March 24, 2017 Show with Greg Nichols on “The Doctrine of Man”

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Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,

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Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen. Good afternoon

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming.

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This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 24th day of March 2017.

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And I'm in studio with my co -host, the Reverend Buzz Taylor. Hello. And it's great to have you in studio today.

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And we have, returning to the program, someone who has proven to be an excellent guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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We always love having him back and that's Pastor Greg Nichols. He is one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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He's the author of What Does the Bible Say About God? The Biblical Doctrine of God, Truth for Eternity.

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And we have in print right now Lectures in Systematic Theology, Volume 1.

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Today he's going to be addressing the second volume that is not yet in print, that is going to be focused on the doctrine of man.

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And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron, Pastor Greg Nichols. Well, thank you very much.

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It's my privilege to be here. And for those of our listeners who did not hear you the last time you were on the air, please tell our audience about Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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The Grace Emanuel Church is a church that holds to the 1689 London Confession. A church that has been in existence for about three generations, three decades,

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I should say decades, and I meant decades, I meant generations. We have three generations in the church.

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And we seek to honor and serve the Lord together. We have a sense that we are a spiritual family of sinners saved by grace that love each other and love the

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Lord and want to bring his gospel to Grand Rapids, the United States, and to the world.

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And for those of our listeners who are unfamiliar with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, or Second London Confession as it's also called, this is basically a

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Baptist version of the Westminster Confession of Faith, is it not?

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Because the Baptists did have a First London Confession, and then they had the Second London Confession where they wanted to show their

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Presbyterian brothers that they had much harmony with them, but did have, of course,

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Baptist distinctives, am I right? Yes, that is true.

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The Confession was originally written in 1677 when it was illegal to be a

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Baptist, so it wasn't published until 1689. But it is a combination in many places of that original 1640s

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Baptist Confession, and the First London Confession, and the

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Westminster Confession, and where they could at times, like for example, in Chapter 8 on the

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Person and Work of Christ, they actually combine what the Westminster says and what the First London says.

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The last couple of paragraphs don't come from the Westminster Confession, they come from the First London Confession.

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Another thing to note is that the Baptist fathers also wanted to express their continuity with John Owen and the

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Independents. I said that one time, John Owen and the Independents in the Savoy Declaration of 1658, and when

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I said John Owen and the Independents, somebody thought I was talking about a rock band. It's a good name for one.

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But anyway, in a lot of places, wherever the Savoy, written by John Owen et al.,

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and published 1658, wherever that differed from Westminster on some points, oftentimes, not exclusively, but most of the time, the

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Second London Confession follows John Owen and the Savoy rather than Westminster.

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And one example, the clearest example of London Confession following Savoy and expressing unity with them is

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Chapter 20, which does not exist, of the Gospel and the extent thereof, which does not exist in the

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Westminster Confession, but it was added by John Owen, and the Baptist fathers also copied that.

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Yes, and for those of our non -confessional brethren who are looking at or listening to us, and they're puzzled because they are thinking to themselves, what are these just traditions of men that they've heaped upon themselves?

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Well, it's really just a summary of what we believe the Bible teaches, am

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I right? Yes, it's a summary, as they say, of the, quote, things most surely believed among us.

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Right. And as I've said before on this program, and as others have said, every

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Christian is confessional, whether they call themselves that or not, because even the statement,

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I have no creed but the Bible, is a confessional statement. Yes, I would say you're correct about that.

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Right. And today we are talking about an important subject, the doctrine of man, because the doctrine of man, when it is wrongly understood, leads to all kinds of heresies, and when the secular society around us continues to spread their false understanding of man, it leads to all kinds of despicable and wicked and unspeakably evil activities, even the infanticide of millions of unborn children,

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I think, that occurs globally every year. This has a lot to do with a false understanding of man.

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But if you could, I guess a good place to start with a discussion on the doctrine of man would be on man's origins and why this is even an important issue.

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Yes. Let me give you, first of all, to put that question into perspective, the outline or development of the doctrine so that the listener can get in perspective what we're talking about.

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As I said last time, in the doctrine of God, we deal with the existence of God.

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That's the first thing, does God exist? The second part is, can you know Him? And then who and what is

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God, the nature of God, and the names of God, then the decree of God. So that's the doctrine of God, and it focuses on God and His eternal existence, and the fact that even before the foundation of the world,

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He decided in eternity everything that would happen in history. Then the second volume, the second focal point of systematic theology, is

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God's great work of the original creation. Now, because man is the culmination of creation, this second focal point of teaching, this second major topic, the doctrine of original creation, is commonly called the doctrine of man.

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So I refer to it as the doctrine of the original creation, or commonly called the doctrine of man or anthropology.

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Now, in the doctrine of man course, I deal with five major topics or parts of the course.

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First of all, creation. And then secondly, providence. And then thirdly, man, the culmination of the original creation.

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So you have the formation of the original creation, creation. The conservation of the original creation, providence.

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The culmination of the original creation, which is man. And then the devastation of the original creation, the doctrine of human sin.

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And then finally, God's benevolence to the ruined or fallen original creation, the doctrine of common grace.

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So in the doctrine of man, you have creation, providence, man, sin, and common grace.

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Now, with regard to opening up what Scripture says about man, the first topic is the supernatural origin of man.

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The second section addresses the unique nature of man, his psychosomatic constitution, body and soul, his sacred identity, the image of God, and his procreative form, male and female.

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Then we open up the vocation of man, which is the creation ordinances of labor, marriage, government, and Sabbath.

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Then the divine covenant with man, the representative prohibition, in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.

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And finally, the moral status of man, the state of innocence. So you have the origin of man, that man is created by God, and I address the manner and time of man's origin.

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So under the supernatural origin of man, after the creation of Adam and Eve, comes the creation of every human being.

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And every human being is created at conception.

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And so what is in a mother's womb at conception is a human being, with a human body and a human soul.

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And the Bible clearly teaches this. And so that puts into perspective the point you were making about the fact that really wrong thinking about creation and about the origin of man is behind the holocaust, the horrible monstrous holocaust of abortion on demand.

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Hey man, it's amazing how lackadaisical and flippant and unconcerned and disinterested the planet has become over this holocaust that's occurring right in our own neighborhoods.

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And it is mind -boggling when you think about the numbers of these precious human lives that are snuffed out in very gruesome and barbaric ways.

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Now why don't you tell us something about why it is important to believe the creation account of man as it is recorded in the scriptures.

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Because there are those Christians among us who are old earth creationists, and I wouldn't say that they are all in the category of believing in theistic evolution, but there are those that have adopted very close to a

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Darwinian understanding of man having come from another life form or life forms rather than having been molded from clay by the hand of God himself, and then of course

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Eve being molded from the rib of Adam. But if you could explain why this is important.

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Well it's important because everything else rests upon the creation of man.

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If man is not created and if God did not make man, and if the

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Bible is not true in what it says, then we have no certain knowledge about what man is, why man is, or what man is here on earth to do.

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And you're left in a sea of total relativism and humanism and whatever people think they want to do or define man any way you like.

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You can define humanity any way you like. You can define male and female any way you like. You can define marriage any way you like or undefined marriage any way you like.

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You can do whatever you want when you destroy creation. You destroy morality. You destroy human dignity.

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You destroy the value of human life, the purpose of human life. We shouldn't be surprised that after the doctrine, the false doctrine, the heresy of evolution has had influence in our society for, you know, now decades, going on decades, we shouldn't be surprised to see the moral fruits of that awful evil rising up in our society.

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We shouldn't be surprised. It has to have moral consequences with respect to human rights, with respect to human value, with respect to marriage and sexuality, morality, all kinds of issues rest, stand or fall on creation.

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And if you could explain what you mean by psychosomatic constitution of man.

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Oh yes, okay. Psycho has to do with the soul and somatic. This is a word that's put together from a transliteration of the two

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Greek terms for body and soul. It comes from P -S -Y.

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See, we get psychology from it. It's pronounced psuche, but it has to do with the soul.

