The Importance of The Gospel Message

Why is telling people the gospel so important?  Can't you just live a happy wealthy life and tell everyone around you that God is blessing you?  Isn't that good enough?  Why does it matter if we tell anyone about the person, works, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?

Review: The Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel

In June of 2018, 13 predominate evangelical figures initially signed The Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel.  It is interesting to note, a couple of the initial signers are minorities.  This is important when it comes to social issues such as racism.  It is a statement of affirmations and denials broken down into 14 sections.  We will study and analyze in each section statements that relate directly to social issues.  From this we can better determine if this statement accurately reflects spiritual truth in regards to social issues and The Bible.

Steven Furtick and What God Can't Do

The lead pastor over at Elevation Church in North Carolina, Steven Furtick, is a rock star.  He is a big personality with high dollar speaking engagements.   He gets his audience all ralled up with his engaging public speaking style and use bold words and statements.  He even got his masters in divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Even Oprah added him to her top list of spiritual leaders (John 15:19)... With all that said, lets get into what really matters; TRUTH.

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.

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.

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?

The Real Opportunity to Glorify God and Love Your Neighbor

Some people think that being a good neighbor is serving the Lord, but then just leave it at that.  Others feel that living a 'gospel' lifestyle is good enough so proclaiming the gospel to your neighbor is not necessary.  Some still, avoid conversations about spiritual things and justify themselves with ideas like "my neighbor sees my gospel lifestyle" or "I do nice things for my neighbor, so they see God through that".  But is that actually serving and Glorifying God and actually loving your neighbor;  Are we actually taking the REAL opportunities that God places us in to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ?

Being A Confessional Church

What does it mean to be a confessional church and why is it important?  In this day and age most people do not even know what being a confessional church is, in any shape or form.  This article will address a very important issue in the Body of Christ that most Christian leaders have neglected for generations.  We will review what 'confessional' is referring to, why it is important, discuss statements of faith, and clear up common misconceptions about historic Creeds and Confessions.

2016 Ligonier Lifeway Research Study

In 2014 and 2016 Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research conducted a study that surveyed participates nation wide of their theological beliefs.  The participates ranged from Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, 'mainline christian', and 'other' in the christian faith.  Age, gender, ethnicity, region, education, marital status, income and church attendance data was also collected.  The questions asked are huge and fundamental to the identity of the Christian Faith.  The questions analyzed the participants understanding of who God is, who they are before God, how they view the Bible and sin.  The results are stunning.  So shocking in fact, Gospel4all.com feels it is critical to address these topics in a more clear fashion.  We will look at those who attend church one or more times a month and how they understand the questions asked.  We will also focus on the 18-34 year old age group.  The results are eye opening on what the Church body in 2016 believes.

Disputable Matters

There are some things in the Christian faith that are essential absolute truths; such as Jesus is the One and Only begotten Son of God who is also Lord God and Savior.  Another is that we are saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.  But there are some matters that are of a relative nature; what food we eat, the day we worship, what we wear to church, what kind of church music is played, having a beer, and getting a tattoo.  Those are examples Disputable Matters.

Radicalized Christians?

Is there a sect or view within Christianity that advocates and exercises murder and violence against those who are viewed as enemies?  If there is a radicalized Christianity, what is it exactly?  Quite honestly the answer is very simple.  To know what IS Christianity, we must first look at the core defining elements of the faith and look at the teachings of Jesus.

What is 'Doctrine' and does it matter?

The word doctrine comes from a Latin word, doctrina, which means, “that which is taught.”  and it refers to the Christian teachings on Scripture, God, man, Christ, salvation, church, and the end of all things. Simply put, doctrines are organized teachings by their subjects.  The Doctrine of something is simply the organized explanation of what is taught about that something.  When it comes to Jesus, who Jesus is and what he did, is simply the doctrine of Christ.

Christology; Pre-incarnation

Christology; pre-incarnation is the study of Jesus in the Old Testament.  This is a very important study because this is how the Messianic Jews knew who Jesus was even before he died and rose again.  How did his followers know him as the Messiah, Christ, and Son of God before his crucifixion and resurrection?  By correctly understanding and knowing the Old Testament.  This also shines light how to better understand the Old Testament and have sound hermeneutics.

