This is the eighth in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation, available at mobaptist.org/apologetics. Followers of Jesus take comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit indwells us. That is, the third person of the Godhead has taken up permanent residence in our human spirits, from which He engages in the lifelong ministry of conforming us to the image of Christ. While regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings sinners … [Read more...]
You are foreknown
This is the second in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics. God knows everything, which means nothing surprises Him. Satan’s brash rebellion didn’t catch the Creator off guard. Neither did Adam’s fall send the Lord into divine panic, forcing Him to sacrifice His Son in a desperate “Plan B.” Every event in time and eternity plays out exactly as God knows it will. His foreknowledge is more … [Read more...]
The deity of the Holy Spirit
This is the second in a two-part series on the personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit. In the previous column, we examined the biblical evidence for the personhood of the Holy Spirit; that is, the Spirit is a He, not an it. Once the Spirit’s personality is established, His deity is a biblically faithful next step. For starters, the Spirit is active in creation (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30), omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10-11), and omnipresent (Ps. 139:7) – qualities that establish Him as co-equal and … [Read more...]
Incarnational heresies
This is the sixth in a series of articles on the Incarnation. As we complete our examination of the Incarnation – the eternal Son of God taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth – it’s important to identify a number of heretical views that have plagued the church throughout its history. Some of these heresies effectively have been countered, while others continue to rear their ugly heads and cause people who sincerely seek the truth to embrace “another Jesus” (2 Cor. … [Read more...]
Six key passages about the Incarnation
This is the fourth in a series of articles on the Incarnation. By the term “Incarnation,” we mean the eternal Son of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As such, Jesus is one person in two distinct but undivided natures: human and divine. In previous articles, we explored how these two natures work together as the eternal Son of God adds sinless humanity to His deity via the miracle of the virgin birth. And we summarized 10 essential truths about the … [Read more...]
10 truths about the Incarnation
This is the third in a series of articles on the Incarnation. So far in this series, we have established that the Incarnation means the eternal Son of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As such, Jesus is one person in two distinct but undivided natures: human and divine. In addition, we’ve explored how these two natures work together as the eternal Son of God adds sinless humanity to His deity via the miracle of the virgin birth. In this article, we summarize 10 … [Read more...]
Jesus as the God-man
This is the second in a series of articles on the Incarnation. If Jesus is fully divine and fully human, how are we to understand the way in which these two natures work together? At times, Jesus exhibits the fullness of deity – demonstrating His sovereign control over nature, forgiving sins, receiving worship, and knowing the thoughts of human beings. But He also displays the full range of humanity – getting hungry, growing tired, and, occasionally, not knowing certain things such as … [Read more...]
The doctrine of the Incarnation
This is the first in a series of articles on the Incarnation. Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once claimed the Spirit of God fell upon him and revealed a principle that has become an apt summary of Mormonism: “As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be.” In other words, the God of this world once was a mere human who attained deity, showing us the path to our own godhood. This principle of “eternal progression” is a stunningly … [Read more...]
How false religions undermine Scripture
Evangelicals may disagree about many things, but we stand together on the non-negotiables that define the Christian faith: The Trinity, justification by faith, and the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, to name a few. Many false belief systems, from Mormonism to Islam, profess a high regard for the Word of God. But, in fact, they deny its inspiration, inerrancy, or preservation and thus reject the Bible as supremely authoritative. Specifically, false religions employ four … [Read more...]
Three personal questions about God
This is the last in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh. Muslims and Christians agree that there is one God but understand Him differently. While it is politically correct to say Christians and Muslims worship the same God, no Muslim or Christian who truly understands his faith would agree with that statement. In fact, we can see that Christians and Muslims worship distinctly different Gods by asking three personal questions: (1) Does God know me? (2) Does God love me? (3) … [Read more...]
The Islamic inquisition
Christians and Muslims agree that God is one. Christians believe in a triune God: one being in three persons. But Islam’s understanding of Allah as a monad – monolithic and non-relational – creates two significant challenges to a consistent doctrine of God in Islamic theology. First, how do Muslims reconcile their belief that Allah is eternal and self-existent with their belief that the Qur’an also is eternal? It seems either that the Qur’an came into being, or there are two eternally … [Read more...]
Understanding the Trinity
This is the third in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh. The doctrine of the Trinity sets Christians and Muslims apart. In fact, to suggest to a follower of Allah that God has a Son, or that God exists in tri-unity, is to commit the unpardonable sin of shirk, which damns a soul to hell. Islam is unwavering in its belief in Allah as a singular being – monolithic, distant, and unknowable. He only relates to people in acts of the will, not out of an eternal nature that is … [Read more...]
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