Restoration vs. Remnant

The great challenge to society has always been the Church of the living God. A group of pilgrims and vagabonds who travel in a land that is foreign to themselves, looking to a city whose builder and maker is God. To the wise who are seated high and lofty in the ivory towers of the world, they are the foolish. To the mighty who rule and reign the nations of the world, they are the weak. We find their beginnings not in the 21st or 20th centuries, but from the very generations of the first man.

Genesis 4:25-26

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Shortly after the first murder in history Cain, the murderer, flees from the presence of God; Scripture tells us that God gives another son unto the first parents, and through this lineage, we find the faithful.

From Seth, we eventually find Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the LORD and only through him would there be hope of a tomorrow for the world. Shortly after Noah, we find a man named Abram given a promise from the Almighty of a son to come. Through this man, his seed would numbered as great as the grains of sand upon the earth and as the stars within the sky. Soon he is renamed Abraham and from him comes Isaac the son of promise. From Isaac to Jacob, from Jacob unto twelve sons. From a large family, God multiples and crafts a nation. From this nation, we find the covenant people of God in the Old Testament to whom the prophets, priests, and kings were born. This nation provided the stock from which Christ, the Savior would come.

Jesus, the Lord and Christ, would have twelve disciples unto which He would state:

Matthew 16:18

"Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Not much longer after this moment in history, the Lamb of God is led to the slaughter for the sins of the world. He is betrayed, forsaken, and given to be scourged and die by crucifixion. Once He has given up the ghost, His followers manage to get His broken body released into their care for the sake of a proper burial. Three days and three nights He lie in a borrowed tomb until the early morning on the first day of the week, the disciples come to find His body gone.

From the time of His resurrection unto His ascension, He spends forty days with His same disciples teaching them those things that pertain to the Kingdom of God. Upon the fortieth day, He gives the charge to "tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high". From which one hundred and twenty gather in prayer to wait for the Promise.

Acts 2:1,4

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Upon this day, the Church, congregation, assembly, the New Testament people of God were born. Shortly after this outpouring of the Spirit of God, we find the apostle Peter preaching to those who are caught in wonder and amazement. He proclaims from the prophet Joel, the fulfilling of prophecy and goes to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From this, the people are gripped in their hearts, and ask what is there to be done. Peter gives the beautiful response, the only response to the Gospel, the New Birth message.

From this moment, the church is built daily. The apostles being sent unto the uttermost part of the earth carrying the message of God, the hope of salvation by Jesus Christ. From the day of Pentecost unto this day, the Church of God has been alive and taught the doctrine of the apostles of Jesus Christ.

This is not a history lesson, nor an attempt to track and place every individual throughout history. However, to generate thought, is the church up to us? Is it by our ambition and motive that make way for the people of God to survive into the next generation?

After the apostles and leaders of the early church had finished their course, was the Truth of God lost? Was the magnificent outpouring of God's Spirit for naught, just to be disregarded and lost for thousands of years to come? Was the Truth of the baptism in the name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Ghost evidence by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance lost to time and chance? Did the apostles' doctrine die with the apostles? To these questions, I advocate and answer a thorough no.

Do we live in a day of restoration, trying to get back to what the early church had, or do we live in it already? Do we have less than what the early church did in their day, or do we have the same Spirit, the same Doctrine, the same Commission that they did?

These are the things to ask ourselves as we strive to obey and do the work of God. If the true church was lost and we are attempting to restore to that same-day pattern, what is the standard that we need to reach in order to meet the same pattern?

Or is there another way? Could it be that it was never up to mankind, but that Jesus is the One to build and keep His people all throughout the years? Could it be that it is not a work of our ideas or enterprise, but a sovereign work of the Spirit to "whomsoever will"; that truthfully, in every age there has only be one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Gospel, one Message, one response and one church of Jesus Christ?

History does not give us the fine details, but just glimpses of the lives of all the saints of Jesus throughout the years who have faithfully served Him and kept His Word. However, we do have the promise,

Matthew 16:18

"Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

and never has hell prevailed against the will and work of God.

Unto His Glory,

Nicholas A. Gilbert

Further Study for Critical Race Theory

What is the Need to Look into the

Ideas of this Day and Age?

I Chronicles 12:32

And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.

Our day is the day of individualism and as such is the result of competition for belief. School systems have had a radical shift within less than a decade, let alone a century. Worldviews matter because what you believe will affect how you live your life.

Daily, precious people, made in the image of God, are committing themselves to lies because they are in search of meaning and purpose - only to waste their lives bound in deception unto their own damnation. The Church holds the answer, God has established His people, the Body of Christ, as the Pillar and Ground of the Truth (I Timothy 3:15).

Only one of these many worldviews is in discussion today. Really, it is just a branch of the much larger tree of Postmodernism. However, I suggest and invite you to read some of the following sources to learn about this very militant, prevalent ideology.

Resources on Critical Race Theory

Book and Author Recommendations

• Fault Lines* - Voddie Baucham
• Fire in the Streets* - Doug Groothuis
• Canceling Christianity - David Fiorazo
• Intellectuals and Society - Thomas Sowell
• Social Justice Fallacies - Thomas Sowell
• Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell
• Race Marxism*- James Lindsay
• Cynical Theories - Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay

Pro Critical Race Theory Books and Authors

• Critical Race Theory: an Introduction* - Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

• How to be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi

• Is Everyone Really Equal*- Robin DiAngelo and Ozlem Sansoy

• White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
  *See noted books for further resources.

