Things Get Better; Things Get Worse
Such will it be until the Lord Jesus returns.
We can rejoice when good is in ascendancy and we can take comfort that what is evil will not always or necessarily be like this, even if the Lord tarries….the Lord remains sovereign and continues to build His church until He returns and makes all things new. As a good Amillennialist, I believe that... Continue Reading
The Secret Life of the Divine Name
Addressing two errors made by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in their Bible translation.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share the name YHWH. In order to be saved, a Jehovah’s Witness has to do the very thing the Watchtower vehemently denies to them. They must confess that Jesus is Jehovah and call on Jesus as Jehovah, as God, to be saved. The Hebrew letters yod, he, vav, that represent... Continue Reading
Early Church Ethics
When Christians don’t “get with the times,” they change empires.
A key reason for the explosive growth of the Early Church is that Christians lived by this ethical command. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, abortion and the killing of infants through a practice called “exposure” was considered legally and socially acceptable. Most of the babies left to die were little girls. In his book, The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark described how Christians would search out and save little girls who were... Continue Reading
Do Not Be Deceived by Vain Philosophies
Pastors can lead the way by asking essential questions about popular worldviews and ensuring these empty philosophies do not deceive us.
Part of the theological tradition of the Protestant church is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. In a nutshell, the Bible is sufficient for what we believe and how we live as Christians, and all other authority is subservient to Scripture. Do I believe that deeply enough to use it to measure all other... Continue Reading
Who Is Responsible for the Suffering in the World?
For Satan, suffering and death are ends in themselves; for God, they are corrective measures that he uses to judge the evil that has occurred in this suffering world and to redeem his people from it.
If we insist that human suffering is merely a result of human sinfulness—introduced into the world by God either to correct and punish human sin or to establish a natural consequence for sin—then we’ll miss the malicious demonic purposes that operate alongside God’s own good purposes in our suffering. Maintaining an awareness of these darker... Continue Reading
God Saves People Using an ‘Ark’
Like with Noah’s ark, the way we are saved is entirely God’s work and not our cleverness.
God works in the world to save his people. The examples of Noah and Moses are dramatic ones, to be sure. Both situations saw God’s people in immediate peril, and the ark in both cases brought them to safety. Yet the same principle is true of Christians. God doesn’t promise to remove us from the... Continue Reading
Finding a Way in the Will of God
If God wanted Paul in Rome, then Paul would eventually get there.
Evidently, for some time, Paul had had it in his heart to visit Rome. He had prayed about it, planned for it, and attained a sense of peace that preaching in Rome was part of his calling. Yet, time and again, Providential circumstances had interfered. Pastoral needs had called him to other places; unexpected persecution... Continue Reading
Why We Can Confidently Persevere in Prayer
The elapsing of time may cause you to grow weary or lose heart, but it has no bearing on him and on his ability or willingness to answer your prayers.
Consider this: God may still be answering prayers that were prayed by the very first Christians, for the two thousand years that have elapsed since then make no difference to him. Twenty years after you die, your first and last prayers will still be equally fresh in his mind. You will eventually run out of... Continue Reading
The Paradox of Fear
True worship is having joy in who God is. And it all begins with the right kind of fear.
If you don’t have confidence today, fear God. If you’re running to the wrong things, fear God. Because the fear of God produces confidence. That confidence makes you run to Him. That running produces rest. That rest creates security. And that security gives you joy—the kind of joy you cannot manufacture on your own, but... Continue Reading
How Can I Know God’s Will?
God’s elect children can make hard decisions trusting that they are as secure in Christ as Christ is in the Trinity.
God’s sovereignty assures believers that when we commit to doing His will and make decisions according to His Word, we cannot go wrong. Our decisions will not always be wise. But God will always weave our choices into His good will. God’s grace assures believers that He loves us and will never leave us, no... Continue Reading
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