“Do they not blaspheme the honorable name by which you have been called?” (James 2:7). The name by which the church has been called is the name of Christ. The names the New Testament gives to those who bear that name — disciples, servants, soldiers, saints…
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…
The church was in the eternal purpose of God and the mind of Christ from the beginning; it is the true Israel, the saved remnant, the “little flock” that receives the kingdom — so that there is no Christianity without the church. People speak today of…
Throughout Scripture the faithful have been the few, not the many — the narrow gate is found by few, and only a remnant has ever held true — so the disciple must have the strength to stand in the minority and be faithful when most are…
Sanctification means to set apart — to consecrate something or someone for God’s specific use or service. The word carries no inherent reference to moral sinlessness; it refers to the status of belonging to God, of being separated from common use for sacred use. In the…
The Bible is a divine-human book: human language carrying divine content, the will of God expressed through the words of human writers who were divinely guided in speaking only the truth. The inspiration of Scripture did not make truth truer; it ensured that what was recorded…
God has a purpose in all that he does. The first advent was purposeful: the prophets expressed it, Christ stated it, and he accomplished it completely — “It is finished” (John 19:30). The second advent is equally purposeful: not to establish a kingdom (already established), not…
The church is by its very nature a missionary institution: its God-given mission is to uphold and spread the truth of salvation and to seek and save the lost — the same mission as Christ’s — and every member shares it. A congregation that forgets why…
Pardon is not a vague benefit distributed in unspecified ways; it is a specific restoration to a specific condition, given through specific means authorized by the specific person who has the right to grant it. There are two laws of pardon: one for the alien sinner…
Three theories of inspiration have been proposed that do not adequately explain all the facts of the Bible. The mechanical theory fails to account for the genuine human diversity in the biblical text. The natural inspiration theory fails to account for the divine content that exceeds…