As our brother J.W. McGarvey noted in lectures he gave in 1890, a number of passages in Paul’s letters to the preacher Timothy stress the need for preachers to be exemplary in their personal, Christian character. ((The Lost Outlines of J.W. McGarvey, ed. Brandon Renfroe (Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 2011), 58.)) Consider the following points made […]
Are You In or Out?
December 15, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
It is an incomparably weighty matter to be either in Christ or outside of Christ. In fact, the most crucial question of your life and mine is this question: Am I in Christ? The New Testament emphasizes the significance of being “in Christ” in a variety of ways. Consider a few of them, adapted from […]
Lot’s Choice
May 24, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
We are familiar with Lot’s decision to move to the valley of Sodom. After Lot’s uncle Abram gave him the choice of the land, we read: And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the […]
“Jesus is Lord,” a Controversial Phrase
April 5, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
Christians love to say and sing the words “Jesus is Lord,” because the phrase is a summary statement of biblical faith. It affirms not only that there is a God, but that the Person of Christ, has visited Earth as Jesus, the Son of Man, and has sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world […]
Something More than Christians?
March 22, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
Sometimes people will ask, “What are you, religiously?” One who follows the Bible may simply answer, “I am a Christian.” But this may not satisfy the one asking the question; he may insist on greater specificity: “I mean, what church are you a member of?” The Bible believer will simply say, “I am a member […]
An Outdated Constitution
March 8, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
Imagine that anthropologists discovered a constitution put in place by a society that occupied our territory hundreds of years ago. What an excitement for students of political history! Such a document would be studied carefully to the last letter, because it would give us insight into an older society, and might even give us some […]
The Perfect Mediator
January 20, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
One of the sweetest words in the Bible surely is “reconciliation.” Paul wrote that “we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). The word translated reconciliation means “reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship.” And, in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, the apostle Paul called the […]
The Virgin Birth and Isaiah 7:14
August 6, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
Sometimes it is suggested that the virgin birth of Jesus is not very important, and that we don’t really need to believe in it. ((E.g., Michael Langford, The Tradition of Liberal Theology, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2014), 54.)) However, if Christ was not born of a virgin, then the Bible is plainly incorrect in teaching that […]
Which Came First: Mother, or Baby?
May 5, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
Those who believe in the Darwinian theory of evolution believe that mankind is the result of a long chain of random, accidental, natural, mechanistic processes which led from an amoeba eventually to primates and then to human beings. One of the many insurmountable difficulties for the evolutionary hypothesis is that evolution opposes the scientific Law […]
The Apostle John on “Him Who is From the Beginning”
April 30, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
Twice in 1 John 2, the apostle tells his readers that they know “him who is from the beginning” (2:13, 14). What does this phrase mean? Whom did John say that his readers knew? If we looks through John’s writings, including both the Gospel of John, the epistles, and the Revelation, then it is possible […]