"…the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." —1 Tim. 3:15
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
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.
There is a very unfortunate circumstance in our world. This one, in particular, does not only exist today—it has existed since virtually the beginning of time. It is the tragic reality that there are those who claim to believe in God—some (most?) of whom even claim to follow Jesus Christ—who are guilty of “handling the
#3: DARWINIAN OR “ORGANIC EVOLUTION” IS UNSCIENTIFIC—IT IS NOT SCIENCE. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard the phrase, “the theory of evolution.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say every hand is up. In fact, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has heard some brave (albeit delusional, or else
#2: SCIENCE PROVED “ORGANIC EVOLUTION” TO BE SCIENTIFICALLY IMPOSSIBLE OVER 150 YEARS AGO. Once upon a time people thought maggots magically—er, “spontaneously”—arose from raw meat: the living from the nonliving. That’s right, some men noticed that when you leave raw meat out in the elements, it will eventually be infested with maggots. Upon this observation, a hypothesis was
#1: THE DATING METHODS USED BY EVOLUTIONARY “SCIENTISTS” ARE FLAWED AD ABSURDUM. Here’s the thing: we are supposed to believe it when a man wearing a glistening lab coat and tinkling test tubes tells us that he and his colleagues, in their little diggings, found a rock that is a million years old. Tragically, most people don’t
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).
