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Choosing the lesser of two evils

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Choosing the lesser of two evils is really an exercise of wisdom in the normative priority, situational priority, and existential priority. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus criticized the teachers of the law and Pharisees as hypocrites, as they gave a tenth of the spices but they neglected the more important matters of the law call mark justice, mercy and faithfulness. So clearly there’s a different level of priority in the duties and the laws of God.

So choosing the lesser of the two evils is a very situational situation. For example Jesus said the Sabbath was made for men, not man for the sabbath so the son of man is the lord even of the sabbath in Mark 2:27-28. Situationally Jesus broke the sabbath to eat in the sight of the Jewish pharisees. And also in Acts 15:20, the Apostolic committee told the gentiles that they should abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the strangled animals and from blood which is not part of the law, but a situational priority.

Now we can apply the comparison contrast for “less than two evils” for example Nazis at the door knocking at the door, “would you hand over the innocent Jews?” You either lie or protect the Jews. It’s a matter of prioritizing seeking the greater good and the higher law. In the same situation in Exodus 1, Frame wrote about the Hebrew wives lied to Pharaoh in order to save Hebrew babies. And God praised the Hebrew midwives for saving the Hebrew babies, but if you look at it, the Hebrew midwives lied which is supposedly a sin. This clearly speaks of the lesser evil of the two, either to lie or kill the babies. Same case for Rahab who lied to the army of Jericho about the two Jewish spies that hid in her artic, because she feared God of Israel. It’s a common sense to know that killing babies is a far greater evil than to lie. If we extend that to the election we get to look at the casting our vote for example, for the lesser of two evils, and coincidentally, we are faced with policy of killing babies by abortion or looking at the character of another candidate some decades ago.

This is a well framed answer, but as a response, how do you ensure this approach is not susceptible to pragmatism or avoid the charge that it selects its ethics on the basis of each person’s situation?

Clearly there are different levels of sin, some sins are worse than the others. (Frame, Doctrines of Life, 225). Westminster larger catechism 151-52 tells us that some sins are worse than others. Jesus also said in Luke 10: 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Luke 12:47–48 (ESV)

47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Therefore we can legitimately argue for the lesser of the two evils and its completely found in scriptures, in fact, both from the Lord Jesus himself.

So this is clearly beyond just the situational perspective. Interestingly, the just concluded presidential election has torn Christianity apart in supporting them. I would argue we should vote for the lesser of the two evils. In terms of policy, one has only good and hardly any evil, and the other is literally overflowing with evils form abortion till 12th week, to transgenderism using tax dollars, and cheating using illegals to bolster their vote, of a level unseen or heard in any country that I know of.

The Supernatural Power & Providence of God

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Church must be built in the supernatural power of God. And I added ‘providence’ of God, that’s reformed redemptive theology, the ‘power’ of God is more Pentecostal or charismatic.  Regardless, whatever tribe you are from, it’s time to see all that God has for us, and indeed church planting growth, evangelism, and personal walk with God, we have to see our lives, and the kingdom of God moving forward in the lens of spiritual warfare, though not all of it, but it has to be pretty much front and center. This is a tremendous faith uplifting passage in facing war of Israel:

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (ESV)

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

This is right after the amazing exodus of Israel out of Egypt, through the raging Red Sea, and they were now in the wilderness led by Joshua getting ready to conquer the new land, Jericho. And of course, this is one event, albeit huge climatic one after the Red Sea Miracle, of huge miracle as Jordan River was similarly cut off for 3 million Jews to walk across on dry land like Red Sea. Can we say that for our daily life today? Not exactly, but the principles of facing daily life warfare remain, which I will expound later. But most importantly, I want you to see the words, “. 2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

Facing a larger enemy army than ours

2 When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

The first thing that hits me is that you see an army larger than your own. Frankly that’s how we feel many times, when we are facing an uphill task, a challenging life story, or trying to live close with the Lord in a very hostile society. Things do come up, and sometimes they do disappoint us, and at times we just feel exasperated looking at this mountain, this larger army. But this is precisely what God told us, when we go to war. This actually sets up the glorious opportunity for God to show forth his glory, as He said, “you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And God said it to give us heads up, its coming, and its larger than our ability. How far we have fallen in our weakness, our struggle thinking we can handle it, and how many times we have failed miserably and disappointed ourselves and others. All we need is God is with us. That’s all. That’s all we need to face however large an army facing us. No matter how strong and evil and powerful our enemy is, we have no fear, because the Lor dour God who brought us out of Egypt the the raging Red Sea, will do it again, and its nothing.

