JOY OF THE LORD
IN THE APOLOGETIC ORCHESTRA
Includes brief outline of the 152
Volumes
outside
The Shadow of a Mighty Rock (trilogy)
and
survey of significant historical developments and perspective in this
phase of apologetics
Since The Shadow of a Mighty Rock (SMR) was published in August 1992, a 2nd Edition of the trilogy has been placed on the Web, 1996 - one first created in 1994; a 3rd Electronic Edition in 1998, and finally 149 other works, including the Index Volume have likewise been created, the whole presentation on the Web estimated to be over 52,000 pages and more than 21 million words. The total of the volumes is named, In Praise of Christ Jesus, now in its 60th Edition, and appears on the Web, but pre-eminently in the CD-ROM which includes musical, artistic and lecturing features, with correlations of the spoken and written word.
In all these things, as the matters have been dealt with and written, it would be less than candid if it were not gladly acknowledged that as author, I have been aware of a help from the Lord of creation and salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, so intense, so reliable and so available, that it has been a delight, a privilege and a profound mercy. As His servants, in this small part of His kingdom, as in any other, in His light we see light, and He sends forth His light and His truth and leads us. As with the Israelites leaving Egypt, so with His people today, He is a tower of strength and His power is invincible, His grace is sufficient, and if we suffer, what more beautiful than such a cause as His. This is empirically the case, operative by faith, the gift of His grace.
Accordingly, this provision is made that others may be helped, who on the journey in or to the Lord, have occasion for such a ministry, as, seeing Him who is invisible, we occupy ourselves until He come.
A brief overview or CONSPECTUS of the total of these apologetic works, this library of logic concerning the Lord, or task force of testimony, may be of interest or help to some, and hence is here provided.
They represent one instrument in the vast apologetic orchestra attesting the Bible and the Gospel therein contained
as the indubitable word
of the logically indispensable and
evidentially pervasively assured God Almighty:
the book He has caused to be written.
As far as this particular instrument in the Apologetics orchestra is concerned, which the Lord has enabled one to write: Like the piccolo, this is intended to be precise in sound, penetrating in character. This has a place in the music set to the glory of His majesty.
In fact, the systematic refinements or remodellings of Biblical, Christian apologetics have been proceeding in particular from a Presbyterian source with some vigour over recent years.
A) The Princeton-Westminster Seminary axis. This was a development in history, when the latter seminary began with a core of staff who left Princeton following the betrayal of its Biblical basis.
At first at Princeton, and later at Westminster Theological Seminary, Professor J. Gresham Machen brilliantly exposed exegetical error, ignorant surmisings and the basic immiscibility of theological liberalism with its confused cohorts of unbiblical assailants. In his numerous books, these were shown as misusing the name both of God and of the Bible, in inventive excursions more properly the subject of new religions, which he showed, they were. As such they lacked logical and historical base. As "Christian", equally, they lacked integrity and realism, being alien, parasitic, enshrining popular thought with no ground for ascribing divine origin to these shimmerings on the lake of human history. The Bible remained indispensable, immovable, unique, superior to syncretism, sui generis, supreme.
Cornelius Van Til, famed Professor at Westminster Seminary for many years in this field, also a rather prolific writer, has been most effective in the systematic demolition of all that is not Biblical, showing its invalidity. He has perhaps been rather less notable at the construction level, finding what IS inevitably the truth. It is a gap rather than a necessity to which he positively points. This is important not only from the point of view of comprehensiveness, confirmation on ALL sides, but in dealing with Judaism and the Moslem ideas.
B) Dr Francis Schaeffer, with another but slightly different kind of fame, has a similar or perhaps less extreme imbalance, though he has much lateral detail in attestation of the truth, which is of profound interest and significance. These two, in this field, have adorned the century.
C) Professor Gordon Clark, a Chairman of the Philosophy Department of a major U.S. University, and a Minister in one of the Presbyterian denominations, inclines to more highly developed system in a number of areas, but goes too far in his disinclinations in some directions (Three Answers, One Answer Ch. 6, The Glow of Presdestinative Power Ch. 1), as in his disaffiliations of reason, as illustrated and exhibited in SMR, especially in the matter of Zeno (SMR pp. 291-292). His elegance of form however is exceedingly useful.
- These things of much value are past.
A development has come to be needed
in the present, to provide emphasis
for the following features.
- Hence our
Library of Christian Apologetics.
 |
1) What is it to do then? |
In view of the gap or hollow seen in A above:
Demonstration
of the actual truth is thus needed,
and
specifically provided, step by step, LATER RATIFIED PHASE BY PHASE.
2) On the other hand,
the danger of determining truth
with human invention,
and hence "moulding" itby erratic, errant arrogance
or blind subjectivity must be removed.
How?
By first identifying its necessary source -
irrational invalidity the only alternative,
a denial of the conditions of discourse -and then reading what is there DELIVERED -
that is demonstrated to be the Biblical revelation, which, in addition,
precisely defines its own nature.
Necessarily the word of God, as first independently shown, it then speaks for itself!
(See SMR Chs.1, 3, incl. pp. 315Aff.,
and That Magnificent Rock, Ch.5, Validity and Invalidity.)89 further features follow, to cover the provision in all, of about 10.7 million words on the topic of Christian Apologetics, written both for the glory of God and with the aid of Jesus Christ, whose power and grace do not vary.
3) The
enormous SPREAD of Biblical basics
and relevant doctrine and data is given so that all may be verified, where, as
very frequently, the divine disclosure and exposure earlier made, permits this
at the present time. The word of God like any other word is testable; in what
it is shown to be and in what it freely admits for testing, it has its
distinctive force and sublime integrity.
Hence the reference to "all the prophets" in Luke 24 should be met with a study in which every book in the Bible is cited, with many hundreds of references of various kinds declared, demonstrating the quality, precision and scope of a work proven earlier in the trilogy to be the word of God. Thus the honour due to His name through His word is expressed. There is simply nothing remotely like this provocatively plural and fearlessly precise series of integrated, synthetic, salient, particular pronouncements, prophecies and analyses, with which to compare it.
As the word of God, this however is precisely what it would be expected to declare. The superlative would be expected, in such a case, to be the norm; and it is. It needs however patient exploration in detail; and this is therefore provided in various and varied dimensions.
