Category Archives: His Story

A Cosmological World View based on Holy Scripture
A module in Life College

Family, General Principles, Wisdom

The Difference between Pardon and Forgiveness

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Jesus words on forgiveness are stark:  Unless you forgive others you cannot be forgiven.  He makes that very clear in the Lord’s prayer (Matt. 6:15), in the parable of the indebted servant in Matthew 18:21-35 and elsewhere.

However forgiveness and pardon are not the same thing.  To pardon someone is to let them off, to not enforce a judgement that is against them.  If you have the authority to pardon someone, that means you have some authority over them.  Kings, Queens, Presidents, some politicians and judges have this kind of authority.  Prison governours, members of tribunals, parole boards, military leaders and policemen also have this power at times.  Employers have authority over employees.  But the most relevant authority to most of us is that of our parents.

As a Christian, whoever you are, you are called to forgive.  But if you are a Christian in a place of authority over someone then you need to be careful before you extend that forgiveness into pardon.  If the person who you have the authority to pardon is unrepentant then the pardon will just lead to more opportunity for that person to cause the same type of trouble again.

I am really enjoying the Netflix series “The Crown” mainly because of its historical accuracy and attention to detail.  In Series 2 episode 6, the Queen is strongly impressed by Billy Graham who is holding a crusade in the UK at the time.  She invites him to the palace on two occasions.  Interwoven with these visits is an attempt by her uncle (formerly Edward VIII who abdicated before the war to marry a divorcee) to return to the UK.  Through powerful contacts he manages to convince the government to offer him some high profile ambassadorial roles.  Only the Queen is between him and a happy homecoming.  She has to decide whether to give him a royal pardon and let him in the country or to refuse and to leave him in exile.

The trouble is her uncle is unrepentant.  He is still as treasonous in his heart as he has ever been.

The Queen is confused between forgiveness and pardon.  The Netflix portrayal makes it clear that she hasn’t distinguished between the two.  She asks Billy Graham should she forgive her uncle, to which Billy rightly responds that she should.  In the end she tells her uncle that she can never forgive him – but when she said that she used the wrong word.  To protect her family and her country she could never pardon him.  In her heart she could and did forgive him but he was unrepentant.  She used the wrong word but made the right decision.  But she ended up confused.

We need to know the difference between forgiveness and pardon because all of us have either been a parent or a child.  Parents need to always be able to have an attitude of forgiveness towards their children but they would be foolish to pardon them and let them avoid the consequences of their wrongdoing – especially if they are unrepentant.  Children need to understand this distinction.

Discipleship Series, Eschatology, General Principles

The meaning of the word “Antichrist”

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The word antichrist has two parts to it. Anti means “in place of” and christ in this context means “anointing”.

John wrote to disciples of Jesus, those who are born again, and says about this anointing that you have no need for anyone to teach you since you have the anointing and know the truth (1 John 2:20,27).

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah and says that no one will need to teach his neighbour to know the Lord for He shall write His laws on their hearts and on their minds (Jer. 31:33, Heb. 8:10; 10:16).

A primary feature of being a Christian according to the New Testament is that you don’t need an intermediary between you and God, there is only One and He is in you.

Don’t let any man, no matter how exalted, take the place of God in your life.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

The Secret Place (Psalm 91)

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“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid ….” 

Psalm 91: 1-5 (NKJV)

The secret place is primarily a place of trust. We all have to face fear but it makes no sense to stay afraid when the God who made the universe is on your side.  That is, of course, if you know He is on your side.  So how do we know that?

The Scriptures say that God is for us not against us (Romans 8:31).    But this and other passages in the letters are written to disciples/ saints/ overcomers, those who have been born again and are walking in the light.

Before you can enter the secret place and dwell there you must have come to faith in Him.  Jesus says that we should fear Him (Matt. 10:28, Luke 12:5) and make peace with Him while we are on the way through this life (Matt. 5:25) before it is too late.  John points out that unless you are born from above you cannot be in His kingdom (John 3:8).  To be in God’s kingdom is to be under His protection.

It is only then that we can truly say that “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”Fortress

Discipleship Series, General Principles, prayer, Wisdom

Practices of Discipleship: Prayer

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Prayer is more about listening than talking:

5 Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

2 Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words be few.
3 For a dream comes through much activity,
And a fool’s voice is known by his many words.

Eccles. 5:1-3

The main point of praying is putting yourself somewhere you can hear clearly.  There is both a physical and a moral/spiritual element to this placing.

