References: (1) My question to you is: Are all these things concerning Jesus important to you? Has it changed ANYTHING about you? If not, I think you are FOOLING YOURSELF when you claim you are Christian. Let me emphasize it again: no CHANGE, no SALVATION. (2) “Romans Atonement and Justification” by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. This is episode 177.
References: (1) The Bible teaches that God Himself has provided the ONLY means through which His WRATH against sin can be appeased and sinful man can be RECONCILED to Him. In the New Testament, the act of PROPITIATION always refers to the WORK of GOD and NOT to the GIFTS and SACRIFICES offered by MAN. (2) There is NO SERVICE, NO WORK OF CHARITY, NO SACRIFICE, NO GIFT, NO VOW that man can OFFER that will appease the holy WRATH of God or satisfy His perfect JUSTICE. The only satisfaction, or PROPI...
References: (1) “Knowing God” by J. I. Packer. (2) There is a pagan idea and a biblical idea of propitiation. (3) The words “propitiate” or “propitiation” in the Bible are NEVER USED of any act whereby man BRINGS God into a favorable attitude or gracious disposition. (4) Vine’s Expository Dictionary says: “Through the ‘propitiatory’ sacrifice of Christ, he who believes upon Christ is by God’s own act DELIVERED from justly deserved...
References: (1) Dorothy Sayers has said that God underwent 3 great HUMILIATIONS in His effort to rescue the human race. The first was the Incarnation, when He took on the confines of a physical body. The second was the Cross when He suffered the ignominy of public execution. The third humiliation, Sayers suggested, is the church. In an awesome act of SELF-DENIAL, God entrusted His REPUTATION to ordinary people like you and me. (2) “Vine’s Topical Commentary on Christ” by W. E. ...
This is episode 173.
References: (1) “25 Basic Bible Studies” by Francis Schaeffer. (2) The ABC’s of salvation is that you must ADMIT you are a sinner; BELIEVE that Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to save you, and that God raised Jesus from the dead, and CONFESS Jesus as your Lord meaning He is enough to guide you throughout your life. (3) “Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli. This is episode 172....
References: (1) In the book “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist” by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek lists10 non-biblical writers all who record facts of Jesus’ life. (2) Bart Ehrman. (3) “The Verdict of History” by Gary Habermas. (4) Norman Geisler, of whom I have immense respect, says that this book “The Verdict of History” “takes the skeptics claims and buries them forever under the sands of IGNORANCE and IRRATIONALITY.” (5) &l...
References: (1)”Evidence and Truth” by Robert J. Morgan. (2) There are 2 books entitled “The Incomparable Christ”: one by J. Oswald Sanders, the general director of Overseas Missionary Fellowship in the 1950s, and one by John Stott, the pastor of All Souls Church in London, England. (3) Rather than attempt to summarize these books, I chose to report salient comments from an article by John Stott published by the C.S. Lewis Institute. (4) Stott refers to Liberation Theolog...
References: (1) A. T. Pierson observed that Jesus taught the Scriptures as if He were its AUTHOR rather than its COMMENTATOR. (2) In 1 John 5:11-13 the apostle writes: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” This is not an “iffy” thing. It is an ASSURED thing. You can’t KNOW SOMETHING if you add in your mind the wo...
References: (1) “Introducing Christian Doctrine” by Millard Erickson. (2) Jesus’ answer to the high priest is as CLEAR an INDICATION of Jesus’ deity as can be found in the Gospels. (3) Not only did Jesus not DISPUTE the charge that He claimed to be divine, but He also accepted the attribution of deity given to Him by His disciples. (4) Here was an excellent opportunity for Jesus to correct a misconception, but He did not do so. That means He agreed that attribution was no...
References: (1) “What the Qur’an Really Teaches about Jesus” by James K. Walker. (2) The gospel of John begins with the first 18 verses of chapter 1 that sets forth the theme of the entire gospel. (3) There is one significant event where the title Son of Man resulted in Jesus being condemned to death. In Mark 14:61-64, Jesus is on TRIAL for His life before the Sanhedrin. (4) Some skeptics mistakenly assume that the “Son of Man” designation is simply a claim of being...