4) In terms of SCIENTIFIC METHOD, there is thus needed an extremely varied verification - intensive as to the qualitative attestation of the work - the Bible - extensive as to its coverage of fields of impact for its words: this in view of its extreme claims (Isaiah 41,43,48, Jeremiah 23:21-29, Amos 3:7, II Corinthians 10:5, Romans 1:18-20, Acts 1:3).
These in the noted contexts make it clear that the challenge here pondered, and noted as met, is of the Bible's own making. We merely remark on it, and then proceed to demonstrate that what IS claimed, inordinate as it is, is what is FOUND. After all, what is co-ordinate with God? only pride and pretence, and that is simply fiction. In this area, however, we have opportunity to VERIFY this at the level of precise method.
5) The challenge which must be paralleled by the scope of the verification presented, for such a work as this, also involves fields which without being predictive per se, are in CONFLICT with other treatments of them; and in this sense, the verification is to show that the PERSPECTIVE and PRESENTATION of the Bible in fields such as evolution, physics, philosophy and so on, is confirmed with a limpid solemnity and rational imperturbability in the midst of the rash and varying fevers of opposition. 3500 years do not make a difference; whereas in science, 35 years may be decisive for the rejection of much.
6) Where it is PREDICTED PRECISELY that alternative and hostile presentations will be made, and these are made, then there is verification in the COMBINATION of verified presentation, and verified prediction of the nature of the hostile alternative which was to come, in this, that it has come! (e.g. II Peter 3:5, II Timothy 3:5; cf. SMR p.873).
Atomic bombs must show their power in more dimensions than one, in that there is a vast physical spread and involvement; and so with the word of God, and much more so, it exhibits with a coverage consonant with its claims.
7) More particularly, it is shown that the Bible provides a level of scope, detail, calibre, quality, persistence and consistency both with facts and with itself, not only in minor detail, but in perspective, and all this with a unique, enduring, logical viability. That is companion to its exclusive logical validity (e.g. That Magnificent Rock, Ch.5).
8) In terms of method, whereas Van Til intended to use Hume on Kant, as a ferret on a rabbit, here both Hume and Kant are demolished each apart, leaving a bold necessity, already shown, continually fortified at all levels, in a systematic manner. Covering the case on all sides, a nipping of the 'promising' hopefuls in the bud proceeds. The prevalent cankers in each such systematically aspiring 'alternative' selected are shown in particular, while their generic source is demolished in overview.
9) Similarly, reductionism needs to be and is exposed at many levels in the process of positively demonstrating and then verifying the Bible as the word of God. Once again, this needs to be undertaken in a scope suggested by the amplitude, the immense fields of declaration found in the word of God: exposed seriatim.
10) In all this, it needs to be and is shown, that there are
just as many rational competitors
- a) for the place of the Bible as truth written,
the pronouncement alone of the Almighty to
mankind, the race, in words,
for ANY sustainable place in the thought of man re origins, reason and destiny -
as there are
b) for the place of Jesus Christ as the LIVING word of God, express and incarnate definitively:
- THAT IS, NONE!
Upon analysis, it is found to be a
case of no contest.
(Cf. SMR Ch.6, Appendix C etc..)
Living and written word of God alike,
these stand as
solitary as the Statue of
in their
perfections, isolated by grandeur.
There is demonstrated to be no rational alternative
in either case. Further, the two, the living God incarnate and the written
word, are mutually supportive and complementary, intimately associated; and
they give mutual attestation. Jesus Christ and the Bible given through the
Spirit of Christ who in due course became incarnate (I Peter
History is as supine before the facts as is reason itself; and therefrom is the enduring giggle... albeit it a grave one, a sombre smile. And that? It is that God duly announced some 1000 years ahead of time His plan to raise His Messiah, His Christ, bodily from the dead, and to exhibit that body to the saints in the very face of the alienated powers of this world (cf. Psalm 2, 16, 22, 72, 110). To this He progressively added.
Was it not to the honour of flesh that it disprove God in so simple and so well attested a plan, when a millenium of notice was given? (See SMR pp. 936ff..) Was not the objective great enough, was not the opportunity wide enough!
Was there not time to prepare? Let us take an example.
The flesh as always in the end, has no honour, and in this and all similar extravagant seeming opportunities provided by the Almighty for His exposure, all that is exposed is that He never misses - no, not once!
That again, it is what you would expect; and just as it needs verification at multiple levels, so this is therefore done. Indeed, it is formally demonstrated - with verifications merely an additional act of conscientious completion - that whether reason be in the dock, to use C.S. Lewis' famed phrase - or more specifically Jesus Christ or the Bible, there is mutual and immovable attestation not only of the truth of the word of God, but that all other approaches, foci, functions, witness, ground or basis than that manifested by Jesus Christ and the Bible are, and must be, false.
11) In particular, CREATION is examined, as a specialised example, in a particular focus on scientific method, as likewise is the whole structure of evidence. It is a specific feature of this work that this mode of thought, currently so popular in the mouth though less so with the practical pen of would-be practitioners - is shown to give wholly exclusive support to creation.
In particular, the nature and definition of creation and life is extensively examined ... since, in science as elsewhere, it is always useful to know what you are talking about. This involves a different level of thought, but in this work it is conjoined with the prior, pure demonstration of logic, so that all may be seen coherently in situ, and together.
A work of 4 volumes, a Tetrad, is devoted to dealing with such areas. A further volume is devoted to SCIENTIFIC METHOD as such.
Now we pass more particularly to the relevance and scope of works other than the trilogy.
12) As to CREATION, in That Magnificent Rock, Chs.1 and 8, this approach is carried somewhat further, and the presentation is set up to enable more ready appreciation by the cursory reader. In Ch.8, it is extended and applied to a practical outcome in what is called ... education.
Ch.7 of the above work supplies - along with SMR Ch.2, and Extension E, Ch.4, the Supplement to Ch.2 and Ch.3- further expression from the modern milieu of the startling fantasies of shipwrecked unbelief, stridently but pathetically piping up its cause as the ship of specious and misused reason finally sinks, gurgling without life boat or any support. If there is hilarity in the effort, it is a grim one.
At these and other levels, the stages and phases of anti-verification of non-Biblical approaches are examined to preserve the overall scope of the work, and to help create an awareness of the profound and pervasive emptiness of thought in what is elsewhere more formally discredited.
