The Honor of Suffering for Christ
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Phil 1:29) In Oct 1415, the English fought the French at the Battle of Agincourt in France on St. Crispin’s Day. Henry V was the king of the English. In his […]
Contending for the Faith
I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) I have been associated with Southern Baptist churches for many years. I currently attend one in South Carolina. One of the things I appreciate about the Southern Baptist […]
Do Not be Deceived
Do not love the world or the things in the world. (1 John 2:15a) All of us have been the butt of a joke at sometime. Many times, it is all in good fun. I remember when I was in the military and was new to a unit, I became the butt of a very […]
The Kingdom of God Is Not Now
On September 6 one of my seminary professors, Dr. Stan Toussaint, died. I have many fond memories of him. About five years ago he spoke at our annual conference. His big idea was this: “The kingdom is not now and the kingdom is not now.” He said that multiple times. He specifically was rejecting the […]
Is Everlasting Life Free, Yet Costly Too?
The Role of Suffering in Preceding Glory Today I received an irenic email from someone, we will call him Frank, who agrees that everlasting life is absolutely free. However, he also thinks that in order to get that free gift you must deny yourself. Here is what Frank wrote: I’d like to offer my opinion […]
Who’s Friend are You?
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 What emerges from the epistle is a portrait of Christian readers many of whom are materialistic in outlook, cultivating connections with […]
Assurance of Salvation and the Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent
There are two standards for evaluating a logical argument. First, is it true? And second, is it valid ? When an argument has true premises and is deductively valid, it is called sound. According to the first standard, in order for a logical argument to be true, the premises must be true. That’s common sense. […]
Three in Ten
Matthew Hennessey reported on a Pew study for The Wall Street Journal. Here is an interesting statistic: “Catholics aren’t the only ones dealing with religious illiteracy. Pew found that 53% of American Protestants couldn’t identify Martin Luther as the man who inspired the Reformation. (Oddly, Jews, atheists, and Mormons were more familiar with Luther.) Fewer […]
A Wrong View of the Lord — Luke 19:21
Recently, in a Sunday School class I was teaching, we were going through the parable of the minas in Luke 19:11-27. In the parable there are three servants of the Lord that give an account of how they served Him while they waited for His return. It is clear that all three servants are believers. […]
Ten Lepers Healed, But Only One Returns and Give Thanks
A favorite Bible story for many is the healing of ten lepers. It is found in Luke 17. These ten lepers, evidently somewhere in Galilee (Luke 17:11), but including Jews and at least one Samaritan, saw the Lord and cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13). The miracle is told in surprisingly […]