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Articles by Phillip Ross

• Two Human Body Types
  Christ is another kind altogether. Christ has two natures -- natural and supernatural, sarx and soma.
  Published 28Sep2010, viewed 295 times

• Imagining Heaven
  Christ is the firstborn of the reborn.
  Published 28Sep2010, viewed 336 times

• Trinitarian Resurrection II
  Paul teaches that bodily resurrection is as certain as the fact of our own bodies.
  Published 22Sep2010, viewed 253 times

• Trinitarian Resurrection I
  Paul teaches that bodily resurrection is as certain as the fact of our own bodies.
  Published 22Sep2010, viewed 242 times

• The Body of Resurrection
  People are able to see the truth or to see reality from a Christian perspective only because God has first changed their hearts and minds.
  Published 12Sep2010, viewed 287 times

• Sin, Deception, Chastisement and Shame
  It is not that people are missing knowledge, but that they are holding onto ignorance. This is an important distinction in the light of Romans One.
  Published 30Aug2010, viewed 276 times

• Washing the Dead, Fighting Beasts
  What can the good apples do to counteract the spread of mold and rot? Nothing. Their only recourse is to avoid proximity. Paul's argument here is that sin and the manifestations of sin are contagious and Christians need to avoid sin.
  Published 26Aug2010, viewed 307 times

• Reboot Humanity
  God Himself, by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through regeneration, is the glue that binds all of the various aspects and levels of authority together.
  Published 17Aug2010, viewed 271 times

• All God's Children
  God's purpose is not to destroy the world, but to reboot it. God is not out to destroy the world -- He loves it (John 3:16)!
  Published 11Aug2010, viewed 245 times

• Resurrection Crux
  Paul's argument is that if the doctrine of the resurrection is not true, then those who believe it are the most pitiful people in the world.
  Published 06Aug2010, viewed 231 times

• Greatly Ordinary and Ordinarily Grateful
  Paul had more biblical knowledge and skills than any of the Apostles. But he did not count any of that stuff to his credit. Rather, he found it to be a liability, to be rubbish in the light of Christ. Paul's impressive credentials were worse than nothing in his own eyes.
  Published 27Jul2010, viewed 385 times

• Speaking Prophesy
  Prophecy is an ordinary Christian gift, not an extraordinary gift. And the purpose of this gift, said Paul, is learning and encouragement in faithfulness. All should learn, all should be encouraged, and all should encourage others, all should clarify and explain what they know to be true about Scripture. The only thing unusual about this gift is that so few people who call themselves Christians can do it.
  Published 27Jul2010, viewed 272 times

• Not Women
  Why does Paul say that "it is shameful for a woman to speak in church" (1 Corinthians 14:35)?
  Published 18Jul2010, viewed 278 times

• Speaking Nonsense In Worship
  The best thing that we can do to help people understand God's Word is not to try to make it relevant to this or that person (church, denomination, etc.), but to get it right from God's perspective.
  Published 27Jun2010, viewed 280 times

• Tongues of Unbelief
  Why are tongues a sign of unbelief? Because what is spoken in a tongue, whether a foreign language or an angelic language, is not understood. And unbelievers do not understand the gospel in any language.
  Published 21Jun2010, viewed 336 times

• Edification of Others
  Gospel communication must be meaningful, comprehensible, and rational. Meaningful communication about the content of Scripture from a born again perspective will serve to edify believers and evangelize unbelievers.
  Published 16Jun2010, viewed 675 times

• Communication & Tongues
  Meaning of some kind -- revelation, knowledge or prophecy -- must accompany speech. If it doesn't you may as well be baying at the moon.
  Published 13Jun2010, viewed 320 times

• Making Sense of Tongues
  We are to prefer prophesying -- explaining Scripture, making sense of the Bible -- to speaking in such a way that people do not understand what we are saying
  Published 06Jun2010, viewed 263 times

