Core Beliefs Control the Narrative Core beliefs, that are assumed to be true, control the outcome of one’s thinking. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian pastor, my core belief was Covenant Theology. I believed that infant baptism is scriptural because of my core belief. I used to run with Calvinists, both Presbyterian and Baptist. Then, a Reformed Baptist friend challenged me and said, “Larry, forget Covenant Theology. Just read the New Testament and take it at face value. Don’t let your Covenant Theology bleed over into your thinking. And then tell me who are the proper subjects for baptism.”
I couldn’t escape the fact that there are absolutely no examples in the New Testament of an infant being baptized. Without the presuppositional bias of Covenant Theology, there is absolutely no justification for infant baptism. Baptism is for believers. This, of course, doesn’t mean that we hate babies. It simply means we don’t sprinkle them and call it “baptism.”
In the same way TULIP—Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints—is based on a core definition of the sovereignty of God that is unique to Calvinism. Let’s face it, every Christian believes that God is sovereign, not just Calvinists. The sovereignty of God is that attribute of God by which His is the highest authority and does not need to get approval from any higher authority before He makes a decision. God exercises His prerogative to do whatever He pleases.
For the Calvinist, however, God can only be considered sovereign if He controls everything and if He maintains continuous and absolute Lordship over everything. But let’s be honest—if God is really sovereign, He is free to make man free. He is even free to give man the privilege and responsibility of choosing his own destiny.
For Calvinists, this is the depth of impiety. The Calvinist view of divine sovereignty leads him to argue that if man has the freedom of choice, then God is not sovereign. And if God is sovereign, then man is not free. But those are not the only alternatives.
Calvinists take this one more step into absurdity. They will argue that preaching Calvinism is preaching the Gospel, and those who are not Five-Point Calvinists don’t believe in grace. They will hold that because I don’t support Five-Point Calvinism I am an Arminian! I am neither an Arminian nor a Calvinist. There is a vast canyon of possibilities between Calvinism and Arminianism.
Insulated Against Truth In 1 Timothy 2 we read, “Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth … Who gave himself a ransom for all” (vss. 4, 6). Second Corinthians 5:14–15 is similar: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
There are many, many scriptures that argue against Calvinism, and yet they don’t seem to register with Calvinists. Universal terms are often reinterpreted. I often think, “What more could God say to describe the extent of His love that He hasn’t already said?” The answer is, “Nothing.” Nothing will convince the Calvinist. Core beliefs control the narrative.
What is the meaning of the word “all”? Calvinists love to appeal to Luke 2:1 where we read that a decree went out that “all the world should be taxed.” All the world like China, Afghanistan, and Borneo? Of course not. In biblical times, “all the world” means “all the known world, mainly the Roman Empire.” It is true that in certain contexts that speak about geopolitical issues, “all” doesn’t mean “all” without exception.
Does It Matter For Whom Christ Died? Larry Spargimino January 26, 2023 In Vacation Bible School and in summer camps teachers and kids alike love to sing, “Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World.” But did you know that there is a growing number of Christians who have come to believe that those words are biblically incorrect? Jesus does not love all the children of the world—at least not enough to desire their eternal salvation. Does It Matter? I believe it matters. Does it matter that God only loves some kids, or loves all kids? Does it matter when you look at a bunch of squirming kids in your VBS class—many of whom are just there because mom wants a break from kids and free childcare is a blessing—to think that God loves every one of them and wants every one of them to have eternal life? If that’s true, then you can pray for them, love them, and put up with their dirty hands, dirty feet and continual chatter. You love them all, and you know that God loves them all. You are working with God and doing His will. Does that matter? Yes, theology matters. Immensely.
One young Christian and his wife, who came to faith through Harvest Crusades led by Greg Laurie, were amazingly transformed by their coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Their lives were radically changed. The love they expressed for each other and the way they raised their kids was, indeed, a marvel of God’s work in their hearts. But most marvelous of all was the burden they had for their lost family members, friends, and neighbors. They became true soul-winners.
So, in an attempt at creative witnessing and low-key outreach, they started having Saturday afternoon parties at their home. They had free time, then a dinner, and after that they showed an evangelistic movie. They would tell people, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Several people were saved with this informal, non-churchy approach.
The husband began sharing his faith at work. One of his co-workers was a Reformed Baptist—a Five-Point Calvinist all the way. He told the husband, “‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life’ is not scriptural.” The co-worker gave the husband some Calvinistic literature. One of the booklets was titled, “For Whom Did Christ Die?” The booklet was pushing limited atonement—Christ only died for some, the elect.
The husband read the booklet and found it quite believable. Yes, there were those scriptures. “All” and “world” mean something different than what he had been taught they mean. So, the husband took the booklet to his pastor. The pastor said he did not agree with the booklet but frankly admitted the arguments in the booklet did appeal to Scripture. The pastor read in the booklet that the words “God is not willing that any should perish,” mean “God is not willing that any of the elect should perish.”
To make a long story short, this couple’s evangelistic zeal died a sure and certain death. Were they doing the right thing in trying to win the lost?
Were they dishonoring God in saying to lost people “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”? Gone were the Saturday fellowship dinners. Gone was the effort to get people to come to faith in Jesus Christ. What will be will be, so what’s the use? As far as I’m concerned this was a horrible disaster. A theology that is becoming more popular is sapping the lifeblood out of evangelism. Yes, theology matters. Immensely. Especially today.
We are seeing an amazing convergence of end-time signs that are leading right-minded individuals to pray, to witness, and to work. Jesus could return at any moment, perhaps before you finish reading this Prophetic Observer. However, for many Calvinists that doesn’t matter. They are either partial preterists or full preterists and think Bible prophecy is all a lot of end-times hype.
Millennial Temple Veiled in Mystery...Larry Spargimino....March 30, 2023
There have been a number of Bible commentators who have come up with elaborate ideas allegedly proving that Ezekiel’s Temple, described in chapters 40–48 of his book, is not a real temple. They claim these chapters are an allegorical description of something else, whatever that may be. Significance of the Final Temple The language of these chapters provides a great amount of specific details regarding this temple. It is like an architect’s blueprint. If it is not speaking about a literal structure, why the details?
It is important to remember that Ezekiel was a Jewish priest living during the years of the Babylonian captivity. The existence of Solomon’s Temple was, for the Jews of old, proof that God was on their side. The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, therefore, was more than the destruction of a building. It was a theological crisis.
The promise of a literal temple was proof to Israel that God will forgive their sin and cleanse them of all iniquity. It was a convincing sign to Israel that God was still faithful to His covenant. All the wonderful Millennial promises would be literally fulfilled, and the presence of a literal temple was the most wonderful promise of all for the people of God. If it were not a literal temple it would be like inviting a starving man to a turkey dinner, only to find nothing more than a pile of feathers. In the words of Dr. Charles Dyer, “The climax of Israel’s restoration as a nation will come when God’s glory re-enters the new temple in Jerusalem. …”
The new temple will become the visible reminder of Israel’s relationship with God. Since God gave detailed instructions for building the tabernacle to accompany His inauguration of the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 25–40), it is not unusual that He would also supply detailed plans for His new center of worship, to accompany the implementation of the new covenant. This temple will be the focal point for the visible manifestation of Israel’s new relationship with her God.
Why the Doubt? Why, then, do so many commentators argue that Ezekiel’s Temple is not a literal temple? The answer: Because of the animal sacrifices. People argue and say, “We don’t need animal sacrifices because Jesus Christ has made a perfect once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin. No additional sacrifices are needed. The sacrificial system has been surpassed. Therefore, we are not to take Ezekiel 40–48 literally.”
That is a common argument. Why do we need priests? Why do we need sacrifices? All valid questions. But let’s focus our thinking. Let’s think this thing through.
First of all, animal sacrifices never took away sin. Only the sacrifice of the Son of God could do that, as explained in Hebrews 10:1–4, 10. The animal sacrifices were acts of obedience to God, and showed submission to the divinely-revealed idea of the shedding of blood for the remission of sin.
