The Role of Christ In Our Salvation, Part 1
The doctrine of salvation, also known as soteriology (from the Greek word for salvation, sōtēria), typically is broken into between five and ten major categories. Nearly all treatments of soteriology begin with the Person of Christ and the work of Christ. I’ve chosen to divide my blogs on soteriology into the Person of Christ, the […]
Fountain of Living Waters (Jeremiah 2:13)
The Bible is the inspired word of God. It is full of beautiful, poetic language and wonderful metaphors. One such metaphor is found in Jer 2:13. God is referred to as “the fountain of living waters.” The people had rejected Him and instead had chosen broken cisterns that cannot hold water. A fountain of living […]
Are You Theophobic?
The suffix –phobic often has the sense of fearing something. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. Agoraphobia is the fear of crowds. Acrophobia is the fear of heights. However, that suffix has taken on a life of its own in the current cancel culture. Words like xenophobic, homophobic, and Islamophobic do not refer to fear […]
That Sounds Familiar (Jeremiah 9:25-26)
When I read the OT, I enjoy seeing something to which the writers of the NT specifically refer. I find myself reading along and saying, “This reminds me of something Paul said. I wonder if he had this passage in mind?” Sometimes such references are obvious. For example, Paul might quote a particular verse in […]
Uneducated and Untrained Men? (Acts 4:13)
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Illiteracy was widespread in the first century. Well over fifty percent of Jews and Gentiles in the first century were illiterate. Most of the education […]
Be Slow to Tweet (James 3)
The outline of James is found in James 1:19. Chapter 3 is the second part of the outline: be slow to speak. Haven’t we all regretted speaking too quickly at times? Tweeting too quickly? Things we have said have hurt others whom we love. We regret it, but the damage is already done, even when […]
Defective Heroes (Hebrews 11:32)
The “Hall of Faith,” found in Hebrews chapter 11, gives us a list of OT heroes, including men like Noah, Moses, and Abraham. Women of faith are included in the chapter as well. Often seen as giants of the faith, these people are presented to us like Olympians on their pedestals during an award ceremony. […]
Little Sins Are a Big Deal (Jeremiah 9:4-9)
Some sins seem almost insignificant to us. Sure, we recognize the big ones, such as murder, adultery, and robbery, as things that can cause a lot of problems for everyone. But there are many sins that we look at and say they aren’t that harmful. Often those sins involve things we say. Even as kids […]
Are All Who Identify as Free Grace Cessationists?
The following question was put on the GES Facebook page in light of a recent post there: “Are all who identify as Free Grace cessationists?” That is a great question. Cessationism is the view that the sign gifts ceased in the first century during the lifetimes of the apostles. Tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and […]
Learning from Others (Jeremiah 9:1-3)
As we study the Bible, one of the things we learn is that Israel and the church are not the same thing. God made certain promises to Israel that He has not made to the church, and vice versa. That means that when we read the OT, we must realize that much of what we […]