I Am Offended That You Are Offended!

By Josh Blackmer

People have always been easy to offend. However, there is a new generation that seems to have made it an art form. They take a benign statement, phrase, act, song or event in history, say it means something that it doesn’t, then shout “OFFENSIVE!” across all their social outlets. It doesn’t end there. Now everyone must be offended by it. If they had their way, whatever offended them would be smitten from the Earth as though it never existed. A lot can be said about why our society is in this mess (#participationtrophies, #nocopingskills). More importantly, we should be thinking about how we live and teach Christ in it. Here are some things to think about while living in an overly sensitive society.

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The Divine Vaccine

By Dan Jenkins

For the past year, we have dealt with the onslaught of a powerful sickness which has infected the entire world. Every newscast has given us the number of new infections and the daily total of those who have died. The life of every Christian has been changed because of its presence.

However, we may have lost sight of another “disease” which has rapidly spread all over the world and threatens every person in every home on the earth. That “disease” is sin. It has killed far more every day than Covid-19 has in a year. Sin brings death to all who are infected by it, but we should be ever thankful that there is a Divine vaccine to deal with it.

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10 Things to Do When People Make Mistakes

By David Sproule

“Nobody’s perfect!”  You’ve heard it.  You’ve thought it.  You’ve probably said it.  Unfortunately, we seem to often find ourselves on the receiving end of the imperfection.  Sometimes the mistakes are not that big of a deal—putting pickles on a plain burger or calling you by the wrong name.  Other times the mistakes are a really big deal—running a red light into oncoming traffic or giving someone the wrong medication.  So, what do we (Christians) do when people make mistakes…and at our expense?

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When America’s Foundations are Destroyed

By Dan Jenkins

The life of the man after God’s own heart had its great moments of triumph—he had killed Goliath, the nation heralded him as a young man who had slain ten times those slain by Saul. Yet at times, Saul and his army threatened his life, and then later king David’s own son drove him from the palace.

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Thankful for Jesus the Christ

By Kevin Cauley

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

Christianity is the only world religion that teaches salvation by grace. The other world religions teach that “salvation” is based on merit. This means as long as one is 51% good, he may claim salvation. He can be 49% evil and be “saved.” This implicates God in evil since God would be obliged to “save” people who are 49% evil. In such a system, God must condone evil. What kind of a god would condone evil?

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Parables: Earthly Stories Heavenly Truths

By Dan Jenkins

The disciples of Jesus had no idea about the nature of the kingdom Jesus had come to established. The Old Testament was filled with promises of the coming King and His kingdom, but no one on this earth understood what it would be like (1 Cor. 2:8-9). Jesus used parables to help those disciples see what was about to happen.

In Matthew chapter thirteen, there are eight parables He gave to them. The first describes the coming kingdom being like a man sowing seed. They could not comprehend the meaning and asked Him to explain. The second parable is about a man who sowed seeds into his field and the enemy who came at night and sowed tares (weeds) in that field. They did not comprehend this parable, so He also had to explain to them its meaning.

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SOLA SCRIPTURA?

By Neal Pollard

Pythagoras is said to have been the earliest outside of Scripture (Isa. 40:22) to contend that the earth is round. He did not make the earth round with his assertions, but identified what already was.  Sir Isaac Newton certainly did not create gravity, but he is credited for our modern understanding of it.  Likewise, the term “sola scriptura” is not found in scripture (similar to terms like “trinity” and “omniscience”), but it was coined during the “Reformation Movement” as part of Martin Luther’s protests against perceived corruptions of the Catholic Church.  It was a “Latin phrase (literally ‘by Scripture alone’) describing the Protestant theological principle that Scripture is the final norm in all judgments of faith and practice. Church traditions and customs, pronouncements of church officials, civil law or any other purely human source, including human reason, must yield to clear scriptural pronouncements” (Reid, Daniel G., et al.  Dictionary of Christianity in America, 1990: n.p.).  Did the Protestant Reformers, who, incidentally, unfortunately got so many things wrong, originate that idea?  Because they were wrong on many doctrinal conclusions, does that automatically make the idea of “sola Scriptura” incorrect? It seems to me that at least three questions are in order regarding this subject.

What does “by Scripture alone” mean?

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5 Church Members to Recognize

Selected Article

THE ENCOURAGER. This selfless person is always looking for a back to pat or a hand to lift. He or she is intent on others being appreciated for their contribution to the Lord’s work. These have a knack for doing so actively and genuinely.

THE UPBEAT. This smiling person has not had fewer surgeries, health issues, or reverses of life (in fact, many times they have had more than their share). Though you know they are suffering, if you ask them how they are you hear a silver-lining answer and see a twinkle in their eyes that betrays hope and optimism. They seem focused on heaven, not their hurts.

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How did it happen to America the Great?

By Jim Mettenbrink

In our task to restore the foundation of the nation that has been eroded we considered the causes of indoctrination of Secular Humanism (man is his own god – primarily via public education at all levels) increasingly for nearly a century, and more recently the influence of its child, Postmodernism (no absolute truth). Actually beginning in the Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries) the discoveries revealed via science combined with the advance of the Industrial Age (machines – late 1700s), European man (eventually all of the west) became increasingly self-sufficient. G.J. Holyoake, who coined the term “secularism” (1851), stated that the doctrine of morality “should be based solely in regard to the well-being of mankind in the present life, to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from a belief in God or in future life” (1845). We do not need God – we do it ourselves!

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Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice

By Brad Harrub

All Christians should seek and support Biblical justice. God demands it. There are countless passages that talk about how God is a just God. The Bible talks about His righteous judgement (Romans 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:5). Christians should fight for Biblical justice.

But what about social justice? Should we be marching in the streets and/or carrying banners to defend a specific cause? If social justice is in line with God’s Word, then all Christians should support it and defend it. But what about those occasions when social justice is not aligned with Biblical justice?

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