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And then that's, we get psycho from that. And somatic comes from the Greek word soma, which means body. So psychosomatic is soul body is what it means.

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So it's referring to the fact that human nature has two distinct parts. One, which is material, the body, the soma, and the other, which is non -material, but just as real, the spiritual aspect of every human being, which is the soul or the human spirit, psuche.

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So every human being has a body and a soul combined intricately, intimately, and mysteriously in this life.

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And also, by the way, will be combined again in the resurrection life, only separated temporarily by death in the intermediate stage.

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Reverend Buzz Taylor has a question or comment. I was writing along with your list here and kind of second guessing you so I could write neatly ahead of you.

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And I took a wrong turn because you surprised me. You said creation. You said providence, then man, then sin.

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And I started to write the word salvation and you said common grace. Yes. That's the doctrine of the doctrine of the original creation is creation, providence, man, sin, common grace.

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The third major focal point is salvation from sin. And that's, oh, that's five different volumes or five different.

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Okay. So I see what you're saying then that that's a whole separate thing altogether then. Yeah, this is all that's right.

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That's only the second focal point, the original creation. The third focal point of my systematics is salvation from sin.

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And that begins with the plant, the plan of the promise of salvation, accomplishment of salvation, application of salvation and completion of salvation.

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And because the seminaries want three credit courses, it takes five courses. Right. Yeah. Well, since that is a separate issue altogether, then what did you mean when you said common grace?

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I'm referring to what Professor Murray calls fine favor that he shows to animals and humans alike, to saints and sinners alike in this life until death, falling short of salvation.

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The fact that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. The reason I wanted to hear you say that is because I know that it's a term that we're not familiar with very much.

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We don't hear it very much. And yet it's very important. Yes. And there's even some disagreement over it amongst reformed

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Christians. There are some who think that grace should only be attached to salvific grace.

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Yes, I do address that in the lecture on common grace. Their reasoning is based on the fact that the word

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Chorus translated grace in the New Testament is only used in reference to saving grace. And on that point, they are correct.

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Let us acknowledge where they got it right. On the other hand, in the Old Testament, the

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Hebrew word Cain, which is translated by the Greek word Chorus in the text,

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I want to say Romans, good grief, in Genesis chapter six, where it said, and Noah found

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Cain, found favor, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So that favor, that grace, and that's translated by Chorus in the

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Septuagint translation, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Now, that grace is what

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I'm talking about by common grace. All God's grace is covenant grace, even common grace.

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It's common grace in Noah. And what I'm referring to is the favor that God shows to Noah and all of his physical descendants, which, by the way, we all are.

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So because we're all descended from Noah, we all enter into that favor that Cain, that Chorus, that grace that he shows to Noah.

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Now, it's called common grace. You could just as well call it Noahic grace, as opposed to grace that's saving from sin in Christ.

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So I think it's perfectly legitimate to refer to it as grace, because in Genesis chapter six, the

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Scripture calls it grace. Darrell Bock And of course, that's—in your list, your itemized list, that's the final thing that we were supposed to be talking about today, so we've kind of jumped way ahead here.

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As far as the body and soul distinction that we were discussing, is the soul that which is the genuine person, as it is often referred to—in fact, even unbelievers often think of the soul, at least those who believe in some kind of an afterlife.

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They will say that when the person dies, it's just—the body is just the shell of the person.

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It's not who the person really is. So even if that person dies in a horrific accident, whether they are burned alive, whether there is an explosion, or any kind of a thing that happens to this person, that is not the thing that affects the soul.

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The thing that affects the soul is whether that soul is covered with the blood of Christ, shed for him or her on Calvary's cross.

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But would you say that the soul is the actual—the essence of the person, of the human?

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Well, I would be careful exactly how I would word that. Okay. But let's start with this.

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In Genesis chapter 3, verse 19, God says to Adam, you are, and unto dust you will return.

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So he is his body, he is also his soul. So his person is associated with both his body and his soul.

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Now, it is true, dead bodies don't communicate, dead bodies don't have personality, dead bodies don't feel, dead bodies don't do anything except deteriorate, okay?

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So that part's right. And the part that continues, the part that is indissoluble, the part that is non -material, that part that continues to subsist as a personal being after death, is the soul, or the human spirit.

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And the soul is conscious, the soul is personal, the soul is living in the sense that it subsists and can do, the soul feels, the soul thinks, the soul wills, the soul has moral capacity and moral character.

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So these are the distinguishing characteristics of the soul. And in the lecture on body and soul,

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I, first of all, go through the biblical terminology for the soul, and then the biblical terminology for the body, the definition of the soul, the definition of the body, the distinguishing characteristics of the soul, distinguishing characteristics of the body, so that hopefully the students can understand the distinction between the two.

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But then I also open up the harmonious unity that exists between body and soul in this life, and the indications of that unity.

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And then I open up how death fractures temporarily that unity, but it must be underscored that the severance of body and soul and death is only temporary, and there will be a resurrection, both of the just and of the unjust.

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And they, body and soul, will be cast into the lake of fire.

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Jesus said, do not fear him that's able to kill the body, and after that has no more that he can do.

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But him who is able to cast both body and soul into hell, is able to destroy both body and soul with hell.

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Yes, that would of course be for the damned. And those that the Lord chooses to save will have a glorified body.

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That's the point. The point is that there will be a resurrection, both of the just and of the unjust. The point is that there's a distinction between body and soul.

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Human beings can kill your body, they can't destroy your soul, but God is able to destroy of the wicked both body and soul in the lake of fire, which he refers to there as hell.

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And also the bodies of the righteous will be raised and reunited with their souls, and they will be with Christ forever in new heavens and earth in glory.

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And so human nature will be reunited, body and soul, either in the lake of fire or in new heavens and earth, one way or the other.

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So the severance of body and soul is only temporary. And there's a mystery, there's a tension, because the person is associated both with the body and with the soul in scripture.

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So there's a tension. There's a part of me after I die that's dissolving in a grave, and Paul says that the souls in heaven feel a kind of nakedness associated with that experience.

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2 Corinthians 5, isn't it? That's correct. In the intermediate state, there's a sense of incompletion.

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There's a sense of our ultimate hope is not to go to heaven as a disembodied spirit. Our ultimate hope, second coming of Christ, that body and soul, we will be conformed to his glorious body and soul, and we will be with him forever, body and soul united.

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So there's a longing. There's an incompletion, because a part of us is still in that grave, and it isn't finished yet until the body is resurrected and glorified.

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So yeah, I'd be careful how I put it, but basically what you said is right. A dead body doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't personalize.

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It just deteriorates and rots, and yet somehow, he says, dust you are, and unto dust you will return.

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And I'm going to ask a question of a listener before our first break, and then

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I'll give you time to mull it over during the break, so when we come back, you can actually answer the question.

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But Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island says, I know this is not the focus of your discussion, but I was wondering if your guest has any thoughts on whether it is right or wrong, or is he indifferent to the issue of cremation?

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Must a Christian have their loved ones buried or entombed, or is creation a valid option for the

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Christian? And you can answer that when we return from our break. And if anybody else would like to join us on the air with a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

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chrisarnson at gmail .com. And please, as always, give your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the

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31:39

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with 90 minutes to go is

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Pastor Greg Reynolds of Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are discussing today the doctrine of man.

31:54

If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com.

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And before the break, Pastor Greg, our listener in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, Ronald, asked if it is acceptable for a

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Christian to have a loved one cremated, and I'm assuming he also means, and to request that be done to you as well after you should pass on.

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Yes, Chris, by the way, I can't help but pointing out to you that you did it again.

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Did I call you doctor? No, call me Greg Reynolds. I'm sorry.

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Oh boy, I am so sorry. Greg Nichols.

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Oh man, I don't know. Your name is staring me in the face. I don't know how I said Reynolds. And for those of our listeners who don't have any clue why

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I keep saying Greg Reynolds is because he is another person I've had as a guest on a number of occasions who happens to be an

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Orthodox Presbyterian, not a Reformed Baptist, but my apologies to you. No apology needed.

