Legalism, Law, and Love

Visits: 31[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Longer Articles  page.] Introduction Is obedience to Christ optional or unnecessary? Are belief in and love of Christ the only things required of sinners to be saved? Some (the we-are-not-under-law-but-under-grace crowd) would have it…

Is Matthew 19:3–12 Really So Hard to Understand?

Visits: 36[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Longer Articles  page.] Introduction And there came unto him Pharisees, trying him, and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said, Have…

Back to Biblical Grace

Visits: 24[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Manuscripts page.] While Jerry and Patricia Norton were viewing the latest recorded episode of “24,” they were interrupted by a phone call. Caller ID indicated it was their neighbor, Bobby Crandall, two doors down…

The “Purpose-Driven” Church Paradigm

Visits: 60[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Longer Articles  page.] Introduction Churches should have goals and aims. In this sense every congregation of the Lord’s people should be driven by purpose rather than stumbling along haphazardly. However, purpose-driven has taken on…

Xmas Xtremes

Visits: 26[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2 page.] This is the time of year when most people are the happiest, friendliest, most hospitable, and most benevolent. I suppose the reason is what might be termed the “Christmas spirit.” What…

Vacation Time—Andy McClish

Visits: 23[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 3  page.] God has so structured our existence in this life that honest work is fulfilling, beneficial, honorable, and required of all mature, able-bodied people (Gen. 2:15; 2 The. 3:10–14). However, our…

“Unscriptural?”

Visits: 28[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 3  page.] I was once handed the following quotation with the request that I comment on it: As I drove along the highway one Sunday morning, I came to a church house…

Sounds Like Some of Us

Visits: 18[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2  page.] Harold Kushner, a Jewish rabbi, wrote a book titled, Who Needs God? According to reviewer, Don Feder, (a syndicated columnist) in Kushner’s view of deity and religion, “absolutely no one.”…

Offering the Invitation

Visits: 14[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1  page.] After his sermon on the day of Pentecost, which concluded with the plan of salvation, Peter used “many other words” of exhortation, including the persuasive plea, “Save yourselves from this…

Eating in the Church Building

Visits: 70[Note:  This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1  page.] The apostolic church enjoyed common meals in their places of worship, and these meals were formally designated by the term, “love feasts” (or agapais in the Greek language). Jude 12…