Bad News - Good News

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One of the greatest offences Christ caused for the Pharisees (next to His claims to be God and have God as His Father) was His display of the power to forgive sins. On more than one occasion, Christ absolved the sins of an individual, to the dismay of the religious elite. Matthew 9 1 "And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." 3 And behold, ... Read Full Story

It is one thing to say, as a Christian, that "I'm not confessional", a surface understanding of such a statement would have most of us take it to mean that the person does not hold strictly to one of the historic confessions: Heidelberg, Westminster, London Baptist, Savoy, New Hampshire, etc, but it is another thing all together to say that Christians need not confess their sins. Though the discussion of that type of confessionalism involves a great deal more, it is not what I ran into on the truthtalklive blog yesterday. No, over the past couple days I have been engaged in a discussion under ... Read Full Story

There seems to be a tendency with Americans (and perhaps many other cultures in the world do it in different ways) where we do all we can to avoid the reality of death; rather than face it when it occurs, we do all that is in our power to disguise the situation as something less painful-something that is easier to deal with than what happens after death. It is as though these pacifying rituals are woven into our culture. From the songs chosen to be sung, right down to the way we have our departed loved ones made-up for the day of their burial; ... Read Full Story

There are two main considerations I wish the public at large would make when dealing with scandals in the "church". 1. There are three divisions that orthodox Christianity would make among people in the world: Members of the invisible Church. Persons who God has saved; God no longer looks at their sin in hatred, but He has placed that hatred for their sin on Christ at the cross; when they recognize that they have sinned against God, these individuals agree with God that they have done wrong, and in varying degrees, they struggle against sinful habits. Members of the visible church. Persons who consider ... Read Full Story