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I just couldn't help it. It hit my funny bone and I couldn't help it. I told you, I would try to keep my

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New York sense. By the way, I don't know what happens occasionally, but sometimes you cut out on your phone.

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I don't know why. I don't know why either. I'm sitting right here talking right into my phone.

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Well, anyway, as we said before the break, I asked you a question from our listener,

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Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, who wanted to know about cremation. Right.

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I am not aware of any explicit commandment in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, specifically in the

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New Testament, that says that Christians have to bury their dead.

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I am not familiar with any commandment like that. And whether a body is buried or cremated will not prevent the resurrection of that body on the last day, one way or the other, nothing will prevent that resurrection.

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No matter how a person's body is interred or cremated, it will not prevent the resurrection of that body.

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God will do it one way or the other. It's true that we should treat our dead with respect, and it's true that for many, many years, burial has been the preferred way of showing that respect to our loved ones who pass away.

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Yet in recent days, if Christians have come to me, some people in my congregation said, you know, we really can't afford the burial process.

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It costs thousands of dollars, and it's less expensive to have them cremated. Does the

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Bible forbid it? And I couldn't find a passage in the Bible that tells a

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Christian you're not allowed to do that. So I said, well, I can't bind your conscience about it one way or the other.

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Yeah, and there are Christians out there who are well -read and learned men that would agree with us on a whole host of things, who do believe that the most,

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I guess, respectful and honorable way to deal with the body of a person who's deceased is to bury them, but I have not yet gone into an in -depth study on it.

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I know that one of a guest of mine that I've interviewed before on different issues has written some kind of a book or booklet on it, but I assume that there is a time when out of necessity, especially in impoverished areas, if you have an inability to bury a large amount of people that may have died in a catastrophe or something, that burning may be the best way of preventing the spread of disease, especially, as I said, in some impoverished nation or even in bygone centuries where it might not have been as convenient or accessible to bury people, especially in large numbers.

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Okay. That's just a thought that popped into my head. Thank you, Ronald, and we also have

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Joe in Slovenia who says, Dear Brother Chris, please ask, and he called you doctor, but I'll say, please ask

36:47

Pastor Nichols to interact with the concept that as man we are all tempted at the point of our appetites, things that we desire to satisfy our bodily desires.

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Is it correct to say that all sin is an abuse of things to satisfy our appetites in an unholy manner?

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It seems to me that this is a fundamental understanding from the standpoint that both Adam and Jesus faced this basic temptation with opposite results.

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Genesis chapter 2 verses 15 through 17 and Matthew chapter 4. Thank you for the highest quality of programming.

37:27

That's Joe in Slovenia. Well, I think that what he says is basically correct about the contrast between Adam and Jesus and also the continuity of the temptation of Adam and the temptation of Jesus.

37:44

Jesus was clearly tempted with respect to the natural desires of a human soul and the appetites of his human body.

37:57

I think that's clearly true. I'm thinking more on the question of whether all sin is with bodily appetites.

38:10

I'm thinking of a text that, let's think about the sin of angels.

38:17

Angels don't have bodies, but angels still sin. Yeah, very good. I'm not ready to say that, but with regard to human sin,

38:27

I'm thinking of 2 Corinthians 7 .1, which says, having therefore these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, or in order to complete holiness, in the fear of God.

38:48

And that whole idea of defilement of spirit, that there are spiritual sins that primarily focus upon the soul and upon the...

39:01

Now, I suppose, if you want to use appetites in a more general sense, you could talk about appetites or desires of a soul, not just bodily appetites.

39:10

And in that sense, it might be okay to say it. But there are certain aspects of sin or temptation that would arise from bodily appetites and others which would arise from the nature of the human soul.

39:31

Yeah, it would seem to me that Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 18, would be in complete harmony with what

39:44

Joan of Slovenia was saying as far as, there is no one righteous, not even one.

39:49

There is none who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless.

39:57

There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit.

40:03

The poison of vipers is on their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood.

40:11

Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

40:17

It would seem that the reason why, unlike our Arminian brothers who think that man in his natural state prior to regeneration can please

40:30

God by willingly choosing to follow him and repent, it seems that this is nowhere to be found in the

40:40

Bible in regards to their even having such a desire before they're born again. I would agree with you that it's impossible for those in the flesh, as Paul says in Romans chapter 8, so then those that are in the flesh,

40:55

Romans 8, 7, cannot please God. Cannot please

41:01

God if you're in the state of sin, it's impossible. But then he goes on to say you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be, that the spirit of God dwells in you.

41:11

And then he says if you don't have the spirit, you're not a Christian, you're not his, you don't belong to Christ.

41:18

So Christians can please God by God's grace, and they do please God by God's grace, and people in a state of sin cannot please

41:26

God. That's clearly, emphatically, repeatedly taught in the Word of God.

41:32

Yeah, one of the reasons, not to belabor this issue or take us off course, but I think one of the reasons why that whole issue is important in the debate between theologically

41:44

Reformed Christians and Arminians is that the Arminian apparently over and over again seems to misunderstand what we believe, and they think, or at least they perpetuate a slanderous notion about us, that we are teaching that men would otherwise want to be saved and follow

42:09

Jesus, but God is preventing them from making that choice. If left to themselves, they would have a shot at it and may want to, from their own desire, come to Christ, but according to this false caricature that Arminians construct about Calvinism, they make it sound as if we are teaching that if God had not gotten his hands involved in the situation that men might be coming to Christ and being saved, if you understand what

42:40

I'm saying. I do understand what you're saying. It is true that that is a, if that's what people think, that is a real caricature, a serious misunderstanding.

42:51

There's no such thing as a person in the state of sin who wants to be saved, oh

42:58

God, please save me, and God looks in the book and says, nope, can't save you, you're not elect, you're not written, that is a total caricature.

43:05

There's no such thing as a person that wants to be saved, and God won't save them. There's no such thing.

43:11

Amen. And well, thank you, Joe, in Slovenia. Keep listening and spreading the word to your fellow

43:17

Slovenians and beyond about Iron Trip and Zion Radio. We have

43:23

B .B. in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who asks, I have often heard of body, soul, and spirit being mentioned in the same sentence as they are, as if they are three different things.

43:37

Does Pastor Greg believe that soul and spirit are different, or are they synonyms?

43:44

Okay, let me, I'll answer the question about trichotomy in a second, but can

43:49

I just finish that other one? Oh yeah, sure. Please. Jesus said regarding people, you do not will to come to me that you might have life.

43:59

Amen. And also, it's written that Stephen said in Acts chapter 7, you stiff -necked and uncircumcised in hearts and in ears, you do always resist the

44:13

Holy Spirit. Now, it is true that the scripture says in Romans chapter 9, he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he hardens.

44:24

But that's not a Calvinist that said that, that's Paul that said that. Right. Whom he will, he hardens.

44:31

Now, when I've tried to explain that to people, what does God have to do to harden people?

44:38

What does he have to do to them to harden them in their sin? My answer is, absolutely nothing.

44:43

Right, that's right. He hardens them by removing, restraining, influence of grace, of common grace, if you want to call it, or any other restraining influence, he removes it.

44:59

He just lets them be themselves. Right. And if God were not restraining sin in various ways, we would see what total depravity really produces, leave out common grace, and we've got a very, very different world.

45:16

We've got a world that's just filled with the most horrible behavior. We don't realize, humanistic thinking doesn't realize, how much sin

45:26

God restrains, even among the unconverted. Yeah, we wouldn't even be able to not only leave our homes and be safe, we wouldn't be safe in our own homes, if there was not any kind of common restraint amongst mankind that God is performing graciously for us.

45:41

That's true. So all God has to do to harden somebody is nothing, and he doesn't have to do anything.

45:47

Yeah, I can still remember years ago having a friendly debate, actually it got pretty intense at times, it wasn't always friendly, but with a free will independent fundamentalist

46:00

Baptist pastor friend of mine, and he made much of the fact that Pharaoh, yeah sure it says that God hardened

46:09

Pharaoh's heart, but it also says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. I said yeah, but where does it ever say that Pharaoh softened his own heart?

