The Old City of Caesarea

Today we traveled north to Caesarea about 60-70 miles north of Tel Aviv to see the old ruins from the era of Herod the Great. As one of many architectural achievements, Herod built the city around 15 B.C. and named it in honor of Augustus the Roman Emperor. Herod, an Idumean by birth, was a double-tongued man, divided and playing off things between his own background in Judaism and that of Greek-Roman Paganism. He liked to be able to keep his Las Vegas lifestyle by high-tailing it out of Jerusalem to go and play in places like his Caesarea. In his building this city and naming it as he did, he was also smoozing with Augustus. This Herod was the infant-hater who sought to eliminate the little ones around the district of Bethlehem and hoped to kill the Christ Child, such acts of violence forced Mary and Joseph with their baby to flee to Egypt.

The old city of Caesarea, maybe 50-60 acres in size, hugged the shore of the Meditteranean and was primarily known, and very successful, as a shipping port; and it featured a palace, temple, theater, a prison, administrative courts and offices, a bath house and a hippodrome (for chariot races and games), along with a residential district. Later a Crusader castle was erected and a church building for God's faithful.

Paul the apostle, according to Acts 23- 26, sought to set things right with his testimony about his faith and life before the prominent Roman governors in Caesarea; this city was a beachhead for his missionary travels, as well as for the ministries for Philip and Peter. Paul was imprisoned here too. More on Paul in another up-coming post.


On our walk through the ruins we took notice of the sign telling of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, 265-340 AD. He became known as the Father of Church History, being the first to pen a classic story line telling of the work of church. He was on more of the faithful side of the Arian controversy regarding the biblical teaching of the Trinity. He established a huge library, some 30,000 volumes, right there in Caesarea.


The placard telling of Eusebius at this place of the ruins was next to a deep water well. Down in the well, citizens of Caesarea would drop letters and signed memorials to witches, spirits and gods. It was a way showing devotion, maybe the well symbolized life with the water it provided, and so dropping notes to these spirits, in a way of sorcery, was part of their religious superstition. The placard went onto to say that it was Eusebius who preached sermons denouncing this letter-dropping, and of course, he preached against all forms of communication to the spirits, and he called for repentance regarding all forms of spiritism and supertitious living. He followed in the train of the apostle Paul who preached truth. In Acts 16, we read of Paul commanding the spirit to leave the demon-possessed girl.

G. Mark Sumpter

Study in Jonah

The study in Biblical Hebrew has been going well. Our class of seven students and three instructors reads, uses and memorizes half-sentences and verse-portions from the Book of Jonah. It's been so illuminating to see in Jonah the rehearsal of various biblical themes, for example, the various stories of a call issued to an OT servant, like Abraham or Moses. Or next, the rehearsal of the theme that water has. It's both a circumstance of rescue and a place of violence in the Old Testament, like with Noah and the flood, or again Moses at the Red Sea. Here in Jonah, as well, the water of the Great Sea plays a role of both destruction and salvation. It's been a great way to study Hebrew and the particulars of the Jonah narrative.

G. Mark Sumpter

Bulimia Matters.7

“Music and theology alone are capable of giving peace and happiness to troubled souls. This plainly proves that the devil, the source of all unhappiness and worries, flees music as much as he does theology.”

16th Century Reformer Martin Luther in a letter he penned while in prison.

G. Mark Sumpter

Jerome, On the Bethlehem Scene

An important part of biblical and historical reflection in the old Mediterranean world includes the early church Fathers. One such pastor, scholar and servant is Jerome (lived 347 A.D.-420 A.D.). Bethlehem was his home from roughly 384 A.D. to 420 A.D. He’s best known at the popular level for his translation work and editorial scholarship of the Bible. He worked at producing a translation into the vulgar speech of the Latin Christian world of his own day. It became recognized as the Latin Vulgate. He began this venture in 381-382 A.D. and completed the project there in a Bethlehem monastery in 405 A.D.

