About Me

My photo
I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Where Is God?

 What I wonder about is the “special” presence or blessing of God and Jesus at the time such as “when two or three are gathered in [His] Name” (cf Matt. 18:20) in prayer, or when He manifests Himself. We are not to believe it when people claim: “Christ is here.” But we have no excuse for not having the presence of God within us.

New Age spiritualists, who even take over some churches, seek the “God within.” Does any “church” or people have a monopoly on the presence of God then? Don’t believe it if people claim this: “Christ is here or Christ is there.” However, since the ascension and the coming of Pentecost, we are better off with the Holy Spirit’s residence than they were with Jesus’ presence.—another mystery.

Do we need to seek the presence or “face” of God or is it automatic because we can be filled with the Spirit, and we just don’t’ recognize it like Abraham in Gen. 28:16, “Surely the LORD is in this place: and I knew it not.” So, God is everywhere and we just don't know it or comprehend it—it’s our fault for not knowing it. We cannot limit God at all or put Him into a bo and restrain His presence. God is big!

To Christians, God has made His home within our hearts and dwells within (cf 1 Cor. 3:16). Thus, it’s not a matter of God being here or how much He is, but how surrendered we are and how much of us the Spirit has—not how much of the Spirit we have. We don’t need more of God, but to give Him more of us.

Some even go so far as to say that the Lord is present in a special way at the Lord’s Supper. But God is truly “far” from the wicked, a form of judgment. And if God is in hell, and being omnipresent implies that, is this also means that He is not there is His goodness and mercy, but only in His judgment.—God is able to manifest aspects of Himself or of His divinity at will. “Showing His goodness or His glory.” God made this point clear to Israel because they intended to believe Gods were territorial and Yahweh was only Israel's deity and not around the world.

But some theologians say that God is ‘fully present” everywhere (immensity of God). Yet He judges by withdrawing presence-a paradox. He fills the heavens and the earth (cf. Jer. 23:23–24) and we just cannot see it, like the fact that he “inhabits eternity” and also the “praises of His people.” (cf. Isa. 57:15 Ps. 22:3)

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Believing In "Another" Jesus

 "And this is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," (cf. John 17:4). 

"... For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins," (cf. John 8:24). 

"... For unless you believe I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins," (John 8:24, NLT). 

"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God," (cf. 2 John 9). 

"Who do you say that I Am?"  This is the whole point of Jesus and our faith, the one litmus test in our creed, to know Jesus, and what distinguishes us from false religions, sects, cults, and heresies.  Remember: It's not how big your faith (but how big your God) nor how sincere or fanatical you are, but the object of your faith that saves; faith doesn't save, Jesus does--and it needs to be the real Jesus, the only begotten Son of God (coequal, coexistent, and coeternal to the Father).  

When Jesus claimed to be God without even beating around the bush or using figurative language, only the Pharisees knew His claim and they plotted to kill Him for His "blasphemy."  The disciple were clueless till the resurrection. The point is that you must believe in the real Jesus, who He claimed to be, and not just who you think He is or want Him to be. He was not God's surrogate or a deified man that was misunderstood by His disciples.  They were not expecting the one they saw, for He was not the Messiah of conventional wisdom and that they were taught (a mighty conquer who would liberate Israel from Rome).  

Jesus was who He claimed to be or He is a demon, liar, or even lunatic (and there is no evidence to lend credence to any of these false beliefs) because He clearly claimed deity. It was only because of preconceived notions and ignorance of prophecy that they couldn't see the truth. Jesus did fulfill over 333 prophecies to the letter. The Jews you will know were monotheistic and couldn't conceive of a triune Godhead.  Jesus was truly man as well as truly God and they only saw His humanity and that He was a man but didn't see that He is One with the Father. He demonstrated and proved His divine claim by the ultimate and final evidence of the resurrection, which Luke said had "many infallible proofs." 

They may have seen Him as a Son of God, even calling Him "Lord" and worshiping Him, but not God made man--God with skin on or personified in the flesh. But it is only because He is God that He's fully adequate and qualified to be our Savior! He can suffer the infinite penalty and price for sin on our behalf. This is theologically called the atonement and Jesus death is substitutionary. He took on our sins so we would need not punishment. The principle of representation goes back to Adam who took our place as the head of the human race and sinned thus making us all sinners because of his one sin. 

If a so-called Christian who claims to believe in Jesus receives Him without His claims to deity, they are denying Him and do not know the real Jesus but "another Jesus" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).  The book of 2 John v. 9 says that if we do not abide in the doctrine of Christ we do not have the Father, meaning this is the litmus test for Christians--they know Jesus for who He is, not some deified man, demigod, or humanized God or man with superhuman powers. 

