The Beginning of Wisdom
Content
"THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM"
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1: 7
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9: 10
"Dearly beloved brethren, understand me correctly when I say He is the eternal Wisdom, the eternal Power. For as we believe and confess that the Father was from eternity and will be unto all eternity; that He is the First and the Last, so we may also freely believe and confess that His wisdom, His power, His light, His truth, His life, His Word, Christ Jesus, has been eternally with Him, in Him, and by Him; yea that He is the Alpha and the Omega."
- Menno Simons
"We confessed, as said before, that He who was the Word, Wisdom, and Firstborn from eternity became the Son of man in time, a single undivided Son, whose Father was God, also from all eternity, and whose mother was Mary in time." - Menno Simons
"You are aware, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, that we all, no matter who or what, are born with an evil and sinful flesh from Adam. Yes, and all our desires from our youth are always inclined to the worst, as Moses writes. We know, do we not, that we find nothing in ourselves from the heritage of our first birth but blindness, unrighteousness, sin, and death. If now the power of this native disposition is to be broken, suppressed and destroyed, it must be accomplished by the pure fear of the Lord, which proceeds from a true faith through the Word of the Lord, and from a certain knowledge of the righteous judgment and terrible wrath of God, which will burn eternally against all impenitent sinners. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." - Menno Simons
"We find our blessed Master, whose heart was full of compassion, and whose very nature was love, often dwelling upon the wrath to come; indeed, His utterances are more telling and terrible than the most burning threatening from the lips of thundering seers of old."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
W
e hear much among Christians today about the Old Paths.
Men are referring to them and discussing them and insisting that we need to get back to them. Of itself, this is certainly a good thing. The increasing dialogue that has developed around this important subject reflects, at least, if nothing else, an awareness - perhaps somewhat dim, as yet - that, somewhere along the line, we have strayed, that a deviation has taken place and that the people of God in general have gotten off course. That we are off course and drifting.
Unfortunately, it seems to never go much further than this. There is this admission that is being circulated and assented to by many, but it generally stops there. We see very little positive action being taken in terms of investigating the nature and origins of the current drift, of correctly identifying the root problems that have infected and corrupted the Church, of diagnosing them and correcting these areas of departure.
In fact, there is, on the part of some, an actual hostility to such investigation and a real resistance to any accompanying corrective action. Any genuine corrective measures seem hazardous to established party lines and platforms, and threaten to rock the boat. So while on the one hand, we hear this admission that we must return to the Old Paths - a clear admission of departure - there is, on the other hand this total contraction in terms of opposition and the unwillingness to dig, to investigate, to probe, to diagnose and to apply the Biblical remedy. The more we talk about returning to the Old Paths, the more insistent we are that everything must stay exactly the same.
As is often the case in such matters, the problem lies - at least in part - in a case of mistaken identity. That is, this resistance to such investigation and corrective action exists for the simple reason that we assume that we have already completely identified the need. That assumption is based upon another assumption: that we have rightly identified the Old Paths. It doesn't take an advanced education to realize that if we misidentify the Old Paths, we will not return to them. We will assume that we have returned to them when in reality, we are only continuing to propagate the same root errors that have gotten us where we are today. Consequently, whatever successes we may seem to achieve in terms of reform will soon give way as those root problems resurface and bear a new harvest of corruption. So we must identify the real Old Paths, the genuine Old Paths, the authentic Old Paths. We must not accept any substitutes. Nothing else will solve the problems.
I. The Beginning
Beloved, the Old Paths did not begin in the mid-twentieth century. Some tend to imagine that the twentieth century represents some sort of Golden Era for the Church. Certainly, some very influential, and even some very godly preachers lived in the mid-twentieth century, and some of them did some very good things. Battles were won, souls were saved, lives were transformed, churches were planted and missionaries went out to reach the unreached during the twentieth century. Steps were taken to oppose the influence of the Critical Text and the resultant array of modern versions that sprang from it during the twentieth century. But for all of that, the twentieth century was far less than golden in terms of sound doctrine and Biblical practice. The Old Paths did not begin in the twentieth century. Nor did they begin in the nineteenth century. In reality, some of the most severe corruptions that afflict the Church today began during the nineteenth century. Liberalism and Modernism were not the only attacks upon the Christian faith during that period. Where Liberalism and Modernism only provoked conservative Christians to action and defense, their sisters, Dispensationalism and the Critical Text, succeeded in infiltrating and infecting the Church with the same - although subdued and veiled - spirit of unbelief, grieving God's Holy Spirit, and gradually bringing about the utter powerlessness and pragmatism that we see today among the people of God. During this same period, the belief in an ecstatic kind of Christian experience underwent a tremendous revival, resulting in the Pentecostalism that has plagued the Church for over a hundred years now. So the Old Paths did not begin in the nineteenth century.
No, my friend, if you want to find the true Old Paths, you cannot go back a century or two and stop there. You have to go back to the beginning, and get back on the Path right there at the beginning. You must go back to the Foundation of the Church and start there.
