Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 4:16

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.

2Co 4:16 to 2Co 5:10 The Preachers of the Gospel are sustained by the hope of a Future Life

16. For which cause we faint not ] The Apostle now returns to the topic he has already introduced ( 2Co 4:1). But the digression, if indeed it be a digression, only tends to strengthen the assertion he has made. ‘We faint not,’ he says, ‘not merely because we have a glorious ministry ( 2Co 4:1), not merely because we have the knowledge of God ( 2Co 4:6), not merely because, though oppressed and afflicted ourselves, we see the blessed results of our ministry in others, but because (cf. 2Co 4:10-11) our sorrows and sufferings, the decay of our mortal body, are but external. There is a spring of life within that can never fail, the new life, which comes to us from God through Christ.’

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For which cause – With such an object in view, and sustained by such elevated purposes and desires. The sense is, that the purpose of trying to save as many as possible would make toil easy, privations welcome, and would be so accompanied by the grace of God, as to gird the soul with strength, and fill it with abundant consolations.

We faint not – For an explanation of the word used here, see the note on 2Co 4:1. We are not exhausted, desponding, or disheartened. We are sustained, encouraged, emboldened by having such an object in view.

But though our outward man perish – By outward man, Paul evidently means the body. By using the phrases, the outward man, and the inward man, he shows that he believed that man was made up of two parts, body and soul. He was no materialist. He has described two parts as constituting man, so distinct: that while the one perishes, the other is renewed; while the one is enfeebled, the other is strengthened; while the one grows old and decays, the other renews its youth and is invigorated. Of course, the soul is not dependent on the body for its vigor and strength, since it expands while the body decays; and of course the soul may exist independently of the body, and in a separate state.

Perish – Grows old; becomes weak and feeble; loses its vigor and elasticity under the many trials which we endure, and under the infirmities of advancing years. It is a characteristic of the outer man, that it thus perishes. Great as may be its vigor, yet it must decay and die. It cannot long bear up under the trials of life, and the wear and tear of constant action, but must soon sink to the grave.

Yet the inward man – The soul; the undecaying, the immortal part.

Is renewed – Is renovated, strengthened, invigorated. His powers of mind expanded; his courage became bolder; he had clearer views of truth; he had more faith in God. As he drew nearer to the grave and to heaven, his soul was more raised above the world, and he was more filled with the joys and triumphs of the gospel. The understanding and the heart did not sympathize with the suffering and decaying body; but, while that became feeble, the soul acquired new strength, and was fitting for its flight to the eternal world. This verse is an ample refutation of the doctrine of the materialist, and proves that there is in man something that is distinct from decaying and dying matter, and that there is a principle which may gain augmented strength and power, while the body dies; compare note, Rom 7:22.

Day by day – Constantly. There was a daily and constant increase of inward vigor. God imparted to him constant strength in his trials, and sustained him with the hopes of heaven, as the body was decaying, and tending to the grave. The sentiment of this verse is, that in an effort to do good, and to promote the salvation of man, the soul will be sustained in trials, and will be comforted and invigorated even when the body is weary, grows old, decays, and dies. It is the testimony of Paul respecting his own experience; and it is a fact which has been experienced by thousands in their efforts to do good, and to save the souls of people from death.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Co 4:16-18

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Dual manhood

I. There is a duality in Christian manhood. The apostle was not only a great theologian, but also a great philosopher. He here speaks of an outward and an inward man, and speaks of them as distinct, though in this world they are wedded together. This outer man is part of us–is ours, but not us. I feel this body is mine, but it is not me. In the outward man there dwells an inward man, invisible to the eyes of sense; it loves, believes, hopes, etc., and accomplishes many acts which the outer man cannot do. Innumerable troubles, like an attacking army, were assailing Pauls outward man, and at any moment it might be destroyed; but his inward man was calm and safe–as within the walls of a castle, and grew stronger and braver as the battle waxed hotter.

II. The growth or decay of this dual manhood is not necessarily co-ordinate. A man may grow outwardly, and his possessions may enlarge, while his mental and moral powers may dwindle away, and vice-versa. The outward man, or casket, may decay, while the inward man, or jewel, is being polished day by day, and fitted for the Redeemers crown.

III. These facts present blessed hope and encouragement to the good. (F. W. Brown.)

The perishing and the renewed man

I. God has set some types of this great truth of the text in objects that we see.

1. There is a fruit tree. Wood, bark; leaves, make up its visible figure. Every year it changes a little for the better or the worse, and every season gives some sign that it is growing old. Does everything about the tree, then, at last, perish? No. Underneath this visible form and colour there is a mysterious power at work. This does not grow old or decay. When this particular tree has done its whole work, that secret element of life is all hidden away in some seeds that survive.

2. You pass a cornfield. Last April that ground was bare and brown. Some weeks hence and the ground will be as bare and brown as when the last snow melted from it. Yet in the granary is stored up the life of the harvest. The outward part returns to the earth as it was; the inward part is renewed, and lives on.

3. Take machinery. Those levers, wheels, rollers, blades, valves, are continually wearing out. But there is a subtle power of nature operating through it which never wears out. The fruit of our industry often, at least, remains as lasting benefit,

4. In almost all our employments there are two such elements. First, there is the external apparatus necessary to carrying on the business, and always perishing. Besides this, there is the less palpable but far more important and abiding product of the business in the man that does it.

5. A great nation, by the outlay and sacrifice of a desolating war of defence, may be replenishing all the nobler sources of permanent peace and honour. At any rate, and in all times, the individual and his contemporaries disappear, but the national character goes on forming.

II. Now open your bible. In what new clearness this truth is written there I Here we have the key to all these ciphers in nature, which otherwise would be but an unintelligible riddle. Here we pass beyond all faint intimations out into the broad sunshine, where life and immortality are brought completely to light.

1. Something about you is transient.

(1) In this mortal part Paul includes the visible gains of labour and calculation, the surroundings of estates and furniture and dress; and, more than these, all intellectual accomplishments, social refinements, and advantages of rank and position which are not consecrated by faith and made a part of the spiritual man (1Co 13:8).

(2) The inward man is one simple, definite thing. It is that wherein the living Christ dwells through faith. There is not only a formal belief in an atonement wrought out by Him ages ago, but a hearty and loving reception of Him as a present and personal life.

2. Day by day the true Christian souls inner life grows deeper, stronger, and richer. It is not only a future immortality, but the heavenliness begins here. Never satisfied with the holiness attained, its large expectation is that of an unbounded faith, and according to its faith it is done, till this worn-out body is exchanged for the resurrection body, awaking in the Lords likeness, and satisfied with it.

3. In this way and no other the believer is able to look calmly on the changes of his mortality, on the flight of time, on the advance of age, on pain and infirmity, on disorder, on death itself. The outward man perisheth. Let it perish; its perishing will only set the inward man free, in an infinite and everlasting liberty. So martyrs sing their lives away in the fire. So sufferers in our common dwellings give God thanks in the midst of agony, their eyes fixed on a continuing city and a more enduring substance.

Conclusion–

1. Healthy, happy, vigorous youth! Every day your body is gaining strength. Who, then, will say that this outward man of yours, which maketh daily increase, is perishing? The clock says so, with every seconds stroke. This growth and gain of your body are only a prelude for the inevitable decay which is close at hand. A few swift months more, and there will be some sign given that the hill-top is crossed. What will the end be? The grave? Oh, you would not have it so! Where, then, is the inward life? The soul has only one life, which is life in Christ. It has but one death. Unbelief, selfishness, sensuality, passion, vanity, the love of the world, kill it.

2. Here is comfort for old age. You have found that long-worn and tired body of yours less prompt than it used to be to do the bidding of your will. But if your old age is Christian, the maker and Father of your life will see, as He has promised, that your inward man, which is His image, shall never die. Let the earthly tabernacle crumble. You will only see more of the sky. (Bp. Huntington.)

Newness of life

If a man is renewed day by day there will be something new for him to learn, some fresh experience for him to tell; the world will be a new world, the Bible will be a new Bible. We so seldom get a new light on a truth. People tire of the same testimony in the same form. It grows rancid and musty; there is an unpleasant flavour about it. It seems as if the doors were opened into a room that had been growing faded and dank and dismal. All the furnishings hang rotting on the worm-eaten beams. Nothing has been renewed and replenished from the first day to this. It is just the same. It stands just as it has always done. And there the poor soul stands that was once well furnished, but that now is the sorrowful tenement of decaying experiences, vestiges of a past beauty, relics of a bygone day. Men tell us to-day that the Christian experience is not interesting. It does not seem to grow. We are just where men were a thousand years ago. Life in every other department is progressing to a goal. New discoveries are made everywhere else. But here all is antiquated. Its devotion to the past may be as pathetic as that still and decaying chamber that is preserved at Hampton Court to show you exactly how it stood on some memorable historical occasion, but it is fruitful only of despair and death. The inward man must be renewed day by day. A little while ago an American preacher, well known on the other side of the Atlantic, but whose name is not so familiar to us, wrote these words, which I will venture to read to you because they put this truth in his terse American way. There is nothing in Gods earth, he says, that grows rank and foetid sooner than an experience. Our hymn asks–

Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?

Dont know, and it wouldnt do you any good if you had it. Blessedness wont keep. It is one of the all-pervading principles that the more delicate a thing is, and the more finely organised, the more directly it will decay and fall to pieces when once it has parted from the root it sprang from. Strayed or stolen–a religious experience! The hymn just quoted from is an advertisement for a lost joy. It is like hunting after the blaze of the lamp that the oil is all burnt out of. Keep the wick trimmed and the lamp filled, you will have blaze enough, without advertising for last nights blaze; you dont know where that is, and you could make nothing of it if you did. Good things have to be made over and over, and everlastingly reduplicated. The fresh river must incessantly draw on the young rivulets that incessantly trickle from the hillside. Christian joy that does not bear the stamp of this very day and date is a silurian deposit, an evangelical relic, a fossilised piety. Now I venture to think that there is underneath this somewhat remarkable form a great deal of sterling teaching. Once let a mans prevailing tone of mind be the contemplation of what he was, and not of what he is, and spiritual dotage has begun. Just as Dean Swift could read over again his early writings and say, What a genius I was when I wrote that book! so the Christian whose spiritual life has grown old and weak, and whose spiritual experiences have been made up again and again, cut and trimmed and dyed every colour the imagination can conceive such an one, I say, looks back on the original and now distant experiences, and derives his sole melancholy satisfaction from the contemplation of what he was. Believe me, unless the present is the greatest hour in the history of a Church, unless this passing moment is the best in the spiritual experience of the individual Christian, there is something wrong. I want to say that I do not believe we have even begun to grasp the wonder of the spirit of man. I do not believe we have begun to grasp the extent to which we make life and thought and everything, just as God made man, after our own image. The man whose spirit is new every day lives in a new world, and does not tire of the world in which he lives; reads a new Bible, and never tires of the Bible which he reads. You do not want a new world to make heaven, but just a new soul to live in it, and to love the earth and the sea and the sky and the God that dwells in all. Here is the unrenewed man with his unrenewed soul and his weary look of ennui, tired of life, absolutely blase, and you suggest to him some change of scene. Oh, he says, but Ive been there; Ive done theft. He wants a change. Yes, so he does; he wants a change inside. It is the renewal of the inward man that he needs. He is just the sort of man who says, Ah, yes, Ive read the Bible; I wish you could recommend another book. He has read it, and he wants a change; and so he does, I say again–he wants a renewal of the inward man. This is what will save this heavy, wearied, bored society which has grown up to-day, and which yearns for some new thing to read and to see; a baptism of the inward man. I trust I have carried you with me in this attempt to show you that what we need, if our religious life is to become interesting, is new life–life as new as the last ray of the sun that has reached us, the last drop of dew that has trembled on the blade of grass. We want this ever-flowing, ever-growing life. We want to make contact with the source of life. There are so many people whose spiritual life is governed on the seven-day clock principle. It is effectually wound up on the Sunday, end it is effectually exhausted on the Saturday following. And the coming Sunday will find it where the last Sunday found it. There will be no real progress, no gain, no growth. The play of the living spirit of a man about and around the facts and truths of the world makes them to live anew. The play of the Divine Spirit around the spirits of men makes them to live anew. God recreates men, and by doing so recreates eternally the world that He created. Here, for instance, are the eight notes of music and the semitones, and the human spirit has played around them and blended them into infinite variations through indefinite centuries. But they are not exhausted yet. The new man will find as much music in them still as has been found in them in the past. And so with the truths of revelation. Infinite combinations, infinite interpretations, but underneath all the same great foundation of the spiritual thought. So every new man makes a new theology, and renews his own day by day. It is hardly necessary to point out to you the practical application of such a law as this. To the Apostle Paul it was the principle of his religious life. He was a very busy man; he was the greatest preacher of his age; but he had always something new to say. He spoke out of a heart that was in constant touch with Christ. On what do you depend for the renewal of your spiritual life? Do not answer it hastily, but press this question home to your own consciences: Do I depend on men or on God? Do I find my inward life dull and sluggish if I do not hear my favourite preacher? On what do you depend for the renewal of your spiritual life? Do you require a peculiar type of aesthetic service? On what do you depend? I can conceive of nothing so perilous as that this matter of eternal moment should be allowed to depend on persons or places that are subject to change. Renewal is from above. (C. Silvester Horne.)

The inward man

There is much in this world to make men faint! Health is seldom long unbroken. Success is gained, and its sweetness lost, by the death of those we sought to secure it for! In religion, too, there would seem to be tendencies toward the same disappointment. Paul speaks of trouble on every side, of being perplexed, etc. But two especial sources of strength are referred to. In the spirit of faith (2Co 4:13), and the sustaining hope which springs from Christs resurrection (2Co 4:14). These were antidotes to all depressions, and remembering that his own bearing as a Christian soldier would naturally affect the ranks, Paul adds: For all things are for your sakes (2Co 4:15), and then explains the apostolic position in the text. Notice the position–thus:

I. The man–visible. Paul does not speak contemptuously of the body, nor did he encourage maceration or court martyrdom. He says, Though the outward man perish. It might happen, he well knew, and it did happen to him, but he was ready. For which cause we faint not, etc. Our circumstances differ widely from his, but we too are tempted in ten thousand ways. Let me therefore remark–

1. That Christians fret, but do not faint. They are still human. They fret when disappointments come, when vexatious law-suits have to be fought out–when impoverishment of the home-life comes. But the difference between them and the children of this world lies here–they do not faint–they stand. This word faint means to turn out a coward. For which cause we are not cowards, but though our outward man, etc.

2. That Christians fail, but do not faint. Our lives are stories of failure as well as of success. Armies, says Alexander Smith, are not always cheering on the heights they have won. No; there are retreats, and baggage-waggon captures and desperate frays with advanced pickets, and sudden and sharp conflicts. So it is with the Christian; he does not always come off victorious. No; he fails! And then he gathers together the scattered forces of his moral life–he takes unto him the whole armour of God, probably having neglected some part of it before, and again he renews the war.

3. That Christians die, but do not faint. Physical weakness and decay will come! The outward man must perish. Time is as stern an executioner as the headsman of old. It is appointed unto all men once to die. But the Christian looks for an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away. And that inheritance is in germ already within him. Though the outward man perishes, the great life-work is going on within; there the work of grace is meetening for the life of glory. I will ask two questions.

(1) Who can wonder that worldly men so often faint? Artificial stimulants can only sustain for a time. Society, friendship, enlivening pursuits–these often hide for a time the stern realities of life. Then the dream-land of joy is broken in upon, and the man awakes to his delusions. Then comes the indescribable faintness of a soul that has no everlasting arm to rest on, no promises to console, no inheritance to anticipate. If we are worldly, we too shall faint.

(2) Who else can supply what Christ provides? We have not in all history such records of consolation amid the changes of life, and in the coming of death, as we have in the Word of God. Nowhere else but in the gospel have we the power which gives spirituality to life, and solace in the hour of death, For which cause we faint not.

II. The man–invisible.

1. There is an inner man. This, indeed, has been the great teaching of Revelation from the commencement. Man is separated from all other forms of created life by this–he has a soul. The inner man asserts itself. Argue against its existence as man will, there, in the depths of consciousness, is the irresistible argument–I am. This inner man may become weakened, debased, depraved–it is a fact of history and experience that it has become so–day by day. It is in Christ that we have life; this, too, is a fact of history and experience. It is in this inner man we must find the seat of strength, and the spring of consolation. Let that be reached, and then we shall be able to triumph over the ills to which flesh is heir. We are strengthened with all might by Christs Spirit, says the apostle, in our inner man.

