Man is a Trichotomy. This is Why it Matters

 

Dichotomy or Trichotomy

Bible College graduation - “if you are a dichotomist and believe you have to express that, do so now rather than at the ceremony.”

Are we a tri-part being or di- part being?

The issue of dichotomy vs trichotomy would be less an issue except for those who like to “go to the originals” to discover truth. Students of the King James Version should have little trouble distinguishing the difference between the soul and the spirit.

We hare made in the image of God

He is a trinity.

In in His image man is three parts

Body - the part of us the relates to the world around us - our senses touch, taste, smell, see, hear

Soul - the part of us that relates to other earthly beings - mind, will and emotions

Spirit - the part of us that relates to the unseen world - heaven and hell, angelic realm, fellowship with God

The image is corrupted through sin

The flesh is corrupted

The spirit has died

the soul in blinded

Scripture clearly distinguishes the three parts of humanity

“I pray your whole spirit and soul and body”

Trichotomy impacts the doctrine of salvation

If in fact we are only two parts: what part of us is dead in trespasses and sins before salvation?

It cannot be the spirit - because the dichotomist says it is the soul

It cannot be the body because, clearly we are

If, prior to salvation, the soul is dead in Trespasses and sins, then this is the doctrine of Calvinism that claims that God has to quicken it (and not the spirit) before we can call upon Him.

Calvinism (Reformation theology) says that man is so depraved, so wretched, so dead that we would never, could never call out to God for salvation unless God willed it, resurrected us and made us to do it.

Bible truth is that, at the moment of salvation

Our spirit is quickened, made alive

We are now able to commune with God

Our soul is redeemed, purchased and saved

We can see the world as God see it

Our body is awaiting redemption

After the rapture and resurrection

Conclusion

Many Reformers believe we are a dichotomy, claiming that the terms soul and spirit can be used interchangeably.

Reformation theology seems to have launched an all out assault on Baptist Churches. 

Reformation theology likes to appear to be more biblical because they are more scholarly (this is a throw back to a time when priests were the only educated people in town and most highly respected because of it. In fact it was a means to control people.)

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

The Washingtonian Call

 

The Washingtonian Call

Act 16:9  

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us

 

To this period, the ministry of the Apostle Paul, frankly of the gospel work at all, had been I one culture, and to a people of a particular mindset. Paul’s inclination was to continue with his present course, but the Bible says that the Spirit of God stopped him in his tracks. After a long period of prayer and searching he once again had the mind of God. He saw in a vision a man from Macedonia; not eastward, but westward, not oriental, but European. He saw in a vision what we often call the “Macedonian call” and the world was forever changed.

 

I heard an advertisement on the radio a day or two ago. It was, I believe, John Carlson[1][2] promoting a group tour for Washingtonians to visit Texas to see if a move there would be right for them. Carlson is doing what people in his Industry do. He is conservative but he uses his political persuasion as a means to make money: 

·      For himself

·      For his employer and 

·      For the companies that advertise on his show

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. The political climate of Washington has led many of our state’s conservative people to look into moving to more conservative areas of our country. Carlson, his radio program, and certain advertisers see the potential to make money off this climate. I am praying that the Spirit of God will stop them in their tracks. 

 

Though I am not a prophet and cannot categorically speak for the Holy Ghost, I wish to issue a different plea. I wish to make “a Washingtonian Call.” What we need in Washington and state like ours, is not an exodus of conservatives but an incoming flow. We need a mass migration of conservative minded people to: 

·      Move to Washington

·      Make this their home and 

·      Vote in such a way that a balance of power between liberals and conservatives is at the least restored 

 

I know it will be challenging: 

·      The business opportunities are bleak

·      The political atmosphere is dark

·      The number of liberals, especially on the coast, is overwhelming

But I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to abandon my ship. 

 

I am simply asking for conservatives: 

·      From Texas

·      From Idaho

·      From Oklahoma 

·      From Montana 

Conservatives from around the country, “Come over into [Washington] and help us.”

