Chpt. 29 - Hot Shots Returned IV

Chapter 29 - Hot Shots Returned (4th Volley)

"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." (II Thess. 1: 6-10)

I have already mentioned this passage of scripture in chapter two relative to my "personal experiences" and noted there how this verse was always more than a little "troublesome" to me while a believer in Hardshellism and how I never got any satisfactory "explanation" of the verse that would harmonize with Hardshell views relative to those who reject the gospel.

There are many verses that clearly affirm that all those who reject the gospel, who fail to believe it, are all lost and "without hope." This one, however, cannot be made any clearer. Those, like the Hardshells, who will affirm that most of those who go to heaven go there as gospel rejecters is a terrible departure from the teaching of Scripture. I really need not add anything to this passage by way of commentary, for it is plain enough to all who read it without bias and with an honest heart. One can see why the Hardshells would have trouble with the doctrine of "universalism" by them making this passage to refer to some "timely destruction"! Certainly our Baptist forefathers, prior to the "rise of the Hardshells," did not believe, based upon this and similar passages, that anyone was "saved" who did not believe the preaching of the gospel.

We have a similar word from Paul in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, one I have mentioned already in a previous chapter. Paul says:

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation THROUGH sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: WHEREUNTO he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2: 11-14)

Again, every Hardshell, that I know, will affirm that this passage is dealing with eternal election to eternal salvation. Yet, this passage makes it very clear that the "salvation" that the elect are "chosen" to obtain is wrought "in" or "through" a "belief of the truth." This too was always a very difficult passage for me. Were it not for the fact that I was convinced that other passages taught or implied that some who rejected the gospel were saved, I would not have had any difficulties. So, my dilemma, and one which every Hardshell faces, is to either "twist and distort" this verse to make it say, "Not all those who disbelieve the gospel are doomed to eternal destruction," or to accept it for what it says (as I finally did) and go back and see that those "other verses" that seemed to teach contrary to it did not do so in fact, but was rather the result of my using Hardshell "logic," and "reading into" them what I thought they should be saying. This was and is the way Hardshells "interpret" the Bible on this subject (and others subjects too, as I shall show under the chapter dealing with Hardshell "hermeneutics").

This passage does not say that we are chosen to a "salvation" apart from a "belief of the truth," but it says rather that the very "salvation" some have been "chosen to obtain" involves coming to evangelical faith and repentance, to a full conversion.

We are chosen to a salvation that includes a conversion. When we receive this "salvation," we also receive the gifts of love, faith, repentance and conviction and confession of the truth. This is that "revelation" of "truth" about which Jesus often spoke and which most Hardshells are willing to apply to the work of "regeneration."

Revelation of Christ = Regeneration

"At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11: 25-27)

"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed IT unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16: 16,17)

"That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? (John 12:38)

Hardshells will generally affirm that this "revelation" of Christ, and the things of Christ, in the above passages, is part and parcel of "regeneration." However, they find it very difficult to "explain" how one can experience such a "revelation," come to "know" both the Father and the Son, without a knowledge of the truths of the gospel and word of God!

"Salvation" involves a "revelation" of certain truthful things, as Jesus clearly taught. Certainly no heathen believes in these "things" the Father "reveals" to sinners in regeneration!

I don't see how any Hardshell can reasonably affirm that this "revelation" is "regeneration." There is no historical evidence that any American Indian "believed in Jesus," or the gospel, by this "direct revelation." This "revelation", being necessary to salvation, will be "interpreted," by PB's, as being a "direct (or "immediate") revelation" of the truth, without preachers or the means of the word of God, much like the "enthusiasts" mentioned above and elsewhere in this work.

Yet it seems that the Pilgrims should have found many "believers in Jesus" when they arrived in America, that is, if Hardshellism is true. Those PB's who make the "revelation" of the above scriptures to be "regeneration," have this difficulty with which to deal.

If having Christ "revealed" to sinners, the same as it was to Peter, then the missionaries, who have taken the gospel to heathen lands, ought to have found many who could witness about Jesus! The fact that the missionaries have found them all ignorant of the true God of Abraham, and ignorant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his Messiahship, proves that none of them had this revelation, or were born again, and also shows that the gospel obviously is necessary to the obtaining of this "revelation."

Those Hardshells, on the other hand, who "interpret" the "revelation," mentioned above, as not "regeneration," but rather to "conversion" or to their "time salvation," are not exempt from difficulty themselves, by their "interpretation." These recognize that the experience of having the things of Christ "revealed", if a "time salvation," is then, like "regeneration," also a work of sovereign and irresistable grace. Only the Absoluter faction, however, believes this. It is such difficulties as these that has confused many as to whether coming to gospel faith and conversion is, like regeneration, an experience in which the child of God is entirely passive.

Elect Within The Elect?

This is one reason why today's Hardshells have had trouble with a doctrine known as the "elect within the elect." Those Hardshells who see the conversion experience as being an irresistable and effectual work of God as regeneration, will acknowledge that their being converted is also the result of a choice of God. Since not all the elect are both regenerated and converted, then, ergo, those who are converted must be an "elect within the elect," a special "inner circle" within the elect. Most of the Conditionalist Hardshells would deny this, however, and will fight this view as it often appears within their ranks. The Absoluters, I don't believe, will object to this view that some of the elect, in addition to being chosen to eternal salvation, are also chosen to a time salvation that other elect are not chosen to receive.

