Okay, now that we have recapped the last two articles let’s start with reading chapter 1 sections 2-4 of the Confession:

 

II.   “Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these:

 

Of the Old Testament:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi;

 

Of the New Testament:

The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Epistles to the; Romans, Corinthians I, Corinthians II, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians I, Thessalonians II, To Timothy I, To Timothy II, To Titus, To Philemon, The Epistle to the Hebrews, The Epistle of James, The first and second Epistles of Peter, The first, second, and third Epistles of John, The Epistle of Jude, The Revelation of John.

 

All which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life.[i]

 

III. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.[ii] “

III.

IV. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.[iii]

 

It is important to have a section like this in the confession; for as soon as you make the assertion that the Scriptures are your final authority concerning every square inch of life you must state what the Scriptures are. The historical debate between the Protestants and Roman Catholics over the authority of the Apocrypha shows us how important it is to declare what we believe the inspired Word of God is. Section II outlines for us what forms part of God’s written Word. We know that there is more than the written Word of God, natural revelation, but the written Word of God is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This leads to the question of what constitutes the Old and New Testaments, the enumerated^[iv] books. The enumeration is the extensive listing of what makes up the written Word of God. We must also understand the intensive definition of what comprises the Word of God. In other words, what makes something part of the written Word of God is that it is inspired. Therefore, the extensive definition of the written Word of God is the list of inspired books of the Old and New Testaments and the intensive definition of what constitutes the written Word of God is inspiration.

 

Note with me that the word canon means a measuring tool. It “literally signifies a rule, and was early used to designate the Inspired Scriptures, which form a perfect rule of faith and life.”^[v] It is important to differentiate between the recognition of what books are in the canon and the nature of the books in the canon. Do not look back at the early Church councils and think that the recognition of the canon is the same as the nature of the canon. The analogy of a person having cancer may be useful here. Cancer is one thing and the recognition of cancer is another matter all together. If you have cancer, you have it whether it is recognised/diagnosed or not. In the same way “the authority [or inspiration] of the Scriptures...does not depend on the testimony of the church...Therefore the church cannot recommend [or establish] the authority of the Scripture. [This is] because the church is built upon the Scripture ( Eph. 2:20) and borrows all authority from it…[indeed if we argued that the church established the authority of the Scriptures a] manifest circle would be made since the authority of the church is proved from Scripture, and in turn the authority of the Scripture from the church.”^[vi] This sort of reasoning is philosophically and logically flawed and utterly absurd. Must I point you back to Descartes from last week? He was assuming that which he was trying to prove. In fact if we reason this way it is a spiral of circular reasoning and bankrupt to the core, not bringing glory to the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. We must oppose the Papist in concurring with Francis Turretin that; “A fallible and human testimony (as that of the church) cannot form the foundation of divine faith.”^[vii]

 

We must clearly understand that human recognition of the authority of a book does not give it authority, it simply is a submission to the book’s authority. Again, Turretin states that; “a law does not derive its authority from the subordinate judges who interpret it or from the heralds who promulgate it, but from its author alone.”^[viii] In understanding this hopefully you will see the reason why the Protestants make such a great deal over the point that the canon is not a bi-product of the Church, the Church cannot produce the Canon but rather it has recognised the canon and more importantly the Church itself is dependent upon the canon and must submit to this. The Church’s say so has nothing to do with producing the canon.^[ix] Do not underestimate the importance of the inspiration of the written Word of God. Cornelius Van Til instructed that; “the argument for the Scriptures as the infallible revelation of God is, to all intents and purposes, the same as the argument for the existence of God.”^[x]

 

Let me also make it very clear that the canon is not identical to special revelation. What we find in the authoritative list of books within the Bible is not all of what God has given by inspiration. Not all special revelation is in the canon or given in written form. Read with me from John 21:25; “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” This hyperbole overstates to make the point that there is quite a bit more of what Jesus said than what is written in red ink in some Bibles. Some of God’s special revelation was not written down. But even some of God’s written special revelation is not in the Bible. We read of the Book of Jasher (Jos. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18) and the Book of the Wars of the Lord ( Num. 21:14) and Paul makes reference to Epistles that we don’t have. So, not all special written revelation makes it into the Bible. “So we want to make the point that the canon is written revelation, given by God, which He has intended for the entire church throughout its history. Hypothetically...what if we discovered one of these lost works of the Apostle Paul…would that then be in the canon?...No, it would not be part of the canon because that even though it was inspired, written by an Apostle...it did not govern the church throughout its history.”^[xi]

 