2. This inner man is renewed. Renewal is a series of acts. Just as life is one gift, but the daily renewal of it by food, by air, by exercise, is a series of acts. Thinkers must constantly study, meditate, read; or the old stores would actually, to a large extent, die out. So yesterdays religion is a thing of yesterday. We need fresh draughts of living water, fresh breakings of the heavenly bread, fresh communings of conscience and heart with the Divine Lord.

3. This renewal is a daily one. Not a mere Sabbath one. Give us this day our daily bread! Day by day. (W. M. Statham.)

The renewal of life

The outward man is the visible, mortal man, which feels the exhaustion of endurance and endeavour. There is no magic fountain in which we can wash and be young. But the inward man must not decay. Its faculties are to be perennially vigorous–the inner eye clear, the hearing acute, the sensibility delicate, the step firm, the voice that of them who overcome. If this power and freshness are to be preserved the inward man must be renewed day by day.

I. Only through habitual devotion can the faculties of the soul be preserved and perfected. Darwin wrote–Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry gave me great pleasure. Formerly pictures gave me considerable and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts … If I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week, for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have become active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature? Note here–

1. That mental faculties may be entirely extirpated by disuse. This is true touching spiritual gifts. Spiritual sensibility, imagination, sympathy, aspiration, may be starved and lost by men utterly immersed in secular life, and if the perishing of the aesthetic sense is a melancholy loss, as Darwin felt it to be, the loss of the diviner faculty, by which we appreciate the eternal beauty and glory of the moral universe, is yet infinitely more deplorable.

2. That constant culture is necessary to keep the intellectual faculties alive. And if we are to preserve the precious affinities, and energies of our deepest nature we must constantly stir up the gift that is in us–contemplating the highest beauty, listening to the music of eternity, holding loving fellowship with the perfect life and righteousness.

II. The lines of devotion in which we must habitually exercise ourselves.

1. Day by day we must instruct and elevate our mind by communion with Gods Word. Goethe said that every man should, every day, see at least one fine work of art, hear one sweet strain of music, read one beautiful poem. But we not only need the daily bread of mental delight, we need also daily manna for our spirit. Here, then, we must be spiritually mindful, and eat uninterruptedly immortal bread. Observe in Psa 119:1-176. the continuousness of the Psalmists fellowship with the God of truth. The virtue of this continuousness is implied in the closing words of our Lord (Joh 15:3-7). The full beauty and fruition of the branch is dependent upon its complete and constant identification with the tree. The Orientals express the persistence of the friendship of the noble in their saying, When the lotus is broken its fibres still remain, and whilst the frailest thread of connection remains the flower does not at once miss all its bloom; so even in the believers declensions Christ still insinuates fresh energy into the soul by secret fibres of union; yet the full beauty and fruitfulness of life are soon missed if we permit our fellowship with the truth in Jesus to become limited and irregular. We are often deeply anxious about the outer world, its clouds, temptations, etc., but really our concern lies chiefly with the depth and force of the life within us. The authorities declare that it is not so much a matter of atmosphere with the London trees as it is of soil and draining; let the trees be right at the roots, and they will battle triumphantly with poisoned air. Being rooted and grounded in love and knowledge, we may defy all storms and deadly atmospheres, and put on and ever wear all the beauty of the summer (Psa 1:3).

2. Day by day we must purify our soul in fellowship at Gods throne. No greater mistake could be made than to allow the vigour of a church to decline with the idea that periodical revival services would recover lost ground. And in our personal life we must not expect by extraordinary devotion to recover in an hour what we have neglected in a week. Only through constant communion with God can we perfect and preserve the purity of our spirit. We must attend to our toilet every day, many times a day, if we are to continue altogether presentable. And this is equally true of our inward life, with its thousand possibilities of defilement. The housekeeper cannot afford to let the furniture be tarnished with the design of restoring all things to brightness by some energetic periodical cleansing; the house can be maintained in true purity and comeliness only through daily industry and thoroughness. Thus is it also with character. What do days of neglect mean in a garden? What do days of neglect mean on shipboard? And the days of dulness and faithlessness in our life leave results of secret flaws and failures of character which many days of humiliation and painful striving may hardly retrieve. We must meet the wear and tear of probation by constant renewal in secret intercourse with God.

3. Day by day we must make the best of lifes opportunities.

(1) We must make the best of lifes opportunities in getting good. The moral wealth of life is not minted out of great occasions and extraordinary circumstances only, but through the wise economy of routine. Most people know about the gold and diamonds of Brazil; and yet the exports of sugar and coffee from that country in one year are of more value than all the gold and jewels found in it in half a century.

(2) And in doing good there must be the same faithful, systematic improvement of small opportunities. As Miss Havergal writes: The bits of wayside work are very sweet. Perhaps the odd bits, when all is done, will really come to more than the seemingly greater pieces: the chance conversations with rich and poor, the seed sown in odd five minutes. Our condemnation is that we let the days slip away despising the many simple chances they give for speaking kind words, doing little graceful acts by the wayside and the hearth. The wealth and beauty of the world spring not from the rare aloe whose scarlet splendour flames out once in twenty, fifty, or a hundred years; but from the grass which grows upon the mountain, and which is green the year round. We sometimes see a man in a comparatively small way of business; he makes the very least noise, and yet when he dies everybody is astonished by the large fortune he leaves behind him. So it is spiritually. Solomon appointed the priests to their service, the Levites, and the porters, as the duty of every day required. And it is by accomplishing our service as the duty of every day requires that we become rich toward God. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The inner man or soul growth

1. Man has two natures.

2. The outward nature is subject to the law of decay. The law of dissolution is operating on the body every moment. Particle after particle departs with every pulsation.

3. Whilst the outward man decays, the inner man may grow in strength. We would not depreciate the assistance which the inner derives from the outer. Like the atmosphere to the seed, the body is the medium which conveys to the soul those sunbeams and showers which quicken it into life and nourish its powers. All that is taught is that the soul can grow even while the body is decaying. Note–

I. The conditions of this soul growth.

1. There can be no growth, of course, without life. All plants and animals, however young, cease to grow the moment life departs. But the life must be healthful. What is the healthful life of a soul? Supreme sympathy with God.

2. There must be wholesome nutriment. No life can live upon itself.

3. There must be proper exercise. Christianity has a power to impart the life, supply the nourishment, and stimulate the exercise.

II. The characteristics of this soul growth.

1. Beautifulness. The growth of a flower is beautiful, so is the growth of a child, so is the growth of an empire. But the growth of a soul in virtue, in usefulness, in assimilation to God, is a more beautiful object than these. That flower will wither, but the soul will advance for ever–rise from glory unto glory.

2. Constancy. Growth is not a thing of fits and starts. The plant, the child, grow every hour; they do not grow one day of the week and pause on the others. If we are not religious always we are never religious.

3. Blessedness. A growing state is a happy state. See the lambs, the little bird, the child, etc. If you are growing in soul you are happy.

4. Endlessness. The capacity for growth in all other life under the sun is limited. The tree that grows a thousand years finds a point at which it stops and decays; not so with the soul. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.

5. Responsibleness. Man may not be responsible always for the growth of his body; if he has a dwarfish body, he cannot help it, but if he has a dwarfish soul he himself is to blame.

We learn from this subject–

1. The necessary condition of mans well-being. It is not that your wealth should increase, your influence extend, your social circle widen, for your body decays, and with this all these things lose their worth, but it is the growth of the soul.

2. The absolute necessity of the gospel. You cannot grow without spiritual life, nourishment, and incentives to action. And nothing but the gospel can give you these.

3. The true method of using the world. It is to make it promote the growth of the soul.

4. The Christians view of death. It is nothing but a change in the mere costume of our being. This mortal must put on immortality! (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The growth of the spiritual life

It is assumed–

I. That spiritual life exists. The phrase, inward man, has the same meaning as the new man. The agent producing this life is the Spirit of God; and whilst there is great variety in the means employed to produce it, its main features are always the same, the character and habits brought into conformity with Gods will.

II. That this spiritual life is susceptible of growth. This growth consists–

1. In the more vivid apprehension of spiritual realities. Spirituality of mind distinguishes the sincere Christian from the formalist.

2. In the development of a holy character. The influence of truth upon the character of a good man is like that of the sun upon the blossom, which causes it to expand in fragrance and beauty.

3. In a more enlightened and comprehensive view of spiritual truth. When I was a child, etc.

III. That the growth of this spiritual life is best promoted by the faithful and active discharge of duty. Here were men who sought no monastic seclusion, who resigned themselves to no luxurious meditations who had no time for any lengthened seasons of retirement, and yet whose spiritual life grew. Conscientious obedience to the will of God will be followed by the advancement of the spiritual life. By this obedience we exercise its faculties and display its moral excellences. True, intercourse with the world has its dangers, but our dangers are our discipline, and it is by discipline that the spiritual life attains to maturity.

IV. That the growth of this spiritual life is gradual as well as progressive. Day by day. Elsewhere we read of the renewing of the Holy Ghost. There is, then, continuous agency on the part of God, and there are continuous efforts on the part of man.

1. This daily renewal of the inner life is needed. There is the influence of a depraved nature, and the constant presence of natural objects, and these would exhaust and enfeeble its strength.

2. Is accomplished by all the events and circumstances of our ordinary life. This was the case with the apostles, who rendered prosperity and adversity subservient to the promotion of their spiritual growth.

V. That the physical life declines whilst the spiritual life advances. The outward man perisheth. True, that body is the workmanship of God. A fitting palace for the immortal guest within, but taken from the dust it must return to that from which it was taken. Contrast with this, the immortality of the spiritual life. In the forests of South America, it is no uncommon spectacle to see the trunks of aged trees covered with the joyous blossoms of climbing plants that have twined around them, as if Nature, with her kindly hand, sought to conceal and even beautify the corruption which she could not stay. In like manner, the beauty of the spiritual life appears amidst the decrepitude of the perishing body, giving grace and dignity to that which otherwise it would be pitiable to behold. Conclusion–

1. The words of the text suggest to us that the better part of our nature is the spiritual.

2. They furnish consolation to those Christians who are advancing in life.

3. Let each examine into his spiritual condition. (H. Gamble.)

Compensation

That there is an inward invisible man who makes himself visible -by the body and uses it as his instrument, is admitted in some form by all. The inward and outward man are felt occasionally to have different interests, and there is a necessity laid on man to choose between these. The outward man is doomed to perish, and often is seen rapidly decaying, while the mental and moral powers are as visibly increasing in elevation and intensity. Why should the course of the one be upward, while that of the other is downward? Why should men have experience at the same time of two opposite processes? Let us fix our attention, in considering this subject, on–

I. The two contrasted but closely related processes. These illustrate the law of compensation which runs through all things.

1. Often the most painful and humiliating losses have the highest kind of compensation.

(1) When a man first loses his sight how irreparable the loss appears. But from the very moment of the loss a principle of compensation is at work. His hearing, by the increased strain upon it, becomes acute; his sense of touch grows keen and discriminating. But more; how often does the blind man, shut out from the visible world, retire into the world of reflection. The objects of thought grow real to him; he acquires a command over his faculties, and a power of working on without external aid.

(2) When wealth is lost, life seems emptied out. But even in the first shock there is a stirring up of the man, a groping about for something to take the place of the lost wealth. And thus gradually higher qualities are called out, a determined energy to recover, if possible, what has been lost, or a falling back on the higher wealth of the soul. Have we not here an approach to the compensation of the text, as if the inward man were becoming younger, while the outer man was growing old. And this is in very truth what the compensation comes to. The renewal of the Holy Spirit is the rising and widening of the being towards its true nature, its immortal ideal.

2. This compensation is the solidest and greatest of all realities in the present. To become like God, this alone is greatness and blessedness, and this carries eternity in it. I watched once a series of dissolving views. One especially riveted my attention–a beautiful scene in Italy. On the verge stood a ruin, which lent to the scene pathos and romance; but while it faded there rose, dim at first, but ever clearer, the outline of another picture, till at last, when the old had wholly gone, there stood forth in majesty, a picture of the sea, the mountains, and the stars overhead. The eternal had taken the place of the transient. The same lesson is read to us every evening. The bright day departs; but when earth is hidden, heaven begins to unfold its treasures; when we lose this little world we gain innumerable worlds. So in the renewal of the inner man we have both a transcendent compensation in the present, and the pledge of a glorious and eternal future, which also enriches and glorifies the present.

3. Look at the special form of compensation seen in successive coverings and materials which perish and leave gain behind them. The warriors armour is his most outward man inspired and guided by the inward man of his courage and skill. The armour is broken, but the warrior may survive many helmets and suits of armour. Dress is the ordinary outward man. It is that by which he is known to his fellows. His life is preserved and even dignified by it. But in thus adorning man apparel decays, yet the benefit it has conferred remains. The child has been growing all the while that the raiment that sheltered him has been decaying. The ship that carries the emigrant to the land of his hopes may be sorely battered on its course, and at last shivered on the rock-bound coast, but it has borne its passengers across the ocean. They escape and thrive in that new land; it perishes and sinks beneath the waves. Every book and pen which the child uses and wears out adds to his knowledge and facility. The paint and brush of the artist are used and expended by him in giving birth to that which endures, while his own faculty also is increased.

4. Human life thus yields innumerable examples of the gain remaining from materials that disappear. Shall not decay of the body, the decisive and the saddest decay, afford the highest example? If the body in its labour and decay does not work out permanent results of the best kind on the soul it accomplishes no result. It is only that which enters into the spirit that can survive death. If there is no compensation for the loss of the outward man, what an illusion are all the examples of the principle in the constitution of things. If the law fails here, what can it bring to us but sadness, however bright its manifestations elsewhere? And if there is compensation, it must be in the sphere of the inward man. When the temple falls, the priest will rise to the temple made without hands, eternal in the heavens.

II. The points of correspondence that should exist between the two processes.

1. Decay is constant. Each of us may say, I die daily. Our motion is ever onward to death. We ought then to have in this a constant stimulus to renewal of inward life. Let renewal day by day be our conviction, our task, and our joy.

2. Decay has times of special impulse when more progress is made toward dissolution in a few days than in many years. But this has its counterbalance in floods of grace, bursts of light, accesses of love and enthusiasm, that lift up and strengthen and gladden the inward man.

3. There is a waste caused by toil and a decay that goes on in rest; so, on the other hand, renewal is furthered by exertion and by quiescence. To labour and to rest in God are both necessary. We must contend against evil, and labour earnestly to be filled with the fruits of righteousness; but often renewal comes more from keeping the soul in a right attitude toward God.

4. Extremes and sudden changes hasten the decay of the outward man, so extremes and sudden changes of condition may hasten the renewal of the inward man. Some of these extreme and sudden changes you remember well; is it not true that they shook and roused you in an altogether peculiar way, and opened up for you unknown reaches of thought and aspiration?

5. The outward man decays both by pain and pleasure; the inward man should be renewed both by sorrow and joy. Have you known the power of physical pain in bringing down the outward man, and shall you not welcome the pains of the spirit which elevate and emancipate the inward man? Are there any that have known the weakening influence of unhallowed pleasures and joy? Will not they of all others pursue the joys that strengthen the soul and heart?

6. Decay sometimes proceeds from without inwards, as in the case of external injury; sometimes it proceeds from the very heart, and slowly makes itself felt in the outer activity. Is there not a similar twofold process m the renewal of the inner man?

7. The whole outward man perishes. But the renewal of the inward man often bears a most imperfect correspondence in this respect. A man cannot exempt any particular portion of his body from decay, but he can shut out whole regions of his inward nature from renewal. How often it seems as if some parts of a man are like desert, while others are like Eden, as if a portion of a man were inhabited by Satan, and another portion by Christ. But should not men who know their whole outward nature to be decaying, and doomed to perish, be constantly reminded of the need of the whole inward nature being permeated by life?