46:18

That's the key issue there that you were just saying, that is the thing that takes a miracle of God, is the softening of a heart and the transforming of a heart.

46:26

Okay, amen. And I can also recall having a discussion with a brother, an

46:37

Armenian brother, where we were having a little conflict about the doctrines of grace, and I said well what do you think of this?

46:45

And I opened up the Bible and I read Romans 9, and he said to me, you know who believes that?

46:51

The biggest cult on the face of the earth, the Muslims. I said excuse me, do you know that I just read word for word the apostle

47:02

Paul in Romans 9? He said yeah, but it's what you read into it, and I said I didn't read into it,

47:08

I didn't exegete or explain it, I just read it. So he had nothing to say after that.

47:15

He got it. But it is hard for people to understand how it's possible that God has genuine goodwill and wants to save people, but at the same time he decreased to harden and leaves in their sin.

47:34

It is hard to explain that. I can't explain that, but I'm not about to give up the free well -meant offer of Christ or the absolute sovereignty of God in hardening some sinners and regenerating other sinners.

47:46

I'm not going to give up either of those things because both of them are plainly and clearly in my Bible, but I do sympathize with people that have a hard time logically putting it together.

47:56

Right. And the trichotomy question, if I... Yes, that's right.

48:02

Yes, that if someone wants to read an excellent article on trichotomy, they get out

48:07

Professor Murray in his Theological Writings of the

48:12

Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 2, and read the article on trichotomy, he gives in there four reasons why the

48:23

Scripture clearly teaches that trichotomy is not true. But let me say, in common parlance, we speak like this all the time.

48:32

I might say to you, Chris, how are you doing spiritually, how are you doing emotionally, and how are you doing physically?

48:39

Do you understand the difference? Have I asked you how you're doing spiritually? Yes, and I may sometimes think that there is little distinction if you said, how are you doing spiritually or mentally?

48:54

Yeah, okay, I could say, well, how are you doing spiritually? How are you doing mentally? How are you doing emotionally?

49:01

How are you doing physically? I mean, if I ask how you're doing physically, you're going to talk to me about whether you're having problems with various aches and pains in your knees, or maybe you've had trouble with your heart, or maybe you've had this or that or the other thing.

49:15

Or if I ask how you're doing emotionally, you're going to think about, well, you know, I've been depressed or some other thing, or, oh, you know, we're filled with joy, just went through a wedding and da -da -da, or, you know, we lost somebody, we're sorrowful, etc.

49:28

If I ask you how you're doing spiritually, you're probably going to, you know, talk to me about devotional life, about keeping a good conscience, about praying in secret.

49:37

So I can ask you how you're doing spiritually, how you're doing emotionally, and how you're doing physically. That doesn't mean I'm a trichotomist.

49:43

Right. That doesn't mean that I believe that the emotion and the spirit are two different parts of man, two distinct parts.

49:53

So yes, it's true that in one sense, psuche and pneuma or pneuma are, we get pneumatic from the

50:02

Greek word pneuma that's translated spirit, and we get psycho and psychology from the

50:09

Greek word psyche or psuche that's translated soul. So yeah, in one sense, they're synonymous in that they both refer to the non -material part of man in its entirety.

50:20

That entity which survives after death, independently exists and subsists, and goes to heaven to be with Christ.

50:28

Sometimes it's called the spirit, and sometimes it's called the soul. Right? Now that doesn't mean that they're exactly synonymous, or precisely synonymous, besides the same exact thing.

50:44

If I asked you how you're doing emotionally, or how you're doing spiritually, you would understand there's a distinction, but the

50:52

Bible talks about mind, spirit, soul, heart, all various words that it uses to describe the non -material part of man.

51:04

It doesn't mean when the Bible talks about the mind, the spirit, the soul, the heart, and the that man has five parts, and that his heart is separate from his soul, and his soul is separate from his spirit, the spirit separate from his mind, because the scripture shows that these are different terms to describe that entity, which is the non -material part of man in its entirety, but featuring different aspects, or capacities, or relations, or faculties of that entity, that non -material part of man.

51:35

And sometimes the word mind is used. Present your body as a living sacrifice, and be renewed in your mind.

51:44

Well there, mind is contrasted with body, and body and mind are the whole person, body and soul.

51:53

Or cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh, that refers to the material part of man, and spirit, that refers to the non -material part of man.

52:00

So there, flesh and spirit refer to the whole psychosomatic human being, body and soul, or flesh and spirit.

52:09

Sometimes it's body and mind, sometimes it's flesh and spirit, sometimes it's body and soul, sometimes it's heart and flesh.

52:20

So there are various terms. Flesh, body refer to the material part of man, heart, soul, mind, spirit refer to the non -material part of man, but it doesn't mean a man has five separate parts.

52:34

Soul, mind, heart, spirit, and body. No. There's only two.

52:42

There's a non -material entity, and there's a material entity. Material entity is typically called, primarily called the body.

52:51

The non -material entity is typically called either soul or spirit, sometimes soul, sometimes spirit.

52:57

They emphasize and feature different things. And in the lecture on that, I get into some of the things that are featured by heart, and some of the things featured by mind, and featured by soul, and featured by spirit.

53:12

But basically, in one sense synonymous, yes. In another sense, they feature different aspects or capacities of that non -material entity.

53:23

And we have to go to a break right now. If anybody would like to join us with a question of your own about the Doctrine of Man for Pastor Greg Nichols, our email address is

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Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am

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that's linbrookbaptist .org. Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen, and our guest today is

01:03:38

Pastor Greg Nichols, who is one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and we are discussing the doctrine of man.

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And now we return to our discussion, a very important topic, on the doctrine of man with Pastor Greg Nichols of Grace Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church, and the next item that I'd like to address with you,

01:06:30

Pastor Greg, is the sacred identity of man, God's image, and this, of course, is coming from Genesis chapter 1 and 26, verse 26, and God said,

01:06:42

Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth.

01:06:55

And there, as you know, there are very deeply heretical notions that cults and false

01:07:04

Christians have developed from this idea of God making man in his image, because you have the

01:07:12

Mormons on one end teaching that God the Father has a physical body, just like you and I, and they think it's a laughable and ridiculous blasphemy and heresy that we believe

01:07:25

God is spirit. In fact, I heard a recording recently of one of the presidents of the

01:07:30

Mormon church going back a decade or so where he was mocking the

01:07:36

Westminster Confession of Faith as teaching one of the worst heresies ever known to man, that God is spirit.

01:07:43

And then you even have within, I guess, within the realm of evangelicalism, you have the

01:07:49

Word of Faith Pentecostals, many of whom believe that God the Father actually has a physical body, as Kenneth Copeland was famous for saying, that God the

01:07:58

Father has a body about the size and weight of his body. But what does this really mean, though, that God is making—God has made man in his image?

01:08:10

Yes. Let me address, first of all, the idea that God is a spiritual being.

01:08:17

It doesn't come from the Westminster Confession, first and foremost. It comes from Jesus Christ.

01:08:24

Amen. As in John chapter 4, verse 24, that God is a spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

01:08:37

He says that God is a spiritual being. And, of course,

01:08:43

Jesus, the God -man—this is the amazing thing—in the beginning was the

01:08:49

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus, the person,

01:08:56

God the Son, is the Supreme Spirit, the Supreme Being. This Supreme Being is three persons—the

01:09:04

Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And God the Son, one of those persons, God the

01:09:10

Word, it says in John 1, verse 14, and the Word became flesh. He became human.

01:09:16

God the Son took to himself a true human body and a true human soul. He became human without ceasing to be

01:09:24

God. And so you read in Colossians chapter 1 that Christ is, quote, the image of the invisible

01:09:34

God. Oh, by the way, those that want to say that God has a body, does he have an invisible body?

01:09:41

The image of the invisible God. So notice the contrast between invisible

01:09:47

God and Christ, the God -man, who is the image of the invisible

01:09:55

God. God is a spirit. He is invisible. No man has seen

01:10:01

God at any time, because he doesn't have a body. He's a spiritual being, and he's invisible.