So let us speak about the authority of a canonical book. We have already stated that the Church cannot impute authority and the recognition of a book’s authority does not make it authoritative. So we must ask the questions of what is the authority of the canonical books and how do we recognise them as the Scripture. Now, the theological premise that I want you to understand, get into your notes and meditate upon is that only God is sufficient to  witness to Himself. The historical Protestant stance has been this; only God is sufficient to witness to himself or as John Calvin put it; “Scripture has its authority from God.”^[xii] A A Hodge declares that the authority of the Scriptures come “[f]rom the statements of the Scriptures themselves.”^[xiii] John Frame tells us that; “the church did not...make the Bible authoritative. Rather, it read these books and discovered that God had already made them authoritative. Basically, God illuminated these writings so that the church could recognize God’s voice in them. As Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice’ ( John 10:27).”^[xiv] Unlike the false claims of the Roman Catholics; “[i]t is a remarkable  fact that although the early church argued about many things, the extent of the canon never became a divisive issue.”^[xv] In fact the 4^th century Godly Bishop Athanasius confirmed the 66 books of the Bible to be the only written Word of God in a Paschal festival letter (LETTER XXXIX).^[xvi]

 

But let me get back to the statement that only God is sufficient to witness of Himself. We read in Hebrews 6:13; “when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.” God does not have a higher court to appeal to. There is nothing or nobody more authoritative than God, so when He swears He must do so in His own name. God makes oath by His own authority. This means by necessity that God’s authoritative Word is self attesting or self authorising. Now, if I want you to believe an assertion I make, I may appeal to a higher authority than me...perhaps some great theologian. Ultimately you must take what that theologian asserts and test it with the ultimate authority of the Christian epistemological system, the Bible. There is no higher court of appeal for the Christian or the Church. The written Word of God contained in the 66 books of the Bible is our system’s ultimate authority. Now many will say why must I accept the Bible? The answer troubles some people but we will go over it...the Bible is its own authority. Some will continue to argue that you are begging the question^[xvii] or reasoning in circles.^[xviii] The late Dr Greg Bahnsen derides this by stating that; “all of that is a bunch of rhetorical nonsense because all we are saying is that every system of thought has an ultimate authority and just because it is ultimate, there is nothing beyond it to which you can appeal. Every system of thought has some form of self authorisation at its most fundamental level. And the people who have trouble with this don’t realise that they’ve got the same problem of a self authorising starting point in their thinking. And if its not the Bible, what they don’t recognise is that their starting points are contradictory or self refuting as well as self authorising.”^[xix] Thus we must not worry too much about unbelievers telling us that we are reasoning in circles. They are reasoning in circles too. But here’s the power of the Biblical Christian system of thought; our circle happens to account for human dignity, rationality, freedom, the laws of logic, the possibility of doing science and moral absolutes THEIRS does not and cannot account for any of these. In fact consistently lived out all unbiblical circles destroy them. So therefore, CHOOSE YOUR CIRCLE!

 

Therefore the Canon of Scriptures are books that are self-authorising. They are books wherein God identifies Himself as God and the final authority. And only because of that self vindicating authority do the books belong in the Canon. In John 5:38-39 the Lord Jesus Christ says of the Scriptures “And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” It is interesting that Jesus bears testimony to the Scriptures and the Scriptures bear testimony to Jesus. There is a self authorising element to the ultimate standard of Biblical Christianity, just like any other epistemological system. G I Williamson explains it well; “if Scripture is the Word of God, then obviously it must possess divine authority within itself. And if it does possess within itself divine authority, then it cannot and need not depend on anything else (other than God). Authority can depend only on that which is higher than itself. The authority of man can depend on the authority of man, but only if the authority depended upon is higher...But God is the highest authority...who can back up the authority of the Word of God but God himself?”^[xx] Therefore, our confession and assurance of the the self authorisation of the Scriptures must ring as clear as the early Church Father Clement of Alexandria’s statement in the 2^nd century; “...the Scriptures...are valid from their omnipotent authority.”^[xxi]

 

This does not always mean that God identifies His Word by waving the red flag of “thus saith the Lord.” Many of the books of the Bible directly claim to be God’s Word but some claim this implicitly through the power of the message being from the Lord of the Covenant. Now we know that this is the case because in Matthew 7when Jesus had completed His sermon on the Mount, from verse 28 we read that; “the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” The Word of Christ is like this in both the New and Old Testaments, sometimes it is not explicitly stated as “thus saith the Lord” but you read it and affirm “wow” this is the authority that only God can speak with. Jesus tells us that His sheep hear His voice ( John 10:27). 

