How were the books of the Bible selected? “Canonicity” refers to the standard used to include these writings. God determined canonicity by inspiring certain men to write the Bible. Norman Geisler and William Nix give the questions used by the early church to determine this: 1. Is it authoritative? Though the writers claimed no authority […]
Frederick N. Charrington, heir to the largest distillery in England, while traveling in France, met an acquaintance, William Rainsford, and invited him home. He writes: “When we arrived, to my astonishment Rainsford suddenly said, ‘I feel very guilty. We have traveled all the way over the Continent, and enjoyed ourselves very much, but I have […]
To some the mental image of God is a blur of disappointment. “Here,” they say resentfully, “is One whom I trusted, but He let me down.” The rest of their lives is shadowed by this letdown…God is a Disappointment. Some, of course, rather enjoy this never-failing well of grievance. The years by no means diminish […]
Ray Comfort tells about a poster promoting atheism. It features pictures of Darwin, Jefferson and Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Einstein, Carl Sagan and Ernest Hemingway. “Atheism:” it says, “good enough for these idiots.” But is that true? Franklin wrote: “It is that particular wise and good God…that I propose for the object of my praise and […]
Hypocrisy is the great impediment in evangelism. Our Lord prayed that His people might be marked by reality. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (Jn 17:17). A.W. Tozer writes: Truth, to be understood, must be lived. Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life. […]
Peter Waldo (c. 1140 – c. 1218) lived in the darkest days of the Dark Ages. A wealthy merchant of Lyon, Waldo was enjoying dinner with friends one evening when one of them suddenly fell lifeless to the floor. This was such a shock that he abandoned his occupation, giving his attention completely to the […]
Confucianism: The insistence that human beings are perfectible through personal and communal endeavor. The main religious belief of China looks back to Confucius (the anglicized form of Kunk Fu-tzu, or Kung the Master) about 1000 years after Moses. Confucianism is an optimistic humanism that assumes man is basically good, being opposed to the biblical doctrine […]
Hy Pickering, born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, was raised in a religious home, but after being christened and confirmed, found he had not been converted. Not far from where he lived, some meeting began in a barn. He said the preacher “made no pretense at eloquence, wore no surplice, used no notes, and feared no man. The […]
It was Blaise Pascal who said: “Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; we do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ.” At the Cross we find both revealed. God’s love, mercy and justice respond to the sinner and his sin. Look at what Christ did to reconcile us to […]