 

I’m not asking for more pastors to come and plant churches, although that needs to happen too. 

·      I’m asking for people to come fill our churches. 

·      I’m asking for conservative businessmen to come create opportunities in a place where large employers are leaving and creating a dearth of work. 

·      I’m asking politically minded young people to move here, make this your home, and pursue the hard work of getting elected in districts where conservatives have given up even running for office.

“Come over into [Washington] and help us.”

 

Marvin McKenzie

In the field

 

 

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[1] It is possible I am mistaken. I was listening to KVI talk radio, and I do not listen to the radio much at all.

[2] https://kvi.com/weekday/john-carlson

Water Baptism Versus Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with Fire

Water Baptism Versus Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with Fire 

Matthew 3:11 (KJV)

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

 

In the Bible

·      There is something practical and there is something spiritual

·      There is something temporal and there is something eternal

·      There is something seen and there is something unseen

 

There are terms in the Bible that have both temporal/seen applications and eternal/unseen applications

 

The word “saved” often refers in the Bible to someone being rescued from a present danger, David being rescued from King Saul, for instance. We know it can also have an eternal application, such as Romans 10:13  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” 

 

The unseen thing does not make invalid the thing that is seen. We all know that being eternally saved is of more value that being saved from an enemy. But we would still like to be saved from the enemy.

 

The term “baptize” is used to speak of an unseen doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost at the moment of salvation. This is a wonderful and comforting Bible truth. But it is in no way a substitute for water baptism. The one is an unseen reality. The other is an expression of Christian faith and obedience.

 

Water baptism is: 

•      Instituted in the Gospels

•      Practiced in the book of Acts and

•      Instructed upon in the New Testament Epistles

 

Every born again believer ought to follow Jesus and be baptized:

•      After salvation

•      In Christian obedience

•      Fully immersed in water

•      Under the Scriptural authority of a New Testament Baptist Church

 

 https://youtu.be/E54GlpZG3Ts

https://www.slideshare.net/MarvinMcKenzie/water-baptism-versus-baptism-with-the-holy-ghost

 

The Single Dumbest Bible Translation Ever?

I just watched Todd Friel’s wretched video posted on YouTube just yesterday.[1] Friel rightly BLASTS a new Bible translation meant to make the Bible sound “cool” to the youth of our day. A person really ought to listen to this video. I am not certain of Friel’s theology. I am sure there would be issues to which I disagree, and he is not a King James user. But he does, in this video, make a very strong case for changing how churches do youth ministry from entertainment to serious Bible study.

 

To be fair, the translation he speaks of could hardly be considered that. It has no scholarship, no pretense at being an improvement. It is crazy weird - sounds more like a children’s Bible storybook (something I am also not always thrilled with) than a serious translation.

 

But let me just say that I would not set it aside as the single most terrible translation. It is really the product of the view that all modern translations have of the Scriptures. A low view. Modern scholarship, to one degree or another, views the Word of God, the Bible, as the product of men and not God. Therefore, they believe it to be subject to the same problems as any literary work of man.

Chase down the history of the Word of God. You will discover that there are two very distinct flows of thought on the subject. One held to a very high view of Scripture and the Word of God. The other held, from the beginning, a lower view. The very claim that there are “older and more reliable” manuscripts betrays the spirit that the Bible may be unreliable. If it is unreliable, it is the product of men and not and can then be tampered with without impunity.

 

Only one version of the Bible comes from that line of reasoning that held to a high view of the Word of God. That is the King James Version. We do not need an easier to read version, we do not need a cooler version, nor do we need a more accurate version. We simply need to believe that God can and has preserved His Word infallibly and then find that Word. It is only possible for that to be the King James Version of the Bible.

 

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[1] The Single Dumbest Bible Translation Ever? https://youtu.be/5ZyEUe91NtM

The Thinking Christian

Do Christians forgo thinking because of faith? This is hardly the case given that many of the greatest thinkers of the past, and a great number of the scientific advancements we now rely upon were the result of the research and deep thinking of men and women who were profoundly Christian. The Bible says, Proverbs 25:2 (KJV) "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." 