Secondly, even after the resurrection of Christ, Jewish believers in Christ still took part in temple worship (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:2). They even took part in the offering of sacrifices, according to Acts 21:26. They saw these sacrifices as looking back to the sacrifice of Christ, even as is true in the Lord’s Supper, “for as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he came” (1 Cor. 11:26). The sacrifices of the Old Testament had no real efficacy, but they gave worshipers an opportunity to respond to God with humble obedience. Not Solomon’s Temple According to Dr. Dwight Pentecost in his classic work on Bible prophecy, Things To Come, pages 521–522, several of the items that were in Solomon’s Temple are missing, or modified in the Millennial Temple.
Ministering At Home To ‘The Captives’ Larry Spargimino......May 5, 2023
Jesus came to set the captives free. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
People in America are fed up with the rampant crime. As a culture, we have abandoned the Bible. We are reaping the consequences.
On one of my trips to speak at a conference, I was visiting with another airline passenger. I told the person about Southwest Radio Church and mentioned our prison outreach ministry. His response was: “Those people in prison belong in prison. They are criminals. Why do you have a ministry to them?”
I explained that we are not seeking to exonerate criminals, nor are we soft on crime. However, I am reminded that Jesus died for criminals, as well as for their victims.
In fact, some people have been raised in very confusing, soul-destroying circumstances. None of that excuses a criminal from incarceration, but it does help explain why people behave the way they do. And I shared with this airline passenger an important thought that has personally helped me behave in a way that demonstrates the grace of God: “People need love the most when they deserve it the least.”
Jesus spoke to the penitent malefactor and said, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
But there is another reason for our prison ministry. Many of the men and women who are incarcerated have relatives and loved ones. Some have mothers and fathers. Some have wives and husbands and children. These loved ones are grieved that their family member is in prison. “What is going to happen to my son in prison? Will he be bitter? Will she become a hardened criminal?”
Brother Noah Hutchings had the idea to minister to those in prison after receiving letters from prisoners who had heard us on the radio. He called it the “Onesimus Project,” referring to the story of fugitive slave Onesimus in Paul’s letter to Philemon. While Paul was in jail in Rome, he led Onesimus to the Lord. This is the heart of our prison ministry.
Prisoners need encouragement. I used to serve as a volunteer chaplain with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. American prisons are the best in the world, but I can tell you, being in prison is confinement.
“We receive letters weekly from inmates who ask us to pray for them because they are lonely,” says SWRC Staff Evangelist Josh Davis, who is SWRC’s main liaison with inmates. “Some are battling depression and struggling with isolation. We hear stories from inmates who have no family or friends to contact. They tell us this ministry helps them trust Jesus through the dark valleys they are facing.”
Southwest Radio Church receives and answers prayer requests from inmates. We send prisoners a Bible and the book, A Christian’s Guide to Prison Survival. We also send our newsletter and include other resources to prisoners – all free of charge, and of course, we pay the postage.
If you would like to be part of this mission, please send your gifts to Onesimus Prison Ministry, SWRC, P.O. Box 76834, Oklahoma City, OK 73147 or email josh@swrc.com with questions about Onesimus.
Pastor Larry’s Prayer for Grace Charity School Larry Spargimino...October 16, 2023
Our dear Heavenly Father, Father of all mercies and love, we come to you in the Worthy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I pray for the safety of the teachers and the students. I remember pastor Victor and his family and their faithfulness in serving the students and their families. Please, Lord, erect a hedge of protection around every student, teacher, and person who serves you at Grace Charity School.
We thank you that by studying science, all the students can learn more about the wonderful world that you have made. And that by studying health and hygiene the students can learn how to take care of their bodies, because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you that the students can learn how to use computers and other equipment that is necessary to be successful in the modern world.
Thank you, dear Lord, that they are learning their language, Urdu, as well as English.
Thank you that the students are learning the Bible and how the Bible teaches us how to live with wisdom, and with respect for all people.
We also pray for all the people of Pakistan. Grant to them understanding and a willing heart to know you and your great love for all humanity.
There is so much suffering and tragedy in the world. We know that man’s way is the way of war, but your way is the way of peace and joy.
Dear Lord, there is much fear in many hearts. Please replace that fear with confidence and trust in you.
And I know that there is much anger and misunderstanding in many hearts as well. Please replace that with joy, and with a willingness to listen to others and to be friends and not enemies.
Dear Lord, we know that you are the true and living God and that you have given us your Word to guide us and lead us.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 3 you reveal to the world much about your love–
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for touching the hearts of many people in America who have helped to fund and support Grace Charity School. Many in America believe that education is the answer to many of our problems.
We all want the students of Grace Charity School to be a great blessing to Pakistan. May the students grow in skill so that they can become doctors and nurses, teachers, and scientists.
Putting It All Together As we look at our contemporary world, we see much that is evil and tragic. It seems that the dam holding back evil has collapsed and we are being buried alive in a tidal wave of depravity. The peddlers of this depravity want to destroy every manifestation of decency and the core beliefs that once made America great.
However, there is another group, growing in number and notoriety. It includes a group of perceptive thinkers and high-profile figures, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali—and also others like the “Son of Hamas,” Mossab Hassan Yousef, the son of the founder of Hamas. These are people who have found that Christianity has a slant on life that is truly appealing in its power to transform and to provide intellectually coherent answers to the big questions of human existence.
New York Times bestselling author Joel Rosenberg carefully details the amazing work of God in his 2009 book Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson & Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World. In the book Final Fire: Is the Next Great Awakening Around the Corner, a book which I co-authored with Tom Horn and Donna Howell, we document the rising wave of revival fires around the world.
Though at present the world is focused on the Middle East, we must not forget the work of God in Communist China. Though illegal, the unlicensed Underground Church is seeing a harvest of souls, as is documented in the book China and End-Time Prophecy: How God Is Using the Red Dragon To Fulfill His Ultimate Purposes. Author, Eugene Bach (a pseudonym), ministers with the Underground Church. The back cover states that this volume “will show you why the completion of the Great Commission is inevitable and the return of Christ is unstoppable.” This New Year would be a good time to commit (or re-commit) our lives to world evangelism.
Ali seems to anticipate some evangelical critics who might say she is approaching the Christian faith as a theoretician or philosopher. However, I think it is significant that she writes: “I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realization that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable—indeed, very nearly self-destructive.”
For Ali, her faith has personal elements to it, like it does for all of us. But I heartily approve of the conviction that her faith is not just limited to a “friendship with Jesus.” Yes, Peter did say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). I don’t want to trample underfoot the individual’s personal relationships with the Son of God. But I also believe one of the weaknesses of much evangelicalism in America is that many Christians have not developed a consistent, Christian-theistic worldview. Whether or not we admit it, we are battling ideologies and systems of erroneous thinking. We are to be pulling down “strong holds … and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4–5). Not a Passive Faith In a day of societal confusion, one of the most important passages in Scripture reminding us of our identity and purpose on Earth is Genesis 1:26–28. We were made in God’s image to create, to produce, to invent. We were made to be creative and productive, yes, even to be the Lord’s entrepreneurs! This is not a passive faith but a faith that propels us into every nook and cranny of culture and human existence. While we all love John 3:16, there are many more verses, thoughts, and ideas in Scripture.
Ali writes, “We can’t withstand China, Russia, and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can’t fight woke … and we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools.”
Where shall we look for a unifying principle of life that gives life the meaning that we need? Ali writes, “And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.”
While Ali admits that she has “a great deal to learn about Christianity,” she indicates that she understands that it is “a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.”
For those of my readers who would like to learn more about Ali and her penetrating analysis of contemporary issues that divide humanity, I would suggest the YouTube video titled, “What do wokeness and Islam have in common?” In short, Ali answers that they are both totalitarian. Her statements and courageous beliefs like this have led Brandeis University to deny her an honorary degree. She is also critical of Black Lives Matter and says that the group has raised a lot of money after the George Floyd murder, but BLM has used the funds on themselves. Ali has the right enemies.
I would also suggest that my readers pray for Ali that she would grow in grace and the knowledge of Scripture. What she reads about the Bible and those who mentor her are all critical to her grounding in the faith.