• Holding Daddy's Hand
  It is not our love of Jesus Christ that holds us in covenant with God. Rather, we are held in covenant, in relationship with God, by His love. And His love will not fail.
  Published 31May2010, viewed 276 times

• Love Doesn't Babble
  Paul's point was to contrast the temporal gifts of the Spirit with the eternal gift of love in order to show the superior character of love
  Published 17May2010, viewed 335 times

• Love is Not...
  Paul's great Love Chapter provides a call to faithfulness that cuts through the fog of theology and doctrine without denying or belittling theology and doctrine
  Published 12May2010, viewed 317 times

• Love Endures
  Paul said that Christian love is more important than mysterious communication with God, even more important than translating the gospel into foreign languages. Why? Because apart from the primacy of Christian love, any translation of the gospel into a foreign tongue would be inadequate and inaccurate because the person doing the translating would lack the main ingredient of faithfulness -- love.
  Published 05May2010, viewed 308 times

• Gift of Love
  The gift Christians share in common provides the context for the blossoming of the different gifts that make us unique. And conversely, our unique differences provide the context for the common glue that holds us together.
  Published 30Apr2010, viewed 318 times

• The Best Gift
  Christianity is not a cookie-cutter religion where people try to match or reach some perfect ideal. Quite the contrary! Christianity is a religion rich in diversity.
  Published 28Apr2010, viewed 299 times

• Various Kinds Of Tongues
  The gift of tongues provided for the spread of the gospel to people who did not know Hebrew. This gift is alive and well today.
  Published 23Apr2010, viewed 341 times

• Healing, Helping, Administrations
  An overview and explanation of these gifts.
  Published 23Apr2010, viewed 311 times

• Crisis of Leadership
  Sales are the life-blood of a consumerism. And sex is the sizzle in our consumer blood. The top of the heap is looking to the bottom for guidance.
  Published 21Apr2010, viewed 316 times

• Prophets, Teachers, Miracles, Science, Technology
  What we call science and technology today, Christians of the First Century would have called miracles. What we assume as commonplace today, would have been considered to be absolutely miraculous in any other period of human history. I'm talking about modern communications, transportation, media, agriculture, population increase, etc.
  Published 18Apr2010, viewed 286 times

• Take It Back
  Beyond the Tea Parties and the role of the churches for the return to the real American values...
  Published 10Apr2010, viewed 355 times

• Apostleship and Followership
  There are no Christian spectators. This is why spectator worship is such a crime against the Spirit! Worship that treats the congregation as spectators trains Christians to be blind followers. The congregation must participate in worship, not just watch.
  Published 09Apr2010, viewed 430 times

• Unity, Denominations, Sting Theory
  The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that the unifying thing in the universe is God, who exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is God who holds all things together in unity and in diversity. It is God who has created and given definition to all things. It is God who remains constant through time. God gives identity to things just as God creates the parts or elements that things are composed of.
  Published 31Mar2010, viewed 464 times

• Unity in Diversity
  Many cultures believe in a unity or a oneness that remains constant in the midst of change. It is this constancy, this unity of individual things that gives them their identity. This concern is at the heart of the scientific endeavor and helps us to know how things in the world work. And the only philosophical resolution of this problem is found in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
  Published 29Mar2010, viewed 319 times

• Tongues, Part 2
  The closing of the Canon did not stop any tongues. Rather, the Protestant Reformation began the greatest expansion of Christianity the world had ever seen. Tongues began to flicker for God all over the world, and they still are. Indeed, tongues did not cease with the closing of the Canon, but rather they began in earnest as the Bible was translated into every known tongue and exported to every known people.
  Published 27Mar2010, viewed 324 times

• Tongues, Part 1
  The closing of the Canon did not stop any tongues. Rather, the Protestant Reformation began the greatest expansion of Christianity the world had ever seen. Tongues began to flicker for God all over the world, and they still are. Indeed, tongues did not cease with the closing of the Canon, but rather they began in earnest as the Bible was translated into every known tongue and exported to every known people.
  Published 26Mar2010, viewed 281 times

