Voddie Baucham well said, “The nail in the coffin of the evangelical church is that of self-sufficiency.” The moment a pastor feels that he can teach simply because he has learned or attended seminary is the moment his ministry takes a turn for uselessness or mere showmanship. We are not self-sufficient as NT ministers. Even if your living isn’t from the church, if you’re in Christ you’re strivin...  Read More

Scripture speaks of itself as able to make believers fully equipped for every Christian work, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We’re informed of what we need to do honorable Christian ministry in every facet of it by Holy Scripture. We don’t need some subsequent baptism post salvation or any higher level empowering. In Christ, all we need is the word of God. God’s word tells us what it takes to pastor, to teach...  Read More

Here’s one way the Bible presents the gospel: “Brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that H...  Read More

Synergism, in theological terms, is the idea that God and man work together in salvation. Greek: Syn (plural) ergo (work). The word synergism is a composite that essentially means, “The work of two or more.” Think of words like synthetic, synoptic or synthesis and you see the same plural idea. The word synergism stands in distinction from the idea of monergism or, “The work of one.” Here we see co...  Read More

     Whatever confusion may arise in a person’s life regarding the ordinance of water baptism, we should never, ever interpret this commandment as something that leads to salvation. Water baptism does not remove sin any more than the Lord’s Supper or any other act of obedience. Let any who teach it as a requirement for salvation be anathema. It is an external symbol of the invisible spiritual bapt...  Read More

On 14 Feb, Chris H. asked: “The people who die in the jungle who’ve never heard of Jesus can still live a good life. What about them? Will they go to hell?” Response:Adam and Eve were good people (Genesis 1:31) before they sinned. Nowhere in the Bible are their kids called good. I’ve never met a good man, and neither have you. Not by the standard of the Ten Commandments.     Noah was called a righ...  Read More