Lights in the World - PH45-01

Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 2:14-15

The second prerequisite for securing God's viewpoint is the filling of the Holy Spirit. This means that God the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives so that we are in temporal partnership with God. Salvation is for eternal fellowship. The filling of the Holy Spirit is for temporal fellowship. Temporal fellowship is secured through the confession to the Father of all known sins as per 1 John 1:9.

The third prerequisite in learning divine viewpoint is Bible doctrine information. This is basically given to us through the ministry of the pastor-teacher as we have described in Ephesians 4:11-12. It is His job to give the Word of God to the Spirit-filled believers.

Then the fourth factor is positive volition toward the Bible doctrine which is taught.

Here is where the problem usually lies. Because we have a weakness in our old sin nature that inclines us to go negative to the pastor-teacher or to any genuine instruction in the Word of God, the true exegesis (the true explanation of the Word of God) is often ignored by us. We reject teaching even when we don't really know it's false. That's because we have other reasons for rejecting what we hear. This is because we are not primarily concerned to know what God thinks and what He wants us to do. So for other reasons, we will reject what we hear from the pastor-teacher, even though in our own minds we could not really come up to him and give a good explanation as to why he's wrong and why what he has taught is not the mind of God.

This attitude of willful negative volition, in spite of the fact that the Bible has been explained on the authority of the languages and on the authority of the theology of all that the Bible teaches, this negative attitude, in spite of true exegesis can be summed up in a phrase that you know very well. The saying says, "A person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." There are many believers who sit in a church service who have certain opinions. Even if you show them that that opinion that they hold is just as wrong as it can be, and that the Word of God does not confirm what they think or what they have always believed, because they have some reason that they want to hang on to that opinion, no matter how much explanation you get from the Word of God, that person still goes negative.

This is a strange quality from the old sin nature, and I would warn you about it today. The pastor-teacher is well aware of this quality of negative volition. It is a persistence in an opinion that's wrong. This is demonstrated by contempt to him in various ways. There is scoffing toward the things that he has said. He has this resistance expressed in low offerings. This is expressed toward him by small attendance at the services. This may express itself in attacks on his personality. Of course, the ultimate is desertion of people to other churches because their opinions will not be countered no matter how much there is explanation from the Word of God. But you have to be careful that you are not falling into the trap of insisting that, even after you have been convinced, you are determined willy-nilly to stay with the opinion that you began with.

The Bible requires all such negative responses to be left with the Lord. The pastor-teacher has to be careful that he doesn't get pushy and overbearing and muscle-bound himself in reacting toward the fact that he is abused. He has to know that he constantly is going to be abused in the ministry. So he has to learn that this exists in the old sin nature; that God has a pattern; and, that he has to do his job (step number 3 above) of teaching Bible doctrine. But step number 4--positive volition--that's up to the individual. That is your business. Whether you go with it or whether you do not go with it does not change his role. 2 Timothy 4:2-5 express this whole concept.

So if you find yourself being convinced against your will, be careful that you do not retain your opinion still. It may cost you in the long run more than you are willing to pay. So I am aware of this problem. I caution you about it. Because you don't like what I say that the Bible teaches relative to the Fifth Commandment does not mean that what I said is wrong. I do sympathize with the problems that this creates within the family groups and within the circle of your friends--for you to have people who are negative to the Word of God. That creates a great deal of grief. I am sympathetic for you. This is why it is a dangerous business, as you've heard me tell you before, to associate yourself with people who are negative to your church. They may have been your friends at one time, but once they go negative to your church, you must understand that what they have done is that they refused to have their opinions changed even though they were shown how wrong their opinions were. If you keep associating yourself with them, you in time will become one of them. So willfulness against the truth is a dangerous game.

We have looked at four moral absolutes thus far which are essential for a Christian to be a light in the world. The first moral principles forbids recognizing and worshiping any deity beyond the Lord God. The second moral principle forbids the practice of idolatry in worship. The third moral principle forbids the using of God's name in vain. The fourth moral principle required the observance of the weekly Sabbath day.

The Fifth Commandment

Parents are the link between God and their children. That is the way God has set it up. We have the Triune God, and we have children. In between is father and mother. That is God's normal line of authority to children--from God through their parents. This "piel" stem in this word "cavath" in the Hebrew is an intensive stem so that it stresses complete subjection to parental authority. It is intensive honoring. It is doing what you're told without talking back; without being critical; and, without being resentful. It means absolute respect when you're on your own. "Piel" stem means intensive. God means total esteem, and He is not kidding. It is also imperative in its mood, which means it is a command. God is not pleading with you to be nice to your parents. God is telling you you better be nice to them, or else. You are to obey and you are to respect.

