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Chosen Father

God chose Abraham to father the nation of Israel. Out of a wilderness of idolatrous people[1], God called to Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father’s house to travel to a new land which God would show to him. We see nothing about Abram that would distinguish him from the people around him, to cause him to have special consideration from God, and God does  not tell us why Abram was chosen. We see only that he was chosen.

In the same way that God chose Abram to father the earthly nation, God chose Jesus Christ to father the spiritual nation, the family of the redeemed of God. In election, Abraham is a type of Christ, being the chosen vessel through whom God would birth a holy people to Himself.

God appointed Isaac, the miraculous son of Abraham, to father a n...

Christian Apologetics is the defense of the reasonableness, relevance, and importance of Christian faith, the authenticity, reliability, and truth of the Bible.

Is apologetics Biblical?

Some people argue that apologetics is a waste of time, or that it’s unbiblical. A thorough read through the entire book of Acts shows that the apostles and early disciples did not share that position. Christ’s messengers employed a variety of modes and means to communicate the truth of Christ, according to the audience they were addressing. By the time you have finished reading the Book of Acts, you will have read dozens of examples of the followers of Jesus Christ providing an apologetic for the truth and reliability of Holy Scripture, the importance of believing God, and the reasonableness of the Chr...

The following information is intended to provide a framework within which to approach the study of Apologetics.

Definition of Apologetics

The English word “apologetics” derives from the Greek word “apologia”, which means:

“reasoned defence, esp. of Christianity” (Oxford Illustrated Dictionary) or “a speech in defence” (The New Webster Dictionary of the English Language, 1965)

Purpose of Apologetics

To give a defence of 1) the Christian faith   2) the authority of Scripture 3) its relevance

What it is NOT

To use reason and material evidences to ‘prove’ the Bible

Principle

The Bible is true because it is God’s word, not because we can prove it...

Every time a parent brings sin into their home, we become responsible for its influence on our children. Children are always learning; every observation they make, every experience they have, affects their ideas about God and eternity, their understanding of what it means to be human, of how to interact with community in general and other people in particular, their perception of what is right and wrong, and how to engage it. Whether we work deliberately to teach our children or not, the children continually develop their values and ideas as they observe our decisions and conduct.

Parents who speak of God and Christ and salvation while entertaining themselves on that which endorses what God has revealed to be wicked, belie the seriousness of evil before their children, and teach them to “c...

The letter written by the apostle Paul to the Romans is a rich treatise on the grace and goodness of God towards men. As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul had not met those to whom this letter was sent. He begins by identifying himself and his intended audience, and clarifying the nature and purpose of his ministry, that of a servant under His Master, Jesus Christ, sent out as Christ’s ambassador with the proclamation of God’s good news pertaining to Christ.

The primary concerns addressed in Paul’s  letter to the Romans were: the fact of salvation being an award of grace rather than the reward of works; the inability of the Law of Moses to justify sinful men to a holy God; the equal condition of both Jews and Gentiles before God, due to the universality of the sin-guiltiness of all men fro...

Romans 1:1          “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God …”

Looking at the vocabulary:

Called – κλητος – kletos: invited, appointed (as opposed to ‘named’) (present participle as adjectival)

Apostle – αποστολος  apostolos – a compound of:

i) apo -> preposition: of, from, out of, off, etc

1) of separation (locomotion, location, association, of time or place

2) of origin; ie: where something / one is from; where it is, happens, is taken      

2b) origin of cause (conceptual)

ii) Stello -> avoid, withdraw (one’s) self.

1) to set in place, arrange, prepare, equip, make provision for  –  or

2)  to bring together, contract, shorten, reduce, check, cause to cease, remove one’s self, to abstain...

21       Because those knowing God, did not glorify (him) as God nor thank (Him) but they were vain (futile; useless; empty) in their reasoning (thinking) and their foolish (lit: unintelligent) heart was darkened.

Despite knowing God, they made a deliberate choice against God. This was an act of human will, and not a consequence of divine causation. They knew God; consider the implications of Revelation 6:12-17: they knew. They didn’t wonder what was this astonishing crisis that was upon them, but had certain knowledge that God’s wrath was about to be poured out and they were done.

From the beginning, Adam and Eve knew God like no one has known God since. Yet she believed and he obeyed the contradictory words of a created animal slandering God...

2:1       Therefore, you are defenceless, oh person! Everyone who judges, for in that which you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, for you who are judging are committing the same things!

Paul contrasts the judgment by people who hypocritically do the things they judge others for, and God’s judgement based on truth. In both instances, the judging party is judging against the action; in this statement Paul does not refer to the sinner approving when others do like sins to their own, but rather those who condemn another for sins they themselves commit. God judges against those who commit unrighteousness without distinction, whereas ‘o man’ judges others but not himself. God will judge both.

Paul also declares that the ones judging others while committing the same sins h...

3:1       Then what (is) the (excessive) prerogative (perisson – the sense of significant benefit) of the Jew, or what (is) the profit (benefit) of the circumcision?

If the Jew did not enjoy special consideration with God on the basis of his national heritage, if the Jew was to be found just as guilty of his sins as the ‘uncircumcised Gentile’, being just as condemned and just as much bound for hell as the Gentile who had never received God’s Law or His covenants with Abraham, if there was really no difference between a Jew and a Gentile in the eyes of God as pertains righteousness, then what advantage is there to being a Jew? Why bother being circumcised, if it is only a sign of membership in a family with no unique significance in the eternal scheme? What benefit is there in being ...

4:1       What then shall we say Abraham our father according to flesh to have found?

Abraham was the physical, biological ‘father’ of all members of the nation of Israel. When Abraham encountered the Sovereign LORD YHWH, he had not known Him, nor had he lived as a man who did. Abraham had nothing to offer God to compel God’s kindness or to turn aside the outcome of justice; Abraham was not a sinless man.

Abraham’s people lived in Sumer, in Ur of the Chaldees. The area was referred to as Mesopotamia, as well as the ‘fertile crescent’. Historical records show Sumer to have been pantheistic (‘god’ is everywhere) as well as polytheistic (they worshipped several deities).[1] Abraham’s father Terah served idols rather than the living and true God...