We are living in a spiritual warfare

2 “When you go out to war against your enemies”

It’s not if you go out to war, but rather it’s when you go out to war. For Israel that’s their specific mission to get into their promised land, Israel, but on the way, they are called by God to destroy and annihilate a bunch evil nations that have been bent on idolatry, evils, and godless like even child sacrifice. God uses their journey to destroy the evils. And seriously, on the way, it’s how God trained their hands for war (Psalm 144:1)[1], and emboldened their faith for the bigger work ahead of them. Nothing happens by accident, the fact that you go through some parts of life, that you find uncomfortable, don’t faint, because it’s precisely this moment, God is refining the crucible for purity and beauty.

Psalm 66 For you, God, tested us;
    you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
    and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and water,
    but you brought us to a place of abundance.

The God that doesn’t show his supernatural power, is not the God that we read from the Bible. Old Testament is absolutely full of the miracles of God, and indeed the New testament are also full of the miracles and signs of God, especially through the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus raised the cripped, raised the dead, walked on water, opened the eyes of the blinds, cleansed the leper….and the list goes on.

The point I am making here is that Christians will live in a diminished worldview and hence experience of the supernatural, if our minds are bound to the traditional thinking of all signs and wonders have ceased, and so have the spiritual gifts. And what is happening is that we have thousands of millions of evangelical Christians walking in a subterrain of sub-supernatural, while we have a pocket of them walking in faith and proclaiming the power of God.

The point here is that we are now living to take the eland as Joshua generation were called by God to take the land. For them is the actual physical land, for us it’s to take and win souls that the Kingdom of God come on earth as its in heaven.  Matt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

No one thinks that God’s kingdom can come without a fight. As Jesus said: Matthew 11:12

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Warfare takes force, spiritual force, not a spiritual weakling. There are truly moments of strong force needed, which in our case, will be our prayers, evangelism, discipleship. Mainly warfare seems to be won on our prayers. That’s why I believe it’s good to pray 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening. Muslims pray 5 times; Jews pray 3 times a day. Not to be sucked into legalism, but some structure helps us to focus. Jesus frequently withdrew to quiet places to pray especially in the morning. To move into the realm of supernatural, it will require a humbled soul, and soul that hungers and thirsts for the move of God. Paul prayed unceasingly for the churches. Paul is not only mighty in deeds, signs, supernatural, but primarily his prayers go deep. Jesus obviously prayed with loud cries of tears even to the Father, frequently, what a solace full type of life. Such dedication produces the powerful breed of the supernatural. Jesus in fact, fasted 30 days before tempted and tested by Satan, and then, only then, launched into the public ministry. If Jesus needed that, what more to say about us mortal feeble beings on earth following Christ?

To bring to our modernity, scriptures clearly say we are in a spiritual warfare, and we need to move in the supernatural. And that’s half of the book, the power of the Spirit, the charismatics gifts and the reformed teachings.

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We should not go crazy in signs and wonders, admittedly, the apostolic signs and wonders and of course Jesus’s miracles, are not replicable in our days and age, although Jesus did say:

The Expectations and faith to move in the supernatural

John 14:12–14

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Burge commentary writes, “It is of utmost importance to note that the astonishing promise of 14:12 points to the future. Jesus must first go to the Father before the promise of remarkable works and realized prayer can come.” [2]

That means after Jesus been to the Father, we will see the promise of the remarkable and realized prayer come to pass.

Burge writes, “Note that the promise of 14:12 does not simply point to miracles. What Jesus has been doing includes deeds of humility, service, and love as well as miraculous signs. Jesus’ followers will do works that are “greater” even than these.” [3]

The “greater works” here not only means miracles, but also service, humility, love on top of miracles. This is a ‘wow’!

Burge writes, “This promise can hardly mean that the efforts of disciples will exceed those of Jesus, who, for instance, provided the stupendous miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. What is “greater” is that these works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. This is why the departure of Jesus is crucial, for only through that can the Holy Spirit become a reality to all who follow him (7:37–39).” [4]

These works will be done by regular people in whom the power of Christ has taken up residence following his glorification. How much and how depends on his calling and our seeking Him. The point is, it is there: we should seek him and ask.  Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

John 7:37–39 (ESV)

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[1] Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

[2] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (pp. 393–394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

[4] Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 394). Zondervan Publishing House.

Chasing after the Promise of Christ in Acts:   the power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

I think the number one obstacle for Christian Church growth, expansion and advancement of the kingdom of God, is the lack of the excitement for evangelism in our churches today. And that results in a number of undesirable consequences: 1) No motivation for evangelism, 2) Nobody is even talking about Church growth or church expansion, 3) Even if anyone desiring to start a new church, he’s probably not looking at evangelism by some other church transfer growth. If it is goal of evangelism, there will be minimal. And that’s a sad state of the church completely different from the book of Acts early church pattern.

