The church originated in the mind of the infinitely wise God. Man could not have created such an institution. Jeremiah proclaimed, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). After sitting at the Lord’s feet for perhaps three a half years, His chosen apostles still did not understand the idea of the establishment of the church. In ignorance they asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). He answered, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). When the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 2:1-4), they with one accord began preaching the Gospel and baptized the multitudes, and the “Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). The establishment of the church was not dependent upon the wisdom of men. The apostles preached only what was given to them by the Holy Spirit. The church was established on the first Pentecost after the death of Christ. Churches such as Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. have much later dates of establishment. What conclusion must be reached in light of this information? These churches and

This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tape under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great grandfather read it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before. This story is given by the hand of Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography. We live in a time that is unparalleled insofar as access to information and learning. Scholars and philosophers alike would have treasured our libraries and bookstores. The Internet has moved thousands of instructors into our living rooms and dens to be at our beck and call. The instructions of Aristotle are at our fingertips; we may “listen” to Cicero’s masterful orations, be entertained by the works of Shakespeare or follow Don Quixote on one of his journeys. We have no fear that someone will confiscate and burn our books or seize our Bibles. Yet, our society is guilty of the crime of neglect and laziness. It

The question posed in the title of this article must be asked on a congregational level. “Is the congregation of which I am a member stagnant?” When something is stagnant, it is sluggish, motionless and inactive. A congregation can become an assembly of run of the mill, pew warming, keeping the lights on, non-active Christians. Jesus rebuked the Laodicean church, which had become like many churches today—lukewarm in service to the Lord (Revelation 3:14-22). That ought to be a clarion call to modern Christians. Clearly, God has expectations for His churches that ought to be our goals and objectives, too. Consider some reasons for stagnation, results from stagnation and remedies for stagnation. Although each situation and every Christian are different, let us be so bold as to suggest a few things that could easily cause stagnation. In the first place, laziness very well may be the cause for many inactive members of the local church. It is much easier to let someone else do the work! Paul spoke of the lazy man as being one who was undeserving of food (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Is the lazy Christian any different than the lazy man who was afraid of the cold and would starve in the harvest (Proverbs 20:4)? Sadly, many lazy Christians are the very ones who wonder why the church isn’t growing today as it once grew. A second problem may be apathy. The Laodiceans seemed to be apathetic about their service, and as a result, they were very distasteful

The audience on the first Pentecost following the death of Christ was the greatest of its kind ever gathered to hear a Gospel sermon. There were devout men from every nation under heaven (Acts 2:5) assembled to observe the Feast of Weeks. They had been drawn to Jerusalem in adherence to the Law of Moses, but on this occasion, they had observed something entirely unique. A sudden sound from heaven drew them to a small group of men. Astonished and bewildered, these observers commented upon the ability of these apostles to speak in languages that they had never learned. We know implicitly that only the apostles received this miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which enabled them to fluently proclaim God’s Word to these various nationalities. This is evident from simple grammar. “They,” (i.e., which were together is one place, Acts 2:1), is a pronoun. A pronoun has an antecedent (the noun to which the pronoun refers). The antecedent is “apostles” from Acts 1:26. Not only does the position of the words in the sentence make this apparent, but also the agreement of the plural apostles (noun) with plural they (pronoun). Further evidence that the baptism of the Holy Spirit came only upon the apostles and not upon the 120 disciples found in Chapter One is the question, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (Acts 2:26). Furthermore, Luke records, “But Peter, standing up with the eleven…” (Acts 2:14), forever confirming to us that it was the apostles who

And He told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:6-9 ESV) This vividly spoken parable speaks loudly to all who will hear it. To the Jews, the meaning must have been poignant and should have been understandable. The fig tree is considered to be the most valuable of the trees in and around Palestine. It was very productive, carrying its fruit for 10 months out of the year, bearing three crops of figs. Its value is also seen in that it was more dependable in its yield than grapes; therefore, it was common for such trees to be planted inside of vineyards. The patience of the owner of this particular tree had finally run out; the tree must be cut down. The vinedresser, who had undoubtedly spent time and effort with this very tree pled for an additional year for the tree to bear fruit. His efforts would be intensified with the hope of the sought after crop. If, however,