Respect for authority of parents is important because it leads to respect for all constituted authority in society. Respect for authority is tied to human freedom. When authority is not respected, then freedom is lost, and the world becomes a jungle.

This fifth one is also directed to parents. It is the parents' business to teach their children to honor them. A child by nature does not honor his parents. This is something that he has to learn. So it is the job of parents to take this commandment and enable their children to fulfill it. A child who does not learn to do what he is told is certain to come to grief as an adult. Authority in the society is necessary to protect our happiness during the angelic warfare era.

The people who are involved here in this kind of respect He labels as father and mother. This means that both parents exercise authority over the child. God has a chain of command, of course. We have the Triune God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and the chain of command goes down through the father in the family. It is important for fathers to understand that they are the number one authority in the home. This is by order of creation, and also by the order of the male temperament. Men were made to exercise authority; to be leaders; and, to be those who take charge and who are in command. A father has authority delegated to him by God. That's very important. A father does not have authority just because he's a male; just because he's a husband; or, just because he's a parent. He has authority because it was delegated to him by God.

So the father has a bundle of authority here, and he has something to do with that authority passed on to him from God. There are certain things that the father is supposed to do with that authority under God's arrangement. If a child talks back to his mother, he is challenging the authority of his father. This is because next in line is the mother. What the father does is that he delegates his authority to the mother. The mother has no authority of her own. The wife has no authority of her own. She is not constructed in temperament to carry authority and to be a leader. She is constructed to exercise, as the father's representative, his authority when he is not there. This is anytime a father is absent, for whatever reason. There are any number of reasons why there is not a father on the scene in the home. Then the mother receives delegated authority. But even if the father is dead, the mother is exercising that dead father's authority in his absence, and authority which that dead father has from God. What I'm saying is that a mother has no direct authority from God. Women have no direct authority from God to exercise.

Therefore, women cannot be, as the Bible makes very clear, in positions of leadership and authority over men, or over mixed groups. I didn't invent that. There's a little phrase that preachers use that I've been hearing lately. I heard a man on the religious radio program. They were discussing some point of doctrine, and one man expressed a point of view. It had to do with relationships between people. This man (he's the president of a college) came back and said, "Oh, I cannot conceive of a loving kind God, a beneficent Father who would place such a burden and requirement upon people. I cannot conceive..." And I wanted to yell at the speaker. "Who cares what you can conceive, Mr. Tell us what the Bible says."

Here's a little tricky preacher professional phrase. He will hoodwink you by saying, "Oh, I do not believe." Who cares what you believe? Just tell us what the Bible says, and you can believe whatever you want to believe. Your job is to tell us what God thinks. We don't care what you think. You want to watch that little trick. That's a little subtlety of a guy who doesn't study, to get up and tell you what he feels; what he believes; and, what he just cannot conceive about God. We don't need any explanations of some preacher's old sin nature. We know our own well enough to know how he functions without our having him to explain to us what his likes and dislikes and inclinations are.

So I'm not telling you what I feel about this matter. I'm not expressing my personal feelings. Probably if I had my way, I'd like to let ladies do everything. And life would be easier and simpler. I'd like to just lay it on them. But this is not the divine arrangement. I didn't make it up. So don't come and discuss it with me. Don't tell me that you don't believe that's the way God would do things. I don't care what you believe about what God would do. Just go to the Scriptures and say, "Here's what the Lord says. The Lord says, 'Mothers, guide your fathers so that they will do right. Mothers always vote your half-share of the stock with the daddy.'" There is none of that kind of stuff in the Bible. So the order is very clear. I don't want to get too much into this. I'm just skimming over. I'm not authenticating from the Word of God (which most of you already know this). I'm not authenticating the fact that God says that man was created first. He is in authority. The woman was created for the man, not the man for the woman. The Bible puts all that in just so many words. So therefore, there's an orderly arrangement between men and women.

This is particularly critical before a person gets married. There are some girls who just should not get married, because they are of the feminist type who do not like the biblical arrangement. Therefore, they should never get married, and they should never be so unkind as to strap themselves on some man when they reject God's orderly arrangement. That brings no happiness. There is nothing but turmoil. There is nothing but conflict. If you're a woman who cannot accept God's order, then just stay home with your parents and be happy. But don't get into some man's life and bring him a lot of misery because you want to change the order by which God created men and women and the relationships between them.

