1995 Issue 1
In February of 1994, we went to Australia on a speaking tour in reference to our book, When The Wicked Seize A City. It was a whirlwind tour: Starting In Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), we circled the country -- speaking in every capital city of every state in Australia, and in Canberra, the national capital -- finishing up back in Sydney 26 days later. How in the world did this adventure come to us?
Our road to Australia began in early 1993, when a Christian businessman from Australia visited our church in San Francisco. Our book had been released in January, and we gave him a copy to read on his flight back home. According to him, he started reading the book that night, finishing it in the wee hours of the morning. He was quite excited about the book and, upon arriving home, he passed it on to his father-in-law, the pastor of a Baptist church outside Sydney. 1he pastor read and in tum gave it to Rev. Fred Nile, a leading Christian politician in Australia.
The tempter's offer is deceitful, cunning, brazen, and shameless: "Therefore if You worship (bow down) before me, it shall all be Yours." He says to Christ: "All this AUTHORITY (EXOUSIA) plus the power to use it along with all the accompanying fame and fortune of which You just received a glimpse will be Yours, IF, (and here is the boldness of Satan's stroke), You will do one single act of worship before me, ("worship" is an aorist subjunctive signifying a single act).
"Satan's proposition is this: God has turned over all these kingdoms to him, and he is willing to run them over to Jesus if, as Satan is under God, Jesus will place Himself under Satan. Satan thus offers to make Jesus the Mediator-King just as God wants Him to be King. It can all be done with one little act of prostration before Satan. Instead of a long, bitter journey to the throne, one short step will reach the crown.
With this intriguing question, taken from a popular ballad of the 1960s, Greg Bahnsen began two messages which profoundly affected all who heard them. Hearts were melted, tears flowed, and sins were confessed. It was the fervent desire of all present that the Lord Jesus Christ would powerfully use these sermons to prune away the dead branches of his church, heal her of schism, comfort her to his Word, and make her a light to the nations.
Dr. Bahnsen taught us that a school of thought, no less than an individual, is known by its fruits (Luke 6:44). Worldviews which have roots deeply planted in the living vine, Jesus Christ, have always produced much fruit unto the honor and glory of God. They have done so because they have remained consistent to his revealed will in the Bible. Those Systems that have departed from the Word of God become dead wood, fruitless branches, and have been cut off by Almighty God, the Sovereign Vinedresser.
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made," said the Psalmist (Psalm 139). But exactly how are we made? The first prayer that children often learn is, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." From our earliest days we are taught that man is more than a body, that he is body and soul. The Bible also refers to man's spirit What do these words mean and what is their relationship to each other?
The Bible refers to various aspects of man. "Bodily exercise profiteth little," the Bible says, I Tim. 4:8. In Mat. 10:28, Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." Paul, in I Thess. 5:23 prays that our body, soul, and spirit be preserved complete at the coming of Christ. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, Mark 12:30. How are we to understand our created constitution?
