Results 241 - 260 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# | |||
241 | Christianity requires work | James 2:23 | DocTrinsograce | 243400 | ||
The Apostle Paul writing directly to this subject told us: "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.' Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised." (Romans 4:1-12) |
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242 | Precious Treasure thou art Mine | Ps 119:56 | DocTrinsograce | 243396 | ||
Holy Bible, Book divine, Precious treasure, thou art mine: Mine to tell me whence I came; Mine to teach me what I am. Mine to chide me when I rove, Mine to show a Savior's love; Mine thou art to guide and guard; Mine to punish or reward. Mine to comfort in distress, Suffering in this wilderness; Mine to show by living faith, We can triumph over death. Mine to tell of joys to come, And the rebel sinner's doom: O thou holy book divine, Precious treasure thou art mine. --John Burton (1773-1822) |
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243 | Given All Things | John 3:35 | DocTrinsograce | 243395 | ||
"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!" --Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) |
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244 | His Loving Providential Kindness | Deut 33:3 | DocTrinsograce | 243394 | ||
"A glory gilds the sacred page, majestic like the sun: It gives a light to every age; It gives, but borrows none. "The hand that gave it still supplies the gracious light and heat; His truths upon the nations rise, they rise, but never set. "Let everlasting thanks be Thine, for such a bright display, As makes a world of darkness shine with beams of heavenly day. "My soul rejoices to pursue the steps of Him I love, Till glory break upon my view in brighter worlds above." William Cowper (1731-1800) |
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245 | Sin Flatters and Deceives | Ps 36:2 | DocTrinsograce | 243391 | ||
"Sin is a blasting presence, and every fine power shrinks and withers in the destructive heat. Every spiritual delicacy succumbs to its malignant touch... Sin impairs the sight, and works toward blindness. Sin benumbs the hearing and tends to make men deaf. Sin perverts the taste, causing men to confound the sweet with the bitter, and the bitter with the sweet. Sin hardens the touch, and eventually renders a man 'past feeling.' All these are Scriptural analogies, and their common significance appears to be this -- sin blocks and chokes the fine senses of the spirit; by sin we are desensitized, rendered imperceptive, and the range of our correspondence is diminished. Sin creates callosity. It hoofs the spirit, and so reduces the area of our exposure to pain." --John Henry Jowett (1863-1923) |
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246 | You Are not Telling the Truth | Jer 43:2 | DocTrinsograce | 243387 | ||
There is a wonderful little book by J. Gresham Machen who was diligent in fighting liberalism as it entered Christian circles. Now days we think that they are all in other failing denominations, while in reality, they are in the very midst of those who call themselves evangelic and fundamentalist. The key to understanding all of them and detecting their presence in your midst, is by the what they say and do. Read Machen's Biblical assessment of their perspective and see for yourself if it does not sound very oddly familiar: subordinating the Word with something or even twisting the words of Scripture with something else: http://www.reformed.org/books/chr_and_lib/ The old time liberals continue in our midst, with much fervor and false teaching. |
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247 | Martin Luther actually said | 2 Cor 11:4 | DocTrinsograce | 243386 | ||
Dear Edb, He applied the passage: "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did." (Acts 7:51) Thus holding the same position as did Paul -- who will also fail under such broad strokes of the brush -- regarding those who rejected the Word of God. He even had more animus for people who held to private revelations -- you can read about them as luther connected with the anabaptists and folks like Thomas Muntzer. How can any man love the Word and not hate those who intentionally and continually refuse its revelation? One of the more humorous quotes of Luther was when he said, "They have swallowed the Holy Ghost feathers and all!" So as with such hateful criticism of anyone slightly Reformed, I cannot but wonder what kind of spirit is at work? Certainly not the Holy Spirit. Such malevolence should prick ones conscience a la Romans 9:1 long before such language becomes a public post. Oh how I long to interact with men who are anointed by the Spirit -- the one who instructs in the Word. Their first and foremost evidence of this, would be a far greater charity than I have seen here; a charity arising out of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) without contrivance and without hypocrisy. By their fruit ye shall know them. All who look to the Scriptures alone will know what I mean, for the Word is a perfect mirror (James 1:23). Others will find self-justification easy to stir up from their own heart. In Him, Doc |
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248 | Kenoticism | Phil 2:7 | DocTrinsograce | 243385 | ||
