and Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 January 2023
By Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay
By Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay
This is the 2010 version; for the 2023 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2023/01/matthew-37-10-security-clearance.html
I can remember when I was in my late teens: I was a janitor. I may have shared some of the stories with you and I will probably share a couple of more with you even before we finish looking at the book of Matthew here. I had a number of different contracts as a janitor in various different buildings and I needed quite a high security rating actually. (I just recently had my RCMP clearance done again here in Swift Current in order to do some chaplaincy work with the RCMP.)
When I first had my clearance done, it was quite something. I was just a teenager then, as I had mentioned, and in my interview they ask me what I did twenty years ago, I respond ‘nothing’ – ‘I’m only 18. I thought it was funny – the police officer interviewing me didn’t. I needed an extra special clearance because one on the contracts I have is to cover for the regular janitor when he is sick or on holidays at the CSIS building (CSIS is Canada’s spy agency, our CIA) on Blanshard Street. As part of the interview, they asked me how come I haven’t held a job for 5 years or more – I reminded them that I am only 18 and smiled – but they didn’t. This interview not only went on for an hour or so but they also fingerprinted me and then they interviewed two of my friends, one by telephone and one in person. In speaking with them afterwards, it was really quite an in-depth interview and because of this I really began to have some faith in our very pre-9/11 security measures and how seriously they take their jobs. I was beginning to have a lot of faith in the Canadian spy agency’s thoroughness and ability, especially when they reviewed this information they collected on me for up to six months before they finally got back to me with my security clearance.
Just out of curiosity, I when I finally did get my clearance back, I asked why it took so long and they said it took so long to notify me of my clearance because they – Canada’s spy agency - couldn’t find me. I pointed out that my address and phone number were on the application form and that I hadn’t moved during that time. I laughed; they didn’t. I was assuming that they were joking when Canada’s spy agency said they couldn’t find me. I was wrong. I laughed – they didn’t. Shortly afterwards I worked my first shift at the CSIS building and as I was emptying one garbage can at a desk, the officer told me that if I looked at anything in it he’d have to kill me, I laughed – he didn’t. The next week, my boss told me to go and cover another shift at the CSIS building because I was the only one with clearance. I said no. She laughed – I didn’t. I had done my last shift as a CSIS janitor. John the Baptist, to some here in our story today, must seem about as humourless as the CSIS agent I encountered (re John the Baptist, cf. Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2). Matthew 3:7-10:
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
This is interesting too because if we just read this pericope it can look like an uncalled for attack upon the religious leaders of the day. It could be like if myself, a priest or pastor or even the ministerial executive all heads out to a Christian concert in the park and Larry – or whoever is singing – puts down his guitar mid-song and says to us, “you snakes…who told you about this event; you think you’re so good, well, you’re not! You say you have Christ as your saviour, I tell you he can make followers out of this dirt here, if he wants to!”[1] You can see how we and they might be taken aback but as we read through the rest of Matthew’s gospel, John’s reaction to the religious leaders showing up at his concert – though still very bold - doesn’t seem quite so out of context as all that (but cf. Luke 3:9).[2]
Biblical Scholar Eugene Boring draws our attention to the fact that, “in Matthew’s view they [the Pharisees and Sadducees] represent the Jewish opposition who come to inspect him rather than to be baptised by him”[3] (cf. 21:5, 23-27; but cf. Luke 3:7). It would be like a year ago or so when the federal Conservatives were spying on the NDP and they got caught, the NDP rightfully weren’t so happy to have the Tories hiding in the crowd and they publicly called them on it.[4] Our scene here would raise the same emotions for those present as the Conservative spies being caught at a NDP meeting (after the Conservatives had already gotten in trouble for allegedly illegal actions and secret tapes around Grewal and the Cadman affair…); for the people with John outside in the wilderness, it would have the same emotional effect as if a venomous snake is seen in the grass; or of a brood of vipers being spotted very nearby, ready to strike. This latter phrase is the one that Matthew lets us know that John used as a comparison. He called the religious authorities a ‘brood of vipers’ (cf. Matthew 12:34, 24:33). As well as the remark just being an insult that John feels he is entitled to deliver here, John could very likely be comparing the religious leaders of his day to the snake in the Garden of Eden. The phrase that is translated ‘brood of vipers’ literally means ‘sons of snakes’ and could be interpreted to mean ‘sons of the deceiver’, whose teaching is like venomous poison (cf. Genesis 3; Jeremiah 46:22).[5]
So this is quite a greeting that John gives the religious authorities who come to hear him. Verses 8 and 9 let us see what is the point of his public comments here. John tells the crowd (cf. Luke 3:9, re: ‘crowd’; cf. 1QS 2:25–3:12, re: repentance), “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:8,9). Alongside John the Baptist, The Salvation Army in our ninth doctrine proclaims ‘that a continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.’ We can’t just say that we have Abraham as our father, Jesus as our saviour; we need to bear fruit keeping with repentance.
