When I took high school biology, my biology teacher whom I considered very intelligent, started teaching us the theory of evolution as fact. This view totally contradicted what my pastor had preached and taught from God’s Word. My biology teacher was very convincing, and I began to doubt if God was who my pastor declared him to be. I was very confused. What I was struggling with was a huge worldview question: Where did I come from?
Read moreThey like Jesus but not the church
I am borrowing this title from Dan Kimball’s book by the same title. Dan Kimball is arguing that especially the younger generation has been turned off by what they call “the organized church.”[1] For example, I know a young Christian adult who reads his Bible each night with his family and prays with them. This he said was better than going and sitting in a building on Sunday morning for an hour. What he does is great and more than some who only go to church.
Read moreThe importance of meditating on God's Word
How can our reading and studying of God’s Word take us by the hand and lead us into the presence of God? How can our study of God’s Word actually be a means of grace as it was in Paul’s life (Acts 20:32)? One answer is the meditation of God’s Word. It is easy for us who are bombarded with information not to meditate or process all the input to which we are exposed. We are inundated with news from our car radios, emails at work, texts and tweets from friends, website surfing, and podcasts and TV in the evenings, and endless cell phone calls.
Read moreDid Rahab have to lie?
Do Christians have to tell the truth in all situations? What about situations where telling a lie may save someone’s life?
Joseph Fletcher had what is described as the “one norm ethic of love” in his controversial “Situation Ethics: The New Morality.” He wrote that the situation trumps Scripture: “Situation ethics ... goes part of the way with Scriptural law by accepting revelation as the source of the norm while rejecting all ‘revealed’ norms or laws but the one command----to love God in the neighbor .... We are only ‘obliged to tell the truth, for example, if the situation calls for it; if a murderer asks us his victim’s whereabouts, our duty might be to lie.”[3]
Read moreAre We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection on July Fourth? (Part 2)
The late Dr. Jack L. Arnold agreed with John MacArthur that the Revolutionary War was a rebellion against God:
“In our own American Revolution, Christians were divided over how to understand their responsibilities to the state and over the right to revolt. Some, especially those of the Church of England, fought on the side of the British in an attempt to be faithful to Romans 13:1. Others fled to Canada. Yet the Reformed Churches, especially the Presbyterians, felt the revolution justifiable. This revolution was somewhat different from others as it did not result in a breakdown of law and order. Political, social, and economic order was maintained. In fact, the Congress of 1774 had no thoughts of revolution and tried for two years to gain equal representation by lawful means. History shows that Britain, not the Colonies, forced the issue. It was in 1776, after much prayer, that the Continental Congress decided to declare its independence. This ultimately led to the formation of our Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges God as the Creator of all men. Our Constitution and form of government were set forth to a nation that was God-fearing, Christ-living, and biblically oriented. However, this does not prove it was biblically correct to revolt …. To resist government is to resist God because the government is merely an instrument of God.
The Founding Fathers had a starkly different view of the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers believed and preached two theological positions to justify their civil disobedience.
Read moreAre We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection on July Fourth (Part 1)
On July 4th we celebrate Independence Day, the day commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This document declared our independence from the government of Great Britain in 1776.
A great controversy between evangelicals rages concerning what the Founding Fathers did in the Revolutionary War for Independence.
Was the American Revolution civil disobedience or rebellion against God’s Word in Romans 13?
Was the Revolutionary War Self-Defense against Great Britain or Sin?
Was the War for Independence Just War or an offensive war?
Was the Declaration of Independence a declaration of unbiblical treason?
The "Factual Data" Sheet for Sermon Preparations for Narratives (Joshua)
The idea of The “Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted the “Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Poetic, Epistles, Narratives of Joshua, Nehemiah, and Mark) of Scripture instead of the one-size-fits-all approach. See David Howard, Jr.’s An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books for move helpful background material for Joshua.
The “Factual Data” sheet helps an expositor be text-driven in preaching God’s Word.
First, the “Factual Data” sheet enables the Bible student to interpret a text in the context of the Biblical passage. It is like a funnel that is big at the top and narrows down to the text itself. The interpreter starts with the remote context (context of the genre) and works his way to the immediate context (the book of the Bible in which the text is found).
Next, the “Factual Data” sheet helps the Bible student get inside the text itself. This is where, in the case of narratives, the unique characteristics of this genre are helpful in interpreting the text and also finding the Main Point of the Sermon (MPS), and outlining or developing the MPS. We begin with the context.
Read moreAtheists Love The Old Testament Command To Kill The Canaanites
New Atheists Richard Dawkins marshals his arguments against believing in God by using His Old Testament command to kill the Canaanites:
The Bible story of Joshua’s destruction of Jericho, and the invasion of the Promised Land in general, is morally indistinguishable from Hitler’s invasion of Poland .... The Bible ... it is not the sort of book you should give your children to form their morals .... Joshua’s action was a deed of barbaric genocide.”[1]
Dawkins goes on to call God a moral monster: “What makes my jaw drop is that people today should base their lives on such an appalling role model as Yahweh—and even worse, that they should bossily try to force the same evil monster (whether fact or fiction) on the rest of us.”[2]
Read moreWhy do Christians suffer depression and what is the cure?
Jared Wilson was the founder of Anthem of Hope, a non-profit dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention. Jared was a pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. He was also an author who wrote the books Love Is Oxygen: How God Can Give You Life and Change Your World and Wondrous Pursuit. He was known for being an outspoken advocate for mental health and talked publicly about his own struggle with depression. Jared Wilson ended his life on September 9, 2019. He tweeted the following at 5:01 PM on September 9: “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety. But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that.”