"Finally, there is no trace in Paul of any doctrine of 'kenosis,' by which the higher nature of Christ might have been regarded as so relinquished while He was on earth that the words and deeds of the historic person would become matter of indifference. Such a representation is refuted not only by what has just been said about the application of the term 'Lord' to the historic Jesus, but also by the references of Paul to actual words and deeds of Jesus. These references are few; their scantiness may require explanation. But they are sufficient to show that Paul regarded the words of the historic Jesus as possessing absolute authority and His example as normative for the Christian life." --J. Gresham Machen (1921) |
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249 | Kenoticism | Phil 2:7 | DocTrinsograce | 243381 | ||
"Kenoticism, from the Greek kenÅsis, meaning (self-) ‘emptying’ (used in Phil. 2:6–7), refers to a number of related Christological theories concerning the status of the divine in the incarnate Christ. While the term is found in a number of patristic writers and formed a key point of controversy between the Lutheran theological faculties of Tubingen and Giessen in the 17th century, kenoticism is usually associated with a group of German theologians in the mid-19th century: G. Thomassius (1802–75), F. H. R. von Frank (1827–94) and W. F. Gess (1819–91) and a group of British theologians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Charles Gore, H. R. Mackintosh, Frank Weston (1871–1924), P. T. Forsyth and O. C. Quick (1885–1944). "The German kenoticists took the idea of self-emptying beyond its usual bounds of voluntary self-restraint of the divine nature by the God-man (the position of the Giessen faculty). Instead they believed that the divine Logos limited itself in the act of incarnation. The actual theories varied. Thomassius separated the metaphysical attributes, omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience, from the moral attributes, love and holiness. The Logos gave up the former while retaining the latter. Other German kenoticists (Frank and Gess), however, took more radical positions, which stripped Jesus of any of the attributes of divinity and called into question the use of the term ‘incarnation’. "The British kenoticists had a more positive orientation. Although often accused of developing kenoticism simply as a means of accommodating the results of biblical criticism by admitting the possibility of human ignorance in Jesus, it would be more true to say that British kenoticists, under the impact of a more historical reading of the gospels, came to the conclusion that traditional Christologies did not do justice to Jesus’ human life. Thus, it was the gospel records of the human and limited consciousness of Jesus that the British kenoticists asserted over the strongly docetic dogmatic tradition. Among the individual kenoticists the actual manner in which the divine self-emptying was believed to have occurred varied, but in general the emphasis was on the gracious character of the divine condescension and not on the precise metaphysical explanation of the act. "The current status of kenoticism is difficult to assess. On the one hand, although kenoticism is not a popular way of expressing the nature of the incarnation among conservative Christians, it should be noted that many of the major themes of the British kenoticists have been incorporated into modern evangelical Christologies. The reality of Jesus’ temptations, his single (as opposed to double) consciousness, and the depth of pathos of the cry of dereliction from the cross are universally affirmed today. In the 19th century these were often considered part of the kenoticists’ heretical innovations. On the other hand, modern evangelicalism is justifiably sceptical of any metaphysical speculation concerning the process of incarnation and sees the use of kenotic language as almost always inviting such speculation." --Sinclair Ferguson |
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250 | family in heaven | Rev 21:4 | DocTrinsograce | 243380 | ||
Hi, Lionheart... Jonathan Edwards, in one of his famous sermons in 1741 said, "There will be something accomplished and brought to pass, that will be dreadful with a Witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful Vengeance on the poor Sinner; and the Wretch is actually suffering the infinite Weight and Power of His Indignation, then will God call upon the whole Universe to behold that awful Majesty, and mighty Power that is to be seen in it." For which he sites Isaiah 33:12-15, "The peoples will be burned to lime, Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire. You who are far away, hear what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might. Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning? He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil." We will be witness to God's loving kindness as well as His wrath. The former to the glory of His loving kindness and the latter to the glory of His righteous holiness. I do not fully understand, nor do I think that any of us can understand, but one thing is certain: God will be glorified in everything that He does. When we think about this now, there seems to be a great horror and grieving in our imagination concerning these things. We must remember, though, that we see darkly as in a mirror. When we are made like our Lord Jesus, we will see clearly, and be witnesses to God's glory. In Him, Doc |