John is telling the people that salvation isn’t dependent on who you are or who you claim to be; who your ancestors are, or anything like that. John is telling the crowds that our continuance in a state of salvation is evidenced by a continued obedient faith in God.[6] The way it is presented here it would be obviously an affront, as we have mentioned, but it could be a shock for the religious leaders as well – especially the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, at their best, were an early Jewish holiness movement. However, they seemed to fall prey to a temptation that the devil tends to offer up to holiness movements even today (of which we are one and this temptation is one that I hope and pray that we will never be tripped up by). The Pharisees believed that they were saved because of who they were; they tried to be holy but they went overboard. Throughout the gospels they are accused of wrong judgment, hypocrisy, and burdening the people with extra rules and regulations. Matthew will go on to highlight their short-fallings in his gospel (Matthew 5:20; 9:1-34; 12:1-13, 22-46; 15:1-28; 16:1-12: 19:1-11; 21:23-46; 22:15-46; 23:1-39). John the Baptist here points out that they are not saved just because of who they are if they do not act as if they are saved (cf. 1 John 2:3-6). If He wanted to, God could simply create who they are and who they claim to be, ‘sons of Abraham’, simply from rocks (cf. John 8:33, 39; 8:11–12; Romans 2:17–29; 4:16–25; 9:6–8; Galatians 3:7–29), or anything else nearby, I would presume, for that matter.
It is the same for us, we must produce fruit in keeping with repentance, a continuance in a state of salvation depends upon (is evidenced by) our continued obedient faith in Christ (cf. Romans 11:16, Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 1:15, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, Hebrews 5:4).[7] We weren’t chosen for a state salvation because we are Canadians or because we are from Saskatchewan. God doesn’t need us; we need God. He can raise Canadians from those flowers over there if he wants to do so. He can raise Salvationists from that chair over there and God can raise good, temperate, teetotalers from the carpet if he wants to; that doesn’t mean that because we are any of these things that God will raise us from the dead to eternal life in Him. That is something altogether different.
We were chosen because God loves us. God loves everyone in the world so much that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life (John 3:16).
You see, Salvation isn’t so much a state of being that you can be born into, as it is the expression of a relationship which one can continue in for both now and forever.[8] The sinner’s prayer, that is rightfully so important in many of our lives, is like a police check, a security clearance. Do you know how long a police security clearance is really good for? …about 5 minutes. In between getting your criminal record checked and handing in the piece of paper to your boss – in theory anyway – you could stop by the bank and rob it. The paper may say that you have never committed (or at least been convicted of) a crime but as soon as you leave the station it is no longer necessarily accurate. You may decide to stop by the 7-11 on the way home and rob it, for all anyone knows. That is why when people work with vulnerable people they are supposed to get criminal record checks done on a regular basis.
The experience of salvation itself is more like a marriage. There is the initial event that starts off the marriage – the covenant that you make with God; the wedding ceremony - this is much like the ‘sinner’s prayer’ in most evangelical churches or baptism in some main-line churches. The wedding is just the beginning of the marriage relationship. It is not its culmination – and hopefully not the best part of it! There is a little bit more to marriage than simply standing at the altar and saying ‘I do’. Our proclamation of salvation, similarly; our saying the ‘sinner’s prayer’ is just the beginning of our salvation; it is not the totality of our salvific relationship with Jesus Christ. And thank the Lord for that!
Some of the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day here in our text today are being accused of relying on their position (religion, race) rather than on their relationship with God for salvation. They are accused of not producing fruit in keeping with repentance. Doing this is akin to getting married and then going away, never again ever doing anything with your spouse: never seeing your spouse again, never talking to her again, never even calling her on the phone from the time you say ‘I do’ until the time they lower you into the grave, beneath the grass and beneath the dew. In that case you will have been a part of a wedding ceremony once but you will have never experienced any blessings of the marriage and as long as you are estranged from your husband or wife, wearing that otherwise important ring on your finger in this situation is pretty useless and so is the Pharisees implied claim that they are sons of Abraham useless (Matthew 3:9; cf. Luke 3:8). It is an expired security clearance. This is, I think, what Matthew warns us about when he reminds us to produce fruit in keeping with repentance and when he later tells us in his gospel to be perfect as Christ is perfect (Matthew 5:48; cf. 2 Corinthians 13; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 11,12; cf. also 1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7).