So we must ask two questions: A. When did the Church begin? B. What, or rather, who is the foundation of the Church?
Dispensationalism claims that the Church began either on the day of Pentecost or even sometime towards the end of the book of Acts, depending on how radically it has departed from the Scriptures in favor of human theories. This is patently absurd. The Church did not begin in the period described in the book of Acts or even at some point following the resurrection. The Church began during Christ's first year of earthly ministry. We know this to be true because John the Baptist spoke of Jesus Christ as already standing in the position of a bridegroom to a bride at that early point (John 3: 29). There has never been, never will be, nor ever can be a bridegroom without a bride. The fact that John the Baptist spoke of Christ as already having the Bride, which is, of course, the Church (Ephesians 5: 23 - 33), refutes the Dispensationalist idea that the Church did not come into existence until the day of Pentecost.
This also corrects the idea that Matthew 16: 18 demands a future beginning of the Church, sometime after Peter's great confession at Cæsarea Philippi. In answer to that we point out that it is entirely possible for a building to have already begun the construction process, even though more building yet remains to be done. No one imagines that a house doesn't exist simply because another wing has yet to be added onto it or because the weathervane hasn't been installed or the last shingle nailed down. That would be childish and silly. Even so, though many more "lively stones" had yet to be built upon the Foundation (I Peter 2: 4 - 8), it would be preposterous to say that the Church did not begin until the day of Pentecost, the writing of the book of I Peter or of Ephesians (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22) or even later. By that logic, the Church still would not yet have begun, because there are yet more precious souls to be added to her one Foundation. Christ, even now, still "will build" his Church, and "will build" it on into the future. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist yet. But we must consider this great confession of the Apostle Peter and the response of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ answered the Apostle Peter by saying,
"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The Roman Catholic Church likes to claim this passage as a proof text to support its idea of Papal Succession and authority. But the Word of God completely contradicts this position when both the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22) and the Apostle Peter himself (I Peter 2: 4 - 8) identify the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than the Apostle Peter, as the chief corner stone upon which the Church is built. The Apostle Paul goes further than this when he says "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 3: 11)
Thus we conclude and sing with the songwriter,
"The church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is his new creation By water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her To be his holy bride; With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died."
The Lord Jesus Christ puts it another way. In Revelation 1: 8, he says,
"I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
This is what the Apostle Paul had reference to when he spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ as "the beginning" in Colossians 1: 18. The Lord Jesus Christ was before all things, and by him all things consist (Colossians 1: 17). Yet in the following verse, the Apostle Paul connects this directly to the Church. Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ exist eternally with God the Father in perfect unity, communion and fellowship with him (John 1: 1 - 3; 17: 5, 24), and not only did he create both the terrestrial and celestial bodies (Hebrews 1: 1 - 4), and indeed, all things, whether visible or invisible, material or immaterial (John 1: 1 3), but he is the chief cornerstone of the Church upon which the whole company of God's Elect are built and "fitly framed together" (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22). He not only foreknew (Romans 8: 29; I Peter 1: 1 - 2) and chose his Elect (Ephesians 1: 3 - 6; I Peter 1: 1 - 2), receiving them as a gift from his Father in the Covenant of Redemption before the foundation of the world (John 17: 2, 6, 9), but he "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1: 14), yes, was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death", was "made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2: 9, 17), was "made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." This was the grand purpose of Christ's incarnation - to gather together his Elect in one body, one glorious Church (John 10: 16; 11: 51 - 52; 17: 20 - 23; Ephesians 1: 3 - 14; 4: 4 - 6), justifying and reconciling us with God through his perfect blood sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary (Romans 5: 1 - 11; II Corinthians 5: 18 - 21; Ephesians 2: 14 - 18), and tearing down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and abolishing the enmity, uniting all believers in that one body and including them all in the Covenant promises made to Abraham, so that none are excluded, whether Jew or Gentile (Ephesians 2: 14 - 22; Galatians 3: 7 - 29).
So the only way to get back to the Old Paths is to get back to "the beginning", the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Church's one Foundation. "Servant Leadership" won't do it. "Just go soulwinning" won't do it. Baptist History won't do it. Textual scholarship won't do it. "Nouthetic counseling" won't do it. Family Seminars won't do it. Prophecy Conferences most certainly won't do it. These things may be beneficial and useful in their respective places, but it is Christ, and Christ alone upon which we stand. He is the one and only Foundation and Chief Cornerstone, the beginning and the ending. All else is built upon him. Solus Christus.
II. Of Wisdom
But the passage under discussion here does not speak simply of "the beginning" in a mere generic manner. It is specific. "The beginning of wisdom."
So we must assess our position and direction. Does this passage actually carry a Christological sense and meaning here, or must we restrict ourselves to the dead, dry, mechanical pseudo-literalism forced upon
us by Dispensationalism? Are we really justified in understanding this passage to carry an evangelical scope, every bit the rightful property of the Christian Church, or must we content ourselves to relinquish yet another beloved Scripture passage as the" exclusive property" of the ethnic Jews, beyond the jurisdiction of the "Gentile Bride," falsely so-called (Galatians 3: 28)? In order to answer these questions, we must answer two other questions:
1. For whose sake did the Holy Ghost inspire the Old Testament? For ethnic Israel or for the Church? 2. What or who is the grand theme of the Old Testament?
