The Condescension of God: "And at midnight there was a cry made..." - Matthew 25:6

John Knox was derided in his day for being too much of an Old Testament prophet. The caricature drawn may have been correct had it not been for the overwhelming idolatry and superstition that then pervaded the professing church of the 16th century. But so it was that darkness covered with its veil the eyes of the ignorant, that their eyes should be holden from steadfastly looking upon Jesus Christ the Righteous. Thus these poor souls beheld only the forms and traditions of the ecclesiastical body in which Satan then reigned as usurper; and, in consequence, they were shut up to the gospel promises by this works-righteousness offered them. It was into this scene which the character Knox appeared - with all his thundering judgments. Knox, filled with the Spirit, came convinced of the evil disease that had taken fast hold upon his nation of Scotland and of the prescription needed to see an end of the darkness. Thus he was not too much an Old testament prophet. He came amourning because there was something to be lamented in the church of the day. Carnal men, who are at all times at home and happy in this world, will never understand the likes of Knox.

My question to the reader is: how shall the church today arise from the ashes in which she lies? We who have drunk the moral anesthetic called, in our day, the gospel - how shall we awake? Declension has brought us back to another dark age, where the prophet and priest are just as profane as they were in Knox's day and the people are as ignorant as they were then too; thus we need another reformation. Not a return to the doctrine of Calvin or Arminius, but to the apostles' doctrine!

When immersed in the darkness of sleep, it never feels pleasant to at once be aroused by the blazing shock of harsh white lights. And so, it is rarely pleasing to be so awakened from such sinful slumber by the call of fiery preaching. We have, ad infinitum, sermons, books, classes, and whole conferences devoted to the fear of God - and yet we have not employed the knowledge we've acquired. The very thing we need most is the very thing we cannot acquire! How shall we attain unto the fear of God, that we may "serve him acceptably" (Heb. 12:28)? It's time we stop giving assignments to our keynote speakers, and wait upon God! Surely if God assigned a man to the task, we would learn our lesson aright! We need a man who has been taken down to the third hell - a man who has ascended up the burning mount! How could the Ninevites resist such irresistible preaching from a man who came fresh from hell (see, Jon. 2:2)?

I believe God's found a man.

Reader, will you hear?

- Jake Gardner