1993 Issue 2
This interview with Nicodemus is particularly interesting, as being our Lord's first contact with the purest and most intelligent Judaism of his day. The voice of Prophecy had been silent through four hundred years, but is now heard again: and the Jewish ruler, convinced by the miracles of Christ that He was at least a teacher sent from God, hastens to the oracle for light. The nature of his inquiries is easily gathered from the conversation between the two. The cry had rung out from the banks of the Jordan, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" and this "master in Israel" would learn the nature of that kingdom, how it stood affected to the ancient system of Moses, and what were Christ's personal relations to the same.
On September 4, 1862, a young man from Mobile, Alabama, enlisted as a volunteer in Murrell's Independent Cavalry (which would later become Company C, Murphy's Battalion of the Alabama Cavalry) in the army of the Confederate States of America. Charles meant to fight to defend his country in the war against his former nation. People in the Confederacy called it the War for Southern Independence.
Charles was thirty-two years of age. His father had been a probate judge in Mobile but he had died almost sixteen years previous when Charles was fourteen years old. He and the two other boys (Maniluis and Bushrod) had been both providers and fathers for their mother and sister.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones; The Fight of Faith 1939-1981 by Iain H. Murray Banner of Truth Trust, 1990 831 pp. incl. appendices and index, hb. At one point in this biography the author writes that Lloyd-Jones wanted his biography written only if it "should be for God's glory" (p. 729). I believe Iain Murray has successfully carried out this desire.
This is the second volume of a two volume biography. (The first was published in 1982 and entitled D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The First Forty Years 1899-1939 published by The Banner of Truth Trust.) The volume covers Lloyd-Jones' ministry at Westminster Chapel in London (from which he retired in 1968) as well as his manifold ministry to multitudes through student work, outside speaking engagements, personal counsel, letters, and books. Throughout his life and broad ministry we see a man, not caught up with how people saw him, but with a desire that those in and outside the church seriously see God in His majesty and glory as revealed in Scripture and that they savingly know Jesus Christ.
The underlying argument for gun control seems to be that the availability of guns causes crime. By extension, the availability of any weapon would have to be viewed as a cause of crime. What does the Bible say about such a view?
Perhaps we should start at the beginning, or at least very close to the beginning - in Genesis 4. In this chapter we read about the first murder. Cain had offered an unacceptable sacrifice, and Cain was upset that God insisted that he do the right thing. In other words, Cain was peeved that he could not do his own thing.
Cain decided to kill his brother rather than get right with God. There were no guns available, although there may well have been a knife. Whether it was a knife or a rock, the Bible does not say. The point is, the evil in Cain's heart was the cause of the murder, not the availability of the murder weapon.
In the course of the present study, I have dealt with a great number of supporting texts and have responded to various alleged negative passages. At this juncture, I will give brief exposition to certain other texts that are thought to be contraindicative to postmillennialism.
ZECHARIAH 14:4
"And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south."
It is only as we read all four gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), that we see a complete picture of the person and work of Jesus Christ. LUKE FOCUSES ON JESUS CHRIST AS THE DIVINE-HUMAN SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, Luke 2:30. Matthew focuses on Jesus Christ as the King of kings, who came to establish His kingdom in the earth over all other kingdoms, Matthew 28:18ff. Mark presents us with Jesus Christ, a King who became a Servant to ransom His people from their sins, without ceasing to be a King, Mark 10:45. John presents us with a Christ, the Son of God, Who gives eternal life to all who believe in Him, John 20:31.