In the matter of children, the line of command is that God has authority and gives it to the father. The father in turn delegates that authority to the mother. Then both father and mother are authorities over children. That is behind this command to obey and respect your father and your mother. You are in for discipline if you talk back to your mother; if you are insolent to her; or, if you use that absolutely forbidden word. Here's where you really ought to crack down on your kids. You should forbid your kids to use this word: "why." "Why" should always be followed by "bang." It always ought to be: "Why? Bang." They will then get the connection that "why" is a very dangerous word to use. There are some words your kids should learn not to use around you. "Why" is one of them. Now you might at first, while you're training them, give them an answer. Give them a full explanation. When they say, "Why do I have to do this?" Make it very clear. Explain to them. Reason with them. Just simply say to them, "Because I said so." That's full explanation and it's full reasoning. Now it's really clear. Then all you have to do is enforce.

Now, don't quote Dr. Spock to me or the other authorities who created the radicalism of the 60s. He was on a program here in Dallas. Dr. Dobson, an excellent Christian man in the field of psychiatry in child training from California, was on the program here in Dallas, too. I didn't see the program, but the people who told me about it said that Spock sat there most of the time quiet while Dobson ran him ragged, confronting him with the biblical viewpoints on child rearing which so contradicted with Spock had taught, and the biblical viewpoints that brought happiness and fruitfulness into life, while Spock's brought nothing but the disasters of the hippie world and of the college radicals of the 60s.

So one of the leading hippie characters said, "Our parents are our first oppressors. They're the first ones you want to learn to hate; to kill; and, to destroy." What did he mean? He meant that God had set up this line of authority that your parents tell you what to do. Your mother was not to be rebuffed. Your mother was not to be treated with insolence. Your mother was not to be challenged when she told you to do things any more than your father was. Nor were you to be a sneaky rebel that went around the back in order to try to do things on your own.

We get those kinds of kids in the academy, and you can almost always spot the sneaky rebel. He has eyes identical to that of a snake. They've got these sneaky snake eyes. Sure enough, they are the kids that are always operating on their own. Their minds are thinking. The wheels are spinning. They're calculating. This is because this kid does not have a father and mother at home who is saying, "Enough is enough, and you will learn to follow the lines of divine authority."

The Bible, of course, was very severe toward teenagers and children who rebelled against their parents. This was considered a major immorality, and thus there was exercised the penalty of death against a youngster who was incorrigible in respect to the authority of his parents. We have this in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 which say, "If a man has a stubborn and a rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother (you notice they're both in there again), and that when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of this city, 'This, our son, is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die. So shall you put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.'" That is severe judgment upon a youngster who refuses to be obedient to his parents. In the Old Testament, it brought down the death penalty. Consequently, you either shaped up or you really shipped out.

There is a promise to those who are obedient to this moral principle. Honor, obey, and respect both your parents, your father and your mother, that..." The word "that" in Hebrew is "lemaan." "Lemaan" is made up of two words. It has this little preposition "le" which means "to," and "maan" which means "purpose." So we get the idea from that "to purpose," or "to the end that." This is expressing purpose. The word "that" is explaining to us why a child should honor his parents in this way. That reason is, "That your days..." This means your lifespan. This is a promise to the individual Jewish youngster: "That your lifespan may be long." The word "long" is "arak." "Arak" is in the hiphil stem, and that means "causative." So what this is saying is, "In order that your obedience and your respect to your parents may cause you to lengthen or to prolong your lifespan."

Here is the first commandment with promise. Of this code of commandments, here is the first one that has a promise attached to it. If you treat your parents with honor, God says it will affect, for the Jewish child, his lifespan. This is imperfect which means anytime in the future that he actively personally exercises this respect for parents, "He may live long upon the land which the LORD your God gave you." The word "land" is "athama." The word "athama" simply means "ground" or "earth." It's kind of an interesting word. It comes from the Hebrew verb "atham" which means "to be red." From that we get the noun form "adam." It is pronounced as "atham." "Adam" means "man" or "mankind." There, of course, is the name of the first man, "Adam." His name came from this word "ground." He was made from the ground or from the earth. From that word, he received his name "Adam." I don't know that they called him "Red," but that was the basic meaning of "Adam," and it comes from the word "ground."

The Names of God

So when the Jews came to this, as they would read along in the Hebrew Bible, instead of using this word, they would use another name. They would use the word "Adonai." So every time they would see the sacred Tetragrammaton, they would say "Adonai." But most scholars believe it was not pronounced "Yehoah." They took the vowel points of "Adonai" and put them here for this sacred name of God. So in time, what happened was that they just simply forgot whatever the vowel points once were for the sacred Tetragrammaton, and they just simply added the ones here for "Adonai," and they started putting them on this word, because that's how they pronounced it. So pretty soon they forgot in time how to even pronounce it.

