The Faithful Christian a blog of The Lighthouse Ministries

  A Beautiful Doctrine    In some churches, it is a word that conjures up images of an angry and capricious God who acts arbitrarily to save some, but consigns most sinners, including deceased infants, to eternal Hell. For many professing Christians, it is the mother of all swear words.   Let the pastor breathe it in the presence of the deacon board and he risks firing, fisticuffs or worse. A God who chooses is anti-American, anti-democracy. It bespeaks a long-faced, puritanical religion, a doctrinal novelty invented by a maniacal 16th-century minister whose progeny manufactured a theological “-ism” that has plunged countless souls into a godless eternity.   In other churches, it is a cherished word that describes a beloved doctrine, one that bestows comfort and unshakable confidence that not one maverick molecule, not one rebel subatomic particle exists outside of God’s loving providential control, even in the matter of salvation. Want to start a lively convers...

  I don’t like debating Christians. I’d rather emphasize our common faith and hope in Jesus (Eph. 4:2-5; John 17:20-23). However, there are erroneous doctrines that  need  to be corrected (or at least explored further) because they contradict the Gospel at its very foundation. One such doctrine is pejoratively called “easy-believism.” It is described as a faith that consists  only  in cognitive assent a simple mental acknowledgement of certain Gospel truths apart from repentance or a determination to follow the Savior. Favoring this doctrine, J.B. Hixson writes: Saving faith occurs when one believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died and rose again to pay one’s personal penalty for sin and the one who gives eternal life to all who trust in Him and Him alone for it. ( Freely by His Grace , 145) In support, Hixson quotes Charles Ryrie: The issue is whether or not you believe that His death paid for all your sin and that by believing in Him you can have for...

There are quite a few sayings that Christians like to quote as if they are from the Bible when in actuality they do not. Some even blatantly contradict the Bible. While our nation’s biblical illiteracy shows up in our inability to recognize phrases that come from the Bible, many struggle with phrases that “sound biblical” but come from somewhere else.   For instance:   ” God will not give you more than you can handle.” Not in the Bible anywhere.  If you believe this saying, you need to talk to the early Christians.  They were hated.  They were beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and executed for their faith. What about the reformers?  Thousands of them were exiled, tortured, imprisoned, and executed, why?  For defying the wicked, Roman Catholic Church and for trying to give people the word of God in their own language. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened b...

America, the once great nation, the lone superpower of the planet has fallen on hard times.  It’s disheartening to say the least, to see how far into the sewer this great nation has fallen in less than 250 years.  We can continue to play the blame game and point fingers at the politicians, the education system, Hollywood, etc, or we can look to the entity who is really at fault and hopefully change the tide. As an undergrad, I read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.  He was a French diplomat, philosopher, and political thinker who traveled all over America in 1831 searching for what made America so great.  He believed that religion played a major role in the success of any democratic form of government, but he was Roman Catholic so it’s difficult to know if he was an actual born - again Christian.   Anyway, he described America as a successful democracy, which we are not and never have been.  What America is, is a republic with shades of democra...

French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said “I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning, and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!”   I read Democracy in America in college.  De Tocqueville traveled all over America searching for what made us a great nation and he found the old time church with old time preachers, preaching hellfire and brimstone sermons was what made America ...