But we must recognize that Jesus had to be God because it fulfilled the prophecies. The Jews were blinded to the truth and needed to be enlightened. Since He is the Almighty and our Creator, we must worship Him and surrender to Him our lives.  In application, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the LDS do not have the right to go by the moniker Christian for they deny Jesus full Deity inclusion in the Godhead as coequal and coeternal to the Father.  These belief systems are not bona fide denominations but sects.  The only reason they really are not cults is that they don't steal your money and have slaves and people who don't know how to escape like the Church of Scientology.  But LDS are erroneous in claiming secret knowledge and this was the error of the Gnostics who believed in salvation via secret knowledge or enlightenment.  

Sooner or later all of us must come to the decision of whether we will accept the Jesus He claimed to be: Lord of all!  But we cannot come to Jesus on our own initiative; the Father must woo or draw us to Him--the call must be granted by the Father.  "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed," (cf. Acts 13;48).   Paul said in Rom. 11:7 that the elect obtained unto it and the rest were blinded or hardened--God must open the eyes of our hearts and kindle faith.  It literally takes a miracle to change someone's heart and open it to receive the Lord.  The general call of the gospel goes out to all (cf. Titus 2:11) but whomever God calls always gets saved (cf. Rom. 8:29-30). "You did not choose Me, but I chose you," (cf John 15:16).  That's why it's said, "Many are called but few are chosen," (cf. Matt. 22:14).     Soli Deo Gloria! 

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Know Your Place!

The Greeks of antiquity admonished us to "know thyself," while Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, to know your enemy.  In the church, it's vital to know our spiritual gifts and we can only find them out by venturing out of our comfort zone and becoming a servant of the church body because the purpose of the gift is to sanctify and bless the body of Christ--we're saved to become blessings,  This even means doing things that we may even think are not our gift!  We may have to put up with subordination and following and submitting to authority, but this is not a form of inferiority but obedience which even Christ did to the Father and humbled Himself to become our servant. Note that Christ did the servile act of foot-washing to teach that we should deem no service for the Lord's sake as "beneath" us or not what we are gifted to do or not even spiritual enough to do as that it is something the deacons or elders should do.  

The Bible tells us to know God and the Lord, and even the Bible and by corollary, know sound teaching. This all shows that our faith is more about knowing than about doing. In other words, religion always says "Do!" while Christ says "Know!"He said, "This is eternal life, to know [God] and Jesus Christ whom [He] has sent."  In other words, we don't need another "to-do" list!  We also may know that we are saved and even the will of God!  But I want to write about knowing where we belong and our place, for it's offensive to be out of place or to usurp authority or assume power where one doesn't deserve it. There's nothing more annoying for a parent for a child to not know his place or to speak inappropriately when he should know better. I'm assuming that we know what we are doing, are spiritually inclined, have a measure of maturity, and can apply what we know to what we do, which is common wisdom; putting knowledge into action. 

In other words, we know and learn (and we are all on a learning curve) by doing and practicing what we know: translating our creeds into deeds (being a people of God zealous of good works).  But to do the right thing and this is an example of leadership, we must know sound doctrine and get our thinking straightened out, including having a Christian worldview unaffected by the Secular Humanism so prevalent and rampant in academia. Even believers can become brainwashed by the human viewpoint.  Knowing is the first step to feeling good about yourself: know right, think right, act right, and then feel right. As we know, the divine order is:  fact, faith, feeling! We must not get the cart before the horse or depend on our feelings for direction in life.   

We have an objective, absolute, and trustworthy source to rely on (the Bible as our plumb line) and put faith in as truth and knowing that God is the final Arbiter of Truth.  Remember, the better we know our gift and place in the church, the more opportunity we will have for good works and to be oriented to the vision and mission of the church and to navigate ourselves within the body and interact with others. Learn not to stand on the sidelines but stand up for what you believe and dare to be like Daniel who defied the king when he prayed. 

In conclusion, let me add that servants don't ever start out at the top but work their way up!  The best leaders have first been followers first and know the ropes of dedication and faithfulness.  Remember the words of Mother Teresa: "God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness." Leave the success to God!  But God but that doesn't mean we don't expect great things from God attempt great things from God?  This means our ministry our outreach isn't measured by the human standards of a numbers game.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Monday, November 30, 2020

He That Is Spiritual III

 Le

Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary (the largest Protestant seminary on earth) wrote a book in 1918, He That Is Spiritual, to delineate the so-called carnal Christian as contrasted with the so-called spiritual ones. An unbeliever was called the natural man. This dichotomy of believers is unbiblical and misleading. Any Christian can become carnal by sin, and all he needs to do is to confess it per 1 John 1:9--carnality is no perpetual or permanent state. We all live in a state of perpetual and progressive confession and repentance--the unrepentant person is not saved. John says that a Christian doesn't continue in sin, and this means he makes it his way of life, though he may live a defeated life, there is some life to his faith or it is dead faith producing no works, which cannot save.