Thus there is a continual duality of method, the pure and the applied, with a synthesis of result in unity.
13) While That Magnificent Rock is the major systematic accompaniment to SMR, its Ch.5 being an excursion further into validity, showing its perfection and unique sustainability in Biblical terms over all other works, there is also a stable of other running mates, with added attestations and confirmation, with exposition at various levels.
14) The Other News - The Celestial and the Terrestrial is largely an applied work, and has much verification at this level, constantly contrasting the ephemeral unbiblical follies - babbles, Babels, of modern man with the effective and practical validities of the Bible. The enduring news on the one hand, and the current items on the other, are related as reality and distorting images, the latter both expressing and articulating the nightmare follies of the fabrications of man, when given legs. Vision and vitiation in this way are here constant partners.
15) In Questions and Answers - The Word that Speaks, is another applied work, assisting readers to see point by point the intricate reliability, coherence and forcefulness of the Bible's teachings; and it has therefore some relationship to SMR Ch.7, though it is more a fossicking and a ferreting of issues that attract special attention.
16) Predestination and Freewill (with Supplement, The Father of Freedom) exhibits the staggering fact that ONLY in the Biblical presentation, itself gloriously consistent and harmonious within itself, is there found ANY logically sustainable answer to this whole area of freedom responsibility, sovereignty and individuality, necessity and autonomy.
The sheer beauty of this field is like the roses of the garden bower, wholly in keeping with the rest of what the Lord supplies in the Bible. It is this sustained and uniquely sustainable reality which is the constant attestation of its truth: not only that this alone is verified, but that it is SO verified, has a verification with such innate charm and delight, so inwardly attesting as well as outwardly alone able to stand before all assaults from reason. Indeed it fits reason like the hand of a friend, as if to say, "And whose reason IS reason! Who is ITS source?"
To this field, a HEXAD or work of six volumes is devoted.
17) Biblical Blessing - A Walk in Christ with the Wonder of the Blessings of the Bible is a more personal expression of the wonder of the God who spoke man into existence and spoke then to His mind and heart. It applies the Bible to individual life, showing its origination of a whole scope of precious provisions, such as becomes the Creator-Redeemer. For the receptive mind, this provides much in personal alignment.
18) A Spiritual Potpourri is something a little akin to a Digest of topics to enliven the heart and deepen the mind, with special features within the fields of creation, gender and aspects of salvation. It alerts to a fascinating spread of what goes on in this planet, relative to its source, its origin, its procedures and of course, its destiny, to which it thunders like a wild colt, though alas, face it, it is growing old. This work helps to avoid the mere swamping of culture and returns to an application of truth to life which is neither dependent on man, nor foreign to his needs. This done, it enables review of the total competence of truth, and the sheer delight that is available in life, if only it were placed where it originated. As to that origin, its certainties are all the more shown.
19) Barbs, Arrows and Balms - Alerts,Warnings and Blessings: this is like a lively spiritual scalpel, but one probing the mind, the heart and presenting with care the essential findings from the word of God as it proceeds. With the severances comes the balm, and with the balm the blessing.
20) Repent or Perish - A Survey of Doctrine and Life with a view to the end, an eye to the beginning and meditation on the mediation which brings the one in good place with the other.
21)The Biblical Workman - Finding out what the word of God says, avoiding traditionalistic accretions, erratic erosions and innovative flirtation which puts the old love on an equal footing with the new, it looks at the truth in the only way that fits: without flinching, acknowledging the duty as Paul put it, to avoid all that handles the word of God deceitfully, now a major occupation and even pre-occupation of this generation (cf. II Corinthians 4:2, II Timothy 3, II Peter 2).
22) A Question of Gifts brings back distorted unbiblical extremism, often found in this area of spiritual gifts, to its source, the Bible, often wrongly claimed for what does not arise from it at all. With express avoidance of the merely reactionary, whether on the one side or the other, it distinguishes Biblical teaching here from contemporary cultural conformism, which may present itself as the word of God, in the very act of contradicting it. This enables clear understanding instead of warped ideas that can defile truth whether this way or that, and so confuse response to it. On the other hand,
23) The Kingdom of Heaven, the Love of God and the Spirit of Envy - with Other Essays and News... looks keenly into the depth and scope of what the Bible sets before us, and marvelling, aloft at the towering Tree of Truth in its beauty and proportion. It seeks to provide for a more substantial grasp and appreciation of the Truth for the people of God.
Things topical and typical unite to display that Christian living is no mere philosophy, but a pageant of vitality and a challenge to purity in the power of God. Pilgrimage is not a modern term of delight but it is a result of being in a heavenly kingdom in an earthly setting, till the roll is called. There is a beauty of life as well as a beauty of truth. Provision for youth is made at the end.
Thus the hope in this book is to help open the eyes to more of the beauty, wonder, virtue, depth and loveliness of what is true. In this it runs counter to decadent disillusion and cynical subversion alike - the causes AND the result of which are making contemporary mockery in practice of what mankind could be. That however is an option, not a necessity. Truth liberates, and it is available. Its liberating power is one of its attestations, in that it is adequate for mankind, when ... embraced to the heart, in Him who said, I am the Truth...
These aspects are no less verificatory of the ultimacy and adequacy of the word of God than any other, less personally penetrating field. It is all of one.
24) This stress on the positive -
by contrast with the pathology of departure from God, our Maker and Saviour - on the constructive in both senses,
is maintained not instead of, but in conjunction with necessary negatives. This is to offer positive health as well as the 'negative' removal of cancerous spiritual tissue, malign to holiness as to health of heart and of mind.
The benignity of God is so profound, that experimentation with folly, for which this generation is so famous, tends to clog and pollute not only the atmosphere of this once blessed planet, but also to betray the vital, moral, psychic, sound political, industrial, educative and therapeutic phases of the life of our race.
If this human race must go rather than endure in peace, pursuing its humanistic racism, its racist humanism, its secular squalor and unspiritual pride (II Timothy 3:1-7) - and that in very large measure will occur as does all else that the Bible affirms - it is good that at all those many levels: then
it should be helped to see, and see now, what is missing, before all is lost; while to the glory of God, the way of truth is shown, attested, verified and confirmed in every way and on every side. Meanwhile, reason is reason and faith is faith, and they are not the same. Many, bankrupt in reason, follow the passions and desires of the will with results not unlike those rebelling against wise parents when young, but now eternal: and on this see Rejection Syndrome in the SMR Index. (Cf. Hebrews 4:2, Isaiah 41:21-23.)