Ali faces danger from Islam, and is a target, along with her Scottish husband, Niall Ferguson, an author and historian.
Ali is also enraging the ProgressiveLeft, a group that finds her views “outrageous and divisive.” In addition, after being in ministry in a variety of formats for more than fifty years, I am concerned that she also faces harsh criticism from the extreme Christian Right. Fault may be found in her testimony because it does not have the usual evangelical buzzwords, or because she doesn’t use the correct translation of the Bible, or a dozen other issues. New Christians are tender. Please don’t crush them under heel.
Signs of the Final Harvest Larry Spargimino January 1, 2024 Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ayaan Hirsi Ali has publicly stated that she is a Christian. Born in Somalia, Ali was a Muslim, but became a strong critic of Islam and later became a central figure in the New Atheism. She became disenchanted with atheism and has now professed adherence to the teachings of Jesus. Her journey has been long. Her thoughtful essay on UnHerd online media site explains much of her thinking.
Leaving Islam is considered a serious offense. In 2004 Ali collaborated on a short film with Theo Van Gogh titled Submission. It was a frank depiction of the oppression of women under Shariah law. The release of the film quickly yielded death threats.
Van Gogh was brutally murdered on an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. The attacker, Mohammed Bouyeri, shot Van Gogh once from a distance, and then at short range as the director lay wounded on the ground. He was already dead when Bouyeri cut his throat with a large knife and tried to decapitate him. Bouyeri left a letter pinned to Van Gogh’s body with a small knife. The letter was a death threat to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
From Islam To Atheism Several factors caused Ali to leave Islam. The 9/11 attack on America was one thing. Ali felt it was wrong and something she could not support. Islam’s oppression of women and a deep-seated disdain for non-Muslims, especially Jews, created more repugnance in her heart for Islam. In her essay, she expresses the thought that the West continues in denial about the dangers of radical Islam and the possibility of a religious war. “We have seen a similar tendency in the past five weeks, as millions of people sympathetic to the plight of Gazans seeking to rationalize the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks as a justified response to the policies of the Israeli government.”
“Why I Am Not a Christian” In 2002, Ali discovered Bertrand Russell’s 1927 lecture titled “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Russell asserts that religion is based primarily on fear—something that resonated with Ali, who came from a strict Islamic background. Ali confessed that she was struggling with a deep-seated fear of being punished in the afterlife. Russell’s assertion brought peace: “When I die, I shall rot.”
Yet Ali did not have the peace that she sought. “The ‘God hole’ left in the human heart has not gone away, but rather has been filled by a jumble of irrational, quasi-religious dogma. The result is a world where modern cults prey on the dislocated masses, offering them spurious reasons for being and action—mostly by engaging in virtue.” Ali asserts that the virtue that is heralded is fighting for “a victimized minority or our supposedly doomed planet.”
Ali relates that the high-profile atheists that she met with, like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, were clever and fun to be with. However, as she looked at the news and followed the collapse of society and the rise of authoritarian regimes like those in Russia and China, plus the rise of worldwide Islam and the “viral spread” of “woke” ideology, the benefits of atheism seemed inadequate to combat the destructive beliefs of modern civilization.
She writes, “We endeavor to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground.”
I think my readers can identify with that. We have supposedly improved the quality of life through technology, psychology, sociology, and several other grand schemes that will make life more livable, but despite our best efforts, the headlines become more ominous.
The war in the Ukraine has persuaded many people that we need a “New World Order.” Nations with weapons—especially nuclear weapons and chemical and biological weapons—pose definite risks to the human race. No matter how the war in Ukraine turns out, Putin’s attack on a small nation gave the world a time and motive to put aside differences and stand united against the Russian bully. That sounds noble, but those who know the dangers of globalism know that world unity is a harbinger of a world government, a world economy, and a world church. Bad news, but it is coming! In Riga, Latvia, on the road in front of the Russian Embassy, there is a sign: “Putin: The Hague is waiting for you.” The wanton destruction of Ukrainian lives and property by Russian troops is indeed morally wrong and must be condemned. However, Putin’s fears that Russia will be grievously harmed by the destruction of moral and religious values that are the bedrock of civilization are certainly justified. America has a serious problem that Russia doesn’t want. The Blaze News for March 8, 2022, announced: “Biden requests $2.6 billion from Congress to fund global gender equity programs.” Do we have $2.6 billion to spend for a fabricated cause when the threat of World War III is hanging over our head like Damocles’ sword? And the madness continues. U.S. troops are being brought back from their posts to be schooled in sensitivity training and the proper use of pronouns for those who have transitioned. Putin looks at stuff like this and he is horrified. So are many Americans! We should all be horrified. This is madness. Vladimir Putin wants to leave a noble legacy. This desire may have been strengthened by the fact that he may be suffering from cancer. Putin has been seen with Dr. Yevgeny Selivanov, who specializes in thyroid cancer. If he is leaving this world, Putin first wants to do something noble to earn God’s love so his sins will be forgiven; second, he identifies faithfulness to God with faithfulness to Russia. He sees patriotism and godly behavior as a faithful “Russian Orthodox Christian” as part of the same package. This is a warning to conservative Christians in America. We love America and know that it is more than a place; it is also an idea. But we must never equate love for God, with love for our America. We should never feel that God has let us down if, in the next presidential election, a God-hating, America-hating candidate wins! It could happen. Despite the low scores Joe Biden is getting in the polls, America may have come so far in the wrong direction that a large number of Americans may still vote for a Joe Biden kind of a leader. I see Donald Trump as having accomplished much good despite the continual media thrashing he received, but let’s not make him a patron saint. I believe that there will be worldwide revival, but I do not believe that it will be centered in America. Now is the time to heed Romans 12:1–2. It is the will of God to have the Spirit of God use the Word of God to make the children of God more like the Son of God. Amen
Putin said, “December 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Solzhenitsyn—a day of remembrance and respect and a day to revisit his literary legacy, his social and philosophical heritage (Michael J. Matt, Remnant tv). Do you ever think President Joe Biden—or Carter, Clinton, or Obama—would dedicate a statue to a Christian hero, say Billy Graham, and praise Graham with such glowing words?
Pride, Patriotism and Putin A PBS News Hour Special Report, aired on 7/10/17, quoted a Russian Orthodox priest who said, “The state and my faith are united. They can’t be separated. The values of the church and the state coincide.”
What does this all mean for understanding the Russian invasion of Ukraine? PBS reporter Nick Schifrin explained and said, “In Russia faith is patriotic. The Orthodox Church criticizes liberal Western values as heresies, while Orthodox priests bless Russian weapons and endorse Putin politically and personally. The president’s faith increases his popularity.”
This seems to be a common view. Marcel H. Vanherpen writes, “Traditional values have become the rallying cry of extreme Right populist parties, which are sponsored by Moscow in its effort to undermine Western Liberal Democracy and universal human rights.” Indeed, the Kremlin has delighted in the ideological relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Nationalism. Though the ROC is much like Roman Catholicism in many ways, it is very different in that Roman Catholicism has no specific connection with any nation or political system, whereas the ROC is Russian in every way. The Moscow Patriarchate considers Moscow as the “Third Rome,” the spiritual center for all ROC believers. To be Russian is to be a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Anything less borders on hostility against “Mother Russia.”
“Bad Boy Zelensky” Russia sees Ukrainian president Zelensky as a danger to traditional values. Good looking and a Ukrainian TV star, Zelensky has already had to deal with hecklers who think he is taking the country in the wrong direction and somehow receiving a payoff from George Soros.
Pinknews.co.uk printed Zelensky’s response to an angry heckler who threw a number of charges at Zelensky. His response:
“I don’t know Mr. Soros. I’m not his toadie so I can’t continue with his tasks because I have nothing to do with them, I’m not engaged in the legislation of prostitution which doesn’t exist in the country. Legislation of anything in the country can only be implemented through Ukrainian law if changes to the legislation are approved. This means by the hands of the Ukrainian parliament and by approval of laws.”
