Does God imply certain truths in His word that we are to comprehend by use of our reason? Some advocate that we should only be bound by what God has explicitly commanded us in the Bible. Any use of reason to determine what the Bible implies is “overthinking” it to them.  However, while I would not advocate that each Christian is required to master formal logic to go to heaven, it is impossible to get around the necessity of correctly reasoning and inferring what the Bible implies if we wish to follow God’s will. The sides of a square are all the same length. Given the length of one side of a square, anyone familiar with even the most basic truths of geometry would be able to infer the length of the other sides of the square.  Likewise, we can know a certain truth from what the Bible implies without God having to explicitly state it.

The Bible was written by about forty different men who were writing to various audiences. We must correctly infer whether or not God’s explicit commands apply to us, and if so, how. One does not need to be a master logician to conclude that God’s command in Genesis 6:14, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood,” was to Noah and is not required of people today to be saved. Alternatively, I do not need the Bible to explicitly call my full name and tell me what I should be doing in 2020 to know that I am required to follow certain courses of action. I know that even though Jesus was speaking to a certain lawyer when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” that I too am to love God and others (Matthew 22:35-39). I know that Jesus is quoting Old Testament passages, but I also know that in first-century epistles to Christians that love for the Lord and love for others is a requirement for being saved (1 Cor. 16:22; James 2:8-9). To see these statements as binding on me, I have to infer that what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:1-2) and what James wrote to the dispersed Jews (James 1:1) applies to me as well living 2,000 years later in Flatwoods, KY.

In fact, Jesus expected the Sadducees, who denied the life of the spirit after death and the resurrection (Acts 23:8), to infer from the statement God made to Moses in Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” that these three men were in existence beyond the grave (Mt. 22:31-32; Lk. 20:37-38). While the explicit statement God made was about His identity, there was a truth about the existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who had died hundreds of years before Moses that the Bible reader was to necessarily infer from the statement.

Jesus expected men to infer that He was God from various implications in Scripture, His teaching, and His miraculous works. Jesus showed that David’s statement in Psalm 110:1 where He called Jesus Lord implied that Jesus was more than just the physical descendant of David (Mt. 22:41-45). Men were to infer that Jesus was both the root and the offspring of David—the God who existed before David and came in the flesh after David. The Jews correctly inferred that Jesus was claiming He was God when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), since I AM is God’s name (Ex. 3:14). Jesus expected men to infer that He was the Son of God by the implication of His miraculous works (Jn. 10:38).

We can infer that Christ’s kingdom had come in the first century from passages like Colossians 1:13 and Revelation 1:9 since Christians were in it. We can infer that if we are to love and appreciate those who rule over us, (1 Thess. 5:12; Heb. 13:7) —that is, elders who shepherd the flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-4) —because they watch for our souls (Heb. 13:17), that it is God’s will we be members of a local congregation with faithful overseers who will function as supervisors for our souls. God doesn’t have to explicitly say to me, “Thou shalt place membership at a local congregation,” for me to know this is God’s will. The Lord directs us by the implications of His word.

-Mark Day

When Israel lacked faith in God that He could deliver them safely in to possess the land of Canaan, God punished them by making them wander in the wilderness for forty years—one year for each day they spied out the land—until all the older generation (those twenty years old and up) died in the wilderness (Num. 14:20-35). Later, Moses rehearsed this matter and made this observation, “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it” (Deut. 1:39). These little ones and children are described as having no knowledge of good and evil. Children are born innocent. They receive pure souls from God (Ecc. 12:7; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 12:9). They do not yet have the capacity to make decisions between right and wrong. Paul described this early period in his life before he committed sin, and thus died spiritually, by saying, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Rom. 7:9). Sin is transgressing God’s law (1 John 3:4). Little children have not transgressed God’s law by being born into this world. God is just and allows people to make their own decisions. God did not hold the little children in the wilderness responsible for their parents’ decisions.

While we may be heavily influenced by others, especially our parents, Ezekiel 18 shows that each person will answer to God for the decisions they have made once they have matured to the point they have the capacity to know right from wrong. This chapter shows that a righteous man may have a son who turns from the godly example set before him and walks in iniquity; however, a wicked man may have a son who sees the sins of his father, and—even though we might think he has no chance—chooses to live a righteous life. God deals with people according to the decisions they make, not what their parents or children have done. The most prominent verse in the chapter highlights this by saying, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezek. 18:20).

