Before I begin: The list of verses below is NOT saying you can’t go to heaven unless you “pass” all the requirements listed (there are other sins and good works; we’re not trying to list those).  Salvation has an initial date, and also requires a sanctification period for the rest of your life, as you must grow in the Lord.  As I expressed in another blog, INITIAL salvation can be accomplished by (1) BELIEF in what Christ did:  He is God, He died to pay the price to redeem me; He was resurrected—that means I could be resurrected, taking away the power of death.  (2) A desire to REPENT, change my mind and turn away from my sins and the world which I can’t

There are some pastors and priests who are teaching un-Biblical theology these days.  But should the real church that teaches orthodoxy stand up and question them?  Unlikely to happen.  In our PC society, culture does not give us a pass to judge anybody—especially not to judge someone who calls themselves “Christian,” which many of these false teachers do.    But the fact is, our society is morally going down the wrong road.  When the “fruit” of the vine (John 15) is bad, we need to call it out. That’s what Paul did. The root of the vine is Jesus, and the vines are the real Christian church. But most of them have taken a muzzled condition these days.  Christians who really know Scripture need to

When asked, “Is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament?”, people have strange views. Even among people who claim to be Christian, I suspect the majority would answer “no.”  The reason, I think, is emotional.  They think God in the Old Testament is mean-spirited and bloody, and they don’t want that kind of God judging them in the last day. Pastors must feel the same way, since I have only heard a sermon from the Old Testament a couple of times.  They would prefer Jesus (whom they selectively portray as soft on sin in the New Testament) doing the judging, since He was a healer, wasn’t afraid to be with sinners, and defended the common people against the

  I would like to take four sections of Scripture and analyze them together, since they are all on the same subject—namely, the woman’s role in the family and in the church.  A hot topic, for sure.  Scripture is crystal clear on several points, but churches and families are not being taught this by their pastors. First, let’s look at I Corinthians 11:3-5, 7: But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head… 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in 1881, and died in 1955.  He was a French Jesuit priest, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. But he was also a spiritual father of the New Age movements.  He was the fourth of 11 children of a librarian and naturalist, Emmanuel.  His mother, Berthe, was the great-grandniece of Voltaire, a famous Enlightenment writer and hater of Christianity. Pierre’s spirituality was awakened by his mother. When he was 12, he went to a Jesuit college, became a novitiate, and made his first vows in 1901. In 1902, the French premiership began an anti-clerical agenda. Religious associations were forced to submit their properties to state control, which obliged the Jesuits to go into exile in Britain. Teilhard did much of

In the area of church discipline, here’s where we are now: If your church is evangelistic, they’re probably too careful about not offending people.  They want those clearly lost in sin to hang around and listen and get saved–so they won’t exercise any church discipline, even for a divisive troublemaker–unless, if a person who is ‘way out of line’, they might reprimand the offender to make them uncomfortable, and hopefully they leave the church.  Let’s present a situation: a guy is known as living with a woman, and they show up together Sunday morning, week after week. The fact is, they need to be spoken with on the subject of adultery or fornication.  Many churches won’t do a thing, on the grounds of not offending them. 

Let’s talk about the virgin birth of Jesus. Specifically, two things: Scriptural verses predicting and saying that it will be happening; and secondly, the meaning of it—why a virgin birth was necessary. We’ll begin with Luke 1:26-37, as the New King James Version (NKJV) presents it. Partial verses in some, to reduce the length: 26 Now in the sixth month (ed., of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, as will be explained later), the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner

Is Adam’s Guilt Transferred to Us? Is Christ’s Righteousness Transferred (Suppose We are Not Righteous in Our Behavior)? There is a problem in the doctrine of salvation from hell that most denominations also believe in. Their theory surrounds the word “imputation.”  First, let’s define the word “impute.” That’s the translation of the Greek word “logizomai” in Scripture.  Unger’s Expository Dictionary (highly reputed and reliable) defines “logizomai” as: “To reckon, to put down to a person’s account; to charge with, or credit with.” The theorists believe that imputation leads them to three doctrines: (1) The guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to all mankind; (2) The sins of Christ’s people are imputed to Christ; and (3) the righteousness of Christ is imputed to His people. However,

A word of prelude: This paper is designed for the average reader, not for seminarians. Atonement is an important subject—for everybody. There are some important controversies on that subject that everyone needs to hear. It affects our view of God, among other things. So let’s start with a definition: Atonement is defined by Unger’s Bible Dictionary as “the covering over of sin, the reconciliation between God and man, accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that special result of Christ’s sacrificial sufferings and death by virtue of which all who exercise proper penitence and faith receive forgiveness of their sins.” Nothing could be more important, right? Now, I’m not here to challenge the definition—the problem is in the details. First, a word of background assumption: If

Let’s start with Genesis 6:1-5, 7: Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown; Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. …So