If this Library should help any to dissolve doubts, resolve tensions, be open to truth and above all receive the Lord Jesus Christ as pastor, prophet and King, Lord and Saviour, as the very personal and unique definitive expression of God in love, in human form: it is well.
25)The intention, far from unnecessary offence, is to liberate towards truth, to heal or help to find healing, to deliver those oppressed by what is often devious and deplorable confusion, sold to mankind's damage and eventual death - if and where still outside Christ. This sale is at immense cost, therefore, as well as being that of poison exquisitely prepared to dull, damage and kill the initial vitality which God as a gift supplied to our human race. The gift of God, the gift now of eternal life, freely received, is the alternative!
God is shown willing to supply again for those who have, with others, lost their spiritual inheritance: to provide in redemption and for ever. Yet few will be the takers. When lost man, however, puts up his head from the mere oblivion of his own thoughts, and declares what is the truth, it is not merely a categorical lie, for without absolute truth, both there and communicative - none can have it,
but it is also a proud presumption (cf. SMR p. 100 and Ch.3) .
Why? It is because man playing God is not play, and not divine. It is not a role to be assumed. Its results populate (in thought) and depopulate (in bodies) the earth. It has never worked, never works and will never work (cf. SMR pp. 601-631B; 580-594; Ch.4).
On the contrary, this apologetic library is to show that God who has expressed Himself in man's creation and for his salvation (John 3:15-19) is indeed love (I John 4:7), that justice and truth are the foundation of His throne, as He says, and that mercy goes before His face (Psalm 89), His uncreated and eternal word expressing Him
in a symphony of salvation that is
envisioned from eternity,
articulated in time (Hebrews 1, Isaiah 48:16,
Ephesians 1:4, Romans
and experienced in the verifications of life.
To reject that mercy, that kindness in Jesus Christ is as inexcusable as it is fatal, as morbid as it is spiritually carcinogenic. To fail to tell this is unhallowed, to resist or reject its telling suggests a hatred of humanity and love of illusion so profound that the ultimate categories are indeed invoked! (Cf. Jeremiah 5:29-31, Luke 11:52.)
Better to reject air from the lungs than this
same Jesus Christ for the spirit and heart of man (John
It is in this spirit that all this is written for the glory of God - who IS glorious, and the deliverance of those oppressed that the joy of the Lord their Maker, may be their strength, and that they may find this, "Christ in you the hope of glory" no more just a phrase, but a dominant feature of a liberated life that knows God not in divorce but in devotion.
Finally, let us reiterate that all the above
plus further sound, lectures and music, pictures to aid in
the production of a
sort of cathedral of expression of the testimony of, to and for the Lord Jesus
Christ, Lord of glory, crucified and bodily risen, to return, is available in
another format. It is that of CD-ROM, where an easily obtainable disk will
enable low cost consultation without internet expense.
Robert E. Donaldson Th.D.
January 1999 and
February 2000
Later Developments -
1) March 1999 to December 2001
Twenty seven more volumes of great variety, were written in this period, to which the index volume may be added.
26) Scoop of the Universe
This has a wide-ranging coverage of News, making the second news volume, and draws on the depth of the Biblical witness, to show these things as verifications in detail, in trend, in thrust, in blindness or in divine accomplishment. Prophetic events thundering onto the scene, have long cast their shadows before them, allowing us a more leisurely appraisal of what was long foreseen in the divine witness.
27) Joyful Jottings
The thrust of joy in the Lord that may be felt and known in the midst of His service is here focussed, with much concentration on little things, and great - such as a whole review of some of the great Messianic Psalms, which stand like granite amid the littleness of menial things in a stricken world. The century about to expire is looked at, and the wonder of the divine glory is focussed.
28) Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane
This is the 3rd news volume. In particular, the dire alterative courses are studied in some of their principal phases. The divine benevolence is not evacuated by the human folly, not scarred is the divine heart nor marred His beauty of holiness. Glorifying God in the 20th century is pondered, with some of its scrap heap material, carnal junk such as mistaken views on the animal realm, the creation reality, while the divine symphony from above is traced from the Bible, and perceived over history, as it is being heard also on earth.
29) Stepping Out for Christ
The necessity of severance from many things, ideational, educational, cultural, social, is gravely considered, together with the splendour of the knowledge of the Lord to whom one must turn; while a number of allegorical dialogues occur, allowing a critique of some of the more ephemeral but deadly additives which are so popular that it is almost as if all thought is stifled, hope made vain and life aborted in the carnal caves of modern man's secular and often frothily religious lurking. The creation is considered, with emphasis on
- the second law of thermodynamics,
- the logical base beyond that, and
- the empirical foreground now being so amply and rewardingly studied, as the race comes near to its finishing line; as is the resurrection in its precision and power.
That power is not shelved. The Biblical statements in their simplicity as often, in their severity of definition and their particularity of pronouncement are considered in many fields, and their utter accuracy and irresistible truth appear with delight.
30) The Index Volume - this provides both for topics and Biblical verses, an extensive index, in 6 segments: one is trilogy's topical index, one its extensive if not exhaustive Biblical text index; then two more concern the A-J part of the topical and Biblical index for the rest of the volumes, and the last two, the K-Z section in parallel to that.
31) Lead us not into Educational Temptation! This is an exposé of the work in an important Victorian committee realting to education, which proposed a new religion without bothering to say so, for intrduction into the schools. Perhaps they did not even realise ... What one MUST realise is that this is in precise conformity to Biblical prediction and a delightfully near to inconceivable fulfilment of its assigned trends.
32) Wake Up World! Your Creator is Coming...
This volume sets in high contrast the apathy and ignominy of this world's thought and the imperious and imperial surge of reality, which does not brook ignoring, and is making its presence felt in the predicted ways. It is because the Lord is indeed meek and lowly, that the thing is lost on many, their sins shouting where He speaks. Nevertheless, the end of the Age is surging into the stage by various announcements, and exposures, unheard by the dead. The laws of science now so exposed, and the laws of the Lord are a special area of concentration.
33) Refreshings for the Digital Millenium
As the name implies, this brings out the contrast between the toils of this benighted world and the joys of the internally active, eternally objective God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose activities are as alive and beautiful as ever, like a never diminishing spring. The love of God is a special focus.
