Results 161 - 180 of 11018
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: DocTrinsograce Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
161 | God Provides Orthodoxy to His Own | Acts 13:26 | DocTrinsograce | 243644 | ||
"We believe if a person has confessed his sin and repented, if he has believed in Jesus as the Son of God who died for our sin on the cross and resurrected from death on the third day to pardon our sins, and if he has received the Holy Spirit that God has promised, then he is born again and saved. It is by grace and through faith that we are saved. By faith we are justified; by faith we receive the Holy Spirit, and by faith we become the sons of God. "We believe that God can keep His children completely in Jesus Christ, while the believers are obligated to hold on to their faith firmly till the end. "We believe that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is an evidence of salvation, and that the Spirit of God testifies with our spirits that we are children of God. "We are against the practice of taking any specific phenomenon or personal experiences as common criterions of salvation for all. "We are against any doctrine that teaches a saved person is allowed to freely sin under God’s grace. We are against the teaching of multi-salvation (that one can lose but then gain back his salvation many times); we are also against salvation by keeping the law." --Statement of Faith of Chinese House Churches (1998) |
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162 | No Vague Piety | 1 Pet 5:7 | DocTrinsograce | 243640 | ||
"The Christians of Asia Minor were being tested under difficult circumstances. They were being challenged and even harassed because of their Christian faith. We know that some of them were slaves and faced the temptation of disobeying unjust masters. It is not difficult for us to imagine how Christians were regarded by a surrounding culture that was largely pagan because that is the world in which you and I now live. We know that the Christians were misunderstood as being arrogant because they refused to go along with established Greco-Roman religious worship. They could not acknowledge Caesar (just now, Nero) as a deity. Their worship was misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misrepresented. ... We are entitled to think that the Lord, the Kyrios, the Yahweh, upon whom we are to cast our cares is he who became incarnate for us, who obeyed for us, who, as the God-Man, in his humanity suffered in our place, who was raised for us, and is now seated at the right hand. He is God. He is Son and our Mediator. "Thus, when Peter quotes Ps 55:22, calling us to cast our cares, our worries upon the Lord because he cares for us, this is not a vague piety but a specific reminder of the greatest of all of God’s concrete saving acts in history: the cross. Our God cannot abandon us because he has committed himself to us in his Son. As the Psalmist says, he will sustain us, because he saved us. He will not allow his righteous to be shaken." --R. Scott Clark (2016) |
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163 | Sola Scriptura in China | Deut 17:11 | DocTrinsograce | 243638 | ||
"We believe that all 66 books of the Bible are God-breathed. They were inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to the prophets and apostles who composed them. The Bible is complete and inerrant truth. It has the highest authority. Nobody is allowed to distort it in any way. "The Bible clearly states God’s purpose of redemption of mankind. The Bible is the highest standard of our Christian life and ministry. We are against any denials of the Bible; we are against any teaching or theories that regard the Bible as out of date, or as erroneous; we are also against the practice of believing only in selected sections of the Scripture. We want to emphasize that the Scriptures must be interpreted in light of their historical context and within the overall context of scriptural teachings. While interpreting the Bible, one must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the principle of interpreting the Scripture by the Scripture. The interpretation should be coherent and consistent, but not based on isolated verses. Biblical interpretation should take into account the orthodox faith that has been taken as the heritage of the church down through history. We are against interpretation of the Scripture merely according to one’s own will, or by subjective spiritualization." --Statement of Faith of Chinese House Churches (1998) |
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164 | The One True God | Matt 22:14 | DocTrinsograce | 243637 | ||
"We believe that God created the universe and all things, and He created man in His own image. God has all things in His own control and sustains all things. He is the Lord of human history. The almighty God is a righteous, holy, faithful and loving God. He is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. He manifests His sovereignty throughout human history. The Son and the Holy Spirit are eternal: the Son has the relationship of Son to the Father, but is not created; the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son." --Statement of Faith of Chinese House Churches (1998) |
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165 | Teaching and Being Taught | Deut 32:2 | DocTrinsograce | 243636 | ||
