Category Apostasy & False Teaching

God could have built one people from Isaac making of both sons one holy nation. But it was His purpose to make a distinction between the two men. Esau sold his birthright. Jacob sought a birthright he did not possess.

Why did God choose Jacob? The Bible does not say, it only states that He chose him to make a people of him. Jacob desired a blessing to which he was not naturally entitled. The Bible does not say that God placed that desire in Jacob’s heart, nor caused him to seek the face of God. In fact, Jacob’s desire was motivated by sin, and empowered by sin – deception and supplanting of the natural heir.

Esau, on the other hand, was unfaithful and ungrateful, despising his birthright for the immediate satisfaction of his natural desires...

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...

When man chooses to refuse God, why does he then accuse God of abandoning him to the consequences of his independence? While demanding that God exercise no authoritative influence over his life, he continues to expect Him to exercise exceptional benefit in interfering with any negative influences that may cross his path.

When we meet other people who desire the kind of relationship with us, one in which they only desire our presence to improve some otherwise unpleasant reality in their life, we call those people “users”.

Somehow, men have come to believe that because God is abundantly able to affect any aspect of our material existence, that if He is a good God, He is also obligated to do so to our advantage...

Luke 24:36 – 48 (45)

“And as they spoke this, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’

But being dismayed and becoming afraid, they supposed they were seeing a spirit.

And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled and why do thoughts come into your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that I am Myself. Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see I have.’

And saying this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

Because they still yet disbelieved for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, ‘Have you any food here?’

And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of honey from the comb, and taking it, He ate it in their sight.

And He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still together with ...

Sometimes people have trouble understanding that we are justified before God by faith, and not by how good we are. Some people are offended at the thought that God would justify everyone only on the basis of faith, and not on the basis of an inventory of their good works; they feel that ‘good people’ should be acceptable to God, and He should open wide the doors to His presence to all those who are ‘good’. These latter often raise the argument of the injustice of ‘horrible people’ who will get into heaven because they have faith, and therefore God is ‘unfair’. Most of this misunderstanding is rooted in the failure to understand  the key words “faith” and “justice”. 

The word ‘justice’ refers to receiving what is deserved by our actions...

John 3:3         Jesus … said unto [Nicodemus], “Truly, truly I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jn 3:16           For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Jn 3:18-21      “He that believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation: that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed...

Jesus foretold wars and rumours of wars to a nation beleaguered for centuries by foreign occupation: Matthew 24:6

He told of famines, ‘pestilences’, and great earthquakes to a nation that had experienced obliteration, drought, a land razed by enemies, diseases like leprosy, and was no stranger to earthquakes: Mat 24:7; Zechariah 14:5

He told of fearful wonders and signs ‘in the heavens’ to men who knew the heavens were the exclusive jurisdiction of Almighty God: Joel 2:30

He even warned that many people would come claiming to be Christ, many claiming to speak for God, and many false teachers calling themselves spiritual leaders: Mat 24:5, 11, 24

He warned of increasing wickedness among men, and hatred, and division: Mat 12, 1 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 3:1-9

And He told them that men would dismiss...

Polls show most people believe they will go to heaven when they die. But if you had to stand before God in judgement today, how would you do? 

The Bible says that anyone who breaks the Law in only one point is guilty of breaking the Law. God is a righteous judge; He must judge each person according to what they have done. Will you be innocent or guilty? 

God’s law is perfect; have you kept His perfect law? Have you loved God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Jesus said this was the greatest commandment in all the Law. Have you kept it? If not, you are guilty. 

God commanded that no other gods be set up besides Him. What do you worship? For what do you live? What masters your life? Will He judge you guilty or innocent of replacing Him with other “gods”? 

God’s name is holy;...

A Christian is someone who, coming to know God, and recognizing themselves to have rebelled against God, either by a lack of faith in God or by choices that oppose His perfect righteousness, rejects sin for its opposition against God, and exercises faith in God.

God Who, in the person of Jesus Christ has paid the penalty of our sin by Christ’s death on the cross, brings the transaction to completion by applying that payment to our account. We who turn from sin to God will by faith in Jesus Christ and His death for our sins, receive the benefit of it – our sentence commuted so we may have eternal life.

Upon God’s application of Christ’s death to the payment of our sentence, He also restores us to fellowship with Himself by providing the Holy Spirit, so that by His continual presence w...

Repentance is a condition of the heart towards sin. Rather than a distress that we did some specific deed we consider to be too “bad”, it is the recognition that everything opposed to the nature of God is an offense against the Lord of all Creation. When we repent, we reject sin in every aspect of its nature, specifically because it opposes God. When we turn from one thing, we necessarily turn to another. To turn from sin we must turn to the Living God, for only in Him is sinlessness. We cannot turn from sin other than by turning to God, for to face any way other than towards Christ is necessarily to turn our faces towards sin.

We know that every time we who know the grace of God choose to commit sin, we are despising His grace and effectively joining our voice with those who crucified ou...