David Westerfield

Marti Gras in Relation to Lent

On February 5, 2008

It’s funny how every single holiday where Christ is supposed to be at the center, Satan has something planned or some way to try and divert our eyes off of Him and His work on our behalf, and center us rather onto that which is worldly, self-focused or something that isn’t necessarily bad, but that isn’t Christ-centered in any manner. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Lent, all originally intended to give glory to Christ, have been distorted by Satan to take our eyes off the only One who matters, and move our focus to that which profits nothing for the soul, but rather, in all reality, hurts its progress toward godliness that comes only through the righteousness of Christ obtained for us on the cross. With Lent in particular, Satan seems to have devised a two-pronged attack: 1) move people away from Christ through the indulgence of the flesh, and 2) move people away from Christ through works-based religion.

So how did Lent get to the state it’s in now? People indulge themselves, almost to death, in preparation for giving things up during Lent, whether it’s food, alcohol, sex, etc. But to what end? What’s the point? Why even try if you’re just going to show such irreverence toward Christ in acts clearly condemned in Scripture? A friend of mine named Alan Barron said something that hits on the very reason: “Carnival (a word meaning ‘the raising of the flesh’) is an out-growth of a works based religion where grace is obtained through a list of prescribed actions and sins may be worked-off by confession or by penance.” That is exactly right.

Through the preaching of a salvation through works combined with a priest-administered re-sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist by Romans Catholics, people assume 1) they obtain salvation through what they do (the natural thinking of all men, whereas the Gospel is the reverse of this), and 2) that they can just work off their sins previously committed (defying the very reason Christ came, died, and rose again to begin with). Marti Gras is the natural outflow of works-based religion. If you preach to people they can only be saved through what they do and that they can work off their sins, they’ll party as hard as they can, defying God to His face, because they believe they can just work off those sins later during Lent. How erroneous and tragic.

But if we preach a Gospel that says we are so bad off that we could never do anything right to please God, that even our righteous acts are like filthy rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6), that in ourselves and our abilities, we give no glory to Him as we should, and that our only hope is for Christ to literally come in, take out our heart of stone, replacing it with a heart of flesh that desires, loves and is responsive to Him, think of how much differently we would approach God in every way. Lent would then not be a time of either trying to earn God’s favor or trying to work off past sins, but rather, a time of simply reveling in and accepting the mercy granted to us in the cross where Christ paid ALL of our debt against God in full, and also gives us His FULL righteousness.

This alone is what changes hearts to believe in Him unto salvation, the work of Christ in His life, death and resurrection for sinners. This (the Gospel) is the principle dynamic for all radical heart-change, that we may not either 1) participate in the indulgences of Marti Gras (notice I didn’t say participate at all-with the hopes of maybe evangelizing the lost?), or 2) think we have to earn favor with God through Lent, but rather simply turn to the cross and see that Christ has satisfied the infinitely high demands of God on the cross for whoever would believe through faith alone, and then the natural outflow of this is doing all things (works, words, actions) to the glory of God.

PHP Code for Remote IP Address Detection on a Web Page

By David Westerfield

On February 4, 2008

In Technology

I wrote this code today to return the IP address of a remote host when either the host hits the web server directly or accesses it through a web proxy (as in my situation). Thought someone might find it useful.

function writeIPAddress() {
if (isset($_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’]) == ”) {
return $_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’];
}

else {
return $_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’];
}
}

Then, if you want to return the IP address as text on the page, simply do this:

echo writeIPAddress();

In addition, if you want to return the reverse DNS address of the IP, do this:

echo @gethostbyaddr(writeIPAddress());

Christopher Hitchens’ Rant Against Christianity

By David Westerfield

On February 4, 2008

In Apologetics, Theology, Video

What vitriol against Christianity … as James White says, this right here is just one of many reasons why theology matters.