01:10:08

But Jesus is not invisible. Notice how image is contrasted with invisible.

01:10:15

He is, in virtue of his identity as God -man, the image of the invisible

01:10:23

God. Now, I say that to get back to the idea of the creation of man, and man being the image of God.

01:10:34

Those texts in Genesis, Genesis 126, Genesis 5, other texts in Genesis that refer to the creation of man being created by God in his image, after his likeness, or after his image, in his likeness, the prepositions are reversed in Genesis 5.

01:10:58

The reversal of those prepositions is very striking, and it points to a great truth, that it is not some aspect of man.

01:11:08

Some people used to think it was man's reason. Or now, today, it's popular to think that man's relation constitute the image of God in man.

01:11:19

But it is not some aspect of man, some aspect of human nature in isolation.

01:11:25

But it is man who is the image of God, just like Christ is the image of the invisible

01:11:31

God. So God created Adam, body and soul, to be the image.

01:11:39

So the word translated image, selem, there in the

01:11:44

Hebrew, that word refers to a visible representation. Sometimes it refers like to the images of the mice that the

01:11:53

Philistines had to make when they offended God by taking the ark. Same word, the visible representation.

01:12:01

When you look at the image, you look at the visible representation, you see the distinguishing features of a mouse when you look at the image of the mice, right?

01:12:14

So, when you look at man, you see a visible representation.

01:12:20

Of the invisible God. So man in his entirety pictures

01:12:29

God. He is a visible representation. Now, the difference between man,

01:12:36

God's image, and the image of the mice that the Philistines made, is that God's image is alive.

01:12:44

God's image is not dead. So all idols, all man -made images that try to represent

01:12:50

God are abomination because they have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear.

01:12:57

They have feet, but they don't walk. They're dead. And how can any dead thing be an accurate picture of the living

01:13:05

God? So man, the image of God, is a living, visible representation.

01:13:11

The other word that's used is dimuth, which refers to likeness. That conveys analogy.

01:13:18

So man is an analogy. He is a living, visible picture of the invisible

01:13:23

God. And it's every aspect of humanity that is a picture of God. And so you can't isolate one thing and say, well,

01:13:33

God's man's mind. That would teach the dignity of the mind, but not necessarily.

01:13:38

So man's will is a picture of God's will, and man's mind is a picture of God's mind, and man's feeling and heart is a picture of God's heart.

01:13:47

And man's activity of work and rest. Six days will you labor and do all your work? Because on six days, the

01:13:54

Lord created, and the seventh day he rested. So the human week is six days of labor, and his day of sacred rest is a picture of the creation week of God.

01:14:04

It's a living, visible picture of God. Man's dominion is a picture of God's dominion.

01:14:10

Man's relationship of husband and wife is a picture of God's relationship to his people.

01:14:18

So everything about human life was designed to depict, to be a living, visible representation of the invisible

01:14:26

God. That's what it means that man is God's image. He is a living, visible representation, a living analogy of God.

01:14:33

And God created man so that every aspect would picture himself. And when you see man, you see a picture of God.

01:14:40

So now this gets us to the question of sin that was asked before. Sin is misrepresentation of God, so that a sinner is still, in one sense,

01:14:53

God's image because he's still a visible representation, a living, visible representation of God.

01:14:59

But the way I describe it is this. The fall took man from being a living, visible representation of God, and he became a living, visible misrepresentation of God.

01:15:10

So now the way he communicates misrepresents God. The way he feels misrepresents

01:15:16

God. The way he acts and chooses misrepresents God.

01:15:21

The way he thinks misrepresents God. His pattern of work and rest, when he violates God's pattern, misrepresents

01:15:28

God. His way that he relates to his wife. The marriage relationship is no longer an accurate picture of God.

01:15:37

The whole thing is a distortion now. He's a living, visible misrepresentation of God.

01:15:44

So that's one of the questions that I ask the students on the midterm exam. Is fallen man

01:15:49

God's image? And the answer is yes and no. In one sense, yes. In another sense, no. In another sense, no.

01:15:55

So anyway, that's the idea that man is God's image. Man is a living, visible representation, a living analogy of God.

01:16:04

Of the invisible God. When you see him, you see a picture of God. So you can't divorce man from God.

01:16:09

And it's our responsibility, it's our privilege, it's our dignity to represent God accurately to the whole moral universe.

01:16:17

And to misrepresent God is sin. The very essence of sin is to disobey

01:16:22

God and to misrepresent him. And the Genesis account makes that very clear because the identity of man is

01:16:29

God's image means the essence of sin is to be a caricature, a slander, a misrepresentation of God.

01:16:35

And the essence of sin is to disobey God. In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die with disobedience to eat from the tree.

01:16:43

So sin is disobedience and misrepresentation of God. It's misrepresentation because man is

01:16:48

God's image. And as I said last time, I love interviewing

01:16:53

Pastor Greg Nichols because the interviews always become powerful sermons. And if anybody has never heard until now an interactive sermon where somebody is actually asking questions in the middle of a sermon, this is what our interviews with Pastor Greg Nichols are.

01:17:13

And I just, I absolutely love it. I'll repeat, if you have never heard Pastor Greg Nichols preach before, you've got to pay a visit to Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

01:17:25

And their website is girbc .org, girbc .org.

01:17:30

And you've got to make it a point whether you wanted to travel to Grand Rapids or not, you've got to make it a point to go there and hear him preach or go somewhere where he may be preaching at a conference or something.

01:17:43

But can I address that second? Oh, sure. Briefly, I am not preaching so much in Grand Rapids anymore.

01:17:51

Now, I am supposed to speak the next several weeks, three out of four times. But normally we have a young man,

01:17:58

Pastor Jeff Johnson, who's doing most of the pulpit ministry morning and evening here at Grace Emanuel.

01:18:04

But if people did want to listen to any of my sermons, they are available on sermonaudio .com.

01:18:09

And yet, if they came to Grand Rapids, I wouldn't want them to come here expecting to hear me preaching anymore regularly.

01:18:21

We call him JJ. Our dear brother, Pastor Jeff Johnson, is doing most of the preaching at Grace Emanuel now.

01:18:27

Yeah, and I assume this is a different Jeff Johnson than I have had on my program a number of times as an author and a

01:18:32

Reformed Baptist pastor. I think he's somewhere in Arkansas or... Oh, that's correct. This is a different Jeff Johnson.

01:18:38

Yes, hopefully, I have a plan actually to go to Arkansas, God willing, in June and to teach the doctrine of God in a modular format to that Jeff Johnson's theological students that he has in his church that he's training and preparing for ministry.

01:18:53

But this Jeff Johnson is from South Carolina, the dear man in his 40s, the wonderful exegete, a fine speaker, and I count it a privilege to sit under his preaching.

01:19:04

If you come to Grand Rapids, at least 70 % of the time, that's who you're going to hear, Pastor Jeff Johnson.

01:19:10

Okay, great. Well, thanks for that clarification. And that's interesting. The other Jeff Johnson has also written a book about Reformed Baptist covenant theology where I think that you two would have some differences.

01:19:22

So that's interesting that you two have not only differences but a friendship nonetheless. Well, I count it a privilege to be able to go down there and to assist him in teaching the doctrine of God to his students.

01:19:35

Amen. And we have Bob in Westchester County, New York, who wants to know, what is

01:19:41

Pastor Nichols' take on Genesis 126 in regard to God referring to himself as our, in the plural form?

01:19:51

Is he speaking to the other persons of the Trinity, or is he speaking to the angels, or is it something else?

01:19:58

My understanding is that reflects plurality in God's personality, that the angels didn't create man.

01:20:06

It's God that created man. The Father, Son, and Spirit created man. The three persons who are the one and only supreme being created man.

01:20:15

So it doesn't, when he says us, it doesn't say how many there were. It doesn't specify, let the three of us.

01:20:22

It doesn't give you that amount of detail. It just says, let us. So it intimates plurality in God's personality.

01:20:31

It intimates that God, the supreme being, is more than one person. That it doesn't say how many persons, it just says, let us.

