Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial1 return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission. Jesus promised his followers “I will come again” (John 14:3). When he ascended to heaven, two angels said, “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).  Jesus is coming again.  We still await the fulfillment of that promise.  The Second Coming of Christ gives shape and definition to all of world history.  We can think of Christ’s return as a series of related events. Each event fulfills numerous prophecies of Scripture. Each event fulfills the long-developing purposes of God, and finalizes all the wonderful promises of God.  Like many important doctrines, reasonable, Bible-believing Christians disagree on certain details. While all believe that Jesus will come again, not all agree on the sequence or timing of end-time events. The reason for these disagreements can be found in the nature of biblical prophecy. Much of end-times prophecy overflows with imagery and metaphor. For example:  Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Revelation 4:2-5) Old Testament prophecies can be equally loaded with imagery: The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time. (Daniel 7:24, 25) I am by no means suggesting that these texts are impossible to correctly interpret. I am suggesting that they are tougher than most, and that reasonable, faithful Bible scholars can disagree, even after they have done the hard work of biblical interpretation. As long as we agree that Jesus is coming again, we might not agree on the details, and we might not agree on the exact sequence. But we can still love each other. We can still work together on the all-important mission of helping people find and follow God.  Here are some of the main events related to the second coming of Christ. As we go through them, we will mention where Christians might have differing interpretations. The Rapture There is a lot of discussion around the Rapture. There is significant debate on whether or not there even is a Rapture.  The Rapture is the event in which Jesus Christ returns, not to earth, but to the sky, to gather up believers from the earth, and to escort them back to heaven.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, emphasis added) In the Rapture, Jesus returns to “the clouds.

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Know What You Believe – 11 – The Second Coming (#064)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless, spiritual beings, known as angels; that one, “Lucifer, son of the morning”—the highest in rank—sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan; that a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” ~Dallas Theological Seminary There is more to this world than we can see with our eyes, view through telescopes, or explain through science and math. We are living in a profoundly spiritual universe—something most of the world takes for granted, but the Western world has often forgotten. It is as if a veil separates the material realm we can access through our five senses from a spiritual realm we can only discover through Scripture. Unless God reveals these things to us, we have no way of knowing about them. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18) The spiritual realm is alive with realities to stagger the imagination. God and the devil, angels and demons, heaven and hell, truth and deception—these things are as real as the ground on which we walk. There is a great deal of superstition around the spiritual realm. Folklore, visions, prophetic utterances, seers, and seances must never be used to learn about this realm. These sources are deceptive. They create confusion and fear. God’s Word is all we need, and God’s Word is all we should seek. The spiritual realm is greater than the material realm. The eternal truths of heaven undergird everything in our temporal experience. It is God who makes all things real. From God’s nature and character flow the laws that govern everything in space and time—everything science, philosophy, and math might ever discover comes from him. And [Jesus Christ] is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:17) One of the more startling revelations of Scripture is the existence of angels and demons. These are powerful spiritual beings, possessing intelligence and will. God’s Word tells us the struggles of our everyday lives involves them. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12) The principalities and powers refer to fallen spiritual beings. Let’s think through who these beings are and how this matters for our lives today. Angels God created angels. As we learned in Knowing God (Grace Pathway 3.1), God is omnipotent—infinite in power. Neither angels, nor demons, nor the devil are omnipotent. Their power doesn’t come close to God’s. Nor are they omniscient like He is. Angels are spiritual beings, meaning they do not occupy bodies made of matter, like ours. Because they are spiritual, they are normally invisible to us. However, the Bible records many times when they appeared to people in visible, and sometimes human, form.2 Though they are not omnipotent, they are still very powerful. Peter says “they are greater in power and might” than humans (2 Peter 2:11). It only took one angel to destroy an army of 185,000 Assyrians, only one angel to effect the judgment of God on Egypt, and only one angel to shut the mouths of hungry l...

Know What You Believe – 10 – Angels & Demons (#063)

