It is that time of year again, and everyone who does not particularly hate egg-shaped chocolate is in on the fun and enjoyment. It can also be a somewhat confusing time as it involves the reason for the season. So right here off the bat, it is necessary to say that Easter is the pagan name for a pagan feast, that somewhere in history became associated with an event that is entirely Christian in origin — the cross death and resurrection of Jesus. It is not hard to imagine that what Christians actually celebrate when Easter comes around every year is the most significant aspect of our faith, and yes we throw in a couple of chocolate eggs and bunnies to add to the enjoyment, not that any of these are innately Christian.

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​24 January, 2024 It is a new year and the war in the Middle East wages on. Late last year, the war was sparked by the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS is its acronym) aimed at the sovereign state of Israel. It is, as with the war in the Ukraine, a war for territory. Aided by the political debate that has been sparked since “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” first reigned rocket fire over Israel accompanied by a breach of the Gaza-Israel barrier by 3000 Islamic militants — Christians have been divided in their interpretation of the war.
 
The reason for this disagreement among Christians is wide ranging, but if it were to be reduced to its basic form, it is clear that it comes down to what they believe about Israel’s future. Some, like mainline Covenantal thinkers, place little value on future Israel as a nation with territorial boundaries, while others, myself included, interpret Bible prophecy and promises regarding Israel as containing not only spiritual blessing, but also tangible and measurable territorial blessing.
 
The former may lead to an interpretation of the current conflict as merely a sad humanitarian disaster (of course any loss of innocent lives is tragic), however, of no-to-little biblical importance or significance as Israel’s future is concerned. The latter view, which, broadly speaking, is the Premillennial interpretation, necessarily sees current events in the Middle East as yet another pagan attack on a nation to whom Yahweh has promised a lasting legacy (Ez. 37:25-28).

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1. Dating understood biblically
The Bible doesn’t have a category for dating. In other words, there is no explicit biblical instruction with regards to the how, what, why, or when of dating. In biblical terms someone is either “single” (unmarried) or married (Matt. 19:4-6; 1 Cor. 7:8-10). Apart from the category of being married, there is the period of engagement which precedes marriage, and Scripture does refer to this. According to Jewish tradition breaking off the betrothal was just as serious as divorce (Mat. 1:18-19). However, in modern times, even engagement or betrothal does not constitute as being officially wed (1 Cor. 7:25-28).
 
2. The purpose for “getting to know someone” romantically
The purpose for any romantic interaction between a guy and a girl should be intentionally aimed toward marriage, and for no other reason. All other reasons are not legitimate reasons for romantic interaction of any kind, whatever name society has for it, whether “dating,” “going steady,” and the like (1 Cor. 7:36-38). Someone either has the gift of singleness or not. However, not very many people in the church have this gift and statistics support this (1 Cor. 7:6). For this reason, the dating relationship should be “intentional.” Again, there is no other reason to be dating than to explore the possibility of marriage. Sadly, the world has falsely created the notion that people can date for other reasons than pursuing marriage. In the eyes of the world, marriage has become passé or archaic and for this reason many have rejected the institution and God’s requirements for it altogether. Christians cannot think this way. We cannot go about our dating relationships as if dating is the end goal. Marriage should always be the goal. Dating is merely the vehicle that allows us to determine the possibility of marriage.
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It is sometimes shocking to find out what people believe about Christ. Most cults and false religions see him as either a very good person, or that He was a prophet, or even that He was the Son of God. None of these are necessarily wrong, however, they fall short of the true identity of our Lord. Jesus himself made the exclusive claim that salvation is only possible through him. He did so by claiming that He and the Father were one. This is to say that Jesus of Nazareth and God the Father are equal in importance. Simply stated, Christ Jesus did claim to be God.

In many ways Christians find themselves in the midst of a fierce battle, i.e. the battle for the deity of Jesus Christ. In order to prove the deity of our Lord, we will have a look at the Bible's interpretation of the person of Christ. In doing so, it should become evident that He possessed the attributes of the living God. We will also look at some of Christ's claims regarding himself. The Gospels are replete of evidence that Christ claimed to be God. Not only did He claim to be God, but He also proved that He was God through the many miraculous deeds done by him during his time on earth. The resurrection being not the least of these. It would become obvious that these findings are in direct opposition to any cult or false religion that does not believe that Jesus is God.

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A while ago I introduced a subject that may have rattled a few theological cages — the role of the Decalogue in evangelism. This response is quite understandable. As Christians we should all have great respect and reverence for the entire Word of God (Ac. 20:27). We believe that the Word is inerrant and infallible and that it is therefore applicable to, and sufficient to all people of all times (Ps. 19). When we hear phrases like the “obsolescence of the Law of Moses” or the “end of the Law,” it does have a somewhat unsettling effect.

However, this need not be the case. What I introduced in that article is no new concept. Rather, it is something that all Christians of different hermeneutical stripes must agree on, albeit, to varying degrees. For this reason, covenantalists (who typically believe that the Law of Moses is still intact in some ways today) and dispensationalists (who argue that the Mosaic Law in its entirety has been served in the OT) must all agree to an assumed level of breakage or disconnect with the Old Law. Some obvious examples would be for instance that we don’t cast lots anymore to discern the will of the Lord (Lev. 16:8). Rather we commit all things to God in prayer (Ps. 37:5; Phil. 4:6-7). We also don’t require young, unmarried men to marry their deceased brother’s childless widow (Deut. 25:5-10) to propagate his lineage. Rather, the NT reveals a great level of freedom in who we marry as long as we marry in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39).
 
