A Final Response To Jason Brown

By Curt Wildy

Jason Brown, in response to my posted reply to him,  had this to say about my argument that (1) the Lord Jesus Christ and Jehovah (Yahweh) God are one and the same and that (2) those Old Testament saints who had faith in Jehovah/Yahweh likewise had faith in Christ:

Curt Wildy is certainly right to say that Christ is Yahweh, and that the faith given to Old Testament saints embraced as it’s object the person of Christ. My point has always been that the person of Christ embraced immediately upon regeneration when the elect are justified is the same for all the elect per Romans 4:16.

Let’s consider what the verse at issue states:

Romans 4:16 Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all…

This faith of Abraham was a living, God-given, God-wrought faith (it was the gift of Christ in Him). Faith, to be truly faith, must have an object in which that faith is placed. Abraham’s faith was in the Lord Jesus Christ (Jehovah/Yahweh the Anointed Saviour). But was it faith in the abstract or faith in the concrete. Was it faith real, perceived, felt, and understood — or was it a mystical faith, hidden deep in the soul, that left the one experiencing it ignorant of the Christ whom He loved, served, and (somehow) believed. Clearly Abraham knew Jehovah/Yahweh Elohim; he knew him personally and had an understanding of Him as his God. Abraham had eternal life, and “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Abraham not only did not hold to a false gospel of dead works after he was quickened, but he actively had faith in the Godhead overall and the Christ, the Messiah, the “Seed,” as well (for, as I stated in the original response, Abraham looked forward to Christ’s day).

To take the truth of Abraham’s faith in a Christ that was known to Him and whose teachings were known to Him (albeit through direct revelation) and spin it to suggest that a person in our day can be born from above and continue to proclaim a false gospel is heresy. To teach that God is saving people today and leaving them ignorant of the actual Person and Name of the Lord Jesus Christ is also heresy. As per 2 Peter 1:19, we now have “…a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” Having the Bible, the full revelation by which men can know (experimentally and intellectually know) the true Christ — we must acknowledge that “…there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” This name, this revelation of the Person and authority of Christ, is given among men — God is not going to save someone, give them some belief in an “unknown god” (in the mere sense of general deity) and leave them ignorant of the Gospel, the Doctrine of Christ, and the Lord Jesus that it reveals. Abraham likely did not know Christ by the Greek title Christos but he knew Him by the name of Jehovah/Yahweh God (the name by which Christ chose to make Himself known at that time); for “…Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14). In these latter days, this same Jehovah/Yahweh God has made Himself known also as the Lord Jesus Christ, the great I AM. Just as Abraham was not ignorant of the Jehovah whom he served, no Christian is ignorant of the Christ whom they serve.

Moreover, consider how Christ Jesus and His doctrine is revealed to us. God has sovereignly chosen to reveal Christ to the elect through the foolishness of preaching, that men may call upon Him as the Lord ordained and enables. But who are the preachers in our day? Is it God through direct revelation as Mr. Brown asserts below, or is it the saints that He sends? I assert that in our day, in light of Revelation 22:18, 19, it is only through men, only through human preaching. God is not bringing new direct revelation. Sure, it is His divine voice that mystically calls the dead to life — but it is the preaching of the cross, the Gospel, that God has sovereignly yoked together with regeneration. 1 Corinthians 1:21 declares that “…in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Consider also:

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

God quickens elect sinners so that they will (1) know the Truth, (2) believe the Truth, (3) love and obey the Truth, and (4) proclaim the Truth. As with Lazarus, our Lord sovereignly calls (without human aid or means) dead sinners to life by His almighty word through the effectual working of the Holy Ghost. However, also as with Lazarus, He instructs his already quickened disciples to “loose these newly regenerate souls and let them go.” God alone gave the spiritual life but He works through His people to ensure that quickened souls are henceforth freed from their blindness, darkness, and bondage. Christ works through His sent messengers to see to it that these newly quickened souls are brought to hear of Christ, His kingdom, His Gospel, and the Godhead of whom He is the fulness bodily. By His grace, and as the Author and Finisher of our faith, He guarantees that we are brought to believe what we hear. Just as Christ did not call Lazarus to life and leave him bound hand and foot with graveclothes, Christ does not call any of His elect to spiritual life and then leave them ignorant of His Person, His Name, His doctrine, or His kingdom.

Mr. Brown goes on to state:

If you want to consider this as direct “gospel” revelation to the heart at regeneration, I, and most Primitive Baptists, would agree, as Elder David Pyles states in “Extent of the Gospel”:

“We allow that God has every right and all ability to preach the gospel himself without the aid of man. According to Galatians 3:8, God preached the gospel to Abraham long before there ever was an apostle, elder, or missionary. It is presumptuous for us to take any position asserting that only man can preach the gospel. Now, there will be different opinions about how much information is conveyed by direct revelation from God, or as to how this revelation will manifest itself in the lives of those affected, and it is certain that God directly reveals more to some than to others; however, I believe I speak for all Primitive Baptists by saying that God will reveal Himself, in His own chosen way and degree, to all of His elect people here in time. In this sense it could be said that the gospel will reach all of the elect.”