When Zelensky saw an attack on Ukraine’s gay people coming he became visibly agitated. “Regarding LGBT—I don’t want to say anything negative because we all live in an open society where each one can choose the language they speak, their ethnicity and s*xual orientation. … Leave those finally at peace, for God’s sake!”
Points For Prayer, Thoughtful Reflection and Serious Self-examination Pray for Christian ministries in Ukraine and in European countries that are taking refugees, such as Poland. While Poland is a Catholic country, there are several evangelical churches providing food and shelter for refugees, and also sharing the Gospel. Not everyone who quotes Jesus is doing Jesus’ work. President Putin quoted Jesus, but I do not believe Jesus is happy with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war in the Ukraine has persuaded many people that we need a “New World Order.”
Saint Vladimir and the Brutal Cleansing of an Empire Larry Spargimino......May 24, 2022
Since February of 2022 the world has been shocked by the devastation the Russian military has brought upon Ukraine. While state media in Russia, and some groups in America, have claimed that the death toll has been “doctored” to deliberately arouse outrage at Russian nationalism, the abundant testimony of observers and Christian aid workers on the ground plus numerous satellite photos, leads me to believe that the wanton destruction of property and the targeting of civilians is real.
The attack on a maternity hospital, the use of cluster munitions and thermobaric bombs that suck oxygen out of lungs, and the testimony of refugees who have escaped to Poland and elsewhere testify, to the “scorched-earth” policy of the Russian military. What is Russia trying to accomplish? Are they afraid that Ukraine would join NATO? Are the Russians trying to stop the alleged “Nazification” of Ukraine? Or is there something else driving the madness?
The Real Vladimir Putin On May 7, 2018, 65-year-old Vladimir Putin was sworn in as president of Russia for another six-year term, having been elected with 77% of the nation’s vote. The ceremony was low-key. No one realized it at the time, but Russian Orthodox head Patriarch Krill gave Putin a treasured 18th-century icon. After the ceremony, Mr. Putin attended a prayer service at the Cathedral of the Annunciation.
This would seem to be strange behavior for a communist. Aren’t they generally atheists? Is Vladimir Putin a follower of Jesus?
In a pro-war rally in March 2022 justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Putin said: “Words from the Holy Bible come to my head: ‘There is no greater love than if someone gives his soul for his friends,’” a paraphrase of John 15:13.
In a WorldNetDaily piece titled, “Is Putin chiefly motivated by spiritual beliefs” (3/14/22), Dr. Michael Brown argues that Vladimir Putin is really not threatened by the expansion of NATO, but by the moral degeneracy of the West. In a speech given on September 19, 2013, Putin said:
“Another serious challenge to Russia’s identity is linked to events taking place in the world. Here there are both foreign policy and moral aspects. We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually redirecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even s*xual. … The excesses of political correctness have reached the point where people are seriously talking about registering political parties whose aim is to promote pedophilia. People in many European countries are embarrassed or afraid to talk about their religious affiliations.”
President Putin’s return to what he views as Russia’s Orthodox Christian faith has become increasingly more public and open in recent years. While zealots in America’s cancel culture are pulling down statues that enshrine past heroes, Russia is doing just the opposite.
On July 17, 2021, Vladimir Putin took part in the unveiling of a second equestrian monument honoring Czar Nicholas II, who is seen riding a horse and holding a Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) cross. He is called the “Last Christian Czar in Russia.” Putin is also seen dedicating a statue to Russian Christian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the man who spent a decade in the Russian gulag and who gave the reason for Russia’s decline as—“We have forgotten God. That’s why this has happened to us.” Surprisingly, Putin voiced displeasure with the Stalinist regime and called Solzhenitsyn “a true Russian patriot” who suffered “horrible millions of Russians under the gulag system.”
But if you made that decision today, if you gave your life to the Lord, reach out to us, send us a message, send us an e-mail, a phone call or something, and let us celebrate this decision that you've made following Jesus. Now, I'm listening to this and I invite you to pray, let's close this message and prayer,
Father. Thank you for your word. Lord, you didn't leave us. You didn't make us. And then leave us scrambling around in the dark, trying to figure out up from down and left from right, trying to make sense of this world, try to make sense of existence. You've revealed yourself. You've revealed your will and your word. You've spoken and you've recorded it for us in in a book. We can know you and know your ways. And I pray, Lord, that you would open up the hearts of people all over the world to love your word, cherish your word, obey your word and be changed by your word.
Do that for those who don't yet know you, but continually do that for your church. Make us a people marked by the word of God. Do this Jesus. We pray. We always pray this Lord for your glory, but do it for our deepest joy and satisfaction. We pray all these things in your name, Lord Amen Amen.
But if you can't, if you're in a place in your life right now where you want a Bible and you and you actually can't afford one, please reach out to us and contact us at Gospel City Church and we will do our very best to make sure we put a Bible in your hands.
We will be committed to doing that for anyone who needs one and can't afford one. So you have a Bible in question one. Here's my second question I want to ask. In light of a message like this, have you ever heard and believed the main message of the Bible? The Bible calls it the gospel, the good news. Have you ever. Have you ever heard and believe the gospel that you are a great sinner and you've sinned against God in vile ways in your life, but not just you.
All of humanity the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. And if God gave you and me and all of us what we deserved, he'd give us justice, which means an eternity in hell, set apart from his grace and his glory and his presence. That's if we got what we deserved. But the goodness of the good news is this, that God loves you so much that he doesn't want to give you what you deserve.
He wants to give you what you don't deserve. He wants to give you mercy and grace. Instead, he wants to lavish love upon you. Instead, he wants to give you himself instead. And so this is what God did. He sent his only son and Jesus was born of a virgin, born into a sinless life. And then he lived his life from beginning to end, completely, senselessly, perfectly. At the end of his life, he traded his life for ours.
He substituted his life by going to the cross. And the Bible says that while he hung on the cross, the sins of the entire world were put on Christ, your sins and my sins. And everyone's were put on to him. And when they were on there, the father crushed the son for our sins. Jesus died on the cross after paying for the sins of the world. He was buried in a tomb, and on the third day he rose to new life, conquering sin, conquering death forever, appearing to his disciples, appearing to crowds of people for a period of forty days before you send it back to heaven.
And before he left back for heaven, he gave this charge to his disciples, which rings true for disciples. Today you go to the ends of the Earth and you tell everyone that God has made a way for sins to be forgiven. God died on the cross and God rose. And how can sinners have their sins forgiven? Confessing and repenting from your sins, coming to Jesus in faith, asking him to apply the forgiveness that he purchased on the cross for you, ask right now in this moment,
Jesus, I'm a sinner, but I want you to forgive me. I believe that you did what was needed in order to give that to me. You died on the cross to forgive me. And here's the rest of my life. Whatever I have got is yours. I'm going to follow you forever. If you do that simply by believing in the message of the gospel, your sins are removed, you are made a child of God and what the Bible says, you're born again. The spirit of God comes to live inside of you.
You're given the gift of eternal life and friendship with God. And now you get to spend the rest of this life growing in your knowledge and love of God. And then you get to spend all of eternity basking in and enjoying the presence of Jesus. That's the core message of the Bible, if you're hearing this for the first time, if you're believing for this for the first time, we celebrate with you and praise God with you. And if you want more information about this good news, this gospel, I'm going to invite you to head over to Gospel City, see a gospel, and they're going to be more information there for you.
We believe it thoughtfully, using our minds with the much and necessary, needed help that the Holy Spirit gives us. We should believe the Bible humbly, we put ourselves underneath the authority of the word of God. We don't put ourselves over it, determining what parts we like or what parts we're going to be obey or not obey. We put ourselves under it in humility, the term meaning to do whatever it says. We should believe the Bible graciously, we extend grace to those who don't believe what we believe, if you're not a Christian and you don't believe the Bible, but you're curious about it and want to check out the church, come, come.
We do not expect you to believe the Bible if you are not a Christian, come to church believing whatever you want. You are so welcome here among us and with us. Just come and we extend grace to other Christians who don't believe the same way that we believe there are parts of the Bible that are non-negotiable, meaning there are parts of the Bible that you need to believe in order to be a Christian. These include, but are not limited to, believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, his sinless life, his substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, his physical resurrection from the dead, just to name a few.