In all these things, the answer of reason to the certitude of faith is the apologetic thrust. The reason for the faith is always present as the Lord always makes it present, through this system or provision or that, developed or presented, there being no limit; assaults, invalid from the first, are overthrown to the last; and this, it is never exhausted, which is the nature of truth, always victorious, as Christ was, in meeting any kind of challenge; and indeed, it is because of Him, alive for ever, that this is so. His word is under His guarantee, and all imaginations against it are as dust (cf. Jeremiah 23). The diplomat at work in the name of deity is infinitely beneath the deity. This does not alter the claims put forward in the latter's name or His power to meet them by any method which He chooses. Thus we proceed here.
34) The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Truth
Although the book is not now
still growing, the whirlwind of history is. The frantic millenium provides the
keenest opportunities for contrast with the serene certainties of prophecy, the
published word of God and His peace. Although it mounts its evils, like
feckless and reckless artillery on a city wall, turned upon itself, it does
nothing to remove the resilience of sin's remedy, Jesus the Christ. It is the
heavenly
For more detail on contents, see the itemisation in LIBRARY, and of course, in the prefaces of the individual books, available through library.
35) Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ
There is so much. There are so many ideologies of hate, lust and political pride, including the pride of internationalism, which is human race pride, as intense and thirsty for glory as ever any of the other have been. Amidst the vanity and emptiness of its overweening ambitions, there is one whose ambition was to die for sin, whose glory was to be given it from the One who sent Him, and preceded His lowliness by eternity. The study of His word, in this world, constantly unveils the splendour of His conceptions, the moral integrity of His passion and the capacity of His sovereignty to proceed without pulse or tremor, to the end. Its terminus is its inception, His eternal word, who came as Jesus Christ.
36) Tender Times for Timely Truths
There is a time to ponder, to dig deeply, to be encouraged, to gain perspective, to remember keenly that the Lord is personal, dealing with persons, and to heed in receiving His goodness, wisdom and word tenderly, knowing that even in correction there is love, and in soundness there lies growth. Topical, devotional and verificatory, it seeks to bring help in personal and contemporary affairs, from the word of God.
37) Answers to Questions: Drama, Dramatics and Delight
This volume consists in answers to questions actually asked. The first three meet vigorous attacks on the Bible, in the domains of morals, miracles and the trinity, almost precisely as posed on the Web, and there answered. It shows the dramatic realities of the Bible, the word of God, like David before any Goliath, sweeter and more substantial than anything which can be offered in the level of harassment, assault or the bombs of belittlement. It moves over these like a tank.
For this we praise God, who is alive, and who gave His word, which lives, and His Son, who was dead, and now lives for ever, routing death, bearing sin for His people, and coming to reign.
On that topic, we then proceed in the last Chapter, in some depth and detail, to answer the question posed in II Peter 3: Where is the promise of His coming!
In
38) The volume, News, Facts and
Forecasts,
published September 2000, has four chapters dealing with music, myth - biological and
philosophical - and symbol, together with the wonderland of theology and a
recent assault. It proceeds to a detailed coverage of the topic of the return
of Christ, with many facets, and onto many modern issues in their Biblical
perspective. For detail see BULLETIN 1, and for
more on this, see Library. Further work in
preparation, see Bulletin, and currently Bulletin 2.
39) Things Old and New - Love with Mercy has Acted
Multiculturalism and
sophistry, God's critics,
sedition by sects and other
aspects of old novelties in new clothes,
with no small touch of
Australiana
THE EMPHASIS IS ON OLD THINGS, NEW FORMS, ONE UNALTERED TRUTH
40) It Bubbles, It Howls ... He Calls
Here is an exposé on the
The intense pathos, drama, gravity and portent is pursued in detail.
January 2002 ...
41) Divine
Agenda
Published January 2001.
This brings to vivid and graphic reality much of the present, its principles, practices and developments, with special and particular emphasis on the ordering of events on an agenda, n9ot human but divine.
42) Galloping
Events
Published January 2001
The sheer exuberance of current and contemporary movement in the predicted parade of events is dolorous to the unsaved, but a ravishing display of divine power and precision to those who know the Lord. This requires watchfulness both of the text of His word and the triumph of events. It is stimulus to the unsaved to find the Author, whose mercy is mixed with the medley of events, by His word; and to the saved to rejoice in God their Saviour.
43) Little Things
Published February 2001
The exquisite felicity when
the divine is the author, constrainer and creator
beyond the muddle of sin, the
miasma of doubt and the machinations of evil
Such is the discernment and infinite understanding of Christ the Creator with the glory of the Trinity, Himself a member, for there is no other Creator but God, that seemingly little things can broadcast the fame of His name, His attention to detail, show the wisdom that invites, and attest the Lord who alone is Saviour.
WHEN GOD IS THE
SOURCE, EVERY LITTLE THING COUNTS
We are
saying it with centring, because it is so easy to overlook ... little things.
44) Pall of Smoke
and Diamond of Joy
Published March 2001
Contrasts, complementarity and beauty.
45) With Heart and
Soul, Mind and Strength
Published April 2001
The kind commandment: to love, but how it searches!
46) Licence for
Liberty
Published May 2001
The Parade of man and the Power of God
For other dates of publication, and further access to each volume, see The Site in the City.
47) Ancient Words : Modern Deeds
Published June 2001
For events good or evil to those who receive
them, the ancient words of the Book of the Lord
are competent, unerring in aim, immovable in
entitlement, and as to the directions of this divinely ordained book to
history, they are recognised without tremor or turning.
Meanwhile, comparisons of things past and present in this context made for enlightenment both directly and indirectly.
48)Beauty of Holiness
Glorious Light Amid Uncomprehending Darkness
Published July 2001
49) The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet
Prophecy: A Light in a Dark Place
This World: A Dark Light in a Place
Published August 2001
50) Light of Dawn
the gentle unfolding of
light
untouched, untarnished and
pure
Published September 2001
51) Lord of Life
The Lord is the Light of my Life
unphassed, unfazed and unfading
Above time, beyond time, in time
always
Published
52) Red Alert in a Grey Day,
with the Bright
Light Coming
The title is rather self-explanatory.
Published
53) More Marvels from the Majesty and Mind of the Almighty
Published
This includes some rather intensive scriptural study.