Veritas Online Seminary Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed. The Grace Pathway is God’s plan to lead you through all the stages of spiritual growth. The end result is that the incredible life of Christ would be reflected through you.  To achieve that end result, God brings you through a process called sanctification.  What is sanctification? Sanctification is the grace-filled work of God in unburying you from the avalanche of sin, and enabling you to live every day with the holiness, joy, and love of Christ flowing through you.  Sanctification is the grace-filled work of God in unburying you from the avalanche of sin, and enabling you to live every day with the holiness, joy, and love of Christ flowing through you. Sanctification is God, rewiring the circuits of your mind, instincts, and emotions so they align with his reality and truth.  Sanctification is God strengthening you to be like Christ.  Sanctification is God setting you free from addiction, dysfunction, self-absorption, and every form of bondage.  Sanctification is God lifting you to new levels of holiness in your words, thoughts, and actions.  You could say that to sanctify is to “saint-i-fy.” The words sanctify, saint, and holy are different forms of the same word in the biblical languages.  On the day you were saved, God named you a Saint. Saint means holy one. This is your true identity in Christ, no matter how you behave. From the moment of salvation onward, you are a holy one forever.  Hello, Saint ____ [insert your name here]. But, if a friend followed you around for a week, would they actually describe you as a holy one? Would they say you were pure and good in all your words, thoughts, and deeds?  Odds are low.  It is super important to understand that no matter how you behave, you are already a saint in God’s eyes.1 He sees the deepest truth about you, and the deepest truth is that there is no flaw in the truest, deepest you.  Just like salvation, there is a past tense, once for all, finality to your position of holiness before God.  However, your everyday practice might not reflect that reality.  This is where sanctification comes in.  In salvation, God calls you a saint—this is a fact about your life in Christ.  In sanctification, God begins to make you saintly—this is to become the fact of your lifestyle of Christ-in-you (Galatians 2:20).  In salvation, you believe Jesus as Savior.  In sanctification, you increasingly respond to Jesus as Lord.  Justification is instantaneous—it happened the nano-second you first believed in Jesus. Sanctification is a process—it happens over time as you grow along the Grace Pathway.  Justification is perfect—you can’t be more justified than you already are in Christ. Sanctification is imperfect—there is always more spiritual maturity for us to experience.  Justification is a birth. Sanctification is a lifetime of growth in grace (2 Peter 2:18,19).  Justification happens at salvation. Sanctification follows as your post-salvation Christian life journey.  The whole Grace Pathway is a kind of map to a sanctified life.  Conformed to Christ In biblical language, sanctification is you being “conformed to the image” o...

Know What You Believe – 9 – Sanctification (#062)

Veritas Online Seminary Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation. Jesus came to save. That was his main thing. Nobody understands Christianity without not only understanding salvation, but receiving it too.  Any group or denomination or church or preacher that does not communicate and prioritize salvation is missing the main reason Jesus came.  “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Salvation is non-negotiable. It is definitional of being a Christian. There is no such thing as a Christian who has not yet been saved! Salvation is a clear dividing line.  It is not optional.  Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7).  Peter said, “We must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  Paul said, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9). Christianity is not like a coat you pull on top of your clothes. It is a radical transformation of your status and being. You literally become “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In your relationship with God, there is nothing more important than salvation (Galatians 6:15).  Of all the big deals in your life, salvation is by far the biggest deal of all.  What Is Salvation? Salvation is the free gift of God, based on the sacrifice of Christ, by which God welcomes an undeserving  sinner, now called a saint, into his family forever through faith alone in Christ alone.  Salvation is the free gift of God, based on the sacrifice of Christ, by which God welcomes an undeserving  sinner, now called a saint, into his family forever through faith alone in Christ alone. 1. Salvation is Step One.  The Grace Pathway begins with “God Saves You.” That’s the first step. God cannot bless you, grow you, or use you until you are saved.  If life with God is a palace, then salvation is the threshold. It is an absolute dividing line. You have either stepped across the threshold or not. In or out.  Every person is either saved or not saved. There are no gray areas here.  This is not a matter of getting involved in a church or being a good person. It is completely about what you have done with Jesus Christ.  Who is Jesus to you?  Where is your hope for eternity?  Is Jesus part of your trust or is he all?  Are you saved?  2. Salvation is pure grace.  There is no part of salvation that we earn. No part that we deserve. No part that we merit. No part that we pay for. All the burden rests on God’s shoulders. All the cost is paid by him. Salvation is one hundred percent grace. The biggest mistake anyone can ever make is to add costs, conditions, and fine print to the wonderful gift of salvation.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9) A free gift is a free gift.  Our job is to guard the gospel from all sorts of legalistic (duty-based) additions.  It is a gigantic mistake to load people with duties and obligations they simply cannot bear. What a tragedy when church people turn the good news of an utterly free gift into the bad news of sweating for a paycheck! Jesus is no partial Savior. He doesn’t save us halfway, and demand we  meet him in the middle. No. Jesus did all the saving work, and when we say yes, God saves us once for all and forever.  3. Salvation is eternal.  Salvation was a gift conceived and designed in eternity past by our Triune God. The Father authored the plan, the Son implemented the plan,

Know What You Believe – 7 – Salvation (#060)

