The Natural State of the Fool Is Unbelief
How does a man get to be such a self-deluded, allegedly autonomous, fool?
A fool is one who does not make God and His revelation the starting point (the presupposition) of his thinking. Fools despise the preaching of the cross, refuse to know God, and cannot receive God’s Word (1 Corinthians 1-2). Those who are self-proclaimed, autonomous people, or unbelievers, will not submit to the word of God... Continue Reading
Understanding the Sovereignty of God
As Christians our ultimate hope is not in the rulers of this age, nor in the state of our economy, but in the sovereign Creator of the universe.
The truth that God is indeed sovereign should be of immense comfort and a source of strength for us. What does God’s sovereignty actually mean? In short – God is in charge, he is in control. Let’s look at four points the Bible makes concerning the sovereignty of God. We are living in deeply... Continue Reading
Governor Northam, Pharaoh, and the Incredible Patience of God
A friend was recently preaching from Exodus chapter 1, and it really struck me just how patient God was with Egypt.
Egypt is committing copious amounts of unconscionable evils that would make American history blush. They are enslaving thousands of people and making them work. Then, out of fear of their slaves fighting back, they are taking their children between the ages of 0-2 and drowning them in the Nile. They are outrageously evil. And while... Continue Reading
A Manual for Creating Atheists Who Create Straw Men
A view can only be properly assessed after it is properly understood.
When we—wittingly or unwittingly—misunderstand an opposing view, it’s easy to erect a straw man. A straw man argument is when you misrepresent a view in order to refute it. A straw man is a lot easier to knock over than a real man. In the same way, a straw man argument is a lot easier to... Continue Reading
How Should We Understand “Shall Rule Over You” in Genesis 3:16b? (Part 2)
Coming from man, the woman will desire to return to him to seek oneness just as man desires to return to God in oneness because he came from God.
This desire and longing is the natural longing instilled at Creation by virtue of God having created woman from man (Genesis 2:21-22). This means that woman will naturally long to return to man, just as man longs to be one with his Creator. This Creation Longing is now to become the source of her frustration,... Continue Reading
Five Truths About the Holy Spirit
Jesus also spoke of the Spirit as the Helper in John 14 and introduced Him as “the Spirit of truth.”
We need to notice that the Holy Spirit is a unique person and not simply a power or an influence. He is spoken of as “He,” not as “it.” This is a matter of import because if you listen carefully to people speaking, even within your own congregations you may hear the Holy Spirit referenced in... Continue Reading
The Gospel Of The Synagogue Vs. The Gospel Of The Son Of God
Mark is explaining the gospel as the person and work of Christ in fulfillment on behalf of his people.
The presentation of the gospel of the “Son of God” is pressed with urgency upon people to repent and believe the Gospel of Mark. Mark uses the word “immediately” an astonishingly forty-two times throughout the book. This is not intended to impress upon us the need merely for ethical change, but to receive by faith, all... Continue Reading
Why Christians Must Be Readers
But in his prison cell he longs for something which Timothy can bring — books and parchments.
We cannot know for sure what these books and parchments were. They might, of course, have been the Scriptures of the Old Testament. We bear in mind that the New Testament Scriptures were only beginning to exist at this time as a collection of books. They certainly were not yet put together in the form of a completed... Continue Reading
Quiet and Deep Christianity
How should the church address the issue of our overladen minds and emotions – via accommodation or revolution?
The twenty-first century has largely abandoned being informed in favour of staying notified, we have rejected leafing through the pages of great minds in favour of scrolling through the curated scenes of one another’s lives, we have repudiated analysis in favour of rolling coverage, and we have become addicted to allowing the facts to play... Continue Reading
What Job Teaches Us About Endurance
Job cannot give up on the God he has known even though he no longer understands him, nor can he give in and believe that he himself is a hypocrite in order restore an idyllic past.
It seems God has turned against Job without just reason, refusing to explain his action, indeed refusing to speak to him at all, and instead keeps on hounding him to death. This is the antithesis of Eden; it is a kind of hell. This being so (or seeming to be so, for in the dark... Continue Reading