On January 13th 2012, the Costa Concordia capsized off the west coast of Italy. About 4,200 people were evacuated from the sinking ship within two hours of the wreck. Not all survived this tragedy as many were missing and several people lost their lives. We recently passed the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (April 1912), notably the worst ship wreck in modern history. The apostle Paul said, “Thrice I suffered shipwreck” (2 Corinthians 12:25). He went on to say, “A night and a day I have been in the deep.” One cannot imagine what a single tragedy like these would do to the survivors! Perhaps most would have a fear of water or drowning; others would probably never board a ship again. The Lord’s servant Paul, however, did not allow such setbacks to keep him from traveling with the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). In this article, we will consider Paul’s shipwreck recorded in Acts 27 as a metaphor of your life. Please take a few minutes to open your Bible to Acts 27 and read that exhilarating account. We shall see from the text: (1) a bound prisoner, (2) a better possibility, (3) a biblical perspective and (4) a blessed person. In the first place, we notice that Paul was a bound prisoner (Acts 27:1). Paul had been in a Roman prison in Caesarea for two years. The Jews made accusations against him, and he made his defense before Felix, Festus and Agrippa. However, because he appealed unto

That section of Scripture describing the great Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) ends with, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (46). Every man’s reward will be consistent with his respective works (Matthew 16:27). Our Lord revealed that “there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known” (Luke 12:2). Further, no man will be exempt from his day before the throne of God (2 Corinthians 5:10; Acts 17:31). In our brief study of the eternal state of the dead, we shall consider the two possibilities in the order that our Lord used them in Matthew 25:46: (1) everlasting punishment (Hell) and (2) eternal life (Heaven). Seemingly inconsistent with His reputation as, no doubt, the most loving man history is the frequency of His mention and description of Hell. In eleven texts Jesus used the word Gehenna, rightly translated “hell.” It is only used by one other New Testament writer, James, half brother of Jesus. Undeniably, the most loving man of all time said more about hell than any other New Testament writer. Gary Workman commented: The original and predominant New Testament term for “hell” is the Greek word geena. It represents the Aramaic expression ge hinnom, meaning “valley of Hinnom” (Neh. 11:30; cf. Josh. 15:8), and for this reason the word is commonly transliterated in English as Gehenna. This was a valley on the south side of Jerusalem where, during idolatrous periods under Ahaz and Manasseh, the Jews had caused their children to be burned as

James, the half brother of our Lord, taught that the body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26), but the opposite cannot be said to be true, for the spirit without to body is not dead! Though the body “returns to the dust” (Genesis 3:19), “the spirit shall return to the God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Jesus more than demonstrated this when referring to God as being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, uttering, “God is not the God of the dead [though dead physically, ENM], but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32). Clearly implied within His astonishing words is a glimpse into the afterlife. Though these great patriarchs had been physically dead for many years, they lived on. Perhaps the most revealing section of Scripture as to the state of the dead is found in Jesus’ teaching about the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Even a cursory reading of this great text reveals a great deal of information regarding life after death (Please turn and read Luke 16:19-31). The following relevant observations can be drawn from the facts of this text: (1) both the righteous and the wicked are conscious after death; (2) after death, some men are comforted, and other men are tormented; (3) this comfort and torment occur while life is still being lived upon the earth and therefore previous to the judgment. (4) The Hadean world, in which these departed spirits find themselves, is divided by a great gulf; (5) one, the Lord stated,

