God in History - PH75-02

Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 3:17-19

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1976)

Open your Bibles to Philippians 3:17-19 as we look today at the second increment on the subject of people to follow and to shun. One of Satan's tactics in the angelic warfare is to challenge the truth of divine viewpoint – to challenge the reality of divine viewpoint concepts. This, of course, was the tactic which was used to lead Eve into sin. Satan offered Eve a human viewpoint alternative to the divine viewpoint principle upon which she was to operate as of the direction of the Lord. When Satan offered this human viewpoint alternative, it appeared both reasonable and attractive to Eve, and therefore she was drawn to it. But human viewpoint alternatives, while always seem to be promising a blessing, inevitably results in sorrow, sadness, and disappointment. The thing always turns sour.

In Philippians 3:17, that we looked at in the previous session, Paul directs the believers to follow his example of divine viewpoint thinking. He calls upon them to do this as a church group. What he means is positive volition to Bible doctrine. He also directs the Philippians to identify those Christians who follow Paul's divine viewpoint principles in order to find their fellowship with that particular group of believers. People who are on human viewpoint may be very attractive, and usually are. Thus, they tend to be very influential upon those who are oblivious to the false thinking of these beautiful people. Just because a person is attractive does not mean that his thinking is blessed by God, and that it is advisable for us to follow their thinking.

Imitating Paul, and those who share his divine viewpoint concepts, is, in fact, an expression of love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul is making so much of it. We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts; with all our minds; with all our souls; and, with everything that is in us. But that love has to be based upon a divine viewpoint orientation. Otherwise that love will be compromised in various different ways.

Human Viewpoint Thinking

Now Paul, in verses 18-19, turns to consider those who are dominated by human viewpoint mentalities, and why they are to be shunned. The issue is simply the fact that human viewpoint is apostasy. It is a rejection of everything that God stands for. Consequently, human viewpoint intellectuals arrogantly assume that sin has not disrupted their reasoning capacity. The truth of the matter is that sin has disrupted the reasoning capacity of man. What has happened is that he lost all divine viewpoint frame of reference. Our minds, in their natural capacities, have lost all orientation to the things of God.

Consequently, the fall into sin must be viewed as man's attempt to reach beyond God. That's what happened. Man wanted to look for meaning beyond God. He said that God was limiting his understanding of himself. That was the approach to Eve. Satan said, "God is simply limiting you, Eve. There is meaning beyond God. There is meaning beyond what He has said." That is at the heart of human viewpoint, and it is the most natural way for the natural man (the human viewpoint man) to look at the universe and to look at himself.

So human viewpoint, consequently, is an inversion. It's a reversal. Everything comes out upside down. So what God says is abnormal, human viewpoint says is normal. What God says is degenerative, human viewpoint says is inspiring and elevating. What the Word of God says is perversion, human viewpoint says is normal. In fact, it calls this human viewpoint "freedom," when in fact, it is slavery. So here's the thing to remember about human viewpoint. It is the natural way for man to think. It has destroyed all of his divine viewpoint orientation, and there is an inversion in all thinking. Everything comes out backwards.

Consequently, man, in his reasoning, doesn't find anything shocking in taking a part of creation and saying, "This is my God." It doesn't bother him to take a snake and say, "This is God. I'm going to worship him." He can take an animal of some kind and say, "This is my God. I'm going to worship him." When we look at this from divine viewpoint, we recoil from such a thing. We can very readily see that creation could not be God. Creation is the result of something that God did, but human viewpoint twists that all around so that a piece of creation can be readily converted into God itself.

Romans 1

They do all this thinking themselves wise. Remember that in our study of the book of Romans, this is one of the first things that the apostle Paul taught us. Romans 1:18 tells us that human viewpoint believes itself to be intensely perceptive and wise: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things."