8. Decay is sometimes accelerated by materials and means which usually strengthen or heal; so in the inward man renewal may be promoted by things whose natural influence and effect is to corrupt and destroy. Often the debilitated frame is injured by the most healthful influences. The bracing air pierces it, the genial heat of the sun oppresses it. Food turns to poison. Healing medicine kills. But over against this is the great and cheering fact in the spiritual world–that temptations to evil may be the most potent means for good; that a wholly corrupt social atmosphere may disgust a man with evil, and throw him with intensity into a spiritual sphere; that doubts may conduct straight to the clearest faith; that there is no difficulty that threatens to swallow a man which may not issue in high and lasting gain. All poisons are changed into food and medicine to him who keeps near to Christ.

9. Decay sometimes proceeds at a constantly increasing rate. But if there is a downward gravitation there is also an upward. We call it natural that a stone should fall faster and faster as it approaches the earth, it is equally natural that a soul should be renewed increasingly, should rise faster and faster as it approaches heaven. (J. Leckie, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. For which cause we faint not] . See note on 2Co 4:1. Here we have the same various reading; , we do no wickedness; and it is supported by BDEFG, and some others: but it is remarkable that Mr. Wakefield follows the common reading here, though the various-reading is at least as well supported in this verse as in verse first. The common reading, faint not, appears to agree best with the apostle’s meaning.

But though our outward man] That is, our body-that part of us that can be seen, heard, and felt, perish-be slowly consumed by continual trials and afflictions, and be martyred at last;

Yet the inward man] Our soul-that which cannot be felt or seen by others, is renewed-is revived, and receives a daily increase of light and life from God, so that we grow more holy, more happy, and more meet for glory every day.

It was an opinion among the Jews that even spirits stood in need of continual renovation. They say that “God renews the angels daily, by putting them into the fiery river from which they proceeded, and then gives them the same name they had before.” And they add, that in like manner he renews the hearts of the Israelites every year, when they turn to him by repentance. It is a good antidote against the fear of death to find, as the body grows old and decays, the soul grows young and is invigorated. By the outward man and the inward man St. Paul shows that he was no materialist: he believed that we have both a body and a soul; and so far was he from supposing that when the body dies the whole man is decomposed, and continues so to the resurrection, that he asserts that the decays of the one lead to the invigorating of the other; and that the very decomposition of the body itself leaves the soul in the state of renewed youth. The vile doctrine of materialism is not apostolic.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Because of this double advantage which accrueth from our sufferings, viz. the furthering of the good of your souls, and the promoting the glory of God from the thanksgivings of many, though we suffer many harsh and bitter things, yet we do not faint nor sink under the burden of our trials; but though, as to our outward, nan, we are every day dying persons, daily decaying as to the strength, and vigour, and prosperity of our outward man, yet the strength and comfort of our souls and spirits reneweth day by day; we are every day stronger and stronger as to the managing of our spiritual fight, and every day more cheered and comforted in our holy course.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. we faint notnotwithstandingour sufferings. Resuming 2Co 4:1.

outward manthe body,the flesh.

perish“is wearingaway”; “is wasted away” by afflictions.

inward manourspiritual and true being, the “life” which even in ourmortal bodies (2Co 4:11)”manifests the life of Jesus.”

is renewed“isbeing renewed,” namely, with fresh “grace” (2Co4:15), and “faith” (2Co4:13), and hope (2Co 4:17;2Co 4:18).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For which cause we faint not,…. Since our afflictions are overruled for the good of others, and the glory of God, we are not discouraged by them; our spirits do not sink under the weight of them; we do not give out from the work of the ministry because of them, but go on cheerfully therein: and the more so, since

though our outward man perish; our outward circumstances of life are very mean and despicable; we are oftentimes in a very distressed condition through hunger, thirst, nakedness, and want of the common necessaries of life; our bodies are almost worn out with fatigue, labour, and sorrow; our earthly tabernacles are tottering, and just ready to fall in pieces:

yet the inward man is renewed day by day; that is, continually; it answers to , an Hebraism; see Es 2:11 the internal hidden man of the heart, the new man is in a prosperous condition; our souls are in good health; the work of God is comfortably carried on in us; we have sweet and repeated experiences of the love of God; we are growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ; and, like the palm tree, the more weight is hung upon it, the more it thrives; and, like the children of Israel in Egypt, the more they were afflicted the more they grew.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore we faint not ( ). Repeats from verse 1.

Our outward man ( ),

our inward man ( ). In Rom 7:22; Col 3:9; Eph 4:22, we have the inward man and the outward for the higher and the lower natures (the spirit and the flesh). “Here the decay () of the bodily organism is set over against the growth in grace (, is refreshed) of the man himself” (Bernard). Plato (Republ. ix, p. 589) has . Cf. “the hidden man of the heart” (1Pe 3:4).

Day by day ( ). This precise idiom is not in LXX nor rest of N.T. It may be colloquial use of locative in repetition.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Outward man – inward man. The material and spiritual natures.

Perish [] . Rev., much better, is decaying. Perish implies destruction : the idea is that of progressive decay.

Is renewed [] . Better, is being renewed, the process of renewal going on along with the process of decay. Stanley cites a line attributed to Michael Angelo : “The more the marble wastes the more the statue grows.” Compare Euripides : “Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again : your body, however, is weak” (” Heraclidae, ” 702, 703)

Day by day [ ] . Lit., by day and day. A Hebrew form of expression.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For which cause we faint not,” (dio ouk egkakoumen) “Wherefore we faint not,” don’t quit, fall by the wayside, or fall out, lest our labors be in vain, Gal 6:9; 2Jn 1:8.

2) “But though our outward man perish,” (all’ ei kai hoekso hemon anthropos disphtheiretai ) “But if indeed the outward man of us is being, or exists in, a disabled state or condition,” a condition of weakness. It is often in physical weakness, bodily affliction and under pain one may be strongest in the Lord, 2Co 12:10.

3) “Yet the inward man is renewed,” (all’ ho eso hemon anakainoutou) “yet the inner (esoteric, spiritual man) is being renewed,” rejuvenated,” Rom 7:22; Eph 3:16. The inward man may be renewed in knowledge “day by day”, one day at a time, Col 3:10; Rom 12:2.

4) “Day by day,” (hemera kai hemera) “day even by day,” or one day at a time, Eph 4:22-23; 2Pe 3:18, as the earthen vessels decay day by day, even so the spiritual man may grow, mature, be empowered anew every day, Mat 6:33.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16. For which cause we faint not (491) He now, as having carried his point, rises to a higher confidence than before. “There is no cause,” says he, “ why we should lose heart, or sink down under the burden of the cross, the issue of which is not merely so desirable to myself, but is also salutary to others.” Thus he exhorts the Corinthians to fortitude by his own example, should they happen at any time to be similarly afflicted. Farther, he beats down that insolence, in which they in no ordinary degree erred, inasmuch as under the influence of ambition, they held a man in higher estimation, the farther he was from the cross of Christ.

Though our outward man. The outward man, some improperly and ignorantly confound with the old man, for widely different from this is the old man, of which we have spoken in Rom 4:6. Chrysostom, too, and others restrict it entirely to the body; but it is a mistake, for the Apostle intended to comprehend, under this term, everything that relates to the present life. As he here sets before us two men, so you must place before your view two kinds of life — the earthly and the heavenly. The outward man is the maintenance of the earthly life, which consists not merely in the flower of one’s age, (1Co 7:36,) and in good health, but also in riches, honors, friendships, and other resources. (492) Hence, according as we suffer a diminution or loss of these blessings, which are requisite for keeping up the condition of the present life, is our outward man in that proportion corrupted. For as we are too much taken up with the present life, so long as everything goes on to our mind, the Lord, on that account, by taking away from us, by little and little, the things that we are engrossed with, calls us back to meditate on a better life. Thus, therefore, it is necessary, that the condition of the present life should decay, (493) in order that the inward man may be in a flourishing state; because, in proportion as the earthly life declines, does the heavenly life advance, at least in believers. For in the reprobate, too, the outward man decays, (494) but without anything to compensate for it. In the sons of God, on the other hand, a decay of this nature is the beginning, and, as it were, the cause of production. He says that this takes place daily, because God continually stirs us up to such meditation. Would that this were deeply seated in our minds, that we might uninterruptedly make progress amidst the decay of the outward man!

(491) “ For which cause we faint not. ( οὐκ ἐκκακοῦμεν) Here we have the same various reading,” (as in verse 1,) “ οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν — we do no wickedness; and it is supported by BDEFG, and some others; but it is remarkable that Mr. Wakefield follows the common reading here, though the various reading is at least as well supported in this verse as in verse first. The common reading, faint not, appears to agree best with the Apostle’s meaning.” — Dr. A. Clarke. — Ed.

(492) “ Autres aides et commoditez;” — “Other helps and conveniences.”

(493) “ De iour en iour;” — “From day to day.”

(494) “ Il est vray que l’homme exterieur tend… decadence aussi bien es reprouuez et infideles;” — “It is true that the outward man tends to decay quite as much in reprobates and unbelievers.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Butlers Commentary

SECTION 3

Misgivings (2Co. 4:16-18)

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2Co. 4:16 Wasting: Paul looks back to the statements he made earlier about the life that is available in Jesus (2Co. 4:6; 2Co. 4:10). This life is verified by the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the basis upon which Paul is able to say, So we do not lose heart. Without this historical basis depression and despair sets in when one contemplates his mortality.

One of the great problems which each of (including preachers) has to face is, I am going to die! Sooner or later, it strikes all of us that our outer nature is wasting away! Infirmity, disease, the death of loved ones or close friends, or even the knowledge of the death of those in our own neighborhoods or communities makes us ever aware that our turn at death is inevitable. We often make concerted effort to sublimate such thoughts, but they keep recurring nevertheless. And even Christians occasionally succumb to depression when contemplating their wasting away. Depression at the contemplation of death was most certainly a temptation to the saints of the Old Testament (see Isa. 38:9-20; Job. 17:1-16, etc.). Almost everyone, if they are completely honest, have moments of misgiving, fear, anxiety and discouragement knowing they must die.

But, says Paul, we need not lost heart. The Greek word Paul used was egkakoumen, from ek and kakos, literally, eviled out. In other words, there is no need for the Christian to be wiped out or completely devastated by the fact of his physical mortality. There are times when even Paul was at the point of despair over his mortality (see 2Co. 1:8; 2Ti. 1:15; 2Ti. 4:9-16). But he always conquered that temptation by remembering the life that was his in Christ Jesus.

The outer nature is, in the Greek text, ho exo hemon anthropos; literally, the outer of us, mankind. Paul is speaking of the humanness or the fleshly part of our beingour mortal bodies. That part is wasting away (Gr. diaphtheiretai, being disabled). Our disabilities prove our mortality.

But while our body is decaying, our inner nature (Gr. ho eso hemon, lit. the inner of us) is being renewed (Gr. anakainoutai, lit. again made different). The Greek word anakainoutai does not mean renewed in the sense of recently, but in the sense of differently. It is best explained in Pauls statement in 2Co. 3:18. . . being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. . . . This renewal is not something that is determined emotionally or mystically. It is something that may be judged objectively by comparing the transformation that is taking place in our minds and wills and choices as we compare our lives with the life of Jesus Christ documented in the Bible. It is the process of sanctification. We are sanctified by the truth (see Joh. 17:17) John wrote his first epistle to tell Christians that they may know when they are being renewed. John says we know it when we know we are keeping Christs commandments. God created us and sent Christ to redeem us in order that we may be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:28-29). And God works that conformity in our lives through disciplining our minds so we set them on the things of the Spirit (see Rom. 8:1-25). Thus when our inner man (our spirit) is in agreement with His Spirit (according to His written word), (Rom. 8:12-17) we know we are children of God and we know our inner man is being made different (renewed). The experience is not to be judged subjectively, but objectively.

This renewal is not something that only happens at mountain top moments of spirituality. The apostle says it occurs, hemera kai hemera, day after day. It happens in the every-day experiences of life. It takes place during the sufferings of this present time (Rom. 8:18). It takes place when we share in his (Christs) sufferings (Php. 3:10-11). It takes place during our earthly chastenings (Heb. 12:1-17). Even the constant reminder of our wasting away contributes to it. But primarily, it happens in the every-day conformity of our minds and lives to the commandments of the Spirit of God in his word.

2Co. 4:17 Weariness: Next Paul mentions the slight momentary affliction. It is slight and momentary, but it is affliction nevertheless! There is a depressing weariness about the constant afflictions reminding us of our wasting away. It haunts us and tires us out as it hounds us every day of our life on earth. It may come in many forms, but it is always there.

Paul was always in a strait betwixt the two (Php. 1:23) when he contemplated his mortality. The Greek word sunechomai is translated strait in Php. 1:23. It means, pressed together, pressurized. The thought of departing this life for the next bothered and pressured Paul.

And another pressing problem by all mortals (including preachers)surfaces in this text. What is waiting for me when I die? Most atheistic philosophies answer, Nothing! They believe (they believe because they have no empirical knowledge about after death) human beings perish or cease to exist after death. There is no life beyond death for the atheist. Such belief leads to hedonism (see 1Co. 15:32-34) which leads to immorality and ultimately, to despair. Atheistic unbelief in eternal life has spawned the existential meaninglessness of life in our century which has produced so much despair, depression, civil disobedience, and suicide. (For illustrations, of this, see Special Studies, Evolution; Unscientific & Immoral; Unbelief Is Deliberate; and, God – Fact or Fiction at the end of this chapter.) On the other hand, the common philosophy of Main Street U.S.A. is that in the after-life, anything can happen! The possibilities are so multitudinous you simply live your life and take your choice (or your chances). This view is based on wishful thinking and the delusions of human self-righteousness. It is also kindled by uncertain and controversial experiences of people (perhaps demonic deception) who claim to have died and returned to life. Such experiences are so vague, contradictory and non-verifiable, they are not worth considering genuine. They are based on no objectivityonly the individuals subjective experience. The resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, was verified objectively and empirically by hundreds of eyewitnesses.

Because of Jesus historically verified resurrection, we believe his claims. We therefore believe the claims of his apostles that what they have written is divine revelation, inspired by Gods Holy Spirit, and inerrantly delivered to mankind in human language. What the apostle Paul says about the existence of life after death and the nature of that life is acceptable as a reality. Faith (the Christian faith) is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). The Christian faith in the nature of life after death is based on the teaching of the only man (Jesus Christ) who, as far as history records, has ever clearly, openly, and ultimately survived death. According to the eyewitnessed record of his life, this Jesus not only raised others from the dead, he completely conquered death himself. He sent his apostles to promise a glorious existence for all who believe in him and keep his commandments after the death of their bodies. They are promised paradise with him (see Luk. 23:43).

We must never forget, however, that there is a direct tie between the afflictions of our wasting away in this physical life and the glory that is to be ours in the next life. The one is preparing for the other. No matter how great the trial may seem to us, compared with what is coming it is relatively slight. No trial, no pain, no isolation, no heartache, no loneliness, no weakness or failure, no sense of being put aside, is without significance. All of it is playing its part in accomplishing Gods work in our lives and the lives of others. It is building for us an incomparable weight of glory. This one verse (2Co. 4:17) is perhaps the most majestic verse in all the Bible! The hope of the Christian is a glory that has nothing on earth by which it may he compared! Gather together all the fame, riches, power, beauty, glory and capabilities ever experience in all of historyput all this in one huge pile, and it is not even worth comparing with the glory that shall belong to the Christian in the next life! It staggers the imagination! It is beyond human language, beyond human experiencenot even an apostle could find words to describe it (see 2Co. 12:2-4).

The Greek verb katergazetai (is preparing or is achieving, accomplishing, producing, working) describes the action being done by the subject of the sentence which is to parautika elaphron tes thlipseos, the slight momentary affliction. It is the affliction of this present life which is producing for us the eternal weight of glory. The Greek verb katergazetai is present, active, indicative, meaning that the affliction is continuing, is constantly, working or preparing our glory. The preparation (affliction) never ceases so long as we are in this life.

Affliction, trial, testing can never defeat the faithful believer in Christ. God uses it all to work out ultimate good. That which seems bad and undesirable becomes mans servant through the merciful grace of God.
The believers afflictions are working an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. That phrase, beyond all comparison, is in the Greek test: huperholen eis huperholen. The phrase might be translated, excessively unto excess. The word huperholen literally means, cast beyond. It is a magnificent sequence of Greek words to express the incomparablethe unimaginable, the incomprehensible. What God has laid up for the faithful believer is inexpressible. It is unsearchable (see Job. 5:9; Psa. 145:3; Rom. 11:33; Eph. 3:8).

