"…the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." —1 Tim. 3:15
Consider this conundrum: the moment a person experiences even COVID-19-related symptoms, they are told to seek medical testing or treatment, and, in the earlier stages of the outbreak, such may have even made national news! Meanwhile, not one word is uttered when 10,000 become infected with the virus that “can kill both soul and body
There are two things in this world that don’t mix: Pop Rocks and Dr. Pepper, but that’s not important right now. I’m talking about infection and indifference. As these words are written, there is panic in the streets. We are experiencing the effects of an outbreak. It is an epic epidemic at epidemically epic proportions.
One final thing we will consider in this series on sound reasoning and objective logic in Bible interpretation. Consider this statement: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he FALL.” 1 CORINTHIANS 10:12 Questions: Who is writing? What did he say? To whom did he say it? Why did he say
So what is the point of all this talk about “believing” and “obeying”? There is a particularly powerful OT passage about Abraham, so much that it is quoted three separate times in the NT (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2:23): “And [Abraham] believed in Jehovah, and [Jehovah] counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Recently, we have seen this spiritual truth illustrated in both Testaments: In the holy, sovereign eyes of Jehovah God, to “BELIEVE” = to “OBEY.” We will now look at a final example further demonstrating this truth, found in Hebrews 3. In Heb. 3:7ff, the inspired writer is recounting some OT history—particularly how Jehovah had said He
The logical conclusion we drew from Num. 20:10-12 last week was this: TO “BELIEVE” = TO “OBEY.” But does the New Testament agree with this conclusion? Indeed, it does. Let us consider John 3:36, for instance: “Whoever BELIEVES IN the Son has eternal life; but whoever DISOBEYS the Son shall not see life…” It must be
So many times in the Bible, man is admonished or expected to “believe in” something or someone. In John 3:16, for instance, we are informed that whoever “believes in” Jesus Christ will have eternal life. Such statements seem as plain as could be—but are they? Here is the question we must ask: What does it
One of the most popularly debated verses in the New Testament is Mark 16:16. After giving the great commission—that followers of Christ are to preach the gospel to all peoples as they go about in their everyday lives (15)—the Lord answers, as it were, an unspoken question: “OK, so as we are going and preaching the
“PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD.” 1 THESSALONIANS 5:21 As we have emphasized in the last few installments, one of the keys to correct Bible interpretation is the use of valid logic and reasoning, just as we would (and do) in normal, everyday conversation. Consider, for instance, Acts 2:38: “And Peter said to them,
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). That’s what the apostle Paul admonished the Christians at Thessalonica to do. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit [i.e., teacher], but prove the spirits [i.e., teachers], whether they are of God [i.e., whether they are speaking the truth]” (1 John 4:1a). That’s what
