In a previous post, I dealt with a question about the final judgment. One aspect of the question had to do with why there is a judgment if it is a simple matter of unbelievers being condemned and believers being pardoned and entering paradise with the Lord.

In that post, I covered some background on the final judgment. Now I would like to expand on the question of why believers stand in judgment if Christ has already been judged in our place. This is something that was cloudy for me before I examined it more closely and now brings a lot of things together. Much of this comes from the message What Happens When You Die? All Appear Before …

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Are we justified by faith alone (SOLA FIDE), or are we justified by faith plus our works? That issue divided the Reformers from the Roman Catholic Church and it is still the major issue between Roman Catholicism (along with other groups) and the evangelical Protestant church today. We consider this issue as it is presented in James 2:20-26. MP3 download.

View the “Apostolic Grudge Match: Faith Alone vs. Faith Plus Works” video.

View the “You Do The Math” video.

 

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Last week we were resuscitated in our understanding that true spirituality never remains hidden between just you and God. Our spiritual health can be seen in how we relate to others around us. The New Testament drips with the dynamic that how I treat others corresponds directly with how much I love God since God tells me to love my neighbor (2:8). Put in another way, my relationship to the invisible, omnipotent God of the universe is directly connected with how I relate to you in this church and my neighbor when in need. However, what if someone says, “I do love my neighbor… in my heart.” How do you judge the legitimacy of that person’s faith? Do you have …

 

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A number of questions regarding the current teaching was submitted last week. I’d like to address one here:

Does the Roman Catholic church today believe in taking money to in exchange for forgiveness of sins?

In my understanding, this is not an overt doctrine of the RCC. However, given their system of salvation (process justification—as Dan has pointed out), almsgiving is seen as one of many “bricks” in one’s road toward justification. Whereas we believe that the Bible teaches that one’s forgiveness of sins is a one-time event (forensic justification), we would hold that giving money to the church or to the poor would be as a RESPONSE to forgiveness. Not as a means of forgiveness.

To make it more simple, the …

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Did you know that October 31 is called Reformation Day and marks the anniversary of the “official” beginning of the Protestant Reformation? On October 31st in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the University Church in Wittenberg Germany. The 95 Theses were a consolidation of Martin’s disagreements with the Roman Catholic Church regarding the sale of indulgences. Today we will seek to better understand the reasons that led to the actions of Martin Luther as well as the implications of that day has in our lives now. MP3 download.

 

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The Leadership Team answers your questions.  

Q1 (1:50): Why are matters such as leasing\buying a building put to vote by the whole church? Specifically, what issues are to be decided by the church members? Why is it biblical?

Q2 (13:30): Hi and thank you for reading this: I recently heard Andy Stanley tell a story about how they had lost one of their pastoral staff to cancer. It was a terribly sad story. The man who lost the fight to cancer was a man of God in his early 30’s and was a father of two. Mr. Stanley said, shortly before he passed away, that the church elders gathered and anointed him with oil and prayed over him. Obviously the …

 

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When we speak that there must be a necessary change when a person trusts in Christ there is often an undercurrent of distinction between the message of Jesus and the teaching of Paul. Advocates for looking toward Paul for the Gospel (and not the messages of Christ) will appeal to the sections of Scripture like Romans 3 and 4 because it is in these chapters we see the clearest picture of justification by faith alone. The reasoning goes something like this, “if there must be fruits of obedience to express a person truly being justified, then Paul would have most certainly included that teaching in these chapters.” At this point, a citation of a teacher(s) such as …

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In teaching this passage, I noted that a fundamental issue with the church today is directly connected with our understanding of what happens when a person becomes a follower of Christ. In other words, how do we know when someone becomes a Christian and, thus, part of the church universal? To Paul, it was clear that he took great confidence that the Church at Thessalonica was real and true (“chosen” by God, v.4) because they had clearly changed and everyone knew it. In fact, they were joyfully accepting abuse from people who didn’t like the fact that they had turned from worshiping idols (see I Thess.1:6). Therefore, the change that these people underwent was obvious, radical, and complete.

Are …

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Spiritual freedom is a result of a relationship with God on His terms and Jesus’ obedience secures this for us once and for all.  Our new walk with Christ will now supply us with the ability to walk in the Spirit so that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  Today we will discuss this and how our new relationship with our Heavenly Father puts us in a position to pursue a life of freedom, a life of enjoying Him and living life on-purpose.  

Today’s teaching will flow from Galatians 5:15-21.

 

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