This is some of what Matthew in retelling this event with John the Baptist is explaining to us: unless we continue producing fruit in keeping with repentance, we will never eat of the tree of life (cf. Genesis 1-3); unless we continue in a state of obedience faith in and faithfulness to Christ, then we will never experience the full salvation blessing of continued obedience in Christ. “While trust in Christ’s salvation is a first requirement, it is not the last.”[9] As Paul reminds the Corinthians, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10; cf. Matthew 7:12-29; 25:31-46).
The eternal covenant with our Lord is the most wonderful thing in the entire world. Being tied together with Christ in a holy covenant means that whatever life throws our way, Christ can handle for us. We no longer need to rely on our own strength (1 Thessalonians 5:22-24). The church, as the bride of Christ, is able to defer to him as our head and love him as our salvation (Ephesians 5:23). There is no other name under heaven through which men (and women) will be saved (Acts 4:12). So today on the week after our anniversary of Easter and the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15), I invite us all to turn to the Lord for, even more than the most loving and faithful spouse; Christ is always there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us (Romans 3:3,4). As long as we still have breath in ourbody, we still have the opportunity to return to God and be saved.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 20.
[2] R. T. France : Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD-ROM Note on Matthew 3:7.
[3] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 157,
[4] The Canadian Press “NDP wants names of Tories involved in taping of private caucus meeting” Reported by CBC. Last Updated: Sunday, January 4, 2009 7:13 PM ET. Available on-line at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/04/ndp-caucustape.html#ixzz0kFwSb4w7
[5] M. Eugene Boring, 157. Cf. Also R. T. France : Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD ROM note on Matthew 3:7, where a parallel is drawn between this event Egypt’s being referred to as a snake by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:22)
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Grace and Works: a Look at Doctrines 5-10 of The Salvation Army’. Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_Theology_TSA.htm#Works
[7] Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998),73-77.
[8] Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. ‘Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine’. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998), p. 59.
[9] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 20.
I can remember when I was in my late teens: I was a janitor. I may have shared some of the stories with you and I will probably share a couple of more with you even before we finish looking at the book of Matthew here. I had a number of different contracts as a janitor in various different buildings and I needed quite a high security rating actually. (I just recently had my RCMP clearance done again here in Swift Current in order to do some chaplaincy work with the RCMP.)
When I first had my clearance done, it was quite something. I was just a teenager then, as I had mentioned, and in my interview they ask me what I did twenty years ago, I respond ‘nothing’ – ‘I’m only 18. I thought it was funny – the police officer interviewing me didn’t. I needed an extra special clearance because one on the contracts I have is to cover for the regular janitor when he is sick or on holidays at the CSIS building (CSIS is Canada’s spy agency, our CIA) on Blanshard Street. As part of the interview, they asked me how come I haven’t held a job for 5 years or more – I reminded them that I am only 18 and smiled – but they didn’t. This interview not only went on for an hour or so but they also fingerprinted me and then they interviewed two of my friends, one by telephone and one in person. In speaking with them afterwards, it was really quite an in-depth interview and because of this I really began to have some faith in our very pre-9/11 security measures and how seriously they take their jobs. I was beginning to have a lot of faith in the Canadian spy agency’s thoroughness and ability, especially when they reviewed this information they collected on me for up to six months before they finally got back to me with my security clearance.