Veritas Online Seminary Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer. If Jesus is the hope of the world, then the Church is the dispenser of that hope. Since the church is made up of people, however, we dispense that hope imperfectly.  Many people criticize the church—in many cases, rightly so. But God loves the Church. To God, the church is beautiful, even with her imperfections. She is the Bride of Christ and the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:26,27 and 1 Corinthians 12:27). God is always working on his church that he might work through the church to summon a lost world to himself.  Jesus said,  And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) Peter, whose name means “little rock,” has just confessed that Jesus is the “Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (v. 17). This confession is the rock—the giant boulder—on which Jesus will build his church. What Is the Church? When we think of the Church, the first thing we have to do is separate the idea of the church from its buildings. The place and buildings do not make up the church. The people make up the church.  In fact, the New Testament word for church is ecclesia, which gives us words like ecclesiastical, and ecclesiology. Ecclesia means “called out.” Christians are people who have been called out from the world and into the family of God.  That is why we think of the church in two main ways: the Universal Church and the local church.  The Universal Church The Universal Church is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ, past, present, and future, living and dead, wherever they may be in creation. This is sometimes called the Invisible Church or simply the Church.  All people who confess Jesus Christ as their Savior are part of this one, holy, universal, and apostolic—meaning resting on the biblical teaching of the early apostles—church.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13) It’s incredible to think that we are one in spirit with believers on other continents, in other socio-economic groups, who speak other languages, and express their faith within other cultures, than our own. We are even one in spirit with those who have already gone to heaven! This is the marvelous diversity of the body of Christ. We are brothers and sisters with believers from every tongue and tribe and nation around the world and across the millennia.  The devil is afraid of the Universal Church. He resists it with all his might.  The Local Church The Local Church is made up of believers in Jesus who gather regularly to worship God, grow in grace, and be equipped to serve him in the world. Local churches are the churches that will gather in buildings on street corners and in homes and shops. There is a huge variety of expression from church to church.  There are literally thousands of denominations, which are basically families of local churches.  Sometimes, these denominations form because of differences in doctrine. Most of those differences are slight,

Know What You Believe – 8 – The Church (#061)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed. The story the Bible tells of humankind rings true to experience. This story is the exact opposite of the story being told by the spirit of the age, by the philosophies of the world, and by the presuppositions of non-objective science.  One story says humans are evolving. We are improving physiologically, intellectually. We are even improving morally. The human race is ascending. This is the spirit of evolution.  But the Bible’s story smashes that story in the face. Not evolution, but devolution. We are not stepping up. What we are today is a massive step down from what we once were.  Which story rings true to experience? Which story better explains the world? Your world? Does history show us being less brutal?  No.  Technology has improved, but we are the same brutes we’ve been since the Fall revealed in Genesis 3. Thank God for the redeeming grace of the Cross. Adam and Eve The original parents of our race were created by the hand of God. Adam and Eve were utterly perfect. They possessed the unlimited capacities of a perfect and true human nature. Having been created in God’s image, they were sacred to God in ways unlike any other being.  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7) They were real. They were ideal.  As humans, Adam and Eve possessed a body, soul, and spirit.  Their bodies were perfect.  No pains, no diseases, no process of death was at work in them. Whatever is the ideal age for a human, that’s how old they were. They were healthy, vibrant, and strong. They didn’t need glasses. They didn’t lose any hair. They didn’t need pain-killers. Their bodies were formed by the hand of God with utter and complete perfection. Physically, Adam and Eve could live indefinitely, without ever showing signs of age.  Their souls were perfect.  Consisting of mind, will, and emotions, their souls possessed astounding capacities. Their minds were completely awake, functional, and of mega-genius I.Q. Their wills were completely and utterly free, with no internal temptation to sin. Their emotions were pure joy and boundless love. No sadness, no depression, no neediness, and no dysfunction marred their inner worlds.  Their spirits were perfect.  The spirit is the part of a human that interfaces with God. God’s Spirit connects with our human spirit. Every day, Adam and Eve enjoyed the company of God in the Garden of Eden. He walked and talked with them “in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). There was nothing between them and God. Perfect in body, soul, and spirit. Dwelling in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. This is the profile of Adam and Eve before the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day called the Fall.  The Fall Everything changed the day Adam and Eve invited sin into the world.... To continue reading, please... Order the book here on Amazon.... 