The reason for lack of evangelism today is due to a number of factors. First, it’s the fear of rejection. Somehow today it’s just not conducive for talking about God, and with the enlightenment and the secularized culture so strong in anti-God And the antichrist forces at work, we can’t even mention God or discussion of God in our corporate workplace, etc. There is just not a sense of excitement and openness for the gospel in our daily lives today in most places, especially in the city where we live, case in point, New York City. That openness and hunger is seriously lacking, and that really handicaps our effort for evangelism. If church growth or expansion is by transfer growth from other churches, and not primarily from conversion and salvation of unbeliever’s background or atheist or secular or backslidden Christian background, there is really no net growth of the kingdom of God and that is very alien to the call of God in Christ. Jesus Christ called us to make disciples of all nations. It does not mean to make disciple and re-disciple those who are already disciples.

There’ s a dying need to discover something, the potency and the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised us in Acts 1:8 that you shall receive power from on high.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We need to honestly question ourselves why we are not experiencing the power that Christ promised us before he ascended back to heaven, and sent his Holy Spirit to us. And you can see that the promise of receiving the power comes when the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and we see the purpose of the power is to be witnesses for Jesus in Judea, Samara, New York City, and all over the world. The fact that majority of us Christians and churches are struggling to reap the harvest of souls does make us wonder what happened to that promise. Or what happened to us? Many of us have given up and just gone on a non-power mode of living day by day. And that makes fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of all nations incredibly challenging, if not downright impossible. And because Jesus said, unless the “Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain”, that adds more to the futility, and also frustration and a sense of helplessness.

Frankly, that explains the state of the church today in America and many parts of the world. The only thing that brings in new growth, sort of triggering into the church is more for people invited to come to church through friendship, persuasion, through prayer and nothing straight through evangelism and reap in the harvest like what we see in the book of Acts by Paul. That’s why I am very intrigued and interested to analyze the life ministry of Paul in the book of Acts and to glean how God worked through him and pray that God will do likewise through us today.

(to be continued…)

How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day?

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day? How could the WCF’s teaching on the Lord’s Day be applied to your life, or the lives of those in your church to help in seeing the beauty of the Sabbath?

I will admit that it is a challenging and difficult process to take delight in the Lord’s day in the sense of what Westminster confession talking about keeping the Sabbath holy unto God By making preparation of our heart and ordering our common affairs beforehand, and observe a holy rest all the day from our works, words, thoughts and our worldly employments and recreations. But also, to be taken up the whole time in the public and private exercise of his worship in the duties of necessity and mercy.

This is a very strong dedication and setting aside the Lord’s day as a Sabbath day holy unto God that require essentially almost a complete holy rest from all our works so as to be taken up in worship on the Lord’s day. This practically is almost impossible because of the heavy schedule of bi-vocational seminary student and a full-time job so as to catch up all the assignments and paper and preparation on the weekend is crucial just to barely stay on top of it.

I would say Isaiah 58:13-14 helps me a lot in the perspective in terms of the word “delight”. Isaiah writes that if we turn back our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on God’s holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if we honor it, not going our own ways or seeking our own pleasures then we will take delight in the Lord, then God will make us ride on the heights of the earth.

To me this is insanely motivating and powerful to make us ride on the height of the earth just by putting pleasure on God’s Sabbath as a day of the Lord. I see this as God wanting our heart for a day that He sets apart every week instead of taking our own ways, this surely bring much pleasure to the heart of God. It’s like my way of God’s ways and if I submit to God’s way on the day of holiness called Sabbath day, He promised that we will take delight in him. I think it is more than just honoring the Sabbath day, makes us delight in the Lord, but it is the process of setting our time for God weekly is in in itself taking delight in God!

I believe we will grow overtime in it. Now the question of how we do that practically on the Lord’s Day i.e. Sunday is that I quite agree with Dr Duncan’s lecture saying that a great way of spending Sabbath day is have two worship services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, that pretty much fill up and dedicate the day of the Lord and keep it holy to the Lord.

I look forward to writing on the height of the earth in the Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV)

13    “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

       and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

       if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

14    then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

       I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

How to explain and actually use “Election & Predestination” in our thinkings and ministry

/ Al Ngu, MDiv / Leave a comment

Some have argued that the topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature, and even that they are a hindrance to evangelism. Do you agree or disagree? Provide rationale for your position.

I would say that it is not easy to talk about election and predestination in our evangelism correct, however there are some phenomenal truths that can be very appealing to the non-believers in evangelism. For instance God from all eternity by His most wise and holy council of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass and yet he is not the author of saying, and also he does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established. That to me is a very appealing voice of the attribute and the character of God. Because he’s totally in charge in control and yet he gives us the free will to respond he doesn’t control his creation robotically. And also the liberty or contingency of the secondary causes are not taken away but rather established. That means what we do matter and we are not going towards fatalism.