Great minds have seen this passage as the mandate of the LORD to be students of life and nature. They have been mathematicians, astronomers, doctors, philosophers, humanitarians and scientists. 

Much has been made lately of Katherine Johnson, the female mathematician who helped the astronauts reach the moon. They said that Neil Armstrong requested that every computer calculation be doubled checked by Mrs. Johnson. He trusted her mind more than the computers! What many fail to see is that she was a devout Christian. Her daughters said that she was faithful in her church all of her life, few ever knowing the near heroic role she played in our space program.

I charge the non-Christian of being the one who has stopped thinking. It is the average non-believer who has trusted in science they have only heard of and never tested on their own. They believe in and hope in the testimony of scientists that they do not know by name, to be correct in the theories that they have never been able to observe, trust or reproduce.

Those who have quit searching out a thing are those whose faith has been placed in science falsely so-called and therefore has been stunted.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Patterns of Evidence: Exodus

Patterns of Evidence: Exodus

My wife and I watched Patterns of Evidence[1] with “skeptical interest.” The subject was of interest to me but, not knowing the source of the documentary, I had no idea if the program would conclude that the exodus of Israel from Egypt was a myth, or if it would make fantastic claims with no support or if it would be supportive of the Biblical narrative. We were quite pleased with what we saw. Some observations:

The program demonstrated the sort of worldly blindness that is manifested in almost every academic field.

So-called experts were interviewed who absolutely denied that there was any evidence of Semitic inhabitation of Egypt, let alone of any other portion of the exodus account.

The pattern was manifest quite early in the program. “Experts” have created a historical timeline for Egypt. Though the evidence for their timeline is based on “rags and tatters” it is the accepted narrative of Egyptologists. To depart from the accepted timeline is to lose all credibility in the world of historians. This timeline presumes a small window in which Semitic people could have lived in and then left Egypt. 

Evidence of the presence of Semitic peoples in Egypt during that period of time is not found. They, therefore, claim there is no evidence of Semitic people living in Egypt, ever. The same historians, when confronted, will admit that Semitic people living in Egypt some 100-200 years previous to the window they have “written in” the possibility of Israel living in Egypt. But since they were not there in the only window of time they allow Israel to be there, they could not have been the children of God.

These so-called experts categorically deny the account of the plagues against Egypt.

There is, they admit, real-time, documented evidence of a series of disasters upon Egypt. The real-time descriptions of those disasters sound remarkably like the plaques on Egypt described in the Bible. But since the described disasters happened hundreds of years previous to the only window of time they will allow that the exodus of Israel from Egypt could have happened, then they claim that means they are not an extrinsic validation of the Biblical account.

Likewise, so-called experts can find evidence of the destruction of Jericho (and other cities in Canaan)

That archeological digs provide a picture of the walls of Jericho falling, followed by an intense fire upon the rubble. There is even verifiable archeological evidence of a section of the wall that did not fall (as described in the Bible where Rahab’s dwelling was). However, those archeological “experts” have dated that event as a century or more previous to the window their Egyptian timeline allows, and therefore, they deny it is possible that this catastrophic event in Jericho could have been what the Bible describes.

The timeline is a fabrication made from bits and pieces of real evidence and then constructed on supposition and educated guesswork. Even then, they have not been able to fill on all of the holes in their imagined timeline. One such hole is filled by simply sliding their imagined timeline back a couple of hundred years. When that is done, the Biblical of Israel in Egypt lines up with the archeological evidence, the disasters in Egypt line up with the Biblical account of the plaque in Egypt lines up with the extrinsic documentation, and the Biblical account of the defeat of Jericho lines up with what archeologists know happened at the city.

In other words, when the Bible is used as the standard, history lines up with the evidence.

I can only think of two reasons why the experts cannot admit this obvious hole in their academics: First, they are blinded by their arrogance. Second, they must at all costs find proof the Bible is wrong, or else they become accountable to the God who gave us His Word.