Is Faith a Gift of God Flowing from the Cross? – Part 1

By David Westerfield

On February 3, 2008

In Apologetics, Theology

Most believers (at least it seems to me) have never even considered this. Yet it is very Scriptural. I praise God He has shown it to me and am joyful to impart it to you if possible. We all want to give God the credit for our salvation and yet will inconsistently hold that we produced our faith out of our unregenerated human nature that is in bondage to sin. The air we breathe in this country is “my will to do whatever I want,” and it pervades our understanding of God’s work in salvation. It is said, God did the work through Christ on the cross for everyone, but we get ourselves in “because we are free to choose.” Are we though? How are we free? So our will is free from sin? Has sin not affected even this? And if this is so, how in the world can we make a right choice if even our wills (choosing what we desire most) are in bondage to sin? Our hearts are enslaved, our desires corrupted to the core, to the point that all things coming from our hearts naturally are vile and poisonous. Romans 3:9-18 makes this abundantly clear, as Paul’s argument of summing up the human condition. In ourselves, apart from any work exerted by God to cleanse us, we desire and seek nothing of Jesus unless a change happens first in us to cleanse our will and change our very desires, cure our blindness and heal our deafness, so that we see and hear beauty we’ve never experienced: that is, Jesus and His infinite suffering for sinners on the cross. Shining a light in a blind man’s eyes will not make him see. He must first be cured of his blindness and then he can see the light.

So, faith. What is it? “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And where does it come from?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

You have been saved by grace through faith. We have that down. Then Paul says, “And this is not your own doing.” And I have understood this to mean the totality of the statement, “by grace through faith,” is not your own doing. But including our faith even? Was this the doing of God? According to this Scripture, yes. And it was purchased in the cross for us, being that unbelief was one of the sins for which Christ had to die. If you have believed in Christ, it means before the foundation of the world, it was granted to you by God to believe (Ephesians 1:4, 5, 11).

In salvation, God brings all the glory to Himself and this is indicated in this passage when Paul says, “It (meaning salvation “by grace through faith,” the whole thing) is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We alone believe. But God is the One who grants that faith. Just as God spoke the world into existence from nothing, so also, He goes into dead hearts and speaks into existence that which is not there, namely faith in Christ alone which saves us. Apart from this work, as Jesus said, you cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3). May we consider that even our faith has been given to us by God and that even in this, we cannot boast, but rather thank God for the work of Christ, that He would grant us eyes to see and ears to hear the Gospel and respond positively to it.

Here are some other examples of how God is the only One who gives causal priority to our faith (or in simpler terms, that God is the One who imparts faith to the spiritually dead, hardened sinner):

“One of those listening (to the Gospel being preached) was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (Acts 16:14)

Notice, Lydia is the one who believed, she responded. Listen to me here: I’m affirming that she was solely responsible for her belief or unbelief in the message. She is not a robot, but a living, responsible moral agent. God did not believe or respond for her. But what is the reason she believed and responded positively? “The Lord opened her heart,” which caused her to respond positively to Paul’s message. God performed a work in her that produced an effect. That is the only explanation for her and every believers faith: God alone and His work to make dead sinners alive. He gets all the glory. This is called regeneration, or the new birth, or (as it has been so abused as a political label for evangelicals) being born again. It is not something we do at all, it is something done to us by God alone. Just as we have nothing to do with our physical birth and have no choice in the matter, so also, we have nothing to do with our second birth, but it is something done to us. And yet are fully responsible to believe the message of the Gospel. But the new birth, this is God’s operation to perform. And the new birth creates in the sinner a faith (assured hope, deep conviction of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1) that was not there. Faith is the result of this new birth, not the cause. God, and more specifically, the cross, is the cause of our faith in Him. This is our hope in evangelism! We speak the message of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit does His work. It doesn’t rest on our convincing people into the kingdom but the work of God to save sinners.

Continuing, Jesus says Himself,

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

No one comes to, or believes in, or trusts in, or rests in, or loves Jesus unless that person is first drawn by the Father. And the Greek word for drawn is literally dragged, as the same Greek word appears in Acts in speaking of Paul being dragged out of the city. This is our condition spiritually before God: we must be dragged and have life supernaturally breathed into us. The implication here is undeniable: no one believes unless God does a work in them. How does this square with Jesus’ statement in John 3:16 that, “whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”? Well that’s absolutely true! Whosoever believes will be saved.