Historians look back on Jerome and interpret his life with shades of controversy: was he truly the capable linguist, well versed in the biblical languages, as he’s been made out relative to the Vulgate? What about his loose interpretative commentary on the types and metaphors in the Bible in the area of biblical studies? But one matter over which there’s little debate is the access he provided for subsequent scholars with respect to the later work of Bible translation. His work with the Vulgate became an epoch-making contribution for comparative study for the Middle Ages and Reformation period. And with respect to the language of Latin, his work paved the way for Ecclesiastical Latin, the Latin of the church and of theological scholarship, and we know today, there’s a huge debt owed to Jerome in this light.

G. Mark Sumpter

Spring Training

The Simeon Trust helps men with their preaching. An 8th Workshop on biblical exposition will be hosted at Christ The Redeemer Church in Spokane, WA, March 17-19, 2009. I think also there will be some training offered in McMinnville, OR!!




Kent Hughes of Wheaton, Ill will be on hand. OPC Pastor Larry Wilson has raved about the teaching and training offered through College Church, where Hughes is the preaching pastor.

To check out the brochure and see the application for the 2009 Spokane workshop go here: www.simeonworkshops.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=114

G. Mark Sumpter

Growing Fat Little Bodies

To postpone the work of religious education until preparatory school and college is as rash as it is foolish. ‘Let a child wait until he is grown and then choose his own religion,’ said an English statesman in the hearing of Coleridge. Coleridge made no reply, but led the speaker out into his garden. ‘Look around upon the bare ground’ he said quietly: ‘I have decided not to put out any flowers and vegetables this year, but to wait till August and let the garden decide for itself whether it prefers weeds or strawberries.’

From Catechetics by the Lutheran Churchman Michael Reu, (1869-1943)

G. Mark Sumpter

Liturgical Foot Prints

Printed forms of liturgy in the worship bulletin or no?

“The right balance, it would seem, would be an orderly approach that employs Biblically based historical liturgical forms, while leaving room for free prayers and the work of the Spirit. Again, the practice of the early church provides guidance. While moderate liturgical worship developed very early (with use of the Ten Commandments, Creed, Confession, Lord's Prayer), the responsive litanies (e.g. santus, sursum corda, kyrie eleison, the peace), are mainly a later development. Worship that employs only fixed forms is stifling. The complete absence of fixed forms, however, may leave the church unnecessarily vulnerable to the every changing cultural-ecclesiastical environment.”

Terry L. Johnson in Leading in Worship, p. 7

G. Mark Sumpter

A Richly Textured, Higher Life

When the church loses control at the wheel and she swerves and spins going down the slippery slope of covenant absent-mindedness, then we all suffer. For example, with absence of covenant mindedness and covenant living, then why consider church membership with church vows? And another, with a down-play of covenant teaching, then there's no wonder when businessmen renege with respect to contracts, and/or do away with follow-through.

Listen to the value and the place of covenant-mindedness and living on the basis of word, promise, obligation and commitment. This piece comes from Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck, he writes in the book, In The Beginning:

“But the doctrine of the covenant of works is based on Scripture and is eminently valuable. Among rational and moral creatures all higher life takes the form of a covenant. Generally, a covenant is an agreement between persons who voluntarily obligate and bind themselves to each other for the purpose of fending off an evil or obtaining a good. Such an agreement, whether it is made tacitly or defined in explicity detail, is the usual form in terms of which humans live and work together. Love, friendship, marriage, as well as all social cooperation in business, industry, science, art and so forth, is ultimately grounded in covenant, that is, in reciprocal fidelity and an assortment of generally recognized moral obligations.

It should not surprise us, therefore, that also the highest and most richly textured life of human beings, namely, religion, bears this character. In Scripture 'covenant’ is the fixed form in which the relation of God to his people is depicted and presented. And even where the word does not occur, we nevertheless always see the two parties as it were in dialogue with each other, dealing with each other, with God calling people to conversion, reminding them of their obligations, and obligating himself to provide all that is good.”

From In The Beginning, Baker Book House, p. 203

The local church must hold fast to her Bible-teaching terms and expressions within her own assembly; she must hold fast to covenant life, for such covenant life sets the pace for all of life, 24/7.