References: (1) 1 Cor. 15 is a key chapter in the Bible on the resurrection. Verses 3-8 give the 4 basic points for the proclamation of the gospel: (1) Christ died for our SINS. (2) He was BURIED PROVING that He was dead. (3) He rose from the dead. (4) And He APPEARED ALIVE to many eyewitnesses PROVING He did rise from the dead. (2) In the book Handbook of Christian Apologetics Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli quote Rudolf Bultmann, the father of demythologizing, saying “if the bones of ...
References: (1) William Lane Craig’s ARGUMENT FOR the historicity of the resurrection. (2) In 1 Cor. 15:3-8 the apostle Paul provides a list of EYEWITNESSES of the resurrection. (3) I call attention to the writings of Paul regarding the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians is generally considered to be the earliest epistle of Paul. It was written in the year 50-51 AD. It relates that Jesus Christ was killed (2:15; 4:14); and was raised from the dead (4:14). It also attributes to Jesus the functio...
References: (1) Nothing like the resurrection is claimed by any other founder of a religion, and no miracle has as much historical evidence to confirm it. (2) Dan. 9:25-27 tells us much about the time when the Messiah will be “cut off.” I think that refers to His death. (3) The meaning of “weeks” can refer to any period of 7. It is generally accepted that it should be interpreted as 7 years. So the period of 69 weeks is therefore taken as 483 years. A year in Jewish recko...
References: (1) According to the Qur’an, the holy book for Islam, “they SLEW Him NOT nor CRUCIFIED Him, but it APPEARED so unto them.” (2) Michael Baigent claims Mark uses the Greek word soma for body which he believes means a “living body,” and NOT a CORPSE. Furthermore, Baigent concludes “Jesus’ SURVIVAL is revealed right there in the Gospel account” of Mark’s gospel. (3) Michael Baigent is simply MISTAKEN regarding the word soma; it can re...
References: (1) Douglas Groothuis in his book “Christian Apologetics” states that Islam’s argument for abrogation is rooted in 5 major claims against Christianity. The claims are: first, the Bible has been distorted; second, Jesus was not crucified; third, Jesus is not divine; fourth, God is not triune; and fifth, Jesus was only a prophet of Islam. (2) Islam DENIES that Jesus is the Messiah, rendering Him a merely human prophet. As such it denies the Christian gospel, the ONLY ...
References: (1) In the 18th century, influenced by the Age of the Enlightenment, a number of scholars began questioning the reliability of the 4 Gospel accounts in the NT concerning Jesus’ life, deeds, and purposes. (2) FICTION 1. The gospel accounts in the NT regarding Jesus CANNOT BE TRUSTED because these records were written perhaps as LATE as the end of the second century or LATER. (3) “Cold-Case Christianity” by J. Warner Wallace. (4) “The Orthodox Corruption of Scri...
References: (1) In “The Worlds Great Religions,”Huston Smith says Jesus is the ONLY LEADER of a major world religion who claimed to be DIVINE. (2) We can say unequivocally, Jesus claimed to be God. (3) Contrary to the common notion that there are many roads to heaven, the book “Not All Roads Lead to Heaven” by Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, implies there is ONLY ONE ROAD to heaven. (4) The Irish historian William Lecky, author of 7 volumes on the his...
References: (1) Since the first century Jesus Christ has been the DOMINANT FIGURE in Western culture. But more than that Jesus is the CENTER of history. A large portion of the human race continues to divide history into BC and AD by reference to His birth. (2) “To Understand the Bible Look for Jesus” by Norman Geisler. (3) The DEITY of the person of Jesus is the foundation of Christianity. (4) Some key elements that point to the uniqueness of Jesus: First, Jesus is unique because bib...
References: (1) “Decision Making and the Will of God” by Garry Friesen with J. Robin Maxson. (2) The expression “the WILL of God” is used in the Bible in 4 different ways: God’s SOVEREIGN will, His REVEALED will, and under the heading of the revealed will I have affirmed that God has a will for INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS. The fourth is His MORAL WILL. (3) For the last several episodes I have listed 11 of these fundamental PARAMETERS for God’s OVERALL will for indivi...