Apologetics must know of what it speaks,
and those who pursue it are bound to the knowledge of the word of God, just as
those who study the creation must find the data in their field. The holy and
happy harmonies of these fields are only advanced by knowledge. Here, it is the
former which is our main project.
January-December
2002 ...
15 new volumes have
been added in this period, making a total of a 57 volume monograph, intra-systematic,
correlated and very slightly revised from time to time. Not intended as a
series, it simply develops as the Lord enables and enlists for service, and
constitutes one single whole.
54) Deliverance from Disorientation
This has much to do with Daniel, a book which neither does not need change, the world which both needs to and does change, and the culmination coming as addressed in Daniel, which does not change, but will arrive without haste, or delay.
Published January 2002
55) Highway of Holiness, Path of Peace, Way of Truth
Here we examine motivation, purity of heart, reward and reality; and then proceed to a compilation with some extension of the works on this site on the prophecy and prophet, Daniel. His impact is far vaster than many realise, his attestation of things divine bearing imprint of amazing conspectus and clarity, testable, verifiable, verified, inspiring, humble, hallowed, not hollowed, proceeding from God, for God and bringing with it, many hearts of joy on their way.
Published January 2002.
56) Sparkling Life in Jesus Christ
Published February 2002
This is a volume of sharp clarity, dealing with issues from the Biblical Canon, to World Politics, from Cloning to the Millenium, Creation, Man as purposive, and the Clarity of the Bible. Its message is constantly this, that if you want more than mere effectuality, but certainly not less, if you want not a dim flicker but sparkling light, it is to be found in one place only, the word of God, living and written, on display and without rational competitor, or alternative testable revelation for man. It deals with man as he is, leaves nothing out, puts nothing in, and exposes him, vulnerable as he is, to the light which also has "healing in its wings", when it is received. That light is Christ, immutable, immiscible, unrelinquishable to those who know Him, irresistible to logic, the rock which crushes what rejects it, and needs it as all men do (Matthew 21:44), but is a secure ground for those who find in Him the truth.
57) The Impregnable Tower
Published March 2002
In this volume, the words of Micah and Zechariah
concerning the
Quite the contrary, the more the morals of man flicker, the less the word of God concedes; but the more man looks to the Lord, the greater the opportunity. It is not gone. It is now for man or nation, who looks where mercy and power is to be found, purity and truth, in the word of God, in the living word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
58) Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy
Published April 2002
With much on the Middle East, Current News, Prophecy and Predestination in a personal sense as well as doctrinal, this gives you something like an aerial view, your airplane cruising not far above the tree tops as the end of the Age comes like a magnificent promontory to the gaze.
59) Red Heart, Dead Heart and Pure Heart
Published April-May 2002
Conspicuous confusions, profusions of prolixity and cordons of righteousness: they do not agree, but all are present. The world is setting on its business of severance from God at prodigious pace, but the connection is ineradicable, indefeasible, ultimate and righteous; and thus the effort is not only not feasible, but delinquent, abasing to man who is seeking to exalt himself, and fatal. There is however a far better way, far more clearly delineated, more conspicous in its attestation, coherent in its affirmation, which alone stands, and standing acts.
It includes "Homage to Perfection" and
the apologetic significance of Psalm 73. Haggai's "Desire
of the Nations" is also surveyed. The current political confusion on
60) Regal Rays from Revelation
Major Matters in the Book of Revelation, and on the Impact of Revelation
Published May 2002
ISBN 0-9580787-3-4
In this
volume, the Book of Revelation is given focus, materials on this site being
collected in order of Chapter, to give a series on this prophecy of John. More
material is added, and the work commences with some scrutiny of the
61) Trust God, Mate! Forget about 'Fate' ...
This work specialises on the decline from trust to 'fate', that fortuitous or banal concept which evacuates from the divine realities, and sadly faces the consequences, unaware that it is in fact a deviation from responsibility, a departure from God which induces the illusion of 'fate'. Nor is it entirely without background, when the Lord is mocked by such penury of logic, and projection of evil into inane philosophic concepts. Like chaff is the wicked blown (Psalm 1), whilst the Lord KNOWS the way of the righteous; and who IS righteous, but the one to whom the gift of God in Christ is applied, donating the truth, covering sin and clothing with a righteousness far from merely academic: it is brilliant with the dew of truth, happy with the life of God.
62)
Secular Myths and Sacred Truth
published June, 2002
ISBN 0-9580787-8-5
Here, amid current news, is the evacuation of secular myths in favour of sacred truth. Naturalism and other fancies are replaced with reality, the hollowness of humanism with the holiness of deity, and the landscape changes. It looks and is far more wholesome not to say beautiful, without the pock marks of adventurous, dazzling meteorites, which leave holes and dirt. Its past, present and future meaning is then apparent in that far greater adventure, the history of man in the word and works of God Himself.
63) By this stage, we are able to engage in more review, covering in scope many things fashioned earlier, to the applications desired. We move often with news of developments in the world that moves like some crooning singer, ever nearer to its audience, but in this case, its audience of judgment from God. Naturalism in some of its evocative intransigencies, especially in Britain where it is considered in terms of 'The New Vikings', child training in Australia, the movements to the international aggregations of political power, the journalistic depredations on Israel, the blind spot in the Middle East, yes the double one, the significance of artistic developments in Russia to the phenomenon of water in the Bible, and its spiritual implications: all these things are covered.
In all this, the key is the consequence of sin and the advent of the beauty of the Lord, in stark and solemn contrast, made available at Calvary, wrought by the Spirit of God to this moment, and brought into life by abiding in Him, who did not fail to abide His own mission of redemption, resurrection of His body and demonstration of His power, that to the simple, the Gospel might appear, and to the truth it might declare itself - yes Himself, saying THIS IS THE WAY.
64)
Earth
Spasm, Conscience Chasm: and the Renewal of Life
Published August 2002
ISBN Pending
This is a varied volume, in which the clashes of fiction with fact, delusion with faith, reality with pretence, virtue with vice figure; and it has its historical study, intensively in I and II Kings with special reference to Elijah and Elisha, their words and ministries. These are taken in a survey of scope in the mighty works of the Lord, their significance, their consummation and the perspective of divine intervention in natural affairs.
