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Is Street Preaching Biblical?

People have probably heard a preacher on the side of the road with a mega phone preaching.  Some people stop in listen while others carry on shaking their head.  In modern times, most feel that it is not the best approach to evangelism.  Some will go as far to say that it is too judgemental and pushes people away from God.  But is that true?  Is street preaching unbiblical, unnecessary, and harmful?  First, we must always look to God's word and see what his faithful servants have done in the various cultures.

Is Christmas Pagan?

Every year before Christmas we all see people sharing memes and articles about how Christmas is a pagan holiday or comes from pagan roots.  But is this true and does it matter?  First lets investigate where Christmas, the seasonal symbols and ideals, came from and discuss why it matters.

Have Some Gifts of The Spirit Ceased?

More specifically, has the gift of tongues, healings, and prophesying ceased?   Right off the bat some will argue of course they have not citing some of their own witness accounts at their local church. BUT are those experiences the same as the ones described during apostolic age?

John of God, The Spiritual Healer from Brazil

John of God is a fairly well known spiritual healer based out of Brazil.  He has been interviewed by Oprah and featured on ABC News, Newsweek, and other international news outlets.   He is a medium and spiritual healer that performs odd 'surgeries' that heal the individuals illness and spirit.  He claims to be possessed by 'entities' such as dead saints and doctors.  He claims that all his spiritual encounters and healings are done by God's will.  Given his region of the world is predominately catholic and mentions the 'saints' it would seem that the God he is referring to is The God of The Bible.  BUT is he serving God's will?  Is allowing himself to be possessed by 'entities' God's doing?  Is he OF God?

When Someone Says "The Lord told me..."

Some people will claim God spoke to them directly, either verbally, in a vision, in a dream, on their private air plane, or they were lifted up to heaven and met God face to face.  But are their claims true?  If these claims are true, what are the implications?  If they are not true, what does that mean for the person making that claim?  How can we know the trustfulness of their claims?  We need to seek God's actual word to test these type of claims.

Rediscovering The Vastness of John 3:16

 Everyone has seen or heard John 3:16 on football face paint, billboards, bumper stickers, t-shirts, everywhere.  It has seem to become a mindless slogan in evangelical christian culture.  When digging into the meaning and the message, we find something so grand, so majestic, so powerful, that John 3:16 has the ultimate implications for all humanity; contained in these 25 words (NASB).  For some, rediscovering John 3:16 can mean new eternal life!

A Different Gospel

There is an original and true Gospel message proclaimed by The Apostles.  Sense then, there have been attempts by others to add to it, change it, or preach something entirely different.  How do we know what is the true gospel and what is a different gospel?  That means we must first know what the true gospel is before we can discern a different one.  Everyone knows the most basic form but not everyone understands its supreme and ultimate value and meaning in relation to the identity of God himself.

Are There Prophets Today?

Much like Apostles, there is the Office of The Prophet and gifts of prophecy; two separate things.  We know both existed and used in the days of The Bible but did they continue on after all the Apostles of Christ died?  The word itself, prophecy can mean various things.  We need to see the biblical definitions and uses of the word, then analyze the character of its use in scripture, research church history and compare with modern claims.

Gnosticism in the Modern Era

Gnosticism is a divers system of spiritual beliefs that incorporated pagan, Greek, and Christian ideals to formulate its own system.  Each Gnostic teacher added or changed the Gnostic beliefs to fit their own individualized ideals.   The first mentions of some of these Gnostic ideals were developed from the 2nd to 4th century AD.  The Church exposed these ideals as unorthodox and unchristian but sadly, even today, we can still see some of the ideals being taught.  There are a few primary teachers that developed ideals that are familiar still today: Marcion of Sinope, Valentinus,  Theodotus of Byzantium, Arius of Alexandar, Pelagiu, Cerinthus, Menander, Sabellius, Basilides, and Montanus.  There are other early Gnostic teachers but their forms of Gnosticism are far more separated from orthodoxy Christianity.  These same teachings influence modern religions and movements such as the Word of Faith movement, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, and Islam.

