The author underlines the need for the church to deal properly with all sin, including serious sexual sins. He offers four fundamental pieces of advice to those who must deal pastorally with both the abused and the abusers.
Borrowing from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, this article encourages those who struggle with doubts to fix their attention on the promises of God’s Word.
Dr. Guinness demonstrates that resolving doubt leads to deeper and more mature faith.
This article provides clear biblical encouragement and advice to believers who struggle with doubt.
This article offers encouragement to those who are struggling with doubt, to direct their attention to the things that are certain and sure.
This article provides solid, biblical insight into worry, and concrete advice to fight against it in faith.
This article offers an extensive reflection on Philippians 4:6-7, and how to understand the promise that in the way of prayer, believers will receive the peace of God.
This article provides a brief meditation on Paul’s encouragement in Philippians 4:5b-7 to overcome anxiety by prayer.
This article addresses fear that is often stirred up by the media, and reminds of what believers ought to fear, and how to overcome wrong fears by faith.
1 Timothy 5:17-18 and 1 Corinthians 9:9-14 make it clear that the pastor must be paid. The question is, how do you decide the stipend of the pastor? This article gives six guidelines the church can consider for the pastor's salary.
Just like Timothy who was commanded to do the work of an evangelist, pastors must also do evangelism. How do they do that? This article suggests four ways in which pastors must carry out this work, starting with themselves.
Do you want to learn to evangelize? The book of Proverbs offers eight basic lessons on evangelism, which this article considers.
How do you know that you are called to preach? This article suggests that there are six distinguishing marks of a true calling to the ministry.
Has the church not lost repentance as one of the most important parts of its piety? This article addresses the question by briefly looking back to King David's life.
The article addresses a few themes from the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These include being lured by the sinful luxuries of this world, and the need to be alert in the face of the impending judgment of God. Above all this, the article shows that it is by God's grace that some are left behind while others are swept away in judgment.
The author provides the Lutheran understanding of partaking in the Lord's Supper. The emphasis is first on the nature of the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, and then also the significance of a real encounter with Christ in the elements of the Lord's Supper through faith.
The article teaches on the topic of the Lord's Supper, firstly as a meal that can also be called a covenantal meal. Thus its roots are in covenantal theology. The Lord's Supper is a place where one moves from being outside to getting into the blessed communion with the Lord.
The article revisits the great sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, seeking to understand the nature of the sexual sins committed there. This is done as a warning and instruction to believers to teach them that environment does matter and what people desire in their hearts is of great importance. Main texts referenced include Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, and Leviticus 20:13.
This article emphasizes the importance of participating in the Lord's Supper in a proper and worthy manner. Self-examination is therefore an important aspect.
This article discusses the biblical view of the Lord's Supper, related it to the Passover feast, as well as to the death and resurrection of Christ. The author focuses on the relevance of passages like John 6:47-58 together with others.
The article discusses John Calvin's teaching on the Lord's Supper, comparing it to the doctrines of other institutions and theologians such as that of the Roman Catholic, Luther, and Zwingli. The main issue of contention discussed concerns the presence of the body of Christ in the bread and wine.
The article deals with the main aspects of differences between the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, Reformed (Anglican), and the Baptist views on the presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. The Catholic view is transubstantiation, while the Lutheran view is consubstantiation. The Reformed view is that of the real presence of Christ, without the need to identify his physical body in the Supper.
The article deals with the marriage covenant, one entered into by human beings. However, God has made covenant promises to his people, which, unlike human covenants, cannot be broken.
The author describes most of the lives of believers as closely associated with covenants in one way or another. He focuses on the community of believers who have to learn to keep the covenantal duty of living with others as brothers and sisters together in a covenant community. Other aspects of the covenant life include marriage and parenting.
The article provides a perspective on what it is to be a covenant community. This is applied to a typical congregation where the believers practically apply the view that as a covenant community they are to live and care for each other. This is supported by passages such as Romans 14:7-8 and Ephesians 4:25.
This article is introduced with the question, "Does God take risks?" The intention is to answer the basic question whether God changes his mind due to human influence (such as prayer) and therefore whether he absolutely knows the future. Open theism takes as one of its key texts Genesis 18:22-23. The article considers this passage and concludes that here God is condescending to our human weakness and frailty.
The article shows how the history of covenant theology extends beyond the Reformation, all the way back to the time of the early church.