The Apostle Paul leaves no room for doubt as to the first question. In I Corinthians 10: 11, he states that "All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
Note that blessed, inspired, preserved word, "our." What a world of difference that makes in the interpretation of Scripture! It is a veritable birthright, securing for the Church of God full access to the Old Testament Scriptures, with all the rights and privileges attendant thereon. Don't let Dispensationalism rob you of this wonderful little word. It is a key and badge of authority by which the Old Testament Scriptures become the rightful property of the New Testament saints.
Let us press that wonderful inspired, preserved word just a little further. Let us draw forth from it an even fuller scope of implication. Remember that the Apostle Paul wrote this as a Jew, "a Hebrew of the Hebrews" (Philippians 3: 5). Yet he wrote it to the Corinthians, Gentiles of the most disreputable character. And he says "our." That groups these disreputable Corinthians right into the same category as the Apostle Paul, the "Hebrew of the Hebrews", with full rights and privileges to understand the Old Testament as being fully applicable to themselves. To these Gentile believers (I Corinthians 12: 2) who had been, like the Ephesians, "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise", the Apostle Paul says that the Old Testament was written for "our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." God inspired it for their sakes!
That is a statement of purpose. It reflects the original intent on the part of the Author. And that intent, says the Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, was for us, for the Church. The Old Testament
was not written merely for ethnic Israel, but for the true children of Abraham, which are of faith (Galatians 3: 7). The Apostle Paul states in unmistakable and incontrovertible terms that the Old Testament was written for the Church.
He states the same thing another way earlier in the same book. After quoting an Old Testament passage about muzzling oxen, he poses a rhetorical question, and then answers it by saying that the passage in question was specifically written "for our sakes". In fact, he uses even stronger language than that. He says, "for our sakes, no doubt, this is written." In other words, according to the authoritative word of Paul, spoken with full Apostolic authority and given by direct revelation to him by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, beyond any shadow of a doubt, God wrote this for us, for the Church. God's purpose in inspiring this was not merely to communicate truth to ethnic Israel. He specifically wrote it with us in mind, for the purpose of giving us - Jew and Gentile alike in Christ, in the Church - hope.
The Apostle Peter makes a more startling statement in I Peter 1: 6 - 12. He states that the Old Testament prophets who prophesied of Christ "inquired and searched diligently". They searched out "what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Yet he says by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and with full Apostolic authority, that it was revealed unto them "that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."
So there it is again. The Old Testament revelation of Christ was "not unto" those Old Testament saints, but "unto us". The word that the Apostle Peter uses is here in the original language is "ou", the emphatic negative of the Greek language. In other words, the Apostle Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and with full Apostolic authority, has stated emphatically, in the most clear, unmistakable, assertive terms that the Holy Ghost did not reveal the Old Testament prophecies primarily for the Old Testament saints, but rather for the Church. That brings us to the question of the grand theme of the Old Testament. Did God inspire it merely to instruct the Old Testament saints about a moral code by which they could be saved? That's what early Dispensationalists advocated, and that what Hyper-Dispensationalists such as Peter Ruckman, Sam Gipp, Brian Donavan and Douglas Stauffer continue to advocate today. Taking the consistent approach to Dispensationalism that the Modern Revised Dispensationalists from Dallas Theological Seminary such as J. Dwight Pentecost and Charles Ryrie have managed to squirm and wiggle around, and following its logical implications, they have reduced the Scriptures to a disjointed conglomeration of disharmonious and conflicting texts primarily written to instruct the ethnic on Jews how to merit salvation by the keeping of the Old Testament Law.
But our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ had something entirely different to say about the Old Testament. The religious leaders of his day believed that they would be saved because Abraham was their father. Yet Christ not only told them that they were of their father the devil (John 8: 44) and that without the new birth they could not enter or even see the kingdom of God (John 3: 3 - 5), he told them that the Old Testament Scriptures were written to testify about himself. In the book of Revelation, we have the same key, the true key to Biblical interpretation (as opposed to the false key of Dispensationalism) stated another way, when the angel informs John the Beloved that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19: 10).
This brings us back to the subject of our text. Solomon has written about wisdom. Yet the Scriptures plainly inform us that two kinds of wisdom exist, an earthly and sensual wisdom on the one hand, and a heavenly wisdom from above (James 3: 15 - 17), the hidden wisdom, the wisdom of God spoken in mystery "among them that are perfect" on the other hand (I Corinthians 1: 19 - 2: 13). Notice that phrase "hidden wisdom" in I Corinthians 2: 7. Now turn over to Colossians 2: 1 - 3. Where did God the Father hide the grand sum of all the treasures of heavenly and spiritual wisdom? Where is all spiritual truth concealed? In Christ. Solus Christus.