Know What You Believe – 6 – Human Nature (#059)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. -The Nicene Creed As we study the basics of our faith along the Grace Pathway, it is important to make sure we are on solid footing. There can be no more solid footing than knowing that the universe and everything in it—including our lives—are the creation of God.  You can look at society as not only a clash of cultures, but also as clash of stories about who we are.  I grew up in two worlds—the world of church, and the world of the Chicago public school system.  In the world of church, I learned the story I was created in the image of God.  In the world of the public school system, I learned the story that I evolved from lower forms of life.  My church taught me I was body, soul, and spirit, with a spark of life lit by the breath of God. The universe was God-centered. It was created by him, and existed for his glory. I had an eternal soul and would live forever, either with or without God.  In my church, I learned all creation was infused with the presence of God, and every day of my life was supercharged with transcendent value.  My school told me a different story. I was a matter and energy molecular machine plus nothing. The universe was an accident, and had no purpose. I was an accident too, bound by time, and when my chemical machine wore out, I snuffed out like a candle, and that was it. There was nothing after death.  In my school, I learned that the space-time continuum was all there is, and every day of life was defined by the survival of the fittest.  The world of church lifted the veil of existence and showed me the face of a Creator God upholding and redeeming all things. It taught me a story in which I am the epitome of creation.  The world of school showed me a mechanical universe with no soul. I am the product of evolution.1 The message of creation resounds from Scripture with undeniable power and logic.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3) The whole creation tells of the majesty of God. It is a testament to his creative power and genius, a monument to his love. Whether the beauty of a flower, or the wonders of a baby’s hand, or the glories a vast cosmos, all-that-is testifies to an Infinite God whose mind imagined and whose hand created all things.  While Christians may hold a variety of viewpoints as to the precise dating and methodology by which God created all things and outfitted earth for our habitation, all Bible-believing Christians see the cosmos as sitting in the hand of the God who made it. “He’s got the whole wide world in his hands…”  The issue is bigger than creation alone. Your view on creation reveals something deeper about you. Will you submit your beliefs and life to the authority of God’s Word or not? Where will you find your truth?  If you find your truth in the Bible, you will discover the wonderful blessings of a universe created by God from nothing.  There are plenty of excellent apologetics-type books that demonstrate the truthfulness of the Genesis account. This is not a book on apologetics, so I will save some of that discussion for book 4.3 in the Grace Pathway. However, we can think together about three essential truths flowing out from the doctrine of God’s creation. 1 Some of this introductory material is adapted from one of my apologetics books, Illusions (Endurant Press, 2018, chapter 6). To continue reading, please...

Know What You Believe – 5 – Creation (#058)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service. As we have already seen, God is a Trinity. The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. In some older Bibles, you may sometimes read Holy Ghost, though Spirit is the preferred translation of the underlying Hebrew and Greek words.  The Holy Spirit is God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son.  He is not simply an impersonal force. He is not some kind of energy pervading the cosmos. He is not an “it.” Nor is he some kind of junior God.  The Holy Spirit is a fully divine person, with all the qualities of divine personhood.  • The Holy Spirit possesses the divine mind, able to teach God’s people: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26) • The Holy Spirit possesses the divine will, able to give spiritual gifts to God’s people according to his own will: “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11) • The Holy Spirit possesses divine emotions, able to be grieved and vexed in a uniquely divine way: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) Since the Holy Spirit possesses the divine mind, will, and emotions, he is far more than an impersonal force in the universe.  He is fully God. In fact, Scripture calls him the Lord. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17) It is the Spirit of God who inspired the writers of Scripture:  For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21) This is one reason why Scripture is called “the sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17).  The Spirit of God brings God’s truth to bear on your life, illuminating the gospel and causing you to be saved in the first place. This is why every inch of your Grace Pathway journey is by grace. Your power is never going to be enough for your salvation or life, so God swoops down with his own power in the person of the Spirit.  Here is a quick summary of how God the Holy Spirit works in the life of a believer in Jesus. We’ll break it down into the Spirit’s pre-salvation, at salvation, and post-salvation ministries.  To continue reading, please... Order the book here on Amazon.... 