• Prophecy, Revival & Discernment
  We have a Romantic understanding of revival, as if it is a sweet and glorious time -- like a family reunion or picnic. But real revival, real reformation is traumatic. It divides as well as unites.
  Published 15Mar2010, viewed 376 times

• Gifts: Faith and Healing
  Paul said that God works in His church, His people, through a variety of means. And that in spite of the variety of ways that God makes Himself manifest there is always a unity that binds the different manifestations of His work together.
  Published 07Mar2010, viewed 413 times

• Evangelism Gifts
  Real evangelism is not arm twisting people into the kingdom. It is the exercise of faithful service in the midst of ordinary living.
  Published 28Feb2010, viewed 305 times

• God's Gifts
  A person who has charisma is a person who is attractive and influential among others. Paul's usage of the word in this chapter (and the next) suggests that spiritual gifts are used by God for the purpose of evangelism, attracting people through the means of Christian service.
  Published 27Feb2010, viewed 320 times

• Table Waiting
  While we wait for Christ to return in judgment, we can help reduce the negative consequences of that judgment by performing the duties of deacons -- not necessarily seeking the formal office of deacon, but by performing the informal function of table waiting -- engaging in Christian service.
  Published 23Feb2010, viewed 342 times

• House Cleaning
  If the church would clean its own house, it would not fall under the judgment of God. This is very difficult to hear and even more difficult to actually engage.
  Published 20Feb2010, viewed 298 times

• Bodily Self-Examination
  Receiving Communion is not simply helpful for the saved, those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. It is also harmful for the lost, those who have not been regenerated. From a trinitarian perspective the Lord's body is the body of Jesus of Nazareth, but it is also the body of God Himself (whatever that is), and it is the body of the Church, the fellowship of disciples.
  Published 15Feb2010, viewed 291 times

• Are You Worthy?
  The simple act of participating in the Lord's Supper brings about the separation of the saved and the lost by distinguishing the difference between them, that difference being regeneration or Christ-given worthiness.
  Published 14Feb2010, viewed 256 times

• The Lord's Supper
  What Paul calls the Way, they called a sect. The Way of Christ refers to the entire cultural structure of Christianity in its wholeness, its totality. The Way of Christ is a way of life, a lifestyle. Paul received from Christ a vision of Christian society or culture and it was that vision, that cultural practice, that way of life, that Paul was passing on to the Corinthians.
  Published 09Feb2010, viewed 271 times

• Helpful Divisions
  False beliefs "must be" in the churches, according to Paul. God's purpose is unalterable, and since there were false prophets during Old Testament times, it must be expected that false teachers would arise in the Christian churches. Satan is always busy sowing the seeds and tares of false doctrine.
  Published 01Feb2010, viewed 480 times

• Attitude, Apostasy and Disillusionment
  The goal of reaching perfect sanctification in Christ cannot be reached apart from the process of growth that leads to it. To short-circuit the process for fear of where it may lead evidences a failure of faith in the power of Christ to persevere with His people and to bring them into all truth.
  Published 30Jan2010, viewed 461 times

• Head Coverings
  Should contemporary women wear head coverings? The first question to ask is, Who has jurisdiction to countermand Paul's teaching? Is it simply a women's issue? Or is it a family matter? Or should your local pastor weigh in?
  Published 25Jan2010, viewed 446 times

• Think Again
  People think that they are Christian because they "walked the aisle," or because they go to church, or because they grew up in the church. The world and the church are awash in a kind of logical disconnect, where people say they believe in something but act as if they don't -- except possibly sometimes at church. At church they dress their secular beliefs in Christian clothes.
  Published 22Jan2010, viewed 345 times

• Head Dressing
  All biblical government is representative government, and it always exists and operates through various hierarchies of authority and responsibility. Thus, the wearing of a head covering was for the wife a cultural expression of the representative authority of her husband who was a recognized member of Christ's kingdom (and who was also under authority).
  Published 15Jan2010, viewed 423 times