Read moreTwenty-five Advanced Soteriological Questions
Question fifteen: Is salvation instantaneous or a process?
The word “salvation” comes from a Greek soteria which means deliverance, primarily spiritual deliverance. This salvation or spiritual deliverance has three tenses. We have been delivered from the condemnation of sin, we are being delivered from the control of sin, and we shall be delivered from the very circumstances of sin. I got tired of the p’s (penalty, power, and presence).
Read moreTwenty-five Advanced Soteriological Questions
Question Fourteen: Does God’s Word teach Infant Baptism?
Covenant theologians like Robert Murray advocate the necessity and salvic merit to infant baptism. Robert L. Saucy points out "the difficulty involved in trying to distinguish the efficacy of baptism as it applies to adults and infants is noted by Reformed theologian John Murray. His attempt to maintain the same significance for both in the following quotation appears to contradict the clear biblical principle of salvation by faith.”[1]
Read moreTwenty-five advanced Soteriological Questions
Question Thirteen: What was Jacob Arminius’ view of the atonement?
Jacob Arminius believed in unlimited atonement as the following quote reveals: Christ died for all men; that He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; (1 John ii. 2;) that He took away the sin of the world; (John i. 29;) that He gave his flesh for the life of the world; (John vi. 51;) that Christ died even for that man who might be destroyed with the meat of another person; (Rom. xiv.15;) and that false teachers make merchandise even of those who deny the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction; (2 Pet. ii. 1, 3.)[1]
Read moreTwenty-five advanced Soteriological Questions
Question twelve: What are the five articles of the Remonstrance?
In 1609, the Five Arminian Articles or the Remonstrance were written by the followers of Jacob Arminius “in opposition to those parts of the Belgic Confession of Faith and the Heidelberg Catechism which stressed what came to be known as the five points of Calvinism, which were later set forth at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619).[1]
Read moreTwenty-five Advanced Soteriological Questions
Michael Horton stated that “the concept of universal restoration (apokatatasis) was taught by the ancient Gnostics.”[1] So Horton shows the similarity between restorationism and apokatatasis and universalism. Horton also calls apokatastasis and universal restoration inclusivism. Horton notes the conflicting views of Karl Barth on universal restoration. One place in his Church Dogmatics he writes “There is no one who does not participate in Christ in this turning to God... There is no one who is not raised and exalted with him to true humanity.” But for them Barth insists, “The Church ought not to preach Apokatastasis.”[2]
Read moreThe “One Another” Passages
The phrase "one another" is derived from the Greek word allelon which means "one another, each other;
mutually, reciprocally." It occurs 100 times in the New Testament. Approximately 59 of those occurrences are
specific commands teaching us how (and how not) to relate to one another. Obedience to those commands is imperative. It forms the basis for all true Christian communities and has a direct impact on our witness to the world (John 13:35). In addition to allelon, the Bible uses other words and phrases to instruct us how to relate to others. With that in mind, the following list is not exhaustive, and primarily focuses on the use of allelon.
How To Handle Criticism and Conflict
Here is a list of criticism and conflicts that churches have experienced. It will be good for us to read of the criticisms and conflicts other churches have endured. In this post we learn how to handle criticisms and conflicts:
Read moreGrace or Sacrificial Giving (2 Corinthians 8:1-9)
What Tim Challies teaches on sacrificial or grace giving was exemplified by the Philippians in 2 Corinthians eight and nine. Challies writes in an article: Money Matters: How much do I give?
If you are giving an amount that really doesn’t even impact you—you make $10,000 a year and are giving $100 or you make $50,000 and are giving $250 or you are making $50,000,000 and are giving $20,000–your giving is not truly sacrificial. Giving is meant to be felt. If you aren’t feeling your giving, if you aren’t having to put other plans on hold because of your giving, you are probably not giving enough. There is a special kind of thrill that comes at the end of a year when you look at what you have given that year and see sacrifice. You can see that you could have had a new computer or a new kitchen or a new car, yet you’ve chosen to serve and honor the Lord. That is a God-honoring sacrifice. God loves that. God blesses that. And there is the second principle: At a minimum, give enough that it makes a difference to your financial position.
Read moreThe Gospel for the Jews
“Woodrow Wilson told the story of being in a barbershop one time: ‘I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as me to have this hair cut and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in the chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular effect that his visit had brought upon the barbershop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship” (John MacArthur, Matthew 1-7, page 236). Mr. Moody had exerted Christian influence.
Matthew’s Gospel can enable us to exert Gospel influence. Matthew wrote to win Jews.
Read moreChurch Discipline
“One of the most neglected doctrines of the Word of God is church discipline” (Paul Jackson, The Doctrine and Administration of the Church, 75). “The attitude which accompanies the work of discipline is vital” (Ibid., 76). This post is a quick review of Paul Jackson’s chapter on Church Discipline. There are great resources at 9marks on church discipline (click to view).
Read moreTwenty-five Advanced Soteriological Questions
Question ten is Who was Theodore Beza?
Theodore Beza 1519–1605 was John Calvin’s first student and Calvin’s successor for 46 years at Geneva after Calvin’s death in 1564. Shean Wright, biographer of Beza wrote: John Calvin was undoubtedly the father of Calvinism, but Beza very well may have been the first Calvinist. At the academy in Geneva, Beza assumed the role of the instructor of Greek and theology and pastor of a city church. Beza defended the Huguenots against persecution in France and debated against Lutherans in defense of Calvinism.
Read more