Do Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Mormons Worship The Same God?

This is a logical question considering these different 'religions' all claim to come from or 'depend' on the same book, The Torah and mostly the Old Testament.  Because they talk of the same "God" does that mean they all believe IN THE God of the Torah and of Christianity?  To know this, we need to look at essential characteristics of the god each religion that claims to believe in the same God and then simply compare.

Jesus, The Son of God

This is one of the largest and most important characteristic of Jesus; it is also one of the most offensive.

In Matthew 26:63, while on trial, Jesus is asked directly if he is the Christ, Son of God.  He had remained completely silent up to this point.  Jesus then responds with a very powerful statement.  (Matthew 26:64) He then redirects their train of thought off him Jesus 'of Nazareth' but on to Daniel 7:13-14 prophecy about the son of man coming from heaven; and applying that it himself. He is Jesus 'of God' "like a son of man" coming from heaven. He connects the Son of God and the son of man into 1 person; himself (John 19:7).  Deity and Humanity, together, in him.

The Triune God of Christianity

This essential biblical teaching is a profound and deep understanding of the eternal God of the universe.  He condescends these truths about himself just enough for us to be able to understanding Him to this degree.  This understanding allows us to know and understand him on the deepest level in our time in this world.  It also helps us see faiths that know Him and religions that do not know him.  Helps discern false teachings and truth in more clear terms.  The following is known as The Trinity.

It is so profound and at the deepest level of our understanding; it is best that our finite freshly minds can understand of our infinite and eternal creator of the universe.  Anything deeper is incomprehensible for our limited intellectual sinful minds to grasp.  The term "trinity" is not in scripture because it is a word used to describe the triune God described in scripture.  See 'Objections to the Trinity' bellow.

Christianity can be described as Monotheistic Trinitarianism.  Belief in One God made up of three 'persons'.  The word 'persons' does not accurately describe what makes up 'the trinity' but it helps.  It is NOT faith in three different gods. It is NOT One God with three different 'masks' (Modalism/Oneness Pentecostalism). It IS the following:

Jesus Is God

Who Jesus is, is fundamental to having eternal life or eternal damnation in the next life.  The Holy Spirit reveals this identity of Jesus to those who are called to believe.  Not everyone can see him for who he truly is and scripture records that perfectly.  Here we list 13 proofs of Jesus' deity.

The Joy of TRUTH

Definition of Truth:

What God has declared and done is truth.  Its that simple.  If God says we are sinners, that is truth; we are sinners.  If God says that to covet someone else's material things is sin; than when we covet, we sin.  If God says to simply look at another person with lust is sin, then if we look at someone with lust we have sinned.  If God says any sexual desires outside of marriage is immoral, than it is immoral. If God declares marriage between an man and woman, than any other marriage is not true.  Its that simple.  No matter the culture or time period; immorality is immorality and God's truth is God's truth.  Sin is sin.  God is truth. 

Why does truth seem so complicated sometimes?

Do You Want To Hear God Speak?

He has spoken. 
He has been speaking for thousands of years.
He spoke and created reality.
He had man write down his words throughout history.
His written word is carries with it Himself- The Holy Spirit.
He speaks to this day, all day, every day, through out the world to all people at any moment.
Do you want to hear his voice?

Read His written word aloud and he is speaking to you!

The Jewish nation understood this and kept His words written from the moment it was necessary. 
The early church understood this and kept His words written and circulating.
The church now understands this and keeps His words open for all generations.

The Reformers understood this greatly.  They knew for a fact that Holy Scripture was God's very own words.  They understood that God influenced man to record the very things that God wanted man to know.  The accumulation of God's own words reached the beginning of time and the future all the way to eternity.  It addressed all points of human existence and nature.  They formed the principle 'Scripture Alone' to express this very issue about the God's Words- Holy Scripture.

Chalcedonian Creed

The Council of Chalcedonian was brought together by the Roman Emperor Marcian to come to an agreement and an explanation about The Person of Jesus Christ.  It addresses and explains the 2 natures of Jesus, being God and man.

Chalcedonian Creed (451 A.D):