• Speaking of H-h-hats in W-w-worship
  People are interested in getting the honor and status of association with power and glory of Jesus Christ. But Christ was interested in serving God and enlisting others to serve the Lord in His stead. People want to get, but Jesus wants them to give. It is a classic problem in the life of the church.
  Published 13Jan2010, viewed 392 times

• Lord of All
  The fact that Jesus is Lord does not mean that His Lordship just applies to people who agree with Him. Jesus is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. The earliest and most consistent understanding of Jesus' authority was that it is universal.
  Published 08Jan2010, viewed 321 times

• Accommodation
  The Bible is opposed to all forms of sin. And because people naturally love their sins, it is opposed to the sins of godlessness and multiculturalism. Beware of leaders who value freedom over truth.
  Published 05Jan2010, viewed 366 times

• Freedom From Stupidity
  Christian freedom is not unlimited freedom, but is dependent on the weaker brother. Christians must not engage their own freedoms if others will misunderstand or misinterpret our activity and get snagged in sin because of it.
  Published 30Dec2009, viewed 297 times

• God is Three In One
  While it is difficult to explain the Trinity, it is at the same time the most ordinary concept imaginable. Everyone intuitively understands that a thing can be both individual and corporate at the same time. Everyone intuitively knows what it means and uses such distinctions every day -- everyone, not just Christians.
  Published 20Dec2009, viewed 262 times

• Dead Men Walking
  Each person would have to decide for himself whether Paul spoke the truth, and whether or not to heed the truth that Paul spoke. Understanding what he was talking about was not sufficient, Paul called them to action, to flee from idolatry and to rely upon the Holy Spirit, who indwells believers. The Holy Spirit would evaluate the gospel that Paul taught and apply it to each believer's own life.
  Published 16Dec2009, viewed 296 times

• Trials and Tribulations
  Anyone who thinks that s/he had a secure standing before the Lord because of baptism needs to think again, and to repent of such presumption, lest s/he fall. Paul had in mind those Corinthian leaders who had opposed him by teaching the wisdom of the world as if it were the wisdom of Christ.
  Published 07Dec2009, viewed 415 times

• Consequences of Sin
  Why would God bless His own people with genuine spiritual food, and then let them die in the desert? They were God's people, right? Why didn't God protect them? Why didn't God preserve or persevere with them? Why would God allow His precious baptized lambs to die in the wilderness? That is exactly what Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to see because that is exactly what God had done.
  Published 03Dec2009, viewed 309 times

• Soul Winning Strategy
  Paul went for the real gusto, Jesus Christ by becoming all things to all people. Christ calls us to do more than we think we can. He calls us all to exceed our own expectations because He has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell with His people to accomplish for them -- for us -- what we cannot of ourselves accomplish.
  Published 30Nov2009, viewed 436 times

• Gospel Expense
  The presentation of the gospel must be freed from the encumbrances of the inane and petty dung that has captured church pulpits.
  Published 25Nov2009, viewed 329 times

• Necessary Freedom
  Paul was compelled to preach freely. So, out of necessity he preached freely. But which is it? Did Paul preach out of freedom or out of necessity? The answer, of course, is yes.
  Published 22Nov2009, viewed 321 times

• Pay The Piper
  In spite of that rightful claim upon the Corinthian purse, Paul did not request or receive any such care. Why not? Because he did not want to give the impression that his ministry was motivated by monetary concerns. He did not want to be perceived as a hired gun that had come in to clean up the Corinthian church. He did not want to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
  Published 15Nov2009, viewed 332 times

• Freedom's Limits
  Against the tide of unrestrained freedom, Paul argued for caution and restraint. Here and elsewhere Paul argued that freedom in Christ did not mean that Christians were free to do whatever they wanted to do, even if there was nothing ultimately wrong with some particular action. But rather, Christians were free in Christ to live in obedience to Christ, free to care for and model behavior suited to the least discerning of Christ's people.
  Published 15Nov2009, viewed 368 times

