General Articles

What’s Mercy Got to Do With Bible Prophecy? :: By Jonathan Brentner

Published on: by RR10

Ruth, my wife, and I have a cat named Adaline. On the surface, one might wonder why she has captured our hearts. I don’t fully understand why I’m so attached to her, although she is cute.

She most often demands her own way and audibly grumbles when that doesn’t happen. Adaline exhibits “management qualities” when she senses a change in our routine. In spite of all that, she has become a beloved member of our family since the day we chose to adopt her and brought her into our home.

Does that not illustrate, albeit to a small degree, God’s mercy toward us? I’ve gained a better understanding of His steadfast love toward us since the day we rescued Adaline.

Romans 5:6-8 gives us a window into His great love for us:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The understanding of God’s compassion in forgiving all our sins makes an enormous difference in our walk with God as well as in what we believe about biblical prophecy. A key false teaching in regard to future things developed in the early church history because of theologians not fully grasping the extent of the Lord’s mercy toward sinners.

Lest you think I’m a bit crazy for saying that, let me explain.

Understanding God’s Mercy

My conviction regarding the necessity of comprehending God’s mercy also grew through my long-term study of several minor characters in the Bible, many of whom ruined their lives because they failed to grasp its significance. My book, Cancel This! What Today’s Church Can Learn From the Bad Guys of the Bible, details the failures of several “bad guys” and explains how a deeper understanding of God’s merciful forgiveness of all our sins enables us to avoid their errant paths and reckless decisions.

In contrast to Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35), several of them viewed the sins of others as far greater than their own disobedience to a holy God. As a result, they refused to let go of their anger, pride, and bitterness toward those that wronged them. They felt justified in harboring bitterness and in exacting their own revenge.

The words of 2 Corinthians 5:21 sum up the wonders of God’s great mercy toward us in not only canceling all our sins but applying the “righteousness of God” to us:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This lies at the heart of our “justification by faith,” which Paul explains in Romans 5-8. When we call upon the Lord in saving faith, He declares us righteous in His sight. The word Paul used for “justify” came from the law courts of his day. It signified a judge declaring the accused to be “not guilty.’

That’s the depth of God’s mercy to us. At the moment of our salvation, God declares us to be “not guilty” of all our many sins, past, present, and future. And the good news is that it’s impossible for anyone to overturn that verdict! That’s the glorious message of Romans 8:31-39.

If you think it might be difficult, or even impossible, to overturn an earthly judge’s “not guilty” verdict, try attempting to do that with an all-knowing and sovereign God who has already seen all the evidence one could possibly bring to His attention.

What Does Mercy Have to Do with Biblical Prophecy?

“What does mercy have to do with biblical prophecy?” you ask.

During the early centuries of church history, an error regarding Bible prophecy sprang up because of a failure to understand God’s mercy. Just like many of the guys in my book Cancel This!, the proponents of this false teaching believed that the sins of others were far greater than their own transgressions.

As a result, they placed the blame on the Jews of the first century AD for Jesus’ crucifixion, and as a result, they refused to believe that God could possibly bless them with a future kingdom. Yes, other factors such as Platonism were also involved, but anti-Semitic passions fueled this false belief from the fifth century through the entire time of the Reformation.

These theologians overlooked three critical considerations in their errant rush to assume that God had rejected Israel as a nation and replaced it with the church.

First, Jesus willingly laid down His life as a sacrifice for our sins. In Mark 10:44, Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” As God, He had the power to avoid arrest and death. He could have called upon thousands of angels to rescue Him, but He didn’t. Instead, He freely gave up His life as an atonement for our sins.

Second, it was the sins of all the redeemed of all the ages that put Jesus on the cross. These early theologians erred in their failure to understand the full scope of God’s mercy in forgiving their own sins via the cross. They overlooked the truth that Jesus gave up His life so that they themselves might call upon Him in faith and receive forgiveness of sins.

Third, Jesus’ arrest, trial, death on the cross, and resurrection fulfilled biblical prophecy. The God who promised a gloriously restored kingdom for Israel also revealed the death and suffering of the Messiah on the pages of the Old Testament.

You see, if God can change His mind regarding His unconditional covenants He made to Israel based on behavior He knew all about at the time He made the promises of a still future kingdom for Israel, then we are all in a whole lot of trouble.

What does it say about the Lord if He’s capable of reneging on promises based on behavior He knew all about when He made those promises?

It’s All About God’s Mercy

Why did the apostle Paul write Romans 9-11 after affirming the unchangeable nature of our justification in Romans 8:31-39?

It was to show that with both our election as New Testament saints and God’s unconditional calling of Israel as a nation, it’s all about His unchanging mercy.

In Romans 9:14, the apostle asserts God’s sovereignty in the matter of His choices, “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Just as God decided to choose Abraham and subsequently bless Jacob and all His descendants, so He justifies the elect as New Testament saints (see Romans 8:30). It’s all about His sovereign mercy for both Israel and us.

Paul declares in Romans 11:29 that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” This signifies that just as His calling and justifying of us can never be undone, the same is true of His determination to bless Israel in the future. Romans 11:28-32 confirms what the apostle said in earlier in the chapter, “God has not rejected his people [Israel].”

“As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”

Why are we eternally secure as New Testament saints? It’s solely because of God’s sovereign mercy toward us. The One who justifies us will never let go of us. No one can overturn God’s verdict of “not guilty” regarding us. Don’t let anyone tell you that one can lose their salvation or walk away from their faith; such a statement displays a serious misunderstanding of what it means to be “justified by faith.”

Why will God keep His promises to restore a glorious kingdom for Israel? Again, it’s solely because of His unfailing mercy to the people that He chose long ago. Just as for us, His compassion never fails! He keeps all His promises to His beloved.