But read the rest of Jesus’s comments in the Bible, particularly the book of John. It is Jesus Himself who says no one believes unless they are drawn by the Father. Their very coming to Christ is granted by the Father, or it is not. He is God, we’re not. Faith in Jesus is a part of the grace of God, not of works, so that we, in no way at all, boast before Him. He gets all glory and honor for our believing. This is the wondrous hope and beauty of election. It is cause for great joy in the believer and should in no way make us recoil in horror! If you believe, you have been “mercied” by God through the cross, brought from death to life by His power. This should bring you to tears and awe at the infinite work of God to save sinners by Christ.

Jesus also says:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

The Father has a chosen, elect people He gives to the Son. The Son purchases for those people all the benefits of salvation, from beginning to end, uniting them to Himself at every point of His life. Jesus makes an emphatic statement there by saying “they will come to me”. It is as good as done. His work to bring them from death to life is infallible, unstoppable. His work results in their coming to Him, and nothing will stop Him from bringing them to Himself. How awesome. What joy fills my heart just thinking about that. The work of the cross is definitive, effective, not passive, waiting for us to get ourselves into its benefits. Rather, He sovereignly bestows those benefits as He desires, in mercy, making sure His people come to Christ by His power alone. Oh the glory of the cross!

Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Again, the flesh is no help at all. Does this not destroy the misconception of free will? John says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) Most people will simply stop at that verse and say “Whosoever, whosoever, see? It proves free will.” Yet they will not continue on in the same sentence of the next verse. It says, “…who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Preempting verse 12, they were born by God, their very believing came by a prior work of God. It specifically says they were not born “of the will of man.” You did not will yourself into being born again. Is this not conclusive?

And finally, these verses make it abundantly clear that Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ because the Father revealed it to Him, not because he finally made himself see Jesus as the Christ (note specifically that Jesus says flesh and blood has not revealed this to him, including his own):

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'” (Matthew 16:13-17)

So yes, faith is indeed the gift of God and comes only by the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel from God’s word. We evangelize the lost because that’s how God sovereignly works, according to Romans 10:14-15. And God does His work as He pleases. How freeing! God has people He will infallibly save through preaching the Gospel! We must pay close attention to these passages in order that we may feel the deeper sense of just how helpless we really were to even believe apart from God’s work in us. That is exactly how dead in sin we really are. Praise God all the work is His and that we can only boast in the work of Christ on the cross having purchased this undeserved, unearned benefit of faith for His people! To God alone be the glory!

Jesus, the Greatest and Final King of all the Kings of Israel

By David Westerfield

On February 2, 2008

In Theology

Recently I’ve been reading through 1 Kings, and I was considering these words Solomon spoke in chapter eight verses 25-26:

“Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father.”

If you look at the state of Israel now (not the current political nation but rather the monarchical system that no longer exists), you would think God has failed in keeping this particular promise to Israel. In addition, Christ, the Messiah has come, died, risen from the grave, and ascended into heaven, with a large majority of the Jews having rejected Christ, stumbling over the stumbling block.

There is also another big problem: God says, “You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel,” and then adds, “IF only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me …” And if you continue to read into 1 and 2 Kings, they fail miserably, because they, along with all other people’s of the world, are great sinners and are incapable in themselves of fulfilling God’s spoken decrees and statutes. So you would definitely think at this point all is lost and God has failed in keeping His promise. And if He failed in keeping His promise to His chosen people, whom He dwelt with and brought out of Egypt with great sovereign power, what are we to make of His promises to us Gentiles, the grafted in branches?

So how does God fulfill this promise to Israel? God brought this promise to pass through His Son, Christ. He alone is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the great sovereign God who reigns on high, who sits on the Throne of thrones. He is the King whose reign will never end and is established forever. Christ is the fulfillment of this promise and the final, greatest of all kings to ever have reigned.

But God fulfills this promise in a most unexpected way; so unexpected that many of the Jews stumbled over it when God brought it to pass. In Jesus’s day, the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come in and wipe out the Romans; expecting a political Savior. They in no way envisioned a Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52, 53) who would make Himself nothing, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. This was in fact the opposite of how they thought God would do things. They fundamentally did not understand they were incapable of fulfilling the law God by themselves, but rather assumed they were doing exactly that, which is the reason why they stumbled over the Messiah when He did arrive as a peasant, a servant of humble means.

