Grounded & Growing

God does not save because He has to; He saves because He wants to. And it is His joy. He does not save begrudgingly; God loves to save sinners. Hebrews says Christ went willingly to the cross. In fact, He rejoiced despite the shame. He wanted to save sinners, and He freely gave His life to redeem us. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword &...

So then, does it matter what be believe about the inspiration of Scripture? I hope you see with me that it absolutely does. Our faithfulness in the gospel rests on whether or not we continue to live in faithful submission to Scripture. Whether Christianity will continue to the next generation—or even survive this one—rests on our commitment, with all true believers, to believe the Word of God and...

The Bible is not another book we leave to collect dust on the shelf. It is categorically distinct, a level above every other book written since it is the only one written by God. When we read the Bible, we hear directly from the Lord of the universe. We see His great work through history and His magnificent grace given in the gospel. The Bible is God’s Word to us. Support the show A production of...

Does inspiration apply to every part of Scripture? Just the “spiritual” parts? Just the New Testament? Just the gospels? The biblical view says that all of Scripture is inspired. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints...

We believe that when Scripture speaks, God speaks. Scripture is not a lesser revelation than if God were to show up tonight and speak directly to you or me. Scripture comes from the mouth of God. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theol...

As Anabaptists, we typically think of the conservative/liberal paradigm in terms of outward appearance; we need a paradigm adjustment. Liberals look just like the rest of us. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com...

We must be stalwart in our defense of the biblical view of hell. Not necessarily because we like it, nor because it is the most attractive, but simply because it’s what God has said in His word.  Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theol...

We need to deal with some of the key words used in Scripture to describe hell. If we believe that God inspired the very words of Scripture, we must be concerned with the specific meanings of those words. Three Greek words most stubbornly resist Conditional Immortality, and thus must be redefined by Conditional Immortality proponents to make room for their viewpoint. Support the show A production o...

Psalm 37:10 reads, “Yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.” Conditional Immortality scholars interpret this as conclusively teaching that the wicked will be annihilated in the judgment. But is that what it means? Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword &...

Many things can be fit into Scripture that do not arise from it. Truly biblical Christianity is not built upon that which is compatible with Scripture, but instead on that which Scripture asserts —that which is most plainly taught within the very pages of Scripture. The first fundamental flaw of Conditional Immortality is that it injects into Scripture what could never be deduced from Scripture. ...

Conditional Immortality agrees with the majority of what I’ve laid out so far. Those who hold to conditional immortality maintain that all these things are true: hell is real, it is the destiny of sinners, and it is terrible. The point of departure is not the reality of hell. Rather, it is the eternality of hell, or more specifically, the eternality of the human soul . Support the show A productio...

Hell is not as common in our conversation as it was 500 years ago, 300 years ago, or even 60 years ago. Because we don’t talk about it, many of us don’t understand it as we should. We haven’t been as faithful as we ought to have been guarding the theological door, and it’s starting to show. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trump...

True or False: Experiencing God is more important than knowing about Him. What do you think? Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com .

Hebrews 2 shows us just how necessary it is that Christ be made like us in all things. He takes on humanity to save us. He takes on flesh to show His mercy. He becomes one of us so He can bring us back to God. Christ’s incarnation—God in the flesh—is crucial to the gospel. Without His incarnation, our faith is in vain. But through Him, we are restored to God. Support the show A production of The S...

The verse before us today teaches us much about God’s sovereign designs in salvation. God, the master architect, has orchestrated salvation for us. He who made the world sent His Son into the world to suffer for mankind and save man from His sin. He who deserves all glory has brought us to glory through Christ. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about...

The astronomer Carl Sagan said, “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” He spoke as a sceptic, knowing the magnitude of the universe but unwilling to believe in the Creator. Though he may be right that science gives no reason to believe redemption will...

When you think of Hebrews you should think of two words: Christ, and better. Hebrews is supreme in the New Testament in its treatment of Christ’s person and work. Specifically, how He has fulfilled all that the Old Testament law predicted. For this reason, He is better. And He brings the better covenant and better promises through His better mediation and better atoning sacrifice. The author has t...

In this seventh and final episode we will look at the close of the canon. Should Christians today expect personal revelations from God? Should we expect  divinely inspired writings to be composed or discovered? How we answer this question may be more important than you think. Confusion about the close of the biblical canon opens us up to ideas that run contrary to God’s will for His people. Suppor...

One of the toughest questions relating to the canon of Scripture is that of the extent of the canon. How do we know that the books we think are Scripture are actually from God? Have we missed any? Answers vary. We are continuing the discussion of the canon of Scripture by taking a look at some of the disputed writings.  Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn mo...

We’re going to pick up in this episode where we left off last time, continuing into the New Testament canon. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com .

We are continuing our series on the canon of Scripture. Before us today is a discussion of how the Old Testament canon came to be. Why do we consider the 39 books of the Old Testament to be Scripture? Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet Ministries. To learn more about The Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website . For more theological content, visit...

The question of canon is, “How do we know which writings speak for God.” This question assumes that God has spoken, and that He has done so through a written word. How are Christians nearly 2000 years removed from the writing of the New Testament to know that we have everything God intended us to have and nothing more? Today we will look at the principles of canon, the tests by which we can recogn...

The doctrine of the canon of Scripture addresses the question of how we can know what is included in the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Scriptures. All Scripture is God-breathed, but how do we know which writings are from God and which have been contrived by man? Certain principles can be used to gauge whether or not a historical writing deserves a place in the biblical canon. In this second ep...

God’s written word is fundamental to Christianity. What we believe and how we live are defined by the Bible. We have no starting point for knowing God, for knowing the gospel, or for being equipped for Christian living without what God has made known to us in the sixty-six books of the Bible. But there’s the question. How did these particular writings become a part of God’s word? Why these writing...

Hebrews is unmatched in the New Testament in its manifestation of the glories of Christ. It tells us of His deity and His humanity, of His work as our High Priest and His offering of Himself as our effectual atonement, of His supremeness above all creation and all created things. From the outset, the author intends to set our minds on Christ. Support the show A production of The Sword and Trumpet...