That's why the Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1: 30,
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Beloved, it has pleased the Father to conceal all spiritual truth and wisdom in his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom. He is the true wisdom of the Father that makes foolish and brings to nothing the wisdom of this world. When Solomon wrote to us of "the beginning of wisdom", he did not have a mere system of philosophy in mind. He wrote of Christ. He testified of Christ.
III. The Fear of the LORD
This brings us to the fear of the LORD. And this at first seems to present a contradiction. It's especially foreign to the modern Christian's way of thinking, because the modern Christian - Evangelical or Fundamental, it doesn't matter - doesn't like the fear of the LORD, doesn't want the fear of the LORD and especially doesn't want to associate the fear of the LORD with the Lord Jesus Christ. The modern Christian wants a seeker-sensitive Jesus, an unintimidating Jesus who doesn't confront people with sin and judgment and eternal damnation and bring conviction or demand repentance. But of course, this is not the Jesus of the Bible. This is an idol, a false Jesus, a manmade Jesus, another Jesus, whom the Apostles never preached. The Jesus Christ depicted in the Word of God never hesitated to confront people with their unavoidable damnation should they reject him. The Sermon on the Mount concludes on a note of inevitable ruin for all who refuse to make practical application of his words to their lives (Matthew 7: 26 - 27). In Matthew 8 he warns of "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 11 he pronounces the intolerable woes upon Chorazin and Bethsaida. In Matthew 12 he warns of the condemnation of his generation. In Matthew 13 he prophesies repeatedly of "wailing and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 18 he pronounces further woes upon the world because of offenses and warns of the danger of hellfire connected with them, saying that it were better to be cast into the sea with a millstone about one's neck. In the same passage he warns of tormenters for the unforgiving. In Matthew 21, he prophesies destruction for the religious leaders who had rejected him, warning that they would be ground to powder. In Matthew 22 we find again "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 23 he warns of "greater damnation" of "the damnation of hell" and of coming desolation. In Matthew 24, we find again "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 25 he adds to this "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" and "everlasting punishment." Beloved, this is where Christ begins in the salvation of a soul. He doesn't begin by congratulating the sinner on his self-worth or by catering to some false and misguided sense of ego or self-esteem the way that the modern preachers and teachers - Evangelical and Fundamental alike - do. He doesn't set out to make them feel comfortable or good about themselves at all. Instead, he runs entirely contrary to the entire outlook of modern psychology and ministry. He begins where the Apostle Paul begins in Romans, with the wrath of God revealed from heaven (Romans 1: 18), with the condemnation of the Law (Romans 3: 9 - 19) and the wages of sin (Romans 1: 32; 5: 12 - 21; 6: 23), eternal condemnation and death in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20: 15; 21: 8) where the worm dieth not (Mark 9: 48) and "the smoke of their torment ascendeth" forever (Revelation 14 :11). As plainly demonstrated by the inspired Epistles of his chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul, he first brings the sinner to the foot of Mount Sinai to tremble under the pronounced curse. He first utters the words of Moses "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Galatians 3: 10). This is his method throughout the Scriptures and it has been his method throughout the history of the Church. Go read of the conversions of Luther, Bunyan, Wesley and Spurgeon. Read of the great Cathari awakenings that swept Europe under the preaching of Peter of Bruis and Henry of Lausanne. Read of the great Puritan revivals in England and in the American Colonies. Read how sinners trembled and
wept over sin and their sudden awareness of God's impending judgment. Read in those histories the thundering pronouncement of Solomon, "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM"!
This is why, at the very outset of the incarnation of Christ, when Christ had only just been conceived in the womb of Mary by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost, Mary, in her divinely inspired Magnificat said,
"And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation."
The modern world and the modern church and modern Christians hate this. Even modern Evangelicals and Fundamentalists hate it. They do not want it at all. They want something different. They want the grace and mercy of God apart from the fear of God. They want mercy, they want forgiveness, they want salvation, they want justification, but they do not want the fear of the Lord. They would rather skip that and have grace and forgiveness and justification and salvation without "the fear of the LORD". And it is just for this very reason that we don't see revival today. Because preachers and "soulwinners" do not want to start at the beginning. They want to bypass that and present a comfortable Gospel. With Dispensationalism, they want a universal "Age of Grace," with the Law relegated to some bygone "Dispensation." They refuse to start at the beginning. Or if they do begin at the beginning, they rush so hastily through it that the sinner scarcely has time to sense the full scope of implications concerning his lost condition and eternal damnation. The modern "soulwinner" or preacher just wants to preach "Grace, grace." They preach "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." "No judging," they say. Which is the same as "no judgment," and therefore, "no conviction". And so sinners don't really come to Christ, the true Christ, the Christ of the Bible in many cases. They make a false profession because they've believed in a false Christ and a false Gospel because they've never started at the beginning, with the true Christ revealing himself to them as their great and eternal Judge, instilling within them the fear of the LORD.