Their error of course, is in denying, like nearly all their old articles faith aver, that all the elect will be BOTH regenerated and converted.

How Can This Be Hardshell Regeneration?

"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4: 17-4)

Clearly this text is speaking about both regeneration and conversion. Clearly the "other Gentiles" are those who have not been regenerated and converted, yea, those who have not yet even heard "the word of the truth of the gospel."

Characteristics of lost and depraved Gentiles

1. Vanity of Mind (worthless thoughts & beliefs)
2. Darkened Understanding (spiritually ignorant of truth)
3. Alienated from Life of God (spiritually dead)
4. Inner Ignorance & blindness of heart (spiritual corruption)
5. Beyond feeling (spiritual death)
6. Servants of Sin ("given themselves" to sin)
7. Spiritually filthy and in Need of Cleansing (inner depravity)

We can now ask ourselves this question -- "Is Paul, in the above passage, talking about the change effected in regeneration?" Obviously he is, and I do not know any Hardshell who will deny that it is talking about what it means to be made a "new creature in Christ Jesus." Where they err is in being so blindly inconsistent and contradictory in what they say about the experience of regeneration. They can, in one breath, speak of "regeneration" as being "below the level of consciousness," and then at other times, make it not so. They can say, in one breath, that "regeneration produces no internal sensations," and then at other times, have the "regenerated" person having all kinds of "internal feelings" as part of that change.

Obviously, the Apostle Paul, in the above passage, connected regeneration with conversion. He is clearly speaking of one experience that involved all the changes enumerated above. No Hardshell will include all the above delineated things in their descriptions of the experience of "regeneration"! Most of the things mentioned above they will put into the post regeneration category of conversion, an experience not guaranteed to all the elect, and one that only few of the elect experience, and then, when those few do, it is not by the sovereign irresistable work of God, as in their prior "regeneration," but a work of their own, of their own free will and ability, and yet they cannot deny that "regeneration" is what is discussed in the above passage -- for he clearly speaks of being brought out of spiritual death and alienation from the "life of God."

Paul, in giving forth the reason why Christian "believers" are "not like other Gentiles," not like those who are lost and "without God and hope in the world," said:

"But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus."

Of course the Hardshells will want to make this passage refer to a "direct speaking" or to an "immediate revelation," to something apart from the preaching of the gospel and word of God by the messengers of Christ. I have already shown how this whole idea of "learning," as being something part and parcel of Biblical "regeneration," is just foreign to the Hardshell idea that "regeneration is below the level of consciousness" and that it is unconnected with "coming to understanding of gospel truth." These words, like those in John 6:45, have the sinner being "taught" in the "new birth." I have repeatedly, therefore, asked the Hardshell brotherhood to "tell us all what the sinner is "taught" and comes to "believe" in regeneration?" Will they come forth and do it?

Will they absurdly take the view that sinners are not "taught of Christ" when they are "taught of Paul"? Will they be so anti scriptural as to affirm that sinners who are being "taught by" and "learning from" gospel preachers, are then in such cases not being "taught of Christ" nor "learning from him"? We who have been "taught the gospel" by gospel preachers and teachers believe that we have been "taught by Christ."

Regeneration, Conversion, or Both?

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (II Timothy 2: 24-26)

Is this passage talking about regeneration or conversion, or about both? What is there in the above passage that contradicts Hardshellism?

First, most Hardshells, as I have already shown, do not believe that "repentance" is part and parcel of "regeneration." Yet, some will often cite this verse as if it were dealing with "regeneration." They recognize that the "repentance" mentioned here is a "gift" from God, the same thing that is said of that "faith" which is "neccessary" for "regeneration" and for "eternal salvation" (Eph. 1:19, 2:9), but that puts them in a difficult place, doctrinally speaking. For, this "repentance" is "unto an acknowledging of the truth."

If the Hardshells make this verse to refer to "conversion," and not to "regeneration," then they are logically necessitated to affirm that "conversion" is also an "irresistable work of God," just like "regeneration"; And, if they admit that "conversion" is as much the "work of God" as is "regeneration" (and seeing, by their own admission, that "conversion" is through the "means of the gospel"), then all their "logical" "arguments" that affirm that what God does through "means" cannot possibly be all of his power are a bunch of nothing.

This verse is talking about people being "liberated" from the "bondage" and "snare" of Satan. This is what evangelical faith and repentance, what Biblical regeneration and conversion do for a man.

It is also clear that true gospel preachers simply "preach the word" and leave the results with the Lord, who will, on occasions of his own choosing, "give repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." So we are told in Acts 17:4 that those who heard Paul preach and believed him were those whom the Lord, in his decree of election, had "allotted to him" (KJV - "consorted with").

So, like all good Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptists, we preach God's gospel, his power unto salvation to everyone who believes it, and we leave the results with the Lord, who will "peradventure give repentance and faith to salvation" to those who he has from the beginning "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."