 

At this point some may object that we are moving into subjectivism, because everyone has their individual feelings of how they will respond these books. But we must never think that when God speaks only one person can hear or receive that Word. He does not speak idiosyncratically, rather the whole World shudders at His Word. Likewise when Jesus speaks it is not like only one sheep hears His voice, rather the whole flock hears His voice and follows Him. It is legitimate to compare and measure our subjective reactions against those of other Christians and in particular the corporate Church over the ages. So the Church hears and recognises the self authoritative voice of God in the Scriptures. Those books that have that kind of authority, which is recognised by the Church at large, even though there may be a few people with doubts here and there, constitutes the recognition of the Canon. Now remember the difference between the authority of something and recognising that authority. We are speaking here of the Church recognising the authority of the books in the Canon because the authoritative voice of the Shepherd has been heard in the writings. Again, the Church did not make the Canon but recognised it. John Calvin reminds us that; “Scripture must be confirmed by the witness of the Spirit. Thus may its authority be established as certain; and it is a wicked falsehood that its credibility depends on the judgement of the Church.”^[xxii]

 

There are certain necessary marks of canonicity that we can look for in the Word of God. Coherence is the major mark here and is helpful to the Church when there is a debate over whether or not a book should be in the canon. Hebrews 6:18states; “it was impossible for God to lie” and Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:18 that “God is true” therefore the Apostles “word toward you was not yea and nay.” In other words God does not contradict Himself. Therefore in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 God’s people are told that; “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” Any subsequent revelation from a prophet must be consistent with previous revelation because you must continue to obey God’s Word. When a prophet tells you something other than what you have heard before you must reject that prophet. How many problems within the modern Church would be solved if this command was obeyed?

 

So the Old Testament saints had to beware of false teachers and so did the New Testament faithfuls. The Apostle Paul tells the Galatian (1:9) believers that; “if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” And the believers in Thessalonica were warned; “be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand” (2 Thess. 2:2). The Bible tells us to be on the look out. It tells us not to except every book that comes along claiming to be the Word of God. Paul tells us there were spurious epistles circulating as though he had written them.

 

Whenever there is a question about whether a book should be in the canon one of the vital questions we must ask is if it is consistent with previous revelation of God. If it is not it must be rejected. The amazing thing about this standard of critique is that the Apostle Paul was subject to it himself. Remember how he instructed the Bereans in Acts 17:11where we read that they; “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word [of Paul] with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” So Paul gives the Bereans a message and they are commended for checking it against the Old Testament for consistency. Therefore any revelation in the canon must be consistent with previous revelations given.

 

The Holy Spirit brings to our heart the conviction that the Word we are reading in the Bible is the Scripture. The Holy Spirit’s persuasion, which is necessary for us to believe, does not constitute the authority of the Scripture. The Scripture has authority in and of itself. So when someone says I am convicted that this is the Word of God we can ask whether the Church generally sees that or is this some fringe lunatic. Secondly, when some book is claimed to be revelatory and it contradicts previous revelation we must be suspicious.

 

The final point I want to make regarding the canon is that it was settled under the sovereignty of God through His providential direction of history. “God chose...[the Jewish nation] as the society in which the Messiah was to appear. So too he chose or predetermined the rest of history. In Ephesians 1:11the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘We have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the council of his own will.’ That God’s will works all things is taught in the Old Testament also: With a certain literary grace Daniel 4:35says, ‘All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay his hand or say, What doest Thou?’...God foreordains all the events of history.”^[xxiii]

 

We know that God has intended to reveal Himself to His people. This is seen in the Scriptural books and we know that God has intended those writings to be received by the Church as a whole. As an example in Colossians 4:16we read that Paul wants the Epistle to be read throughout the Church. The Word of God is the be spread out to all the people of God. This spreading out of the Word of God through the whole Church is a drawn out historical process and is something of a struggle as well. It takes time because God does not give His direct special revelation to everyone in His home. He gave it to individuals in the Roman Empire and then it had to spread out across the world. That takes time. We do not know why God elected to reveal His word before the times of the internet and modern technology when the Word could have been spread overnight. For whatever reason He did not do so. In the Old Testament times and the early Church the Word spread very slowly and at various times different parts of the Church had access to varying amounts of the revelation until it all evened out. Eventually the Church came to one mind.