References: (1) Wisdom in Scripture always means knowledge of the course of ACTION that will PLEASE God. (2) You may know already that the whole of the Bible gives the unfolding story of redemption. But another great theme of the Bible is the will of God. I intend to show that each testament portrays that theme throughout. (3) In the OT several groups of books are distinguishable partly by their SUBSTANCE, and partly by their LITERARY FORM. Those groups are (1) LAW, the five books from Genesis t...
References: (1) The 11th fundamental parameter: The Christian faith is OTHER-WORLDLY. (2) “God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1” by David Martin Lloyd-Jones. (3) “Ephesians: An Expository Commentary “ by James Boice Montgomery. (4) Review of 3 keys. This is episode 156.
References: (1) Although God’s plans and directions for each believer are not found in Scripture per se, the general foundational parameters/essential guidelines are there, and if we operate within those boundaries we can be confident we are operating in concert with what pleases Him. (2) God has His sovereign will and His revealed will. (3) Deut. 29:29 tells us that the “secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children fo...
References: (1) “Ephesians” by John MacArthur. (2) God’s will is for you to be SUBMISSIVE. (3) God’s will may include SUFFERING. (4) Believers in Christ will discover an UNCOMPROMISING TRUTH that the world DOESN’T WANT to hear, namely, that the NATURE of God to whom “each of us shall give an account of himself to God” [Rom. 14:12], the predicament of humankind as sinful [Rom. 3:23], Jesus as the only way to God [John 14:6], the only source for rest for y...
References: (1) I begin by addressing the foundational parameters, that is, essential GUIDELINES for every Christian to discern God’s will for an individual. (2) We know without a doubt that God DESIRES all people to be saved, but some are NOT SAVED. This fact is totally CONTRARY to the idea of UNIVERSALISM. (3) According to the Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest the verb “filled” is in the present imperative tense; hence the verse should be rendered: “be CONSTANTLY BEING filled...
References: (1) The Greek word [dokimazo] for “prove” signifies to APPROVE after a CAREFUL EXAMINATION, to arrange and execute a TEST, and to ACCEPT and HEED the results of a test. (2) To be able to discern the will of God rests on 2 FUNDAMENTAL FACTS: first, the REALITY that God has a PLAN for His children ; second, the ABILITY of God to COMMUNICATE that plan to us. (3) In their book “Decision Making and the Will of God” Garry Friesen with J. Robin Maxson list 3 differen...
References: (1) Paul is saying there must be a RADICAL CHANGE in the inner man for one to live rightly in this age. (2) The 1966 edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language. (3) A working definition of radical as it applies to human behavior: Radical describes an expression of “strict adherence to a worldview that is at EXTREME ODDS with the cultural NORM.” (4) Jesus would be considered radical because His message of love, forgiveness, and mercy was at DIRECT ODDS ...
References: (1) We conclude Christians need to be GUIDED and DIRECTED by a compelling desire to DO the will of God. I would say that this is the most FOUNDATIONAL and ESSENTIAL PURSUIT in Christian living — doing the will of God. (2) Erroneous concepts regarding the will of God. (A) People l say that they were SEARCHING FOR and trying to FIND the will of God. That may indicate that they think that God has placed His will in some OBSCURE PLACE to HIDE His will from them. (B) Some people thi...
References: References: (1) The followers of Jesus were generally spoken of in those days as “the Way.” (2) Saul of Tarsus was accosted by the resurrected Jesus. (3) This is the SUPREME QUESTION each follower of Christ must confront and answer: Am I really operating in the will of God? (4) The 1995 book “Finding the Will of God” written by Bruce Waltke, professor emeritus of biblical studies at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. (5) His book has the subtitle &ld...
References: (1) Voddie Baucham says every person who has ever lived or will ever live are dealing with what he narrows down to the 4 questions: 1) Who am I? That goes to the nature of man and points to our origins. 2) Why am I here? Or what is the meaning of life? 3) What is wrong with the world? It obvious to practically everyone that there is something dramatically wrong with the world. 4) How can whatever is wrong be made right? (2) These 4 questions can be used to evaluate worldviews. (3) Fi...
