The Greek word ekklesia means “called out,” and a survey of its New Testament uses shows it applied to the local congregation (in several senses), to the one universal church, and to the household assembly — but never to a denomination. Doctrine often turns on a…
Everything God has done — creation, redemption, Scripture, church, eternal life — is an act of love. God is love, and his every act must be interpreted in terms of that nature. Some themes are too large for words to do them justice. The outline says…
Among all the forms that sin takes, four are identified in Scripture with unusual consistency and severity: hypocrisy, slander, worldly pleasure, and selfishness. They are “cardinal” not because they are the only sins but because they are foundational patterns — forms of sin that shape the…
It is a strange thing that the simplest command in the New Testament has become the most disputed. Boles noticed it: no inspired man ever had to preach a whole sermon arguing for baptism, because it was told in a few plain words and obeyed on…
The Holy Spirit called Barnabas “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” and his life shows what such goodness looks like — generous with his possessions, glad at others’ blessing, and content to take second place for the cause of Christ. The…
Everything in Christianity hangs on faith — “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6) — yet faith is one of the most misunderstood words in religion. Some make it a leap in the dark; some make it mere opinion; some make it a…
Psalm 8 is a psalm of wonder: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Ps….
In this study of Galatians 6:14, Preacher Ed explores the profound paradox of the cross. Once a symbol of ultimate shame and humiliation, the cross is the sole ground of the Christian’s boast because it transforms death into life and sin into salvation. Discover why the cross declares that your life is not futile, your failures are not fatal, and your death is not final.
Because God is all-wise, all-powerful, and good, He gave a book that completely supplies man’s every spiritual need; Scripture is therefore sufficient, and the man of God equipped by it needs nothing added to it. A congregation rarely denies the Bible outright. It simply acts as…
The millennial theory is built on a single figurative text in the most symbolic book of the New Testament. Every other fundamental doctrine of the New Testament is taught repeatedly in plain language. The Millennium is not. Only speculative teaching can be given for it —…