Category Salvation & Judgement

There is a tremendous misunderstanding among professing Christians about ‘eternity’, resulting in the devaluing of it among liberals and emergents, and a misapplication of it among many evangelicals.

Eternity is the condition of existence beyond time. Only God is eternal respective to the beginning of time: “In the beginning, God….” However, the Bible is clear that men and angels – created beings – will inhabit eternity after the end of time.

It is important to remember that the ability for created beings to inhabit eternity requires our presence during time. When we are promised ‘eternal life’, it is not something that begins when we depart time upon death...

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;...

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...

The man whose measure of his manhood is based in his sexual conquests is a pitiful example of masculinity. When the benchmark is something wild animals rush to, and rodents and reptiles, for survival, rather than those qualities and characteristics that place humanity on a different plain from brute beasts, the mark is set very low. Is manhood exclusively about copulation, or is there not something more powerful, more noble, more worthy of recognition in the character of the male human? Where is honour? Where is courage? Where is integrity? Where is goodness? Why when there are many laudable and beneficial qualities of which only humans are capable, do so many limit their consideration of value to something that requires no strength, no passion, no brains?

Are these men such simpering cowa...

“And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and he healed them” (Matthew 21:14)

The physically blind and the physically lame came to Jesus in the temple, and He healed them.

To be blind is to lack the ability to see. To be lame is to be unable to walk. Without knowledge of God, all men are blind, unable to see the truth about themselves, the world in which they live, or the creator Who placed them in it. They cannot see the right path to follow, nor the impediments in the way in which they find themselves travelling. They don’t see the spiritual influences on their lives or environments, nor do they perceive the eternal significance of their actions or ideas. They cannot see the ‘end of the road’; in fact they cannot see the road itself at all.

On their own, the blind...

Forgiveness is releasing the debt. The offender doesn’t owe you anymore.

It is not about forgetting. We may never forget and some offenses should not be forgotten. We are not obligated to volunteer for more offenses to be committed against us, although we may be obligated to endure them when they come.

By forgiving an offender, we release their debt to us. They don’t ‘owe’ us, we seek no revenge or restitution. We are not held captive by the pain of their wound, and we don’t wish they could suffer the pain themselves.

This does not mean we don’t hurt. Instead, it means that we willingly bear the hurt without anger, without malice, without revenge. We give them freedom from their obligation to us. We choose good-will toward them, despite the pain.

Some offenses cause too great...

Do you have to get everything right to be a Christian? No, but there are some things you cannot get wrong and still be a Christian. For instance, you must believe in God in order to be a Christian. But you can’t believe in just any god. You must believe in the God Who has revealed Himself through His Word to men, through His prophets, through the Law, and through Jesus Christ. If you believe in a false god, you are not a Christian, no matter how sincere you are or how well you behave. [1]

Then there is the matter of Truth. You must believe that truth exists, and that it is knowable, because Jesus declared that the Father requires men to worship Him in spirit and in truth. If there is no truth, or it cannot be known, we are unable to obey God’s clear requirement for worship. [2]

A Chr...

People have a passion for the concept of Jesus rather than for the person of Christ; for “reaching the lost for the Lord” as opposed to sharing the Gospel of Christ. People like being spiritual, but don’t care to be holy. 

The message of salvation from sin and death has been replaced with a message of salvation from a pointless life, and mundane existence. The new preachers want us to be saved from the hurts of sin in this life, and be drawn into the fullfilment of feeding the hungry, healing broken hearts, stopping wars, curing diseases. 

Jesus Christ did not come to redeem our human institutions. He came to redeem us from the power of sin and death, to reconcile us to God so we can have eternal life...

The logical extension of ‘do not judge’ as applied by many people would necessarily be a total lack of laws, otherwise known as anarchy. 

The job of government is to protect its people – the whole from enemies outside and individuals when necessary from each other. The well-being of the community is partially dependent upon the faithfulness of the government to perform its responsibilities. 

Each time a law is made, the related action is being judged. Making murder or theft a crime is to judge the murder or theft, and judge one who commits them as guilty of crime. 

Some will argue that some crimes hurt only the perpetrator or no one at all, calling them ‘victimless’ crimes. This is false; there are no ‘victimless crimes’...

“… upon this Rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt 16:18b

Jesus speaking to Peter is recorded as saying that the gates of Hell should not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. He did not say that the armies of hell shall not be able to destroy the church, but that the gates of hell shall not prevail against – or withstand – the church of Christ. This is battle language with the church on the offensive.

The church of Christ is called to storm the gates of hell. Hell is the prison of every man and woman who has not faith in Christ. Every cult member, and every person without Christ is presently consigned to hell.

Jesus was not telling Peter to dig in and hold ground until He returns...