That literary giant, C.S. Lewis, has given perhaps the best human attempt (outside the Scriptures) to describe the eternal weight of glory . . . beyond all comparison in his book entitled, The Weight of Glory. Lewis says it is fame with God, approval or . . . appreciation by God. He continues:

. . . no one can enter heaven except as a child; and nothing is so obvious in a child . . . as its great and undisguised pleasure in being praised . . . and that is enough to raise our thoughts to what may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and the moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever will also drown her pride. . . . If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself. . . . The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination (the judgment), shall find approval, shall please God. To please God . . . to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness . . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his word or a father in a sonit seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.
In another paragraph, C.S. Lewis waxes even more eloquently:
We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already. You can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much moresomething the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into wordsto be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. (And then he adds these words:) The door on which we have all been knocking all our lives will open at last.

The three apostles, Peter, James and John, were permitted to glimpse a veiled portion of that incomparable glory when they saw Jesus transfigured (Gr. metamorphothe, changed in form) (see Mat. 17:2; Mar. 9:2; Luk. 9:29). It will be, as nearly as human language can describe it, somewhat similar to Johns description of the pre-existent Christ (Joh. 1:1-18) and the risen, glorified Christ (Rev. 1:12-16; Rev. 5:14-14; Rev. 19:11-16). Peter describes his experience of Christs transfiguration from mortality to immortality in 2Pe. 1:16-21. Paul describes what he experienced of the glory of Christ in Act. 9:3-9 – Act. 22:6-11; Act. 26:12-15; 2Co. 12:2-4). And even those fall short. For our eternal weight of glory is, by definition, beyond comparison, outside human experience. All intelligible descriptions of it, however, must be of things within our experienceand all the while we must believe it is beyond that. If Heaven could tell me no more of my future glory than my own experience in this life would lead me to expect, then Heaven would be no higher and greater than my experience and no greater than this creation. But it is higher and greater. And that I trust on the word of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. And that is Pauls next point. There is a weariness while we suffer this slight momentary affliction. But we must not lose heart. We must believe that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

2Co. 4:18 Wistfulness: One of the problems preachers often face is a temptation to case a wistful (pensive, melancholic) eye on the things of the world. He is occasionally tempted to look back, after having put his hand to the plow, and wish he could find relief from his affliction by indulging in the things that are seen. This text (2Co. 4:16-18) deals with that problem.

The Greek participle skopounton may be interpreted as having conditional force. The RSV clearly translates 2Co. 4:17-18 as a conditional sentence when it separates the two verses with only a comma and connects them with the word because. 2Co. 4:18 is the conditional clause (or, the protasis) which modifies the principle clause (or, the apodosis) of 2Co. 4:17. In a conditional sentence, the conditional clause states a supposition and the principle clause states the result of the fulfillment of this supposition. In the sentence before us (2Co. 4:17-18), the protasis is 2Co. 4:18, and the apodosis is 2Co. 4:17. In other words, the preparing of our eternal weight of glory is conditioned upon our looking not at the things that are seen but looking to the things that are unseen. It is not enough that believers suffer afflictionthis in itself does not work glory. Affliction works glory only if the believer focuses his minds eye intently on the things that really matter. To keep from losing heart in the throes of affliction and mortalness, and to have the blessed hope of the incomparable glory, the believer must set his mind on the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5 ff)on the things that are above (Col. 3:1-4).

The Greek phrase, me skopounton hemon ta hlepomena, may be translated, . . . because we are not contemplating the things being seen. . . . Both participles are present tense and active. The Christian, rather, looks to the things not being seen (Gr. ta me hlepomena). Does this mean the Christian is not to look at trees, stars, sky, houses, physical bodies or other natural objects? Not at all! It would be absurd to interpret Pauls statement into such a meaning. Paul means the Christian is not to set his mind on the values and standards of worldliness. Paul means the Christian must decide that the things of Heaven, the values and standards and promises of God (disavowed by the worldly mind-set) are the realities. What the carnal mind-set calls realities (materialism, sensuality, atheism) are not realities at all because they are transitory. All that is physical and material (although not unreal and not evil in itself) is not abiding. All of it, too, shall pass away. Paul calls all that is being seen transient (Gr. proskaira, temporaryPaul uses the same word in Heb. 11:25 to speak of the fleeting pleasures of sin). Only that which is unseen by the physical eye, and of God, is real! Only what is in heaven last forever. All that is real is promised and described, as nearly as human language can describe the unseen, in the Bibleand in the Bible only! The unseen (and unseeable) things of Heaven are present realities to the Christian by faith (see Heb. 11:1). And that faith is founded on empirically-verified evidence that such unseen powers and qualities do exist beyond the realm of the physical and empirical.

It has always been difficult for men to believe that there are unseen realities, invisible to human eye and investigation, but nevertheless very real and very important. The mind of man struggles with the descriptions of the supernatural and the promises of life beyond death (both as to its existence and its quality) because it all seems to be contrary to his experience. But man must learn not to trust his own presuppositions and limited experiences. Even the physical sciences (uninterpreted by evolutionism) teach man that there is a reality beyond that which is seen with the physical eye.
As man realizes his mortality, and as he approaches more surely the end of his existence in this life, these unseen realities become more and more significant to him. And nothing is more encouraging to a person with the problem of discouragement than to realize that when he believes the word of God he has found eternal reality. This is what life is all about.

Special Study

UNBELIEF IS DELIBERATE
by Paul T. Butler
Introduction

First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, `Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 2Pe. 3:3-6

I.

UNBELIEF ALMOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE

A.

Faced by what seems so logical and reasonable, so sensible and so beneficial evidence . . . so true and right . . . we do not understand why there is unbelief.

Why do so many people who seem sensible, sincere, reasonable, not acknowledge the same truths we hold to be so self-evident?
Why, in a world of so many intelligent, relatively moral and upright people, is there so much unbelief?

B.

Peter, in our text, I believe, shows the primary cause of unbeliefDELIBERATE IGNORANCE

The Bible has a great deal to say about this . . . we will discuss it in just a moment from the aspect of Peters entire 3rd chapter of this 2nd epistle.

II.

SOME UNBELIEF IS DUE TO A SIMPLE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

A.

Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. Rom. 10:17

B.

Often times children grow up, even in Christian homes, without ever having been given a faith with foundations in facts or evidence (cf. Deu. 6:6-25)

C.

The church has not fulfilled her mission until she has presented the good news founded on the evidences of factual history.

D.

But even a lack of knowledge will not be accepted as an excuse by God since all men have had enough knowledge of God revealed to them that they stand condemned by God if they disbelieve (cf. Rom. 1:18 ff)

SO, PRIMARILY SPEAKING, UNBELIEF IS MORAL REBELLION

Discussion

I.

UNBELIEF IS DELIBERATE

A.

For this they willingly are ignorant of . . . another translation says, They purposely ignore this fact . . . 2Pe. 3:5.

1.

Unbelief comes to men because they deliberately choose to ignore the facts as these facts reveal a God to whom they have a moral responsibility

2.

Rom. 1:21 men . . . became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Rom. 1:5, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie . . . Rom. 1:28 they refused to have God in their knowledge.

3.

But the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Rom. 1:20

Men may deny the facts if they wish . . . but they are without excuse because God is so sufficiently revealed even in nature that unbelief condemns men . . . the evidence, the facts are so abundant that any man who says there is no God is a fool, for only a fool is willingly ignorant.
Dr. G.G. Simpson, famous Paleontologist from Harvard once said concerning some highly improbable evidence as to the origin of the horse, it is improbable as to be unacceptable unless we can find no hypothesis more likely to explain the facts. IN OTHER WORDS, HE IS WILLING TO ACCEPT AN UNACCEPTABLE EXPLANATION IF THERE IS, IN HIS ESTIMATION, NONE BETTER!

4.

Jesus once made a most shocking accusation against the Pharisees, But because I say the truth, ye believe me not Joh. 8:45

The very reason they would not believe Jesus was the fact that He told them the truth. There is hardly a worse state man can get himself into than this!

5.

Those who hate the truth will be deceived and believe a lie (2Th. 2:10-12). These do not love the truth therefore they are not attracted to it and even when they see it, they hastily reject it and rationalize their reaction.

6.

The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not (2Co. 4:3-4). These refuse to listen to the truth when it condemns the unrighteous things in which they find pleasure and which they are determined to continue. . . . Thus they seek for some message which will assure them that the unrighteous thing is right and thus permit them to continue in it without being rebuked by their conscience. God sends such people strong delusions. He has ordained the laws of mans heart and of morality, and that person who has no love for the truth and who lives in and takes pleasure in unrighteousness will unfit his heart for the reception of truth and fit it for the reception of strong delusions which comfort and assure him in his error and unrighteousness.

Dr. Henry Morris, when on the OBC campus for the 1966 Science & Scripture Forum, emphasizing the impact of the 2nd law of thermodynamics upon theories of evolution concluded that ANY SCIENTIST AWARE OF THIS LAW (AND ALL SHOULD BE) WHO REMAINS AN EVOLUTIONIST OR UNIFORMITARIAN, MUST DO SO BY DELIBERATELY IGNORING THIS FACT!

7.

Jeremiah put it this way. . . . Behold their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it. Jer. 6:10 (see also Jer. 6:16-19).

B.

scoffers . . . walking after their own lusts . . . 2Pe. 3:3.

1.

Unbelief comes to men because they choose to walk after their own lusts (Rom. 1:1-32). God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts . . . unto vile affections . . . they not only do these things but even take pleasure in seeing others do them.

2.

The people of Israel cried out to Moses as Pharaoh approached, It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness . . . would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full . . . Exo. 14:10-12; Exo. 16:1-3.

Desire to satisfy the flesh chokes out the word. Mat. 13:13-23

Unbelief is due to the fact that men choose deliberately to have physical security, or sensual pleasure, or pride

3.

Agrippas lust for a woman not his own caused him to deliberately refuse to believe Paul, Act. 26:28

4.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved (exposed for what they really are). Joh. 3:19-20

5.

For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

6.

One of mans lusts which causes him to deliberately disbelieve is PRIDE

a.

Pride from wealth, Deu. 8:1-20

b.

Pride from power, Exo. 5:2; Dan. 4:30; Dan. 5:23

c.

Pride from security, Oba. 1:3

d.

Pride from self-righteousness, Job. 33:9; Luk. 18:11; Joh. 9:39-41; Rev. 3:17

e.

Pride from self-sufficiency, Jas. 4:13-17

f.

Pride is mans desire for human autonomy over against the sovereignty of God . . . a proud man does not need a Provider, Protector, Guide and Saviour. BUT HE IS NOT FREE FOR HE HIDESONE WAY OR ANOTHER HE HIDES

ANIMAL LUSTS OF MEN DECEIVE THEM INTO DELIBERATELY DENYING GOD, THE BIBLE, HEAVEN AND HELL, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SATISFY THEIR FLESHLY DESIRES. . . . THEY DO NOT NEED GOD FOR THEY ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT. THEREFORE THEY WANDER (deliberately) INTO THE MYTHS OF EVOLUTION, HUMANISM, COMMUNISM, AND JUST PLAIN STUBBORNNESS.
ALL OF US HAVE HEARD PEOPLE SAY, I KNOW THE BIBLE IS HISTORY AND ITS TRUE AND I OUGHT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT ITS DEMANDS, BUT IM NOT READY TO GIVE UP THIS AND THAT, AND SO ON. OR SOME WILL SAY, I CANT BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS TRUE BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS IT CONDEMNS WHICH I FEEL ARE ALRIGHT.

C.

they that are unlearned and unstable wrest the scriptures unto their own destruction 2Pe. 3:16

1.

Unbelief comes to men when they wrest the scriptures

2.

Satan, the father of unbelief, perverted the scripture at the temptation of Jesus (Mat. 4:5-6)

3.

Paul had to contend with the Judaizers who corrupted (2Co. 2:17) and dishonestly handled the word of God deceitfully (2Co. 4:2).

4.

The prejudiced and biased mind is a form of deliberate unbelief (cf. Joh. 8:12; Joh. 7:24) so also is the one who allows himself to be influenced by rumor or opinions of so-called intelligentsia (cf. Joh. 7:12; Joh. 7:40-43; Jas. 1:6-7; Eph. 4:13-14).

5.

Cowardice or conformity also leads to deliberate unbelief (cf. Joh. 12:41-43; Joh. 9:1-41)

6.

Liberalism, Modernisma result of men who have deceitfully and dishonestly handled the Word of God has infected hundreds of thousands of gullible people who feel they must conform in churches all around us and within the Restoration Movement.

7.

Existentialism, by deceit, has duped many into unbelief

8.

Men, by their traditions, have made void the word of God and led many unto belief.

THE WRESTING OF THE SCRIPTURES TO MAINTAIN DIVISION WITHIN CHRISTENDOM BRINGS UNBELIEF . . . JESUS PRAYED IN Joh. 17:1-26 . . . THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE, THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME!

WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES IS CERTAIN EVIDENCE OF DISRESPECT FOR GOD AND, ON THE OTHER HAND PRIDE IN SELF!
WHEN MEN EXCHANGE THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE, THEY BEGIN TO WORSHIP THE CREATURE RATHER THAN THE CREATOR . . . PERHAPS NOT FROGS AND CROCODILES LIKE THE EGYPTIANS . . . BUT MAN WORSHIPPING MAN IS JUST AS DESPICABLE FOR IT IS CREATURE WORSHIP!

9.

The Jews of the Prophets days wrested the scripture by interpreting the promise of the Messiah and His kingdom as one of fleshly indulgence . . . their hearts were filled with unbelief

10.

The Pharisees wrested the scriptures to declare their goods Corban . . . they deceitfully handled the Word of God to take oaths by the gold of the altar rather than the altar itself and robbed people and refused to pay pledges (Mat. 23:1-39)

THE SEEMING SLACKNESS OF GOD IN BRINGING JUDGMENT UPON DISOBEDIENCE OR PERVERSION OF GODS WORD, CAUSES MEN TO FEEL THEY CAN USURP GOD AND DO AS THEY PLEASE WITH HIS WORD . . . WRESTING IT TO SERVE THEIR LUSTS.
It is clear that the evidences for Christianity are of such nature that they bring to the surface what is in a man! If one is unwilling to follow Christbecause of the demand which such would make on his life he can think up reasons to justify his unwillingness. The real reasonhis unwillingnesswill be hidden from others by these rationalizations and finally even from himself because he does not think beyond these reasons.
The fact that one must love the truth indicates that the attitude of heart has something to do with whether or not one will believe. He who wants a careless, immoral life, will not want the faith which is a constant rebuke to such a life.

II.

BELIEF IS DELIBERATE

A.

Saving faith is voluntary. Had the revelation of God been so strong that anyone beholding could not disbelieve, it would have overridden moral freedom and this would be evidence unsuitable to moral subjects

B.

The true purpose of God is not to produce obedience by force, but to treat men as free moral agents.

C.

Belief comes to an informed mind

1.

Peter writes to stir up their mind and to call to remembrance the revealed word of God. 2Pe. 3:1

2.

Gods revelation was made intelligently and he expects man to apprehend it with the use of intelligence (Rom. 10:17)

3.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ 1Jn. 1:3

Paul reasoned with the Jews from the scriptures about the Christ (Act. 17:1-4; Act. 18:3; Act. 18:19).

WE MUST DELIBERATELY LEARN AND RECEIVE THE FACTS ABOUT GOD, JESUS, AND THE BIBLE, BEFORE WE CAN BELIEVE . . . PETER IS ONE WHO PUTS A PREMIUM ON KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST THROUGH THE WORD FOR HE KNOWS THAT BELIEF COMES THIS WAY! (1Pe. 1:22-25; 1Pe. 3:15; 2Pe. 1:3-21; 2Pe. 3:18)

B.

Belief come to a submissive will

1.

If any many will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. Joh. 7:17

2.

The Pharisees of Jesus day were filled with unbelief because they would not let the word of Christ have free course in them. Joh. 8:37

3.

THIS SAME STUBBORN UNWILLINGNESS TO DO GODS WILL LED THE PHARISEES TO REJECT THE COUNSEL OF GOD, REFUSING TO BE BAPTIZED OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Luk. 7:29-30)

4.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments 1Jn. 2:3

5.

