“At the core of A Personal God and a Good World lies the simple, common-sense fact that our consciousness and our conscience tell us the same, seemingly paradoxical truth about ourselves: ‘human beings are valuable, perhaps infinitely valuable; at the same time, we are not intrinsically good; there is something morally broken about us.’” - Ref21

“He thought he was well-qualified for all of these jobs, but he was interviewed for only two. He was more than a little disappointed with the outcome. It was back to square one.” - IFWE

“I have an exciting new project I want to share with our faithful community of [Cripplegate] readers. Today is the first day of a new Bible Q&A podcast we are launching, called ‘Cage Free Theology.’” - Cripplegate

“Eventually, [Harbor] determined the Christian faith could not provide satisfying answers. And so he left it all behind. Today, though, he is following the Lord. He worships God as a member of a church… writes a newsletter where much of his emphasis is on reconstruction.” - Challies

“If we want to understand President-elect Trump’s relationship to Christian faith, we would do well to attend to the writings of the pastor who Trump has praised on many occasions—for the Christianity Trump praises is not historic orthodoxy, but rather the revisionist egocentric version articulated so clearly in Peale’s book.” - Dispatch Faith

“Our problem, as spokesmen for God in our culture, is when judgment comes and we have been negligent in warning. If we told them so beforehand, saying ‘I told you so’ when trouble comes is unnecessary (and unkind).” - P&D

“Public trust in pastors has dropped to a new low, according to the latest Gallup poll. The survey finds that only 30% of Americans rate clergy as highly honest and ethical, continuing a downward trend.” - CPost

Related post at Lifeway

“Currently, the national debt stands at over $36 trillion, more than $100,000 of debt for every person in the country. That’s on top of the debt personally incurred by 77% of American households, which is on average to the tune of about $65,000.” - Breakpoint

Every Fundamentalist needs to read Chris Anderson’s new book The Scandal of Schism. The book charts the currents that are pulling younger Fundamentalists away from a strict separatist position. We ignore Anderson’s work to our own peril. His words must either be refuted from the Bible or acknowledged to be biblical.

In his characteristically self-assured fashion, Michael Barrett (Anderson’s lifelong mentor and former professor at Bob Jones University) sets the tone for the book in his endorsement,

“How do we square Jesus’s command to ‘love our enemies’ with David saying ‘I hate … my enemies’? Four realities from Psalm 139 help us see that Jesus and David aren’t in conflict” - TGC

“Christians around the world are being attacked and killed, forced to flee and driven underground, the annual report finds.” - RNS

“Hegseth is interesting because he is the first potential cabinet secretary in almost a century to wed unambiguously Protestant Christianity with his understanding of warmaking.” - Providence

“The ERLC will press forward on the issues that matter to Southern Baptists: protecting life, safeguarding religious liberty, bolstering marriage and families, and upholding human dignity.” - Baptist Press

In the previous installment, we considered the origin and nature of Replacement Theology, which involves understanding the church to be the new Israel or the spiritual Israel, or otherwise taking the concept of Israel (the people, the nation, or the land) in some non-literal sense when we encounter it within the text of Holy Scripture.

We briefly examined the development of this doctrine up to the time of the Reformation. This is where we will take up our historical journey in this article.

“…there was one key event that produced more significant conflict within the church early in my tenure that seemed to solidify a couple of key groups in their opposition to my ministry. It was a church discipline issue that presented itself six weeks after I arrived at the church.” - Church Answers

“In 1967, my mother was 10 years old. By that time, she had for about a year been taking a city bus alone, from her residential neighborhood to Philadelphia’s city center…. had also been babysitting her two younger siblings—alone in the house, not as a mother’s helper—from the age of seven.” - L&L

“Aggressive sex identity messaging may be in retreat in 2025.” - Breakpoint

“I think one of the most powerful and chilling portrayals of the insanity of rejecting God—which we do whenever in words or actions we proudly affirm our greatness and achievements—is Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4.” - Randy Alcorn

In my comments in a previous thread that I did not start, "On Bible Interpretation, Evidence, and Music," I provided evidence from Scripture that important doctrinal information concerning sound demonology is found in the details of some passages, especially narratives, that many believers likely have not profited from as they should have.

In this thread, I want to continue that specific discussion and focus on sound demonology both by treating further Acts 13:6-12 and by treating other passages that provide relevant information.

Pastor, at some point this year you will be providing background context for the NT passage which you are about to preach, guiding your flock in properly visualizing the world of Jesus and the apostles, so that your people might better connect with the passage and also apply the background framework in their own studies. What will you teach them concerning the origin of the Gospels?

My goal in this article is to encourage you to pause and reflect on what will be said concerning the publication date of Matthew’s Gospel.

Daniel B. Moore is the men’s ministry director at a small church in the Pacific Northwest. MA, Western Seminary. He is currently pursuing a ThM at Liberty University and is the author of A Trustworthy Gospel: Arguments for an Early Date for Matthew’s Gospel. He blogs at atrustworthygospel.com.

“Give me a church where men stand before their congregation and open up their Bibles and thunder, ‘Thus says the Lord.’ They aren’t harvesting social media followers or their brand…. these men and the churches they lead are content to be faithful and be forgotten.” - Richard Bargas

“Studies have shown participation in ongoing Bible studies bolsters worship attendance. The higher a church’s percentage of weekend worship attendees involved in a small group, Sunday School class or similar group, the greater likelihood of five-year worship attendance growth.” - Lifeway

“The board for The Line of Fire, the syndicated radio broadcast program headed by Brown, announced last week that they had chosen Firefly to oversee the investigation.” - C.Post

“This is not DEI, it’s just biblical wisdom. No decision regarding church leadership should be made solely on language or cultural background, but we would be foolish not to consider it relevant depending on the local church context.” - P&D

When Contextualization Becomes Compromise - TGC

“It happens, even among brothers and sisters in Christ. It happened to Jesus, and it happens to us. Friends sometimes turn on us, and the knife of betrayal slices us deeply.” - Chuck Lawless

“Time for a shout-out to Anabaptism, a Protestant wing of the church marking its 500^th year anniversary this January, 2025. The marker traces to the time in 1525 when Geoge Blaurock, a Catholic priest, was baptized (re-baptized, actually) by Conrad Grebel in the home of Felix Manz in Zurich, Switzerland.” - Juicy Ecumenism

“This can be disheartening, especially when you long to see your church filled with the vibrant energy that children bring. The good news is that this situation can change.” - Brian Cedarquist

“Hibbs went on to expound on what he sees as the failures of the Democratic leadership of California as it relates to the wildfires. He blamed the government of California, which he called the ‘wealthiest state,’ for causing California to be the most expensive of all 50 states.” - C.Leaders

Some more thoughtful perspectives…