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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fight the Good Fight

In examining the question of biblical prophecy, I came across this passage of Scripture:
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme (1 Tim 1:18-20).
It's not very helpful in the question I was examining back then (Are there prophets today?), but it does bring up questions of its own. Take a look.

First, the command: Fight the good fight. Second, the means: keep two things -- faith and a good conscience. Third, the consequence of a failure to fight the good fight by keeping faith and good conscience: shipwreck in regard to their faith. It's all there. It's all pretty clear. What else do we know?

The word there, "keeping", in Greek means "to hold or possess". It is a constant, something not shaken loose. It is continuous. It refers to making constant use of something. You may, then, hold to faith without conscience and expect disaster, or you may cling to a good conscience without faith and, again, anticipate a wreck. Both are necessary.

What else do we know? We know that it isn't a theoretical. It isn't a kind of "If you don't do these two you will suffer shipwreck ... but if you are a believer you will certainly do these two." That may occur in other places, but here we have a specific example offered in Hymenaeus and Alexander. They failed to keep either faith or conscience or both and have, as a consequence, suffered a shipwreck of faith.

Now this is somewhat troublesome to those who read the Scriptures and see with abundant clarity that Christ cannot lose one, that God preserves His own, that He who began a good work in you will complete it. Isn't this a prime example of two guys who contradict this understanding? I would urge caution.

First, "shipwreck" is not by definition fatal. Remember, Paul himself encountered shipwreck three times (2 Cor 11:25) (plus another one later) and didn't die. Shipwreck aborts a journey, perhaps, but not a life. In the same way, spiritual shipwreck may abort a spiritual journey, but not a spiritual life. Another clue is in the phrase, "whom I have handed over to Satan." Implied here is the assumption that they did not originally belong to Satan (or they wouldn't have been handed over to him -- they would have already been his). These two were assumed to be believers. This same phrase was employed elsewhere -- "for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved" (1 Cor 5:5) -- so this doesn't entail lost salvation, but correction. And now we're back at the concept of shunning, where the aim is not punishment but repentance and restoration.

The question remains. Is this a case where Hymenaeus and Alexander were genuine Christians who strayed from their faith and/or conscience and ended up in shipwreck of faith which lost them their salvation? I have pointed out that nothing in the text requires that the two were originally Christians, but only that Paul counted them as believers. I have pointed out that nothing in the text requires that "shipwreck" requires "lost salvation". Either of these might be implied, but are not explicit. The explicit texts elsewhere say that those who belong to Christ will always belong to Christ and that those who do not belong to Christ "go out from us" (1 John 2:19) to demonstrate that they never were of us. Jesus told the false prophets the same thing: "I never knew you" (Matt 7:23).

What, then, can we conclude? Hymenaeus and Alexander strayed from the faith and/or good conscience. Hymenaeus and Alexander were assumed to be believers and were set apart for discipline. The aim of this discipline was to teach them to return to the faith and good conscience. These things we know. The assumption, based on the rest of Scripture, would be that if they remained outside the faith, they never were "of us" because "if they had been of us, they would have remained with us" (1 John 2:19). So, those people you need to shun who are classified as "believers" (because, remember, we are to shun "so-called brethren", not the immoral of the world) ... are they regarded as believers or not? Until they "go out from us", demonstrating their departure by their embracing of the separation, you have to assume they're believers in need of repentance. Paul appeared to think of Hymenaeus and Alexander that way. It requires a long term departure from essential doctrines or a practice of sin (1 John 3:9) to demonstrate that these never were in the faith. That, I suppose, is why Jesus warns us about dealing with the weeds among the wheat (Matt 13:24-30). Our aim is always repentance and, in the case of believers, restoration; God will take care of the judgment of unbelievers.

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