The Baptism of John
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus. When asked who he was, he responded, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). He is mentioned by two Old Testament prophets (Isa. 40:3; Mal. 4:5-6). Jesus highly esteemed John by saying, “Of men born […]
A Man-Made Religion
With all of the different denominations and all the people calling each other “Christian,” it is difficult to know where to turn. Paul testifies that there is “one body” and that this body is the church (Ephesians 4:4; 1:23). However, that still leaves some confused. What can help is seeing a man-made religion in the […]
Jesus and Homosexuality
A Facebook meme that I’ve seen several times contains a quote from Jimmy Carter that he made in Business Insider on March 19, 2012. It says, “Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things […]
Bible Baptisms
The New Testament refers to at least seven “baptisms,” many of which are figurative. These seven are “baptism unto Moses;” “baptism of suffering;” “baptism for the dead;” “baptism of fire;” “Holy Spirit baptism;” “John’s baptism;” and, the “baptism of the great commission.” In this series of articles, attention will be given to all seven but […]
Do Souls Still Go to Hades at Death?
I know of no Bible believer who would deny that some souls still go to Hades at death. After all, Hades will continue until Jesus comes again. Long after He had been resurrected and crowned “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), He told John in Revelation 1:18, “I have the keys of death and hades” and […]
Did Paul go to Heaven When He Died?
To answer this question there is only one place we may go: to his writings. Thus we will consider Paul’s writings and in doing so will look at different periods in his life and the things he wrote during those times. We will examine his early letters in the years circa A.D. 52-53, to his epistles […]
Do the Saved go Directly to Heaven? #2
In our last article we examined the question of what happens to the soul of man at death: does it go to a place called “Hades” to await the resurrection, or does it go directly to heaven? We showed, from the scriptures, that from the world’s creation and until the death and resurrection of Christ […]
Do the Saved go Directly to Heaven? #1
Much thought is given by believers as to what happens to their soul when they die. Does the soul go directly to heaven, or does it go to an intermediate place called “Hades” (hell in the KJV)? The answer one might receive to this question would depend on who he asked! Some would answer, “Yes, […]
What is the Lord’s Supper?
One of the blessings as well as an important responsibility for Christians is regularly assembling with other Christians. We have an example of Christians assembling in Acts 20:7 and we have an explicit command not to neglect our assembling together in Hebrews 10:25. The purpose of our assembling is threefold: (1) to express praise and […]
Instruments in Church Worship
An important and serious question directed to members of churches of Christ is, “Why don’t you worship with instruments?” With every opportunity, we want to be “ready to give a defense to everyone” in order to appropriately express biblical truth (1 Peter 3:15). People frequently want to go back to the Old Testament, in passages […]