There's no wiggle room when it comes to believing these truths and being a Christian. But there are disagreements on how to interpret other parts of the Bible, parts that do not affect a person's right standing with God. A great example of this is the study we are about to launch into in just a few weeks here at Gospel City Church. We're going to walk through the Book of Revelation front to back. And do you know that not every church agrees with what the Book of Revelation actually means?
And did you know that you can be a Christian and disagree about issues like this? This is what we mean by grace, Grace, and we need to show grace to ourselves to as we are going to make mistakes along the way to obeying every part of the Bible in every area of our life. There's a lot of room to grow in our lives in understanding the Bible and doing the Bible. We can't forget that we need grace. We need to believe the Bible graciously.
We should believe the Bible stubbornly, most people in the world today do not believe the Bible that we do here at Gospel City Church, and do you know what? That has no impact on us continuing to believe every single word of it. Even when the pressure rises to change our views or our beliefs, we never will. Why? Because this is God's word. What are we going to believe in? And instead, other people's opinions about life?
No. We should believe the Bible expectantly, we believe that God will do what he says in his word he's going to do, we believe what he says he is going to do in our lives individually. We believe what he says he's going to do in our life together as a church. And we believe what he is going to do in the world on a global scale. We expect God to be faithful to his word. And we should believe the Bible sacrificially, it costs to believe the Bible sometimes, sometimes it's going to hurt to obey God, but we're going to do it anyway.
Why? Because what else are we going to do instead? Not believe and not obey the Bible is the word of God. It's our treasure. It's our life. It's our joy. We give ourselves to obey it at any cost. This brings part one of our series, who is Gospel City Church to a close. This is the first big thing we want people to know about gospel, city, church, and it will shape everything we love and everything we do as a church.
We believe the Bible. So let me ask you a couple of questions. In closing, do you have a Bible? If not, do you want one after hearing a message like this? There's a couple of ways you could go about getting one. You could order one at a local bookstore. You can go online to Amazon or anywhere online that sells books and you can order a Bible.
OK, admittedly, that's a lot, but I hope it answers the question I raised at the beginning of our time together. What does Gospel City Church believe? We believe the Bible. We believe the facts about the Bible as a piece of literature. We believe the claims the Bible makes about itself and we believe anything the Bible says about anything. But as I begin to wrap up part one of this message series, I need to highlight a second really important question that needs to be addressed in this conversation about believing the Bible.
And the question is how? How do we go about believing the Bible, how you do something can be just as important as what you do? Let me give you an illustration to show you what I mean. Imagine I ask you to give me some bacon. I say, please give me some bacon. There are a few different ways you could give me some way. Number one, you drive to the supermarket, you go to the refrigeration section, you pick up some bacon, you drive to my house, you cut it open while it's still cold and raw and you cut it open and you take it out of its package and you just throw this lump of cold, raw bacon.
Just throw it in my face. That's one way you can give me some bacon. Here's another way. A second way. You could go to the store again, like in the first example, and you could buy some bacon. But this time you bring it over to my house and you turn on the stove top and you throw some you throw the pack of bacon into the frying pan, fry it up. And when it's at its highest possible heat with the frying pan full of hot grease, you can take the handle of the pan and you can throw all of the bacon with the grease right in my face.
You can give me back in that way or option three, you could prepare the bacon perfectly, not too soft, not too crispy, and you can place it on a platter and you could serve it to me kindly in each of those examples, you'd be giving me some bacon. How you give the bacon to me matters, trust me. How we believe the Bible matters, so how do we believe the Bible? There are a few ways. We should believe the Bible gratefully, gratefully, I don't have to figure out how my life is supposed to work.
We don't have to figure out how the life of the church is supposed to work, God tells us in the Bible. All that's left for us is to figure out just what it says and then do what it says. We should be grateful for that. It takes all the guesswork out of figuring out life. We should believe the Bible actively as opposed to passively, we don't just say we believe the Bible then and then go home and live our lives however we want, even if it's a way that contradicts what the Bible plainly says we give ourselves to apply what the Bible says to our lives.
We do this on an individual basis. We do this collectively as the church. We study to learn how to live out the implications of the Bible. So we should believe the Bible actively. James one twenty two says do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. We should leave the Bible thoughtfully, we don't believe the Bible blindly, we believe while using our minds, that means that we don't simply believe what it says.
We believe what it means. We need to interpret the Bible in order to figure out what God is saying to us in it. We take into account things like historical context, literary context, literary genre, author's intent, grammar and so on and so on. We don't believe a passage of the Bible has 10 different meanings. We believe it has a primary meaning behind it, but it may have several different applications for our lives. How do we know what the Bible means?
Are you listening, Celtic? You keep making excuses. You have only this one life, no second change for anyone, so that includes you! We will never be perfect nor will we know it all. Some people get saved on their dead beds they may never have read the Bible. All the scripture you need is; For God so loved the world, YOU, that He gave His only son that who so ever believes in Him will have everlasting life.
there has never been a find that has disproven anything that the Bible has claimed, none.
On the contrary, the more findings that come to light, the more the claims of the Bible are verified. The evidence that comes from archeology is a great test. The Bible passes with flying colors. Dropped to claim number six, the Bible claims that it's powerful, how can you test that claim? This proof they're going to give you is a little more subjective than fulfilled prophecy or archeology, but it's not any less profound. Born again Christians are the evidence that the word of God is powerful.
Sinners get saved by hearing and believing the word of God, and then over the course of the rest of their lives, they are changed continually by that same word. People get saved when they hear the word of God. They go from not loving Jesus to loving Jesus more than anything else in the world. What does that to a person? And sanctification, this is a fancy word to describe the process of a person changing to become more and more like Jesus, Christians who expose themselves to the Bible on a regular basis have their lives transformed in a way that people around them notice.
That's how you can test the claim that the Bible's powerful. You see people who love Jesus and are being transformed into his likeness right before your very eyes. The question is, are you looking and understanding that what you're seeing? The Bible makes some incredible claims about itself, but we don't have to believe those claims blindly. There are good reasons to believe them. This brings us now to our third layer of belief in the Bible, and this third layer is tied directly to the second.
If you believe the second layer, then chances are really good you're going to believe the third is your third and final fill in on your outline layer. Number three, we believe anything the Bible says about anything. We believe anything the Bible says about anything, the Bible doesn't speak on every single possible subject that can be brought up, but whatever the Bible does address and it addresses some big time issues like the biggest issues in the world, whatever the Bible has to say about anything, we believe it.
Who is God and what is he like, the Bible tells us. How did the universe come into existence? The Bible tells us what are human beings? Where did we come from? What's our purpose? What's the meaning of life? The Bible tells us what's right, what's wrong. The Bible tells us how are we supposed to live in this life. How are we supposed to understand money, sexuality, singleness, marriage, parenting? The Bible tells us where did evil come from?
Why is there suffering in the world? The Bible tells us, how is the world going to end? The Bible tells us what happens after we die. Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? The Bible tells us who goes to heaven. What does a person need to be saved? I bet you're not going to believe where we can find these answers. The Bible tells us the Bible has a lot to say about the most important questions people have in this life and gospel city church believes anything the Bible has to say about any of it.
OK, admittedly, that's a lot, but I hope it answers the question I raised at the beginning of our time together. What does Gospel City Church believe? We believe the Bible. We believe the facts about the Bible as a piece of literature. Not only that, but we believe the claims the Bible makes about itself and we believe anything the Bible says about anything. But as I begin to wrap up part one of this message series, I need to highlight a second really important question that needs to be addressed in this conversation about believing the Bible.
It is my meditation all the day. John, 15, 11 it says that the Bible is our joy. And Psalm 119 / 72 says that the Bible is our treasure. It says The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Did you know that even Leviticus and Chronicles and Obadiah were written to encourage you? Paul says this and Romans Chapter 15, verse four for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
Everything, Paul is going so far as to claim the entirety of the Old Testament was written for you, to instruct you, to encourage you, to help you endure and to flood your heart with hope. And while we must avoid biblical illiteracy, a term that describes the idolatry of Treasury and scripture more than its author, it's striking to note how inseparably connected God's word is with God himself. Indeed, to abandon it is to abandon him. Or, as one great preacher remarked to me, the Bible is not God, but it's God's voice.