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251 | Does the Cepher have Family Records? | Bible general | DocTrinsograce | 243372 | ||
Hi, Warri... When you get the version you are looking for, let us know what you think of it. We would be interested in your opinion -- well, most of us would! :-) In Him, Doc |
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252 | Teaching the Word of God | Acts 18:11 | DocTrinsograce | 243371 | ||
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a prolific theologian, preacher, and teacher. We have only half of his works translated into English; but those consist of 55 volumes! His work as a translator of Scripture -- providing the Word to the common man -- still ranks high in the esteem as a resource for Biblical translators. Almost 3,000 students attended his classes at Wittenberg. These were young men from all over Europe -- many of whom eventually were martyred for their faith. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was one such student. He was also prolific in his writing and teaching. He was burned alive in Rome's Campo de' Fiori, for espousing Reformed doctrines, and for expanding on the mathematician Copernicus' model of the universe. On reflection of his experience studying at Wittenberg he wrote the following: They came from all peoples and every land Where culture and Order were in demand; They came from Italy, France and Spain; The Poles, the Slaves, from Magyar's plain; The British, Scotch, and Portuguese, The Scandinavians from Nordic Seas, Yes, even from the Balkan state, From farthest Caucasus they congregate. From morn to eve, from noon to night, Welding the new day's circle tight. "I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, and engraving them on the hearts of youth. I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution in which men and women are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must be corrupt." --Martin Luther |
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253 | Founded on the Rock is Testable | Matt 7:25 | DocTrinsograce | 243367 | ||
"Scripture yields other principles for judging whether movements are God inspired or not—principles about God's work, will, and ways that the Apostles themselves apply in letters like Galatians, Colossians, 2 Peter, and 1 John to various supposedly superficial versions of the faith [fads and movements]. Two basic tests emerge: one credal and one moral: "The creedal test may be formulated from two passages, 1 John 4:2-3 and 1 Corinthians 12:3. The first passage says that any spirit—that is, evidently, anyone claiming to be Spirit inspired -- who fails to confess the Incarnation is not of God. The thrust of this fully appears only as we recall that for John the incarnation of God's Son led on to his sacrificial death for our sins (1:1-2:2, 3:16; 4:8-10), so that denying the former involved denying the latter, too. The second passage affirms that the Spirit of God leads no one to say 'cursed [anathema] be Jesus,' but leads men rather to call him Lord (kyrios), which otherwise they could never sincerely do (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). Both passages illustrate the truth that ... the Spirit's constant task is to make men discern and acknowledge the glory of Jesus Christ. So the credal test for all other professed Christians, is the degree of honor paid by confession, attitude, and action to the Son whom God the Father has made Lord. "The moral test is given by statements such as those of John, that he who truly knows and loves God will show it by keeping his commandments, avoiding all sin and loving his brethren in Christ (see 1 John 2:4; 3:9, 10, 17, 24; 4:7-13, 20-21; 5:1-3)." --J. I. Packer |
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254 | God Prepares His Own for the Best | 1 Sam 2:6 | DocTrinsograce | 243364 | ||
"Hence, when we ask anything of God and He begins to hear us, He so often goes counter to our petitions that we imagine He is more angry with us now than before we prayed, and that He intends not to grant us our requests at all. All this God does, because it is His way first to destroy and annihilate what is in us before He gives us His gifts; for so we read in I Samuel 2:6: 'The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.' Through this most gracious counsel He makes us fit for His gifts and works. Only then are we qualified for His works and counsels when our own plans have been demolished and our own works are destroyed and we have become purely passive in our relation to Him." --Martin Luther (1483-1546) |
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255 | Out of the Heart... It's Observable! | Ps 119:49 | DocTrinsograce | 243357 | ||
"The temple had a fire burning on the altar; take heed of strange fire. But keep the fire of zeal and devotion flaming upon the altar of your heart; do temple work and offer up the sacrifice of a broken heart. When the heart is a consecrated place, a holy of holies, then God will walk there. Many a man’s heart is a pest-house, a bedlam, being polluted with sin. This is to put swine into God’s temple! This is to let the devil come into God’s temple! David’s heart was a dedicated temple." --Thomas Watson (1620-1686) |
