"…the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." —1 Tim. 3:15
“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
God blessed mankind with two immutable gifts (among many others): 1. Objective reasoning; 2. The ability to reason objectively. Since such is the case, obviously God had a reason for giving man the gift of reason. That reason is simply this: He expects us to use it! Yes, God expects and require that we abide by
Many people claim to believe in, and follow, the Bible, and to be Christians. However, some of these same people claim that doing so requires no human reasoning or logic. “I walk by faith,” they would likely say. Of course, walking “by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7; cf. Hab. 2:4) is what one should do, at
In 1 Samuel 13:13,14, the prophet Samuel tells the then-current king of Israel that none of his sons will sit the throne after him; instead, he says, “Jehovah hath sought him a man after his own heart” to be Israel’s second king (14). That man’s name was David. But the thing is, when we read
One of the rules of correct Bible interpretation (“lesser” though it may be) is this: On any given topic, interpret the more difficult and obscure passage(s) in light of the more clear and obvious one(s). In other words, view a difficult passage through the lens of a clearer passage on the same subject. An easy example is Luke 14:26, where
Does God speak to you? Has God ever spoken to you? Do you know someone who claims that God has spoken to them? Many claims about God today can be easily countered by what God Himself has said in His word. One of those claims is that of God “speaking” to men directly today. But
Did you know there are over 30,000 various “Christian” “churches” in the world today? Did you know that—in the New Testament (NT)—there is only ONE church (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 12:4,5; 1 Cor. 12:12,13,20; et al.)? That leads to this eternally important question: HOW DO I KNOW WHICH CHURCH IS THE CHURCH? In the New Testament—especially in the
QUICK RECAP FROM PART 1: A “tongue” is simply a “language.” The “tongues” that some first-century Christians spoke were actual, intelligible, human languages, the knowledge of which was given to them miraculously by the Holy Spirit. Hence, “the gift of languages.” But there is more. In 1 Corinthians 14, over half of the chapter is
What does it mean to “speak in tongues”? Most would likely say “tongues” are languages that are unknown to the human race, and that only God (and perhaps angels) can understand. But they would be wrong. The first thing we must understand is that the word “tongue” is simply a synonym for “language.” Thus, to