G. Mark Sumpter

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like

This is the standard drive-by, click-and-paste-picture from the web. Grants Pass gets a dusting.

G. Mark Sumpter

Elect Lose Salvation?

From a Christian inquirer: Paul said in one of his books that a fellow evangelist left the church, seeking after his own ways not Christ’s, doesn't that imply that he left the faith and lost his salvation?

Answer: I think you’re referring to 2 Timothy 4: 9-10---- “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.”

You specifically ask: “…doesn’t that imply that he left the faith and lost his salvation?”

Yes, it does. And then we extrapolate to another question, then, how do we explain, “once saved, always saved”—has grace been interrupted or withdrawn by man’s disobedience?

The Bible speaks plainly and with urgent appeals to members of the visible church that they not presume on God, nor rest with irresponsible ease with things pertaining to their salvation. Listen to Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away…”

The Bible doesn’t hold back from warning the elect about drifting or losing their salvation. Does this mean that in fact the elect can lose their salvation?

Let me make a distinction. The Bible holds two truths together—we’re back to the twin truths found in the Word of God, about 1) His sovereign plan and purpose, and 2) man’s responsibility. Again, see Deuteronomy 29:29-----there are the unrevealed ways of God (His eternal plan are things known only to Him), and the revealed ways of God (His plan is revealed in the Word and in history): His promises, wondrous works and commands.

1. God has His eternally elect, the saved, only known to Him (unrevealed) 2 Tim. 2:19.
2. God has His in-history people known as the elect, the church (revealed). Eph. 1:1-5.

The Bible presents these two truths side by side; they fit like one circle overlapping the other. There’s the eternally elect of God right alongside of the historically elect. Bible teachers will sometimes refer to the invisible church and visible church. They are so closely matched, really and truly indistinguishable from our viewpoint.

Only God Himself, as the Divine One, knows the hearts of all men. From the human side, we see things outwardly: men say they love the Lord, His Word, and they work at following him, and so we walk together as the church. We worship and serve together, and we mutually trust the Lord’s work in us all. This is the life and work of the church.

But the heart can be deceitful. God is the searcher and watcher of the heart. He proves our hearts, and various tests prove-out motives, desires and the deeds of men (see the parable of the sower and the soils in Mark 4).

Demas was a member of the visible church, the elect of God, and even was a worker in the things of God with the great apostle Paul. Paul treated him as the elect of God. He’s named among the beloved stalwarts, brothers, in gospel-work at Paul’s side: Mark, Barnabas and Luke (Col. 4:10, 14). But, from 2 Timothy 2:9, as Demas showed a love for the world’s ways, and then showed that he was unrepentant, ultimately then, a heart of unbelief began to surface. Such unbelief, along with the lack of repentance, is inconsistent with being a member of the invisible church, the eternally elect of God. This drifting and this hardening, with no repentance, means there’s a departure from the living God taking place; there’s a forsaking of God’s promise (Hebrews 3:12, see verse 19 too). Demas left the Lord; he left the church for he was not of the church, eternally (please see, 1 John 2:19).

With the non-heeding, non-repentant, the visible church is to make a human judgment about them (Jesus said, “…treat them as a heathen and a tax collector” Matthew 18:17-18). God will have the final say on the last day about this; with the unrepentant, even those who are presumably followers of the Lord, they are to be put out of the visible church, because they no longer are listening to the counsel of the Word.

This area of Bible teaching turns us back again and again to the Lord Jesus Christ. God always, always holds hope to the repentant. Our hope of salvation is not in our faith, or in our doing, etc. We are frail and weak, and we do fail. But He is our hope.

This teaching also reminds us that the Christian faith is a promise-believing faith! We’re always directed from Scripture to believe the promises of God—to continually believe the promises. Jesus said that the mark of discipleship in His kingdom is faith and repentance (Mark 1:15). Turning to Him—making that our practice is the day by day practice of the Christian faith. Our rest is Jesus, the God-Man! He can and does carry us through to the end.

