Doctrinal Matters

courtesy of www.freeimages.com This man cuts off the head of a hostage and is rightfully condemned as the epitome of wickedness.  We think of him as evil to the core. We call on the government to bring justice to this murderer.  We know that we cannot tolerate this kind of evil in the world.  He must be stopped and we will spare no expense to make sure that he doesn't kill again.  We call him "terrorist". courtesy of www.freeimages.com This man cuts off the heads of hundreds of unborn babies with no real condemnation.  Some think of him as a champion of women's rights.  Others choose to ignore him, pretending that he doesn't exist.  To some he is not really bad, just misguided. Perhaps he has the wrong priorities but is generally a decent person. We tolerate his decapitation of innocent babies and don't spend too much time or energy trying to stop him. We call him "doctor".

*"Isaiah (Bible Card)" by the Providence Lithograph Company There are a lot of Christians who believe that God still speaks today.  I am one of them.  I wholeheartedly concur that God still speaks to His people.  But I must make a qualification here when I say that God still speaks today.  What I mean when I say that God still speaks versus what someone else might mean can be very different.  For instance, some claim that God gives direct revelation to modern-day prophets apart from Scripture.  I reject this claim and find it unbiblical and dangerous.  Yet this idea of modern-day prophecy is extremely popular, not only within the Charismatic movement, but also in non-Charismatic churches. Examples of those who believe in modern prophecy are many.  One Charismatic, Mark Virkler, in an article entitled   4 Keys to Recognizing God's Voice (posted on charismamag.com, Aug. 20, 2014), says the following: "It's time for the church to...

You may have watched the Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham debate early this year.  If you didn't, it is available in its entirety online  here.   I hope you'll take the time to watch it.  During the debate, Bill Nye asserted that Bible-believing creationists cannot do good science.  He argued that a biblical worldview suppresses good science and therefore, if creationists persist in telling children that the Bible can be trusted when it speaks of the origin of the universe, the result will be that the United States will suffer and lag behind the rest of the world in our scientific progress.  His premise is that technological advances will come to a stand-still if would-be scientists allow that there may be a Creator. Ken Ham did an excellent job refuting that argument.  Ham showed video clips of well respected scientists and inventors who are biblical creationists; the debate audience could hear and see these scientists give testimony to their belief in six-d...

A few years ago I watched the news coverage of a flood in west Texas. The video showed a raging river that had overrun its banks.  The muddy, debris-filled water churned under and around a tree.  In the tree stood a man who had climbed into it to escape the flood. The picture is still vivid in my mind. The man was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt.  He stood on a limb and clung to the tree as the waters raged beneath him.  Time was running out. The river was rising by the minute and soon the tree that provided refuge for him would be swallowed up by the flood and the man would be lost. A rescue helicopter was dispatched and hovered above the tree.  The air movement created by its rotors kicked up waves beneath the tree and caused the man's white shirt to flap angrily around him.  A man descended on a cable from the helicopter.  He was wearing a uniform and helmet.  He was obviously a trained professional.  As the rescuer descended...

I was asked today whether I believed in the "power of the tongue".  The Christian who asked me this is from a charismatic background.  What she wanted to know is if I believe that we can speak negative things into existence in our lives.  Is it possible for me to create my own bad circumstances, i.e. cancer, sickness, tragedy, etc. by speaking them into existence?  She referenced the fact that God created the universe by simply speaking.  The implication is that words have power and, since we are created in God's image, our words have power also.  Since God's words can create, then we, His image-bearers, should also be able to create with our words.  We can literally speak things into existence, negative or positive.  This idea is called "positive/negative confession".  This is a heretical idea with no Scriptural support.  The Got Questions? website ( http://www.gotquestions.org/positive-confession.html ) has a good refutation of ...

The term "big bang" describes what many scientists believe about the beginning of the universe, i.e. that at some point in the past, all the matter in the universe was packed into a super-heated dense point that then exploded into a pattern of expansion and cooling that continues today.  This process eventually created all that is in the universe, from atoms to planets.  This cosmological model is the foremost model among scientists and the prevalent and exclusive model presented in science text books. photo courtesy of NASA Some Christians have accepted the theoretical big bang as fact.  They believe that God used the big bang to create. They seem to have the best of both worlds- they can remain in step with the prevailing secular view of cosmology and at the same time retain their belief in God as Creator.  Hugh Ross is an example of a Christian who espouses the belief that God used the big bang to create. Could God have created by using a big bang eve...

Today I read a great article on liberalism entitled "Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens".  It was written by Albert Mohler and can be accessed here .  Dr. Mohler is well known for his role in helping bring the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) back from the brink of theological liberalism.  Since Mohler was and is still a key figure in the battle against the devastating effects of liberalism, he knows a thing or two about what makes Christian liberalism tick.  His article addresses the departure from a biblical view of hell by liberals and now even conservative evangelicals.  In discussing liberalism's unbiblical view of hell, Dr. Mohler identifies a pattern that can be observed that leads to a slide into theological liberalism concerning any doctrine. The article opens by speaking of the motivation behind liberalism.  Contrary to what one would suppose, liberalism is not motivated by anti-Bible sentiments or even a belief in the orthodoxy o...