That's human viewpoint. Such knowledge is self-destructive. The only way that you can deal with it is to correct it. That's why the apostle Paul is making such a big issue here about following his divine viewpoint leading, and following those (and associating with people) who follow divine viewpoint. Remember that anytime you relate yourself to somebody who is operating on human viewpoint in any area, one of two things is going to happen. You are either going to assume the human viewpoint principles of that person, or you're going to separate yourself from him, and each of you are going to go your own way. That will always inevitably happen with a believer. And I don't care whether it's in business; in social relationships; and, even in marriage (even though you may not get a divorce), you will find that if you have associated yourself with a human viewpoint person, either you fall into the trap of his thinking, and thus pull off the hand of God's blessing upon you and your family, or else you separate yourself from that individual and you go your own way.

Therefore, think twice before you enter into permanent relationships with people who may be satiated in their thinking with human viewpoint. Do not be so asinine as to think that this is not important, and that you can live with it, and that you can correct it. The farther you go into the knowledge of the Word of God; the more you take doctrine; and, the more oriented you are to divine viewpoint concepts and thinking, the more miserable you are going to be in the presence of any figment (any segment at all) of human viewpoint thinking. Yet, it is amazing how Christians just simply cannot come to an appreciation for this factor. So they constantly fall into the trap of getting themselves involved inextricably with people who are exactly the opposite to their thinking.

The Effects of Human Viewpoint

The effects of human viewpoint are very significant:
  1. Rejection of God

    First of all, it turns man away from recognizing God as His creator and as the one who sustains him. Instead, man views life on human viewpoint principles as one big game of chance. It is one huge contingency. This, again, was at the heart of what Satan did to Eve. Satan came along to Eve, and Eve said, "Well, God said that if we eat of this particular tree, we're going to die."

    And Satan said, "How do you know, Eve?"

    Well, she thought about it and said, "I don't know." But she should have realized that God had given her divine viewpoint wisdom. Her answer should have been, "I'll tell you how I know. Because God said so. That's how I know. If He said it, I know that it is what's going to happen to me. I know the minute I eat that fruit, I'm going to die. And if I give it to my husband, he's going to die." Instead, she fell for that bit of satanic human viewpoint: "How do you know?" What Satan was saying was that you don't know until you try it.

    This is at the heart of much of the thinking of young people; of the rebel generation; and, of the hippie generation. This was one of the principles that they followed – that ultimate experience is to be found someplace along the line, but you've got to do everything and you've got to try everything. You don't know whether a thing is good or bad until you try it. That's a good justification for the use of drugs; for sexual immorality; and, even for murder, in order to have the ultimate experience. And for some of them, finally, their logic led them to the fact that the ultimate experience was to kill yourself, and that then you would have experience beyond which there is no experience.

    So the human viewpoint ideas of Satan are not new. This was the very thing that he gave to Eve, and she fell for it. Yet, human viewpoint man claims that he can establish stable meanings by his human viewpoint conclusions. He is confident, for example, that his human viewpoint can provide solutions for social problems such as our nation faces. Our government is shot through with human viewpoint statesmen who think that their viewpoint can solve the problems that face this nation. The truth of the matter is that they cannot be solved by people like this. They never will be solved by people like this. We are in a vicious circle because our educational system has now produced such a citizenry who are mentality steeped in human viewpoint concepts, that are very electorate cannot look at the people who are standing for office and say, "I must reject this person. He is shot-through with human viewpoint. Here is a person with divine viewpoint. This one I can select. This one will come up with solutions that God can bless, and that will solve our problem.

    So what do we do? We have the mass of citizens, hung up and indoctrinated with human viewpoint, electing people as leaders over them to make their laws who are also human viewpoint people. This is because human viewpoint looks at a divine viewpoint person, and he recoils from him. So divine viewpoint people simply are not placed into elected office.

    The Bible puts that in this term: The Bible says that God has placed in authority over nations the basest of men. And if you don't believe that, just think back upon our recent history in this nation. The Bible says that God permits to be placed in authority over a nation, the cruddiest; the lowest; and, the most shot-through human viewpoint pathetic minded men. But you look at them and you say, "Oh, they look so impressive. They're very dignified. They've been to school. They carry much prestige." God says, "That's right. They do that. That's because of your human viewpoint eyes. But when I look at them, I see them groveling down there in the dirt, the lowest of the crowd. That is the one that I elevate over nations." Why? God permits this, because this is Satan's world, and Satan protects his world against every invasion of divine viewpoint that he possibly can. He knows that if a community puts divine viewpoint leaders over itself, that community is now going to resist the plan and the cause of Satan, and blessing and prosperity will come to its people, and Satan's cause will be hindered.