Hi, Ed... That reminded me of some lines from a movie years ago: A very angry woman sputtered bitterly at an attorney, "Why... you... you... you are nothing but a quack!" The lawyer replied, indignantly, "That is slanderous! A quack is doctor. I, madam, am a schyster!" Psychobabble is a pejorative for the use of terms in popular psychology. Check it out in Wikipedia as you often do. (Of course, the irony in using terms that have anything do with psuche [Greek for mind/reason, where we get words like psychology] or, come to that, babble... hehe.) Metaphysics deals with the nature of reality. It may be of secondary or tertiary importance to you, but God's self-revelation (Hebrews 1:1-2) has a great deal to do with those things that are real; i.e., the truth. Now this all may be of even less importance to you, it is a bit -- though, not much -- cerebral (i.e., the God-given capacity of thought). In theology proper we address the reality of the nature of God; in Christology we address the reality of the nature of the Son; in anthropology we address the reality of the nature of man; in hamartiology we address the reality of the nature of sin; etc. etc. All of these subjects can be placed under the umbrella of what is true. Thus, we received from Moses much about the nature of God's righteousness and man's unrighteousness (the Law); but grace and truth were received from Jesus Christ. That's what John 1:17 states (cf v1:14b; Micah 7:20; . Can you see the metaphysics there? Now Dr. Trueman was actually resisting any of the experientialism, emotionalism, spiritism, or pietism that have come to displace Scripture. He actually expressed his pedagogy -- sorry, that means just means teaching -- in a very Scriptural fashion (John 8:32; Titus 1:9). Dr. Trueman's book is very good; sorry for not interjecting brackets to make plain some of his language. Speaking of "seeker churches" (perhaps you meant seeker sensitive churches?), my church planting class in seminary was taught by Ed Stetzer (remotely). He used Rick Warren as a source -- you know, the guy who wrote "A Purpose Driven Life?" I'm with you! No thanks! In Him, Doc 1. This post is biblically based and whenever possible, I have included Bible references to support it. 2. This post is not intended as a personal attack on the authority of the Bible or on other users of this forum. 3. This post is not submitted as an effort to foster divisiveness, ill-will, dissension or other disruptions to this forum. 4. I have carefully proofread my post and believe it represents my best efforts. |
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166 | Abundance, Superabundance! | Rom 6:8 | DocTrinsograce | 243631 | ||
"It is not only that we are forgiven, but over and above being forgiven, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is put to our account, is put upon us... Unfallen Adam was righteous, but it was his own righteousness as a created being, it was the righteousness of a man. Adam never had the righteousness of Jesus Christ upon him. What he lost was his own righteousness. But you and I are not merely given back a human righteousness, the righteousness that Adam had before he fell -- we are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 'Much more' -- abundance, superabundance -- give full weight to it! We receive this abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness." --Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) |
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167 | SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH | 2 Tim 2:15 | DocTrinsograce | 243623 | ||
Hi, Robert... People who deny the doctrine of the parousia of Christ do so because of one root problem. Christ cited it when He said of the Sadducees that their error arose from not understanding the Scriptures, and not even the power of God (Matthew 22:29). Although they all share this common root problem, they span a wide spectrum of perspectives. On one hand, there are those who deny the divine origins of the Scripture. On the other hand, there are those who add something of greater authority. Ever since the Word incarnate, we have struggled with people who have a low view of the Bible. Goodness, it started even before that, with Satan's questioning what God had commanded our First Parents. It continued to be problematic for the children of Israel. Our Lord and apostles encountered it. The church down through the centuries have surfaced and dealt with a variety of heresies of the same sort of thing. Today, we see it all over the world. Of course we know from Paul's Roman epistle (chapter 1) that the root cause is not an inability to reason properly, or to accept what is true, or a failure to hear; the cause is a moral one. This is what Paul calls the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14). Another problem is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4); to say nothing of the world system (Colossians 2:20). I have yet to see anyone denying the Word as having any other causes than these three. If you wanted to you could read up on some of these people who have propounded a denial of the Second Coming... but it probably isn't worth the effort. It is hard enough finding those who teach, preach, walk, and live the Word, depending on its authority alone. So instead, just keep filling your mind with the Word, let it transform you. Ultimately, God will deal with the gadflies of this world. By the way, if you are asking a question of a specific forum member, mark it as a note. Over the years there is a convention to view the questions as being open to everyone to answer. In Him, Doc |
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168 | Teaching and Being Taught | Deut 32:2 | DocTrinsograce | 243620 | ||
"For me, this kind of teaching [via metaphysical conviction] is an act of rebellion in this present age -- an attempt in some small way to convey the idea that the world is given, not constructed, and that meaning is to be found, not created. A good teacher must always be driven by conviction -- that the world is and that it has meaning, and that it is so much bigger than any one person can ever apprehend. "Teaching -- true teaching, not the mere imparting of techniques or learning potential -- is perhaps the most delightful calling and privilege in the world. It has its challenges, but it brings incomparable joys. The second greatest joy I have as teacher is seeing that flash of light in a student's eyes when a previously unknown or misunderstood concept suddenly becomes clear because of something I have said. And the greatest joy (albeit a rarer one) is the one I experience when a student writes or says something that indicates they have gone far beyond that which I, as a teacher, have been able to teach them. When they become greater, I delight that I become less. For such is the proper order of things, if teaching is truly about truth and not about power or making disciples. Yet neither joy is possible where there is no truth to discover and where the world is simply whatever the loudest and most aggressive among us care to claim that it is. Good teaching is a matter of metaphysics." --Dr. Carl R. Trueman, from his book "Teaching As Joyful Rebellion" |