Christ came though, in this way, because we all, including the Jews, are incapable of meeting the requirements of God. In the verse I quoted earlier where God promises, “You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, IF only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me …” this was fulfilled in Christ. He is the One who walked perfectly in all the ways of God, without blemish or spot, and by the eternal power within Himself, has ascended to the eternal throne of God. But He did this at much cost to Himself. He bore the wrath of God in Himself on the cross for us who believe!

Because of the great infinite chasm between us and God, it had to be done this way: Christ fulfilling the law for us in His perfect life, bearing in Himself the wrath of God for us on the cross, dying in our place, and rising from the grave, in order to bring us to life in Himself. The greatest King of all time set aside His heavenly dwelling, His place of eternal honor, and made Himself nothing so that those who believe and trust in Him could be heirs with Him of the throne He so greatly deserves, and we so greatly undeserve. What a Savior and King!

This is the King we have, not one who idly stood by and waited for us to save ourselves, or who even did “most” of the work and left us to get ourselves into His eternal blessings, but rather, One that by His eternal power, made us alive together with Himself when we desired nothing of Him, uniting Himself to His people whom He foreloved from eternity; uniting them to Himself at every point in His life, death and resurrection. This Jesus, who man mocks, is the One whose throne will never end, and He has brought great meaning to the passage above, being the final and greatest King of kings Israel has ever seen: “God with us,” Emmanuel.

May we sit and ponder just the vastness of His Kingship and Lordship over our lives and the entire universe, creating, upholding and sustaining everything by His powerful word. Submit to the One true sovereign God and King who lovingly became nothing for us so that we could be made right again in the presence of God and have final, divine, eternal peace and acceptance with God forever. Lord Jesus, You reign on high!

Sounds Strangley Familiar to New Age “Group” Practices in the Corporate World

By David Westerfield

On February 1, 2008

In Bizarro, Business, Culture, Economics, Philosophy

http://www.edgenews.com/article.php?id=729

That’s all I’m going to say.

Question Sent to Me on the Difference Between Supra/Infralapsarianism

By David Westerfield

On January 31, 2008

In Personal, Theology

David,

Thanks for your site and your work here. I just have one question: on your page stating your doctrinal views you stated that you were a “supralapsarian”. From what I have studied, “supralapsarianism” as opposed to “infralapsarianism” says that God even predestined the “Fall”(not “just allowed” it), and is the ultimate cause of “All” events(sin included). Would you agree with this? Thanks for your response, I’m not trying to start any arguments, I promise! Love ya Brother.
—————————————————————-

Thanks for the question!

The main difference between supra/infralapsarianism has to do with the point at which God predestined the elect, was it “before the foundation of the world” (as in Ephesians 1:4), or was it after the fall? Supra/infralapsarianism doesn’t really have anything to do so much with whether God did or didn’t predestine the fall, but more with the point in time of which he predestined the elect in particular. So supra says God chose us before the foundation of the world. Infra says God chose us after the fall occurred. So I’m supra, having not been convinced of the infra position.

As far as the fall goes, it is my personal belief from the Scriptures that God has indeed providentially ordained whatsoever comes to pass (including evil), and yet is in no way the author of sin and evil. God cannot and will never be charged with being the one responsible for evil, because it contradicts His very nature. Therefore, mystery abounds on this subject. All we know is God has the reigns on everything, and yet is not the creator of evil, but only good. All we know is that as in Job’s situation, for example, God hates evil and wickedness, but yet at the same time ordains it (in allowing Satan a certain level of damage in Job’s life) to bring about His glory and good, holy, righteous purposes, as it is clearly shown at the end of the book. I hope that answers your question my friend! Thanks for asking …

In Christ Alone,

David

The Justification of God by John Piper – A Review

By David Westerfield

On January 31, 2008

In Reviews, Theology

In a day when men in the pulpit and in the study would take the verses of Romans nine totally out of context, infer unwarranted and unscriptural presuppositions (foreknown faith as the basis for election), thus pressing ideologies onto the text that are just not there, John Piper’s scholarly work on what Romans nine is all about is a great defense of Biblical election (unconditional election) that shines a light in the darkness of so much poor analysis and exegesis of this chapter. Romans nine is about the very definition of who God is: the sovereign Lord over ALL things whose name will be proclaimed in all the Earth, being that His glory is the highest good and that His promises never fail.