Revelation 20:12 presents the great final judgment where the dead stand before God to be judged “according to their works,” not the works of others. God will judge individuals for their secret thoughts and purposes (1 Cor 4:5), for every word—even careless words—they have spoken (Mt. 12:36), and for every deed they have done in their body (2 Cor. 5:10). I must answer for my thoughts, words, and deeds just as you must answer for yours. As Romans 14:12 declares, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

You can become pure in the sight of God again by becoming like a little child (Matthew 18:3). By being born again, born of water and the Spirit in water baptism, you can become a child of God (John 3:5; Titus 3:5; Gal. 3:26-27). If you have been born again but have gone back into sin, you can come back to God by repenting of your sins and confessing them to Him (Acts 8:22; 1 John 1:9). The decision is yours.

-Mark Day

Mark 10:13-15, “And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” [Parallel accounts in Matthew 19:13-15; Luke 18:15-17]

In this passage, Jesus lifts up children as examples of the nature of those who would enter His kingdom must possess. Notice He said “of such” is the kingdom of God. He is referring to “of this sort of character”. Also, one could not enter unless they received the kingdom “as” a little child. This is not describing “when” but “in that manner”, i.e. the qualities of a child. Like children, those that enter the kingdom would be:

Teachable – It has been rightly said many times that Christianity is a taught religion. We see this from the beginning in the Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” See also Psalm 86:11; 2 Timothy 2:2.

Humble – As one is being taught, he must be like a child in humility to enter the kingdom (church, cf. Matthew 16:18-19). Jesus taught this on another occasion in Matthew 18:3-4, “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” See also John 3:3-5; Micah 6:8.

Obedient – When a person is taught and has a humble spirit, they are required to exhibit a childlike obedience in order to enter into the kingdom. Matthew 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” See also 1 Peter 1:22-23; Hebrews 5:9.

Free From Sin – Children have no sin until the age of accountability. Until that time they are “safe”. After we become accountable, we have need of having our sins forgiven and not living a sinful lifestyle. Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

If one would be free from sin in order to enter the kingdom of God, they must humbly obey those things taught in the word of God: Believe, John 8:24; Repent, Luke 13:3; Confess Christ, Matthew 10:32; Be Baptized, Mark 16:16; Live Faithfully, Revelation 2:10.

– Jerry D. Sturgill

As the new year begins and the old year passes into history, the scoffers described by Peter come to mind; these mockers live in sin, denying the end the world and the final judgment, “And saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Peter said these mockers would come in the “last days”—that is, the last age of time (2 Peter 3:3). The Christian age in which we live is the age known in the Bible as the “last days” (Acts 2:16-17). This age will terminate at the end of the world; there will be a final day known as the “last day.” The promise that Jesus would come again and judge the world in the last day was clearly taught by first-century Christians (Jn. 12:48; Acts 17:31). The mockers denied this, and pointed out that the fathers, early Christians who taught such, have died.

Their claim that the world has continued the same as it always has since its creation is not true. Peter brings up a fact the mockers willfully ignored: the flood that destroyed the world in Noah’s day, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pet. 3:5-6). They combated a clear biblical fact that disproved their theory by willfully ignoring it. How often do people do this today? They make false claims about the Bible, yet they know there is evidence in the Bible that goes against what they are saying; however, instead of acknowledging this evidence to the contrary, they act as if it doesn’t exist.

As we prepare to enter the year 2020, let us remember Jesus’ promise to come again. Just as He ascended into heaven, He will come back again in the clouds (Acts 1:11; 1 Thess. 4:16). The passing of a thousand years does nothing to diminish the veracity of the Lord’s promise; a thousand years is as a day to Him (2 Pet. 3:8). Let us not be deceived into thinking that the passing of time means the Lord will not come again in judgment. He is gracious providing time allowing men to come to Him in repentance (2 Pet. 3:9), but He has appointed a day of judgment which is coming to all (Acts 17:31). The physical world will then come to an end with the heavens passing away and the earth being burned up (2 Pet. 3:10). The context indicates 2 Peter 3 is not metaphorical but rather concerns the physical creation (v.4) that was overflowed with physical water in the flood of Noah’s day (v.6). The same physical world is going to be burned up in the last day, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7).

People are tempted to love this world and its amusements rather than looking to the eternal home in heaven (1 Jn. 2:15). The passing of the years should not dull our anticipation that the Lord will fulfill His promise to return in final judgment, rather it should heighten our awareness and motivate us to live in such a way as to be ready, for our salvation grows nearer. The inspired apostle Peter poses this question: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:11-12).

-Mark Day