01:20:41

Could be two, could be three, could be four. From that text, you wouldn't know. From the rest of Scripture, you know that it's not two, it's not three, it's not four, it's, sorry, it's not two, it's not four, it's not five, it's three persons.

01:20:52

And of the three persons only. And they are the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So that text alludes to, or intimates, that there is plurality, but it doesn't further define that plurality.

01:21:04

And of course, we do have, even in the Gospel of John, where Jesus, the Word, is creating along with the

01:21:12

Father. That's right. God, the Father, is the creator. God, the

01:21:18

Son, is the creator. And God, the Holy Spirit, is the creator. Well, thanks, Bob, in Westchester County.

01:21:24

Keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron and spreading the word about the program. Let's move on, unless you have something else to say about God's image or the sacred identity of man.

01:21:35

Let's move on to the procreative form of man, male and female, which is obviously something that involves news stories every single day in this dark and wicked time that we live in.

01:21:50

Tell us exactly what you delve into under the umbrella of the doctrine of man in regard to the procreative form of man.

01:21:59

Yes. I, in preparation for this interview today,

01:22:05

I didn't go through and read my whole syllabus, I have to admit. But I did go through and reread my lecture on male and female, created he them?

01:22:17

Because I thought it might come up. So let me just say that my purpose in systematic theology is to address what the scripture says.

01:22:34

So what I do is I interact with the scripture. So when it says in Genesis chapter one, in the image of God, created he him, male and female, created he them, and God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply.

01:22:55

Because in the context, male and female are united in marriage, male and female, the male had a name, his name is

01:23:05

Adam, the female had a name, her name is Eve, and they were as husband and wife.

01:23:11

So he said to that male and to that female, be fruitful and multiply, husband and wife, in marriage, one male, one female, and procreation was to take place in the context of the marriage of one male and one female that God had created.

01:23:28

Now that's the setting of male and female, created he them. And so when

01:23:34

I deal with it, I refer to it as procreative form. Because male and female procreate.

01:23:43

That's the point. So I go through, first of all, and I go through the word for male there in the text is zakar, which comes from the verb to remember.

01:23:56

Remember, excuse me, for example, in 2

01:24:03

Samuel 18, 18, now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar which is in the

01:24:11

Kingsdale, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance, zakar.

01:24:18

I have no son to keep my name in remembrance, zakar. And he called the pillar after his own name, and it's called today, etc.

01:24:32

Apparently, the idea comes from the fact that the male child carried on the family name.

01:24:38

The New Testament, ar -sen, male, is used, the

01:24:46

Greek ar -sen, male, is used in relation to those texts in Genesis. And it describes those with male procreative faculties.

01:24:58

So the point is, Scripture defines a male and it defines a female.

01:25:08

The Hebrew word there is nekeba for female. And that word is very graphic.

01:25:16

The Hebrew language is very graphic. I didn't make this up, but it comes from, it's a noun that comes from a verb to bore a hole.

01:25:24

So something that is female is something that has a hole bored in it.

01:25:30

And we speak very similarly of male and female pipe or couplings where the male coupling inserts into the female coupling.

01:25:42

And the image of that is very clear. It's very graphic, very clear imagery as to what a female is.

01:25:47

So it defines male and female in terms of sexual faculties, procreative faculties.

01:25:58

And if you look at the use of these words in the Old Testament, Jewish parents and society observed these at birth.

01:26:05

And they treated every child born with male procreative faculties as a male.

01:26:11

And on that basis, they circumcised all male babies when they were 88 years old.

01:26:16

How did they decide whether the baby was male or female? So they would know whether to circumcise it or not.

01:26:22

How could they tell that at birth? They taught, how could they tell which ones to circumcise?

01:26:29

Which ones were male? Well, guess what they did? Not rocket science. They looked at the male and the female.

01:26:36

They looked at the procreative faculty of that baby. And if it had male procreative faculty, then they circumcised it.

01:26:45

And if it had female, then they didn't. And they treated, on that basis, there was a different sacrificial system required if a male was born.

01:26:57

If a female was born, they had to do certain requirements for male, certain for female. How did they know what to do?

01:27:03

They looked at the physical procreative faculties of those babies. And on that basis, they decided.

01:27:11

And on that basis, they numbered the Levites. On that basis, they numbered all the males, age 20 and upward to serve in the army.

01:27:20

And on that basis, they numbered all the firstborn males of Israel. So they raised every little boy with male procreative faculties to become a man, dress like a man, function as a man, behave like a man.

01:27:33

And they raised every little girl with female procreative faculties to become a woman, dress like a woman, function as a woman, behave like a woman.

01:27:42

Scripture affirms this fundamental fact emphatically, repeatedly. Biblical masculinity is sexual in definition and recognition.

01:27:52

Biblical femininity is sexual in definition and recognition.

01:27:58

It's emphatic, it's repeated, it's clear, it's undeniable. Now, there's a lot more that could be said about it.

01:28:08

Let me just summarize it. In fact, could you summarize it when we return from the break?

01:28:13

Because we're going to our final break right now. I'm right here. And you could summarize that then. And if anybody else wants to join us, we do have a couple of you still waiting to have your questions asked and answered.

01:28:23

But if anybody else wants to join us, you'd better do it quickly because we're running out of time. And our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:28:30

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Pastor Greg Nichols. I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

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01:32:47

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, if you just tuned us in. Our guest today for the last 90 minutes in the next half hour has been and will continue to be

01:32:56

Pastor Greg Nichols, one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

01:33:02

We are discussing the doctrine of man. If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com,

01:33:10

chrisarnzen at gmail .com. And before the break, you are about to summarize the procreative form of man,

01:33:17

Pastor Greg. Yes. Yes, let me do that, please. According to the dictionary, gender is, quote, the sexuality of a person or organism, end quote.

01:33:30

Accordingly, a male and a female produce, and again, the dictionary, quote, sex cells that fuse, end quote.

01:33:39

And the fusion of those sex cells, the male sperm and the female egg, is procreation. So sexual form, male and female, is procreative.

01:33:49

And with a view to procreation in the context of marriage, Adam and Eve, husband and wife,

01:33:56

God created mankind male and female, be fruitful and multiply. That's the foundation of masculinity and femininity.

01:34:05

God created the entire person, body and soul, as male and female.

01:34:11

Now, Greg Johnson, that's G -R -E -G -G -J -O -H -N -S -O -N, documents indisputable evidence of physical and psychological,

01:34:25

I'm sorry, physical and, yeah, psychological differences between men and women.

01:34:32

And that's found in the Biological Basis for Gender -Specific

01:34:39

Behavior, chapter 16. And that's chapter 16 of Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem, available from Crossway Books.

01:34:52

And the article by Greg Johnson, the Biological Basis for Gender -Specific Behavior, is found on pages 285 to 298.

01:35:01

And that article shows, it's clear stuff that he presents.

01:35:07

So, according to Scripture, God fitted the male body with strength and the masculine soul with courage for the functions of labor and leadership.

01:35:18

Now, I'm not saying that female bodies are not strong or that female souls have no courage, that's not my point.

01:35:24

He fitted the female body with beauty and the feminine soul with compassion. And again,

01:35:30

I'm not saying that there's no beauty in a man and no compassion in his heart, but he especially fitted the female body with beauty, the feminine soul with compassion, with the functions of support and nurture.

01:35:42

So, Scripture commends diligence and faithfulness and sacrificial love as virtues that men distinctly should cultivate.

01:35:52

And similarly, and in contrast, modesty, serenity, and charity, distinctly feminine virtues.

01:35:59

Now, let me be clear. These qualities, these virtues, are relatively, not absolutely, distinctive.

01:36:07

Females have a measure of strength and some males have a measure of beauty. But we have a

01:36:13

World's Strongest Man contest, not a World's Strongest Woman contest, and a

01:36:18

Miss America pageant, not vice versa. And so, in conclusion, with regard to culture, the

01:36:27

Bible does not encourage gender -conflicted society. That only grows out of rejecting the idea of creation.