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169 | Earth's fate | Bible general | DocTrinsograce | 243619 | ||
Hi, Lionstrong... As is often the case, no single perspective fits every circumstance. Paul sets out a very good evidentialism in Romans 1; nevertheless, his preaching to the Greeks in Acts 17 is certainly presuppositional. Thanks again for recommending the books. In Him, Doc |
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170 | Earth's fate | Bible general | DocTrinsograce | 243616 | ||
Dear Lionstrong, Thank you for the book you recommended. I see it is available as an ebook. I may well purchase it. My eyesight is so poor, I have to get large print or ebooks in order to read. I am curious to know if you have looked into evidentialism versus presuppositionalism in apologetics? If so, do you lean one way or the other? I hope this isn't too far off topic. I am just curious. In Him, Doc |
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171 | Education encouraged of God? | 2 Tim 2:15 | DocTrinsograce | 243615 | ||
Good points, Ed... I think that this mischaracterization of some of the American denominations that sprung up in the last hundred years is unfair. For example, one of the best professors of proper exegetical principles is Dr. Gordon Fee, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Indeed, I was introduced to him in Biblical Hermeneutics at Covenant Theological Seminary. Christianity Today had a very pertinent article refuting this assumption concerning these denominations by Rick M. Nanez. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/marchweb-only/113-43.0.html An Pentecostal pastor who is a friend of mine pointed me to the article. It is seven pages long, but worth read. We do not want to paint whole denominations with the same brush as we do individuals, thus protecting the truth as our Lord commands. I also appreciate your concern about the use of those teachings. The abuse of a truth, of course, does not render it false. In Him, Doc |
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172 | Doctrine Gives Rise to Doxology | John 4:21 | DocTrinsograce | 243608 | ||
"You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:22-24) "Here indeed is pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law. And we ought to note this fact even more diligently: all men have a vague general veneration for God, but very few really reverence him; and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed." --John Calvin (1509-1564) "[O]ne of the greatest sayings ever uttered on earth -- that God is Spirit; that He is ever searching for true worshipers; and that He is indifferent to places and nationalities and method, that we cannot worship until we live in the spirit-realm and are willing to conform ourselves absolutely to truth -- these thoughts have revolutionized the religious thinking of mankind. They have not yet fulfilled their mission, but they bear witness to the unique supremacy of the Christ." --Fredrick Brotherton Meyer (1847-1929) |
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173 | No Understanding No Power of God | Matt 22:29 | DocTrinsograce | 243607 | ||
The old problem of not knowing the Scriptures, which leads to not knowing the power of God; it pervades every place where believers still try to hold a high view of the Word. "You will realize that doctrines are inventions of the human mind, as it tried to penetrate the mystery of God. You will realize that Scripture itself is the work of human minds, recording the example and teaching of Jesus. Thus it is not what you believe that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. It is not believing in Christ that matters; it is becoming like him." --Pelagius (354-420) The church recognized the heresy of Pelagianism, and sought to correct this among the churches in the Council of Orange (529): https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/ORANGE.HTM Nonetheless, it continued to be the pervasive view in the Eastern and Western Churches. Then it was picked up and embraced by the anti-intellectual and anti-historical and anti-biblical churches that came into being in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Now it remains the pervasive view of the non-reformed churches across the globe. Read and watch... the truth always surfaces (Isaiah 29:15; Luke 8:17). The Bereans left an example of searching to see what is true (Acts 17;11); contrariwise these others are cover their ears and eyes, unwilling to believe what they prefer, exemplifying those that Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 4:4. |
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174 | Is the Reformation Over? | 2 Cor 11:28 | DocTrinsograce | 243606 | ||
"For many Christians around the globe the Reformation may never have seemed quite as remote as it might seem today but never has it been more needed and relevant. At the moment the Reformation was inaugurated, the Scripture had been displaced by ecclesiastical authority, tradition, and subjective (mystical) experience. Fear of Christ as judge and devotion to saints and to the blessed virgin as intercessors had pushed Christ the Mediator to the margins of churchly and popular piety. The gospel message of free salvation by divine favor alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, had become obscured. In its desire to produce sanctification, the church turned grace into works. Ironically, despite the emphasis on the necessity of holiness for acceptance with God (justification), holiness in the church had reached a low-point. Church councils complained bitterly about the degree of impiety that scandalized the church but no one seemed to know what to do. "Of course, this litany of complaints might have come from any website covering the late-modern Christian world. These very same characteristics mark the Christianity of our age. The mainline churches have fallen into skepticism and mock those who still believe the historic Christian confessions. Rome still sells indulgences but health and wealth preachers sell favor with God in a way that would make Tetzel blush. Pastors and teachers report that we are apparently descending into a period of ignorance of Scripture. Public scandals rock evangelical Christianity. Impiety seems rampant. The gospel seems hard to find and confusion over basic Christian doctrines seems to reign. "There is hope. Christ is still Lord. Salvation is still free. The Bible is still God’s holy Word. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Christ’s church. There are places committed to the Scriptures as the sole, final, authoritative, true, and inerrant revelation of God’s holy law and gospel. There are places where men are still being educated to become faithful ministers of the Word and the sacraments. There are places where the Reformation banner is still cherished, where it is more than a historical relic in glass case. The Reformation is not over." --Dr. R. Scott Clark (September 8, 2016) |