 

Much literature regarding this topic will argue that the canon was settled by the Church in the 2^nd or 3^rd century. However, I believe that in the days of the Apostles all inspired books were identified and recognised. In fact the Bible states that Apostles had the authority of Christ Himself. The Apostles acknowledged the Old Testament as did Jesus. The canon of the Old Testament was settled in those days, the Jews knew what the extent of the canon was. Now Jesus promised His Spirit to be given to the Apostles for the writing of Scripture. In John 14:26we see Jesus instructing the Apostles; “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Through the means of the ministry of the Holy Spirit the Apostles are used as the conduit to pass on everything God wants us to know. And in Matthew 10:40Jesus tells the Apostles; “He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” Therefore, the Lord tells us that the Apostles will be His authorised spokespersons, empowered by the Holy Spirit to complete the written Word of God.

 

I must emphasise that the Apostolic function dies out with the Apostles. There are some believers who hold that the Apostolic office continues even to this day. However, the Bible gives the criteria for the office of Apostle. The Apostles are the foundation of the Church according to Ephesians 2:20; where we read that the Church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” Further on in Ephesians 3:5we are told that the revelation of God’s Word was given only to the Apostles; “it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Please note that in these Ephesian passages Paul is not identifying two groups of office, the Apostles and the Prophets, the Greek definite article “the” is not present. There is one group with two different kinds in it, the Apostles and Prophets. This Apostolic office, with its two kinds or sub-categories, laid the foundation for the Church through receiving the Word of God and committing it to writing for the Church to be guided by. Due to the Apostles being foundational to the Church the office is not perpetual. When building a house you don’t keep building the foundation! Beyond the days of the foundation there is no further revelation. Therefore, we can confidently assert that Prophecy, in the sense of receiving a revelation of God’s Word, was temporary as it was grouped within the Apostolic office and therefore passes away when the Apostles passed away. Remember also that an Apostle is an eye witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul states that he is the last Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:8; “And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” The office of Apostle, with all its kinds ceased in the first century. In the last days God spoke by His Son who used the Apostles to commit this unto writing for the building up, edifying and direction of the Church.

 

So we arrive at the point of the skeptic saying; “how can you be sure that the Church got it right, how do you know the correct books were recognised?” Well, the simple answer is that God is sovereign and He wouldn’t allow the Church to get it wrong. The skeptic continues; “but the Church makes mistakes.” Well, yes it does and we correct the Church on the basis of the canon. “But how do you really know that the Church didn’t err with the canon?” We have the promise of Jesus that He will lead the Church into all truth and I believe that Jesus was able to do it and He did it. My friends, skeptics have a problem with their heart. We must take God at His Word and in doing so we will be confident that the canon which has come down through history is the written Word of God. There were days when the Church debated what was to be in the canon, but they stopped when all inspired books had been recognised, and got on with living according to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

 

The reason why the books of the BIble had to be enumerated is due to the various theological controversies. The Roman Catholics have sought to settle many of these controversies by appealing to books which the Reformers hold are not inspired by God. You can’t have just anything going into the Bible. Now the Divines tell us that “The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.[xxiv]“ The Apocrypha is not inspired and therefore is not part of our Bible and has no authority in the Church. When theological disputes need to be resolved we cannot turn to the books of the Apocrypha for they are not part of our measuring rod, the canon. These books are on a par with any other human writing.

 

How do we know that these books are not inspired? Well lets have a look at them briefly. Seven of the books known as the Apocrypha were formally accepted as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church on April 8, 1546 A.D.^[xxv] at the fourth session of the Council of Trent.^[xxvi] Be mindful that these seven Apocryphal books were accepted as canonical: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1^st and 2^nd Maccabees.^[xxvii] These are not all of the Apocrypha books. Now apocrypha means “anything hidden” and the authorship is generally unknown or false.^[xxviii]

 

AA Hodge and Robert Shaw give us 4 reasons why these books are not part of the Protestant canon:

(I)          “They never formed part of the Hebrew Scriptures. They have always been rejected by the Jews, to whose guardianship the Old Testament Scriptures were committed.”^[xxix]

(II)         “None of them were ever quoted by Christ or the apostles.”^[xxx]

(III)       “They were never embraced in the list of canonical books by the early Fathers.”^[xxxi]

(IV)       “These books contain many things erroneous, superstitious, and immoral; and some of the writers, instead of advancing a claim to inspiration, acknowledge their own weakness, and apologise for their defects.”^[xxxii]

 

