How Would You Counsel Someone Who Believes in Jesus’ Finished Work But Who Lacks Assurance?
Nicholas [my middle name, BTW] sent in a great question: Hi. I hope everything is well with you. I’m worried about my salvation. I have faith in the Lord Jesus and His finished work and His resurrection from the dead by the Lord God on the 3rd day. But people say it’s not by faith […]
Salvation by Faith or by Faith Alone?
O. O. comments on my recent conference message, available here, in which I said that there will be no final judgment for believers. He wrote, “You continue to see individual passages saying one is saved by faith. But nowhere do they say by faith alone.” His point is that salvation from eternal condemnation is by […]
Does Father Really Know Best?
The TV show Father Knows Best ran on American TV from 1954 to 1960 and starred Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, and Billy Gray. It taught old-fashioned family values. The other night I had a dream in which someone kept asking, “Does Father know best?” I was thinking in my dream that we were […]
The Bummest Rap of All Time (Acts 8:20-24)
No matter what one’s political views are, we all must admit that Kyle Rittenhouse got a bum rap. He was a 17-year-old kid from Illinois who traveled to Wisconsin to help during a time of civil unrest. He thought he could help by cleaning up graffiti and providing any needed first aid. While there, he […]
Get Ready to Update Your Church’s Statement of Faith
How is your church handling the latest cultural push to promote transgenderism and gender ideology? Put differently, how is it facing the ongoing deleterious effects of the sexual revolution? Does your church’s statement of faith reflect the new cultural dynamics? Hardin-Simmons University in West Texas seems to be headed in a more conservative direction. They […]
Does Revelation 21:8 Teach That Unbelievers Will Be in the Lake of Fire Because of Their Sins?
Jeff asked a follow-up question about a recent blog I wrote entitled, “Where Did Chafer Say We Don’t Have a Sin Problem; We Have a Son Problem?” See here. Jeff said, However, Rev 21:8 seems to fly in the face of that thinking, making the saying [unbelievers don’t have a sin problem, they have a […]
Mental Disorders, Divorce, and Lordship Salvation
I was reading this blog about the connection between mental illness and divorce. That was certainly a key issue that led to my parents’ divorce. And if the letters sent to Rod Dreher are any indication, undiagnosed emotional or mental disorders might be part of the reason for the decline of many Christian marriages. How […]
Merciful Rejoicing (Luke 15:25-32)
A person doesn’t have to be a Bible scholar to know that the Lord commands us to be merciful towards others. Being merciful does not only mean we are to be forgiving of others. It includes a more general attitude about how we view other people. A merciful believer does not favor a rich person […]
Did the Lord Jesus Get the Living Water and Everlasting Life Backwards in John 4?
I recently wrote a blog entitled, “Where Did Chafer Say We Don’t Have a Sin Problem; We Have a Son Problem?” See here. Joseph wrote this follow-up question: Would you give a definition for what dead in sin means? If one is dead, how can he believe? It seems to me that this means I’m […]
Wine Is a Sign (John 2:1-12)
When the prophets spoke of the coming Messianic age, they sometimes pictured it as a time that would be dripping with wine: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all […]