Beloved, the Scriptures are plain. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom". If we want revival, if we want to get back to the Old Paths, then we must begin where the Scriptures tell us to begin: with the fear of the LORD.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1: 7
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9: 10
"Dearly beloved brethren, understand me correctly when I say He is the eternal Wisdom, the eternal Power. For as we believe and confess that the Father was from eternity and will be unto all eternity; that He is the First and the Last, so we may also freely believe and confess that His wisdom, His power, His light, His truth, His life, His Word, Christ Jesus, has been eternally with Him, in Him, and by Him; yea that He is the Alpha and the Omega."
- Menno Simons
"We confessed, as said before, that He who was the Word, Wisdom, and Firstborn from eternity became the Son of man in time, a single undivided Son, whose Father was God, also from all eternity, and whose mother was Mary in time." - Menno Simons
"You are aware, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, that we all, no matter who or what, are born with an evil and sinful flesh from Adam. Yes, and all our desires from our youth are always inclined to the worst, as Moses writes. We know, do we not, that we find nothing in ourselves from the heritage of our first birth but blindness, unrighteousness, sin, and death. If now the power of this native disposition is to be broken, suppressed and destroyed, it must be accomplished by the pure fear of the Lord, which proceeds from a true faith through the Word of the Lord, and from a certain knowledge of the righteous judgment and terrible wrath of God, which will burn eternally against all impenitent sinners. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." - Menno Simons
"We find our blessed Master, whose heart was full of compassion, and whose very nature was love, often dwelling upon the wrath to come; indeed, His utterances are more telling and terrible than the most burning threatening from the lips of thundering seers of old."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
W
e hear much among Christians today about the Old Paths.
Men are referring to them and discussing them and insisting that we need to get back to them. Of itself, this is certainly a good thing. The increasing dialogue that has developed around this important subject reflects, at least, if nothing else, an awareness - perhaps somewhat dim, as yet - that, somewhere along the line, we have strayed, that a deviation has taken place and that the people of God in general have gotten off course. That we are off course and drifting.
Unfortunately, it seems to never go much further than this. There is this admission that is being circulated and assented to by many, but it generally stops there. We see very little positive action being taken in terms of investigating the nature and origins of the current drift, of correctly identifying the root problems that have infected and corrupted the Church, of diagnosing them and correcting these areas of departure.
In fact, there is, on the part of some, an actual hostility to such investigation and a real resistance to any accompanying corrective action. Any genuine corrective measures seem hazardous to established party lines and platforms, and threaten to rock the boat. So while on the one hand, we hear this admission that we must return to the Old Paths - a clear admission of departure - there is, on the other hand this total contraction in terms of opposition and the unwillingness to dig, to investigate, to probe, to diagnose and to apply the Biblical remedy. The more we talk about returning to the Old Paths, the more insistent we are that everything must stay exactly the same.
As is often the case in such matters, the problem lies - at least in part - in a case of mistaken identity. That is, this resistance to such investigation and corrective action exists for the simple reason that we assume that we have already completely identified the need. That assumption is based upon another assumption: that we have rightly identified the Old Paths. It doesn't take an advanced education to realize that if we misidentify the Old Paths, we will not return to them. We will assume that we have returned to them when in reality, we are only continuing to propagate the same root errors that have gotten us where we are today. Consequently, whatever successes we may seem to achieve in terms of reform will soon give way as those root problems resurface and bear a new harvest of corruption. So we must identify the real Old Paths, the genuine Old Paths, the authentic Old Paths. We must not accept any substitutes. Nothing else will solve the problems.
I. The Beginning
Beloved, the Old Paths did not begin in the mid-twentieth century. Some tend to imagine that the twentieth century represents some sort of Golden Era for the Church. Certainly, some very influential, and even some very godly preachers lived in the mid-twentieth century, and some of them did some very good things. Battles were won, souls were saved, lives were transformed, churches were planted and missionaries went out to reach the unreached during the twentieth century. Steps were taken to oppose the influence of the Critical Text and the resultant array of modern versions that sprang from it during the twentieth century. But for all of that, the twentieth century was far less than golden in terms of sound doctrine and Biblical practice. The Old Paths did not begin in the twentieth century. Nor did they begin in the nineteenth century. In reality, some of the most severe corruptions that afflict the Church today began during the nineteenth century. Liberalism and Modernism were not the only attacks upon the Christian faith during that period. Where Liberalism and Modernism only provoked conservative Christians to action and defense, their sisters, Dispensationalism and the Critical Text, succeeded in infiltrating and infecting the Church with the same - although subdued and veiled - spirit of unbelief, grieving God's Holy Spirit, and gradually bringing about the utter powerlessness and pragmatism that we see today among the people of God. During this same period, the belief in an ecstatic kind of Christian experience underwent a tremendous revival, resulting in the Pentecostalism that has plagued the Church for over a hundred years now. So the Old Paths did not begin in the nineteenth century.
No, my friend, if you want to find the true Old Paths, you cannot go back a century or two and stop there. You have to go back to the beginning, and get back on the Path right there at the beginning. You must go back to the Foundation of the Church and start there.
So we must ask two questions: A. When did the Church begin? B. What, or rather, who is the foundation of the Church?