    So man can't explain the origin of the material universe, but he declares that everything is simply matter in motion. How does he know that? He can't tell where the world came from, but he can tell us what it is. It never occurs to human viewpoint that if you don't know where the world came from; who made it; and, how it was structured, you can't really tell us how it works. You can't really say it's simply matter in motion. There has to be a power that's keeping all that matter moving, and that's keeping all that matter together. It isn't simply to be explained in naturalistic terms, but that's all they have left because human viewpoint rejects creationism.

    If in all of life, everything is mere chance, without divine control, then there could not be knowledge about anything. If everything is chance, then everything is flexible, and everything is changing. Consequently, the principle of human viewpoint is that there are no absolutes. There is nothing you can button down. So human viewpoint actually destroys itself. It tries to tell us, "Well, here are certain things that we can follow. This will bring certain results. We reached this conclusion." But on the very basis of human viewpoint that nothing is buttoned-down; nothing is certain, and, everything is chance, you can't say that there is anything that is true. There is no anchor for human viewpoint thinking. Thus, it destroys itself. Yet, it acts as if it had an anchor. So human viewpoint rejects God as creator and sustainer.

  2. Self-Created Principles of Truth

    Secondly, it creates its own principles of truth, and it pretends that these are indeed absolutes. So human viewpoint says there's no such thing as the supernatural. Scientists of our day begin with this concept: "There is nothing supernatural. All diversity of life forms is merely a variation of matter apart from any creative force behind it." So we have the concept of evolution. Actions which are taken that are based on these human viewpoint absolutes are always doomed to create unhappiness and failure in the lives of people. When it comes to building a culture, it builds a culture of animals. It creates its own principles of truth; it declares these to be absolute; and, it rejects all intervention of any higher authority from God.
  3. False Meanings for Observable Phenomena

    There's a third factor, and that is that human viewpoint gives false meanings to observable phenomena. It gives a false interpretation, for example, to the nature of the universe. The unbelieving scientist, with his human viewpoint, operates on the principle of uniformitarianism – that everything that is taking place today has always taken place in the past. Well, the truth of the matter is that you get to the Bible, and the Bible says, "No, things haven't always worked the way they work now. There was a time when God covered the whole earth with a worldwide flood where the highest mountain was covered by water." The Bible says that was interjected in the normal course of the progress of nature in the universe. It is not uniform.

    Once this world was covered with a mass of water with all that weight, it just took the earth's mantle and it crushed it; twisted it; caused all the mountains to rise; and, just caused havoc upon the face of the earth. One of the things it did was to create the fossils that we know today. Fossils were not formed millions and billions of years ago. That's a bunch of hogwash. They were formed as the result of the flood. Once you understand that, and once you understand that God interjected Himself in this supernatural way in creation, then things begin to fall into place. Then things can be interpreted. You can interpret natural phenomena. Otherwise, your human viewpoint leads you far astray, which is exactly what happens to the naturalistic scientists.

  4. A False Interpretation of the Death of Jesus Christ

    It gives a false interpretation to the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is looked upon as a good man who opened His mouth once too much, and became a martyr under the religious establishment of Israel. Yet you come to the Bible, and what does the Bible say? The Bible says that Jesus Christ did not die one second before He was ready to die. He was not a martyr to any cause or to anybody. He said, "I lay down my life, and I take it up again." That's divine viewpoint. But human viewpoint says He was just a good man who was martyred.
  5. A False Interpretation of Social Relationships (Modern Enlightenment)

    It gives a false interpretations of social relationships. It says that the relationships between people should be whatever you agree – whatever you feel like doing, and whatever comes naturally. So the new morality originated, indeed, with a theologian. He was a theologian whose mind was saturated with human viewpoint. He came up with a human viewpoint interpretation of relationships between people so that what God calls sacred: in the matters of sex; in the matters of marriage; and, in the matters of the home, were declared to be old-fashioned and out of keeping with modern enlightenment. Remember that modern enlightenment is just the stupidity of human viewpoint that doesn't know how dumb it is.
  6. Natural Explanations for Miracles