The author reviews our understanding of a covenant. Involved in the analysis are comparisons with the present-day secular understanding of contracts and litigation and the sinfulness of humanity. The author finds an example of a covenant or contract in the one between the creator God and the created man, Adam and Eve, at the beginning of creation.
The author focuses on work ethic and traces the understanding of it from the time of the Reformation. He takes into consideration the reasons why the rise of capitalism has been attributed to a change brought about by the new view among Protestants of work ethic.
The article focuses on the ethics of work, citing laziness as one great sin of our day.
Martin Luther refuted the view that the true Christian calling involved becoming a monk. He began affirming the spiritual value of the ordinary profession as part of one's high calling. But the Christian church has since abused this teaching as well, and man is once again faced by his own greed versus a true godly vocation.
This article focuses on education from a Christian point of view (Christian education), against a generally apathetic culture to learning.
This brief account looks at the period in which Roman civilization ended with the fall of Rome to the barbarians. The subsequent period is known as the Dark Ages, which was short lived as the barbarians were also converted to Christianity, ushering in another historic period that has come to be known as the Medieval period.
The article looks at the event of the fall of Rome to the Goths, considered to be barbarians. The author notes that when the barbarians invaded Rome, they were bringing themselves to a place where the gospel could be proclaimed to them and they could repent.
Columba was a missionary to Scotland in the early Middle Ages. The account about his exploits may be tainted with exaggerations but the author of this article identifies three principles to take from Columba's work in Scotland.
This article concerns the covenant that God makes with Abraham after he returned from defeating the the kings of the east. It is an account that continued to unfold how the seed of the woman will triumph over the seed of the serpent. In Genesis 15, God strengthens the promise of this seed, although there is nothing yet to prove that the seed will come. The only thing Abraham holds on to is the promise of God.
The article provides a survey of a Christian thinker of the Middle Ages, Boethius. His contributions to Western civilization in general and to theology in particular are significant. One of the questions he had to address in his philosophical debates was the relationship between foreknowledge and freedom.
The article provides a brief survey of the medieval church leader, Gregory the Great, focusing on the positive and regrettable effects of his role in church history.
The author discusses the origins of the battle between Augustine's teachings of predestination and grace, and Pelagius's views on the same issues. Pelagianism later developed into semi-Pelagianism, a teaching that has remained to this day.
The article considers the threat posed by the worldview of posthumanism, a view that human beings should have the right to improve themselves in whatever way, especially scientific ways, such as genetics and genetic engineering. The article warns against this, noting that human beings must confine themselves to being image bearers of God.
The author discusses the New Perspective on Paul, which forms part of the general study of the theology of Paul. The article dismisses a number of its claims, which include that Paul's Christianity is somewhat different from the teachings of Christ.
The author refers to a major topic in the letters of Paul, the topic of war. God's people are at war against evil and the devil. There is also war within believers, as they war against the flesh.
The author identifies the love of God for his own people as one of the most amazing revelations in Jesus' high-priestly prayer in John 17. The author summarises this revelation by noting that God loves all true believers as much as he loves his Son.
The article discusses Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-24). This discussion also involves Abram and his acts that show trust in God rather than his own strength. The Levitical priesthood, and ultimately the priesthood of Jesus Christ, also come into view.
This article considers two of the most important Christian character traits in the life of Paul: love for God's people and humility. The article attempts to trace the source of all these in Paul's salvation and in his understanding of God's love for him when he was unworthy of it.
The author attempts to summarize the gospel message according to Paul, as a message of the sacrifice of Christ for the sake of the propitiation of the wrath of God, and for reconciliation and redemption. This gospel message also highlights the aspect of justification by faith, Spirit-authored sanctification, and the glorification of believers.
This article looks at the life of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. The article explains his work, which includes the three missionary journeys he undertook in his calling. It also reflects on his crucial understanding of the promise of God to Abraham that pointed to the blessing of all nations. It was an understanding that drove him in his missionary journeys, along with much suffering for the gospel.
The author goes through the life of Abraham, in order to demonstrate how his faith in God is an example for those who believe today. Those who believe will take hold of the promises by faith and also get to receive the title of being Abraham's children, even though they have not obeyed the Law of Moses, and have sinned against God.
This article argues that a lot of discussions on theodicy make no reference to Jesus Christ; they simply theorize on the nature of a deity who can scarcely bring meaningful comfort to people. Rather, the problem of evil and suffering in the world should be resolved in Jesus Christ and his cross.