Just out of curiosity, I when I finally did get my clearance back, I asked why it took so long and they said it took so long to notify me of my clearance because they – Canada’s spy agency - couldn’t find me. I pointed out that my address and phone number were on the application form and that I hadn’t moved during that time. I laughed; they didn’t. I was assuming that they were joking when Canada’s spy agency said they couldn’t find me. I was wrong. I laughed – they didn’t. Shortly afterwards I worked my first shift at the CSIS building and as I was emptying one garbage can at a desk, the officer told me that if I looked at anything in it he’d have to kill me, I laughed – he didn’t. The next week, my boss told me to go and cover another shift at the CSIS building because I was the only one with clearance. I said no. She laughed – I didn’t. I had done my last shift as a CSIS janitor. John the Baptist, to some here in our story today, must seem about as humourless as the CSIS agent I encountered (re John the Baptist, cf. Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2). Matthew 3:7-10:
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
This is interesting too because if we just read this pericope it can look like an uncalled for attack upon the religious leaders of the day. It could be like if myself, a priest or pastor or even the ministerial executive all heads out to a Christian concert in the park and Larry – or whoever is singing – puts down his guitar mid-song and says to us, “you snakes…who told you about this event; you think you’re so good, well, you’re not! You say you have Christ as your saviour, I tell you he can make followers out of this dirt here, if he wants to!”[1] You can see how we and they might be taken aback but as we read through the rest of Matthew’s gospel, John’s reaction to the religious leaders showing up at his concert – though still very bold - doesn’t seem quite so out of context as all that (but cf. Luke 3:9).[2]
Biblical Scholar Eugene Boring draws our attention to the fact that, “in Matthew’s view they [the Pharisees and Sadducees] represent the Jewish opposition who come to inspect him rather than to be baptised by him”[3] (cf. 21:5, 23-27; but cf. Luke 3:7). It would be like a year ago or so when the federal Conservatives were spying on the NDP and they got caught, the NDP rightfully weren’t so happy to have the Tories hiding in the crowd and they publicly called them on it.[4] Our scene here would raise the same emotions for those present as the Conservative spies being caught at a NDP meeting (after the Conservatives had already gotten in trouble for allegedly illegal actions and secret tapes around Grewal and the Cadman affair…); for the people with John outside in the wilderness, it would have the same emotional effect as if a venomous snake is seen in the grass; or of a brood of vipers being spotted very nearby, ready to strike. This latter phrase is the one that Matthew lets us know that John used as a comparison. He called the religious authorities a ‘brood of vipers’ (cf. Matthew 12:34, 24:33). As well as the remark just being an insult that John feels he is entitled to deliver here, John could very likely be comparing the religious leaders of his day to the snake in the Garden of Eden. The phrase that is translated ‘brood of vipers’ literally means ‘sons of snakes’ and could be interpreted to mean ‘sons of the deceiver’, whose teaching is like venomous poison (cf. Genesis 3; Jeremiah 46:22).[5]
So this is quite a greeting that John gives the religious authorities who come to hear him. Verses 8 and 9 let us see what is the point of his public comments here. John tells the crowd (cf. Luke 3:9, re: ‘crowd’; cf. 1QS 2:25–3:12, re: repentance), “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:8,9). Alongside John the Baptist, The Salvation Army in our ninth doctrine proclaims ‘that a continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.’ We can’t just say that we have Abraham as our father, Jesus as our saviour; we need to bear fruit keeping with repentance.
John is telling the people that salvation isn’t dependent on who you are or who you claim to be; who your ancestors are, or anything like that. John is telling the crowds that our continuance in a state of salvation is evidenced by a continued obedient faith in God.[6] The way it is presented here it would be obviously an affront, as we have mentioned, but it could be a shock for the religious leaders as well – especially the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, at their best, were an early Jewish holiness movement. However, they seemed to fall prey to a temptation that the devil tends to offer up to holiness movements even today (of which we are one and this temptation is one that I hope and pray that we will never be tripped up by). The Pharisees believed that they were saved because of who they were; they tried to be holy but they went overboard. Throughout the gospels they are accused of wrong judgment, hypocrisy, and burdening the people with extra rules and regulations. Matthew will go on to highlight their short-fallings in his gospel (Matthew 5:20; 9:1-34; 12:1-13, 22-46; 15:1-28; 16:1-12: 19:1-11; 21:23-46; 22:15-46; 23:1-39). John the Baptist here points out that they are not saved just because of who they are if they do not act as if they are saved (cf. 1 John 2:3-6). If He wanted to, God could simply create who they are and who they claim to be, ‘sons of Abraham’, simply from rocks (cf. John 8:33, 39; 8:11–12; Romans 2:17–29; 4:16–25; 9:6–8; Galatians 3:7–29), or anything else nearby, I would presume, for that matter.
It is the same for us, we must produce fruit in keeping with repentance, a continuance in a state of salvation depends upon (is evidenced by) our continued obedient faith in Christ (cf. Romans 11:16, Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 1:15, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, Hebrews 5:4).[7] We weren’t chosen for a state salvation because we are Canadians or because we are from Saskatchewan. God doesn’t need us; we need God. He can raise Canadians from those flowers over there if he wants to do so. He can raise Salvationists from that chair over there and God can raise good, temperate, teetotalers from the carpet if he wants to; that doesn’t mean that because we are any of these things that God will raise us from the dead to eternal life in Him. That is something altogether different.