Why would the Papists want such books to be recognised as canonical? Well let me start with a quote from The New Jerome Biblical Commentary; “The logic behind claiming church authority over scriptural interpretation is that the church is the custodian of revelation. Since Scripture is witness to revelation, the church has the power to determine infallibly the meaning of Scripture in matters of faith and morals.”^[xxxiii] Thus the Papist’s position is that the Church is the final authority for interpreting the Word of God, not the Word itself. They do not allow the Bible ultimate supremacy by not allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. This leads to false doctrine and that is exactly what we find as the basis for the inclusion of the 7 Apocryphal books in the Roman canon at Trent. The Papists could not answer the Reformers from the Scriptures and therefore added to the Word of God to establish their doctrines of: “prayers for the dead (II Macc. 12:44); the expiatory sacrifice (eventually to become the Mass, II Macc. 12:39-46); alms giving with expiatory value, also leading to deliverance from death (Tobit 12:9; 4:10); invocation and intercession of the saints (II Macc. 15:14; Bar. 3:4); the worship of angels ( Tobit 12:12); [and the infamous] purgatory; and the redemption of souls after death (II Macc. 12:42, 46).”^[xxxiv] No wonder there was a necessity to canonise those books, the fundamental doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church are founded nowhere else but the Apocrypha! Talk about some serious circular reasoning...we will canonise these books because we need to oppose the Reformers and establish our doctrine, then once canonised we use these books to defend sound doctrine!

This lead to the most infamous doctrine that is the bedrock of the Roman Catholic Church; Purgatory. On the eve of the Reformation Pope Leo X was selling indulgences to release people from working off residual punishment for sin in Purgatory. This was done to fund the building of St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.  The monk Tetzel made the claim; “as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”^[xxxv] How can you not release your relative from the fires of Purgatory, drop a coin in the coffer and release the soul of a relative now. It was against such interpretations of the Church that Martin Luther wrote in his 95 Theses; “They preach human doctrine who say that the soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles.”^[xxxvi] Thus the Roman Catholic Church’s bedrock for sound doctrine is firstly the Church and secondly the Apocrypha and perhaps then the Scriptures.

 

In closing I want to briefly consider that all the books of the Bible were “given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life.”[xxxvii] In making this assertion we must realise that there is no neutrality in life. Paul commands us to do all things to the glory of God in 1 Corinthians 10:31, whether it be eating or drinking. Again in 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and through doing that we demolish the devil’s strongholds. Every single square inch of your life must be lived in accordance with the Word of God, there is no area - whether thought, word or deed - that can be claimed neutral. All things that you do are either for or against Christ. It is your responsibility to live your life consistent with sound doctrine. The two go hand in hand and are inseparable, you cannot have a good lifestyle without good doctrine and you cannot have good doctrine without a good lifestyle. Each day we are to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven ( Matt. 6:33) by being doers of the Word ( Jas. 1:22). The Word of God must do to us what the Priest did to the animal on the alter; he carved it up and re-ordered it in a manner approved by God ( Lev. 1:6). So, our lives must be cut up and re-ordered by the Word of God to His glory^[xxxviii]; the way we train and educate our children, the way we structure our family life, the way you men lead your households, the way you wives submit to your husbands, the way you children obey your parents - must all be done in and through obedience to what God has commanded in the pages of the Scriptures. To love Christ means to obey His law ( Jn. 14:15) and what He commands is not burdensome ( 1 Jn. 5:3).

 

Men, it is time to stand up, shrug of the postmodern^[xxxix] nonsensical statement; “she’ll be right mate” and start to lead your families. This means effort, time in the Word, perseverance and prayer. If you believe the giants in our society are too great for God then we have failed and will be held accountable before the judgement seat of Christ. The consequences here on earth are the crumbling of the God ordained institutions of the family, Church and state. What do we see in our land? Are these institutions crumbling before our very eyes? They are, due to our disobedience ( Deut 28). Men, it is time to: (1) worship God without rivals ( Deut. 6:4), (2) learn to love God with all that we have through our actions ( Deut. 6:5), (3) give God your whole heart (Deut. 6:6), (4) teach the Word at home ( Deut 6:7), (5) live the Word at home (Deut. 6:7), (6) mark the home as God’s territory ( Deut. 6:9) and (7) when God abundantly blesses you do not forget Him ( Deut. 6:12).^[xl] You cannot simply say the Scriptures are our only rule for faith and life, you must list it. Men, as the head of your household you are responsible for everything that occurs in your household...ensure that the Word of God is lived in your house, when you rise up, when you walk by the way and when you lie down to sleep may you live the Scriptures. Only when we do this, when we are obedient to the Word, will God covenantally bless us, our children, Church, society and nation ( Deut. 28).