Believing Strong Deception and Taking Pleasure in Unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:12)
Some questions are harder than others: I’m struggling to reconcile the free grace position with 2 Thess 2:12. Would you please help me understand what Paul is saying? The verse reads: “that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” It seems to me that according to […]
Three Ways to Comfort Your Suffering Friend (Job 2:11-13)
I was reading an article by a woman who lost her brother, sister, and her sister’s children in a car crash. Horrific. She was stunned. She walked around as if in a fog, unable to think clearly. Of course, friends offered to help. Several said, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to […]
Flying Can Be Trying
Due to Sharon’s cancer and chemo treatments, June 8-9 was a rare out of state trip for me. I went to Bayside Community Church in Tampa. I always enjoy speaking there and visiting with the people. In the first service I spoke on the transformed life (Rom 12:1-21). In the second service I spoke on […]
How Wrong Interpretation Can Destroy Assurance
I thought this was a good question about James 2: Have you seen any articles/books expand on the fact that the traditional interpretation of James 2:14-26 (saving faith has works, and non-saving faith doesn’t have works) leads to legalism and lack of assurance of salvation? Recently I read a Free Grace book (can’t remember which […]
God or Genie? A Lesson from Job
Job. He was the ideal man— righteous, upright, fearing God, shunning evil, and so concerned with holiness that he made sacrifices for sins that might have been committed by other people (i.e., his children, cf., Job 1:1-2, 5). No wonder God was especially pleased with Job, twice saying that no one else on earth was […]
Jesus in the Old Testament
The following question just came to my inbox: Does Jesus Christ show up in the Old Testament? I say NO. He is a New Testament character only. Yes, predictions about a Messiah, but no Jesus. Abraham was justified due to his faith in God. There was no resurrection yet. Others insist Jesus was there. Help, […]
Dramatic Irony in Job
Have you ever seen a performance of Romeo and Juliet? Near the end of the play, Juliet takes a drug that induces a temporary, but deathlike, sleep, to avoid marrying a man she does not love. To add to the drama, her body is placed in a tomb. To all appearance she seems dead. But […]
The Glory of the Lord (Mark 9:2-3)
One of the exciting things about studying the Bible is that no matter how long we have been studying it, we can always learn something new. We have all studied a passage we have examined many times before and see something in it for the first time. I had such an experience this week. In […]
The Apostle Paul Versus Enlightened Political Correctness
I enjoy reading Imprimis, a monthly newsletter of Hillsdale College. I just read the February 2019 issue, entitled, “Shall We Defend Our Common History?” by Roger Kimball. I found parallels between modern political correctness and the way in which many seminaries discuss the writings of the authors of the New Testament. Kimball gives example after […]
Faithfulness in the Family (Ephesians 6:1-4)
Introduction The following is a condensed version of a message I delivered at the recent GES national conference. I think that the main application of most of Scripture is to believe what is being taught. If we believe what God’s Word says, then we gain what Paul calls “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). […]