01:36:36

It's one of the wonderful benefits of the lovely heresy of evolution. Rather, Scripture assumes that humans can discern the difference between a male and a female from the moment of birth, and accordingly, children in the

01:36:54

Old Testament and Israel didn't decide after a long struggle whether they wanted to be male or female.

01:37:01

Rather, parents discerned the gender that God gave them simply by observing their procreative faculties, and the society of God's people treated them accordingly.

01:37:11

The Bible is very clear about that. So, sex and gender should never be at odds.

01:37:18

And if a culture operates under the influence of Scripture, its cultural display of gender will never conflict with created procreative faculties.

01:37:29

But when you throw out the Bible and you throw out creation, you open the door for all kinds of things.

01:37:35

So masculinity displays in culture the maleness that God created.

01:37:40

And similarly, femininity displays in culture the femaleness that God created.

01:37:47

And cultural expression of gender includes such things as cosmetics and costume, clothing, hairstyle, customs.

01:37:54

And that's why the Mosaic civil law enforced this. It didn't allow men to dress like women in that culture or vice versa.

01:38:02

Cross -dressing is not pleasing to God because it expresses a rejection of creation of mankind as male and female.

01:38:10

The apostles also enforced that in the Christian Church. Christian men and women should appear in public in a manner that appropriately expresses their masculinity and femininity in their culture.

01:38:23

So that's what I would say by way of summary on the subject. Again, I see this whole thing that's going on today as a fruit, one of the baneful fruits of the false doctrine of evolution.

01:38:37

Amen. And I already know that I want you to come back on the program to continue the discussion of the doctrine of man because we're not even halfway through all of the major elements of this discussion.

01:38:48

So if you, after we're over today, if you could hang on the phone, if you don't mind, if you'd like to come back,

01:38:54

I would like to schedule another interview with you to continue on the doctrine of man. If you wish, that'd be my privilege,

01:39:01

Chris. Great. And we have an anonymous listener who wants to know, is it ever appropriate for a man and woman to get married knowing that one or both of them have an illness or injury that prevents sexual consummation of the marriage or procreation?

01:39:25

I'm thinking. Well, while you're thinking, I'm going to... I'm at airspace like I did last time.

01:39:31

Right. Well, while you're thinking, I'm going to repeat our email address. It's chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

01:39:39

And please give us your first name, city and state and country of residence if you live outside the

01:39:45

USA. And of course, the listener is not talking about a person marrying somebody without divulging this before they're married, but something that is mutually agreed upon.

01:39:57

And I guess he could also, he doesn't specifically say anything about the elderly, but I guess this would include, you know, you may have people in their 90s who want to get married, a man and a woman who want to get married in their 90s.

01:40:08

And that's something that they are incapable of doing for one reason or another. Yeah, right. That's what...

01:40:14

Okay, that's what... Would you please... That's exactly the way I was going... That's the way I was thinking.

01:40:19

And so would you repeat the precise question? Because I wouldn't want to forbid people in their 80s and 90s who, like Abraham and Sarah, had their procreative faculties no longer functioning.

01:40:33

You know, his body was, quote, as good as dead sexually, and she was, it ceased to be with her after the manner of women.

01:40:41

Does that mean that people like that in their 80s that are in a nursing home, they can't marry?

01:40:48

I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say they can't marry, no. But would you maybe...

01:40:54

Maybe I'm misunderstanding... Is it ever acceptable for Christians to marry when, due to an illness or injury, they are incapable of sexually consummating the marriage or procreating?

01:41:05

Now, he may be, this anonymous listener, maybe even a woman asking, you don't know, maybe even asking, you know, suppose these are robust people in their 20s but have an injury or illness that prevents them or prevents one of them from sexually consummating the marriage or procreating.

01:41:24

Perhaps you have one of them who's a quadriplegic, you know, etc. Right. I would not say that scripture prevents a quadriplegic from getting married, and I, no.

01:41:38

I mean, I don't necessarily think it's in the interest of discretion to talk about ways that, no,

01:41:49

I don't want to get into that, but I wouldn't think it's inappropriate for, you know, for people to get...

01:41:58

To please each other in the marriage bed in some different way. Yeah, that's right. If they have some disability with respect to that issue, if they're open about it, they're agreed to it, and they are sensitive to the needs of the spouse in regard to it, in the light of 1

01:42:16

Corinthians chapter 7, I think that the

01:42:21

Bible would not forbid them to get married, and I wouldn't think it would forbid people in a nursing home in their 80s.

01:42:29

Yeah. I think Reverend Buzz Taylor has a comment or question, and I want to make sure that the distinction...

01:42:34

Because I have no idea what you're going to say, so I want to make sure that people know it's you saying it. Oh, right, right, yeah.

01:42:40

Yeah, this is not Chris now, this is me. But yeah, well, I was going to just add that that's, of course,

01:42:46

I would assume there's an understanding in that situation that they also do not go elsewhere for the gratification.

01:42:53

Oh, of course. Yes, that's correct. That's right. That's a good clarification, Reverend. That's an excellent point.

01:42:59

I certainly did not intend to say that they should go to some other human being and find gratification from some prostitute or through adultery or something like that.

01:43:07

Absolutely not. Yes. Thank you for making that clarification. Which is actually,

01:43:13

I guess, in some ways what Abraham did, right, when he went to the concubine. Not because of sexual gratification, though, but to conceive a child because he doubted the

01:43:23

Lord's promise to Sarah. Well, yes.

01:43:29

With Sarah's permission, actually, with her... That's the point, is it was Sarah's idea.

01:43:34

But that, you know, that whatever the cultural practices associated with bigamy in those days are, we don't live in a society that accepts and tolerates bigamist practices today, or polygamist practices might be more accurate.

01:43:51

So I think that a person under such circumstances should not resort to bigamy or polygamy or anything like it to satisfy those sexual drives.

01:44:02

We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who is asking, I have very recently for the first time heard some

01:44:10

Calvinists say that they are open to the concept of possibly people being born with a proclivity towards homosexuality, since the doctrine of total depravity is a biblical truth.

01:44:27

These Calvinists are not in any way, shape, or form saying that this gives license to these people to act upon this sin, but just that it is possible for a proclivity towards that to be something they are born with if they are born evil and have a proclivity towards other forms of sin, what would make homosexuality different?

01:44:52

Well, yeah, I think it's possible for Calvinists to be born with a proclivity toward pride. Yeah, right.

01:44:58

You're absolutely right. Or certainly they can develop it, because we've all met those folks, haven't we?

01:45:05

But I think it's possible for other, I won't mention denominations, but for others that call themselves

01:45:12

Christian to be born with a proclivity toward greed. Yeah, you're right. So I would think it's possible to be born as sinners with a proclivity toward all kinds of sexual sin, and not simply sexuality, but that wouldn't justify any sin.

01:45:34

It wouldn't justify pride, wouldn't justify greed, wouldn't justify sexual lust of any kind, it wouldn't justify promiscuity or fornication that's heterosexual, or any other kind of sexual sin.

01:45:50

Right. I've even seen, and I'm not even saying whether or not, I'm not a scientist, so I couldn't tell you whether or not these findings are true, or even whether I necessarily believe them fully, but I've heard even with murderers that there have been scientific studies of some people who have been arrested and are in prison for murder who have a higher level of testosterone within them naturally, and obviously, even if that is true, we're not going to justify somebody being a murderer just because they're born with more testosterone surging through their veins.

01:46:32

I would agree that it's possible for some people to be born with a proclivity toward violence and murder.

01:46:38

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that people have a proclivity to all different kinds of sin.

01:46:46

I think that is an implication of total depravity, and yet total depravity doesn't mean that everybody has the same proclivity to commit the same sin to the same extent.

01:47:00

It means that every faculty of the human soul is defiled by sin, and it means that in the state of sin, every thought, every feeling, every action, and every word is tainted by sin.

01:47:18

Well, you know, rather than start on a new thread with some of the many other subcategories we have here under the doctrine of man that we can wait until the next time you're with us to delve into in greater depth,

01:47:33

I want you to basically take five minutes, if you'd like, to basically uninterrupted summarize what you most want etched on the hearts and minds of our listeners today regarding the subject that we've been discussing.

