July 2, 2009

By Faith Abel Offered a Better Sacrifice Than Cain

Cain and Abel

Hebrews 11 contains many examples of faith. The first individual mentioned is Abel. His faith was demonstrated through the sacrifice he offered to God.

“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).

In Genesis 4, we read of the sacrifices of these two brothers.

“So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:3-5).

Why did God accept Abel’s offering but not Cain’s? We are not told in Genesis, but we were told in Hebrews 11:4. Abel’s offering was accepted because it was offered “by faith.”
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July 1, 2009

Making the Most of Your Time

Pocket Watch

Each one of us is busy with obligations and responsibilities that have been placed upon us and that we have taken upon ourselves. Our lives can be hectic and we sometimes wonder how we will ever have time to do what we need to do. This is just as much of a challenge for Christians as it is for anyone else.

Paul provided some instructions about time management that would be good for us to heed:

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

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June 28, 2009

Plain Bible Teaching Relaunch

Welcome to the new and improved Plain Bible Teaching website. If you were wondering why the blog fell silent, this is the reason. I took a couple weeks off from writing articles so I could rebuild the site. I still have some minor changes to make here and there. But I was close enough to being finished that I could go live with the new version.

So what’s new with the site?

If you visited the site before, then you probably first noticed that the layout is different. Previously the main site and the blog had two different layouts. Now they’re the same and hopefully an improvement visually.

The biggest change is that this site is now just a blog. I have combined the main site and the blog into one. This means that I will no longer be operating Plain Bible Teaching as a monthly publication. I still plan on posting about the same amount of content as I was before between the main site and the blog. But now all articles will be posted to the blog and will be posted when they are ready. So if I have an article done, I won’t hold it until the first of the month. I also won’t have to rush to meet a first of the month deadline. Overall, this should make things easier on me and hopefully will result in better content.

All of the articles that were on the old site and blog have been moved over, with the exception of the study section devoted to the topic of human organizations engaging in spiritual works. That material has been moved over to one of my other sites – Truth Magazine Lectures. Since I have switched everything over, each article’s URL is different. So if you had a particular article bookmarked, you’ll have to update the link. You can use the search box in the right column to find it again.

I will be making some more changes along the way. I plan on adding some way to browse for articles by tags. Sometimes the search box is the best way to find something. Sometimes browsing by tags works better. So I’m planning on adding something along those lines soon. There are also a few design tweaks that need to be made.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that to receive updates when there is new content on the site. You can either subscribe to the RSS feed or by email, whichever you prefer. I plan to start adding content again on July 1st. To help kick off the newly relaunched site, I’m planning on doing 7 posts in 7 days – one new post each day for a week starting July 1st. After that, I’m hoping to have new content posted about 2-3 times a week. If you subscribe, you’ll have the new content automatically sent to you.

So that’s what’s new. I hope you like the new site and find it useful. I’d be happy to hear any comments or suggestions you have.

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June 10, 2009

“Let the Women Keep Silent in the Churches”

Bible Reading

[This article was written by Tim Haile.]

For centuries, questions and controversies have existed among religious people over the role of women in the work and worship of the local church. Two extreme positions have arisen:

  1. Some have concluded that the Bible authorizes women to preach and hold positions of authority within the local church. I am regularly asked what I believe about “women preachers.” History reveals that the women-preacher movement is closely connected to the overall and more secular women’s liberation movement.
  2. To the opposite extreme, some have concluded that the Bible doesn’t authorize women to speak at all in church assemblies, even going so far as to prohibit women from participating in singing.

These extreme positions result from people either completely rejecting the plain commands of Scripture, or from a failure to consider their context.
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June 3, 2009

The Three Things Jesus Accomplished in His Death

Cross

Toward the end of a lengthy discussion of Jesus’ work as our high priest, the Hebrew writer provided a summary in his explanation of Psalm 40:6-8. In this explanation, he spoke of the three things Jesus came to the earth to accomplish.
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June 1, 2009

Is the Church of Christ a Denomination?

Church of Christ

This question will come up from time to time as we interact with those around us. To many, churches of Christ (labeled by some as “Church of Christ”) are just one denomination among many. This perception can lead them to view the members of churches of Christ as hypocrites – condemning denominationalism while (allegedly) being part of one.

Is the church of Christ a denomination? It is a fair question. Depending on what one has in mind, there could be various answers given – yes, no, maybe, not yet, etc. So let us consider the question about the church and denominationalism.
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June 1, 2009

Quibbles About Baptism

Quibbles About Baptism

One of the major distinctions between brethren and the religious world relates to how we understand baptism. We teach that baptism is necessary for salvation (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21), is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16), and is our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom (Acts 2:41, 47; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Many others teach that baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace (that we are saved before and without baptism) and that it is for membership in a local church or denominational body.

Of course, there are no passages in the New Testament that teach baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace or that we are baptized to gain membership into a local church (and certainly not into a denomination since the New Testament does not speak about them at all). Instead of trying to twist passages in order to provide positive support for these ideas, denominationalists will generally will try to make arguments against the necessity of baptism. They quibble about various passages to try to attack the truth about baptism. Let us notice some passages that people try to use in arguing that baptism is not essential for salvation.
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