"…the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." —1 Tim. 3:15
Popular doctrine claims that the Lord will return “secretly” to take away the saints. As seen on TV, a certain number of people will simply vanish from the earth! While “the Rapture” may be exciting, it is simply not scriptural. Here is what “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) says will happen “when the
So the first claim of man that we’ve seen is that it is supposedly very near. But wait, there’s more! This allegedly imminent return is also said to be invisible or secret. But is this supported by the biblical evidence? A few verses are suffice to show that the concept of a “secret” or “invisible”
Someone asks, “But… What about those signs? Maybe no one now knows when that day will be, but if You told us what the signs will be, we’ll be able to detect them, and then we’ll at least know when the day is approaching.” The Lord already spoke to this question, right here in Matthew 24:
That leaves us, then, with vv. 36-44—a part of Matthew 24 that has, apparently, been torn from the Bibles of many. Notice the very next words of Jesus: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only…” (36). Now, wait a minute!
Open your Bible to Matthew 24, and highlight verse 34—for it proves that everything Jesus has said up to that point is not about the end of time. To what, then, was Jesus referring in those verses? Remember, the disciples had asked Him, “When will these things be?” “These things” are the “thing(s)” that Jesus
One of the main components of the “End Times” concept is that the end is very near. “Go turn on the news,” a well-meaning friend might suggest, “and you’ll see the signs of Matthew 24 unfolding right before your very eyes!” Or, as the late Billy Graham used to say, “Matthew 24 is knocking at
Isn’t it exciting when we read or hear something that boggles our minds, or perhaps even stretches our imaginations, leaving us in a sense of wonder and awe? Books, movies, television, video games, etc. provide an escape—a vacation into the boundless wonders of the mind. There are, indeed, things in the Bible that stun us
As we’ve seen, the New Testament pattern re: the church’s mission is benevolence, edification, and evangelism. We now look at Evangelism. There are, perhaps, few concepts more commonly misapplied than that of evangelism—i.e., many things are called “evangelism” that are, well, not. The word “evangelism” is not an English word, per se. It came into
The second realm of “church work,” according to the New Testament pattern, is edification. The Greek word for “edify” (οἰκοδόμη, oikodomē) is a construction term; but in the New Testament it is mostly spiritualized, used of one person “building up” another (cf. Rom. 15:2)—something the saints were repeatedly admonished to do (Rom. 14:19–15:3; 1 Cor.
Question: What is the purpose, or mission, of the New Testament church? The pattern we find in the New Testament is that Jesus’s church partook vigorously in three general areas of work: 1. EVANGELISM2. EDIFICATION3. BENEVOLENCE So what are these things—what do they look like, and how do we do them? Let’s start with #3:
