The Christian Faith Podcast

In this episode I share how I found the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, way back in 1983 out in Washington, D.C. If you are already a Christian, I hope you’ll find it encouraging; if not, or if you're not sure whether you're a Christian yet, I hope you’ll find it helpful in understanding what it really means to become a believer in Jesus Christ and have a relationship with Him. At the end I have a...

When there are already so many English-language versions of the New Testament, is there really a need for still another one? I would strongly say, Yes, because I just don’t feel there is a truly first-rate translation of the Scriptures available in English today. That is why I produced the Standard Version. And so, in this episode, in order to illustrate the need for the SV, I give examples of two...

I just wanted to send out a brief announcement to listeners as to why I have, for the time being, paused the release of new episodes of the Christian Faith Podcast. The reason is, at this point all of my time and effort needs to be focused on publishing the 2025 edition of the Standard Version of the New Testament, so right now I just don’t have the opportunity to post any new episodes of the podc...

Many believers, even many Bible teachers, assume that being cast into the “outer darkness,” as mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (e.g., 25:30), must be the same thing as being cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:15). And it is true that both refer to coming judgments that will take place at the end of this age. However, if we look carefully at what the New Testament shows us regarding this matter...

Officers are required for the administration of a kingdom, and so God has deliberately interposed a prolonged period between His two advents, that our Lord might be enabled to so test his servants, in His absence, as to discover which are fitted for positions of responsibility and trust at His return. — D. M. Panton, The Judgment Seat of Christ , page 35, re. the Parable of the Minas The Lord give...

The poorest, the most unlettered, the most obscure have the “very little” which yet can coin enormous future wealth. — D.M. Panton, “The Judgment Seat of Christ,” page 31 In the statement above, Mr. Panton is drawing a lesson from the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: If we as the believers in Christ are faithful to the Lord as His servants in this age with the “very little” He has committed  ...

Few Christians today appreciate just how sober and serious a matter it is to be a follower of Christ. So, in this episode we continue our consideration of how the Lord will deal with us, His believers, at His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10). In the previous episodes in this series we’ve considered, first, how this matter is presented in the New Testament in plain words, and then, how it is seen in the...

Now these things happened to them as a pattern for us, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come. — 1 Corinthians 10:11 The history of the Children of Israel in their journey from Egypt to the Good Land is, beyond any question, a type of our spiritual journey, as the believers in Christ, from our living in the world until we win the prize of entering into t...

According to the Bible, the goal which is set before a person is twofold: when we are yet sinners, our goal is salvation; after we are saved and become believers, our goal is reward. For salvation is provided for sinners, whereas reward is provided for believers. The perishing should receive salvation, and the saved should win reward. — Watchman Nee, Aids to Revelation, page 41 In this episode we...

For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall repay each one according to what he has practiced. — Matthew 16:27 The Lord spoke this word to His disciples (16:24). Yet, it seems few Christians today have an adequate realization that we will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account to Him for how we lived our Christian life (...

The day is soon coming when we, as the believers in Christ, must all appear before His judgment seat: For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has practiced, whether good or worthless. — 2 Corinthians 5:10 For the Bible warns us very directly concerning God that “He is a rewarder” (Heb. 11:6),...

Will the next age be a time of blessing and enjoyment for us as the believers in Christ, or a time of suffering and discipline? That depends on whether or not we are faithful to the Lord in this age, so we can reign with Him in the next, and will be decided at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10). Of course, the next age will not be eternity, but the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth,...

According to the Bible, the focus of God’s work today is to bring His kingdom to this present earth through mankind, whom He created for this very purpose (e.g., Gen. 1:22-27, Matt. 3:2, 4:17, Acts 28:31). This will eventually take place in the coming age, which will be “the Millennium,” the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth. Only after the Millennium will the present heaven and earth be s...

The vision the apostle John sees in the book of Revelation begins when he hears a voice speaking to him: What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches…. — Revelation 1:11 He then turns around to see the voice that had spoken to him, and says, …When I turned around, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man…. — Revelation 1:12-13 We a...

We all know that, as the believers in Christ, we need to meet together in churches with our fellow believers; the new life we have received in Christ drives us inwardly to seek such fellowship. And yet, as important as this is, the New Testament gives us no instructions regarding how to form churches. Rather, as Watchman Nee points out, what it shows us is that, wherever the gospel was preached an...

The history of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament, both in what God called them to and in the manner in which they failed and turned away from God, has many lessons to teach us about the genuine worship God desires from us as the believers in Christ. Of course, as Paul tells us, …these things happened to them as a pattern for us, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the end...

“And I also say unto you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” — Matthew 16:18 As soon as Simon declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord revealed something more to him. First, He changed his name to “Peter,” meaning “a stone,” and then He told him He would build His church upon that “rock”...

How can we be one today with our fellow believers in Christ, in terms of how we gather together for fellowship in our local churches? The Lord surely desires for us be one; that is what He prayed for on the night He was betrayed: That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe You have sent Me. — John 17:21 Yet, tragica...

The genuine New Testament fellowship of the believers in Christ is called “the fellowship of God’s Son” (1 Cor. 1:9), because Christ is the center, focus, and content of the genuine fellowship. But, it is also called “the fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42), because, as we see in the New Testament, we are called into this genuine fellowship through the ministry of the apostles. Today, the same...

After reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we may look down at the church in Corinth because it was filled with so many problems. However, we should remember that this is the only book in the New Testament that specifically tells us it is written to all the believers in Christ (1:2). So Paul here is not just dealing with the problems in that local church, but with problems that have aff...

The “fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” is not carried out in the heavens; rather, it must be carried out in what is so often our messy church life here on the earth (1 Cor. 1:9). As we see in 1 Corinthians 2, the only way this can happen is for us to be dealt with by the Lord and His cross so we become, not simply those who have the Spirit of God, but who are also genuinely spiritual p...

When the apostle Paul tells us that God has called us into “the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” he is not writing his letter to the Ephesians. That is where we might have placed such a word since that letter describes to us God’s eternal purpose and the heavenly calling and standing of the church. Rather, he makes this wonderful declaration when he is speaking to the messy church in...

At the beginning of his first letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul tells us, God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. — 1 Corinthians 1:9 What a wonderful declaration is this! As the believers in Christ, God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! It is not the fellowship of any person, teaching,...

The church is the Body of  Christ, His fullness (Eph. 1:22-23), which is composed of us, the believers in Christ, as His many members (Rom. 12:4-5), who have been born anew with the divine life to become the genuine children of God. All of these matters are in the spiritual realm, and are somewhat mysterious. But, based upon these spiritual realities, we must go on to enter into the practical expe...

We should never think of the church as an organization. As the very Body of Christ, it is a living organism, composed of all its many members. And these members are us, the believers in Christ, who have been born anew with the divine life and nature (John 1:12-13, 2 Pet. 1:4), so that we are now joined in a spiritual, organic union not only with Christ as the Head of the Body, but also with our fe...