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175 | No Such Thing as an Historic Arminian | Gal 4:25 | DocTrinsograce | 243605 | ||
"But in his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of any by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really good, but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and renewed in his intellect, affections or will, and in all his powers, by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, that he may be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, consider, will, and perform whatever is truly good. When he is made a partaker of this regeneration or renovation, I consider that, since he is delivered from sin, he is capable of thinking, willing, and doing that which is good, but yet not without the continued aids of Divine Grace." --James Arminius (1516-1609) |
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176 | The Lens the World Uses | Amos 5:10 | DocTrinsograce | 243602 | ||
"Truth as a proposition is found to be offensive by what it implies. That is, if the proposition is correct I must be wrong, ergo you are judging me. Or, if we are passionate about the truth the response is normally, ‘why are you so loud or emotional. I am offended.’ Instead of asking, ‘what is it that drives you so.’ Even in our own church your banner statement, Recovering the reformed confession by Recovering reformed theology, piety, and practice offends some because it implies they need reforming. The common thread is a pervasive self centeredness that becomes the lens by which truth is viewed and ultimately rejected because the discomfort it causes takes focus off self and requires a submission to some reference point other than self." --Rev. Tom Schnable | ||||||
177 | Early Christians charged as "Atheists" | 1 Cor 10:19 | DocTrinsograce | 243598 | ||
"Why, then, should this be [Christians charged with being atheists]? In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold these atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself. And when Socrates endeavoured, by true reason and examination, to bring these things to light, and deliver men from the demons, then the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in iniquity, compassed his death, as an atheist and a profane person, on the charge that 'he was introducing new divinities;' and in our case they display a similar activity. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ; and in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue. "Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught." --Justin Martyr (c. 100 AD - c. 165 AD) from his Second Apology |
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178 | A work of God's Free Grace | John 17:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243597 | ||
Hi, Ed... You have asked about James a number of times, mostly en toto. Here is a discussion that you might find interesting: https://www.whitehorseinn.org/show/paul-james-on-justification/ The discussion is summarized with: "Paul in Romans 4 says that 'the one who does not work but trusts in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.' Yet we also read in James 2:24 that 'a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.' Do Paul and James contradict each other in the matter of justification? How are these two passages to be reconciled? That’s the focus of this edition of White Horse Inn." It includes Dr. Robert Godfrey (United Reformed Church), Dr. Whitney Gamble (Reformed Presbyterian), Dr. Justin Holcomb (an Episcopal priest), and Dr. Michael Horton (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). All of them are professors at various seminaries. They are also, with the sole exception of Dr. Gamble, ordained ministers. I know you don't much care for educated people or what they have to say, think, do, or believe. Nonetheless, their discussion will give you a far superior answer to your question than I could have done. In Him, Doc |
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179 | Doing all for the gospel... | 1 Cor 9:23 | DocTrinsograce | 243591 | ||
"Someone asked, 'Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved?' It is more a question with me whether we -- who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not -- can be saved." --Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) "To know the will of God we need an open Bible and an open map." --William Carey (1761-1834) "Some missionaries go to Africa—others travel to the Orient or to Europe. Every missionary goes somewhere. We all have a mission field, if only our own neighborhood or office building. Every corner of the world is a mission field. There are no boundaries in this world beyond which Christian witness is out of bounds." --R. C. Sproul (2011) |
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180 | The wise of heart will receive.. | Prov 10:8 | DocTrinsograce | 243590 | ||
The wise in heart [are willing to learn so they] will accept and obey commands (instruction), But the babbling fool [who is arrogant and thinks himself wise] will come to ruin. (Proverbs 10:8 AMP) Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12) "Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read." --Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) "Anyone who looks down on language, ought to simply stop using it." --Anonymous (2014) |
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