A biblical understanding of God’s mercy negates all forms of teachings that deny the restoration of a glorious future kingdom for Israel and claim that the church has replaced Israel as the Lord’s kingdom. The church is the body of Christ; it’s not God’s physical kingdom.

Those who properly comprehend God’s mercy have no problem believing what the Bible says about the abundant blessings ahead for the nation of Israel. They understand the connection between His holiness and the resulting multitude of future blessings for Israel, as explained in Ezekiel 36:22-38. There will be a remnant of Jewish people who turn to Jesus at the end of the Tribulation and inherit the glorious kingdom promised to them throughout the pages of the Old Testament.

A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, wrote this about the necessity of understanding the person of God as a believer:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us….

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.[i]

It’s solely because of God’s sovereign mercy that we have hope in Jesus’ appearing to take us home to glory. Just as with His promises to the nation of Israel, the Lord can’t renege on His gift of eternal life to us and our blessed hope in Jesus’ appearing. This is the best news we could ever hear!

Maranatha!

***

My newest book is Cancel This! What Today’s Church Can Learn from the Bad Guys of the Bible. In it, I explore what we can learn from less than stellar biblical characters that help us live in today’s cancel culture.

I provide a detailed defense of the Pretribulation viewpoint in: The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times.

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. Thanks!

***

[i] A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of The Holy (New York: Harpers and Row, Publishers, 1961), p. 9. Note: I’m not sure Tozer would agree with my Premillennialism, but he was spot-on regarding the impact of how we view God.

Hebrews Lesson 41: By Faith Part 2 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Chapter 11: 8-12

8 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.”

We often hear about faith in Christian circles, and there are many who do not know what faith really means or is, for that matter. I came across this definition on gotquestions.org, and I decided to put it for us to look at:

This definition of faith contains two aspects: intellectual assent and trust. Intellectual assent is believing something to be true. Trust is actually relying on the fact that something is true. A chair is often used to help illustrate this. Intellectual assent is recognizing that a chair is a chair and agreeing that it is designed to support a person who sits on it. Trust is actually sitting in the chair.

Notice the two aspects of faith. Faith is not some ethereal idea that is not founded in facts. Rather, our faith is grounded in documented and provable Biblical facts. Many of the books, like Luke, give detailed accounts of who ruled where and when. We have the names of Roman rulers, we have the names of Caesars, and we know when they lived. We have specific geographical locations that we can use to find things, finds where events happened and even when they happened. There are scientific facts in the Bible that cannot be disputed, things that God spoke about before He allowed men to discover them.

If you take the time to examine some of the information in this link, you will find some eye-opening science in the Bible that was there before we knew what it was.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/scientific-facts-in-the-bible.html

The second part of the definition is then to act based on faith. Abraham believed God and moved his whole family to a place that God promised to give to his descendants. Noah built an Ark, having never seen rain but believing that God was able. Abraham offered Isaac, knowing that God had kept his promise once and that he had received a son in his old age and Sarah long after the times of child-bearing. In verse 11, we are told that Sarah judged that God was faithful to do all He had promised.

At times, these wonderful patriarchs and matriarchs of Christianity did struggle with the doubts that come to all finite saved persons. But in the totality of their lives, we see the faith that God was able to do all He had said He would do and more. Today, we see the fulfillment of verse 12, the Jewish population, even with the thousands of years of hatred, hunting, and running, measure almost 10,000,000 in Israel in 2021, the last number that we have. These all from this one old couple, he 100 years and she 90 at the time of Isaac’s birth. They never saw Jews as much as the ‘sand of the seashore,’ but we do. Thus, we are challenged by immutable facts to put our faith in the same God that these persons did. We are challenged to serve and love Him with the same fervor that they did and to look for His appearing as they did as well.

We, like these heroes of the faith, can be just as confident in the promises that God made to us. In fact, here we are with thousands of years of evidence, a completed Bible, the ability to see the hand of God in every corner of the planet in almost real-time, and the plethora of scientific evidence for God that we can research and see; these all create a foundation of ROCK to carve out our faith in. Yet, like our spiritual ancestors, we, at least I, struggle with doubts. I struggle with sin, and I struggle with wondering if God is truly on my side. Yes, the same struggle these folks in Hebrews 11 had.

Yet, in this chapter, God exclusively highlights their faith, their faithfulness, and the wonders that He brought about because they had faith. God is bigger than our failures, bigger than our lacking at times, and certainly bigger than our doubts. What was it that kept these people going? In verse 10, we see that these folks kept their eyes on the promises of God. He promised Abraham a new home on earth. But He also promised him a new home beyond death. This hope, this focus, kept Abraham hoping and moving through all the delays, all the hiccups, all the failures, and all the stumbles.

Jesus called us to live the same way – focus on our new home, our new place, our permanent dwelling. We see this in Matthew 6:33,

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (KJV).

Hebrews 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

Colossians 3:1-4, “Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

As we approach the end of all things, it will become more and more important for us to focus on Heaven, as our earthly home crumbles and the people begin to hate the ‘truth’ tellers more and more. If we are not focused, as these that went before us, on the city whose builder is God, we will faint and fail and maybe even go backward in our service to the Lord. God is faithful, and He is able to keep and strengthen us all the way through to the end and give us endurance just like He gave endurance to these great men and women of our faith. Most Christians I speak to are looking forward to meeting Moses, Abraham, and other ‘giants’ of our faith. Let me ask you, how would you feel to know that maybe they are waiting to meet you?

Hold on; Jesus is coming, and His promises are assured.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca; support@mmbchurch.ca