You can reject Christ

Paul tells Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:8). Specifically, Timothy is told to remember the resurrection of Christ and the Messianic fulfillment of Christ. In keeping with that command, this week is the great remembrance of Christ and His work. There is nothing that Jesus did or does that surpasses what was accomplished […]

Amazed by unbelief

It is not for lack of evidence that belief that people don’t believe in Christ. They do not believe in spite of the evidence that they are given. As one writer has noted, “What a man does not want to believe, he can find a way to deny.” Unbelief has always been a common response […]

Only God

We like stories. Sometimes they are dramatic, sometimes inspiring, sometimes perplexing, sometimes amusing, and almost always entertaining. But we don’t just tell stories to entertain each other. Our stories have purpose; they are designed ultimately to illustrate a truth and instruct the mind and conscience. The writers of Scripture used stories in the same way […]

An implication of loving darkness

Jesus said, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19-20). To which […]

How can you identify an unbeliever?

Last Sunday we examined Ephesians 2:1-3, where Paul’s reminder to the Ephesian readers is of all that they were prior to Christ — dead in sin — and how their depravity left them unable to please God in any way. The passage is also a means to identifying unbelievers. How can one determine if one […]

The Decline of Evangelicalism

Yesterday, Christine Wicker wrote an interesting piece published in the Dallas Morning News entitled, “The Great Evangelical Decline. The basic theme of the piece is that evangelicals are not as prominent in America as published reports indicated (i.e., there aren’t really as many believers in America as most people suppose). That’s something I’ve been suggesting […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/23/07)

It is well-known and well-recited that the theme of the gospel of John is belief. The word occurs 98 times in the gospel, always as a verb, and more than 50% of the time as a present tense verb, indicating that genuine, saving faith is not a one-time act only, but an ongoing, continual act […]