Dungan - Hermeneutics
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
D. R. <strong>Dungan</strong>'s <strong>Hermeneutics</strong>: A Text-Book: Chapter II.<br />
The import of this language can not be mistaken. The reason they were not saved was they had not<br />
turned to God, and the reason they had not turned, was, they did not understand with the heart; the reason<br />
they did not understand with the heart, was that grossness prevented them from considering the claims of<br />
Christ in any proper way.<br />
"How can ye believe, which receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only<br />
God, ye seek not?" (John v. 44).<br />
Here, even, the desire for the praise of men is presented as a barrier sufficient to prevent faith. [19]<br />
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer<br />
from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he<br />
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. But because I say the truth, ye believe me not"<br />
(John viii. 44, 45).<br />
It is plain that this was not the original condition of this people. Once they might have accepted the<br />
truth and been made free by it, but they had turned their hearts over to the control of the wicked one tilt<br />
they had become like him.<br />
With this evil heart in them, it would have been more agreeable for them to have beard a falsehood<br />
than a truth, and it would have been easier for them to receive the falsehood.<br />
"And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his<br />
mouth and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming; even he, whose coming is according to the<br />
working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceit of unrighteousness for<br />
them that are perishing; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for<br />
this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be<br />
judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thess. ii. 8-12).<br />
These persons were perishing because they believed a lie, and not the truth. This they did because<br />
they did not receive the love of the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And because they would<br />
not have the truth, God turned them over to the falsehoods which they preferred.<br />
"But and if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing: in whom the god of this world<br />
hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the<br />
image of God, should not dawn upon them" (II. Cor. iv. 3, 4). [20]<br />
The god of this world, in this text, was the riches, honors and pleasures of this life. These things<br />
become a god to man through the devotion which he chooses to render. And in taro for all this service,<br />
the worshiper has his mind blinded to all that is good and pure.<br />
In this way the Gentile world fell away from all that was pure and holy. Once they knew God, but<br />
they neglected his warship, and so went astray, step by step, till they reached the lowest possible spiritual<br />
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/ddungan/hatb/HATB02.HTM (5 of 13) [30/08/2003 11:32:01 p.m.]