Know What You Believe – 4- The Holy Spirit (#057)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. Everything in your faith rises and falls on Jesus. Who is he? What do you make of him? What do you do with his claims?  You probably wouldn’t have made it this far into the Grace Pathway without having believed in him as your Savior. That moment is like stepping through a doorway into a breathtaking palace. Having Jesus as your Savior first makes it possible to begin experiencing Jesus in all his other titles and roles too.  When we organize all the wonderful truths the Bible tells us about Jesus, we wind up with two main sub-topics: his Person and his Work.  The Person of Christ tells us who he is and what he is like.  The Work of Christ tells us what he did for us, focused mainly on his saving work in the Cross and Resurrection.  For example, in the doctrinal statement at the beginning of this chapter, there are three sentences. The first two sentences talks about the Person of Christ. The third sentence talks about the Work of Christ. Take a look. In a short chapter like this, we can only study a tiny tip of a gigantic iceberg about the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. The Bible affirms the immensity of his Person and Work:  And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. (John 21:25) But it has never been truer of a person to say that to know him is to love him. The more you learn about Jesus, the stronger your love for him will grow. And the stronger your love for him grows, the more you begin to think, believe, live, and choose a life that honors him.  * * * The Person of Christ: Fully Human / Fully Divine Just as the Trinity puts God in a class by himself, the Person of Christ puts Jesus in a class by himself too. Jesus is the only person who pre-existed his own birthday. Long before that first Christmas, long before Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, and the Virgin gave birth to a child, the Son of God enjoyed the glories of heaven, since the ages of eternity past.  The first, most important, non-negotiable truth to understand about Jesus is that he is fully human and fully divine. Jesus is the God-Man in ways utterly unlike any of the hybrids of ancient religion.  Jesus is fully God. He is co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is not a junior god, as we’ve already seen. Some verses that affirm the deity of Christ include: • In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) • Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58)  • Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) This is not the place to defend doctrine as much as to just lay it out, so I’ll not add the overwhelming Scriptural teaching that Jesus Christ is truly, fully, and eternally God Most High. At the same time… Jesus is fully Human. In his human nature, the only difference between Jesus and everybody else is the complete absence of sin from his life. Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life.  Other than that, he walked the road we all walk. He felt pain. He got tired. He was hungry and thirsty. Jesus wept over things that broke his heart. There were times when he said he didn’t know certain things.

Know What You Believe – 3- Jesus Christ (#056)

Today's podcast continues the series, Know What You Believe... In this series, we're looking at the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I hope you enjoy.  Please share GodStuff, and click "subscribe" so you never miss an episode! We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory. If God were small enough to be understood, he wouldn’t be big enough to be God.  We believe there is one and only one God. We also believe that our God is united within himself, so that he isn’t at all like a bunch of parts rattling around in a box. He is perfectly united and singular and one.  I’m saying all this, because the Trinity is hard to think about. But to grow along the Grace Pathway means we have to stretch our minds around ideas we might have never thought  about before.  There is one God, and one nature of God.  At the same time, our one God is three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  The essence of God—his nature and being—is always singular and one.  The Persons of God—his way of existing—is always plural and triune. The three persons of the Godhead are co-equal and co-eternal. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. Everything that God is and everything that God has belongs equally to each person of the Godhead forever. But there is no sense whatsoever in which God is divided, like three different people, or like a beast with three heads. He is One. He is Three.  Mind blown?  Good.  There is nothing in the truth of the Trinity that can possibly be of human origin. Not only are we unlike the Trinity, we find it extremely hard to even imagine such a divine being.  God is not like us.  God is not just a bigger, better version of a human being. Our Triune God is without peer and without parallel.   “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8, 9) This is super important.  All the gods of all other religions are essentially bigger, better, stronger projections of human nature. But not our God. There is no good comparison to the Trinity.  The people of God would have never in a million years come up with such a teaching. Unless God himself dropped it down from heaven through the inspired writers of Scripture, there would never be any idea of such a being. To say that the doctrine of the Trinity is hard in no way implies it is irrational. It simply means we are dealing with a transcendent person we can never fully wrap our minds around.  Although the word Trinity is not in the Bible, it doesn’t need to be. The teaching echoes across the ages of history and is found throughout the pages of Scripture.  The Scriptural Case for the Trinity Jesus teaches, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19).  Jesus did not say “names” but “name.” In his mind, though God is Three, God is One.  In chapter four, we will look at Scriptures that show that Jesus is God. In chapter five, we will look at Scriptures that show the Holy Spirit is God. This is simply to say that the writers of Scripture saw the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as equally divine, even as they carefully maintained that there is but one God.  Jesus sang exactly the same tune.  So did the early church leaders. Paul wrote:  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