 

Marvin McKenzie

In the Fields

 

Here is a video of the same report. Patterns of Evidence

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[1] https://www.revelationmedia.com/watchexodus/ExodusAuto/

Why So Many Pastor’s Have Quit During The COVID Crisis

Why So Many Pastor’s Have Quit During The COVID Crisis

I recently read a brief post from a church planter who also works as a coach to church planter.s (He said his clients - he called them friends- come from a broad range of denominations including Methodists, Pentecostals, Baptists, and Non-denominationals.) His post was this brief, “I know 28 friends who have quit the ministry during this COVID crisis. What gives?” I know he wanted to begin a dialog meant to help these struggling church planters and preachers of God’s Word. Given the diversity of doctrine represented by his coaching “ministry”, I am not inclined to engage in that dialog. I will, however, that the problem exists in the “camp” I have been in as much as anywhere.

I think it important to recognize right off the bat that, just because a ministry fails to build roots, or withers to death at some point in its existence, does not mean that the minister of that church has failed. Because that minister has stepped back from the ministry for a time or refitted himself for a different path with Jesus Christ, does not mean he has failed God, failed the church, or failed as a preacher. The chief end of man is to glorify God, not to plant a church, build a church, or even to pastor a church for the rest of your life. I only grow concerned when, for whatever reason, this person walks away from God. I grow equally concerned when he doesn’t quit the ministry but transitions it to a different sort of ministry, hoping that, by doing so, he can feel like a success. Having said this, allow me to address what I think is the foundation of the trouble this “coach” has spotted.

A low view of the ministry

The ministry, church, can be looked upon as some sort of business venture. To be sure, those who view it this way see it as a spiritual venture and therefore, perhaps a noble one, but it is a business venture nonetheless. The pastor might be considered a president of the company or maybe a CEO. If the church is large enough it is very possible that they have an “executive pastor” who is no preacher at all, but responsible for the office of the church. They might have trustees instead of qualified deacons. The church is simply a franchise of the larger denominational corporation. The goal of the minister is to climb the ladder of the denomination more than it is to minister to a flock of needy souls.

In a setting like this, it would be natural to move to another field of work if one comes to believe he is not suited for this one.

A low view of God’s calling

Romans 11:29 (KJV)

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Years ago I loaded my little family and our few belongings into a car and moved to Astoria, OR. My objective was to plant a New Testament, Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. I knew it would be challenging. Honestly, I had no idea how challenging. It was my original idea to plant the church, leave it with a pastor and go and do the same again. One was hard enough. I found out very quickly that I do not have the skills necessary to get a good crowd of people together. I had trouble getting a handful together. I felt like an absolute failure the first 3 years we were in Astoria. When the LORD miraculously put together a group of people sufficient to meet my family’s needs, I could not imagine tempting God like that again!

There was one thing that kept me at it in Astoria. I knew God had put me there. If I had left before I knew God wanted to put me somewhere else, I guessed I would be done for. I was called to Astoria. More so, I am called into the ministry. I have other interests but I am called by God to this life. 

How could one who is called by God to the ministry ever abandon it?

A low view of God

Closely associated with a low view of God’s calling is a low view of God Himself. After almost forty years in the ministry, I have come to believe that most professing Christians have almost no concern for God. He is an assumption to them. They acknowledge that He exists, but in their minds, aware of it or not, His only purpose is an excuse to try to get others to believe and act as they wish them to. This was the very reason Benjamin Franklin believed religion was beneficial. He had no belief in God but he did believe the preaching of the Bible tended to develop a moral citizenry. I am afraid the largest number of professing Christians are right there with Mr. Franklin.

I pray that of those twenty-eight men this coach said quit the ministry, some of them will be refreshed and once again enter the work. I am so hopeful that the majority of them will continue to walk with the Lord in a good local church. The thing I wish most will happen is that those disillusioned at this time will come to know the Lord in a way they had never before thought possible.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields