FREE BOOK: However, the scriptural doctrine of the Church has not come in for any great amount of emphasis. In spite of the great deal of activity in churches, the current state of the Church is not very healthy. There is a great deal of superficiality, a lot of shallowness, and it is permitted to continue partially because of inadequate views of the local church.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is regarded as an experience that usually occurs after conversion. Pentecostals believe at conversion a Christian receives the Holy Spirit. However only at the subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit does the Christian receive the fullness of the Spirit and the full empowerment for Christian service. Most Pentecostals believe that Spirit-baptism is always accompanied with the gift of speaking in tongues as evidence for the baptism. Thus one can be a genuine Christian yet not be baptised in the Holy Spirit.
Islamic critics of Christianity regularly criticise Christians for apparently deviating from this emphasis upon the unity of God (often referred to by the Arabic word tawhid) through the doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine is argued to be a late invention, which distorts the idea of the unity of God, and ends up teaching that there are three gods.
The loyal love and dependable grace of this covenant-making God to his promises dominated the transition between these ages. He had heard Israel’s groanings in Egypt, and his interest in them and action on their behalf were summed up as a “remembering” of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (2:24).
I’m the God who sees you in the wilderness
Sees you in your brokenness
When your feeling lonely
I’m the God who sees
In the desert places, in your empty spaces
I’m the God who sees
I’m nearer than you dare believe
Here in the very air you breathe
I’m the God who sees, you
Ephesians 6:10-18 regarding putting on the armour of God. When the important points in these verses are considered in its context as well as that of other Scriptures, then we find that: There is no mention of a war in which the believer must attack Satan and his demonic forces. The opposite is rather true. Our fight is a defensive one, not an offensive one. The distinction is made by the type of sword in verse 17. It is not the heavy sword used by the Roman soldiers when they attacked, but the short dagger-type sword they used in defence and close combat.
Christ has become merely a means to an end, and believers are induced to come to the Master’s table, not to experience fellowship and intimacy with the Master, but to enjoy what is on the Master’s table. In sharp distinction to this message, the Jesus of the Scriptures is not a means to an end; He is the end (cf. Phil. 3:7-8). McCullough writes, “the church is more often influenced by cultural trends than theological commitments. Our obsession with self has led us astray into the temple of idols: in particular the god-of-my-comfort, and the god-of-my-success.” Shakespeare says it most succinctly, “you pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely.”
As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [’by one man,’ v.15] shall many be made righteous.” The same nature that transgressed must work out the remedy. This truth is reiterated in 1 Corinthians 15:21: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” Our ruin could not be restored, nor deliverance from our guilt be effected, except by one in our own nature.
This has been the curse of Adam’s sons— in every generation and in all parts of the earth. The calamity of evil which then descended upon the world continues to this day. Despite how sophisticated mankind believes to have arrived, the age-old curse of slavery to sin and their judgement to death can never be wiped clean on their own merits. Thus Adam and Eve’s children are equally involved in the sentence of the pain of childbirth, the curse on the ground, the obligation to live by toil and sweat, the decay and death of the body.
The woman’s creation out of Adam is the basis for her equality. As Matthew Henry quaintly coined it: “not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
The fundamental sin, which is the root of all others is the failure to honour, praise and glorify the one and only true God. It is fitting, then, that a life pleasing to God is marked by doing all things in his name, by the desire to honour him in all things.
“For in him the whole full- ness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Colossians 2:9, 10). Are you empty, in need of God’s forgiveness and righteousness? Then come to him. His fullness will become yours with a “mere” word!
The question as to the identity of this mysterious personage, Melchizedek has given rise to a great deal of modern speculation. Some have claimed that he was a theophany, others believe, a literal human being, an angel, or the pre-incarnate Christ and in rabbinical literature.
There is creation power that can re-create your life. There is eternal life that will turn the midnight of your life into dawn and daylight and life and spring. This is our God. He gives form. He reorders life. He will do it for you
This series explores the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy, examining why they were written, what they meant to their original audience, and how we should respond to them today.
Genesis is about God from first to last — and to read it any other way is to misread it.
These apostles and prophets do not want to simply establish themselves as self-styled leaders. It is to bring the kingdom of God to the earth. It is dominion teaching; they see a way to bring that dominion through an alliance with a government that seems to share their agenda-with a country that seems to have a “manifest destiny” and calling by God to bless the nations of the earth. As this movement builds momentum and many churches adopt such teaching the Biblical centred churches will again be persecuted. However, this time not from the World but from the “church.”
To take up this end of our yoke with Christ, in the sense of entering into the ‘fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death’ is no different essentially from bearing each his own cross as we follow Christ. As an old gospel song says, ‘He always takes the heavy end and leaves the light to me’.
Jesus is identified as God’s Son in a special way that indicates his eternal, divine nature. In the early church, the confession that Jesus Christ was fully divine was a critical aspect of the Christian faith.
Are you a born-again Christian? Do you have a heart for the lost and hurting? Are you passionate about evangelism and discipleship? We want to talk to you!
Apart from the knowledge of Christ there is no salvation. We are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness in enmity and hostility to God. Without the shedding of Blood there is no salvation in any other, remission! Thus, for there is none other name under heaven – given among men, whereby we must be saved. Thus salvation is the revelation of Christ.
Jesus professes to have a unique knowledge of God. Jesus says: “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27)
To serve God we are not called to choose self-denial or sacrifice, rather are we called to fulfill God’s purpose. The basic principle is not to choose the cross but to obey God’s will. Should the principle on which we work and serve include rebellion, then Satan will obtain and enjoy glory even through our sacrifices. Saul might offer sheep and oxen, yet God never accepted them as sacrifices to Himself because there was a Satanic principle involved.
Our self-love keeps us from surrendering to the guidance of the will of God, and eliminates the sense of gratitude we should have toward God for all the blessings God lavishes upon us. By calling upon us to deny ourselves, bear our cross and hope for eternal life, even as we thank God for the blessings of this life, we are to abandon once for all the image of ourselves we have created through our blind self-love, in order to be conformed to the image of selfless and self-giving love that is revealed in Jesus Christ.
Christians want to appear to be living for eternal life, if you really examine their plans they are filled only with earthly concerns, which brings to expression their greed, ambition and desire. To remove from us our love for riches, power and honour. God reveals the vanity of the present life through the afflictions of the cross.
Human reason tells us to avoid dishonour and disgrace as the worst of plagues, but faith in Christ reveals to us that being reviled for the sake of his name is the highest honour we can receive in this life.
Since we do not belong to ourselves, we should cease to live for ourselves, but should rather deny ourselves. We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Since we belong to God, we should live and die for God alone, and order all parts of our lives by his will alone. Thus, we are God’s: let us therefore live for him and die for him.
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:16–17
There is much confusion in the contemporary sphere on the subject of apostles. This is mainly due to the climate of deep disagreement and resentment over some Christian leaders who are acknowledged by many to be modern-day apostles.
Theology School 