The Bible is a bottomless treasure chest of beauty and wonder. These are eight wild claims that the Bible makes about itself, the Bible claims to be inspired, true, authoritative, clear, sufficient, powerful, Christ centered and precious. And for the record, Gospel City Church believes these claims that the Bible makes about itself. Important question. Do we have any good reason to believe these claims?
Because anybody can make a claim. Making claims is an easy thing to do, claiming things to be true is relatively easy. In the cinematic masterpiece Napoleon Dynamite, Uncle Rico famously made the claim to his nephew Kip that he could throw a football over the mountains. That was a bold claim to make. But the question is, could he actually do it? There would have been only one way to find out. Give Uncle Rico a football and have him validate his claims by actually doing what he said he could do, throw a football over the mountains.
If he could do it, then his claims would be proven true, if he couldn't do it, then his claims would be proven false. It's that simple. And we have reasons to believe the claims the Bible makes about itself. There are ways to test the claims and claim. No one says that the Bible is inspired, meaning it's God's word, maybe the boldest of all the claims. How can we test such a claim if we wanted to?
Well, since the Bible is the very word of God, it should contain things in it that no other book has. And it does. The Bible is chock-full of fulfilled prophecies. A prophecy is the foretelling or prediction of what's to come. And the Bible has hundreds of them, most of them have already come to pass. The only ones that haven't come to pass are the ones that are still to be fulfilled in the future. Every single prophecy that could have been fulfilled has been fulfilled perfectly and you can verify this, you can look at the date, the Bible records of prophecy, and then look at the later date to see when that prophecy was fulfilled.
The most famous, fulfilled prophecies are the ones fulfilled in the life, death and the resurrection of the Messiah. Jesus Christ. All you need to do to discredit the Bible is to find one prophecy God makes in the Bible and prove it didn't happen exactly the way God said it would. Good luck with that. Chuck Miller says the Bible is the only book that hangs its entire credibility on its ability to write history in advance without error. Claim number two says that the Bible's true in every word.
That's a bold claim to make. Here's a way that claim can be tested. In archeology, the Bible talks a lot about ancient cultures, peoples, kingdoms, events, things that it says happened in history. The more that archeologists dig and study certain areas in the world where the Bible says certain things happened, the more we can test the claims that the Bible makes to date,
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. The Bible is an instrument in of action in God's all powerful hand.
It's crucial to realize that God intends His word, not simply to engage our minds, but to change our hearts. As one person put it, the Bible was not written to satisfy your curiosity. It was written to transform your life. The Bible claims to be powerful enough to do that. Claim number seven, the Bible is Christ centered. Contrary to popular belief, the Bible is not simply a collection of ethical principles and moral platitudes and abstract life lessons.
It is a thrilling story. And the story is not ultimately about you and me. In Luke, 24, the resurrected Jesus appears to two followers on the road. Luke recounts what happens in Luke Chapter 24 starting verse twenty five. Jesus said to them how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things, then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
Later, after appearing to his 11 disciples, Jesus says to them in Luke twenty four, verse forty four, this is what I told you while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled. That was written about me in the law and the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Then you open their mind so that they could understand the scriptures. It wasn't just after his resurrection that Jesus spoke this way during his earthly ministry, he explained to the Bible experts of the day, his central place in the great story, John, Chapter five, Verse thirty nine to 40 and verse forty six.
Read like this, Jesus said. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. If you believed Moses, you'd believe me for he wrote about me. It's been rightly noted that the Old Testament is Jesus Christ concealed and the New Testament is Jesus Christ revealed from beginning to end Genesis to Revelation, the plot line of scripture anticipates, spotlights and finds his ultimate resolution in God's redeeming son.
And perhaps the most stunning thing about this story is that the central character of the story loves you. He loves you, Jesus loves us, and he is the one the Bible claims to be all about. Claim number eight, the Bible is precious, the Bible is the most valuable treasure in the universe. Here are some things the Bible says to us and these references will be on your outline. Matthew, chapter four says that the Bible is our food.
It says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Deuteronomy Chapter 30 To verse forty six to forty seven says that the Bible is our life. So verse 50 says that the Bible is our comfort. This is my comfort in my affliction that your promise gives me life, 28, says that the Bible is our strength. It says my soul melts away for sorrow.
Strengthen me. According to your word, Psalm 119 Verse, one of five says the Bible is our guidance. It says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Verse 20 says that the Bible is our desire. Psalm one thirty five says that the Bible is our hope. It says, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits. And in his word, I hope. the Bible is our love, oh, how I love your law.
Because the Bible claims to be God's word. The Bible claims to be the supreme authority in all things. Claim number four, the Bible is clear. The Bible is an ancient document. It can feel foreign and some parts are confusing. Nevertheless, the Bible is clear enough, as the Psalmist says, and so on. One 19 Verse 8, one 30, the unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. Sometimes scripture is difficult to understand because it's talking about complicated things often, however, it's hard to grasp because we simply don't like what it says.
As Mark Twain famously quipped, it ain't those parts of the Bible I can't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do understand. Often it's not that the Bible is unclear, it is that we're unreceptive claim number five, the Bible is sufficient. Scripture contains all the words from God that we need in order to know him, truly trust him, fully, obey him perfectly and enjoy him abundantly. While the Bible may not tell us everything we want to know, it does tell us everything we need to know.
The Bible contains all we need to know in order to be saved. Second, Timothy, 3/15, says how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ, Jesus and in James, chapter one, verse eighteen and twenty one of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
And first, Peter, chapter one, verse twenty three since you've been born again. Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. The Bible contains all we need to know in order to obey God in faith. Second, Peter, chapter one verses three to four, says this; His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature.
And having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. The Bible claims to be sufficient in it. We can find everything we need to know in order to be saved and everything we need to know in order to live the life. God is calling each one of us to live. Claim number six, the Bible is powerful. Since the Bible's ultimate author is God, it is a book of unparalleled power, its words are strong enough to change lives.
John 17/17 once again, Jesus said to the father, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth in Romans 11/6, Paul says, For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. Why, Paul? For it's the power of God, for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. First Thessalonians, chapter one, verse four to five says this for we know brothers loved by God that he's chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And the book of Hebrews States the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to divide in soul and spirit joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Saying the Bible is powerful is another way of saying it's a fact of the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to accomplish God's plans.
Isaiah fifty five, 10 and 11. for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes up from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.
The entirety of the Bible is God breathed, exhaled from God, no wonder is commonly referred to as God's word. If God authored it, though, then what were Moses and David and Paul and John and all the rest doing? Weren't they writing Holy Scripture to. Exactly. The Bible was written by God and humans, or more precisely by God through humans. The apostle Peter explains it this way. Second, Peter, chapter one verse 20-21
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the Prophet's own interpretation of things, for prophecy never had its origin in the human will. But prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In other words, God made sure that human authors wrote exactly what he wanted them to write, no more, no less. These authors weren't passive robots, though. God didn't erase their personalities or commandeer their minds.
They wrote as thinking, feeling human beings. God worked through their unique personalities and educations and backgrounds and experiences to enable to inspire them to write divine truth in this way that the Bible claims to be inspired. Claim number two, the Bible is true, the Bible is true, God's word is true because God's character is true. He's not a liar. The God of truth cannot speak false words. And to doubt the truthfulness of God's word is to doubt the truthfulness of God himself.
Looking to scripture itself, we find numerous claims to pervasive truthfulness. The law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right. Rejoice in the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure and lightning. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. And Proverbs Chapter 35 says this, Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Jesus affirmed this concisely, listen to the words he prayed to the father on the night of his betrayal. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
When properly interpreted, the Bible will never mislead you, what it says, God says. Claim number three, the Bible is authoritative, God owns the universe he verbalized into existence and his loving authority intended for our good is exercised through his word. In fact, God has so identified himself with scripture that to disbelieve or disobey it is to disbelieve or disobey him. It's true that the Bible isn't the only authority that exists in our life. There are other rightful authorities.