We were chosen because God loves us. God loves everyone in the world so much that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life (John 3:16).
You see, Salvation isn’t so much a state of being that you can be born into, as it is the expression of a relationship which one can continue in for both now and forever.[8] The sinner’s prayer, that is rightfully so important in many of our lives, is like a police check, a security clearance. Do you know how long a police security clearance is really good for? …about 5 minutes. In between getting your criminal record checked and handing in the piece of paper to your boss – in theory anyway – you could stop by the bank and rob it. The paper may say that you have never committed (or at least been convicted of) a crime but as soon as you leave the station it is no longer necessarily accurate. You may decide to stop by the 7-11 on the way home and rob it, for all anyone knows. That is why when people work with vulnerable people they are supposed to get criminal record checks done on a regular basis.
The experience of salvation itself is more like a marriage. There is the initial event that starts off the marriage – the covenant that you make with God; the wedding ceremony - this is much like the ‘sinner’s prayer’ in most evangelical churches or baptism in some main-line churches. The wedding is just the beginning of the marriage relationship. It is not its culmination – and hopefully not the best part of it! There is a little bit more to marriage than simply standing at the altar and saying ‘I do’. Our proclamation of salvation, similarly; our saying the ‘sinner’s prayer’ is just the beginning of our salvation; it is not the totality of our salvific relationship with Jesus Christ. And thank the Lord for that!
Some of the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day here in our text today are being accused of relying on their position (religion, race) rather than on their relationship with God for salvation. They are accused of not producing fruit in keeping with repentance. Doing this is akin to getting married and then going away, never again ever doing anything with your spouse: never seeing your spouse again, never talking to her again, never even calling her on the phone from the time you say ‘I do’ until the time they lower you into the grave, beneath the grass and beneath the dew. In that case you will have been a part of a wedding ceremony once but you will have never experienced any blessings of the marriage and as long as you are estranged from your husband or wife, wearing that otherwise important ring on your finger in this situation is pretty useless and so is the Pharisees implied claim that they are sons of Abraham useless (Matthew 3:9; cf. Luke 3:8). It is an expired security clearance. This is, I think, what Matthew warns us about when he reminds us to produce fruit in keeping with repentance and when he later tells us in his gospel to be perfect as Christ is perfect (Matthew 5:48; cf. 2 Corinthians 13; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 11,12; cf. also 1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7).
This is some of what Matthew in retelling this event with John the Baptist is explaining to us: unless we continue producing fruit in keeping with repentance, we will never eat of the tree of life (cf. Genesis 1-3); unless we continue in a state of obedience faith in and faithfulness to Christ, then we will never experience the full salvation blessing of continued obedience in Christ. “While trust in Christ’s salvation is a first requirement, it is not the last.”[9] As Paul reminds the Corinthians, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10; cf. Matthew 7:12-29; 25:31-46).
The eternal covenant with our Lord is the most wonderful thing in the entire world. Being tied together with Christ in a holy covenant means that whatever life throws our way, Christ can handle for us. We no longer need to rely on our own strength (1 Thessalonians 5:22-24). The church, as the bride of Christ, is able to defer to him as our head and love him as our salvation (Ephesians 5:23). There is no other name under heaven through which men (and women) will be saved (Acts 4:12). So today on the week after our anniversary of Easter and the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15), I invite us all to turn to the Lord for, even more than the most loving and faithful spouse; Christ is always there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us (Romans 3:3,4). As long as we still have breath in ourbody, we still have the opportunity to return to God and be saved.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 20.
[2] R. T. France : Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD-ROM Note on Matthew 3:7.
[3] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 157,
[4] The Canadian Press “NDP wants names of Tories involved in taping of private caucus meeting” Reported by CBC. Last Updated: Sunday, January 4, 2009 7:13 PM ET. Available on-line at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/04/ndp-caucustape.html#ixzz0kFwSb4w7
[5] M. Eugene Boring, 157. Cf. Also R. T. France : Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), CD ROM note on Matthew 3:7, where a parallel is drawn between this event Egypt’s being referred to as a snake by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:22)
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Grace and Works: a Look at Doctrines 5-10 of The Salvation Army’. Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_Theology_TSA.htm#Works
[7] Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998),73-77.
[8] Cf. The General of the Salvation Army. ‘Salvation Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine’. (London, England: The Salvation Army International Headquarters, 1998), p. 59.
[9] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 20.
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