This question comes up quite often as a pastor. There are really countless ways a person could approach a Bible study. We can read for various reasons. We can read for quantity or quality. Quantity would be for volume, or amount read everyday. A one year Bible reading plan would service this need well. The…
Category: Article Library
John Gill on Eternal Sonship
The following excerpt is from John Gill concerning the eternal Sonship of Christ. “The incarnation of Christ is not the reason of his being the Son of God, but the manifestation of him as such; he was not made, but manifested thereby to be the Son of God (1 John 1:12, 3:8). In the fulness…
Early Testimony to the Date of Revelation
Today I found an interesting quote from Irenaeus. If you are unfamiliar with him, he was a minister not long after the time of the apostles. Many call them the apostolic Fathers or early church fathers. Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp. Polycarp is believed to be a disciple of the Apostle John. Here is…
Choosing a Church
There are various reasons that we hear people choosing churches to attend and join. Typically, the standard reasons I often hear are ‘it feels good’, ‘I like the music’, ‘it had the best programs’, and ‘our children liked it best.’ Church worship should feel good. Worship hymns should be engaging to the experience. Congregations should…
The Record of the Crucifixion from Mark’s Gospel
Last month, Josh Winslett posted an article discussing the day of the week on which Jesus was crucified. The traditional view of Christianity is that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. In recent times, this has been questioned because of the prophecy of Christ regarding the sign of the prophet Jonah, that He would be…
What Day was Christ Crucified?
There are three basic views concerning the day that Christ was crucified. The majority view is a Friday crucifixion, commonly called Good Friday. A second view that has gained some popularity is that Christ was crucified on Wednesday. There is also a third view that blends the other views and places the crucifixion on Thursday….
Justin Martyr on Sunday Worship
Sometimes I read accounts of Christian worship and life from the 2nd century. It’s always interesting to see how those directly after the apostles interacted in public worship. None of these saints were infallible. Some used strange language and others were influenced by Alexandrian philosophy. This should remind us to follow the Bible alone for…
Jesus is Both the Lion and the Lamb
The Bible often uses visual word pictures to display certain characteristics, or attributes of Jesus Christ. Two word pictures used are Lamb and Lion. Jesus is called Lamb that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). He is said to be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before…
John Gill on the Johannine Comma
One of the more crucial passages at the core of the debate over which family of manuscripts should be the basis for any Bible translation in any language is 1 John 5:7, also called the Johannine Comma. While it’s true that the passage is absent from the two older, Alexandrian manuscripts (dating to the 4th…