    Human viewpoint sees the facts of miracles, but it gives natural explanations to them. It rejects all the miracles of the Bible. You and I, as believers, have no problem accepting the Word of God, and have no problem recognizing that God is omnipotent, and that He has made the rules and the laws of nature, and He can interject himself to override those rules. When we read the explanations that are given by human viewpoint to the miracles, you just have to shake your head and laugh, because you think you're listening to some kid down in the second grade telling a story. And you say, "That's the most outrageous, ridiculous thing I've ever heard." And you say, "Who is that that's saying that?" And suddenly you discover that it's not a second-grader, but it's a guy with a PhD. He sounds like a fool because he is a fool. His human viewpoint does not enable him to interpret the things he sees in the right way. So the miracles of the Bible are completely distorted.
  7. A False Interpretation of the Role of Government

    It gives a false interpretation to the role of government. This is what is weakening our nation today. Human viewpoint has lost its concept of what the government is for – the splendid beginnings that we had in this nation of the limitations of government and what it was to provide. It is not uncommon to find Americans who say, "The government owes me a job. The government should be organized so that there is full employment in this nation. The government should take care of me from the cradle to the grave. Welfare is a responsibility of government, and it is my heritage." Everything that made this nation powerful, great, independent, and able to stand up to the worst of tyrannies is the very thing that is being undermined in our day.

    The presidential candidates, almost to a person, with one or two exceptions, are devoted to the concept that the United States must now come to a planned national economy identical to that which is done under socialism and in communist countries. Why? Because they look upon the government; they look upon economics; they view it with human viewpoint concepts; and, they come out backwards – an inverted camera image again. The very thing that they should not do is the thing that inevitably they will do. So the good that they want to create (as always – human good), turns sour and destructive.

  8. A False Interpretation of Military Preparedness

    Churchill

    It gives a false interpretation of military preparedness. The concept of human viewpoint permeated the nations of the world preceding World War II. While there were a few men like Churchill around, who were operating on divine viewpoint principles, and standing up and trying to sound an alarm to stop Hitler; what Hitler was out to do; what he was determined to do; and, stop him when he could have been stopped, Churchill was scorned. He was called all kinds of dirty names. He was belittled. He was made to look like a buffoon. He was turned out of the government. Then they found how right he was. They couldn't get him back fast enough so that they could have some divine viewpoint to start directing that government. With him at the helm, the Battle of Britain was survived as few nations could have survived the kind of destruction and the kind of terror that was reigned down upon the British people. I doubt that they could do that today. I doubt that a Hitler would have any problems at all in causing a nation like Britain to capitulate.

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn reminded us that the Russians do not have to fear the United States. As a matter of fact, he said, "They don't even have to use their armies to destroy you. They can do it with their bare hands. You have become so weak." Yet what do we have? We have presidential candidates who are running for office, that Americans are actually taking seriously, whose goal is to strip and to reduce the American military establishment even more, under the guise that if we are not capable of fighting a war any place in the world, the Russians will not be nervous about us attacking them. This is a false interpretation of the role of the military that God has provided for protecting us against the external encroachments of the old sin nature.

The Solution for Human Viewpoint Thinking

So human viewpoint has depraved all of thinking into a hopeless distortion of reality. Decay, not blessing, is the result. So what's the solution for this kind of thinking? It's obviously the primary mentality of our day. Well, successful reasoning has to be grounded upon God's viewpoint which is given to us in the Scriptures. That is the point that Paul is making in Philippians when he says, "Follow my divine viewpoint, and follow and associate with people who also are on divine viewpoint," he is calling upon us to follow a course for personal blessing – a course which honors the Lord Jesus Christ.

Common Grace

We get away with a lot in God's world because there is such a thing as common grace. We Christians have the special grace of God upon us because of our response to the gospel. But remember that there is such a thing also as common grace. That is expressed, for example, in the fact that the rain falls upon the most immoral farmer's field as it does upon the godliest farmer's field. There are certain things that, in the providence of God, are provided to all of humanity. The four divine institutions operate for blessing upon unbelievers as well as believers. This is the common grace of God, which is showered upon all humanity.