GOD GAVE MAN A WILL . . . HE GAVE HIM A FREE WILL . . . MAN IS FREE TO SURRENDER TO WHATEVER HE WISHES . . . BELIEF OR UNBELIEF

C.

Belief comes to a pure heart

1.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Does not Jesus mean believe in God?

2.

The honest and good heart is the soil upon which the seed (the word of God) falls and brings forth much fruit, Luk. 8:1-56

3.

But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Joh. 3:21

A HEART CALLOUSED BY IMPURITY, GREED, LASCIVIOUSNESS, AND SIN IS HARDENED AGAINST ANY KIND OF BELIEF EXCEPT UNBELIEF! THE HEART THAT IS PURE, CLEAN, AND WHOLESOME IS MALLEABLE, SOFT, COMPASSIONATE, EASILY ENTREATED, RESPONSIVE TO THE HIGHEST AND NOBLEST . . . RESPONSIVE TO THE DIVINE LOVE LETTER . . . GODS BOOK OF LOVE!

Conclusion

HOW DOES MAN, SNARED IN THE TRAP OF THE DEVIL, BLINDED BY THE DEVIL, DECEIVED BY THE DEVIL INTO UNBELIEF, COME TO BELIEF??

I.

There must be an a priori which must be admitted. Man must admit that he is rational and that there are objects and facts to be known. To deny he thinks he must think. Even to represent himself to irrational he must think rationally!

II.

Many facts (truths) are MORAL FACTS. That is they exhibit, form or display moral character or attributes. All of Gods works (both natural and supernatural) exhibit His moral attributes and character . . . His wrath upon sin; His love for the sinner (cf. Rom. 1:18-22; Act. 14:15-17; Act. 17:22-31; Joh. 3:16, etc.)

III.

The Will or the Heart or the Mind of man must be changed or moved or transformed by a presentation of moral facts (cf. Rom. 12:1-2; 2Co. 10:3-5; Rom. 10:17)

IV.

Man then makes a choice or gives assent to what he knows to be true and moral and right. An emotion is an experience brought about by the prospect of some values being gained or lost. We become emotional about something after receiving the moral facts and reasoning on themthen we make a choice . . . WHICH IS MOST TO BE DESIRED . . . MATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL?

V.

MAN THEN COMES TO FAITH . . . Faith is trust, love, obedience, commitment. Faith is an experiencebased squarely on the foregoing steps (See chart on page 123.)

The infamous Madalyn Murray OHair, drop-out from humanity, speaking on the campus of Drake University, asked why she speaks on college campuses, replied, To corrupt the youth!
Mad-at-God-Madalyn says, I believe this would be the best of all possible worlds if everybody were an atheist or an agnostic or a humanist.
I dont think the church has ever contributed anything to anybody, any place, at any time. I cant pinpoint a period in history or a place in the universe where religion has actually helped the welfare of man.
There is absolutely no conclusive evidence that Jesus ever really existed, even as a mortal. I dont believe he was a historical figure at all. Until someone proves otherwise, therefore, these stories about him must be considered nothing more than folk tales consisting in equal parts of legend and wish fulfillment. But there is never going to be any way of verifying them one way or the other.
WOULD YOU SAY THIS WOMAN IS A FREE-THINKER . . . ALWAYS WILLING TO INVESTIGATE EVIDENCE . . . OPEN-MINDED . . . OBJECTIVE!!!?
Also, I reject the idea of a life hereafter on the same grounds. Do you know anybody who has come back with a first-hand report on heaven? If you do, let me know. Until then youll pardon me if I dont

HOW DOES A PERSON BELIEVE IN GOD?

The central problem in todays theological scene lies in the area of epistemologythe truth questionJohn Warwick Montgomery in a book review in Eternity magazine, January, 1968.

buy it.

I agree with Mark Twain, who wrote about the hereafter, that there is no sex in it; you cant eat anything in it; there is absolutely nothing physical in it. You wouldnt have your brain, you wouldnt have any sensation, you wouldnt be able to enjoy anythingunless you were queer for hymn singing and harp playing. So who needs it? SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, ID RATHER GO TO HELL.

UNBELIEF CANT GET ANY MORE DELIBERATE THAN THAT!
It is a matter of choice! Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Why go ye limping between the two sides if Baal be God worship himJesus depicted life as a choice between two waysnot three (no neutrality)

Special Study

GODFACT OR FICTION?

(Gen. 1:1)

In the beginning, God. . . .

(Heb. 11:6)

Introduction

I.

THE HUMAN MIND IS ABLE TO COME TO REST IN A FIRST CAUSE

A.

Some say we cannot argue at all about the First Cause which is Uncaused since we have no faculties for comprehending the Infinite

1.

This may be true but it is only part of the truth. His nature and attributes are too great for any human mind to fully comprehend and for any human language to express completely

2.

But the same is true of many finite things also

a.

Man cannot even know himself in any ultimate sense

b.

The forces of nature are all unseen and unknowable in themselves . . . simply for lack of knowledge of the ultimate essence of the force which holds the world in place we have called it gravity.

Reminds me of a discussion Dr. Harry Rimmer was having with a reknowned physicist who was criticizing the Bible for its unscientific nature. Dr. Rimmer asked the good Dr., What holds the world in place. Gravity, of course, came the erudite reply. Then what is gravity, said Dr. Rimmer. Well, I suppose the best answer I can give is it is that which holds the world in place, said the reknowned scientist.

c.

Man is still at a loss to understand all he knows about the atom and the sub-atomic particles, and DNA, and RNA and LSD and on and on we could go. YET WE KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT ALL OF THIS FROM THE EFFECTS. . . . AND IN EACH CASE WHAT WE KNOW IS NOT INCORRECT BECAUSE IT IS YET INCOMPLETE OR INCOMPREHENSIBLE . . . IN MOST CASES EVEN THIS PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE IS SUFFICIENT FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES

B.

And so, it is true that the existence of a person or a thing may be proved although its nature may not be perfectly understood. The great truth of the existence of God is capable of being established in the same rational certainty which assures all the great verities, duties and practical interests of human life and welfare.

II.

BELIEF IN GOD IS TIED TO RATIONALITY AND OBJECTIVITY

A.

Some erroneous ideas of what faith is

1.

Something mystical, indefinable and beyond grasping in any reasonable fashion.

2.

Something that cannot be defined because it is something subjective, something you feel, and cannot be tied to anything objective.

3.

Something that enables a person to go on in the face of all the evidence to the contrarya movement out of relationship to the known and into the unknown . . . a leap in the dark

B.

The correct way to faith

1.

Faith (trust, commitment) must, by its very nature, be tied directly to objectivity, to evidence, to knowledge. BY FAITH WE MAKE JUDGMENTS WHICH ARE BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS SUPPLIED BY EVIDENCE!

2.

WHEN REASON PLAYS UPON THE EVIDENCE SUPPLIED BY GOD IN NATURE, HISTORY, THE BIBLE, MAN, IT IS PLAYING ON EVIDENCE EQUALLY OBJECTIVE TO THE EVIDENCE BROUGHT TO CONSIDERATION BY ANY BIOLOGIST, GEOLOGIST, ETC.

C.

Edward J. Carnell says, . . . all belief (faith) rests on authority . . . the authority can be direct or indirect . . . and what is authority if it is not the power of sufficient evidences to elicit assent?

CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP AT ITS BEST IS THE APPLICATION OF THE METHODS OF SCIENCE TO THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, A SIFTING AND RESIFTING OF ALL THE EVIDENCE AND OBJECTIVE MATERIAL THAT CAN BE FOUND AND CONSIDERED.
IF WHAT A MAN BELIEVES IS NOT SUPPORTED BY OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE THEN WHAT HE BELIEVES IS UNWORTHY, AND HE MAY WELL BE LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD.

Discussion

I.

GOD KNOWN FROM THE FACTS OF NATURE (cf. Rom. 1:18 ff; Psa. 19:1-6; Act. 14:14-17; Act. 17:22-34)

A.

Our judgment that God exists from reasoning upon the evidence supplied in nature begins with what we call the cosmological argument or reasoning from effect to cause.

1.

For every effect there has to be an adequate cause

2.

Effects are all about us . . . we are an effect . . . the universe is an effect . . . neither made themselves . . . each is dependent upon some higher cause.

3.

Any given entity is either dependent or not dependent. If it is not dependent it is self-contained, self-caused and is therefore an Uncaused First Cause. If an entity is dependent then it is an effect from some extraneous force, which is again, either dependent or not . . . and so on to an Uncaused Cause

4.

It is irrational and unreasonable to talk about an infinite regression of causes and effects.

a.

The very statement of such a proposition is self-contradictory. . . .

B.

The observed 2nd law of thermodynamics proves the universe to be an effect. YOU CANNOT HAVE A RUNNING DOWN PROCESS UNLESS AT SOMETIME OR ANOTHER IT WAS WOUND UP OR BEGUN . . . AND WILL AT SOME FUTURE TIME RUN DOWN OR STOP!

1.

Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, made a model planetary system showing the earth and the planets nearest it. Many astronomers copied it to use in their studies. One day an atheist friend saw it and asked, Who made it? No one made it, replied Franklin, it made itself, it just happened. What, cried the man, youre joking. And so is the man who says the universe just happened, without a cause, said Franklin.

2.

Two friends slept in their tent on the desert. One put his head out the following morning, Some camels passed here last night. How do you know, did you see them, replied his friend. No, but I see their tracks. EVEN IF WE CANNOT SEE THE INVISIBLE GOD WE SEE HIS HANDIWORK AND KNOW HE HAS BEEN HERE!

C.

Our judgment that God exists from reasoning upon the evidence supplied in nature comes secondly from what is called the teleological argument or the argument from design.

1.

This argument is appealed to in scripture: He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye shall he not see? Psa. 94:9

a.

In other words, can we believe that the purposiveness of OUR sensory organs can be explained without an Intelligent Purposer or Designer who also hears and sees?

2.

Nature, large and small, shows adaptation of means to endsit shows purpose, design, intelligence, balance

a.

If there is no Intelligent purposive Mind as originator of both man and the universe, two unbelievable things happened: (1) Man developed an intelligence, sense of purpose, design from that which was nonintelligent, illogical, non-purposive, and (2) man, having thus miraculously gained intelligence from non-intelligence, was able to read in the cosmos vast and continuous meanings, rational to him, which had never been put into the universe by any mind or power whatever, and had never been thought at all until man discovered them or read them into that which was non-intelligent, non-purposive BUT REASON REJECTS BOTH PROPOSITIONS!!

b.

And yet, Haeckel (an evolutionist) had the audacity to say, No where in the evolution of plants and animals do we find any trace of design. . . .

3.

Evidences of purposive design

a.

The embryo of the hen makes provision for 2 ovaries and 2 oviducts, but only the left ovary and its duct reach maturity! Why? H.G. Wells was probably right when he said, Female birds have only one ovary and oviduct doubtless to provide against the accidents that might occur if two large and brittle eggs were to knock about simultaneously in their insides.

b.

The Yucca moth and the yucca plant . . . each is dependent upon the other for its very existence in exclusive manner . . . the yucca plant is the only food the moth can survive on . . . while the yucca moth is the only insect which pollenizes the plant.

c.

There are certain types of insects (wasps or bees) which alone can pollenize certain kinds of imported fig trees . . . these wasps had to be imported to bring the imported fig trees to bear fruit.

d.

Another type of wasp stings the grasshopper in exactly the right spot so that it is paralyzed but not dead. In this way the meat is preserved. The wasp then buries it in the spot where she will lay her young later on. The larvae will then feed on this grasshopper. THINK, NOW, THE VERY FIRST WASPS MUST HAVE DONE THIS ON COMMAND FROM THEIR CREATOR OR THE WASPS WOULD HAVE CEASED TO EXIST. . . . IT WAS NOT A SLOW LEARNING PROCESS THROUGH TRIAL AND ERROR!

e.

The Venus fly-trap. A carnivorous plant. When a fly alights upon the leaf it closes over it and sucks the fly dry. If a dead fly is dropped on the leaf, the plant closes and then reopens immediately having discovered it to be dead. The plant knows when it has had enough to eat to satisfy it for present, and will not close upon flies when it has had enough. The plant will not close in the rain . . . unless it is fooled by a drop of water when the sun is shining. It never closes when it is raining normally during cloudy weather because it would miss too many good meals.

f.

The spider weaves the outer spiral portion of his web in a sticky substance and any insect alighting upon it is stuck. But the inner web is non-adhesive. Why? The spider needs a place to rest where he will not be trapped in his own sticky web. But if an insect is caught in the sticky portion, how does the spider get his meal? He has little glands in his legs which secrete just enough oil substance to allow him to do this without getting trapped. But too long a stay on the outer web would cause just enough of the adhesive material to cling to the spiders legs to hinder his work . . . so he weaves a non-sticky place to which he may retreat.

Statements by famous scientists:

Sir Isaac Newton: This admirably beautiful structure of sun, planets and comets could not have originated except in the wisdom and sovereignty of an Intelligent and Powerful Being.
Edwin B. Frost: In a purposeful creation, I find it not at all inconsistent to believe that there must be a Mind behind it developing the purpose.
Sir Oliver Lodge: . . . there must be some Intelligence in all the processes of nature, for they are not random or purposeless, but organized and beautiful.
Sir James Jeans: If the universe is a universe of thought, then its creation must have been an act of Thought.

II.

MAN HIMSELF IS EVIDENCE THAT GOD EXISTS

A.

Mans body (Alexis Carrel in Man, The Unknown.)

1.

An organ builds itself by techniques very foreign to the human mind. It is not made of extraneous material, like a house. Neither is it a cellular construction, a mere assemblage of cells. It is, of course, composed of cells, as a house is of bricks. But it is born from a cell, as if the house originated from one brick, a magic brick that would set about manufacturing other bricks. Those bricks, without waiting for the architects drawings or the coming of the bricklayers, would assemble themselves and form the walls. They would also metamorphose into windowpanes, roofing slates, coal for heating, and water for the kitchen and bathroom. An organ develops by means such as have been attributed to this magic brick. It is engendered by cells which, to all appearances, have a knowledge of the future edifice and synthesize from substances contained in blood plasma, the building material, and even the workers. (DNA and RNA)

B.

Mans moral nature bespeaks a Moral Creator (Rom. 2:14 ff)

1.

He has a sense of right and wrong. When he does what he thinks is wrong, his conscience condemns; when he does what he thinks is right, his conscience approves.

2.

He believes justice will be done, some way, somewhere, sometime.

3.

NOW IF WE HAVE THIS SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG, THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMEONE WHO MADE THIS SENSE IN MAN . . . THAT WHICH IS MORAL CANNOT ORIGINATE FROM THAT WHICH IS NON-MORAL OR AMORAL

4.

Man is also placed in the midst of an environment that integrates with his moral nature, giving him a chance to choose between right and wrong and to develop and discipline moral character.

5.

The red claw of nature is one of predators and prey . . . there is balance and design there . . . but nature knows nothing of justice or morality . . . TO DESTROY THE BELIEF THAT RIGHT WILL TRIUMPH, THAT THERE IS A GREAT MORAL RULER, GOD, WHO WILL SEE THAT TRUTH PREVAILS, IS TO REMOVE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL AND SOCIAL RECTITUDE IT IS UNTHINKABLE THAT ALL THE SPLENDID CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN SUCH AS JUSTICE, LOVE, FREEDOM AND OTHERS (MARRED BY SIN THOUGH THEY BE) SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRODUCED BY AN AMORAL ABSTRACTION OR BLIND, UNGUIDED, UNFEELING CHANCE!

C.

Man is a person who enjoys and creates beauty. The ability of the human mind to perceive and appreciate beauty is not accidental but the purposeful plan of a Master Artist who made both for mans benefit.

WHEN ANYONE TRIES TO DENY MAN IS MORAL, ASK HIM IF OUR STATEMENT THAT MAN IS A MORAL BEING IS RIGHT OR WRONG, OF IF HIS DENIAL IS RIGHT OR WRONG!!

D.

Man exhibits a universal belief in a Higher being or a Religious Instinct

1.

No animal, not even the most intelligent, has ever been known to have built an altar or worshipped a higher being . . . but all histories of man, written or otherwise, speak of worship

2.

When any group of people is discovered, it is always found that they have a god or a system of gods

3.

When the communication lines with Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl, were finally established and she was told that there was a God, she replied, I knew it all the time.