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256 | Disciplined Study of the Word | Prov 17:7 | DocTrinsograce | 243356 | ||
"Moreover, because the slothful mind is typically brought to its downfall gradually, when we fail to control our speech, we move on to more harsh words. Thus, at first, we are happy to speak of others kindly; afterwards, we begin to pick at the lives of those of whom we speak, and finally our tongues break into open slander against them." --Gregory the Great (540-604) |
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257 | A Prayer after Expositing Ephesians Two | Eph 2:21 | DocTrinsograce | 243352 | ||
"Grant, Almighty God, that as Thou buildest not at this day a temple among us of wood and stones, and as the fullness of Thy Godhead dwells in Thine only-begotten Son, and as He by His power fills the whole world, and dwells in the midst of us, and even in us, -- O grant, that we may not profane His sanctuary by our vices and sins, but so strive to consecrate ourselves to Thy service, that Thy name through His name may be continually glorified, until we shall at length be received into that eternal inheritance, where will appear to us openly, and face to face, that glory which we now see in the truth contained in Thy gospel. --Amen" --John Calvin (1509-1564) |
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258 | Confident Expectation in God's Promises | Col 1:11 | DocTrinsograce | 243349 | ||
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is to the effect that they whom God has regenerated and effectually called to a state of grace, can neither totally nor finally fall away from that state, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. ... The Canons of Dort, after calling attention to the many weaknesses and failures of the children of God, declare: 'But God, who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from His own people even in their grievous falls; nor suffers them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit; nor does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.' [V, Art. 6.] ... "In John 10:27-29 we read: 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.' Paul says in Romans 11:29: 'For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of.' This means that the grace of God revealed in His calling is never withdrawn, as though He repented of it. This is a general statement, though in the connection in which it is found it refers to the calling of Israel. The apostle comforts the believing Philippians with the words: 'Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ,' Philippians 1:6. In 2 Thessalonians 3:3 he says: 'But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one.' In 2 Tim. 1:12 he sounds a note of rejoicing: 'For I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.' And in 4:18 of the same Epistle he glories in the fact that the Lord will deliver him from every evil work and will save him unto His heavenly kingdom." --Louis Berkhof (1873-1957), from his Systematic Theology, chapter XI, section A |
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259 | Ears Covered So as Not to Hear | Job 36:12 | DocTrinsograce | 243348 | ||
Yes, history is not something everyone studies, let alone church history. The Enthusiasts were ones who marginalized God by refusing to learn from Him by His only self-revelation, the Bible... or even Christ the Word. What messes they caused! | ||||||
260 | The Honoring of the Sabbath | Rom 1:6 | DocTrinsograce | 243347 | ||
"Unique to the Kirk [church] at the time of the Reformation, however, was the insistence that no other days be credited with religious significance. In fact, when asked in 1566 to review the Second Helvetic Confession, a respected document penned by the Reformer Heinrich Bullinger, the Scots felt compelled to offer qualified appreciation of the text, calling attention to their disapproval of the confession's tolerance for the celebration of Christmas, Pentecost, and Easter, “feast days†with no warrant in Scripture. "The Kirk, to be sure, never entirely succeeded in discouraging Christmas festivities in Scotland, and rarely have churches or Christians elsewhere in the world embraced the Kirk's argument for the complete eradication of a Christian calendar, and thus the refusal to attribute religious significance to any day beyond Sunday. "Nevertheless, the Kirk's general privileging of a weekly rhythm for work and Sabbath rest over a liturgical calendar year orienting believers toward various seasons and days defined by Christ's earthly ministry has affected attitudes toward both worship and work throughout the world. Fewer holy days translates, not only linguistically but also socially and historically, into fewer holidays. What sociologists have called “the Protestant work ethicâ€â€”an orientation in historically Protestant countries toward good, honest, hard work—is arguably the fruit of not only a general emphasis in Reformation thought on the godliness of every vocation but also a peculiar insistence in Scotland that believers should pause every Sunday for worship and respite, and more or less work the rest of the time." --Aaron Denlinger (2016) |
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