Differences like the ones mentioned above highlight the fact that there is clearly a level of disconnect between OT and NT times. Any study of such differences involves studying the “continuity vs. discontinuity” between the two testaments. Some Christians do not see as much disconnect between the two testaments as others might. As already stated, this is typically true of covenantalists and dispensationalist. However, even among covenantalists there are disagreements as to the level of discontinuity between the two testaments (classic covenantalism vs. new covenantalism), as there are disagreements among dispensationalists (classical dispensationalism vs. progressive dispensationalism).

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Some time ago I preached on the sin of comparison, at least as comparison leads to sinful attitudes and behaviour with regards to our relationship with our Lord and others around us. The kind of comparison we looked at mostly involves the comparisons that occur among believers and the specific trying circumstances that the Lord has ‘tailor-made’ for their lives, whether financial, health, interpersonal, or whatever it may be. These are indeed times that we are tempted to be like Peter in John 21 who dared to ask the Lord about John, “what about this man Lord?”. But these are not the only times we can be tempted to do so.

The world around us is filled with people who, from the outside looking in, seem to be smooth sailors in whatever they do. We often see this when we scan the pages of social platforms, observing a world of success, achievement, satisfaction, and happiness. We see happy faces glaring at us. These appear to be people who, as far as the photo reveals, are doing well, and seem to have it ‘together’ in life. They will share every ‘next big thing’ for others to see and approve of by giving the much coveted “like” on their page. Hours upon hours are invested on these platforms as the internet gets pumped with more and more information. This is the world where unreality is often mistaken for reality. Mildly stated, it’s simply not the world that your great-grandmother had to deal with.

Sure, the tabloids were around for a long time, but now-a-days a world of useless information about people’s lives is only a click away. We see their successes and achievements and it tempts us to want to be like them, and even model them in some way or another. We give in to the allure of the photoshopped images that roll off the screen unhindered and never ending, and we start to think “they have the life.”

That’s what we think… 

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I am fascinated by the tenacity found in creation, this I must admit to my own annoyance at times. Every year towards the end of summer we have a substantial invasion of ants in our home. Like clock work every year they arrive in their different regiments, seeking any bit or morsel of food they can find. What is truly fascinating about these ants is that they keep on coming no matter what conventional ways of eradicating them might throw at them.
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What did I learn from the ants? In addition to remembering to put last night’s food in the fridge, my own futile attempts at thwarting this invasion has taught me another more significant lesson, and this is that persistency pays off. Persistency is the key ingredient to any measure of success. One cannot expect to succeed in anything worth succeeding in life if one is not persistent, or consistently working toward a desired result. If you want to be a skilled pianist then you will have to devote yourself to hours of practice. The same applies to anything people want to achieve in this life.

Things aren’t all that different in the Christian walk. It really isn’t. For starters, Scripture actually refers to the ant’s diligence as an example that Christians should emulate. Solomon highlighted the ant’s example to us in Proverbs 6:6-11:
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“Go to the ant, O sluggard;
    consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
    officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
    and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.”

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​While in the past the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa (DRCSA) confessed the authority of the Bible as the Word of God, many within the Church today do not see the Bible as authoritative on all matters. Prevailing views on the Pauline epistles is a prime example. In many ways, Paul is viewed as “a product of his time who could only describe the awesome reality of God’s saving presence in limited (patriarchal) language”

The well-known South African theologian Andrew Murray, himself a member of the DRCSA, reacted as far back as 1862, shortly after the midway mark of the 19th-century, to the large-scale rationalism that had been advocated in Dutch theology faculties and warned against the influence it may have had on fellow ministers in the DRCSA. This battle where the authority of Scripture was at the centre became so severe that it was not able to escape the Cape courtrooms.

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You won’t find the word “disproportionism” in any dictionary worth its salt, so feel free to stop the googling. I admit that this is not the queen’s English, but in a world where “isms” abound it is important for us to know about the dangers of them all, whether “relativism,” “anti-supernaturalism,” “post-modernism,” or whatever other dubious “isms” may exist that are worthy of refutation.
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Such is the case with the topic I’d like to address in this article. For some reading this, the term “Hyper-Calvinism” might no yet have entered their sphere of cognizance, however there are subtle ways in which they might already have been influenced by it. In broad strokes, Hyper-Calvinism is a misrepresentation of “good” Calvinistic teachings or tenets, the majority of which I personally can vouch for. Within a Calvinistic framework, these teachings, although biblical, get inflated, magnified, or for the lack of a better word, get “pumped-up” to the point of being disproportionate, leading to what I like to call "theological disproportionism.”

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​Generally speaking, good churches who are considered to be “like-minded” are split down the middle as it involves their view of women as deaconesses. Some say “absolutely not,” while others say “sure, why not.” We as Stellenbosch Bible Church have since our founding in the month of May, 2015, opted for the latter view when the church was constituted by one elder (yours truly) and three other families. Perhaps some might have been led to believe that we do not allow women to be deaconesses because of the absence of women deaconesses in our church. However, their absence in our current detachment of deacons has purely been for circumstantial reasons, in particular personal readiness and qualification of women who have since the church’s founding been identified and approached as potential deaconesses by the elder (1 Tim. 3:8-13).
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Things have not changed since our founding days. So, in order to help those of you who were not members with us during that pioneering first year of our church, I’d like to briefly offer you the reasons for our acknowledgment of the legitimacy of deaconesses.

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