God forbid the people of God be without understanding of the subtle philosophies that so entrench the world and are contrary to the Truth of God. God forbid that His people would be without understanding of the times that we would be ignorant of what to do. May we know the depths of the Truth of God that we may recognize and cast down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Unto His Glory,

Nicholas A. Gilbert

The Attestation of Scripture

The Bible is a book considered an enigma to the world. Thousands of words that span thousands of years, one central message to every man. It sounds good and stirs our hearts, however is it true? Did it actually happen? Is what is written in the Bible a part of reality?

The Bible is not simply one book, but a collection of sixty-six books. Plenty of people would attribute the Bible as nothing special, but just an extraordinary piece of literature that had a great impact upon civilization and history. The main issue plenty of people have with the Bible is the claim for historical and scientific reliability. Many would claim that the Bible is great when it mentions the Spiritual portions, but is completely wrong  when it mentions anything scientific or historical 

How historically reliable are the Scriptures? Is there any mention of the validity of the Bible mentioned in the writings of history? Absolutely there is. I have listed several examples from antiquity about two portions of Scripture under attack constantly: the first eleven chapters of Genesis and the Historic Jesus.

The Story of the Beginning and Archaeology

The Sumerian Kings List

In the book of Genesis, the account of the history of the beginnings is presented. Within the first eleven chapters, mankind is presented as living for an extraordinary amount of time as compared to this day and age. 

And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

Genesis 5:5

⤟⤠

And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Genesis 5:27

Until after the worldwide flood, and then the highest age you see mankind reach is around one hundred and twenty years. The Sumerian Kings List dating to 2100 B.C. lists dozens of kings. Of the first kings mentioned, they are documented to have lived for thousands of years. However after the first eight, it is said, “Then the flood swept over.” After that the list continues to list kings, yet their age, though still very long, are significantly shorter. Exaggeration is plainly seen from the author, however there is attestation to the worldwide flood that occurred in Genesis 6-8.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Perhaps one of the most famous myths ever discovered, the Epic of Gilgamesh provides The Epic of Gilgamesh dates from  around the same time as the Sumerian Kings List in 2100 B.C. This could be described as the Babylonian alternative to the historical account in Genesis. See some of the parallels: Utnapishtim, the chosen individual, is commanded to build a boat and seal it with bitumen; then, animals were to come on board. The boat is described to be in the shape of a cube rather than an ark. A dove is released at the cessation of the Flood, as well as a raven. Utnapishtum then exits the boat and offers a sacrifice.

Imagine that after the Flood subsides in Genesis 8, that as the family of Noah leave the ark and begin to repopulate the earth, the farther the families travel both in time and distance, the farther they get from the Truth of what actually happened. It is like the telephone game where from one family to the next over time, the true historical account got distorted with other embellished details. This example is found all over ancient cultures and their beliefs. For there are over three hundred ancient Flood stories from all over the world giving testimony to its great impact upon humanity.

Historical Accounts of Jesus Outside of the New Testament

As influential and controversial of a man that Jesus was in His day, it would be expected for there to be more spoken of Him than just the New Testament. There are multiple accounts of historical attestation to Jesus and the New Testament.

Josephus

Josephus, a Jewish historian and general, who lived around the time of Jesus and the Apostles, wrote about Jesus, saying:

'Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.*

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger was a governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor and was asking emperor Trajan of how he should treat the Christians. Speaking of the Christians in the early second century A.D. he says,

“..they sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds…”

The Babylonian Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud is simply writings from the Rabbis. It is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud of the crucifixion of Jesus.

  “It has been taught: On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu… But, not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of Passover.”

Though this is not an exhaustive list of the many examples of the historical reliability from outside of the Scripture, it is evidence of important portions of the Scripture that are scrutinized today. We pray that this will aid your own study and build your confidence in the Absolute Truth of God’s Word and what He has done.

Unto His Glory,

Nicholas A. Gilbert

*The quotes mentioned in this article are taken from "The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict" compiled by Josh McDowell pg.122-125

An Earnest Contend

"And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." ( I Corinthians 14:7-10)

Everyday of our life, from the moment we begin our day, is blasted with the cacophony of noise. Opinions and emtionally stirred complaints. News both good and bad. There be many voices, and none is without significance, but some more significant than others. Our world is engulfed in darkness, and the multitudes walk aimlessly by blinded by the hardness of their hearts. Where is the hope?

Herein is the Hope. There is a God who loves. Though the world be shrowded in darkness, His Light is ever shining. Though there be a blaring of noise, the same Voice that spoke all into Being is still speaking unto this day. Though there be a mass of confusion, the Lord Himself provides the clarity.

It is our desire not be another voice in the cacophony of this world, but to be apart of the Symphony of the Lord of Glory. It is our desire to echo the voice of He who spoke in the beginning, and to provide His answer to the world's problems. It is our desire not simply to be right among men, but to be True unto the Lord.

Thank you for joining us on the endeavour of Earnest Contend, we look forward to all that the Lord will do.

Unto His Glory,
Nicholas A. Gilbert