His Personality Without a doubt the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood member of the Trinity. Often, because of such misunderstandings, false teachings will arise concerning Him. The Bible though, is quite clear in what it teaches concerning the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is neither an “it,” a “thing,” or a mere “influence.” The Bible…
Formation of the Church The word translated church in the New Testament (ekklesia), means a “called out group” or “assembly.” It is most frequently used of those who are believers in Jesus Christ. In this sense, it is used in three ways: (1) Of all who have, do, and will believe in Christ during the…
Origin To say that the Bible is a unique book would not be in any way overstating the facts. There is no other literary work, whether ancient or modern in the world that can be compared to it. The Bible itself makes specific claims concerning its character and uniqueness. There are about thirty eight hundred…
Defining Sin In Scripture we find many words that refer to sin. In the Old Testament there are eight principal words and in the New Testament twelve. These words convey a number of ideas such as missing the mark, disobedience, transgression, lawlessness, rebellion, unrighteousness, etc. In Romans 4:15, Paul teaches that the law was given…
Faith Cairns defines faith “as the work of the Holy Spirit, His gift to God’s elect, enabling them to believe as true whatever God has revealed in His Word and to accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. It is never alone, being always accompanied by repentance and producing good…
Man’s Origin The facts concerning the origin of man can be known only because God has revealed those facts to us in Scripture. It is through special revelation that we discover something about where we came from. Attempting to answer the question of mans origin apart from Scripture has only served to demonstrate that man…
His Pre-Existence and Eternality Enns states, “The eternality and deity of Christ are inseparably linked together. Those who deny His eternality also deny His deity. If the deity of Christ is established, there is no problem accepting His eternality.”[1] There are many passages both in the Old as well as the New Testament that clearly affirm…
God’s Existence Ryrie states that traditionally there have been two lines of argument used to demonstrate the existence of God, the naturalistic and the biblical arguments.[1] Here I will evaluate those arguments that fall within both the naturalistic as well as the biblical arguments. Naturalistic Arguments Cosmological Argument The cosmological argument is the argument from cause…
This author will approach this study from a pre-millennial, dispensational perspective. Some space will be devoted to briefly define some of the others systems of interpretation. Interpretation Dispensational pre-millennialism can be identified by two basic features: (1) Literal hermeneutic. In other words, the words and statements in Scripture should be interpreted in their normal way, in the…
Recommended Books for Further Study on the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity* Although not an exhaustive list of books on Bible doctrine and systematic theology, the student of Scripture will find these resources to be extremely helpful as they journey into a more in-depth study of the essential, cardinal doctrines of the Faith. They range from…