FORWARD
By Brother Chris Burke
Brother Simmons went home to be with the Lord before
I was ever brought to know the Lord as my Savior. His book on systematic
theology, however, has been a great source of spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding to me over the years of my Christian life.
Although we don't agree with all of his theological
views*, Brother Simmons was a scholarly man who
put sound spiritual, scientific, and rational substance behind his arguments. I
recommend this book to all of God's people- to read it and study it methodically
and thoroughly. If we will do this, and prayerfully receive these Biblical
truths into our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit, we will be properly
equipped for the battle of serving the Lord in a sinful, spiritually liberal
and degenerate age.
This book is once again available in hard copy from
the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church of Chesapeake, Ohio. Please email
us to find out how you can obtain a copy.
May the Lord bless you with this electronic version.
We linked the subject index to the corresponding references in the book for
easy searching. You may have to read down the page to find the referenced
material, or scroll down to read the entire discussion. You also can use your
web browser's FIND feature to do word or phrase
searches in each chapter.
We apologize for any errors that may have occurred
in the process of converting this book to electronic format. You will also
notice that the original formatting of the text (fonts, font size changes,
italics, paragraph indentions, etc.) was not retained in this version. We do
not believe that this will be a problem, however, and hopefully our larger font
will make reading even easier.
May our Lord richly bless you in your service to
Him!
*Some of the theological views where we differ
from Brother Simmons are as follows:
The "gap" theory (i.e. a time lapse between
Gen. 1:1 and 1:2). We believe that the initial creation of the material
universe in Genesis 1:1 was part of "day one" of creation week.
Brother Simmons, however, is very strong and informative on all other aspects
of creation, and does not insist on the "gap theory" view.
Dichotomy view of man's nature. Brother Simmons gives a
strong argument for the dichotomy view, however we still hold that man is a
three-fold being; consisting of body, soul and spirit. A good explanation of
the Trichotomous view is found in Henry Morris's book entitled "The
Biblical Basis for Modern Science", chapter 14 (In The Image of God),
pages 412-413.
Free Agency. Although there may be some merit to the concept of free agency,
we believe Brother Simmons carries his views further than what is theologically
warranted. He does not clearly account for outside influences such as demon
possession or Satanic suppression, which coerce and even captivate the souls of
the lost. Practically we know that men are influenced and coerced to act,
think, and respond contrary to their wills (or "ultimate choice" or
"immanent preference") by outside forces. Furthermore, we believe
that God is still "just" in condemning sinners without the necessity
for free agency.
Brother Simmons' strong views on the sovereignty of
God in salvation, however, are not affected by his strong views on free agency.
Brother Simmons was not Arminian or freewill in his theology (as men today
define freewill), which some might mistakenly conclude from his view on free
agency.
The "living creatures" of
Ezekiel and Revelation. Brother Simmons believed that these were figurative and symbolic,
whereas we believe these to be literal angelic beings.
The American Standard Version of the
Bible.
Brother Simons used this version along with the King James Version for
Scripture references in this book. We do not use, nor do we recommend the use
of any Bible other than the King James (Authorized) Version.
End time events. Over-all we strongly agree
with Brother Simmons' views on eschatology. There are some minor aspects of
these end time events upon which we differ, but these details are not
significant enough to name individually here.
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These things (and perhaps a few others we fail to
recall) in which we differ with Brother Simmons, probably do not amount to one
percent of the content of this book. These should not discourage anyone from
reading and being blessed by the other ninety-nine per cent of the great
teachings contained herein.