The common grace of God, therefore, brings certain blessings, which were it not for that grace, human viewpoint people would not have at all. The human viewpoint rebel is influenced, in other words, by the divine viewpoint, which is accessible in society. Those of us who are believers interject ideas into the thinking of our society. Thus, the human viewpoint unbeliever is blessed by some divine viewpoint information. Remember that divine viewpoint works no matter who uses it, because this is the way it works. I don't care if a child drives a car – if he operates the thing properly, the car will work. I don't care whether it's a genius who runs the car, or whether it's a moron running the car. It'll work if you do it the right way.

The social customs of our day bring influences of God's grace and God's blessing – influences of human viewpoint concepts. These are social customs that have been of longstanding and that have not been perverted. There is also the residual influence in schools of what concepts are left of personal character-building and idealism. These are moral traits, which may yet be left in a public school, which are very low; very small; and, few and far between indeed. But such as they are there, again, they bring into human viewpoint people certain concepts from God that bring blessing.

God in History

So the human viewpoint minds benefit from the guidance of divine viewpoint concepts. Some of these are just in the heritage in a nation such as ours. You may remember from your history that the United States finally came to the point where it was not able to live under the Articles of Confederation. It found that that made a very weak sort of government. We had won our independence from England, but we couldn't live under that kind of a government. Every state was issuing its own money. You couldn't come to the border of one state before they were taxing you to cross the border and so on. So they came to revise those articles. Instead, they got into that room in Philadelphia.

Our Constitution

It's is a very thrilling place to visit. If you're in Philadelphia, go to Independence Hall, and stand there and take a look at those 13 desks which are still standing there. The silver ink stand is still up on the speaker's table. It is taken off every night and put in a vault. It's about the only thing left in that room of some of the original equipment that they used. There is that inkstand used in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and used in the writing out of much of the Constitution.

Benjamin Franklin

These men gathered and pretty soon they realized they had such a balled up situation that they had to do what they were not really sent there to do. They had to simply throw the Articles of Confederation out, and start all over again, and write a total new government. They had to invent a nation. The representatives of the 13 colonies had their own ideas as to how to invent a nation. The wrangling; the debating; the arguing; and, the sniping back and forth became absolutely fantastic. Finally, to 83-year-old Benjamin Franklin, it became unbearable. Benjamin Franklin, who wavered between deism and orthodoxy, and often leaned very heavily in the direction of biblical orthodoxy, decided that if this convention was to be saved, and they were to be able to invent a nation, they were going to have to do one thing that they had not done up to that point, that he felt would solve the problem.

So he called to be recognized by George Washington, who was president of the convention. Franklin, an 83-year-old venerable statesman, a man with many godly concepts indeed, stood to his feet and said, "We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided in our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and, we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. What is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, or conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."

That request by Benjamin Franklin was granted; the logjam was broken; and, it was fantastic. As we read the records, those who kept diaries were all astounded that immediately, when they began the day with prayer, asking for divine wisdom and guidance in inventing a nation, that things began to move. They produced one of the most fantastic documents that this world has ever seen. There was never a finer one that ensured more freedom; more protection; and, more liberty for the individual citizen. It was a nation under the rule of law. They called it "the new order of the ages." Indeed, they did create a new order of the ages when they produced that constitution. So here we have a spiritual heritage right from the very beginning. That has protected us when our statesmen have gone mad.

John Adams

One of the great men at the founding of the nation was John Adams, who came from a fantastic American family. If there was anything that could characterize John Adams, it was the word "godly," and his sons, likewise. As you know, one of the key concepts that our founders came up with in the form of government was that there were to be two governments in this country. One was a federal government, and one was a state government. The federal government was to have certain authority over making money; commerce between states; international relationships; conduct of war; and, so on. And everything else was left down at the state level: schools; dealing with punishment of crimes; murder; and, so on. Each of these two governments (the federal and the state) were to have three segments: a legislative; an executive; and, a judicial.