The whole purpose of faith is to produce the workmanship of God, foreordained by God, that we should walk in it (cf. Eph. 2:10). Spiritual believers are not those who go overboard or are fanatical or so-called Jesus freaks, but those who walk with God in the Spirit. They are realizing their potential of the fruit of the Spirit, and of knowing the Lord. The Christian life that is spiritual is one that enjoys fellowship with God and other believers. All believers are exhorted to read the Bible, witness, and pray; not just the clergy.


The spiritual man has relinquished ownership and the throne of his life to Christ, he has surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, and he lives the substituted or exchanged life with Christ living through him. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (cf. Gal. 2:20). This can only be accomplished by a believer in sync with God's will, and willing to follow Jesus wherever he may lead. The spiritual man has learned the secret of "inhabitation," as opposed to "imitation."

The obedient Christian does these things and the only test of faith is obedience. A. W. Tozer, in I Call it Heresy!, says: "The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe in a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is --the anointed Saviour and Lord...." We see our faith in action by our good works according to James. Paul would say we see our good works by our faith. They go hand in hand. In other words: As Lutheran martyr, preacher, and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient, only he who is obedient believes." (Note that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed, as written in Heb. 11:8.) The ultimate result is the fruit of a changed life, not an ascetic or mystic one that parades or charades as spiritual.


The spiritual man is appraised of no one, because of the wisdom of God and, if we have the Spirit, we are spiritual. The natural man cannot comprehend spiritual truth, for Satan has blinded his eyes. We need the eyes of our hearts opened to see spiritual truths. Some believers are more mature in the faith and know the Lord better, but all of them are spiritual. There's no class system or caste system in Christianity, we are all brethren and one in Christ. We should not idolize our fellow believers, even if they seem to be spiritual giants. We should never try to give the impression we are more "spiritual" than other believers or have a holier-than-thou attitude. By the same token, we shouldn't be intimidated by others and develop an inferiority complex. Christ's church has no spiritual elite or privileged class, for God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Acts 10:34, Rom. 2:11).

We all have different gifts and we don't have anything the Lord has not given us (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). It is the Spirit that matters, not the gift that makes us spiritual. In exercising one's gift, what matters is the spirit that he uses it in. Believers have no excuse not to understand Scripture, pray, and witness and should enjoy the fruits of fellowship and worship in the body because they have the illuminating ministry of the Spirit.


We are all works in progress and improving from faith to faith (cf. Rom. 1:17); no one can claim to have "arrived" or to have met the goal and won the prize (cf. Phil. 3:13-14). We are in the process of maturing in Christ, but it is the direction we are going that counts and is the test, while perfection is the standard (cf. Matt. 5:48). We must bear fruit as proof of our faith, or it is bogus--no fruit means no faith, and ergo no salvation. (Jesus said we shall know them by their fruits in Matt. 7:16.) We can only find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment ultimately in Christ: "There is a God-shaped blank, and only God can fill it." (old axiom). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual II



"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14).



It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian. Who is? This is a vital and bona fide question: Like someone has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!" When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner. There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible. Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality: A famous saying goes thus: Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus! I have learned this and have observed it: God meets us where we are and knows where we are! We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is. The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered. He lives for Christ and not for himself. This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings. Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of babes, as Jesus noticed: Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..." I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said: "Take and read, take and read."


He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God")-and we have this privilege too! It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:17). There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original! He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival. "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments' (1 Cor. 2:15). There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words. Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.


Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25). "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him. The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.


This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all: "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ: not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit. The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law! In other words: Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong. In sum, "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual

 It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.


"O that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32:29, KJV).


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian.  Who is?  This is a vital and bona fide question:  Like G. K. Chesterton has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!"  When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner.  There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible.  Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality:  A famous saying goes thus:  Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus!  I have learned this and have observed it:  God meets us where we are and knows where we are!  We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is.  The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered.  He lives for Christ and not for himself.  This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings.  Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of infants (cf. Matt. 21:16), as Jesus noticed:  Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..."  I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said:  "Take and read, take and read."  Proverbs 20:9, HCSB, says, "'Who can say ,"I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin?'"


He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God," Gen. 6:9)--and we have this privilege too!  It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).  There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original!  He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival.  "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments'  (1 Cor. 2:15).  There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words.  Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.   Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk:  "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25).  "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him.  The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.