Dispensationalism claims that the Church began either on the day of Pentecost or even sometime towards the end of the book of Acts, depending on how radically it has departed from the Scriptures in favor of human theories. This is patently absurd. The Church did not begin in the period described in the book of Acts or even at some point following the resurrection. The Church began during Christ's first year of earthly ministry. We know this to be true because John the Baptist spoke of Jesus Christ as already standing in the position of a bridegroom to a bride at that early point (John 3: 29). There has never been, never will be, nor ever can be a bridegroom without a bride. The fact that John the Baptist spoke of Christ as already having the Bride, which is, of course, the Church (Ephesians 5: 23 - 33), refutes the Dispensationalist idea that the Church did not come into existence until the day of Pentecost.
This also corrects the idea that Matthew 16: 18 demands a future beginning of the Church, sometime after Peter's great confession at Cæsarea Philippi. In answer to that we point out that it is entirely possible for a building to have already begun the construction process, even though more building yet remains to be done. No one imagines that a house doesn't exist simply because another wing has yet to be added onto it or because the weathervane hasn't been installed or the last shingle nailed down. That would be childish and silly. Even so, though many more "lively stones" had yet to be built upon the Foundation (I Peter 2: 4 - 8), it would be preposterous to say that the Church did not begin until the day of Pentecost, the writing of the book of I Peter or of Ephesians (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22) or even later. By that logic, the Church still would not yet have begun, because there are yet more precious souls to be added to her one Foundation. Christ, even now, still "will build" his Church, and "will build" it on into the future. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist yet. But we must consider this great confession of the Apostle Peter and the response of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ answered the Apostle Peter by saying,
"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The Roman Catholic Church likes to claim this passage as a proof text to support its idea of Papal Succession and authority. But the Word of God completely contradicts this position when both the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22) and the Apostle Peter himself (I Peter 2: 4 - 8) identify the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than the Apostle Peter, as the chief corner stone upon which the Church is built. The Apostle Paul goes further than this when he says "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 3: 11)
Thus we conclude and sing with the songwriter,
"The church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is his new creation By water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her To be his holy bride; With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died."
The Lord Jesus Christ puts it another way. In Revelation 1: 8, he says,
"I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
This is what the Apostle Paul had reference to when he spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ as "the beginning" in Colossians 1: 18. The Lord Jesus Christ was before all things, and by him all things consist (Colossians 1: 17). Yet in the following verse, the Apostle Paul connects this directly to the Church. Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ exist eternally with God the Father in perfect unity, communion and fellowship with him (John 1: 1 - 3; 17: 5, 24), and not only did he create both the terrestrial and celestial bodies (Hebrews 1: 1 - 4), and indeed, all things, whether visible or invisible, material or immaterial (John 1: 1 3), but he is the chief cornerstone of the Church upon which the whole company of God's Elect are built and "fitly framed together" (Ephesians 2: 19 - 22). He not only foreknew (Romans 8: 29; I Peter 1: 1 - 2) and chose his Elect (Ephesians 1: 3 - 6; I Peter 1: 1 - 2), receiving them as a gift from his Father in the Covenant of Redemption before the foundation of the world (John 17: 2, 6, 9), but he "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1: 14), yes, was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death", was "made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2: 9, 17), was "made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." This was the grand purpose of Christ's incarnation - to gather together his Elect in one body, one glorious Church (John 10: 16; 11: 51 - 52; 17: 20 - 23; Ephesians 1: 3 - 14; 4: 4 - 6), justifying and reconciling us with God through his perfect blood sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary (Romans 5: 1 - 11; II Corinthians 5: 18 - 21; Ephesians 2: 14 - 18), and tearing down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and abolishing the enmity, uniting all believers in that one body and including them all in the Covenant promises made to Abraham, so that none are excluded, whether Jew or Gentile (Ephesians 2: 14 - 22; Galatians 3: 7 - 29).
So the only way to get back to the Old Paths is to get back to "the beginning", the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Church's one Foundation. "Servant Leadership" won't do it. "Just go soulwinning" won't do it. Baptist History won't do it. Textual scholarship won't do it. "Nouthetic counseling" won't do it. Family Seminars won't do it. Prophecy Conferences most certainly won't do it. These things may be beneficial and useful in their respective places, but it is Christ, and Christ alone upon which we stand. He is the one and only Foundation and Chief Cornerstone, the beginning and the ending. All else is built upon him. Solus Christus.
II. Of Wisdom
But the passage under discussion here does not speak simply of "the beginning" in a mere generic manner. It is specific. "The beginning of wisdom."
So we must assess our position and direction. Does this passage actually carry a Christological sense and meaning here, or must we restrict ourselves to the dead, dry, mechanical pseudo-literalism forced upon
us by Dispensationalism? Are we really justified in understanding this passage to carry an evangelical scope, every bit the rightful property of the Christian Church, or must we content ourselves to relinquish yet another beloved Scripture passage as the" exclusive property" of the ethnic Jews, beyond the jurisdiction of the "Gentile Bride," falsely so-called (Galatians 3: 28)? In order to answer these questions, we must answer two other questions:
1. For whose sake did the Holy Ghost inspire the Old Testament? For ethnic Israel or for the Church? 2. What or who is the grand theme of the Old Testament?