John Adams said, "It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature (that was his word for the old sin nature) toward tyranny can be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution." So this man, who was in every sense a biblical Christian, recognized that there was an old sin nature within man, which was a tyranny that Satan could use to destroy the very things they were trying to create – a nation ruled by law with maximum freedom for everybody. He recognized that the sin nature had to be controlled. So the very structure of our government originated out of divine viewpoint orientation. Most Americans can glibly say, "Yes, we have a federal government; we have a state government; and, we have three branches. They don't realize that that came out of divine viewpoint concepts, because these men said that this is the way to protect the destructive effects of the old sin nature and its encroachments upon our personal liberties.

Columbus and Luther

So a maximum number of divine viewpoint citizens results in national preservation because of God's common grace, which is free to work upon this nation. I'd like to read one more paragraph to you out of a book entitled America, One Nation under God by James C. Hefley. On page 11, he writes just to illustrate this point, that the common heritage of divine viewpoint, which has been instilled in us as a nation which formed our culture (our civilization) from the very beginning, has been our protection in spite of the fact that our people have increasingly been instilled (satiated) with human viewpoint thinking.

Hefley says, "Jonathan Edwards, who is still regarded by some as America's greatest theologian, saw America as the forerunner of Christ's millennial kingdom. He had abundant reason to hope that what is now seen in America may prove the dawn of that glorious day. John Adams looked at the settlement of America with reverence and wonder as the opening of a grand scheme and design in providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

In other words, these men, who founded this nation, and preachers like Jonathan Edwards, who had such a great influence on our religious heritage, viewed this country as originating out of a deliberate plan of almighty God. It was given birth to, as the result of the divine viewpoint concepts of the men who were its founding fathers and its early leaders.

Continuing, he says, "Unbelievers who proceed from the assumption of natural causes may see America resulting from the convergence of historical forces, and a remarkable series of fortuitous coincidences. But they cannot deny that the shapers of the nation believed the sovereign God of the universe had a hand in its settlement, forming, and development. Consider some of the twists and turns of history that seemed providential to the founders. Columbus made his epical voyage in 1492, just 25 years before Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. Both events were sensations. Columbus's report stirred the imaginations of Europeans, weary of old world wars and totalitarian rule. Luther's declaration, that salvation was by faith alone, spread across Catholic Europe as though angels were the postmen.

"More than two centuries later, Thomas Paine, a philosopher hero of the American Revolution, would reflect that the Reformation had been preceded by the discovery of America in order that the Almighty might provide a refuge for the persecuted. That refuge might not have been provided if one English explorer, John Cabot, had not claimed the North American coast in 1497 for King Henry VII. During the century that followed, the Spanish explored what is now the southern United States, Mexico, Central American, and much of South America. Only Cabot's claim prevented the present North Atlantic states from becoming Spanish colonies. Had that happened, the first settlers would have been Catholics instead of Protestants, and the history of North America might have been much like the chaotic history of Latin America."

I think that is indeed very significant – that God was bringing together forces in the world in order to put upon the face of the earth, one great, magnificent nation founded upon divine viewpoints principles. So what's the ultimate solution for human viewpoint? The ultimate solution is entering into the grace of God in salvation. It is making the divine viewpoint of Bible doctrine fully available to man's thinking. John 8:12, 1 John 4:4, and 1 John 5:19 speak of the light that we have and the greater power that is in us than that which is in the world (and its human viewpoint). The solution is to recognize God's sovereign control of all things – His omniscience and His grace. The solution is to reject human autonomy and rationalism. The solution is to recognize God's principles concerning mankind and creation, and to reject making idols out of a part of creation or out of reason. The solution is to recognize God's explanations of the phenomena of creation and of history – to accept the fact that the supernatural is to be found indeed in history.

Enemies of the Cross

Now, with that background, the apostle Paul comes to verse 18, and I think you'll understand this much better now as to what Paul is saying. Paul says, "For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ." Here are the people that we should not be following – these who should be rejected. The word "for" is the word "gar." This introduces the reason for the command in verse 17 to follow Paul and those who follow Paul's divine viewpoint. "Many" is the Greek "polus." This is referring to those who are professing to be Christians, but who are not – those within the local church who are merely religious people. This is a very specific group. They are within the Christian community. They appear to be believers, but they are not."