Parents are in authority. The Bible says this in the six church elders are in authority. The Bible says this in places like Hebrews 13 and first Peter five. And government officials are in authority. God says this in Romans Chapter 13. And first, Peter, Chapter two. None of these how authorities, however, is above God's word, the Bible is the Supreme Court. This means the correctness of every belief, value, opinion statement. And the sermon is finally settled by the question, what does the Bible say?
Jesus himself appealed to each part of scripture and to each element of scripture as to an unimpeachable authority, kings don't give advice, they give orders and obedience to the word of God, therefore, is not optional. As J.C. Riley remarked, happy is the man who possesses a Bible. Happier still is he who reads it happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it as countercultural and counterintuitive as it may feel at times, submission to God's word is where true life and freedom are found.
Because the Bible claims to be God's word. The Bible claims to be the supreme authority in all things. Claim number four, the Bible is clear. The Bible is an ancient document.
Well known Christian teacher and author Shaun McDowell says this through the New Testament documents compare with other ancient books, a stack of existing manuscripts from the average classical writer would measure about four feet high. Yet, the New Testament manuscripts would start to more than one mile high. The Bible is unique in how popular it is as well, the familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact. The Bible is the best selling book of the year.
Every single year, over 100 million Bibles are sold or given away for free every year in the world, according to The Economist and the Guinness Book of World Records. Record Records estimates that more than five billion copies of the Bible have been printed. None of these facts about the Bible should overshadow one of the most incredible aspects of it. The Bible contains one single cohesive story all the way through from beginning to end. If you are a person who fancies themselves as someone who appreciates things like reason, logic, facts and reality.
Then you will be forced to acknowledge that there is no other book on the planet that even comes close to how awesome the Bible is as a piece of literature. This is the first layer of believing the Bible, believing the facts about it as a book. And many people, both Christians and non Christians, would claim to believe the things I've just shared with you. But the Bible is not just an incredible book because of some of the facts we just heard about it, the Bible is an incredible book because of some incredible things that it says about itself.
It makes out of this world claims. It's one thing to believe the facts about the Bible as a piece of literature, but it's another thing altogether to actually believe what the Bible says about itself. Which brings us to the second layer of believing the Bible. And it's the next villain on your outline later to, we believe, the claims the Bible makes about itself. We believe the claims the Bible makes about itself. There are a lot of them, we're going to break down the claims the Bible makes into eight specific categories.
Claim number one, the Bible is inspired when Christians claim the Bible is inspired. What do they mean? Well, inspiration is about the relationship between God and the Bible. The Bible's authors, these men, were inspired in the way that we typically use the word today. It's not as if the apostle Paul saw a gorgeous sunset and then it was moved emotionally to write the book of Galatians. Nor does it mean he would enter some into some catatonic state where his eyes would roll into the back of his head and start foaming at the mouth and start reciting words.
And someone else would copy those words down. And then he would snap out of it and pick up the parchment and say, OK, let's see what God wrote. First and foremost, inspiration has to do with the fact that the Bible's ultimate author is God. Listen to what Paul says in his letter to Timothy a second one second, Timothy. Chapter three, verses 16 to 17 reads like this. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The entirety of the Bible is God breathed, exhaled from God, no wonder is commonly referred to as God's word. If God authored it, though, then what were Moses and David and Paul and John and all the rest doing? Weren't they writing Holy Scripture to. Exactly. The Bible was written by God and humans, or more precisely by God through humans. The apostle Peter explains it this way. Second, Peter, chapter one verse is twenty to twenty one.
And I'm going to show you three different layers of belief that a person can have in the Bible. It's possible to believe in the first layer or a couple of them layered on top of each other. Or you can believe in all three of them. As we go through this message, you will see where you are at when it comes to believing the Bible and as we go, you will get to see what we mean here at Gospel City Church when we say we believe the Bible and we want everyone to know this about us.
So layer one, and this is the first fill in on your outline, we believe the facts about the Bible, we believe the facts about the Bible as a piece of literature. There are some facts about the Bible that when you know these facts, they should lead you to at least one conclusion. The Bible is the most remarkable book on the planet. Here are some facts about the Bible, you may or may not have known this, but the word Bible simply means book or books.
The Bible is one book that's made up of 66 different books, and these 66 different books are divided into two main sections or testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains thirty nine out of the 66 books, and the New Testament has the other twenty seven. The two testaments are separated by a time period of four hundred years and the whole Bible was written over a period of 1500 years by a collection of over 40 different authors who came from various backgrounds, most of whom never met each other.
Isaiah was a prophet. Ezra was a priest. Matthew was a tax collector. Peter was a fisherman. Moses was a shepherd. Luke was a physician. David was a king. Just to give you an idea of the diversity in the author's lives, different sections of the Bible were written in different literary genres. I found small traders using the word genre. A genre is a category of artistic composition characterized by similarities in form, style or subject.
So the main genres found in the Bible are law, history, wisdom, poetry, narrative, epistles, prophecy and apocalyptic literature. The Bible was written on three different continents, Asia, Africa and Europe. It was written in three original languages. The Old Testament was written predominantly in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written predominantly in Greek. And there are portions in both testaments that were written in Aramaic. The Bible has been translated from his original languages into a bunch of different languages, including English.
As of September twenty-twenty, the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages. The New Testament on his own has been translated into an additional one thousand five hundred and fifty one languages, and Bible portions or stories into another one thousand one hundred and sixty languages. The Bible is easily the most heavily authenticated piece of ancient literature in existence today, and it's not even close. Ancient writings are tested using something called manuscripts. A manuscript is any handwritten copy or portion of a text.
The more manuscripts we have of any ancient work, the more we have to test the reliability of that work. A biblical manuscript is only handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. And how many manuscripts do we have of the Bible compared to other pieces of ancient literature? Well, according to Wikipedia, the New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work of literature, with over five thousand eight hundred complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts cataloged ten thousand Latin manuscripts and nine thousand three hundred manuscripts and various other ancient languages, including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopia, Coptic and Armenian.
Gospel City Church is a brand new church, and we don’t want to waste any time letting everyone know some of the most important stuff about us. In this first message, we start unpacking what we believe as a church by talking about what we mean when we say, "We believe the Bible."
If you are single and you're dating or you find yourself in a dating relationship, let me give you some advice. Don't wait too long to share some of the most important stuff in your life that the other person needs to know. You don't want the relationship to go so well that you find yourself getting married to this person. But then on your honeymoon is the time when the big stuff finally comes out. You don't want to find out on your honeymoon that they don't want to have kids.
But you really, really, really want to have kids. You don't want to wake up on your honeymoon to find out that they're actually an atheist and you're a devout Jesus loving Christian. You don't want to find that out on your honeymoon. You don't want to find out on your honeymoon that they don't think Die Hard is a Christmas movie. But because you're a normal person, you absolutely believe Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Some of the big stuff doesn't have to come out on the first or the second date, but the big stuff has to come out before you decide to get married.
Now, there's always a chance that letting the big stuff out early might deter the other person from moving forward in the relationship. But it might not. I think it would be wise to take that chance. Either way. And this is the big idea behind our new Surman series that we're kicking off with this message today, we're calling this three part series who is Gospel City Church. And over the course of this series, we're going to be answering three big questions.
What do we believe? What do we love and what do we do? Gospel City is a brand new church and we don't want to let too much time pass before we let the big stuff out. There are some things about our church that we want everyone to know right up front, right out of the gate. No matter who you are, we want you to know these things about us. If you aren't a Christian, but you've decided to come and check our church out, we want you to know these things.
If you are a Christian, you just happen to be visiting from another church. And we want you to know these things. If you are a Christian and you call gospel city church home. We want everyone to know so that if you ever decide that one day you might want to become a member of Gospel City Church, none of the big stuff that we're going to share in this series is going to catch you off guard or catch you by surprise.
