and the apostles spoke from God. They spoke in a language that is familiar to their environment and circumstances. The Word of God that the holy men spoke by the Holy Spirit was not a product of their own will or initiative. They did not speak to impress others or speak for themselves as to gain credit for their work. They spoke from God what God wanted them to say. And how God wanted them to say it. And when God wanted them to say it, nothing more or nothing less. They spoke exactly what God wanted them to say in every situation and in every culture that they declared the Word of God. For example, expressions such as Thus says the Lord or The Lord has spoken calls attention to the fact of the inspired authoritative Word spoken by holy men from God, and that it came from God. Charles Hodge writes, It lies in the very nature of inspiration that God spake in the language of men; that He uses men as his organs, each according to his peculiar gifts and endowments.⁶ In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways(Heb. 1:1 NIVSB). The apostle Paul writes the things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words (1 Cor. 2:13).

      The unregenerate man cannot accept in his heart the fact that holy men spoke from God. They are in protest against God and his Word. The men that God uses to document his words were men that were called and set apart by God for his purposes and not theirs. Furthermore, the men were also the instruments that God used to communicate his Word to us. God’s Word is his inspired authoritative instruction to us as his chosen people. The Bible, in its entirety, is the Word of God. Sometimes, many people quickly disregard this fact that the Bible is not their book. The Bible is God’s Word and it is God’s book. It is the voice of God. Jesus said, It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). The Bible is a sacred book. There are those who water down its contents and teachings to make everyone happy in our culture. The genuineness and the authority of the Sacred Scripture must confront a secular culture. What we need to do is to let the Scripture speak, and the Spirit of God to convict us of our sins, which is followed by our repentance. If you wrestle against God’s Word, you will lose every time.

4.   All Scripture came from the mouth of God. The first three words of our text read as pasa graphē theopneustos, the KJV rendered these words to mean All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The RSV and NLT rendered, All Scripture is inspired by God, and the NIVSB rendered, All Scripture is God-breathed. The