Sometimes people hear sermons or read articles about “doing good works” and “working out your own salvation” and “always abounding in the work of the Lord” and “doing the will of the Father in heaven,” and they are sometimes filled with doubt or grief or trepidation (or even negative emotions toward the one who focused on those portions of Scripture). And here’s…
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Posts by David Sproule
The Israelites’ archnemesis—the Philistines—“gathered together to fight with Israel,” having troops “as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude” (1 Sam. 13:5), and the Israelite “people were distressed” (13:6). Saul “waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel” (13:8), who was going to come and “offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of…
The book of Leviticus is predominantly a book of laws and ordinances given to Israel at Mount Sinai, which makes the two narrative (or story) sections of the book (in chapters 8-10 and chapter 24) really stand out as unique in the setting of the whole book. One event that God chose to specifically include was…
The Bible teaches that God requires Christians to engage faithfully in good works (Matt. 7:21; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 2:12; Jas. 2:14-26; 1 John 1:7). The Bible teaches that God conditions salvation from sin and eternity in heaven upon faithful obedience to His commands. Can a Christian receive the crown of life without being faithful (Rev. 2:10)? Can a Christian receive eternal…
“As long as I’m going to church, does it really matter where?” Sometimes it may be easy to think that one church is as good as another. But is that true? Does it matter to you if the doctor you see has a degree from a medical school or from a culinary institute? Does it matter to you if your airline pilot was trained at…
Have you ever been upset with what your preacher keeps preaching? Kind of like this guy? “Well, I just don’t know what to do about this preacher! He keeps preaching sermons about sin, repentance, divorce, fornication, adultery, keeping commandments, covetousness, materialism, worldliness, false teachers, the devil, judgment day, hell, eternal punishment, narrow passage to heaven, withdrawing fellowship, giving to the church, personal sacrifices, severing…
Does the New Testament teach that a Christian (i.e., one who has been saved by obeying the conditions specified by the God of heaven) must do good deeds in order to maintain His relationship with God? That question bothers some folks. The question is not asking anything about “earning” a relationship or “deserving” a relationship. The question is asking if the New…
Imagine a 5-gallon bucket that figuratively contains all the information there is to know about some situation. But imagine that what you know about that particular situation would comprise only about two drops at the bottom of that 5-gallon bucket. Is there a lot you don’t know? Or, even if what you knew about the situation was as much as two gallons in that bucket,…