Physically it should be quiet and alone (we are not talking about corporate prayer here which is a different thing).

Morally you need to be devoted, set aside or holy.  Your only desire should be to do His will otherwise you won’t hear properly:

17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

John 7:17,18

You also need to give this time and priority.  I find that first thing in the morning is best and an hour is a good length of time.

Once you are in the quiet place (Psalm 91), the aim is to take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

I find that the meditative technique of “centering down” helps here.  Thoughts actually come out of the heart or centre of you (not your head – Matt. 15:18, Luke 6:45) and therefore bringing your inner man to a place of quiet is important if you are to listen to God who is in you (Col. 1:27).

God is not far away, He is in fact very close to His children (Romans 10:8, Acts 17:28).   If you are born again and abiding in Jesus, His word is in your heart and written on your mind (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 10:16).

When a thought comes to you, capture it and check it against the name or character of Jesus as He has been revealed to you through the Holy Spirit and His word.  If it requires action do it as long as it is something God would do.  If you are unsure ask another brother/sister who you trust and who loves you.

I am writing these things because I believe God has told me to and it is the kind of thing He does.  I also checked with Olive.

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Three Pillars

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Three Pillars Venn Diagram

The above diagram is a way of looking at what happens if an individual or church adopts one or two of the three pillars.  A balanced Christian or church includes all three.

Recently I spent a couple of hours with someone I hadn’t met in years.  As we spoke together it became obvious that he was struggling with his faith.  He is a bright guy and had spent a long time researching the nature of Christ as part of trying to allay his doubts.  He did what many intellectuals do, that is, he put too much emphasis on a logical analysis of the Bible only.

As someone in relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ I know the Holy Spirit uses the 66 books of the Bible to speak the truth to me.  It is part of what Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will do in John 16:13.

But that is the point I made to my friend.  Approaching the Bible without the leading of the Holy Spirit is a waste of time.  We cannot by our intellects alone know or find God.  It is up to Him to reveal Himself to us.

Standing on one foot is hard.  You will eventually fall over if all that is holding you up is one of the three pillars that God has given us.  An objective understanding of Scripture is one of those pillars.  If you know the Bible off by heart and can quote any part of it then you have a strong leg to stand on but that is not enough on its own.  You must be born again and continue in the relationship that God initiates with you spiritually from that time forward.  Intimate, experiential relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit is essential if you are to interpret the Bible correctly and if it is to become a living word not just a deadly letter (2 Cor. 3:6).  This is the second pillar.

The third pillar is the Church.  When we are born again we are part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12) and it is foolish not to meet together with those who are your brothers and sisters in Christ (Hebrews 10:25).  I believe firmly in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9) and that no one needs to teach you anything if you are born again (Hebrews 8:11, 1 John 2:20).  However it would be arrogant of anyone to think that they can live in this sin and devil filled world in a way that is pleasing to God without the other members of the body supporting and feeding into them.

So read the Scripture and understand it as well as you can but don’t do that on your own, let the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth and let others who love you in Christ encourage you.  We all need encouragement.  Relationship is at the heart of knowing God.

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Fellowship with the Saints

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The words “fellowship” and “saints” are old-fashioned and rarely encountered in modern Evangelical/ Pentecostal circles.

JRR Tolkein’s first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is called “The Fellowship of the Ring”.  Fellowship in that context, and generally, speaks of a group of people united in a common purpose.  The purpose is greater than the individuals and calls for self-sacrifice and submission.

The word “saint” means sanctified one.  In the context of Scripture, Paul writes to the saints at various places as members of the local churches there.  Saints in the biblical context are those who have an ongoing, personal relationship with God in the context of the local church.

Put the two words “Fellowship” and “Saints” together and you have a group of people united in glorifying God through their lives together.

Autobiographical, His Story, Prophetic Writings, Prophetic?

Pathetic Fallacy

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Back when I was doing my Leaving Cert English course Shakespeare’s King Lear was on the curriculum.  I’m not sure was it my teacher at the time or a textbook but one of the phrases used was “pathetic fallacy”.  It referred to Shakespeare’s use of the weather in the play to reflect the action on the ground.  At the height of the worst tragedies that fell on King Lear the storms raged the worst:

“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!

You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our teeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulphurour and thought-executing fires,

Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!”

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare

So the now forgotten commentator called this kind of matching of the elements to the moral events on the ground “pathetic fallacy”.

