Category: Reflections Articles

Recently, while reading through Homer Hailey’s book, Prayer and Providence, I came across a section describing the fact that prayer is sometimes either not answered, or not answered immediately.

In describing the fact that prayer is not always answered, Hailey referred to Moses prayer for God to relent in his decision not to allow Moses to go over into the promised land, (cf. Deut. 3:23-27). God said, “No” though he did allow Moses to view the land from the summit of Mount Pisgah.

Continue reading “Delayed Answers to Prayer” →

How would you characterize your relationship with God? Do you have the deist’s view of God?

de · ism: a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe. (my emphasis, SC)

(Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)

Many people today advocate a deistic attitude toward God. In their way of thinking, God exists, and perhaps is responsible for our existence, but has no direct interaction with man. This allows us to believe what we want, do what we want, all without fearing any consequence from a deity which is, after all, far removed from and uninterested in the existence of His creation.

Continue reading “Developing Intimacy With God” →

Matthew, chapter 3, describes the ministry of John the Baptist, who was called to prepare the way for the coming Messiah.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.”

(Matthew 3:1-3)

John must have been quite a sight, coming out of the wilderness, wearing camel’s hair clothing, with a leather belt and a diet of locusts and wild honey.

Continue reading “John the Baptist” →

A recent issue of Reader’s Digest contained an article entitled, Hidden Danger on the Road (How to Survive). The article noted that the government estimates at least 1.6 million car accidents a year involving trees, animals, and vehicle debris. These accidents caused over 600 deaths in 2003, and most experts believe this number is increasing.

Note the following incident in the story regarding one motorist: “As the 70-year-old Pakula neared exit 49 on the Long Island Expressway just before noon, a vehicle ahead of him drove over a seven-foot steel rod in the road, kicking it into the air. Within seconds, the rod shot through Pakula’s windshield, smashing into his forehead and killing him almost instantly. Authorities never determined where the rod, the kind used to secure a tractor-trailer’s load, came from.”

This is just one of the many hazards, including sudden illness, crime, etc., which may take the life of the unsuspecting. It brings to mind the following passage from James:

“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” (2:14-16)

Brethren, may we always be prepared for our death and Christ’s coming, knowing our life is but a vapor.

Luke records for us, in Acts 11;26, “And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

It is interesting to note the prophecy found in Isaiah 62:2 with regard to Luke’s statement.

“The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the LORD will name.“

Some would deny that the “calling” of the disciples as “Christians” was divinely ordained, but there seems to be no other name given to the disciples of our Lord. In fact, in all of the New Testament, the only proper name by which followers of Christ were known was Christian.

Continue reading “What Is A Christian?” →

Kris Braddock sure knows how to cause trouble.  An internet visitor to our web site took issue with Kris’ article entitled “Saved by Faith… But What of Works?”  And then he had the audacity to write me to complain!  Anyway, among other standard Calvinistic arguments he made, he said the following:

“Succinctly stated, the passages in Ephesians and James can ONLY be reconciled as follows: ‘Faith is the ROOT of our salvation. Works are the FRUIT of our salvation.’  Faith is the CAUSE of salvation and WORKS are the EFFECT, or RESULT of salvation.”

Below is my quick reply to him. Continue reading “We Get Letters – (On James 2)” →

In our last article on authority, we documented several “digressions” which resulted from a lack of understanding of how Bible authority is established.  The three general apostasies we mentioned were: 1) The establishment of the apostate church (Catholicism); 2) The embracing of human creeds in the Protestant Reformation; and 3) The apostasy in the late 1800’s which led to the establishment of the Christian Church denomination.

In the more recent past God’s people have been troubled by digression.  In the 1940’s and 1950’s issues arose in the church, which led to division among God’s people. Continue reading “Institutionalism: An Abuse of Authority” →

In the past 2,000 years, since the church was established on the first Pentecost following our Lord’s resurrection, there have been many apostasies.  In every case, widespread apostasy has occurred because of either a lack of respect for, or misunderstanding of Bible authority.  This we will demonstrate momentarily.  Therefore, the principles of authority we have been establishing in this series of articles need to be instilled in each generation to avoid similar departures both presently and in the future. Continue reading “Historical Abuses of Authority” →

Consider the following scenario. A parent gives a child a ten dollar bill, and tells him to go into the store and buy a gallon of milk, and a loaf of bread. The child returns to the car with the milk, the bread, some change, and a candy bar. The parent tells the child, “I didn’t say you could get a candy bar!”, and the child replies, “You didn’t say I couldn’t!”

The child’s statement is true, but he quickly learns that the parent’s silence on the matter did not constitute permission to go ahead and buy the candy bar. From this example, we understand the principle that silence is not permissive.

The same is true with the word of God. Continue reading “The Silence of Scripture” →

There is a simple mathematical principle that children learn early on in their education, as they are taught “sets” of numbers.

Simply, we could state that one set of numbers would be all “positive, whole” numbers. The set would be described in the following manner:

{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,…}

Within that set of whole numbers, we could have a subset of all odd whole numbers that have a positive value. Described as:

{1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,…}

Other similar sets could be represented in similar ways. Continue reading “Sets and Subsets” →

In our last article we indicated that at certain times God’s commands are general in their nature. Such generic authority allows room to exercise discretion.

For example, in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gave his disciples instructions, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The command to “Go”, given by Jesus, is generic in nature. Jesus did not specify the means of going, so the disciples had discretion in fulfilling the command. These areas of discretion can be categorized as expediencies. Continue reading “Expediency” →

A study of authority reveals that it can be categorized in two ways, Generic authority, and Specific authority.
By Generic we mean “general, opposite to specific” (Webster’s). So, Generic authority is inclusive. It includes all the methods or ways in which the thing authorized may be accomplished.

In contrast, by Specific we mean “precisely formulated or restricted; specifying or explicit” (Websters). So, Specific authority is exclusive. It only includes that which is expressly stated or specified.

On the surface, this may seem to be rather confusing. In reality it is a matter of simple common sense, and can readily be determined. Continue reading “Generic and Specific Authority” →

We have asserted that Bible Authority can be established from the written scriptures in three ways: Expressed Statement, Approved Example, and Necessary Inference. In this article we deal with the third means, Necessary Inference.

The concept is ridiculed by many as being a legalistic, and humanly devised means of establishing authority. We will show from scripture that this is not so. However, to begin, let’s note that we often learn things by inference. Continue reading “Necessary Inference” →

In our previous article, entitled Expressed Command, I wrote:

To properly understand how authority is established in religion, it is necessary to understand the nature of communication. God created man with the ability to communicate his will or desire to others. He chose to reveal Himself to man by the same methods. The divine hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible) is in accord with the logical rules of communication using written or spoken language.

One of these “logical rules of communication” can be identified as an approved example. The premise is simple. If in the New Testament we find Christians participating in an activity, and the example we find is spoken of as approved of God, we can rightly surmise that this practice is divinely authorized. Continue reading “Approved Example” →

In our previous article, we noted that the existence of the universe indicates either “self-existence”, or a divine first cause. Since the universe is finite with regard to time, with energy which remains usable (The Law of Entropy), the evidence suggests that a self-existent being created it at some point in the past.

Continue reading “The Divine Watchmaker” →