It is no mark of courage to speak lightly of human dying. We may do it in bravado, or in wantonness; but no man who thinks can call it a trifling thing to die. True thoughtfulness must shrink from death without Christ. There is a world of untold sensations prodded into that moment when a man realizes his hour is come. It is all over—his chance is passed, and his eternity is settled. None of us know, except by guess, what that sensation is. Myriads of human beings have felt it to whom life was dear; but they never spoke out their feelings, for such things are untold. And to every individual man throughout all eternity that sensation in its fullness can come but once. It is mockery…for a man to speak lightly about that which we cannot know till it comes (Baxter, When Life Tumbles In, 103). Seemingly one of the most faithful foes in our time is the morning obituaries. Without partiality or prejudice, it faithfully reveals the truthfulness of Moses’ statement, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). It tragically reports the deaths of little ones and the middle aged. No distinction is made of race, language or gender. None are beyond the reach of the words, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this

In studying the validity of one’s baptism, this question will often present itself: “Does one have to be baptized more than once?” Usually after a study of the New Testament church, one will conclude that he has been in error religiously speaking, professing membership in a denomination and realizing that in so doing, his worship has been vain (Matthew 15:9), and his conversion faulty. Perhaps, he had water sprinkled or poured upon him in the name of baptism or perhaps he was merely baptized to evince membership in a particular denomination, as an outward sign of an inward grace. The word baptism has always and will always mean immersion. Present day religious manuals, creeds and confessions have altered the meaning to authorize what they already believe and teach. Secular dictionaries define words by their present-day acceptance and often will give faulty meanings. For example, Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language defines the word “baptize” as: “to dip (a person) into or sprinkle with water as a symbol of admission into Christianity or a specific Christian church and of washing away sin.” This religious fallacy (which is widely taught and accepted) will undoubtedly give false hope to many good people. Baptism is a burial in water for the remission of one’s sins (Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12; Acts 8:38-39, et. al.). Obviously then, one who has had water sprinkled or poured upon him in the name of baptism has never been baptized in a biblical sense and is therefore still in his

“Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold” (Proverbs 8:10), only “fools hate knowledge” (Proverbs 1:22); however, “Wise men lay up knowledge” (Proverbs 10:14). These verses, among many others, exemplify the fact that God desires knowledge to play a vital role in the lives of His children. We must be “Filled with all knowledge (Romans 15:14; Colossians 1:9), “Abound in knowledge” (2 Corinthians 8:7), “Grow in knowledge” (2 Peter 3:18; Colossians 1:10). Knowledge is a Christian grace (2 Peter 1:5-11). God desired from Israel “knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Ignorance Is Cheap (Free, Without Premium) When it comes to a proper knowledge of God’s Word, there is indeed “a famine in the Land” (Amos 8:11). It is said that 80% of the average congregation cannot give the plan of salvation if they must give Book, Chapter and Verse. In 1962, the Harding College Bible Department began testing Bible knowledge. There were 150 items on the test, and 91% of those tested were members of the church. Members of the church fell 8 to 9 points behind the denominational freshmen. Some of the results: 33% did not know that Jonah was a prophet on a ship bound for Tarshish, and that he preached in Nineveh. 17% did not know that Romans was the 6th book of N.T. 31% did not know that Jude follows 3 John. 55% did not know who wrote 2 Timothy. 45% did not know who wrote Revelation. 21% did

The above phrase is taken from Paul’s exalting statement from what we know as the second chapter of the Book of Philippians. He wrote, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). That God has highly exalted him is one of the fundamental facts of Christianity. In fact, the key to Christianity would have to be one of the seven “I AM” statements found in the Gospel of John, where Jesus claimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The words “highly exalted” are translated from one Greek word huperypsoo, which occurs only here in the Greek New Testament and means, “to exalt to the highest rank and power, raise to supreme majesty” (Thayer’s 641). In his Expanded Translation of the New Testament, Kenneth S. Wuest translated it as “God also supereminently exalted Him to the highest rank and power” (Wuest 463). Hulen L. Jackson, in his book “Who is Jesus?” documented at least sixty-four names or phrases that depict Jesus’ past and present relationships with God and man. A few of these are: Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), Advocate (1 John 2:1), Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8), Bridegroom (Matthew