This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all:  "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh"  (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ:  not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit.  The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law!  In other words:  Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong.  In sum,  "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Is God Scientific?



God invented science and all laws of the universe (cf. Job 38:33). Actually, a Christian, Sir Francis Bacon formulate the scientific method. God created the earth by the Word of His mouth by speaking it into existence (cf. Psalm 33:6,8). Science and nature have no power to create but that doesn’t mean God defies the rules of logic and laws of nature (this proves a divine Lawgiver). Nature didn’t create itself and has no power to do so. Nothing can logically create or cause itself according to the law of cause and effect, including God; however, self-existence is possible logically. We know that "out of nothing, nothing comes" (ex nihilo, nihil fit) and if there ever was nothing, there could be nothing now! Something is eternal.

God is the only Creator: “Every house is built by someone and God is the builder of all things,” (cf. Heb. 3:4). This is cosmology. Infinite regress is impossible! All laws of nature are from God (cf. Col. 1:16; Job 38:33). God has power over nature as exhibited when Jesus calmed the storm and showed that He rules.

God cannot be proven in the same way that science does by observation, measurement, and repetition. God is not audible, visible, or tangible to us and cannot be put into a laboratory test tube or under lab testing parameters. We cannot measure a pound of justice nor a foot of love and likewise cannot measure God.

The existence of God is a philosophical question and is up to metaphysics, not physics. You cannot normally prove the metaphysical by the physical. Thus the existence of God is not within the scope and parameters of science to prove or experiment on. God created the heavens and the earth to show His glory but we cannot prove God; there is evidence, not proof. But it goes for atheism: evidence, not proof. Both sides require faith: either in science or in God. It’s not a matter of faith versus reason, but faith versus faith: faith in science is still faith. There is no “smoking gun” evidence either way. You cannot prove either proposition or hypothesis beyond a shadow of a doubt. Soli Deo Gloria!

Can We Separate Faith And Repentance?

 Faith and repentance go together hand in hand, to be distinguished but not separated. They are both the gift of God (cf. Acts 5:31;11:18; 2 Tim. 2:24). They are stated in juxtaposition in Scripture and not to be divorced. They can be seen as the flip side of the other. In fact, theologians speak of penitent faith or believing repentance. To see them linked in the Bible, read Acts 20:21 and Heb. 6:1.

Also, the way to salvation is termed with one as well as the other (cf. Luke 24:47; Acts 26:20). Repentance must produce fruits worthy of it.  The first message of the kingdom of God for John and Jesus was to repent! “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!” (cf. Matt. 3:2; cf. 3:8). If you cannot believe, you need to repent and vice versa! This is the conclusion of the matter: There is no genuine repentance without saving faith!  Soli Deo Gloria!

How To Take God Out Of The Box...

 

  1. By worship Him for who He is and not as one-dimensional, having a small God.
  2. By knowing Him as Lord and Savior.
  3. By experiencing or encountering Him in real-time and living it out. 
  4. By submitting to His Lordship via obedience.
  5. By learning the doctrines of the Bible that explain God’s divinity, nature, and deity.
  6. By refusing to see Him solely as Father, Jesus, Great Spirit, or even the man upstairs, seeing God as too human.
  7. By regular church attendance and the “hearing of the Word,” which gives faith.
Soli Deo Gloria!

Some Orthodox Proofs Of God...

 

  1. Just like you understand the wind by seeing it in action—you see God in action; that is to say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!
  2. You can tell what God is up to after the fact that He knows best.
  3. By being in awe of His creation and recognizing the need for a Creator.
  4. We know the sun is up there because we see everything else; likewise, we see because God is light!
  5. Why do you think we are God-conscious, unlike the animals who never build chapels or pray?
  6. We have a built-in sense of right and wrong proving a God who must care about justice like we do.
  7. There are countless ways we are different from animals that we must realize we are not one.
  8. Who made us smarter than beasts?
  9. Who can answer the ultimate questions of life’s purpose, meaning, fulfillment, dignity?’
  10. Why do we need an Answerer? God seems to have them!
  11. Wouldn’t a God be a higher being than us? The miracle of changed lives is irrefutable.
  12. If God were a force or influence, not a Person, how could He love us? We love Him because He first loved us! God is love!

The old argument from design (teleological) argument is still valid and should be looked at from a logical and commonsensical view: where did the design come from (a Designer?); plans (a Planner?); order (an Orderer?); laws (a Lawgiver?); purpose (a Purposer?; or a beginning (implying a Beginner). Teleology is another word for purpose. In other words, the presence of God is in everything and to think without purpose is unscientific at that.  Soli Deo Gloria!