The concept of Nature is examined, and the supernatural is seen in terms of scientific method, in the actualities of creation, as in the Bible itself.
This is a volume of oversight and insight emphasis.
65)
Jesus
Christ: the Wisdom and the Power of God
Published September 2002
ISBN 09581449-4-X
The power and the wisdom of
God is too much forgotten in the slime-covered chains of naturalism. Those who
break free are at times in danger of forgetting the simple fact that GOD HAS
POWER, that it is available for His mission and purposes, that it is not
another way of seeking pleasure but of securing performance in His love for His
mission, church and word, that men, women and children may find Him, and in Him that resource, recourse,
resourcefulness, wit and wonder that the waterfall merely suggests, the
mountains intimate in their beautiful massiveness and space recalls in its
majesty and grandeur. He has made these. It is vital to know Him, and hence
time in this volume is given to history, focusing Kings and Chronicles as well
as more recent times, to the testimony of Jesus Christ when on earth, and in
the whole panoply of the divine revelation.
66) Calibrating Myths, Machining Dreams and Keeping Faith
Published October 2002
ISBN pending
Man is bent on his own way;
secular, transvestite man, is seeking to clothe himself not with merely male
garments, but those divine, and this Age is awaiting the coming
pseudo-apotheosis. In this, the Satan, that master change-imitator charlatan,
leads a man to conceive of himself as God, with this difference, that he has
POWER over men, to a limited but still spectacular extent (II Thess.2:4ff.).
This is no mini-explosion of human ingenuity awry, such as gas bombs, radioactive contamination, modified crops, genetically engineered, flowing about the earth with the wind, inadequately controlled or understood. No, it is categories apart from that; for here comes that finale of presumption, the acme of arrogance, that dim brilliance to which modern man for so long has been tending in his forsaken and misused systems of psychiatries, sociologies, histories, biologies, undistinguished events in metaphysics (cf. SMR Chs. 3-4), where theory dictates to fact, and fact refusing to fit, makes the secular preachers all the more vociferous, as if their very loudness would abash.
Since, however, they deploy
themselves in many but far from all academic posts, there are many who heed
instead of thinking; and the marvels of nothing making all, the material
inventing the mental, or the spiritual, or these thinks in succession, but
first of all itself, though it shows no such capacities, and if it had them,
could not have used them before it was: this is ‘cool’.
Indeed, this sort of delusion has become almost as simple as breathing to
the artfully deluded and the spiritually concluded. The great mercy is that a
new commencement can come to any of them by finding the Saviour, and many
of them do just that, thanking God for deliverance from such mesmeric
obfuscation; but more do not!
The
calibration of the dreams attending these delusions is one of the major
comedies of all time, as if a bankrupt were spending years of time enquiring
about the most sophisticated ways of storing his millions, when alas, he is
broke. The machining of dreams leaves them small and fluttering little things,
piled on the dump truck of history for reprocessing, in the manner normal in
secular history, and philosophy. The measurement of the unknown is not a
practical joke, but one of the major emphases of geology, for one (cf. TMR Ch.
7, Section E). The
measure of man himself is always being vied for, never agreed upon, and never
could be, without the truth, since God is not duplicable, and His image is from
Himself. No genome is available for Him, who makes, but is not made, who
composes the things, necessarily in His status being eternal, self-sufficient
and free (cf. SMR Ch. 1,TMR Ch. 7, Section D). As Christ put it,
“Before Abraham, I am.”
Considering some of the major misconceptions of our Age and observing their
consequences is a grievous task of pathology; but since it may awaken some, and
encourage others, to find or to advance in the faith of Christ, it is provided
here.
67) Gracious
Goodness and This World in Disorder
Disorder is rampant, the
call for discipline is reckless, riots are a way of life, death squads a form
of existence, as Revelation 6 comes into full force; yet this is only a
resultant. There is a cause of it all, and a compassion available.
It is prescribed, not
negotiated. It is free, not meritorious; but its results are delightful and its
dynamic is divine. Patterns in the muck are noticed, power over the resultants
is discerned, provision continues, and the destinies speak volumes, indeed
these are already written, like the rest of the scenario’s outline, in
the word of God, who makes mockery of guru pretensions and fulfils ONLY His OWN
word. No one else is God; no one else can do it. No one else is you, and no one
else can answer for you: except you become Christ’s. Then He by His
spirit is your governance, as in millennia past, and He by His resurrection is
your way-shower and by His cross, your barrister, Himself the payment; for
there is no death in Him.
The Truth is Alive,
Resurrected and Written
Considerable exposition of
biblical passages is to be found in this volume as we see the governance of the
word of God. The whole modern phenomenon of angst, in strong accord with the
astonishingly majestic, extraordinarily direct and wholly reliable predictions
of the book of the Lord. How incisive His ways and how verified His word, which
sits like the spiritual sun in its glory, shining and revealing, in light
dazzling without the softening glory of the Son, leaving nothing to itself,
exposing all things.
In this volume also, there
is opportunity to trace the reply to a questing soul, and to ponder how
elegantly sufficient is the work of God, how clear His word, how alive His
salvation, like riding in a boat on the waves, with the fresh keen salt of
reality and the wonder of the disappearing blue, which yet is there in the
distance, after the droll indifference of this dreamy world.
PUBLISHED 2003
So far, since January 2003, 14 books have been published.
69) January
Dastardly
Dynamics, Delirious Daubs, Wandering
Woes, Bleary Theories and
Immovable Faith
This nest of the topical, the current, the
newsworthy, the blend of the ancient and the modern, the scriptural and the
contemporary, and the application of the former in the domain of the latter,
keeps you up to date as the Bible lives on in the history God has prepared,
commenting before it comes, advising after it is here. It includes answers to
questions, both provided to the author, and as old as the days of Paul.
70) Published Jan 2003
ISBN 0-9750303-3-7
59th To Know God, the Power of
Christ’s Resurrection and the Fellowship of His Sufferings
In this work, the title delineates the topic, always keeping Christ in
focus, without whom is no good thing that lasts, for He who is equal with God
and from eternity, alone can bring to it in peace. In this volume, Job is given
substantial treatment with special emphasis on suffering - in 3 chapters, as is
the unity of the faith over the ages. The book of Acts is also summoned to
attest these things, within its first 12 chapters, whilst Daniel too comes to
the bar; and the trilogy of knowing your God, receiving and using His power for
His purposes and the value and victory of sufferings in His company is focussed
constantly.