You will know what you're getting yourself into. So what's the big stuff you might be thinking to yourself? Well, in this first message, we're going to be talking about what we believe here at Gospel City, what a person believes or what a church believes will shape everything that they say and do. There's one main overarching thing that we believe, that gospel city church. And it's this we believe the Bible. Now, that may seem simple and obvious to many of you that probably didn't catch a lot of you by surprise.
We are a church, after all. Isn't the Bible kind of a big deal for Christians? It is. But we need to realize that the statement we believe the Bible needs some clarification because everyone believes the Bible in some way, but not everyone believes the Bible in the same way. Everyone believes the Bible in some way, but not everyone believes the Bible in the same way. Everyone doesn't believe the Bible the same way that we do here at Gospel City Church.
You have not seen anything yet, Celtic. Better to read the Bible now. I love the prophecies as you can check them out. Many are agreeing with me that time on this planet is running out soon. So get on board now, while you still can.
Satan had a meeting with his demons. We must do something to stop people from becoming Christians, he said. I know, said one demon, we tell people God does not exist. Nah, Satan! Said. That won't work, people know that God is alive. Ah! I got the answer Satan told the demons, we tell people they can accept Jesus as their Savior, tomorrow!
I can't wait to get back into that study. Well, one more quick note. If you want to find that list of all the comparisons between Moses and Jesus, I'm going to put that on the website on the page for this message. I'll make sure there's a specific PDF document. Then you can go and look up all the related scripture references if you have any interest in doing that. Praise God. Praise God that we are redeemed by our greater than Moses.
Jesus Christ. Praise God we've been set free. We've been redeemed, that is the central message of the Book of Exodus, we've been set free to experience the family of God, the presence of God, the blessings of God, and to be part of his special family, be part of his chosen people. What a privilege. What a joy. What an honor. Thank you for being with us for this study.
Would you bow your hat and close your eyes? Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for the gift. That is your word. Thank you for the way that you use history and pictures and types. And Lord, you use words and stories and metaphors and all these things to paint a picture for us of your love for us and the incredible saving, redemptive work. Of your son, Jesus, on our behalf, we are so, so grateful, Lord, and we ask that right now, if there's a specific part of this message that you want us to take in and take to heart, Lord, would you just illuminate it once again right now, bring it to memory so that we can respond to you because we love you.
We want to know you more, and we want to walk in your ways that we might pave the way for your presence, blessings and guidance in every area of our lives. Thank you so much for your goodness. Jesus, we bless you. It's in your precious name. We pray. Amen.
Ephesians, 1/11, tells us that Jesus has given us the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. And finally, I suggest that both Moses and Jesus are scheduled for future earthly appearances. Jesus is the obvious one at the second coming, but I believe that Moses will be one of the two witnesses recorded in Revelation Chapter 11. Incredible. The number of parallels, absolutely incredible and should leave you with no doubt that Moses is indeed a type of Jesus. There are a couple of other parallels I want to quickly make you aware of before we wrap up so that you can dig into them further in your own study should you so choose.
There's a whole school of thought known as the Cosmic Temple View that posits there are intentional parallels between the tabernacle and the temple and the creation of God, the idea being essentially that the creation of God was a cosmic temple, the universe being God's temple proper, the earth being his temple, and Eden being the holy of hollies. And there are lots of interesting parallels you can dig into if you want to research that a little bit more on your own. There's also a mega theme flow of creation, Sabbath and God's Presence that appears in Genesis, Exodus and Revelation.
In Genesis, you have creation six days of work, then the Sabbath rest to appreciate and enjoy God's creation and then God's presence being among his people, walking in the cool the day with Adam and Eve as they work together in partnership in Exodus, we have the creation, the construction of the Tabernacle, then the repeated focus on the Sabbath, and then God's people coming and dwelling among his people as he inhabits the tabernacle and then leads them and partners with them, directing them where to go.
All across history, there's this view that there will be perhaps 6000 years of human history to parallel the six days of creation, which will then be followed by a seventh day, a thousand-year Sabbath rest, where Jesus will reign in what's called the millennial kingdom on the earth for us to rest and appreciate God's creation, the Earth as it was intended to be. And then we will move forward with the Lord into the ages to come in his presence, partnering with him in whatever is to come next.
Now, I can't do a full study on any of those things, but I just wanted to put out those breadcrumbs for you if you're not familiar with them, so that you can look into those things more in your own time should you choose to do so. The whole Bible ultimately has one author, Jesus. And that's why in the books of Exodus and Revelation, we see the same subject in focus in redemption. Exodus introduces the subject in earnest, revelation reveals the culmination of redemption, and that's why in about a month, I'm really looking forward to beginning our study in the Book of Revelation.
We studied it at New Hope six years ago, and I don't know if you've noticed, but a few things have happened since then. And all I can say is that if you participated in that study six years ago and had any doubts about the literal nature of the Book of Revelation, the last six years should have put those doubts to rest for you. Since that time, we've also studied Daniel first and second Thessalonians and the Olivet Discourse in the Gospels.
And as we've said, a lot has happened in the world. It's going to be a timely study. It's going to be fascinating. Eye-Opening shocking, encouraging and faith building. So if you have any friends, if you have any family or coworkers who are interested in the end of the world, conspiracies or anything like that, and really who isn't, hey, this is the time to invite them to church. If you're local here, this is the time to invite them to maybe go through that study with you if you're living somewhere else and watching this online.
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
Core Beliefs Control the NarrativeCore beliefs, that are assumed to be true, control the outcome of one’s thinking. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian pastor, my core belief was Covenant Theology. I believed that infant baptism is scriptural because of my core belief. I used to run with Calvinists, both Presbyterian and Baptist. Then, a Reformed Baptist friend challenged me and said, “Larry, forget Covenant Theology. Just read the New Testament and take it at face value. Don’t let your Covenant Theology bleed over into your thinking. And then tell me who are the proper subjects for baptism.”
I couldn’t escape the fact that there are absolutely no examples in the New Testament of an infant being baptized. Without the presuppositional bias of Covenant Theology, there is absolutely no justification for infant baptism. Baptism is for believers. This, of course, doesn’t mean that we hate babies. It simply means we don’t sprinkle them and call it “baptism.”
In the same way TULIP—Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints—is based on a core definition of the sovereignty of God that is unique to Calvinism. Let’s face it, every Christian believes that God is sovereign, not just Calvinists. The sovereignty of God is that attribute of God by which His is the highest authority and does not need to get approval from any higher authority before He makes a decision. God exercises His prerogative to do whatever He pleases.
For the Calvinist, however, God can only be considered sovereign if He controls everything and if He maintains continuous and absolute Lordship over everything. But let’s be honest—if God is really sovereign, He is free to make man free. He is even free to give man the privilege and responsibility of choosing his own destiny.
For Calvinists, this is the depth of impiety. The Calvinist view of divine sovereignty leads him to argue that if man has the freedom of choice, then God is not sovereign. And if God is sovereign, then man is not free. But those are not the only alternatives.
Calvinists take this one more step into absurdity. They will argue that preaching Calvinism is preaching the Gospel, and those who are not Five-Point Calvinists don’t believe in grace. They will hold that because I don’t support Five-Point Calvinism I am an Arminian! I am neither an Arminian nor a Calvinist. There is a vast canyon of possibilities between Calvinism and Arminianism.
Insulated Against Truth
In 1 Timothy 2 we read, “Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth … Who gave himself a ransom for all” (vss. 4, 6). Second Corinthians 5:14–15 is similar: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
There are many, many scriptures that argue against Calvinism, and yet they don’t seem to register with Calvinists. Universal terms are often reinterpreted. I often think, “What more could God say to describe the extent of His love that He hasn’t already said?” The answer is, “Nothing.” Nothing will convince the Calvinist. Core beliefs control the narrative.
What is the meaning of the word “all”? Calvinists love to appeal to Luke 2:1 where we read that a decree went out that “all the world should be taxed.” All the world like China, Afghanistan, and Borneo? Of course not. In biblical times, “all the world” means “all the known world, mainly the Roman Empire.” It is true that in certain contexts that speak about geopolitical issues, “all” doesn’t mean “all” without exception.