During my time as a student at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary, I learned that there was an old youth pastors’ joke, built on a misuse of Heb. 11:6. The verse states:
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
The verse, taken out of context, was evidently used to prod unsuspecting students into attending “the oldest Bible college in the country not named Moody.” I don’t doubt that more than one young person actually succumbed to that line of reasoning and made the trek to Ankeny, Iowa—where they would have nevertheless learned much better exegetical skills at Faith Baptist Bible College!
Faith...
Reposted from Rooted Thinking.
1 Timothy 5:3-16 is packed with implications for local churches and especially older saints but is rarely discussed. Economic prosperity often buries this rich and very practical passage. It may be that many churches that have not taken this passage seriously because of prosperity will soon do so.
I encourage you to take the time to read these verses carefully before continuing: 1 Timothy 5:3-16.1
As we take the time to understand this text and consider its implications, we find that it is relevant for every cultural context. We might also might find ourselves surprised that we have overlooked such valuable instruction.
Paul...
Last winter some friends and I were talking about changes at our alma mater, Bob Jones University (BJU). One suggested that there was a “realignment” taking place within “Bob Jones Fundamentalism” … with Sermon Audio (www.sermonaudio.com) at the center of it.
I do not know if my friend had inside information, but while walking across BJU’s campus in June, I ran across Sermon Audio’s founder Steven Lee. He gave me a tour of the future, on-campus location of the Vault (the storage facility for Sermon Audio’s digital files). In light of my previous discussion, I was surprised to learn that the headquarters of Sermon Audio was moving onto BJU’s campus.
Lee invited me to attend Sermon Audio’s annual Foundations Conference (...
At the back of all this is this question—what is a relationship with God about? There is a continuum, with “love” and “knowledge” at opposite poles. A ditch lies at either end—God is either Jello or an iceman. Both poles are important (it is kind of important to know about God, after all!), but you will likely tend towards one over the other—Carl Henry certainly did.
So, let me declare this—love must be the foundation for your relationship with God. Moses said it. Jesus affirmed it. I think that is pretty definitive! On this continuum, trend towards love.
Last time, I began sharing some of the main lessons I have learned through the first four years of my service as a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
In Part One, I wrote about the need to multiply our ministry’s effectiveness, and also regarding the importance of relationships in ministry. I would like to share two more lessons in this concluding installment.
The first relates to the necessity we have to make a greater and more intentional and effective use of media.
During the COVID-19 shutdowns, and ever since, we have all become accustomed to doing more of everything online—including shopping, attending meetings and even participating in church activities...
We need to read our bibles. God wants us to read our bibles—it is the story of Him revealing hidden things to us we would otherwise never know! Fair enough. But I first want to ask an important question—what is the best way to think of the Scriptures?
Different Christians answer in different ways; most often as the result of the different emphases of their theological traditions mediated from seminaries to pastors. How you answer the question above will determine what you think happens when you read your bibles. Only one of these answers is the...
Read the series.
And so we come to the evidence: objective evidence that the Bible is, um, unnatural, extraordinary, not like any other books. I’d suggest two lines of such evidence; we’ll look at the first one today, and a related topic later in the week. Next week, we’ll get to Door Number 2.
Door Number 1. Writing a book is hard. Just getting the facts right is hard enough (more about that next time); but doing it artfully, in a way that pleases the attentive reader, is really, really hard. Literary critics delight themselves in finding such artful devices in serious literature—for example, in noting how Willa Cather uses the imagery of wilting flowers to foreshadow the crumbling of the protagonist...
Read the series.
In an article at TableTalk Stephen G. Myers writes,
Covenant theology seeks to use the biblically prominent covenants to inform our knowledge of God and of His work. Specifically, covenant theology contends that God has been working throughout history to gather His people to Himself through covenantal relationship.
There is a problem here. The three theological covenants of CT are not prominent in the Bible. Moreover, the concept of covenantal relationship ,while part of the genius of CT, can and has been explained along...