• Morality and Maturity
  False gods are powerless because they are not real. And yet, people falsely believe they are real, and establish very real and destructive behaviors on that false basis. Consequently, the more mature are bound by the weaknesses of the less mature as a matter of service to the weaker brothers.
  Published 09Nov2009, viewed 388 times

• Unbelievable Truth
  Too many of the Corinthians who now associated themselves with Jesus Christ had not made a clean break with their former beliefs. They brought many of those former beliefs -- false beliefs and the false worldview of Greek philosophy -- into the Corinthian church with them. Still happens.
  Published 06Nov2009, viewed 382 times

• Happy Holiday!
  Thanksgiving and Christmas are soon upon us. For most people they are a time of pain and difficulty for many reasons. They are family celebrations, but our families are mostly broken and the holidays remind us of this painful fact. They may remind others of their failure to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior -- and of the implications of that failure. For many embattled Christians the holidays bring the culture war to the front burner.
  Published 31Oct2009, viewed 333 times

• Ethics, Morality and Love
  The ethical person has abstract knowledge about what is right and wrong and has an intellectual understanding. Whereas the moral person has concrete or visceral knowledge about what is right and wrong and has a behavioral understanding. Biblical edification is not always positive, nor does the word mean to encourage. It is not that we must understand God before we can love Him, but that our love for God is dependent upon His knowledge of us.
  Published 28Oct2009, viewed 325 times

• The Illusion of Knowledge
  Knowledge based upon personal experience is neither objective, nor trustworthy. But because the Bible has been vetted by many people in many different cultures over many thousands of years, it's knowledge is as close to being objective as is humanly possible.
  Published 22Oct2009, viewed 309 times

• Sexual Ignorance
  Paul gives advice about marriage during periods of social upheaval, the marriage bed, difficulties related to child rearing and God's care that supersedes it all.
  Published 15Oct2009, viewed 313 times

• Potential Jerusalem Marriages
  Previously he had dealt with the new circumstance of mixed marriages. Here Paul was addressing another unusual circumstance that First Century Christians had been thrown into. That circumstance was not only the gospel explosion that was growing in the wake of persecution, but the fact of persecution itself.
  Published 12Oct2009, viewed 350 times

• Calling, Contentment and Slavery
  Christians are not called to do the same things, but each Christians has a unique calling that is uniquely suited to his or her unique situation. Bloom where you are planted.
  Published 09Oct2009, viewed 329 times

• Unbelieving Spouse
  If the unbelieving partner walks away from a marriage because the other person has become a Christian, then the one who walked away is not rejecting the believing spouse, but he or she is rejecting God. The rejecting spouse may argue that the believing spouse has changed since becoming a Christian, that the believing spouse is no longer the same person that he or she married -- and we hope that that would be true!
  Published 08Oct2009, viewed 362 times

• Mixed Marriages
  Paul turned his attention from the marriages of believers to what we call mixed marriages, where one marriage partner is not a believer. This is a special circumstance and calls for special treatment.
  Published 05Oct2009, viewed 306 times

• Paul's Celibacy
  Paul surely knew that if all Christians were celibate, they would die out. The Essenes believed that Paul wanted all Christians to be celibate, and they actually died out. Paul was not stupid. Celibacy is a strategy of death, not life. This all suggests that Paul was not speaking in this verse about celibacy as a gift of the Spirit. This misunderstanding has been read into the verse, not taken from it.
  Published 29Sep2009, viewed 310 times

• Marriage And The Trinity
  The principle of all unity is God's covenant, or God's law. God's law is the binding force that holds the world together. All things exist because of or on the basis of God's law (or God's love). God's love and God's law are different expressions of the same thing, the same reality. And just as law holds human societies together so God's law holds the entire universe together. Thus, all violations of God's law (sin) are ultimately suicidal.
  Published 17Sep2009, viewed 667 times

