Once the guilty party comes to realize his/her sin–the breaking of God’s Law (1 Jn. 3:4)–the next step is to determine Scripturally how to go about receiving forgiveness of his/her sins. This part of the process begins with the understanding of and belief in God’s grace. Grace can be defined as an undeserved blessing. We are all […]

In the last posting we looked to the Scriptures to find the correct way to respond to the Lord’s voice of conviction. However, the same Book also shows us how not to respond to the realization that we are wrong. In Acts 6,7 we find the story of Stephen the table waiter who had been assigned one of the most unglamorous jobs […]

Conviction–the realization of guilt–has become a reality in the life of the one who realizes that God is speaking to him/her about his/her death-producing spiritual condition. The convicted person’s response is the deciding factor in determining whether he/she will be a sheep or a goat upon meeting the Lord on the Day of Judgment. Two diametrically opposed reactions are depicted in the […]

Never having heard the Truth, the Institutional Church does not know God’s definition of “sin.” Therefore she has never confessed her sins and therefore has never been forgiven of them. The Lord defines sin in 1 Jn. 3:4: “To transgress the Law is sin, for sin is the transgression of the Law.” Sin=breaking the Law. Church people have […]

Rather than being the instantaneous result of an action as we are told from pulpit and podium, salvation is presented in the Holy Bible as an “unto the end” process that can take many years to complete (Mat. 10:22). The Apostle Paul compares the process to a race in which much time elapses between the start of the race and […]

“Oh why not tonight?” is the theme of a popular siren call heard throughout professing Christendom as the minister issues an “alter call” at the conclusion of his/her sermon featuring his/her version of John 3:16. The unspoken, though implied, musical message is: “Don’t leave the building without getting saved. Don’t be ‘left behind’ when Jesus secretly snatches all members of your […]

The following article is not original with me. I do not know its author, but I feel he or she would not mind my passing his/her thoughts on to you. During a speech in Cairo, Egypt on one of his apology tours U.S. President Barack Obama said: “I know, too, that Islam has always been a […]

In contrast to the increasingly popular Baptismal Regeneration theory we find a New Testament incident that proves that the church-embraced theory of Original Sin has no Scriptural basis and that baptism is a symbol that one has been forgiven of past sins. The ordinance of baptism does not affect the outcome of future sins–does not guarantee salvation. Sin, the Apostle […]

As noted in a previous posting, God’s Word serves as His ultimate cleansing agent. This is further brought out in Titus 3:5 where it is stated that we are (being) saved by the “washing of regeneration.” To regenerate means to renew–to return the believer to the sinless spiritual state in which he is born. See Human Nature. […]

The self-judgment-by-comparison-to-the-Word program the Apostle Peter was referring to in his letter to the church en masse was also addressed by the Apostle Paul in a letter to the church at Ephesus (5:26). In his epistle he told the Ephesian church to continually practice spiritual cleansing “by the washing of the water by the Word.” It takes an honest […]