Our problem, this article says, is evil. It traces the origin of all evil in the world to the sin of Adam and Eve. Subsequently, it states that repentance and faith in Jesus Christ are the only remedy to this problem.
How can we understand the meaning of Hebrews 2:18? This article attempts to answer this question, focusing on the importance of experiencing suffering in the life of believers, which will be helpful in comforting and reaching out to others, just as Christ has learned empathy through what he suffered.
The author focuses on the promise of God in Genesis 3:15, where the curse and the blessing are introduced as operative for the rest of redemptive history. He cites key moments, especially in connection with the blessings, where he notes that the blessing as pronounced later to Abraham would provide a people, a place, and God's presence with his people.
The article struggles with the problem of the existence of evil in the world and presents it both as a Christian problem and as an atheistic problem. Amid the various perspectives, the author seeks a more God-centred perspective that will recognize that God has purposes beyond those that we can presently understand.
The article attempts to define and discuss the problem of evil, citing its existence in creation where an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent God could have made certain it does not affect people, at least his chosen ones. In the discussion, the article engages the views of anti-theists, proponents of the free-will defense, and other Reformed theologians. The conclusion answers the question whether God would and did create a world containing evil.
The author gives a short discussion of the problem of evil, especially from a biblical perspective. In the discussion, the author deals with the church's description of it as privation and negation as well as (actual) privation. Despite its existence, the believer is expected to experience it and come out of it victorious.
The author notes some subtle ways in which believers lose the simple childlike faith in the involvement of God in the day-to-day matters we encounter. The author gives a brief explanation of some of these supernatural involvements and acts of God in our daily lives.
While The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, many people believe it to be truth because Dan Brown makes some claims of truth in the book. As a result, some people now claim that the Bible has twisted the history of Jesus. In the end, the actual truth is confused with fiction, and many other deceptions about the truth. A few of them are outlined in this article.
This article addresses the important gift of discernment, particularly with reference to how believers are expected to handle such deceptive publications as The Da Vinci Code. Knowledge of the Word of God is a primary necessity for exercising this gift, but also a heart that is enabled by the Holy Spirit to be able to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
This article discusses the human sinful motives behind the Tower of Babel, which include pride, passion for power, and other sinful delights. The author contrasts Babel with Jerusalem, the call of Abram, and the day of Pentecost. His emphasis is on the contrast between two loves: love of self and love of others.
The author of this article looks at the spiritual background to The Da Vinci Code, noting that Dan Brown was advocating for believers to embrace "pre-Christian" symbols. The religious view he advocates is paganistic pantheism, which generally includes a number of cultic groups and religions including Freemasons, Gnostics, magicians, satanists, and Hinduism.
"Let the buyer beware." This is the warning that is contained in this article for those who would read The Da Vinci Code. Some of the problems pointed out are the twisting of truths with regard to Jesus' alleged marriage to Mary Magdalene, the fallacy of the woman perceived to be Mary Magdalene in Leonardo Da Vinvi's portrait The Last Supper, and the gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi.
The author of this article pinpoints a small sample of erratic statements in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Some of the errors have to do with the alleged changing of the biblical text by Constantine, the exclusion from the New Testament of a vast number of about eighty gospels, and the alleged omission from the Bible of Jesus' human traits.
This article deals with the public sensation brought about by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. It traces the source of the claims of the author to the Gnostics that were especially prominent in the first few centuries AD.
The author speaks about the holiness of God with respect to grief. In doing so, the author answers the question why God is depicted as grieving in Scripture. His explanation includes the discussion of how God's grieving is like our human way of grieving, and how it is different.
How do we explain the Trinity? Or how does one understand the statement, "God is one being in three persons"? These are the different questions that this article attempts to answer in detail on the relation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The author explains that God should be understood as a monarchical God (one ruler) while on the other hand can be understood as the Triune God. One therefore has to correctly understand the distinctions between the persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as well as the lack of distinction in their essence.
The author of this article attempts to explain and describe what love should be like in a godly relationship. The author does this by using the doctrine of the Trinity, with further applications from a number of errors that are a result of failure to understand this Trinity properly.
The author of this article claims that our theological beliefs have consequences for our future. The author notes that Unitarianism, which is opposed to recognizing God as Trinity, has led to the decline in spirituality, especially in the United States.