While we trust His ability to carry us, we always put our trust to work: we must heed the call from Scripture, “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). And those who hold fast to the Lord are doing so assured that He is holding fast to them!

One last thing. The Bible clearly establishes the point that a man or woman can have assurance of salvation in this earthly life. How? Our Lord Jesus said: Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in Me has everlasting life—John 6:47. Also, 1 John 5:12-13: He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Believe the promises! Live them out—daily!

Our assurance of salvation rests on the Promise-Giver, the Lord. His Word, the Bible, is the promise-Book. Yes, He has His eternal plan of sovereign election of His own children—and He will carry His elect all the way home; and Yes, the Bible holds out the sure mother-promise: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Our daily trust in Christ does not, and will not, ever disappoint. We’re to rest in Him, but not with an irresponsible rest.

G. Mark Sumpter

Bulimia Matters.6

Yes, surely the wicked actions of men have a place in God’s eternal purpose. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. Wicked men may not think they are serving God’s purposes: but they are serving His purposes all the same, even by the most wicked of their acts.

At that point, however, serious questions might seem to arise. If wicked actions of wicked men have a place in God’s plan, if they are foreordained of God, then is man responsible for them, and is not God the author of sin?

To each of these questions the Bible returns a very unequivocal answer. Yes, man is responsible for his wicked actions; and No, God is not the author of sin.

That man is responsible for his wicked actions is made so plain from the beginning of the Bible to the end that it is quite useless to cite individual proof texts. But it is equally clear in the Bible that God is not the author of sin. That is clear from the very nature of sin, as rebellion against God’s holy law. It is also expressly taught. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, says the Epistle of James: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

J.G. Machen in The Christian View of Man, p. 43

G. Mark Sumpter

Hauling Chickens

Steer Clear of Flatbed Chicken Trucks on the Road

Crates of birds can send a bunch of nasty bacteria flapping in your direction

ATLANTA - You've heard about the chicken that crossed the road. But have you heard the one about the chickens traveling down the road? It's no laughing matter. Crates of chickens being trucked along the highway in the back of an open truck can shoot a bunch of nasty bacteria into the cars behind them, researchers have found. Drivers stuck behind such a truck should “pass them quickly,” advised study co-author Ana Rule, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Even so, it's not clear that germy debris will make you sick. None of the scientists who studied this problem got sick. And the disease-causing bacteria in question are normally spread by food or water, not air.

Germy Travels

Rule and her colleagues at the Bloomberg School of Public Health focused on the so-called Delmarva Peninsula, a coastal area that includes parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The region is a chicken Mecca, with one of the highest concentrations of broiler chickens per acre in the nation.The researchers chose a 17-mile stretch of highway connecting chicken farms in Maryland to a processing plant to the south in Accomac, Va. They rode in four-door cars with all the windows down and the air conditioning off. They checked the cars for bacteria after driving when there were no chicken trucks around. And they checked for bacteria after 10 trips behind flatbed trucks carrying crates of broiler chickens.They collected bacteria from air samples, door handles and soda cans inside the car. In all the truck chases, they found high levels of certain bacteria, including some that are resistant to antibiotics.

‘Unnatural Experiment’

The study, released this week, is being published in the first issue of the Journal of Infection and Public Health, and it's billed as the first to look at whether poultry trucking exposes people to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It was a casual conversation that inspired the effort. “Somebody said, ‘I went to the beach the other day and I got stuck behind a chicken truck, and boy, is that nasty,’” Rule said. She said studies to determine if chicken trucks can make you sick are somewhere down the road. Dr. Keith Klugman, an Emory University epidemiologist who was not involved in the research, said getting sick that way is unlikely. Most healthy people don't suffer serious illness from these bacteria even when exposed in more conventional ways.

“It was kind of an unnatural experiment, in that people were driving behind these trucks with the windows open and the air conditioning off — for 17 miles,” he added.

“If you were driving behind a truck that was spewing stuff out the back of it, the first thing you would probably do is close your windows.”
AP Story on November 25, 2008

G. Mark Sumpter