Know What You Believe – 2- God / The Trinity (#055)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) If you’ve ever had a sweater with a loose thread, you’ve probably noticed something. Some threads are no problem. You pull on them till they lock up, then you snip them off.  No big deal.  But other loose threads aren’t so easy. If you pull on them, the whole sweater comes unravelled.  It’s the same way with basic teachings in the Bible. Some of them won’t cause huge issues if we don’t get them right. But there are other teachings in the Bible that are so important, if we get them wrong, the whole message of Christ comes unravelled.  In this book, I want to introduce you to those most important teachings of the Bible. I want to help you know what you believe, and why you believe it.  To do that, let’s nail down some terms.  Doctrine The word doctrine simply means teaching. Doctrine especially refers to biblical teachings that have a technical term attached to them, like the doctrine of justification, or the doctrine of propitiation. We met both of those doctrines in The Cross, book 3.2 in the Grace Pathway Series.  I love doctrine! Doctrine is God’s gift to us. It is a gift that makes truth clear, and organized, and consistent. Doctrine also lets us think deep thoughts about God, his world, and our lives. It is how we grow mature in our understanding, and in our whole lives. And it is how we organize the Bible’s teaching, topic by topic.  The more you know doctrine, and doctrinal terms, the more you can read any part of your Bible with confidence and understanding.  Cardinal Doctrines Another helpful term is the term cardinal. No, not the bird, and no, not the religious leaders of Catholicism.  Cardinal means “of chief importance.” Some doctrines are cardinal doctrines and some doctrines are not. The cardinal doctrines are the ones that unravel the whole sweater if you get them wrong.  In this book, I want to introduce you to the cardinal doctrines. Consider these the core of our faith.  They are the basics of everything we believe as Christians. The cardinal doctrines are the heart of the heart of what we believe and of who we are.  Everything we believe and everything we teach has to come from Scripture. More than that, it has to come from the clear and abundant teaching of Scripture. You can’t pick out obscure Bible verses and put together doctrines from them.  When God reveals his heart on a topic, he makes it super-clear. He weaves his most important truths throughout many places in Scripture. That way, we can’t miss his message.  Truth Fits With Truth One last thing before we get into the basics.... Order the book here on Amazon.... 

GS #54 Know What You Believe – 1- The Bible

Links mentioned in this episode: Anxiety Detox Webinar West Coast Christian Writers Masterclass VeritasSchool.life (Free Trial Class: 115 PROVIDENCE) Chapter 12: It's the Devil, Stupid Pardon the play on a famous political line—“It’s the economy, stupid”—but it’s important to know that all of the disturbing trends we have seen are not disconnected bits floating on a sea of chaos. They are, rather, gnarly outgrowths from a single malignant root.  It’s the devil, stupid.  The fact that the body of Christ has forgotten this, and scarcely references it with any theological accuracy, is my final disturbing trend in today’s church. It is the ground and being of every other disturbing trend too.  Chaos is irrationality’s excrement. And irrationality is the devil’s calling card. Sin is irrational. A coup against heaven is irrational. A wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing is irrational.  I am coming to realize that every time I scratch my head over something in the church or in the world and say, “That makes no sense whatsoever,” the devil is only inches away, hiding in the corner.  It is too kind to say that irrationality is just uninformed, or stupid, or senseless. Irrationality is evil. It is, in fact, the essence of evil.  It is the unreality of demonic lies battering themselves against the bedrock laws of our eternal God. The lies of Satan will burn themselves out trying to batter God’s people. Herein lies the chaos. The Church, grounded in Scriptural truth, will prevail—ultimately, in the long run.  The near term is another story.  More Cunning Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) When the Bible introduces us to Satan, the first description applied to him is “cunning.” Different translations say subtle, crafty, shrewd, and wise.  Of all the possible descriptors of the devil, this is the one that is most easily forgotten. This dark lord is cunning. He is crafty. He is wily.  But this is forgotten. It is forgotten by pastors. It is forgotten by Christians. It is forgotten by politicians. It is forgotten by the world. It is forgotten by virtually every person posting on social media.  The Head and Fount of all evil, and murder, and darkness, and deception in the world is, above all else, subtle.  Much later, in the New Testament, St. Paul would say the same thing: “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). What does this cunning prince of demons look like?  An angel of light. When humans encounter this master of treachery, they think they have encountered a messenger of beauty and truth. This verse is the conclusion of a longer argument. Paul writes, “And no wonder!” Why does he say this?  He says this because, in context, he is talking about his profound concern that his friends who knew the Lord would be seduced away from the simple gospel of the grace of God, and the clear teachings of the Word of God.  For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2) Every Christian is married to Christ, he says. By definition. The great miracle of the new birth immediately generates the closest union possible between the believer and Christ. The child of God is instantly purified, as a chaste virgin, and is made one with Christ.  The basis of that relationship is as secure as the triumph of the Crucified and Risen One.  But a believer’s experience of that relationship is always on shaky ground.  It is on shaky ground because there is a ceaseless attack by countless seducers every single day.  But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your  minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Ch...