He says, "Many walk," and the word is our friend "peripateo" again. "Peripateo" here refers to having a lifestyle. They do certain things because of their mental outlook. The idea here is that "they conduct themselves," or "they behave" in a certain way. It is present tense – constantly. It is active – they personally do this. It is indicative of statement of fact. "Of whom," he says, "I have told you often." The word "told" is "lego." "Lego" means "to affirm something." It stresses the content of what is affirmed more than the words themselves. Paul had affirmed this to the Philippians over the ten years since he has known them – since he founded the church. It has been ten years now, since the church at Philippi had come into existence. And over that ten years, Paul has told them this repeatedly. This is indicated to us by the imperfect tense. That means that this was expressed many times over these ten years in various ways. It is active. Paul himself is doing the warning. It is indicative of statement of fact.

He warned them "often, it says: "pollakis." "Pollakis" means many times. In other words, Paul did not apologize for saying the same thing often to this congregation, and to give them this particular warning that he is speaking of in verse 18. It's the same principle that we have in 2 Peter 3:1 where Peter says that he repeats things in order to bestir the minds of people (of the believers) – to refresh their pure minds so they'll remember. There is no excuse, therefore, for the Philippian Christians to be taken in by these fake believers with their sweet, devoted, religious ways, but promoting these human viewpoint concepts.

And he says, "Now," which is "nun." This means at the time that he's writing this letter. Paul is again going to say what he has repeatedly said before. He says, "I'm going to tell you this again" ("lego") – once more. "Even" indicates that he's adding a feature. It's "kai" in the Greek. Then he says, "Weeping." In the Greek, this is "klaio." Here we have the picture of the apostle Paul in physical tears – an emotional reaction toward whom? Toward these unbelieving professors. Don't be smug and smart-alec with unbelievers. Don't be indifferent to the fact that a person who rejects salvation is going to the lake of fire. He has a terrible destiny before him. If you stop and think about it for a while, you can see how very readily tears could come into your eyes as you realize what this person, with his human viewpoint, is taking himself into. That's even more easily done if the person happens to be a family member.

It expresses Paul's sorrow over the way the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ is treated by these professing unbelievers. This was present tense. Paul readily (often) went to tears as he thought about this apostasy. Paul himself did the weeping. It is participial which indicates a statement of a principle here. "That they are" is not in the Greek. It just smoothes out the translation. What it simply says is "Enemies" ("echthros"). These people are adversaries, and it is the enemies of the cross. The cross is the "stauros" of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Logistics of Death on the Cross

This refers to the instrument of Roman execution. Originally it was simply an upright stake on which a person was tied or nailed. Later, it became a crossbeam in order to stand as a symbol for the name of the Babylonian god Tammuz. The first letter of his name became the form of the crucifixion cross: two beams with the crossbar at the top forming the initial "T." The person was put on this kind of a cross. The strain was on the arms. The feet were tied or nailed. The problem with the person on the cross was that the strain was on the arms, and he would be sagging down. As he would sag down, his chest area would collapse and be pressed down so it would be hard for him to breathe.

So he would push up with his feet in order to relieve the strain on his chest cavity so he could breathe, and to relieve the strain on the arms. Thus, it was the custom when they wanted to hasten death, to go around and break the legs. Thus, a person would find himself taking in minimum oxygen. He would be gasping for air. The pain would become excruciating on his hands. His broken feet would no longer enable him to push himself up to take the strain off. Shock would therefore be induced, and he would die the more readily. This is what was done to the two thieves which were on each side of the cross of Jesus, and it would have been done to Him had he not already been dead.

This word is used here in reference to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. That is, what that sacrifice stands for – Jesus as the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. So it is the cross of Christ referring to the specific death of the sinless Son of God, and all that is involved in that act on the cross. Religious unbelievers held the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for their sins and all mankind in ridicule and contempt. They exalt human righteousness.

This saddened the apostle Paul, because this is an insult to God's Son, and it makes certain that the person who operates on that human viewpoint is going to be in the lake of fire. It upset Paul emotionally to see people taking themselves and taking others blindly to never-ending torment. Don't be indifferent to the destiny of the lost.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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