First consider the verse at issue:

Galatians 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Then consider that the time and context of Christ’s dealings with Abraham were both pre-incarnation and even pre-Mosaic. The Old Testament scriptures had yet to be written so of course God was bringing direct revelation to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and so on. God then developed His word through Moses, et. al., and added to it through direct revelation even into early New Testament times. But when the Bible was completed, direct revelation ceased. Our Lord made it clear that it would be through the faithful preaching of the word (that is, through the preaching and witnessing of the men that He calls and sends to preach the word) that He would gather in His fold. He makes men fishers of men. There is a reason that we see the account of the Holy Spirit sending Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch. God could have just “directly revealed” the fuller truth to this Ethiopian believer; instead, He sent a man to reveal it. God sent a man to an Old Testament believer to transition him into a New Testament believer by giving him the fuller details of Christ. Unlike the transition period of Acts, today, all true believers start of with the Gospel. There are no more believing Old Testament Jews and (Ethiopian, Samaritan, Greek, or Roman) Proselytes; people in our day who believe, believe the full Gospel (how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures – 1 Corinthians 15:3,4).

Mr. Brown goes on to say:

The revelation available to the regenerate to further inform the root perception of Christ of regeneration has been variable as to the clarity of propositional truth, as in Old Testament times. Brother Wildy’s emphasis of the Old Testament saints embracing the revelation of Christ in the Old Testament is fully consistent with this, not opposed.

I do not like to harp on it (counting it but dung), but I have an advanced degree from a pretty prestigious university and I am fairly well read — and yet “to further inform the root perception of Christ of regeneration has been variable as to the clarity of propositional truth, as in Old testament times” threw me for a loop. What on earth does that even mean? It doesn’t matter what it means… it’s intellectual gobbledygook. I know that through force of habit I use some words and phrases that may be a bit tedious — but “variable as to the clarity of propositional truth?” Really? My guess is that he is trying to say in some academic fashion that the degree of revelation given to believers today (concerning Christ and His doctrine) varies just as it varied with Old Testament believers. However, I reject this. Old Testament believers knew Christ, knew His Gospel, but lacked the historic details associated with it. We on the other hand, having a more sure word of prophecy, are not lacking in those details. What Abraham lacked (thus requiring direct revelation) we have fully and completely in the Bible (or as fully and completely as we can ever have on this side of the grave).

Mr. Brown states:

I will not argue with certainty about the final state of all the heathen, as their salvation entirely rests on the direct revelation of God, except to say that I find it inconsistent to suppose that God withholds revelation from those that “waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).” It is also true that the regenerate are out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and if there were unevangelized (by men) but regenerate people that lived to adulthood in heathen lands, the direct revelation of God would have made them peculiar indeed.

I have already thoroughly addressed this in the third part of the series to which he is responding (or else in the first or second part – I cannot remember and I am too tired tonight to check); I trust (based upon his words) that he did not bother to read it. Suffice to say that whereas he “will not argue with certainty about the final state of all the heathen” I will so argue by stating that all who died before the Bible was completed without a knowledge of Jehovah/Yahweh God and His Christ (whether through existing scripture or direct revelation) are damned. Likewise, all who died without hearing the Gospel (after the Bible was completed) are likewise damned. All who have been quickened, regenerated, born from above… have heard the Gospel and have believed it by the operation of Christ in them through the Holy Spirit. If they did not hear, then like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and like those of Jericho and Ai, they perished in their sins. How frightening but true it is; they died without Hope.

Finally (there was more but it is tedious to respond to it), Mr. Brown wrote:

For years Abraham had only Genesis 3:15 as far as propositional truth. How clear was this prophecy? It asserts that the seed of the woman would destroy the serpent. This is not much propositional revelation, and Abraham only had this to reflect on for years (that we know for sure). Now, perhaps God revealed more about this prophecy to him than we know, as John 8:56 might intimate. However, John 8:56 and 58 may refer to simply that it was Christ who spoke with Abraham at Mamre, so that Abraham literally saw Christ’s day, which does not refer to the New Testament era, but the fact that Christ is the eternal God (vs. 58). All of this is some degree of speculation.

To this, I need only point to the following:

Genesis 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten [son], 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God [was] able to raise [him] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

Abraham knew and believed both Christ and the Gospel truth (albeit likely without the historic details associated with it). He knew that through Isaac the Messiah would come and that this Messiah, this Lord His Righteousness, would redeem him, His family (Israel), and the believing amongst the nations when the Seed arrives. Regarding the Mamre argument, it is not in keeping with the context and it is rejected by commentators from Gill, to Henry, to Poole, and others beyond.

Summary

In the post-transitional New Testament era (i.e. post-Acts era and after the writing of Revelations 22), all regenerate saints believe the Gospel truth; barring some physical or mental handicap, they are all capable of proclaiming this truth to others. God saves through the preaching of His word, as He sends His people out as faithful witnesses. He quickens without means; however, He quickens in conjunction with Gospel preaching and always sees to it that Gospel conversion follows (giving the quickened hearer the ears to hear the Gospel being proclaimed). The notion of regeneration without Gospel conversion is repugnant and obnoxious; it is a damnable heresy I am sure — one that promotes spiritual complacency, false hope, and a means of (supposed) salvation other than which the Gospel declares.

To God be the glory.