Law of Consent (1 of 1)

Because the very definition of ministry is acting to bring both minister and people closer to God. Attributing unconditional love to God is a Christian heresy because it prevents us from believing ourselves accountable and liable to penalty for disobeying the terms of the covenant between God and his people. Any attempt to separate Christians from the penalties called for under the covenant: 1. Turns Jesus essentially into a liability insurance salesman from the wrath of God. 2. Turns Christianity into a fire insurance program from the fires of hell. 3. Turns tithes into liability insurance premiums.

But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gill of God could be

purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity."

Then Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me." [Acts 8:18-24 Bible. NIC.111 4. Turns the church into a place of business, which is the ONLY thing Jesus ever got angry about. See Matt 21:12-17.

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'Mr house shall be culled a house of prayer.' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'" [Matt. 21:12-13, Bible, NKJVJ

The above type of corruption was instituted originally by the Catholic Church, which during the dark ages offered "indulgences", which were advanced permission to sin and be forgiven offered for a generous fee to the church. Here is how one prominent biblical scholar describes this corruption and commercialization of Christianity, which he calls paganism:

What such revivalism and pietism espouses is a limited liability universe in God's name. It is thus atheism under the banner of Christ. It claims freedom from God's sovereignty and denies predestination. It denies the law, and it denies the validity of the curses and blessings of the law. Such a religion is interested only in what it can get out of God: hence, "grace" is affirmed, and "love," but not the law, nor God's sovereign power and decree. But smorgasbord religion is only humanism, because it affirms the right of man to pick and choose what he wants; as the ultimate arbiter of his fate, man is made captain of his soul, with an assist from God. Pietism thus offers limited liability religion, not Biblical faith. According to Heer, the medieval mystic Eckhart gave to the soul a "sovereign majesty together with God. The next step was taken by the disciple, Johnannes of StarAllev, who asked if the word of the soul was not as mighty as the word of the Heavenly Father. " 2 In such a faith, the new sovereign is man, and unlimited liability is in process of being transferred to God. In terms of the Biblical doctrine of God, absolutely no liabilities are involved in the person and work of the Godhead. God's eternal decree and sovereign power totally govern and circumscribe all reality, which is His creation. Because man is a creature, man faces unlimited liability: his sins have temporal and eternal consequences, and he cannot at any point escape God. Van Til has summed up the matter powerfully: "The main point is that if man could look anywhere and not be confronted with the revelation of God then he could not sin in the Biblical sense of the term. Sin is the breaking of the law of God. God confronts man everywhere. He cannot in the nature of the case confront man anywhere if he does not confront him everywhere. God is one; the law is one. If man could press one button on the radio of his experience and not hear the voice of God then he would always press that button and not the others. But man cannot even press the button of his own self-consciousness without hearing the requirement of God. 3 " But man wants to reverse this situation. Let God be liable, if He faits to deliver at man's request. Let man declare that his own experience pronounces himself to be saved, and then he can continue his homosexuality or work in a house of prostitution, all without liability. Having pronounced the magic formula. "I accept Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior," man then transfers almost all the liability to Christ and can sin without at most more than a very limited liability. Christ cannot be accepted if His sovereignty. His law, and His word are denied. To deny the law is to accept a works religion, because it means denying God's sovereignty and assuming man's existence in independence of God's total law and government. In a world where God functions

2 Friedrich Heer, The Intellectual History of Europe, p. 179.

3 Cornelius Van Til, A Letter on Common Grace (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1955), p. 40 f.

Requirement for Consent

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