ROMANS 1:1-3

Our exhaustive study of The Book of Romans.  We conduct scripture cross-references so that Scripture interprets Scripture, word searches to correctly understand each word meaning, historical and cultural contextual understandings, and commentaries from J. VernonMcGee, Charles Hodge, John MacArthur, Charles R. Swindoll, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, and David Guzik.  We will use the ESV, NASB, and or HCSB translation due to their reliance on the most reliable biblical manuscripts.

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.

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.

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. 

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?

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 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.

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/

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.

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?

Who Is Jesus Really?

The debate about the historical existence of Jesus is not a debate at all.  Genuine historians, even secular non christian historians accept the fact that Jesus actually existed.  E.P. Sanders, a highly respected secular historian stated: "...we have a good idea of the main lines of his ministry and his message. We know who he was, what he did, what he taught, and why he died. ….. the dominant view [among scholars] today seems to be that we can know pretty well what Jesus was out to accomplish, that we can know a lot about what he said, and that those two things make sense within the world of first-century Judaism."  So, who is Jesus?

Manuscripts of The Bible and Textual Criticism

The Bible is a collection of ancient manuscripts of the original texts passed down through history.  Scholars gather, compile, translate, research and compare all discovered manuscripts and support texts to determine the original biblical texts.  This article will discuss an overview of biblical manuscripts and textual criticism; we will explain a brief overview of what Textual Criticism is, creation of source documents to recreate a document that closest resembles the original, what actual biblical manuscripts we currently have to study, and what source documents current bible translations depend on.

Is The King James The Best Translation?

There is a belief in fundamentalist Christian groups that the King James Bible is the most reliable biblical text and some even claim it is the only true Bible translation. They are firm in the loyalty to the KJV and trust it is the closest version to the original texts of scripture and some claim it is the exact same as the originals in translation.  But is this true?  To figure this out we will look at the KJV sources, translation, author, and consider God's prevision of his Word through textual criticism.

Hebrews In Egypt

The Bible records Jacob settling in Egypt, in the land called Rameses.  They became slaves to Egypt and were used to construct the Rameses city.  After 430 years of intense labor and poverty, they left.  (Genesis 47:11,27; Exodus 1:11, 12:37-40).  Is this the only explicit record of Israelites being enslaved in Egypt?  There are a couple logical questions we must ask then we can ponder any sort of evidence or support for the bible's claim.

Why The Bible is Divine: Miracles

A proof, or a sign of someone who has supernatural and immaterial powers is through conducting miracles.  A miracle is defined as 'a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency; a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.'  What evidence is there that Jesus of Nazareth performed such inexplicable, highly improbable, extraordinary supernatural acts?  Besides the eye witness accounts of the synoptic gospels, we can look at other outside biblical sources, some even hostile to Jesus, yet, unintentionally validate him.

Why The Bible Is Divine: Christology

The bible is not just a historical record of Israeli culture but also records of a supernatural element that illuminates hearts and minds to a greater plan for all history; where the center point of human history is not a civilization or culture, but a person.  A person that ancient history looked forward to and the same person the modern world looks back at.  This person is identified as Jesus.  In this article we will look at Jesus of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament.

Why The Bible is Divine: Prophecy

One of the evidences for us to know the bible contains a supernatural element and is from a divine source can be seen in the remarkable prophecies validated by history and supported unintentionally by outside unfriendly sources. We will look at historical prophecies of other nations and Messianic prophecies.

The Great Flood

This is a hotly debated issue; was there an actual historic Great Flood or is Noah's story just a myth taken from other cultures?  To address this question we will look at the ancient flood stories of different ancient cultures, and discuss evidences in geology and fossil records.  This topic requires and open mind but also requires a spiritually open mindedness.

Modern Secular Historians and The Bible

Not only do Christian scholars and historians find The Bible to be historically reliable (of course they would) but also some secular historians as well.  Not every historian makes their religious beliefs (or lack of them) known but the historians below make it clear they are not Christian but have determined the The Bible to historically reliable.  Not just any Historian with a degree but well respected secular historians in their field.