4.

If there is no God, how could the idea of God ever have arisen in the human mind? Could a God-idea evolve of its own accord out of a non-God ground or basis?

5.

The atheist occupies an untenable position. Over him there will always hang the possibility that there is a God. He alone claims there is no God. Before one can proclaim there is no God he must have made extensive explorations in every inch of heaven and earth, in every essence of both material and spiritual (including the realm of thought), in all time and eternity. Before a man can KNOW there is No God he would himself have to be Godomniscientor THE ONE THING HE DID NOT KNOW MIGHT BE THAT THERE IS A GOD . . . and omnipresent, or THE ONE PLACE WHERE HE WAS NOT, MIGHT BE THE PLACE WHERE GOD IS!

III.

GOD IS KNOWN BY HIS SPECIAL REVELATION OF HIMSELF

A.

The abundance of evidence that leads to an unshakable faith in the Divine Being and in His Revelation of Himself is overwhelming.

1.

Even more surely do we seek His handiwork in His special revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ, and His word, the Bible

2.

Merely to believe in God is not enough, we need to know Him, His personality, His purpose, His will for our lives (Heb. 11:6)

3.

When we have definite evidence that God has spoken, do we need any further argument that God exists?

B.

God has invaded the natural with the supernatural. . . . He has stepped into history in many ways and in many specific times to demonstrate to man His existence, His power, His wisdom, His will, His nature.

C.

He has, in His Son, performed miracles (also in O.T. through angels)

1.

The flood, passing through Red Sea, healings, resurrections, conquest of enemies (cf. Heb. 11:1-40)

2.

Jesus stilled tempest, walked on water, changed water into wine, fed 5000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish, healed all manner of diseases

3.

Jesus raised at least three person from the dead in presence of both friends and enemies

4.

Jesus commanded the spirit world, predicted His own death and resurrection, His betrayer was predicted, the destruction of Jerusalem was predicted

D.

The Bible is its own best proof containing hundreds of fulfilled prophecies . . . history written 1000s of years before its fulfillment

1.

History of the Jews, Deu. 28:1-68

2.

Destinies of Gentile nations, Dan. 2:1-49; Dan. 4:1-37; Dan. 9:1-27; Dan. 10:1-21; Dan. 11:1-45

3.

Destinies of individuals before they were born, Isa. 44:1-28; Isa. 45:1-25

4.

Life, birth, ministry, death, words, birthplace of Jesus . . . His whole life could be reproduced from O.T. prophecies

5.

The church, beginning, nature, purpose predicted and fulfilled

E.

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST . . . THE BEST ESTABLISHED FACT IN ALL OF HISTORY

Conclusion
THE FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, THERE IS NO GOD!

No, we cannot prove Jehovah is the god for which the philosophers and scientists have searched, but we believe the evidence is sufficient to lead the honest philosopher, honest scientist, and ALL HONEST MEN AND WOMEN to believe Jehovah is God. We accept God by faith, but that faith IS BASED UPON THE INTELLIGENT CONSIDERATION OF AN OVERWHELMING ABUNDANCE OF EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF HIS EXISTENCE.

The unbeliever lives in the world of myth, make-believe, inconsistency. The unbeliever is the schizophrenic (withdrawing from reality) Joh. 3:19-21. He lives in the darkness of ignorance and sin (in most cases willfully!) He does not find God for the same reason a thief does not find a policeman! BUT GOD HAS REVEALED HIMSELF TO ALL WHO WILL INVESTIGATE THE FACTS AND ACCEPT THE FACTS. The Bible is the record of Gods intelligent revelation to the intelligent portion of His creationmankind.

GOD IS! HE CREATES, HE JUDGES, HE LOVES, HE FORGIVES, HE SAVES, HE SPEAKS
ONE OF THE GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS OF HIS EXISTENCE AND HIS POWER IS THE CHANGE HIS WORD WORKS IN THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF MEN. . . . HE WILL CHANGE YOUMAKE YOU A NEW MAN OR WOMANOLD WAYS, OLD FEARS, OLD ANXIETIES, OLD THOUGHTS, OLD INCONSISTENCIES, OLD FAILURES WILL BE DONE AWAY . . . GUILT WILL BE LIFTED . . . INSTEAD OF DARKNESS THERE WILL BE LIGHT . . . INSTEAD OF DESPAIR THERE WILL BE HOPE.
Henry R. Luce, founder of Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune Magazines, worth 106 million when he died in early 1967, said before his death when asked about the current God is dead theology, After all the argumentation is done, I believe that God revealed in the Scriptures is, quite simply, God; and therefore, not only living, but the creator and source of all life.
Contrast with this the statement of Russian Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, May 6, 1962 in Seattle, Washington, when proclaiming his disbelief in God he said, In my seventeen orbits of the earth I saw no God or angels. We seriously doubt that Mr. Titov could have seen every square inch of space in 17 orbits; furthermore, neither Mr. Titov nor anyone else can explain or understand everything they see; and last of all God is Spirit, so Mr. Titov could have orbited the earth 17 thousand times, 17 million light years out and still not have seen God with his physical eyes!
IT IS THE CONSISTENT, INTELLIGENT, RATIONAL, HONEST-HEARTED PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN GOD SO IT SEEMS THAT, IN LIGHT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF EVIDENCE, THE INCONSISTENT, UNINTELLIGENT, IRRATIONAL, SELF-DECEIVED PERSON WHO DISBELIEVES!

Special Study

EVOLUTION, UNSCIENTIFIC & IMMORAL
Introduction

I.

THIS PSEUDO-KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTED BY EVOLUTION IS NOT SOMETHING NEW

A.

Paul had to deal with it among the philosophers of the first century

1.

Read Col. 2:8 and 1Ti. 6:20

2.

A literal translation of Col. 2:8 would go something like See to it that no one victimize you, or carry you off as his prey or booty, through philosophy or false, foundationless deception, according to traditionary assumptions of man by deceiving you into believing that the elementary, rudimentary things of the universe are the ultimate truths, denying that Christ is THE ULTIMATE

3.

Paul told Timothy, literally, to Avoid, or, Turn Away from profane (polluted), false, foundationless discourses (babblings) and oppositions (antitheses) of pseudo-knowledge.

B.

There were theories of uniformitarianism or evolutionism being proposed by men who walked in the darkness of sin long before Charles Darwin. Dr. Henry Morris says the Devil was the first evolutionist

1.

Democritus and Aristotle were proposing such theories in the Greek civilization at least 300 years before Christ

2.

Before them the Persians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites were all proposing such theories

II.

SCIENCE, PER SE, MAY BE USEFUL: A BLESSING TO MAN AND A GLORY TO GOD

A.

Scientism, and all the other God-denying isms attached thereto is our enemy

B.

Although I am not a scientist, I believe the information I shall present in attacking evolutionism is valid since

1.

Many of the statements made are well-known and established findings and laws of science

2.

Some of the statements and propositions may be verified by your own experience

3.

Practically all the statements are quotations from widely recognized scientists, even by admitted evolutionists!

C.

This presentation of the FOUNDATIONLESS, EMPTY, IMMORAL bases of evolution is to keep you from being victimized by the false, pseudo impractical, irrational, irrelevant, unreasonable, immoral claims of evolutionary doctrines!

III.

SOME WOULD OBJECT TO THIS TYPE OF DISCOURSE FROM THE PULPIT, DECLARING THAT IT IS NOT PREACHING THE GOSPEL

A.

The apostles spent a great deal of time exposing vain philosophies

B.

We are promised, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought unto obedience to Christ. 2Co. 10:4-5

C.

If the church doesnt take up the battle against evolution, who shall? HOW MANY OF YOU ARE DOING SO? THE TELEVISION? THE NATIONAL MAGAZINES? IT SEEMS AS IF EVERY AVENUE OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (AND EVEN GREAT SEGMENTS OF SO-CALLED CHRISTENDOM) ARE BEING USED IN VERY ATTRACTIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE EVOLUTION!!

IV.

DEFINITIONS

A.

Science: the search for, observation of, and recording of natural phenomena (facts)I recognize this may over simplify science but I insist that anything beyond this and one leaves the realm of pure science and gets in the realm of philosophy (especially when the scientist seeks to determine means and ends or meanings and values).

B.

Evolution: a one-way process, irreversible in time, producing apparent novelties and greater variety, and leading to higher degrees of organization, more differentiated, more complex, but at the same time more integrated. Julian Huxley, evolutions chief present-day spokesman

C.

With these definitions in mind, let us examine the question of whether there is any evidence that such a process as Huxley defined is NOW taking place or has ever taken place. As Dr. Henry Morris says, we shall find, in the evidence investigated, that the answer both Scripturally and Scientifically, is, unequivocally, NO, NO, NO!

THIS EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSLEADING TO HIGHER DEGREES OF ORGANIZATIONFROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX HAS NEVER BEEN OBSERVED AND RECORDED AS A NATURAL FACT!!! IT IS NOT SCIENTIFIC. AND, AS WE SHALL SEE, THE DOCTRINES OF DARWINISM, IF APPLIED TO MANKIND LEAD TO WAR, CHEATING, BREAKDOWN OF ALL STANDARDS EXCEPT THAT MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!

Discussion

I.

PHYSICS

A.

There are three basic laws of science; no laws of science are more firmly fixed and established than these three laws. They hold priority over all other laws of science. They are so basic they are referred to as the first, second and third laws. THERE ARE NO KNOWN VIOLATIONS OF THESE LAWS!

1.

They are; biogenesis1st law of thermodynamics2nd law of thermodynamics; we shall discuss the law of biogenesis in a later section on biology.

B.

For now let us deal with the first law of thermodynamics which is the law of the conservation of energy.

1.

Energy can be transformed in various ways, but it can be neither created or destroyed.

2.

This universally observed and accepted law squarely contradicts the evolutionary theory that creation (i.e., increasing organization and complexity and development, or bringing something out of nothing which is really what creation is) is continually taking place in the present.

3.

The creation of the physical universe must have preceded this observed first law and therefore scientific law testifies to creationnot evolution

4.

Matter and energy cannot be created, while the 1st law of thermodynamics is valid. This law is observable . . . subjective whims or wishes or extralogical statements of the evolutionists cannot over-ride the cold facts of observed nature.

C.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics: there is an irreversible tendency for processes in a self-contained system to go toward lower ordertoward decay, disorder, disintegration, a running down. Systems run down hillthey dont wind themselves up.

1.

Dr. Morris says, It would hardly be possible to conceive of two more completely opposite principles than the one of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the theory of evolution.

2.

NOW IT IS A LAW OF LOGIC AND REASON THAT TWO CONTRADICTORY PROPOSITIONS CANNOT BOTH BE TRUE . . . BOTH MAY BE FALSE, BUT BOTH COULD NOT POSSIBLE, RATIONALLY BE TRUE! And yet the 2nd law of entropy is the best established law of science known to man! Even evolutionists are forced to admit its validity, Biologist Harold Blum says, One way of stating this law is to say that all real processes tend to go toward a condition of greater improbability (disorder).

It is hard to believe that evolutionary-minded scientists overlook this universal law through ignorance, yet in the great Darwinian Centennial in 1959, held in Chicago, in three volumes of scientific papers published from this meeting, it is almost impossible to find any mention of this problem at all!
SCIENCE ACTUALLY PROVES THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY TO BE FALSE . . . EVOLUTION ACTUALLY CONTRADICTS THE THREE BEST KNOWN, UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED LAWS OF SCIENCE!!! EVOLUTION IS NOT ONLY NOT SCIENTIFIC IT IS DISPROVED BY SCIENCE!

II.

BIOLOGY

A.

Consider next the universally accepted law of Biogenesis which says, life comes from lifeevery living organism came from some other living organism. This is observed and demonstrated in every instance and there are no known violations of this lawso called spontaneous generation of life has never been observed.

1.

In fact, Louis Pasteur demonstrated conclusively that there was no such thing as spontaneous generation of life by laboratory experiments

2.

Prof. Geo. Wald (an evolutionist) says, . . . there are only two possibilities: Either life arose by spontaneous generation, which the professor had just refuted: or it arose by supernatural creation, which he probably regarded as anti-scientific . . . for my part, I think the only tenable scientific view is that life originally did arise by spontaneous generation. . . . HE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE SAID, IT IS MY SUBJECTIVE OPINION . . . because that is all it is . . . the law of biogenesis says NO!

B.

It used to be that evolutionists tried to prove mans biological and evolutionary descent from ape by comparing blood

1.

In the first place all claims for the evolutionary process by comparing blood did not take place with tests of whole blood but with tests using blood serum (the watery substance of the blood) and this is far different from using whole blood.

2.

In the second place the primary factors of heredity do not lie in the blood but in germ and sperm cells so evolution cannot be proved by blood.

3.

Blood types are so different that there are two ladies (one in Canada and the other in the Philippines) who alone have the same type of blood in all the world . . . any other blood type injected would kill either one of them.

C.

Variations

1.

The minute variations between species and within species as observed by Darwin:

a.

Kellogg says, The results of modern biological study have shown that many of these small variations are not inherited. They are merely fluctuations around a mean to which the offspring tend constantly to return.

b.

A classic example of Darwins foggy thinking: He cited the long neck of the giraffe as an outstanding example of natural selection. As a result of recurrent and extended droughts the supply of green leaves from the lower limbs of trees diminished so that the shorter animals died off and after centuries of natural selection, the long-necked giraffes survived, and grew long necks in stretching after remaining green leaves. BUT THE FEMALE GIRAFFE IS ABOUT 2 FT. SHORTER THAN THE MALE SO THAT ALL THE FEMALES WOULD HAVE PERISHED LONG BEFORE THE MALES . . . SO HOW ARE BABY GIRAFFES BORN!? AND EVEN IF THEY WERE BORN HOW DID THE LITTLE ONES SURVIVE?

2.

Acquired characteristics

a.

They are not inherited, consider the small feet of Chinese womenwhy are they bound generation after generationwhat about circumcision, scars, missing limbs?

b.

Even if we suppose they might be inherited, no new kind or species has ever been known to have originated from such variation!

D.

Mendels Law

1.

What Mendel has proven both as to animals and plants is that NO VARIATION OUTSIDE THE LIMITS OF SPECIES IS POSSIBLE

2.

It is now a fixed law of biology that the factors which the individual receives and none other are those which he can transmit to his offspring.

3.

Weismann, an evolutionist who experimented with mice cutting off their tails for 19 generations gave up in disgust for the tails of the last were just as long as the first.

4.

There are no known violations of Mendels law!!

E.

Mutations (freaks, etc.) caused by mixing up of genes

1.

Mutant forms are almost exclusively lethal . . . those that are not lethal offer no help to the specie for the struggle for survival.

2.

In all mutations no genes can be shown to have originated or to have changed . . . mutations are simply mix-ups of genes transmitted from the parents (probably caused by radiation)

3.

Experiments with fruit fly for 1000s of generations shows evolution from one species to another does not happen, even given many generations in which to occur

4.

All mutations, even if inherited (and there is some question about this), are fully in line with the 2nd law of thermodynamics so a mutation is A DISORGANIZATION . . . NOT HEADED TOWARD ORGANIZATION OR COMPLEXITY . . . A MERE RESHUFFLING OF GENETIC FACTORS ALREADY PRESENT BY INDUCED RADIATION IS NOT EVOLUTION

F.

Fixity of Kind

1.

The species are fixed, rigid. Varieties do not pass beyond certain limits. They do not transform into species. There are no transitorial forms to be found. Evolutionists have never produced complete evidence of any one species from a preceding form unrelated to its successor!!

2.

To the contrary, present species as far as all observable evidence thus far discovered, are identical with their oldest ancestors.

3.

Furthermore, all present varieties within one species, left to natural breeding, will eventually revert to one species. This has been demonstrated by observed experiments.