Two of the main ways this text is gutted of its intended meaning is first, by the majority of interpretors proposing that Romans nine is not about individual, eternal election to salvation, but rather, corporate temporal election to historical roles, such as Israel being elected as God’s chosen people (as opposed to say David being individually elected to salvation). Secondly, there are those who do believe in individual election, but who will say God chose them because they first chose Him (conditional election, if they choose me I’ll choose them). Piper goes to pain-staking lengths to show how great of an error these propositions are by starting in Romans 9:1 and working his way forward in both the Greek and Hebrews texts. He goes into extensive arguments about how these will not stand in the face of the Berean test of Scripture. In addition, he shows the larger context of the previous chapter, Romans eight, displaying how sure the promises of God are to His people, that He will never fail in carrying them out, because, namely, they are rooted in His unconditional electing love.

However, if that’s true, that God’s promise will not fail, what do we make of these promises if the large majority of the Jews, at the official levels, rejected Christ? I mean, having rejected the Gospel, they remain under the wrath of God! Has God’s promises to Israel failed? And if His promises failed to His chosen people, what are we to make of His promises to us, the grafted in branches? Paul’s answer? “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” (Romans 9:6) And thus Paul begins his argument as to why the promises of God did not fail Israel, just as they will never fail us who trust in Christ. Why haven’t God’s promises failed? It comes down to election. God’s promises are rooted precisely in His plan that was set into effect before the foundation of the world. And Piper shows that to be the case very forcefully.

I highly commend this book to all of you who want to delve into a really good study of these controversial passages in Romans. Piper is an excellent scholar and it is very hard to get around these arguments when confronted with them. Many esteem predestination as an unloving doctrine, that it paints God as a mean, old grandfather who randomly chooses some and not others for salvation. That is called Greek determinism, not Biblical election. However, as we see from the Scriptures, God is the most loving precisely in predestination to salvation through the work of Christ on our behalf (and in every instance where election is mentioned in Scripture, that is exactly how it is presented, the love of God electing us to eternal life through Christ). To see that truth opens up the doors of experiencing God’s grace in deeper ways, because you see just how rebellious from the heart you really are, and just how deep into your soul God had to go to first regenerate you and bring you to life from spiritual death, granting you the eyes to see and ears to hear the call of Christ to salvation, and thus moving in you to respond positively to the Gospel message, just as the Lord did to the Gentiles at Antioch in Acts 13:48 and in Lydia in Acts 16:14.

To hear some excellent messages on much of the same material in this book by John Piper himself on Romans 9 (without being too heady), go here:
http://www.westerfunk.net/theology/piper/romans/9/

To order this book now, go here:
http://www.monergismbooks.com/The-Justi … 16367.html

The Most Important Point to be Attended To – George Mueller

By David Westerfield

On January 30, 2008

In Theology

“According to my judgment the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”

“Now in brotherly love and affection I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful in order that happiness in the Lord may continue, that the Scriptures be regularly read. These are God’s appointed means for the nourishment of the inner man. . . .Consider it, and ponder over it. . . . Especially we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more.”

Custom Web Site Searches from Google

By David Westerfield

On January 30, 2008

In Personal, Technology

Apparently this is a relatively new function, but Google has now made it possible to add a customized search to your web site (though some form of this has been around for a while). The major difference now is that you can actually show the result on your own web site versus going off to another site (like Google). In addition, you have the ability to do custom color layouts, show relevant content first, amongst several other configuration options. So now, as you can see above, I have added a Google search bar that will bring results up from my blog. I have also added this functionality to my other site, www.westerfunk.net to make it easier to find content. So check it out! The search function works much better than the built-in search function for this site to find blog entries, performing a better job of pulling up relevant results (because, well, it’s Google).