Are There Apostles Today?

This is an important question concerning Apostolic authority of divine witness and eternal truths.  It is key to understand what an Apostle IS, understanding the different types of apostles, their qualifications and validations, and then we can determine if there are Apostles today.

Word of Faith Hermeneutics

Word of Faith Hermeneutics.  There is no one central teacher or organizational ministry but a collection that feed off each other adding in their own unique idea, which is usually accepted by the others.  The primary teachers that form the collection of Word of Faith doctrine are: Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Joyce Meyer, Paul Crouch, Kenneth E. Hagin, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Paul Yonggi Cho, Morris Cerullo, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, and E.W.Kenyon. What do they teach?

Who was John The Apostle?

 The Apostle John is an extremely important figure when it comes to our knowledge about what Jesus did and taught.  He is also extremely important in early church history.  He was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother was James, who was also one of the Twelve Apostles.  He was ready for anything did the most he could out of his love for Christ. 

Who was Simon Peter?


The Apostle Peter, also called Simon Peter or Simeon,  son of Jonah or John who was born in  the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee.  He had a brother name Andrew.  He was a fisherman by profession with his brother and and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. He was also married.  He then met Jesus and his life changed forever.  Does your pastor preach and teach like Peter?

The Original Biblical Writings

It is true that we may not currently have the original writings of the Prophets and Apostles BUT when researching the accounts from the early church teachers we can say that there exists a real possibility that we actual may have, if not the originals, first or second generation copies of the originals.  That's a big deal.  But how can we know that this possibility exists?

When An Angel Teaches A Different Gospel

Since the foundation of the Church, there have been many claims of supposed truth that has come down from heaven after what Jesus, and The Apostles of Jesus have made known in scripture.  Three most notable is what founded Islam, Mormonism, and Jehovah's Witnesses.  All of these claim an Angel revealed something to their founders, different from the gospel that was proclaimed in scripture; either attempting to correct or add to it.  But, interestingly, The Holy Spirit knew this would happen and thus specifically said something about it.

Church Shootings

Church shootings are a tragedy just like any other shooting that causes the loss of life.  Some however feel that they are worse in the sense they are done in a 'house of God'.  There have been 14 fatal shootings at a house of worship since 2012 with different motivating factors.  Americans tend to be more shocked by these type of shootings verses all other types but is there really a difference?  There are 3 major misconceptions in American society: (1) A Church building is the house of God, (3) Limiting Gun access will reduce murders, (3) Prayer is not enough.

Evidence for the Crucifixion of Jesus


How do we know Jesus died on the cross?  We must look at the historical evidences recorded for us in ancient history.  What evidence is there?  We have the ancient accounts from Jewish historians, Syrian philosopher, ancient Roman historians and writers, and archeological evidence support; all within the 1st and 2nd century.  With all this evidences, what can we reliably conclude?

Muhammad, a Prophet of God?

When a person is chosen by God to be God's Prophet to the people they have unique characteristics that support their claims.  There are 4 key elements that reveal a true Prophet of God which can be used to test and see if this individual is from God.  Was Muhammad a true Prophet of God?

Jesus and Islam

Jesus is one of the greatest figures in the world.  For Christians, he is the absolute greatest of all, but in Islam, he I just a highly respected prophet to the Jews.  Given the sharp differences in the two understandings of Jesus, both can not be true.  What does Islam and Muslim scholars say about Jesus?

The Quran: Who Wrote It?

Is the Quran today the same as the original teachings from Muhammad himself?  Of course Sunni Muslims would say yes.  In fact, all Muslims must agree that they are, but, in the Shiite sect of Islam, not all are in full agreement of the source of the final product of the original teachings.  To remove Christian bias, we will look at the historical quotes from Muslims themselves and see how accurate the Quran is.

Confession

We all sin. We all have done or do things that we need to get off our chest and confess to people who we have wronged or who is willing to listen. There is no coincidence that psychological research finds confession very therapeutic. But do we have to? And if so, how and when?

Who are YOU?