The Apostle Paul leaves no room for doubt as to the first question. In I Corinthians 10: 11, he states that "All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
Note that blessed, inspired, preserved word, "our." What a world of difference that makes in the interpretation of Scripture! It is a veritable birthright, securing for the Church of God full access to the Old Testament Scriptures, with all the rights and privileges attendant thereon. Don't let Dispensationalism rob you of this wonderful little word. It is a key and badge of authority by which the Old Testament Scriptures become the rightful property of the New Testament saints.
Let us press that wonderful inspired, preserved word just a little further. Let us draw forth from it an even fuller scope of implication. Remember that the Apostle Paul wrote this as a Jew, "a Hebrew of the Hebrews" (Philippians 3: 5). Yet he wrote it to the Corinthians, Gentiles of the most disreputable character. And he says "our." That groups these disreputable Corinthians right into the same category as the Apostle Paul, the "Hebrew of the Hebrews", with full rights and privileges to understand the Old Testament as being fully applicable to themselves. To these Gentile believers (I Corinthians 12: 2) who had been, like the Ephesians, "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise", the Apostle Paul says that the Old Testament was written for "our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." God inspired it for their sakes!
That is a statement of purpose. It reflects the original intent on the part of the Author. And that intent, says the Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, was for us, for the Church. The Old Testament
was not written merely for ethnic Israel, but for the true children of Abraham, which are of faith (Galatians 3: 7). The Apostle Paul states in unmistakable and incontrovertible terms that the Old Testament was written for the Church.
He states the same thing another way earlier in the same book. After quoting an Old Testament passage about muzzling oxen, he poses a rhetorical question, and then answers it by saying that the passage in question was specifically written "for our sakes". In fact, he uses even stronger language than that. He says, "for our sakes, no doubt, this is written." In other words, according to the authoritative word of Paul, spoken with full Apostolic authority and given by direct revelation to him by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, beyond any shadow of a doubt, God wrote this for us, for the Church. God's purpose in inspiring this was not merely to communicate truth to ethnic Israel. He specifically wrote it with us in mind, for the purpose of giving us - Jew and Gentile alike in Christ, in the Church - hope.
The Apostle Peter makes a more startling statement in I Peter 1: 6 - 12. He states that the Old Testament prophets who prophesied of Christ "inquired and searched diligently". They searched out "what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Yet he says by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and with full Apostolic authority, that it was revealed unto them "that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."
So there it is again. The Old Testament revelation of Christ was "not unto" those Old Testament saints, but "unto us". The word that the Apostle Peter uses is here in the original language is "ou", the emphatic negative of the Greek language. In other words, the Apostle Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and with full Apostolic authority, has stated emphatically, in the most clear, unmistakable, assertive terms that the Holy Ghost did not reveal the Old Testament prophecies primarily for the Old Testament saints, but rather for the Church. That brings us to the question of the grand theme of the Old Testament. Did God inspire it merely to instruct the Old Testament saints about a moral code by which they could be saved? That's what early Dispensationalists advocated, and that what Hyper-Dispensationalists such as Peter Ruckman, Sam Gipp, Brian Donavan and Douglas Stauffer continue to advocate today. Taking the consistent approach to Dispensationalism that the Modern Revised Dispensationalists from Dallas Theological Seminary such as J. Dwight Pentecost and Charles Ryrie have managed to squirm and wiggle around, and following its logical implications, they have reduced the Scriptures to a disjointed conglomeration of disharmonious and conflicting texts primarily written to instruct the ethnic on Jews how to merit salvation by the keeping of the Old Testament Law.
But our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ had something entirely different to say about the Old Testament. The religious leaders of his day believed that they would be saved because Abraham was their father. Yet Christ not only told them that they were of their father the devil (John 8: 44) and that without the new birth they could not enter or even see the kingdom of God (John 3: 3 - 5), he told them that the Old Testament Scriptures were written to testify about himself. In the book of Revelation, we have the same key, the true key to Biblical interpretation (as opposed to the false key of Dispensationalism) stated another way, when the angel informs John the Beloved that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19: 10).
This brings us back to the subject of our text. Solomon has written about wisdom. Yet the Scriptures plainly inform us that two kinds of wisdom exist, an earthly and sensual wisdom on the one hand, and a heavenly wisdom from above (James 3: 15 - 17), the hidden wisdom, the wisdom of God spoken in mystery "among them that are perfect" on the other hand (I Corinthians 1: 19 - 2: 13). Notice that phrase "hidden wisdom" in I Corinthians 2: 7. Now turn over to Colossians 2: 1 - 3. Where did God the Father hide the grand sum of all the treasures of heavenly and spiritual wisdom? Where is all spiritual truth concealed? In Christ. Solus Christus.