• What's Wrong With Sex Apart From Marriage?
  Sex apart from biblical marriage violates God's covenant, and God's covenant is the unifying factor of the universe. So, to violate God's covenant constitutes a violation of most fundamental cohesion of the universe. It violates and blurs one's own personal identity and the fabric of social cohesiveness. It destroys trust and promise-keeping, truth and the dependability of nature, social law, scholarship, science, etc
  Published 14Sep2009, viewed 364 times

• Membership Is Not A Club
  Being a Christian is not like being in a club. It is much deeper. Christian membership cannot be compartmentalized or separated from other aspects of life. It necessarily affects all of life, nothing is excluded. And what is more, being a Christian means being a Christian here on the earth today. It's not simply about going to heaven.
  Published 10Sep2009, viewed 406 times

• Freedom and Possibility
  Real freedom is not doing what you want. Our wants are controlled by sin, so that kind of freedom is slavery to sin. Real freedom is doing what God wants us to do.
  Published 31Aug2009, viewed 343 times

• Heaven's Short List
  Who goes to heaven and who doesn't? What is the difference between believers and unbelievers? Paul does not neglect the spiritual aspects of this difference between believers and unbelievers. He simply makes the point that the difference is not merely spiritual. It also manifests in the flesh.
  Published 25Aug2009, viewed 323 times

• Separation
  The problem was not that some of the members were living in sin. Who isn't? The problem was that some of the members had not repented of their sin. They were in process of justifying it to themselves and to the church, trying to make it okay in the eyes of God by suggesting that God forgives everyone of everything, that in the light of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ repentance and turning from sin doesn't matter.
  Published 18Aug2009, viewed 359 times

• Whittling The List
  Paul was not calling the Corinthians to greater effort. Rather, Paul was calling them to Jesus Christ. The only righteousness available to them was the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul was painfully aware of the sins of the Corinthians. And he was painfully aware that too many of them had hold of the righteousness stick by the wrong end. He knew that they had been chasing worldly foolishness and forsaking godly wisdom.
  Published 12Aug2009, viewed 311 times

• Shame and Judging People
  True reformation and revival of the Christian church must reform and revive church courts. Indeed, as the civil court system continues to collapse from the backlog of cases and the moral corruption of the legal system, the Christian church may well find itself faced with an opportunity to actually be what God has called it to be -- a vehicle of forgiveness and reconciliation among all people.
  Published 08Aug2009, viewed 373 times

• Church Courts, Hate Crimes and Moral Decay
  Church courts are charged with keeping the peace and purity of the church. And that is no easy job because the very things that contribute to the purity of the church often disturb its peace, and those things that contribute to the peace of the church often contribute to its impurity. An emphasis upon right doctrine disturbs many Christians. And an emphasis on "going along to get along" often pollutes right practice.
  Published 06Aug2009, viewed 574 times

• Hypocrites and Cognitive Dissonance
  The real danger to Christianity is not sinners, but hypocrites, people who identify themselves as Christian but who disregard the practice or essence of Christianity. We must note that no one is ever completely free from sin in this life. The difference between a Christian and a hypocrite is that a Christian repents of his sin, whereas the hypocrite does not repent. He wallows or stagnates in sin. He makes no effort to resist or avoid it.
  Published 31Jul2009, viewed 357 times

• Community Union
  Christians need to fellowship with other Christians. Because our values and interests change once we have been converted, we find that we have less and less in common with people who are not Christian. Our circle of friends changes because we like being with Christians more than with non-Christians. The old adage is that birds of a feather flock together.
  Published 29Jul2009, viewed 383 times

• Viral Pride
  The problem today is not keeping people from the pride virus because virtually everyone has it. The problem today is finding the cure. And again, the key to the cure is like the key to contagion -- contact.
  Published 23Jul2009, viewed 473 times

