Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: Scripture

  • The Second Paragraph of The Fire That Consumes

    “In the public square, fire and brimstone are definitely out of vogue. Hell shows up in conversation often enough, but generally as an expletive rather than as a serious subject. Hell is not unique in this regard – the same can be said of Jesus Christ. More troubling than hell’s absence from secular society is its general disappearance from many Christian pulpits. Interestingly, although nearly all evangelical pastors and teachers firmly believe that Jesus will ‘come to judge the living and the dead,’ a considerable number of them cannot remember when they last preached or taught on the subject. Might

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  • What Few Essentials

    Fudge: “It’s like any other subject that Christians differ about, among the realm of those who are confessing Jesus Christ as Lord; we have to make room for people to understand things differently, even if we think they’re mistaken.”

    Date: “As long as they don’t violate what few essentials there are to the Christian faith, right?”

    Fudge: “That’s right.”

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  • Why Atheism Is True

    Atheism, like other false systems of thought, has enough content with the ‘ring of truth’ to it that some people are attracted to it. Of course atheism is not monolithic, but the following themes are prevalent.

    1.       Atheism rejects moral-ism.

    Atheists think it is absurd to follow the whimsical preferences of an egotistical deity. Christians must acknowledge that the commands of God flow from His loving nature and are for His glory and our good.

    Atheists hate the very notion of having a bunch of ‘rules’ forced upon them concerning how to act, think, and live. Christians must acknowledge that …

  • Gill on Sheol

    Another name or word by which it is expressed, is Sheol, which is often rendered the “grave”; as in Genesis 42:38 and 44:31 and should be where it is sometimes translated “hell,” as in Psalm 16:10 yet in some places it seems as if it could not be understood of that, but of the state or place of punishment of the wicked; as in Psalm 9:17. “The wicked shall be turned into hell”: now to be turned into the earth, or to be laid in the grave, is not peculiar to wicked men; it is the common lot of all,

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  • Gill – of the Final State of the Wicked

    It is called destruction, or Abaddon, which is the name of the king of the bottomless pit, (Rev. 9:11 which signifies a destroyer, and is rendered destruction in Job 26:6, Proverbs 27:20 and 15:11 where “hell and destruction” are mentioned together, as signifying the same thing, the one being explanative of the other. Indeed the grave, which the word used for hell sometimes signifies, is called the pit of destruction and corruption, because bodies laid in it corrupt and waste away; but here it seems to signify the place of the punishment of the wicked, where body and soul are

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  • Fudge and Date: On how to view challenges to orthodoxy

    Date: “When you originally published your book, how was it received? Did you find that traditionalists were giving maybe some serious consideration to your work, and maybe reconsidering their own view, or did they consider you a threat and try to stamp out any influence you might have?”

    Fudge: “Interestingly, I’ve learned over the past 67 years, Chris, that the reactions I get to this subject, and to this book, are not really so much reactions to this book, as much as they are reactions out of the heart of the person who makes the reaction. And the same reaction

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  • Gill on Matthew 25:46

    And these shall go away into everlasting punishment
    Their excuses will not be regarded, their pleas will be of no avail, their pretensions to interest in Christ, and love to him, will be set aside; the sentence will remain irrevocable, and there will be no appeal from it, for there is no higher tribunal to bring the cause before; judgment having passed, the execution of it immediately follows: these goats, or formal professors, shall be obliged, whether they will or not, to depart from the presence of Christ; the angels will be ordered to take and cast them into everlasting

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  • The Fear of Man

    Even as Christians, we still have everyday entrapments and susceptibilities that entangle us. In these things we constantly must go back to the Cross of Jesus Christ. For instance, Jacob commanded his household to put away foreign gods, and to purify themselves and change their garments  (Gen. 35:2) . Subsequently he took their idols and buried them under the oak tree near Shechem (v.4). Our Father who is in heaven takes our idols in the same way, and He has buried them under the tree at Golgatha (Gal. 3:13-14, Col 2:12-14).

    If we are truly honest with ourselves, then one  …

  • Augustine and Eternal Punishment

    First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognize why the Church has not been able to tolerate the idea that promises cleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most severe and protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued with the spirit of the Old and New Testament, did not grudge to angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by suffering, but rather they perceived that they could not invalidate nor evacuate the divine sentence which the Lord predicted that He would pronounce

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  • What exactly is it that we presuppose?

    Covenantal apologists frequently encounter an objection in their own mind if it is not raised by someone else in the form of the question, “What exactly is it that we presuppose?”

    Perhaps it is God who is presupposed, but then God as divorced from His Word is a concept without Christian content.

    Perhaps it is Scripture which is presupposed, but then Scripture as divorced from its Author is a document without authority.

    So both of the above must be presupposed, but is that enough? Not if we are to avoid an implicit disconnect between the two. Not if we are …