That's why the Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1: 30,
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Beloved, it has pleased the Father to conceal all spiritual truth and wisdom in his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom. He is the true wisdom of the Father that makes foolish and brings to nothing the wisdom of this world. When Solomon wrote to us of "the beginning of wisdom", he did not have a mere system of philosophy in mind. He wrote of Christ. He testified of Christ.
III. The Fear of the LORD
This brings us to the fear of the LORD. And this at first seems to present a contradiction. It's especially foreign to the modern Christian's way of thinking, because the modern Christian - Evangelical or Fundamental, it doesn't matter - doesn't like the fear of the LORD, doesn't want the fear of the LORD and especially doesn't want to associate the fear of the LORD with the Lord Jesus Christ. The modern Christian wants a seeker-sensitive Jesus, an unintimidating Jesus who doesn't confront people with sin and judgment and eternal damnation and bring conviction or demand repentance. But of course, this is not the Jesus of the Bible. This is an idol, a false Jesus, a manmade Jesus, another Jesus, whom the Apostles never preached. The Jesus Christ depicted in the Word of God never hesitated to confront people with their unavoidable damnation should they reject him. The Sermon on the Mount concludes on a note of inevitable ruin for all who refuse to make practical application of his words to their lives (Matthew 7: 26 - 27). In Matthew 8 he warns of "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 11 he pronounces the intolerable woes upon Chorazin and Bethsaida. In Matthew 12 he warns of the condemnation of his generation. In Matthew 13 he prophesies repeatedly of "wailing and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 18 he pronounces further woes upon the world because of offenses and warns of the danger of hellfire connected with them, saying that it were better to be cast into the sea with a millstone about one's neck. In the same passage he warns of tormenters for the unforgiving. In Matthew 21, he prophesies destruction for the religious leaders who had rejected him, warning that they would be ground to powder. In Matthew 22 we find again "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 23 he warns of "greater damnation" of "the damnation of hell" and of coming desolation. In Matthew 24, we find again "weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 25 he adds to this "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" and "everlasting punishment." Beloved, this is where Christ begins in the salvation of a soul. He doesn't begin by congratulating the sinner on his self-worth or by catering to some false and misguided sense of ego or self-esteem the way that the modern preachers and teachers - Evangelical and Fundamental alike - do. He doesn't set out to make them feel comfortable or good about themselves at all. Instead, he runs entirely contrary to the entire outlook of modern psychology and ministry. He begins where the Apostle Paul begins in Romans, with the wrath of God revealed from heaven (Romans 1: 18), with the condemnation of the Law (Romans 3: 9 - 19) and the wages of sin (Romans 1: 32; 5: 12 - 21; 6: 23), eternal condemnation and death in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20: 15; 21: 8) where the worm dieth not (Mark 9: 48) and "the smoke of their torment ascendeth" forever (Revelation 14 :11). As plainly demonstrated by the inspired Epistles of his chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul, he first brings the sinner to the foot of Mount Sinai to tremble under the pronounced curse. He first utters the words of Moses "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Galatians 3: 10). This is his method throughout the Scriptures and it has been his method throughout the history of the Church. Go read of the conversions of Luther, Bunyan, Wesley and Spurgeon. Read of the great Cathari awakenings that swept Europe under the preaching of Peter of Bruis and Henry of Lausanne. Read of the great Puritan revivals in England and in the American Colonies. Read how sinners trembled and
wept over sin and their sudden awareness of God's impending judgment. Read in those histories the thundering pronouncement of Solomon, "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM"!
This is why, at the very outset of the incarnation of Christ, when Christ had only just been conceived in the womb of Mary by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost, Mary, in her divinely inspired Magnificat said,
"And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation."
The modern world and the modern church and modern Christians hate this. Even modern Evangelicals and Fundamentalists hate it. They do not want it at all. They want something different. They want the grace and mercy of God apart from the fear of God. They want mercy, they want forgiveness, they want salvation, they want justification, but they do not want the fear of the Lord. They would rather skip that and have grace and forgiveness and justification and salvation without "the fear of the LORD". And it is just for this very reason that we don't see revival today. Because preachers and "soulwinners" do not want to start at the beginning. They want to bypass that and present a comfortable Gospel. With Dispensationalism, they want a universal "Age of Grace," with the Law relegated to some bygone "Dispensation." They refuse to start at the beginning. Or if they do begin at the beginning, they rush so hastily through it that the sinner scarcely has time to sense the full scope of implications concerning his lost condition and eternal damnation. The modern "soulwinner" or preacher just wants to preach "Grace, grace." They preach "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." "No judging," they say. Which is the same as "no judgment," and therefore, "no conviction". And so sinners don't really come to Christ, the true Christ, the Christ of the Bible in many cases. They make a false profession because they've believed in a false Christ and a false Gospel because they've never started at the beginning, with the true Christ revealing himself to them as their great and eternal Judge, instilling within them the fear of the LORD.
Beloved, the Scriptures are plain. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom". If we want revival, if we want to get back to the Old Paths, then we must begin where the Scriptures tell us to begin: with the fear of the LORD.