• Sin & Judgment
  We confuse ourselves when we neglect the fact that Scripture treats repentant sinners differently than it treats unrepentant sinners. Repentant sinners have the protection of Jesus Christ the advocate, where unrepentant sinners face the full consequences of God's law on their own.
  Published 19Jul2009, viewed 442 times

• Porneia Defined
  It is very interesting to simply define a word that Paul used and understand it as he understood it. This kind of clarification speaks volumes about our own abandonment of God's law in the Twenty-First Century. By simply defining a word, we come face to face with our own immorality.
  Published 13Jul2009, viewed 11428 times

• Foolishness, Pride and Church Growth
  Imagine that Paul is your boss, who has been away, and you are talking to him on the phone. He has a disagreement with how you are handling things in his absence, and he tells you that he will return next week. Then he asks you how you would like him to approach you about this problem when he gets back.
  Published 06Jul2009, viewed 358 times

• Against Originality
  We are taught in our schools, colleges, universities and through the media that being human means being original, that we become most human when we are most original. Indeed, Humanism is the celebration of original thinkers as embodying the best that humanity has to offer. Artists will know what I'm talking about. But the Bible teaches that human beings were created in God's image. We are not originals, but some sort of copies of the Original.
  Published 01Jul2009, viewed 360 times

• The Art of Genuine Imitation
  Paul calls Christians to imitate him, but not to be mass produced copies of the real McCoy. Rather, Paul has called Christians to become life artists, artists whose medium is life itself.
  Published 26Jun2009, viewed 407 times

• False Christianity
  The Corinthians were engaged in worldly thinking and outright sin -- all in the name of Christianity! He told them that they were proud of the success that their church enjoyed -- it's wealth and political power -- because they were worldly minded and unfaithful to Christ. Their pride in their church was an expression of their faithlessness and their misunderstanding of the gospel.
  Published 23Jun2009, viewed 468 times

• Divisive Waters
  Apollos, prior to meeting with Aquila and Priscilla, appeared to have everything right. Yet, Paul faulted him for knowing only the baptism of John, implying that there was something significant that Apollos lacked -- some sort of baptism, or something related to baptism.
  Published 20Jun2009, viewed 363 times

• Baptisms
  Apollos had been missing one thing. In spite of the fact that Apollos had been nurtured by and educated in the essentials of Christianity, and had been teaching and preaching about Jesus in a correct and accurate way, he was for a time still missing the central element of faithfulness -- a changed heart or baptism by the Holy Spirit
  Published 18Jun2009, viewed 390 times

• God's Objectivity
  It is not through knowledge of the world that we come to know God's place in the world. But rather it is by being known by God that we come to know our place in the world. The difference involves a seismic shift in perspective.
  Published 12Jun2009, viewed 306 times

• No Common Ground
  If the difference that Christ makes is insignificant or trivial, then we might say that our experience or perspective is not much different from that of unbelievers. But if Christ makes a significant difference, a real difference, then we don't see things in the same light, we don't know or experience things in the same way. The more real Christ is, the greater this difference.
  Published 10Jun2009, viewed 311 times

• Crazy Christians
  We have been trained by the values of secular humanism through our public education, through the secular values and practices of the media and the workplace. That training has taught us to ignore the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit when that testimony is not in conformity with the values and practices of secular humanism. And Christians are not immune from the pervasiveness of secular humanism in contemporary society.
  Published 06Jun2009, viewed 382 times

• Defilement & Unity
  Inasmuch as we defile the church, God will defile us. It appears that God will give back to us what we give to Him.
  Published 03Jun2009, viewed 368 times

• Denial
  The spiritual person considers or evaluates everything on the basis of Scripture. The spirituality of such a person effects everything that they think, say and do. Such a person applies the categories of Scripture to everything, and, first and foremost, the wisdom of Scripture is applied to his own life.
  Published 28May2009, viewed 351 times