01:47:50

Yes, thank you for that opportunity, Chris. I appreciate it. I want

01:47:57

God to be glorified in the way we think about man, and to me, the awful, awful doctrine of evolution, macroevolution, that denies creation, has done tremendous damage to every of our thinking regarding human life, and I hope that God would be honored and glorified when we realize how important it is to acknowledge him as our creator.

01:48:43

And let me just illustrate it, if I may, and I don't want to get into politics this afternoon, but this even influences politics, for example,

01:48:52

American politics. The Declaration of Independence says we hold these truths to be self -evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, and it goes on.

01:49:20

Now, if there's no creator, then there's no such thing as inalienable

01:49:28

God -given rights. And if there's no such thing as inalienable

01:49:33

God -given rights, then it's not true that governments were instituted to protect those rights.

01:49:43

So you destroy the whole fabric of the rights of individuals given to them by God, that no human being has the right to take away from them.

01:49:55

For example, God gives to all human beings the right to life when he says, you shall not murder.

01:50:02

And in society, governments are instituted to protect those

01:50:07

God -given rights that the creator is given to every individual.

01:50:13

Now, you take evolution, and there's no creator, and there's no God -given rights, and government wasn't instituted to protect those rights.

01:50:21

So evolution is a threat to the very dignity of human beings, to the rights of human beings, and to government being benevolent and protecting the rights of human beings.

01:50:37

So if it's not there to protect human rights, what's it there for? And who put it there? It might makes right.

01:50:43

It'll give rise to totalitarianism, and it'll give rise to all kinds of tyranny and horrible might -makes -right survival of the fittest, the strong have the right to impose whatever they want on the weak because they're strong.

01:50:58

There's no God to say, this is right, this is wrong, and I can do whatever I want and have the power to do to you.

01:51:05

That's a horrible way to live, and that's the world of evolution. And I want people to see that that's not biblical, that that's not what man is about, that that's not—man is about being like God.

01:51:18

Man is about giving the entire moral universe an accurate living picture of the invisible

01:51:23

God. That's dignity, the dignity of every human being, and the dignity of every aspect of human life.

01:51:31

And that is restored in Christ, and only in Christ.

01:51:37

Because without Christ, fallen men are living visible misrepresentations of God. And Christ came to restore the dignity of the representation of God accurately by people in him so that the new man is, after God, created in righteousness and holiness of truth in Christ.

01:51:59

So that's what I would want people to see, the value of human life, the purpose of human life. God put us here to do something.

01:52:06

He put us here to be fruitful, to multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it. He put us here to pursue that vocation to his honor and glory.

01:52:16

And that's the value and purpose of human work and the dignity of work and calling.

01:52:24

And through the glory of God, we do our work, and it has meaning and purpose.

01:52:31

So man has dignity, man has purpose, man has value, because man is the image of God. And human life makes sense because God ordered it.

01:52:39

It tells us what marriage is. It tells us what male and female is. It tells us, you know, what the

01:52:46

Sabbath is supposed to be, what worship is. It all rests on the reality, the glory of God creating man for his own glory, and God created man for a purpose, and God created man with value and meaning.

01:53:02

If you take evolution, it's all gone, all gone, all destroyed by the doctrine of evolution.

01:53:08

Destroys dignity, destroys depravity, destroys morality, destroys human rights.

01:53:15

So horrible, horrible evil. It's affected almost every branch and fabric of our society.

01:53:23

And I would hope that people would see the glory of God in creation, the creation of man, and it would do people good, the sense of restoring to them a sense of their dignity, their value, and their purpose in life, and that it would all be for the honor and glory of God.

01:53:38

I mean, that's not a very clear summary, but that's basically what's in my heart when I teach doctrine. Well, it's an excellent summary, and I appreciate you for it, and thank you for it.

01:53:48

And I want to remind our listeners that Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan has a website, and it is

01:53:58

GIRBC, which stands for Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church, GIRBC .org,

01:54:06

GIRBC .org. And if anybody listening, especially a lot of you out there who listen and are pastors, because I do have quite a number of pastors in the

01:54:17

United States and in the UK and in other places in Europe that listen to the program, and some who are seminary students, get a hold of the

01:54:29

Lectures in Systematic Theology. Volume 1 is already in print, and Volume 2,

01:54:34

God willing, will be right around the corner, which will address what we have been discussing today, the doctrine of man.

01:54:43

But if you want more information on the volume by Pastor Greg Nichols that is already in print, go to solid -ground -books .com,

01:54:55

solid -ground -books .com, and you can find out more about Lectures in Systematic Theology by Pastor Greg Nichols.

01:55:07

And I also want to take this time right now to thank Pike Lambeth and the publishers of the

01:55:15

New American Standard Bible for renewing their advertising contract with Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:55:22

Their funds are so deeply appreciated and needed, and the publishers of the

01:55:30

NASB, the New American Standard Bible, have been supporting Iron Sharpens Iron Radio ever since we went on the air in 2006, initially, in New York.

01:55:40

And even going back earlier than that, they have been helping to fund the debates that I have organized with Reformed Baptist theologian and apologist

01:55:51

Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and his theological opponents within the realm of Roman Catholicism and liberal

01:56:01

Protestantism and Islam and the cults like the Oneness Pentecostals and other groups that oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ.

01:56:12

Well, the publishers of the NASB or the New American Standard Version have been very, very instrumental in a lot of these things that I have been participating in and orchestrating for a number of years, going all the way back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

01:56:31

So I just thank them from the bottom of my heart for being faithful supporters of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:56:38

And if you ever want to purchase Bibles for those you love, go to NASBible .com,

01:56:45

NASBible .com, and purchase a New American Standard Bible for those you love.

01:56:53

And also, if your church wants to either put Bibles for the first time in your pews, or if you want to replace those

01:57:03

Bibles that are already there because they're tattered and falling apart, or you've come to realize that the translation or version that you have in your pews is perhaps not the best translation, and you want to move on to something that is a more literal translation, please, especially for large numbers of Bibles like that, to stalk the pews in churches, please go to NASBible .com,

01:57:28

NASBible .com. And I know that Pastor Greg Nichols, even, I know that you prefer the, it seems you prefer the early 1901, is it,

01:57:38

American Standard Bible and the New American Standard version on occasion in some of your lectures and writing.

01:57:46

Don't you actually have that as one of your favorites? Well, when I was in New Jersey, we used the 1901

01:57:52

American Standard. Here in Grand Rapids, we do use the New American Standard as our pew

01:57:58

Bible. We read from it on Sunday. We read from the New American Standard Bible.

01:58:04

Amen. Well, thanks for help bolstering my major sponsor here. I never knew anybody that actually used the 1901.

01:58:13

This is amazing. Yes. We used it in New Jersey. I don't know, still use it at Trinity in New Jersey, but we used it there.

01:58:21

And so I got used to it. But what I would do was when I would read it publicly, the 1901,

01:58:28

I would take out the these and the thousand, read it as if it were in modern English. They certainly didn't want me doing that in Grand Rapids.

01:58:36

And they got to Grand Rapids about 20 years ago. They said, look, you need to buy a

01:58:43

New American Standard because that's the one we use.

01:58:48

We always read from the New American Standard Bible. It's our pew Bible. Don't get me wrong.

01:58:55

I like it. You better like it. But thank you so much,

01:59:01

Pastor Greg. And I look forward to you coming back on. And as I said, if you could hold on for a minute, we would love to schedule an exact date for you to return to continue this discussion on the doctrine of man.

01:59:13

When we go off the air, if you could hold on, I would appreciate that. I want to thank everybody who listened today, especially those who took the time to write and email questions to us.

01:59:24

I want to thank everyone again who has already sent checks to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio because you know that this is a valuable program in your life.

01:59:33

And that means the world to me. And most of all, I appreciate your prayers. I hope that you all have a safe and joyful and richly blessed weekend and Lord's Day.

01:59:43

And I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.