The attitude that such connections are pathetic lies is now so ingrained into our thinking that anyone who even remotely suggests in our “enlightened” western humanist society that God might have something to do with the weather is likely to face the worst of scorn.   And, indeed, caution is always advised when attributing any specific elemental actions (e.g. fires, earthquakes, floods, droughts, etc.) directly to God’s judgments especially at macro levels like nations (notwithstanding the fact that these acts are all called “Acts of God” for insurance and other purposes).

However, the bible is quite clear that God is in control of the weather whatever we might be told by English teachers or otherwise.   Here is one example taken from Zechariah chapter 10 in the Old Testament:

“Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
    it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain to all people,
    and plants of the field to everyone.”

Zechariah 10:1

I have a number of reasons for drawing attention to this current drought and asking the question:  “Is God judging Ireland?”

One of the reasons is that I woke up with a vivid dream this morning.  In it, I was in a train travelling through the hills along the coast.  It could have been from Greystones to Bray or somewhere similar.  On hills away from the coast fires were breaking out all over.  There was a solitary fire man fighting one of them.  I didn’t see any houses go up in flames just gorse and hedges.  But there were a lot of fires and not enough firemen.

To be fair, you wouldn’t have to be much of a prophet to predict that in this weather in this country.

We are all enjoying the fine weather.  Ireland is known for its rain during the summer or indeed at any time of the year and so any respite from rain is usually welcomed by the majority of the people.  However when it comes to judging nations the bible does have quite a lot to say.  Usually judgement comes in the form of an invading force but in Zechariah chapter 14 there is this verse:

 “If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.“

Zechariah 14:17

The context in this case is (probably) the millennium rule of Christ on the earth which (probably) has yet to happen.  However the principle is the same:  When God holds back rain it is not a good thing.

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Disciples, Saints and Overcomers

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According to the bible, God’s eternal destiny for you is communion with Him and fellowship with the church.  Communion and fellowship starts from when you are born from above (John 3:8) and continues for eternity.  Evangelism, by contrast, just lasts for this life.  After God ushers in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21) there is no more opportunity for people to transition from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life.  This makes evangelism critically important and if you did nothing else but tell people the good news of Jesus’ death for our sins and resurrection, you will not have wasted your time on this earth.

However, the bible includes a lot about communion with God and fellowship with His people.  As examples, Jesus tells people about the narrow way in Matthew 7, Paul quotes a number of old testament scriptures on the subject of being God’s sons and daughters at the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and John records Jesus’ words on abiding in John 15.  But there are many more examples, in fact, depending on how you read it, you could say the whole New Testament is mainly about these two things:  communion with God and fellowship with His church.

In fact I believe that when God inspired the Scriptures (particularly the New Testament) he inspired them with mainly one class of people in mind.  Jesus called these people “disciples”, Paul went on to describe them as “saints” and John wraps up the New Testament by calling them “overcomers”.   The three words are not synonyms but they are closely related and they also have a sense of progression in them.  Being a disciple/ saint/ overcomer is God’s ordained way of having communion with him and fellowship with the church.

According to the New Testament, if you want communion with God and fellowship with the church then you must be born again, be a follower of Jesus (a disciple), be made holy (a saint) and persevere to the end (an overcomer).

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Evangelism, Communion and Fellowship

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Jesus spelt out the way of connecting people to God when He told Nicodemus that “You must be born again”.  You can find an account of His conversation with Nicodemus if you read John’s gospel, chapter 3.

According to the bible, the aim of church should be to tell as many people as possible about the good news that God through Jesus Christ has reconciled the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:9).  Jesus is the only way to eternal life or heaven (see John 14:6).  Unless you are born again you cannot even see the kingdom of God, never mind enter it and live for ever (John 3:3).

So you must be born again (John 3:5).

There is a very good case for leaving it at that.  If us Christians all just spent our time bringing everyone we knew to the place where they were born again – or at least presented with that possibility – we would have spent our lives very profitably.  This approach to life is called evangelistic and some people who meet God are called to it almost exclusively and everyone who calls themselves a bible believing Christian is called to it to at least some extent.

However the bible has a lot more to say about what it means to be a follower of Jesus after that initial, critical, connection has been made.  If you have been born again God wants you to have two things that he talks a lot about in the bible: Communion with Him and fellowship with others who have been born again (i.e. with His Church).  The Scriptures spend a lot of time dealing with this.

Communion and fellowship are eternal (see, for example, John 17).  Once you are born again and transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of life (Colossians 1:13), communion and fellowship is your eternal destiny.  It is where God wants you to be now and forever.