June 1, 2007

The Bible

Bible Reading

The Bible is the best selling book of all time. In reality, it is a collection of books. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament containing law, history, poetry, and prophecy. The twenty-seven books in the New Testament include the four gospels that record the life of Christ, the book of Acts which is a history of the early church and the spread of the gospel, and letters to churches and individual Christians. It tells of God’s great scheme of redemption to save man from his sins. Is it just another book, or is it something more? It is important we understand what the Bible is.
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May 18, 2007

Contentment

Man looking out over the ocean

It is easy to get caught up in accumulating wealth and possessions in this life. We see people around us who are prosperous and have many of the things that we would like to have. So we are tempted to pursue those things. There is nothing wrong with possessing some of this world’s goods; but if that is our aim, we will be as unfruitful as the thorny ground in the parable of the sower. The “worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:13) will choke out the word and leave us in a sad condition before the Lord.
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May 7, 2007

The Free Gift of God

Gift

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Many use this verse to show that we are saved by the grace of God and that there is nothing we can do to affect our salvation. In other words, works (acts of obedience) are not necessary for salvation. We all recognize the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), so it is true that all are deserving of spiritual death. But those who say grace is unconditional try to say that those who believe grace is conditional also believe they can earn their salvation.
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May 1, 2007

Is Gambling Wrong?

Poker

This question comes up from time to time. Is it wrong for a Christian to gamble? Gambling is never specifically condemned in the New Testament. This is often pointed out by those who defend it. However, something can still be wrong without being specifically condemned. Can we say that gambling is wrong, despite no specific condemnation? Let us consider the question.
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May 1, 2007

Fellowship Questions and MDR

Marriage, divorce and remarriage (MDR) has been and always will be a source of controversy among God’s people. Some have taught that those who have divorced and remarried prior to becoming a Christian can remain in their current relationship after obeying the gospel. Recently there has been controversy over whether or not one who has been put away by his/her mate for just any cause can put away his/her spouse for fornication and remarry. There are other MDR questions, but recently I have seen these two lumped together and placed in the category of Romans 14.

Whenever questions like these arise, it is important for us to determine whether or not a certain disagreement relating to MDR ought to be a test of fellowship. Can we agree to disagree? Or must there be division? There are times for both. In matters of opinion, we must agree to disagree. In matters of the faith, we must not tolerate sin and error.Continue Reading

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May 1, 2007

Romans 14

The “grace-unity” doctrine is one of the biggest dangers facing the church today. It is sometimes called “unity-in-diversity.” It is the old denominational concept that we can each have our own understanding of the Bible and we cannot say that one is right and the other is wrong. Sin and error can be overlooked because of spiritual weakness and differences of understanding. This idea is popular among the religious world. As time goes on, its popularity is increasing in the Lord’s church.

Romans 14 is often used to try to defend the concept of unity-in-diversity. Because of the sharp disagreements that exist, I believe many brethren think that Romans 14 is a difficult passage to understand. It may be true that it is not as simple as some passages (i.e. Mark 16:16), but we certainly can understand what Romans 14 is teaching. I hope this article will help make it a little clearer.
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May 1, 2007

Why the School Shootings?

[This article was written by Tim Haile.]

Our nation has once again been shocked by another tragic school shooting. On April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-hui killed 32 people and injured 17 more at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Sadly, these shootings have occurred frequently enough over the past 15 years that we tend to forget just how many of them have taken place. It hasn’t been that many years ago that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 and injured 24 in Littleton, CO (Columbine High School, 1999). Along with these school killings, many other gang related murders occur at the hands of youths. It is not my purpose in this brief article to document the dozens of such shootings that have occurred, but rather to shed some light on why they are occurring, and why they are occurring with such increased frequency.

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