These 4 letters for the name Lord ("YHWH") actually come from the Hebrew verb "hawah," which is the verb "to be." It means being or existence. From this verb from which the sacred Tetragrammaton came, there are vowel points that are identical to apparently what the word once carried. In the "hiphil" stem, that causative stem, it is "yahweh," and this is probably the way the word actually looked originally. This is the word they didn't want to pronounce. They never wanted to say the word "Yahweh." So instead they would say "Adonai." In time, they added the vowel points of "Adonai", so they lost "yahweh" altogether. It came out "Yehoah" which is the way it actually is in the Hebrew Bible today.

It may have come from this "hiphil" stem which means "the one bringing into being;" "to cause to be;" or, "the life giver," all of which would be appropriate for describing what God is. But most likely it comes from this other stem, the basic Hebrew "Qal" stem, also from the same Hebrew word "to be" which means "the one who is;" the existing everlasting one;" or, "the eternal." "Yahweh" is preferred as probably the more accurate pronunciation. Actually, it was sometime around the 16th century or so when a man began pronouncing it as "Jehovah," as we pronounce it today, just from the Hebrew text.

So it doesn't matter really how you pronounce it, but some of you were asking about that conflict of pronunciation. But that's the conflict. It resulted from their desire not to say the sacred word. So they added the vowels of a different word that they were using. In time the original was lost, but the original is no doubt "Yahweh." So these were the vowel points that they should have. So if you want to say the right thing, say "Yahweh, Elohim," but there is no harm if you say "Jehovah Elohim." It's just a different pronunciation. It is still the living LORD God.

Of course, God is the word "Elohim." This is the plural form of "Eloah." Elohim is the plural, which is indicative of the Trinity. The word itself means "mighty." It is the name expressing power. So the two names combined come out as "Yahweh Elohim." In the English, you'll read it as "the Lord God." These two names are significant in that "Yahweh" is related particularly to Israel as God's covenant name in His agreements with Israel. "Elohim" is the name with God in relationship to His creation and to mankind in general.

So it is this supreme, absolute, eternal God who is promising to children that if they treat their parents with obedience and respect, He would give to them, as Jewish boys and girls, a lifespan which was prolonged and expanded in the land which He gave them. The word "gave" is the Hebrew word "nathan," from which we get the name "Nathan" which means "giver." It is "Qal," a basic statement. It is active. It is a participle. The point here again is that there is going to be continual giving. That's the idea of this "Qal" stem--continual giving by God. It is God's doing. It is to the individual Jew.

Palestine ultimately belongs to the Jews. Today, this commandment, of course, is not in force any more than any other commandment of the law is in force for the Jewish people, because they are under the fifth stage of their cycle of discipline that you read about in Leviticus 26. But once they're back in the land under the Lord Jesus Christ in the millennium, all these moral principles will again find their expression. So this is the background--the basic explanation of this fifth commandment.

The Family

The Father

Now, you feel the rattles down deep within the innermost recesses of your soul that something is wrong, don't you? You are afraid I'm going to establish a scriptural pattern, and you're going to be convinced against your will and have your opinion still. That's because this goes against all human viewpoint logic. But wherever we go afterwards, let's see what the Word of God says first. When it comes to a man in the home, the father is the final authority, and wives are in subjection to their husbands.

1 Corinthians 11:8 says, "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man." God did not make Adam from a woman. He made Adam first. He was primary. Then the woman was made from him. Verse 9 says, "Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man."

This is why liberal viewpoint, first of all, has to discredit the Bible, because if you read the Bible, there is no way that you are going to come out with any dignity for the feminist point of view, in most of what they stand for. It's nonsense. It's loathsome.

Whatever you may think, start with what the Bible says. You may want to write God a letter and say, "I don't like that. I don't like the arrangement at all. I wish it would be changed." But that's something else. At least know how it is now. "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man." Consequently, it is the man who is the head of the home by divine arrangement.

This was immediately set up in Genesis 3:16. After Adam failed in his responsibility toward his wife, which permitted her to fall into the trap of Satan, and thus to lead the human race into sin, then God arranged and reiterated the fact that even though Adam had been a failure in his responsibility, nevertheless the authority still had to lie with him. This was by the way he was made, as a male with a male temperament, as over against a woman with a woman's temperament.