Evolutionists are constantly vacillating between one line of alleged evidence and another. For awhile they appealed to paleontology as the most likely evidence to support their theories . . . now it seems the paleontologists are turning to biology to produce the best evidence . . . G.G. Simpson, reknowned paleontologist of Harvard wrote in the Ency. Brit. Yearbook, 1965, Molecular and organismal biologists are now beginning a cooperation that will surely prove fruitful. Numerous efforts have been initiated in the last year or so to interpret molecular biology in evolutionary terms. It is too early to say just what the results will be, but they are certainly promising.
Mr. Simpson is an ardent evolutionist and a world reknowned paleontologist and yet in 1965 he admits the fossil record does not prove evolution and cites us to the field of biology, hopeful it will soon bear fruit to prove evolution. Simpson even returns to the disproved theory of spontaneous generation hoping to save his theory, saying, The spontaneous generation of the first living things did occur. BUT WHAT PROOF DID HE OFFER? NONE! JUST AN EMPTY ASSERTION. Isnt it strange indeed that evolutionary scientists leave their own field and point the student to another for the proof of this theory of evolution?

III.

GEOLOGY (Paleontology)

A.

The whole geological series as theorized and charted in textbooks by evolutionary geologists can be found intact in not ONE PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH SO FAR INVESTIGATED!

B.

Literally any rock system in the so-called geologic series or column may be found lying directly on the oldest or youngest rocks or reversed, or in any combination of arrangements at any given location

1.

In fact, in an area covering some 10,000 square mi. in north U.S. and Canada the geologic scale of evolution is found UPSIDE DOWN, COMPLETELY REVERSED! YOUNGEST ON THE BOTTOM AND MOST ANCIENT ON TOP!

2.

Dr. Walter E. Lammerts, among others, have investigated thoroughly the various places where scientists have tried to explain these reversals by thrust faults and reports that there is absolutely no evidence for suchthe rock strata gives no evidence of any grinding, disturbing process but each strata lies conformably undisturbed on top of the other.

C.

At least some paleontologists have been honest enough to admit the fallacy of the geological argument in a circle. R.H. Rastal of Cambridge U. says in Ency. Brit., 1956, Vol. 10, pg. 168, It cannot be denied that from a strictly philosophical standpoint geologists are here arguing in a circle. The succession of organisms has been determined by a study of their remains buried in the rocks, and the relative ages of the rocks are determined by the remains of the organisms they contain. THEY USE THE ROCKS TO PROVE THE AGE OF THE FOSSILS AND THEN SAY THE AGE OF THE FOSSILS PROVE THE AGE OF THE ROCKS.

D.

Again from the famous paleontologist, Simpson, an evolutionist, Fossils are abundant only from the Cambrian onward. . . . The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views (evolution) here entertained. from Great Books of the Western World, pub. by Ency. Brit.

BESIDES ALL THIS, NORMAL RATES OF SEDIMENTATION AS POSTULATED BY THE UNIFORMITY PRINCIPLE ARE MEANINGLESS AS FAR AS THE FOSSIL RECORD IS CONCERNED BECAUSE FOSSILS ARE NOT FORMED BY NATURAL PROCESSES OVER LONG PERIOD OF TIME . . . BUT BY SUDDEN CATASTROPHIC EVENTS!

E.

The geologic evidence observed thus far shows a sudden outburst of living forms exactly like the species we have today with a few minor exceptions.

1.

Dr. Austin H. Clark, of U.S. National Museum, No matter how far back we go in the fossil record of previous animal life upon the earth, we find no trace of any animal forms which are intermediate between the various phyla. . . . Since we have not the slightest evidence, either among the living or the fossil animals, of any intergrading types following between major groups, it is a fair supposition that there never have been any such intergrading types. NO INTERMEDIATE FORMS MY FRIEND! LIVING OR DEAD!

2.

AND THE PROBLEM IS NOT TO FIND ONE MISSING LINK, BUT TO FIND 1000s AND 1000s OF MISSING LINKS WHICH WILL CONNECT THE MANY FOSSILS SPECIES WITH ONE ANOTHER!

In 1938 deep-water fishermen, who were fishing off the coast of S. Africa, brought to the surface a fighting, threshing fish 5 ft. long and 127 lbs. such as they had never seen before. Scientists, being called to investigate, called it the Coelacanth, identical in every respect with the Coelacanths whose fossils are found in considerable numbers buried in the strata of the U.S., Germany, and elsewhere. These strata are said by evolutionists to have been formed in the Triassic Age, and the fish whose fossils these strata contain are said to have become extinct 90 million years ago! Another fish of the exact same type was caught off Madagascar in Dec. 1952.

IV.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN

A.

When we examine the evidence upon which evolutionists have reconstructed the different pre-historic ape or pre-ape men we find things both ludicrous and dishonest.

1.

In the first place their evidence is extremely fragmentary: only a scraps of skulls, bits of bone, teeth and sometimes a whole bone . . . yet whole men, whole races, whole civilizations have been constructed with a bone fragment or two and a wild, bizarre imagination!

B.

Prof. E.A. Hooton of Harvard says, Some anatomists model reconstructions of fossil skulls by building up the soft parts of the head and face upon a skull case, and thus produce a bust purporting to represent the appearance of the fossil man in life. When, we recall the fragmentary condition of most of the skulls, the faces usually being missing, we can readily see that even the reconstruction of the facial skeleton leaves room for a good deal of doubt as to details. . . . To attempt to restore the soft parts is even more hazardous. The lips, the eyes, the ears, and the nasal tip leave no clue on the bony parts as to their appearance. . . . These alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little, if any, scientific value, and are likely only to mislead the public. . . . We do not know anything of the minutiae of the appearance of the Pithecanthropus, Heidelberg, Neanderthal types. We have no knowledge of their form, hair distribution, pigmentation, and the detail of such features as have been mentioned.

C.

Mistakes (the convincing finds of science)

1.

Pithecanthropus Erectus, found in Java, 1891, consisting of a part of a skull cap, a fragment of a left thighbone and 3 molar teeth . . . NOT FOUND TOGETHER, SCATTERED 50 ft. apart, numerous other bones of animals found scattered among them. The skull unusually large and the thighbone too small for it proportionately, yet 7 eminent men pronounced it the skull of a man; 6 others that of an ape; 7 others divided between ape and man . . . undaunted by disagreements, they bundled up the bones, made a bronze bust of their imagination, put it in the American Museum of History and proclaimed that a whole race of ape-men had been discovered to exist half a million years ago

2.

Second Java Man, found 1926, near same as first, a skull cap ONLY was found. Vouched for by 2 eminent English scientists and heralded all over the world as the most important discovery of the decade. THIS SUPPOSED MILLION YEAR OLD SKULL OF NEAR HUMAN TURNED OUT TO BE, AFTER SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION, THE KNEE CAP OF AN ELEPHANT!

3.

Hesperopithecus: from a tooth found in 1922, in Nebraska and introduced into the famous Scopes Monkey Trial as evidence of a race of men who lived in No. Amer. millions of years ago, men discovered only a few short years after Darrow had tried to humiliate Bryan that the tooth was that of a species of extinct pigs!

4.

Readers Digest, Oct. 1956 shows how the famous Piltdown Man regarded until recently as one of the 3 most important of the missing links in mans evolution, has now been formally declared to have been a clever hoax which fooled all the anthropological specialists for 40 years!!!! A DELIBERATE TRICK BY MANIPULATING THE BONES, ARTIFICIALLY AGING THEM ETC.

Byron C. Nelson, in After Its Kind, shows how the profile of Marquis de Lafayette, Rev. war hero could be placed in exact conformity, slanted forehead and all, right over a supposed Neanderthal skull fragment. The Cro-Magnon mans skull has an even higher and nobler forehead and larger brain capacity than the so-called brilliant Charles Darwin!
What do we have then when we sum up all the evidence: NOT ONLY IS THERE NO EVIDENCE TO SUBSTANTIATE THE THEORY, THERE IS, IN FACT, SCIENTIFIC, OBSERVED, DEMONSTRATED EVIDENCE THAT SUCH A THEORY IS FALSE . . . SUCH A THEORY IN NO WAY CONFORMS TO OBSERVED, PROVEN SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENA
JESUS SAID OF TEACHERS AND TEACHINGS . . .BY THEIR FRUITS SHALL YE KNOW THEM. . . . LET US LOOK AT THE FRUIT, THE CONSEQUENCES, THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING AND LIVING THE GREAT LIE . . . EVOLUTION! DOES IT BRING FORTH GOOD FRUIT OR EVIL FRUIT!?

V.

THE FRUITS (CONSEQUENCES) OF EVOLUTION

A.

Bernhardi and Nietzsche

1.

War is a biological necessity of the first importance . . . War gives a biologically just decision . . . Might is at once the supreme right. Bernhardi

2.

Man shall be trained for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly. Nietzsche

3.

Hitler (Nietzsches follower) The whole of nature is a continuous struggle between strength and weakness, an eternal victory of the strong over the weak.

B.

Clarence Darrow and Loeb and Leopold

In May, 1924 two youth, Loeb and Leopold, cruelly murdered a 14 year old boy, Bobby Franks, by name, in Chicago. At their trial in the following August these 2 young men were defended by the celebrated criminal lawyer (himself an evolutionist) Clarence Darrow. His speech is regarded as one of the greatest judicial materpieces in American history. During the course of his remarks in defense of Leopold, Darrow said, I will guarantee that you can go down to the Univ. of Chicago todayinto its big libraryand find over a 1000 volumes on Nietzsche, and I am sure I speak moderately. If this boy is to blame for this, where did he get it? Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsches philosophy seriously and fashioned his life on it? And there is no question in this case but what it is true. Then who is to blame? The University would be more to blame than he is. The scholars of the world would be more to blame than he is. The publishers of the worldand Nietzsches books are published by one of the biggest publishers of the worldare more to blame than he. Your Honor, it is hardly fair to hang a 19 yr. old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university.

C.

Bertrand Russell: Brief and powerless is mans life; on him and on his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its rentless ways; for man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that enoble his little days. . . .

D.

H.G. Wells: In spite of all my desperation to a brave looking optimism, I perceive that now the universe is bored with him (man), is turning a hard face to him, and I see him being carried less and less intelligently and more and more rapidly, suffering as every ill-adapted creature must suffer in gross and detail, along the stream of fate to degradation, suffering and death.

E.

Will Durant: Life has become in that total perspective which is philosophy, a fitful population of human insects on the earth, a planetary eczema that may soon be cured; nothing is certain in it except defeat and deatha sleep from which, it seems, there is no awakening. . . .

EVOLUTION BEARS FRUIT ALRIGHT . . . WAR, SLAVERY, MURDER, PESSIMISM, DESPAIR! IT BRINGS A PHILOSOPHY OF SUB-HUMAN MORALS . . . EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE TO THE INDIVIDUALS DESIRES . . . MAN CLAIMS HE CANNOT HELP BEING WHAT HE IS . . . FREEDOM MEANS DOING AS EACH ONE LIKES . . . IT BRINGS SENSUALITY, CRUELTY, IGNORANCE.

Life magazine, May 25, 1962, editorial of a reporter interviewing students in some of Americas most prestigious Prep-schools heard them say to him: Nothings solid; there are no values to depend upon. I have no values because there is no basis for them. I havent any goals because I dont know what to aim for. Everythings gray; there arent any values. WHERE DID THEY GET THESE STANDARDS? BY THEIR OWN MOUTH, CHARLES DARWIN, SIGMUND FRUED, SARTRE, CAMUS, ARTHUR MILLER, J.D. SALINGER. READ IT YOURSELF!

F.

Evolution is IMPRACTICAL AND IMMORAL

1.

It has no basis in fact or truth therefore it is a lie.

2.

It is inconsistent with known fact and is therefore impractical.

3.

It has never been a help but in every instance a hindrance.

Conclusion

THE WORD OF GOD, ON THE OTHER HAND.

I.

Is a revelation of God, much of which took place in HISTORY, seen and heard by eyewitnesses and is FACTUAL AND DEPENDABLE

A.

The propositions and truths which are not verifiable by experience in the Bible may therefore be trusted since it substantiates its claims to be a divinely revealed book from God.

B.

The Bible does not ask us to formulate a philosophy of life based upon theories and assumed pre-historical happenings. BUT ON VERIFIED, OBSERVED EVIDENCES OF A SUPERNATURAL GOD AND CHRIST!

II.

Agrees with other true and pure scientific observables

A.

Fixity of kind; Aqueous cataclysm forming fossils

B.

Anthropological discoveries; Three basic laws of science

III.

Shown to be accurate in all its history by archaeological finds

IV.

Traceable to almost the very hands of the eyewitnesses who wrote it

A.

No other literature of antiquity can make that statement

B.

Preserved, believed in, proclaimed, practiced by millions, many of whom have gladly died to do so.

V.

Supernaturally verified by fulfilled prophecies; hundreds of years of history written 1000s of years before it occurred, yet fulfilled to the very detail.

VI.

Is Practical

A.

Promotes love, compassion, truth, justice, freedom, law & order

B.

It is reasonable and consistent

C.

Brings morality, hope, satisfaction, fulfillment, answers to lifes perplexities

Billy Graham tells of a young college girl, just recently voted Queen of her campus here in America, who had been involved in a fatal automobile accident. The mother was summoned to the dying girls side only to hear these heart-rending words, Mother, you taught me everything I needed to know to get by in college. You taught me how to light my cigarette, how to hold my cocktail glass and how to have intercourse safely. But Mother, you never taught me how to die. You better teach me quickly, Mother, because Im dying.
EVOLUTIONISM IS TEACHING YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER THAT THERE IS NO GOD . . . THEY ARE MERE ANIMALS . . . SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST . . . ALL MORALS ARE RELATIVE TO SATISFYING ANIMAL PASSIONS . . . WAR . . . MURDER!
MOTHER AND FATHER, YOUD BETTER BE TEACHING THEM HOW TO PREPARE FOR ETERNITY!

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(16) For which cause we faint not.Ho returns, after a long digression, to the assertion with which 2 Corinthians 4 had opened, but in repeating the words he enters once again on the same line of thought, but under a different succession of imagery. The outward man, the material framework of the body, is undergoing a gradual process of decay, but the inward man, the higher spiritual life, is day by day passing through successive stages of renewal, gaining fresh energies. This verb also, and its derivative renewal, are specially characteristic of St. Paul. (Comp. Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10; Tit. 3:5.) The verb in Eph. 4:23, though not the same, is equivalent in meaning.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16. For which cause From this embracement of you all in the glories of Christ’s resurrection.

Faint not Falter not (note 2Co 4:1) through fear, despondency, or endurance of hardship and wear-out. But the reverse, though our outward, bodily, man perish, by hardship and wear-out, the inward, spirit, is renewed, so as to administer a refreshment and indestructibility for the time being to an earthly vessel.

Day by day Each day has its waste and repair. Nevertheless the renewal does not fully replace the waste, for the earthly is slowly or rapidly transitory. The machine will run down or be violently struck down. Still, as the cessation is in the outward man, and the renewal is in the inward, the fountain of energy will empower the inward to survive the wreck of the outward.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For this reason we faint not. But though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’

And it is because of his concern for the welfare of their spiritual lives, and, we could add, for the welfare of the spiritual lives of all their converts, and because of the grace of God that he knows to be at work, that he and His fellow-workers do not faint or get discouraged. They consider that what they are going through is nothing in the light of eternal blessing, and is momentary in comparison with eternity. Their outward body may be decaying, but what does that matter? Their inward man is being renewed day by day ready for the day of full renewal.

We must not, however, see this as distinguishing body from soul. Paul does not see things that way as he has clearly demonstrated in 1 Corinthians 15. That was the view of his opponents. What Paul means is that a man’s body is composed of physical and spiritual elements, and that while the physical elements are decaying and will cease (for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingly Rule of God – 1Co 15:50), the spiritual element is being constantly renewed ready for its resurrection at the last day.

And he then goes on to ask, what is their present ‘light’ affliction in view of its glorious purposes and results? Why, it is only temporary and is ever more and more producing for them, to a greater and greater abundance, an eternal weight of glory. Here ‘glory’ indicates all the blessings of God of the future, their treasure laid up in Heaven and added to by God. Note the contrast between the ‘light’ affliction, and the eternal ‘weight’ of glory. What comparison is there between the one and the other?

Thus in view of this they are not looking at what can be seen, they are looking beyond them to the things which cannot be seen, to the attitudes of heart, of love, faith and hope (1Co 13:13), which are preparing them for the coming day of glory, and to the multiplied blessings that await them once that day has come. And this is because the things that can be seen are only temporal, and passing away, while the things that are not seen are eternal.