• Born Again
  Show me someone who thinks that Christianity is foolish, and I'll show you a worldly person. The reason that they think Christianity is foolish is that they cannot perceive the reality of God.
  Published 23May2009, viewed 363 times

• Two Spirits
  Wisdom and understanding are integral parts of salvation. Salvation is not just a matter of personal experience, it is also a matter of wisdom and knowledge -- both the breadth of historical knowledge and the depth of personal experience.
  Published 20May2009, viewed 302 times

• Academic Divisions
  The failure to accept the Christ of Scripture by substituting a christ of Greek or human wisdom results in, among other things, divisions in the church. The divisions arise from the false understandings produced by filtering the gospel through the categories of human wisdom, by submitting the gospel to the categories of academia.
  Published 15May2009, viewed 327 times

• Can You Dig It?
  Those who call themselves Christians but don't grow in the faith are dead, not alive in Christ. Such people will find themselves on "rocky ground" (Matthew 13:5-6). Faithful Christians are encouraged to dig down deep into the soil of Christianity. And what is that soil? It is what provides nourishment for spiritual growth -- Scripture, history, and fellowship.
  Published 14May2009, viewed 322 times

• Christian Antithesis
  The church will grow in faith and in numbers when it is seen as a viable option to the ways of the world. It will grow by differentiating itself from the world, not by trying to integrate itself into the world, or by trying to grow on a foundation of worldliness.
  Published 07May2009, viewed 384 times

• Marketing Christ
  Virtually all contemporary Christian marketing pays lip service to Jesus Christ but is focused on the people in the pews. It is primarily concerned with noses and nickels related to particular institutions. It lobbies against preaching or sharing any biblical truth that has a hard edge, that will make people uncomfortable, or that may be difficult to understand. And, like it or not, biblical truth will make us all uncomfortable. It's supposed to!
  Published 05May2009, viewed 373 times

• The Call of Church Profits
  How the idea and practice of church growth principles changed the purpose of the church from service to the Lord to the maintenance of the pew. Churches and denominations -- Christians -- need to heed and apply Paul's wisdom found here in Corinthians to the practice of evangelism, including and especially the use of modern media (marketing and advertising). We must not allow the wisdom of the world to determine the methodologies of the church.
  Published 01May2009, viewed 353 times

• Everyone Benefits From Christianity
  Though education does not and cannot save anyone, Christian education is good for everyone. The saved need to be educated in godliness for their own sanctification. The lost who are not-yet-saved need to be educated in godliness in order to draw them into salvation and sanctification. And the unsavable need to be educated in godliness in order to help them from being as evil as they can be.
  Published 28Apr2009, viewed 922 times

• Chasing The Culture vs. Leading It
  Too many Christians think that they need dress the gospel up in the latest fads of music, drama, literature, etc., in order for the gospel to be relevant to contemporary people. Too many Christians have it ass backwards. It isn't that the Bible needs to be relevant to people, but that people need to be relevant to the Bible. Is the culture to lead the church? Or is the church to lead the culture?
  Published 25Apr2009, viewed 314 times

• The Foolishness Of Trying To Save Everyone
  Christians don't need to make an appeal to others on the basis of worldly values and aesthetics because those who will respond truly will respond to the power of the gospel alone. They will not be dissuaded by what the world sees as a foolish and irrelevant message
  Published 21Apr2009, viewed 348 times

• Peace And Purity In The Churches
  Why is there so much conflict in Christian churches? Because Christians and non-Christians see things differently, and because, as Paul said in Romans 9, not all Israel is Israel. Not all church members are actually Christians (see Matthew 7:21-22). Christians are born again and people who are not born again are not Christians. And this is the chief source of the conflict.
  Published 17Apr2009, viewed 428 times

• Discerning Divisive Divisions and Understanding Unity
  Unity and diversity in the Christian church comes in two flavors -- cultural and doctrinal. Paul said "yes" to one and "no" to the other. Failure to note this difference has caused much confusion.
  Published 14Apr2009, viewed 410 times

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