So following the sin of both Adam and Eve and the judgments upon them, Genesis 3:16 says, "Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow in your conception. In sorrow you shall bring forth children, and your desire shall be to your husband." Your attachment or your passion for your husband is the idea. The best word is your "fulfillment." Your fulfillment is going to be in that man and nothing else--no way--except in your right man. "And he shall rule over you." There it is, in the book of beginnings, right off the bat, "He shall rule over you." God says the man is the ultimate final authority in the home. He is indeed the one who exercises the rule over his wife and over his children.

What he is dealing with here is delegated authority. This is authority which has been delegated to him as a husband and a father from God. Notice in 1 Corinthians 11:3: "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God." Here the line of authority is spelled out even more clearly. It begins with God the Father, through God the son, through the man, down to the woman. The chain of command here is very clear in this verse. Look at verse 7: "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and the glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man." The man is to reflect the authority of God, and thus to bring glory to God as he exercises that delegated authority, as the mother or the wife is to bring glory to her husband by the way she exercises the authority which he has delegated to her.

A lot of mothers do not bring glory to their husbands by the way they exercise their delegated authority. There's a lot of screaming; yelling; threatening; cajoling; and, all kinds of things that I won't even describe to you that take place while the mother is trying to exercise delegated authority in the wrong way, and they don't bring glory to her husband. And a man can do the same thing and discredit our God by the way he exercises the authority that has been given to him over his wife and home.

For this reason, children are to be obedient to the father, and to recognize that that obedience to the father is because he is God's representative, and to the mother because the mother is the father's representative. Your children should be taught that they are to obey their father because he is speaking for God, and that they must obey their mother without insolence because she is speaking for their earthly father. For this reason, I say that if you, as a woman, do not want to accept this divine arrangement, then just stay home with your parents. Don't get married.

Parents who have married children, in your thinking, you should no longer think of her as your daughter, but think of her as that man's wife. No longer think of your son as your son, but think of him only as this woman's husband. It is very critical that you set up that thought pattern. A lot of parents cause a lot of in-law problems because they still look upon a daughter as a daughter, and a son as a son, instead of as somebody's wife or somebody's husband. You will save everybody a lot of problems if you do that. The father is responsible, the Word of God says, for the training and educating of his children. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 spell it out in detail how he is constantly to stay on top of educating, training, and guiding his children.

All the family property was in the father's name in the Old Testament, and so was under his control. But 1 Timothy 5:8 tells us also that a father is responsible for providing for his family, and God views him as an unbelieving infidel if he does not adequately provide for his own family. He was the priest in the Old Testament for the family, and thus the spiritual guide (Deuteronomy 6:20 and following). He makes the decisions for his children until maturity.

Furthermore, he takes the trouble to check his kids out. He does not ask his children, "Would you like to go to club tonight?" He says, "You have 30 minutes to get ready for club. Do you have your achievement ready? Do you have your money? Do you have your book? Stand by." You don't go to him and say, "Would you like to go to training tonight?" You say, "Get ready for training union. You've got 15 minutes. You're going to miss the last of the television program." He might say, "But Disney World is coming on next!" The father's reply should be, "It makes no difference. You're going to training union." Then he starts crying and you say, "That is alright. This is a free country. You can go to training union smiling or crying, whichever you please."

That's what it means to be in authority in your home: make decisions. This is where lazy fathers are not willing to bite the bullet, and to just tell their children what to do. They will watch their lives abusing delegated authority by going to this kid and saying, "Would you like to come to supper now?" And he slaps her right between the eyes with a wad of spinach.

This is a total violation and a rejection of God's lines of authority, and it'll bring you and your children nothing but grief. One word of caution: Colossians 3:21 tells fathers not to provoke their children to illegitimate anger. Do not treat your children in such a way that they are provoked to anger. When we say "exercise authority," that means to exercise it with dignity and command presence, not with abuse; not with tyranny; not with anger; and, not by using your authority in a way to exercise some vengeful spirit on your part. Colossians 3:21: "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." You don't want to discourage them from doing right. You want to encourage them to do right. So there is a way to exercise your authority, and that goes in all realms of life. You do it with dignity. However, when you open your mouth, if you're a male within your family circle, they better know that the lion has spoken, and that he can roar if necessary, and that his teeth are very sharp. Once they know that, you'll seldom have to roar, and you'll seldom have to bite, but they will find out whether you can.

We yet have to take up the mother, the children, and the whole family. You've only heard the nice things in this session. The worst ones are coming, so don't miss the next session...

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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