CHAOS-CH 12 It’s the Devil, Stupid (053)

Links mentioned in this episode: Anxiety Detox Webinar West Coast Christian Writers Masterclass Reformation and Justification You could smell the sweat, the discomfort in the classroom. Pastors-in-training, some of them in the employ of my own church, sat in my classroom at a local Christian college. It was time for an exam. An oral exam. A bit of Socratic tough love for an easy A.  “Sam, tell me what justification means,” I said. My student blushed and looked around vainly for help. “Um… being made righteous?”  “Oh,” I said, “so after a person is justified, their lives are immediately righteous, and they start doing good things, right?”  “Um… no?”  “Tony, help Sam out,” I said, letting Sam off the hook. “After you’re saved you’re supposed to do good works,” he said.  “So, we teach salvation by works, is that what you mean?” I said.  “No, no. Um, it’s like, well, like…” These were Bible majors in a Christian college. Juniors and seniors. Most of this particular group had grown up in Christian homes, attending youth groups and church on a regular basis.  Yet none of them could articulate what is arguably the single most important doctrine in the salvation-package, the doctrine of justification by faith — the very doctrine that revolutionized the life and impact of Martin Luther. To be more specific, my students were unable to articulate the difference between being made righteous and being declared righteous, the very wedge that Luther would use to unintentionally split the church.  Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. ~Martin Luther Justification is the main hinge on which salvation turns. ~John Calvin Knowing the centrality of justification, I have made exploring this doctrine a huge part of most of my classes for aspiring ministers. It is a foundational doctrine. Just as cracks in a wall point to a shifting foundation, so chaos in the church points to a defective doctrine of justification.  Why?  Imagine being the proud owner of a vintage car. A friend suggests spending some time tinkering under the hood. A few days later, you’re checking fluids together, setting the points, adjusting the timing, and tuning things up. Your friend points to the carburetor and says, “Let’s yank that thing out.” You immediately object. “The car can’t run without a carburetor! Besides, that thing is bolted to the engine, and it connects with pretty much every other system under the hood. Friends don’t let friends mess with carburetors!” Friends don’t let friends mess with the doctrine of justification by faith either.  The doctrine of justification by faith is bolted tightly to the engine of Scripture. It interconnects with the doctrine of God, the doctrine of human nature, the doctrine of Christ, of salvation, of the church, and even of eschatology.  When they made justification by faith the paramount doctrine of the Reformation, Luther and Calvin identified the one doctrine that makes all the other doctrines go.   Unless we are crystal clear on this doctrine, we will muddy the waters of salvation, defame the character of God, fracture the stability of the church, and create a doctrinal vacuum that will suck in all sorts of error and chaos.  Catholics and Protestants Together What do evangelical heavyweights of yesteryear, such as Charles Colson, Pat Robertson, J.I. Packer, and Bill Bright have in common with Catholic theologians including Peter Kreeft and Cardinal John O’Connor of New York? They are all signatories of a 1994 ecumenical screed called “Evangelicals and Catholics Together”1 — which was then praised by the evangelical mother ship,

CHAOS-CH 13 Reformation and Justification (052)

Links mentioned in this episode: Anxiety Detox Webinar West Coast Christian Writers Masterclass Reformation and Scripture When Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Door, he threw the first punch in a doctrinal fight. It was not Luther’s objective to split the church. He only wanted to correct the ship’s doctrinal course, and to return the Church to her most fundamental truths such as justification by faith and the authority of Scripture.  This triggered an epic brawl scholars call the Protestant Reformation.  It is Protestant because it flowed out of Luther’s protest against the false teaching and excesses of the church.  It is a Reformation because it unburied important theological structures from an avalanche of ecclesiastical, political, and theological debris.  Reformation has to do mainly with theology and doctrine. The Protestant Reformation also happened to trigger a Revival, but let’s save that for the final chapters.  The first urgent requirement to deliver the church from her chaotic condition is a thoroughgoing theological Reformation. We stand in desperate need of a penitent return to the Bible and our first principles  Chief among these principles would be: a) the authority of Scripture, and b) justification by faith. Ironic, isn’t it. I would like to devote this chapter to the first principle and the next to the second.  The Authority of Scripture For Luther, the tug of war was between the Authority of Scripture vs. the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it.”1 Fighting words.  Today’s tug of war is different. On one side stands the Authority of Scripture. On the other stand all the forces that would topple Scripture from its epistemological throne. These would include empiricism, rationalism, irrationalism, nihilism, emotionalism, subjectivism, hedonism, pragmatism, and a diabolical host of other -isms.  These boil down to a ceaseless tug of war between two possible sources of ultimate truth. Source one: ME. Source two: NOT ME.  When we take our stand on the authority of Scripture, we are saying that the source of Ultimate Truth is found, not by looking within, but by looking to an external authority, i.e., the pages of Scripture.  When we take our stand on any other source, we are saying that we find truth by looking within and deciding what structure of reality best comports with our subjective opinion. This, in effect, makes us our own gods. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). That must have been a very weird time to be alive.  So it is today. It’s a very weird time to be alive. Post-modernism has made truth into a choose-your-own buffet. Look within for what resonates. Put that on your plate. Enjoy.  The first reformation must be epistemological.  Where do we get our truth? I know I am only echoing a thousand other voices, but for some reason the echo keeps fading.  How can we shout this to a church caught in a maelstrom of conflicting ideologies?  • In a culture built on Reason, the church could make the case for Scripture based on reason. Logic. Presuppositions. Apologetics.  • In a culture built on Emotion, the church might make its case based on emotion — that there has never been a more life-giving, emotionally healthy worldview than biblical Christianity. Jesus Christ and his message radiate a beauty and social goodness unparalleled in the annals of human thought.  • In a culture built on Empiricism, we might argue that the five senses had to come from somewhere, and that the whole house of science is built on a leap of faith that our observations are telling us the truth.  • In a culture built on Irrationality, we probably need a combination of joy, sarcasm, good stories, and pithy aphorisms, joined to a sacrificial love. A lot like Jesus.