JI Packer also expounded that the whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring. I think that’s a really appealing message that in this broken world which non believers will acknowledge, to know that God is currently restoring the world, it is a real message of comfort and encouragement and relevance of God. And the purpose of all this restoration is the endless expression and enjoyment of love between God and his rational creatures- love shown in their worship, praise, thanks, honor, glory, and service given to him, ending the fellowship, privileges, jaws, and gifts they give to them. Bible tells us that what God has done to advance God’s redemptive plan for sin damaged planet earth, and they look ahead to the day of its completion, when planet earth will be recreated in unimaginable glory. They proclaim God as the almighty creator Redeemer and do all constantly of the multifaceted works of grace that God performs in history to secure for himself a people, a great company of individuals together, with whom his original purpose of giving and receiving love can be fulfilled. God has shown himself absolutely in control in bringing his plan to the point and working out everything according to his own will and completing his redemptive project.

Considering the area of pastoral care alongside of preaching/evangelism (you hint at an answer, but aim it toward this question): How might you discuss election & predestination with someone faithfully attending your church, who did not grow up in a Reformed church, but who wants to talk to you about how they believe “election and predestination don’t have any practical use,” instead, they say: “these doctrines just seem to make people complacent in their faith”?

Topics of election and predestination should be avoided in preaching due to their complex and difficult nature?

I would say that while election and predestination is highly mysterious, and we cannot deny it as its plainly written in the Bible. And WCF has really articulated it beautifully, though, hard to swallow sometimes, because, the reality is its still hard to understand fully, but we have to remember that we are his creature, and He is God. And He reserves the right to mystery that He hasn’t revealed, and He has the perfect right to reveal what He chooses to His creatures, as in: Deuteronomy 29: 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

An important point is that God doesn’t violate our free will. WCF: “God does not violate the free will of the creatures, neither is the liberty and contingency of secondary courses being taken away but rather established.”

That settled, I would then focus on the restoration of this broken world, as JI Packer puts it, “The whole Bible is the outworking of God’s sovereign purpose for his world, the purpose that led him to create, the sin that disrupted, and his work of redemption is currently restoring.”

God’s sovereign purpose and work now is the work of redemption that’s currently restoring what’s been destroyed by sin, and it’s that restoration, we believers in Christ, we are honored and called, to take part in. And it’s the highest calling for all of us all.

God’s covenant with us enables us to experience Christ’s salvation for us

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First of all the distance between God and humans is so great that we can never have any fruition of him as our blessedness and reward except by God’s condescension upon us, which he has expressed by way of covenant. So, God has chosen to relate with us and to reveal himself to us through a covenantal way like the Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic covenant, and eventually the new covenant by the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ himself. All these covenants are in fact the covenant of grace not of law. So, covenant is the means whereby we enjoy God as our blessedness and reward. Therefore, our justification and sanctification in life completely depends on the revelation and the relationship of God with us through the covenant which is the only means we can enjoy his blessings and reward.

Our justification is completely dependent on Christ’s fulfillment of the covenant works which is the first covenant God made with man whereby life was promised to Adam, and in him his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. That covenant of works points to the terms of conditions on which the blessings of the covenant continues. Man by his fall has made himself incapable of life by that covenant of works, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; Whereby he freely offered unto sinners life in salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring them of faith in him, that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those who are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. Now this is a huge promise because fallen man like all of us will not be able to be willing to believe in Christ if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, those of us who are the elect. In the covenant of grace, there is blessing despite disobedience. The covenant of grace conditions are fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf. Our faith is required of us in the covenant of grace but it is not the basis of salvation. It is merely the means to receive the blessing which Jesus has obtained on our behalf. Therefore our obedience is tied up with Christ’s fulfillment of the conditions.

The only way we can go on in our lives sanctified is by and through the mediator of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay in grace. Like Westminster says we are brought into this covenant by grace and stay in it by our mediator our Lord Jesus Christ. Our ongoing sanctification depends on our obedience to Christ. Our obedience can only follow from the active and passive obedience of Christ because Christ fulfilled the conditions of the covenant of works, our salvation is by grace alone and by faith alone in Christ who has obeyed perfectly the covenant of works on our behalf.

This is hugely encouraging to folks in church to understand that it is not by our effort to continue to be sanctified and walking with Christ but it is rather Christ has already won the battle on the cross by his perfect obedience, and that we are drinking in that benefit and walking in him by the Holy Spirit, commonly called abiding in Christ. And then we are justified by Christ because he fulfilled all the conditions of the works of covenant which our forefather Adam failed. And now we can continue to be sanctified because of his complete obedience that our obedience is tied up with Christ fulfillment of the conditions and because he has fulfilled it, we can be overcomers in our Christian walk with God.