In other words, they are setting their minds on things above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God, and not on things on the earth (Col 3:1-4). While on earth their spiritual lives are lived in the heavenly places, in the spiritual realm with Christ (Eph 1:19 to Eph 2:6), in faith, love and hope. And they are always looking forward to the time when they will be transformed and become men and women with spiritual bodies in heaven, enjoying His perfection for all eternity, enjoying the resting place He is providing for them (Joh 14:2).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

2Co 4:16 . ] namely, on account of the certainty expressed in 2Co 4:14 (partly elucidated in 2Co 4:15 ), in significant keeping with , and hence not to be referred back to the faith of the preachers, 2Co 4:13 (Hofmann).

.] as 2Co 4:1 . The opposite of . is: our inward man, i.e . our morally self-conscious personality, with the thinking and willing and the life-principle of the (see on Rom 7:22 ; Eph 3:16 ; comp. 1Pe 3:4 ), is renewed from day to day, i.e . it receives through the gracious efficacy of the divine Spirit continually new vigour and elevation, , , , Chrysostom. But with this there is also the admission: even if our outward man , our phenomenal existence, our visible bodily nature, whose immediate condition of life is the , is destroyed, i.e. is in process of being wasted away, of being swept off, namely, through the continual sufferings and persecutions, , , , Chrysostom. For though the continual life-rescues reveal the life of Jesus in the body of the apostle (2Co 4:11 ), yet there cannot thereby be done away the gradually destructive physical influence of suffering on the bodily nature. There is here a noble testimony to the consciousness of a continuous independence of the development of spiritual life on the passivity of the body; but the view of Billroth, who finds in . the growth of the infinite, the true resurrection , is just as un-Pauline as is the opinion of an inward invisible body (Menken), or even of a corporeality of the soul (Tertullian). On the point whether the inward man includes in itself the germ of the resurrection of the body (Osiander), the N. T. says nothing. Rckert diverges wholly from the usual interpretation, and thinks that . is only an accessory, half parenthetical inference from what precedes, and that a new train of thought does not begin till : “I have that hope, and hence do not become despondent. But even if I did not possess it, supposing even that my outward man is actually dissolved,” etc. Against this it may be urged that , . . . could not but present itself obviously to every reader as closely connected ( we faint not, but ), and that the whole interpretation is a consequence of Rckert’s erroneous exposition of 2Co 4:14 . Hence Neander also gives a similar interpretation, but hesitatingly.

On , comp. Plato, Alc . i. p. 135 A: .

The ( at, on the contrary ) in the apodosis, after a concessive conditional sentence, introduces with emphasis the opposite compensating relation; see Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 374; Ngelsbach on the Iliad , p. 43, Exo 2 ; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 11.

] the inward, inner man . Regarding adverbs in with the same meaning as their primitives, see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 128; Hartung, Kasus , p. 173.

] day by day ; , (Eur. Cycl . 336), in point of sense, for ever and ever , without interruption or standing still. A pure Hebraism, not found once in the LXX, formed after ; comp. Est 3:4 ; Gen 39:10 ; Psa 68:20 . See Vorst, Hebr. p. 307 f.

] Winer aptly remarks (Progr. de verbor. cum praepos. compos, in N. T. usu, III. p. 10), that in , to renew, to refresh, the question does not arise, “utrum ea ipsa novitas, quae alicui rei conciliatur, jam olim adfuerit necne;” see on Col 3:10 . Instead of , the Greeks have only (Heb 4:6 ), but the simple form is also classical.

The confession . . became a watchword of the martyrs. Comp. Cornelius a Lapide.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Ver. 16. Yet the inward man ] Peter Martyr dying, said, “My body is weak, my mind is well, well for the present, and it will be better hereafter.” This is the godly man’s motto.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16 18. ] Second ground of encouragement HOPE.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

16. ] Wherefore (on account of the hope implied in the faith spoken of 2Co 4:14 , which he is about to expand) we do not shrink (as in 2Co 4:1 ; but now , owing to despair ), but (on the contrary) though even (not ‘ even if ,’ putting a case ; with ind. asserts the fact , as in , Php 2:17 ) our outward man is [ being ] wasted away (i.e. our body , see Rom 7:22 , is , by this continued and , being worn out : he is not as yet speaking of dissolution by death, but only of gradual approximation to it), yet ( in the apodosis after a hypothetic clause, introduces a strong and marked contrast: so Hom. Il. . 81, , , : see other examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, ii. 40) our inner (man) is [being] renewed (contrast, subordinately to , but mainly to ) day by day ( . ., so Hebr. , Est 3:4 ; an expression not found (Meyer) even in the LXX): i.e. ‘our spiritual life, the life which testifies the life of Jesus, even in our mortal bodies ( 2Co 4:11 ), is continually fed with fresh accessions of grace:’ see next verse. So Chrys., ; , , , (al. ) . , , , . p. 500.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Co 4:16-18 . HE IS SUSTAINED BY A GLORIOUS HOPE.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

2Co 4:16 . . . .: wherefore, sc. , because of the thought in 2Co 4:14 , we faint not (repeated from 2Co 4:1 ); but even though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day . That is, even though (note with the indicative as introducing not a mere contingency, but a matter of fact; see reff. 2Co 4:3 ) the “earthen vessel” (2Co 4:7 ) of my body is subject to a continual (2Co 4:10 ) and decay, yet my true self is daily renewed by Divine grace; it is in hope of the consummation of this “renewal” that I faint not ( cf. Isa 40:30 ). The contrast between and has verbal parallels in Rom 7:22 , Eph 4:22-23 , Col 3:9 ( cf. also 1Pe 3:4 ), but they are not quite apposite, as in those passages the thought is of the difference between the lower and higher nature, the “flesh” and the “spirit,” whereas here the decay of the bodily organism is set over against the growth in grace of the man himself; cf. the expression of Plato, ( Republ. , ix., p. 589). The phrase is a Hebraism; it is not found in this exact form in the LXX, but it might well be a rendering of ( cf. Gen 39:10 , Psa 68:19 , Est 3:4 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Co 4:16-18

16Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart” This is a recurrent theme in Paul’s writings (cf. 2Co 4:1; Gal 6:9; Eph 3:13; 2Th 3:13). Circumstances are, in reality, for strengthening our spiritual stamina and fruitfulness.

“but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” These are both present passive indicatives, which denote ongoing action. The passive voice is hard to translate and understand in this context. Most English translations translate them as Active voice, but they also may denote divine action in using physical problems and persecutions as a means to strengthen and mature Jesus’ followers (cf. Mat 5:10-12; Joh 15:18-21; Joh 16:1-2; Joh 17:14; Act 14:22; Rom 5:3-4; Rom 8:17; 2Co 4:16-18; Php 1:29; Php 3:11; 1Th 3:3; 2Ti 3:12; Heb 5:8; Jas 1:2-4; 1Pe 4:12-19). In Eph 3:16; Eph 4:24 there is a comparison of the old man and the new man, but the contrast here is between our outer physical body and our inner spiritual nature.

“is being renewed” See Special Topic following.

SPECIAL TOPIC: Renew (ANAKAINSIS)

“day by day” Paul uses Hebrew idiomatic (cf. Gen 39:10; Est 3:4; Psa 68:19) repetition in 2Co 4:16, “day by day,” and a similar Hebraic repetition in 2Co 4:17, “excessively to excess” (i.e., huperboln eis hperboln). Remember, NT authors (except Luke) are Hebrew/Aramaic thinkers writing in Koine Greek. There are many Hebraic idioms and grammatical constructions, as well as numerous OT allusions and quotes in the NT.

2Co 4:17-18 2Co 4:17 is very similar to Rom 8:18, while 2Co 4:18 is similar to Rom 8:24. Paul wrote Romans from Corinth! He had been thinking about his call and the problems connected to it. There was, in reality, no comparison between the momentary light affliction and the eternal glory! This is the biblical world view that sustains God’s people in this fallen world. He is with us, for us, and will bring us to His personal presence to remain forever!

2Co 4:17 “is producing” This same verb is used in Rom 5:3-4 and Jas 1:2-4, which also speaks of the benefits of suffering and persecution.

“an eternal weight of glory” See SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (DOXA) at 1Co 2:7.

“far beyond all comparison” Huperbol. See Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Huper Compounds at 1Co 2:1.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

For which cause = Therefore.

though = even if. App-118.

outward (Greek. exo) man (Greek. anthropos, App-123.) This expression Occurs only here. It is one of the rearms of the old nature. Compare Rom 6:6. 1Co 2:14. Eph 4:22. Col 3:9.

perish = is corrupted or destroyed, Greek diaphtheire. Occurs elsewhere, Luk 12:33, 1Ti 6:5. Rev 8:9; Rev 11:1.

inward. Greek. eadthen. In Rom 7:22. Eph 3:16, the word is eso.

renewed. Greek. anakainoo Only here and Col 3:10.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16-18.] Second ground of encouragement-HOPE.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Co 4:16. , for which cause we faint not) 2Co 4:1, note.- , the outward [man]) the body, the flesh.-, be wasted away [perish]) by affliction.-, is renewed) by hope; see the following verses. This new condition shuts out all , infirmity [such as is implied in , faintness.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Co 4:16

2Co 4:16

Wherefore we faint not;-Because his sufferings brought glory to God and good to the Corinthians he did not grow discouraged under them.

but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.-As his fleshly body, day by day, under labors and years, perished, or decayed, the inner spiritual man by these same sufferings and passing years grew stronger and stronger. Paul, never robust, was growing old and feeble in body, but his spiritual man grew stronger day by day.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

we: 2Co 4:1, Psa 27:13, Psa 119:81, Isa 40:29, 1Co 15:58

though: 2Co 12:15, Job 19:26, Job 19:27, Psa 73:26, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2, Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30

the: Rom 7:22, Eph 3:16, 1Pe 3:4

is: Psa 51:10, Isa 40:31, Rom 12:2, Eph 4:23, Col 3:10, Tit 3:5

day by: Luk 11:3

Reciprocal: Jdg 8:4 – faint Job 4:5 – thou faintest Job 29:20 – renewed Psa 41:3 – strengthen Psa 103:5 – thy youth Pro 3:11 – neither Jer 45:3 – I fainted Act 16:25 – sang Act 16:40 – they comforted Act 20:24 – none Rom 2:7 – glory Rom 12:1 – a living 1Co 2:3 – General 2Co 4:8 – yet Gal 6:9 – if Eph 4:24 – new Eph 6:16 – the shield 2Th 3:13 – be not weary Heb 12:3 – lest Rev 2:3 – hast not

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Verse 16. Faint is the same as that in verse 1, and means to falter or be heartless, and Paul affirms that he would not suffer such to happen to him. That was because of his abiding faith in the promises of God, and the assurance that some day all “earthly things would cease to be, and life eternal fruit should bear.” The outward man means the fleshly body that is the subject of persecutions and also is subject to the frailty of age and infirmity. While such changes are going on, the inward man (the soul or spirit) is living on and on and growing stronger each day and gaining much of that strength from the very trials that the enemy thought would cast him down in despair.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Co 4:16. Whereforeon all the foregoing groundswe faint not; but though our outward man is decaying (see on 2Co 4:10-12), yet the inward man is renewed day by dayunder a growing experience of the power of His resurrection.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The original word for fainting signifies to shrink back, as cowards in war, or to sink down as porter under the pressure of some heavy burden: For this cause we faint not. For what cause? namely, this, that though their bodies were weakened by affliction, and they were daily decaying, as to the strength and vigour of the outward man; yet, as to their inward man, the strength and vigour of their minds and spirits were day by day renewed.

O happy apostle! the cold blasts of persectuion beating upon thy outward man, did by a spiritual antiperistasis increase the heat of grace within; thy soul is made fat with blows upon thy body, and battens with pricking and beating; every stone thrown at thee knocked thee nearer to Christ, the chief corner-stone: under all the storms and billows of affliction, thou, like Noah’s ark, wert lifted up nearer to heaven; and after every encounter, thy salvation is nearer than before. Well therefore mightest thou declare and say, For this cause we faint not.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

A Proper View of Suffering

Since he believed death would be followed by a resurrection, and his suffering brought God glory, Paul did not give up hope and quit fighting. While the physical body was gradually destroyed by suffering, the spiritual man grew stronger, because of it, daily. The apostle counted his troubles as light because of the reward withstanding them would bring. Trials are temporary, while the reward will be eternal. Scripture clearly teaches bearing up under tribulation will bring reward ( 2Co 4:16-17 ; 2Ti 2:12 ; 1Pe 4:13 ; Rom 8:17 ).

Jesus left us an example that we should respond to worldly trouble by obeying God. ( Php 2:7-11 ) If we think only in terms of this world, we may not be able to bear suffering. Yet, the Christian thinks in terms of eternity and the spiritual rewards to come ( 2Co 4:18 ; Col 3:1-4 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

2Co 4:16-17. For which cause Because of which abounding grace that supports us; we faint not Under any of our present pressures; but though our outward man The body; perish Be worn out and brought to dust prematurely, by our continual labours and sufferings; our inward man The soul; is renewed day by day After the divine nature and likeness, receiving fresh degrees of spiritual strength, purity, and consolation, in proportion as the body grows weaker, and we feel our dissolution approaching. And it is reasonable that this should be the case; for our light affliction , momentary lightness, or light thing (as Macknight renders it) of our affliction; worketh, or rather worketh out, for us a far more exceeding weight of glory That is, a weight of glory far exceeding the affliction, both in degree and duration: or, far greater than we could have received if we had not passed through the affliction. For the affliction, by correcting our faults, exercising and thereby increasing our graces, and purging us as gold and silver are purified in the furnace, increases our holiness and conformity to God, and thereby prepares us for a greater degree of future felicity than could otherwise have been assigned us; God also as certainly rewarding his people hereafter for their sufferings patiently endured, as for their labours diligently and cheerfully accomplished. The Hebrew word, as Macknight justly observes, answering to glory, signifies both weight and glory. Here the apostle joins the two significations in one phrase; and describing the happiness of the righteous, calls it not glory simply, but a weight of glory, in opposition to the light thing of our affliction; and an eternal weight of glory, in opposition to the momentary duration of our affliction: and a more exceeding eternal weight of glory, as beyond comparison greater than all the dazzling glories of riches, fame, power, pleasure, or any thing which can be possessed in the present life. And after all it is a glory not yet to be revealed; it is not yet fully known. But, as Blackwell (Sacred Classics, vol. 1. p. 332) well expresses it, This is one of the most emphatic passages in all St. Pauls writings, in which he speaks as much like an orator, as he does as an apostle. The lightness of the trial is expressed by , the lightness of our affliction, which is but for a moment; as if he had said, It is even levity itself in such a comparison. On the other hand, the , which we render far more exceeding, is infinitely emphatical, and cannot be fully expressed by any translation. It signifies that all hyperboles fall short of describing that weighty, eternal glory, so solid, so lasting, that you may pass from hyperbole to hyperbole, and yet when you have gained the last, you are infinitely below it. Indeed, as another eminent writer observes, the beauty and sublimity of St. Pauls expressions here, as descriptive of heavenly glory, opposed to temporal afflictions, surpass all imagination, and cannot be preserved in any translation or paraphrase, which after all must sink far, very far below the astonishing original.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore [because each death is followed by a co-ordinate resurrection] we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. [The sacrifice of the carnal ever tends to the increase of the spiritual. The apostle knew that the transfiguration described at 2Co 3:18 was perfecting itself daily].

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 16

We faint not, we are not discouraged.–Our outward man; that which pertains to present and temporal welfare.–The inward man; the soul, in respect to its spiritual interests.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:16 For which cause we faint not; {10} but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is {o} renewed day by day.

(10) He adds as it were a triumphant song, that he is outwardly afflicted, but inwardly he profits daily: and he is not bothered by all the miseries that may be sustained in this life, in comparison of that most constant and eternal glory.

(o) Gathers new strength so that the outward man is not overcome with the miseries which come freshly one after another, being maintained and upheld with the strength of the inward man.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The contrast between outward deterioration and inward renewal 4:16-18

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

In view of the reasons just sited, the apostle restated that he did not lose heart (cf. 2Co 4:1). However, Paul’s sufferings, while not fatal, were destroying his body. Nevertheless even this did not discourage him for, even though physically he was decaying, spiritually he was still developing (cf. Eph 3:16). In this verse Paul resumed the thought he began in 2Co 4:1.

"We are, in fact, on the threshold of one of the most important eschatological passages of the New Testament." [Note: Hughes, p. 152.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)