CHAOS-CH 12 Reformation and Scripture (051)

In this episode of the podcast. Bill Giovannetti continues sharing new book, CHAOS:As Goes the Church, So Goes the World. Below you have a short snippet of each chapter... The Whole Bible for the Whole Church Andy Stanley is one of the most influential evangelical preachers in America today. In fact, a 2010 survey found him to be one of America’s top ten most influential preachers. I imagine he’s only grown in popularity since then. The son of Charles Stanley, his roots sink deeply into fundamentalist soil. So it created quite a stir when he told us all it was time to “unhitch our faith from the Old Testament” in his now infamous sermon, timed to coincide with the release of his 2019 book, Irresistible.  Think of what it means for a major evangelical leader to jettison three-quarters of the Bible.  The Bible! Michael J. Kruger’s analysis is exactly right: “According to Stanley, virtually everyone in the history of the church has been wrong about the role of the Old Testament—until now. It’s truly a jaw-dropping claim.”1 Kruger is the president of Reformed Theological Seminary’s Charlotte campus.  A “jaw-dropping claim” sums it up nicely. And the fact that not enough jaws have dropped to at least reconsider his evangelical credentials proves my thesis of theological chaos pandemic in the church. Someone might say, “You’re taking Andy Stanley out of context.” I’m not. He says, “The Ten Commandments have no authority over you. None. To be clear: Thou shalt not obey the Ten Commandments” (136). Again, Stanley’s defenders might say, “You’re not representing his position correctly.” But he declares, “Paul never leverages the old covenant as a basis for Christian behavior” (209). I read this and scratch my head, because, when I read Paul I find his whole argumentation a leveraging of Old Testament Scriptures to preach a Both Testaments faith:   Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10) I’d call that whole Pauline paragraph a leveraging of the old covenant for Christian behavior. Stanley’s assertions are flat out unbiblical.  Christians are already flaky enough with their Bibles. No Christian leader should ever utter a syllable that weakens our trust in and stance upon the sixty-six books of Scripture.  No Christian leader should ever utter a syllable that weakens our trust in and stance upon the sixty-six books of Scripture. Why does Andy Stanley go here? He says it is for the sake of evangelism. I’m all for evangelism, so…. fine. He suggests, in a nutshell, that the reason we Christians are losing the younger generation is the offensiveness of Old Testament stories and laws. Therefore, to make the gospel message “irresistible,” we must “unhitch our faith from the Old Testament.”  Not fine.  Welcome to a church ruled by people who are better leaders and more engaging speakers than they are expositors of Scripture. The Whole Bible for the Whole Church Stanley’s confusion is on full display when he writes, The fact that someone chose to publish the old covenant with the new covenant in a genuine leather binding doesn’t mean we should treat them or apply them the same way. The Bible is all God’s Word . . . to somebody. But it’s not all God’s word to everybody. Do not misunderstand what he is saying. He is arguing that the first 39 books of the Sacred canon should no longer be included within the genuine leather covers of our Bibles. In his words, they are not “God’s word” to us, the church, the people of God today.

CHAOS-CH 9 The Whole Bible for the Whole Church

Bill Giovannetti and guests talk about theology, grace, and everyday life.

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