71)
60th volume
Published Feb 2003
ISBN 0-9750303-5-3
Great Execrations, Great Enervations, Greater
Grace
Diversity in the current contemporary period, intensity in scriptural
applications, and investigation of the theme make of this a pathway to thought,
challenge to faith to expand and appeal to those who do not yet know their
Creator as the meaning of life, the purpose of destiny and the Lover of His
people, to review their needless omission, lest it become reckless as well.
72) 61st Marvels of
Predestination and the Ways of Will
Published March 2003
ISBN 0-9750303-7-X
This compilation is rendered from various of the published works on this
topic written earlier, with addition and development where this seems apt,
allowing the reader to visit topic-wise, in different dimensions with
comparative ease.
In yet greater scope, we see the ebullience of these concepts of predestination and will from the
Bible, their integration in themselves and their application to reality so
broad, so efficient, that the source of this biblical revelation is once again
attested in the marvels of coverage which it provides, leaving nothing out,
embracing everything, but not with clammy arms: rather with an integrity both
personal and unchangeable.
73) 62nd Of the Earth, Earthy, or Celestial in Christ
I Corinthians 15 has some wonderful contrasts: the first
man, Adam, the ultimate man, Christ the Lord. The first man is of the earth,
earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
Now we are finding the funding of nearly everything
imaginable that is earthy, worldly, carnal, rapacious, insolent and demanding;
and hearing nearly everything that is raucous, obtuse and insurgent, from bin
Laden to Communism, from Islamic submission requirements of those subordinated
to these false lords, to the arrant yabber, deemed funny for some reason, of
cartoons which reduce man to a motivated, moulded relic of a meaning no longer
to be found.
The celestial is abused, its name debased whether in the
slaughter of people in shopping malls because somebody called
‘Allah’ allegedly wants it, to the devising of means of allowing
what destroys to become the lord of what builds. And what sort of destruction
would that be ? That is what the Bible has long called Apollyon, the devil,
whose varied functions include accusing the brethren (normally falsely),
contesting righteousness, inducing fear of death, alienating from God, inducing
to love the means of life more than life (‘Mammon’), tempting and
corrupting. He can come dressed in flowing white robes which do nothing for his
heart, but much for those whom he dupes, surrounded with flowing verbiage,
elevating himself or his false prophets to the heavens, while his ways are
earthy.
These two courses, those of the bacteria and those of the
body, those of the creation and those of the desecration, they continue
parallel for a time, until the judgment. In biblical words, these are the wheat
and the tares of Christ’s parable in Matthew13:24ff., which grow up together
until the harvest, by which time … they are readily recognised.
In this work, contemporary events, biblical exposition and in all, application for Christian Apologetics abound.
The Beautiful Face of Biblical Predestination
It is many years (now about 39) since this author first wrote the Master’s thesis on Predestination and Freewill. In March of this year, a second Volume was composed, largely of works on this topic, and applications and developments, since the first work.
Now, a little later in 2003, it seems necessary to present a third volume, to make a trilogy on predestination and the ways of will in the whole field of man, liberty, law, licence and responsibility. In this Preface and in the Introduction to Ch. 7 there is some new material, which may be of special interest for those familiar from times past, with these uncollected items. .
In this volume, there is emphasis on the nature of love, and further exposition on error which has deceived many in the church, for with excellent features from some, there has yet not seldom been conflict for many. Instead, as always, of such things, the only solution, and from the point of view of Christian Apologetics, the DELIGHTFUL solution is to return to the Bible and see the MINE from which sometimes the mimes have been taken, see the realities too often ground down from their original setting to banal substitutes. In this volume, this is done.
It is ONLY THEN that the wonderful exposure of the force of the divine word on this topic can be appreciated. So far from being some strange or exotic kind of concept, predestination with its intimate and ultimate companion, divine foreknowledge (biblically defined) is utterly necessary, wholly harmonious: and this ALONE has these features in the whole field of discussion about freedom and power, force and liberty, determinism and voluntarism. What would one expect ? that philosophy would open its mouth and infect the biblical doctrine with some SARS ? Alas, it has nothing to say to the point, and its morass in this field is one of its historic vulnerabilities. On the contrary, the Bible presents a definitive mass of truth which is coherent, and sound, rational and internally consistent, as well as ample to cover the empirical world.
Not merely so: alone has it the ingredients to make POSSIBLE such a harmony. We have seen much of this in Volume Two of this predestinative trilogy, that is, Marvels of Predestination and the Ways of Will.
However in this volume, there is emphasis on the particular wonder of the divine love, which is the paradigm, the power and the precept, the personal reality without which man does not and cannot live. He constantly WARPS his ‘love’ into nepotism, or family limitations, or political or personal rampancies or passions of this sort or that, not allied to that kinship and kindred compassion and relationship which in absence, creates such a draught as to create a kind of terrestrial pneumonia, with high temperature, hot breath and pallid face. Such is the affliction of this earth, at war with God, in its basic premisses and many of its most illustrious premises.
The beautiful face of Biblical predestination however shows, in its setting in the jewellery of His word, a beaming loveliness which never fades, never shades, is perennially bright.
74)
From Grace Triumphant to Face Divine
ISBN 0-9750778-3-X
Here you see aspects of the Christian pilgrimage, with special attention to Timothy. Its beginnings precede time, its end is with Him who made time, and you may come to Him at any time in this Age of Grace.
You may be defaced, outfaced, or prefaced in your actions by your way of facing things, your reputation, your character, speaking before you come. People tend to grow in the expressive result of their lives, stooped and sullen, sad and contrite, quiet and reflective, frustrated and patient, or whatever the mark might be.
For the Christian however, there is the pilgrimage. It is not, emphatically NOT, a matter of visiting some town famous for this or that, no not even Jerusalem. The cross of Christ was programmed in heaven, performed on earth, and its contribution of action is past; only its application continues into the future. It is the One who died there, whose face beckons, filled with character, essentially in repose, but lively in light and radiant with beauty, the beauty of holiness (cf. Psalm 110, Daniel 7).
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In this pilgrimage, the defaced
residues of the image of God in man are replaced by the new surface and the new
character which it exhibits. |
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Outfaced is the past, distanced is sin in its regal clothes and costumes; the face that shines is the One who came |