Can a person be called both Baptist and Reformed? The answer may depend upon who is answering the question. Dr. R. Scott Clark says that the Arminian Remonstrants who reject a Calvinistic soteriology are more appropriately Reformed than a Baptist who denies granting the Sign of the Covenant to their children until they personally affirm faith in Christ. But if pædobaptism renders someone Reformed then are M…
If God does not will , or is not willing, for any person to perish (2 Pet. 3:9) then why does anyone perish and find him- or herself in Hell upon death? Many answer: "The issue at 2 Peter 3:9 is not about God's sovereign will but God's holy desire that no one perish and find him- or herself in Hell upon death. God desires / wants / would like every person 'to be saved and to come to the k…
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them , bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality and, because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgmen…
A pastor might say to sinners, "Give Jesus your heart," but this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this is not the way to be saved . All you can "give" to Jesus is your sin, not your heart, not your will. The person who has not yet been made alive spiritually--born again, born from above, regenerated--cannot give Jesus his heart (1 Cor. 1:18, 30, 31; 2:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1…
Before you read one word on this topic of Homosexuality and the Gospel you need to know that this hot-button issue is quite personal for me because I am also a same-sex attracted male, albeit single and celibate, and I was born again in May of 1995. I have studied and considered the issue of Homosexuality biblically, historically, and socially--not extensively, not in the best libraries the world has to offer, …
Those who fear that "too much preaching on grace" will result in Antinomianism--the view that "Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law" (Oxford Languages)--is an unwarranted fear (and this should be inherently true for any individual regenerated by the grace of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit), for, as Paul himself confesses, "How shall we,&quo…
I don't know about you but sometimes I struggle with the weight of my own sin. The longer I walk in Christ, and the more I understand His holiness, the more sin I notice in my fallen nature. I am not yet entirely sanctified (Phil. 3:12). I thought that I would be much farther along in sanctification by now--some 30 years later. I thought, when I was first saved and born again, that I would actually become s…
If Augustinian soteriology and Reformed theology were unknown in the mid-to-late first- through at least the late fourth-century then how can such views be orthodox and biblical? I once believed that, because the early fathers did not hold to doctrines of Original Sin, Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints, such views could not possibly be…
To suggest that human beings are basically good people, and that there is at least some goodness (perhaps even greatness) in all people, is to betray what Scripture explicitly says about the fallen and sinful heart of humanity--each human being born into the world. How could any Christian, any student of Scripture, conclude with this "basic human goodness in every heart" presumption when the pages of …
Have you ever heard or read anyone who seemed put off because a person "came to faith" in Christ prior to their death? "For 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved'" (Rom. 10:13). To such a person, this last-minute conversion seems insincere, and "not fair." The person who thinks like this is a bit troubled because she has been a believer for over fifty yea…
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the [Gentile]. For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith [or out of faith into faith , CSB tn; by faith resulting in faith , EHV tn; it begins and ends with faith , NCV, cf. NLT; a righteousness that is by faith from first to last , NIV]; as …
"For by grace you have been saved through faith," writes the apostle Paul to the Ephesians, "and that," having been saved , is "not [a result] of yourselves, [but] is the gift of God"; adding, " not as a result of works , so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). So, therefore, keeping the Law of God, or trying to be a good and decent human being, will never merit anyone t…
I was raised non-Calvinistic Southern Baptist. My introduction to Calvinism came through John MacArthur's Study Bible and Commentaries. I then read R.C. Sproul's Chosen by God and found the Reformed interpretation convincing. I only remained Reformed ish for a little over a year before returning to my non-Calvinistic and Dispensational default positions. I decided to go to college at The College at So…
There is a false teaching that has spread like cancer among churches for decades now that we are all--every single one of us--innately and automatically children of God. This heresy must be fought for the sake of Christ, for the sake of His Gospel , for the sake of His atoning work on the cross and the salvation of lost sinners. We are not all children of God. Even a cursory read of Jesus' words in the Gos…
Pelagius is biblically, ideologically and spiritually farsighted, in that he cannot see clearly the radical depravity of fallen mortals (and that condition being due to an inherited state of nature transmitted from the fall of Adam our father); and he is also biblically, spiritually and theologically nearsighted, in that he cannot see clearly the utter holiness of God that demands sinless perfection for one …
The question of why I still believe in Jesus, why I believe in the triune God of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, and why I still believe in the Bible as God's Word (not merely the opinions of uneducated fishermen and farmers), and in Salvation from Sin and in Christ's Church, &c., does not concern the origins of my faith (as debated by Calvinists, Arminians, e…
Of the primary seven atonement theories, there is one that, above others, offends the senses of many today, one that they claim causes them to reject Christianity: Penal Substitution. Such people forget that, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22). Their problem, then, is with Scripture. Such people should rip Leviticus and Hebrews out of their Bibles and invent their own rel…
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist" is a quote from the 1995 movie by Bryan Singer called The Usual Suspects and is an old adage from responses to the Enlightenment-era philosophers and advocates of Higher Criticism of the Bible regarding the Devil. This "A Case for the Devil" is to advocate for his personal existence and to argue against…