The article deals with the subject of worship. Believers should find themselves able to worship God as he has revealed himself to us, as triune God. There are a number of different ways in which this happens in a worship service, which the article outlines.
The author revisits the crucial story of Noah.
This article focuses on the importance of taking time to consider the weightiness of sin and its consequences. The article traces how sin affected Old Testament figures such as Adam and Noah, as well as the flood victims. From the flood, Noah was delivered but not on account of inherent qualities in him.
The article addresses the matter of lying. This sin stems right at the start of creation with the lies of Adam.
The author discusses the difficulties brought to the church in North America by both modernism and postmodernism. While the fundamentalists did well to stand well against modernists, the subsequent generation of fundamentalists and evangelical fundamentalists are giving in to the persuasions of postmodernism in very subtle ways. This has negatively affected the effectiveness of the gospel they preach.
This article evaluates the historical differences that emerged between the fundamentalists and the evangelicals in North American church history. The author notes that it was the uncompromising zeal of the fundamentalists that won them the position of being better able to guard the truths of the Christian faith.
The author brings forth important lessons from the Christian life of J. Gresham Machen. The godly values identified in Machen's life include honesty, building Christian institutions to preserve the heritage of the gospel, and unashamed confrontations with the ungodly teachings of our age.
The article looks at the history of the church in North America, especially the effect of liberalism on the church. In this analysis it focuses on the nature of reactions by conservatives. An observation is made that over time, the general membership of the church has not taken seriously the value of doctrinal confession.
The article looks at the history of American Protestantism, especially from the 1920s to today. The main issue was how the churches coped with the influence of modernism (including Darwinianism).
The author discusses the influence of liberalism or liberal theology on the church. The author ends by noting the present-day remains of the liberal agenda.
The article is an attempt to discover the gospel message that can be found in Genesis 3:15. Thus the article finds in this verse alone both salvation and judgment, the blessing and the curse, all to be effected through the seed of the woman.
The article discusses the disastrous decisions that Adam and Eve made when they had freedom in the garden of Eden. In doing so, they lost the glory of Paradise. However, Christ is celebrated as one who has come to regain it for them.
The author argues against the liberal views that the Bible is a collection of myths or that it is not a historical account. The author uses the knowledge of literature experts such as C.S. Lewis and Auerbach to demonstrate why the Bible cannot be viewed as other types of common literature of their times.
The author critiques the theology of the popular publication The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson at several points, but mainly on the aspect of the sovereignty of God in answering prayer.
The article addresses history of redemption from the Old to the New Testament. It sees Genesis 3:15 as the starting point.
The article traces the causes of the Israelite exile and return from exile. It points to the history of redemption that is filled with human sin on the one hand but with God's kindness on the other.
This article traces God's promise of a king to his people, Israel. The account shows the difference between God's plan and the people's expectation of what a king should be like.
How important is believing in the existence of God? This article attempts to answer this question by referring to religions that do not believe in an ultimate creator God, such as Bhuddism.
The author shows believers the difficulty of loving Jesus and his glory more and more in a sinful world in which believers are constantly drawn towards the attractions of the world.
The author attempts to explain what "creation ex nihilo" would mean to today's believer. This sovereign act of God means that believers are to worship him constantly as the Creator.
The author discusses the teachings that deny the virgin birth of Christ, identifying them as heretical. The author argues that Scripture witnesses sufficiently to the virgin birth.
The article discusses the building of the church of Christ, with consideration of relevant passages like Matthew 16:13-20 and Matthew 28.
The author identifies the obedience of Christ as the most inclusive concept available for describing the redeeming work of Christ. This obedience is normally divided into two parts: active obedience and passive obedience.
The article traces the meaning of the phrase "the fullness of time," which relates to the various times in which God fulfilled his promises and will fulfill remaining promises to his people.
This article attempts to answer the question as to why Jesus had to be both God and man. It discusses how the human nature and the divine nature are united in the mystery of the incarnation.
The author of this article reminds believers of the right attitude they should have as they wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
This article probes the question of the identity of Jesus Christ. It provides the view of the Gnostics, then refers to the testimony of the apostles in Scripture who testify of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
The author of this article emphasizes the command to love the neighbour. He describes it as a commandment, rather than something that should be done out of one's feelings. The Scripture references for this teaching include 1 John 4:19-20, 1 John 5:1-2.
