Last week I started an e-mail conversation with a man who was a member of the Methodist church. The conversation started because he had seen an article that I published on our web site, “Is the Church of Christ a Cult?” His contention was that any group that claims that they are the only one’s […]
With all of the recent news regarding the Catholic Church many have heard stated as fact by news media and others that Peter was the first pope. This is, of course, official Catholic doctrine. But what does the Bible say about Peter’s popehood? Is there one scripture that plainly declares that Peter was the first […]
“And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Cor. 9:25 ASV). Perhaps you have watched some of the Olympic Games this past week. If you have, then you have watched while athletes from all over the […]
In the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9; Matthew 13:19-23), our Lord likened the word of God to seed that fell in four kinds of soil representing different kinds of human hearts, and the productivity of the word or the lack thereof (depending on the kind of soil in which it was sown). Jesus taught […]
A querist asks, “Does God forgive people who do not ask? I have never seen where that happened. Should I forgive anyone who doesn’t ask?” The Bible teaches that repentance has always been a prerequisite for forgiveness being granted by God (Psalm 51; Jonah 3:10; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19; Acts 8:22; Acts 17:30; 2 Timothy […]
We read within the Bible that Christians assembled together upon the first day of the week to worship God through His Son, Jesus (Acts 20:7). When they met together, they studied God’s word, prayed, sang hymns of praise, gave of their income, and partook of the Lord’s supper. We have examples for each of these […]
The word “doctrine” in the Bible simply means “teaching.” Today we generally use the word “doctrine” to refer to a precise teaching or set of teachings while the word “teaching” itself refers more loosely to overall general concepts. Too, doctrine seems to have a religious connotation while teaching may connote the religious or secular. So […]
Vs. 1 – Closely following the Spirit’s acknowledgement of Jesus, the Spirit directs Jesus to go into this wilderness where He would be tempted by Satan. Mark records that there were “wild animals” in this wilderness (Mark 1:13). The wilderness of Judea was a rocky, barren, scrubby environment more or less hostile to human life. […]
Yesterday was January 1st, 2005. The year 2004 is gone forever. Some may be wondering, “What will the new year hold for us?” Will there be weddings? (I know of one being planned.) Will there be funerals? Will there be births (I know of one of these too!) Will there be good times? Will there […]
Here is a question that the Bible directly answers in scripture. In James 1:5, James writes, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James states that if someone wants wisdom, that he may ask God and […]
In Acts 5:1-4, we read the following narrative: “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why […]
Jesus mission while he was upon the earth was to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Inasmuch as the church belongs to her Lord (Matthew 16:18), she is to be about that same mission as well. Within that mission, there are those who need to be saved and there are those who are […]
It seems that on every side we turn now a days, we find a nation that is increasingly hostile toward Christianity. From Rosie O’Donnel’s comments that fundamentalists Christians are worse than radical Islamists to Bill Maher’s mocking the Lord’s supper by comparing it to a homosexual affair, we find in popular culture that hostile and […]
A querist asks, “According to the New Testament, how much should a follower of Christ give to the work of the Lord? Relative to our giving, the following are some New Testament principles and guidelines that we should seriously consider: 1) As followers of Christ, we must first have a desire to give — Note […]
It was based primarily upon the writing of Thomas Campbell in his “Declaration and Address” from which the greatest modern plea for religious unity has ever been made. To summarize that document, Campbell states that in order to have religious unity, men must abandon all humanly divided religious organizations, all humanly created creeds and articles […]
One of the criticisms that Jesus’ enemies so often employed was that He ate with the publicans and sinners. We find this criticism recorded for us in the following passages: Matthew 9:10, 11; 11:19; Mark 2:15, 16; Luke 5:30, 7:34, 15:1. This criticism was no doubt leveled at Jesus due to the fact that he […]
The advocates of eternal security often cite John 3:16 as evidence that all that is required for salvation is faith. This passage, however, is seen as more than a single event when we look at it in the King James Version: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that […]
As far as the Christian is concerned, everything that he is, does, and says, belongs to God. So, the Christian’s speech is to serve the Christian’s Lord. This means that the Christian is free to speak, but only in a way that would honor God (Colossians 3:17). There are those, however, who suggest that freedom […]
One might think that the answer to this question is obvious. Faithful Christians should oppose homosexuality in all forms (Romans 1:26, 27). So where does the question come from? I have heard from a few different people who don’t think that we ought to have laws that oppose the homosexual marriage or laws that limit […]
In Luke 14:12-14, our Lord said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kindsmen, nor thy