You, your being, your essence, your identity, who you are.  What makes you, you?  The modern world uses conditional compound labels to construct who people are.  Race, politics, religion, family heritage, social economic class, sexuality, and other social constructs are used to build someone's 'identity'.  African American or Italian American.  Liberal or Conservative. Christian or Muslim.  Heterosexual or Homosexual.  Wealthy or poor.  Throw a bunch of these labels together and boom- you?  What if our true essence of being and eternal identity is not found in those? 

The Choking Thorns

Jesus' metaphor for the seed sown among the thorns (Matthew 13:22; Luke 8:14) is extremely relevant to today's issues of the Western church and the current social issue of systemic injustice.  This is a much heated debate that needs to be addressed.  How it is addressed and how solutions are sought are key.

The Son of God and sons of God

Throughout the Bible, various persons are stated as being sons of God or as God but what makes Jesus more unique than all them?  We must first properly understand what scripture means when it calls Jesus and others a son of God.  This helps us properly understand the uniqueness of Jesus.

Commonalities of Cults

There are many subgroups of the Christian faith.  These subgroups tailor their teachings and focuses in different ways.  That is exactly how the Body of Christ functions BUT there are some groups that claim to be 'Christian' when in fact, they are not.  Some deny being 'Christian' but claim to have similar beliefs and 'more correct' views than that of orthodox Christianity; but how can you identify a cult?

The Nashville Statement

The Nashville Statement is a document published online and authored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood that clarifies the orthodox Christian faith position on human sexuality.  Over 150 predominate orthodox Christian teachers from around the world have signed the statement.  Of course it is not without controversy given our day and age and with some rejecting Christians.  Regardless, much like in the days of The councils of past, it addresses and clarifies the orthodox Christian faith in this specific matter.  But is it biblical?  Read the statement here: https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement/

Who and What Is Satan?

Scripture reveals everything we need to know to recognize Satan and his schemes and temptations.   We will address where he came from, who he is, what he does, how he does it, and what his effects are and what they look like in the world around us.  We are commanded to test the spirits, and we can't do that if we don't know the difference.

Is The Watchtower organization of God?

If a religion completely dependent on who the Watchtower claims to be (sole divinely inspired interpreters of Gods word) conflicts with what is stated in their own bible translation and contain errors in their teachings, can they be of God?  The question really is, if they were found to be false, are their followers truly genuine truth seekers who have the freedom to see it?

Discussion with a Jehovah's Witness

Evangelism takes shape in many forms.  At times God has random strangers walk up and ask random questions that spark spiritual conversations.  Other times major life events causes us to reflect on deeper matters which leads to spiritual conversations.  And at times, God even uses the internet.  In this case, God chose to use the internet.  A devout Jehovah Witness reached out and shared a screen shot image from the JW website about who they think Jesus is.  Given the massive importance of the topic, we felt it was necessary to engage in a dialog with this individual but it quickly changed in tempo, tone, and agenda.

How to be a local missionary for your community

Every Christian is called to be a witness of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Though not everyone is called to go to some far away land but everyone is called to proclaim the good news exactly where they are because that is exactly where God has placed them at that moment in time.  How faithful we are to God in his calling is what we are accountable for, none the less, we are called and placed for this purpose.  Then how do we be a local missionary for our community?

Hurricane Harvey Help

It is critical that the church acts when there is a need.  Well, there is a need.  Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana hard and there is an on going need of donations.  As the Body of Christ, we serve the Lord Jesus Christ in every opportunity and need.  We serve not for selfish reasons or intent but out of Love for God and others.  If God has given you a dry roof over your head, food, clothing, and life; it is your duty as a servant of God to use that which God has given you for others in need.  There are many ways to serve and help.

Faith in Truth Comes From God

How do you KNOW the Spirit of God dwells in you?  How do you KNOW God has chosen you, and adopted you to be a child of God?  The answer is more simple than the world thinks.  Your faith in the truths of Jesus Christ is proof.  Why? because the faith to believe these truths, comes from God; but what truth exactly?

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