Heading to the Holy City

August 23, 2019 (Transcript) How can a good God exist in an evil world? This question addresses the problem of evil. What’s important for every Christian to understand is that the problem of evil is a serious problem for everyone, regardless of your views on God, religion, and the world. Atheists have a problem of evil, …

August 21, 2019 (Transcript) What is a deacon? Who may serve in the office of deacon? Though Scripture prohibits women from serving as pastors, does the Bible permit women to serve as deacons? These are important questions for each local church to answer. To review: there are two offices in the local church—elder and deacon. …

August 20, 2019 (Transcript) What is a pastor or elder? Who may serve in the office of elder in the local church? These two questions are very important in the life of the local church because God has organized his local churches in a particular way for His glory and the advance of His gospel. …

August 16, 2019 (Transcript) How is the local church governed? Or who has final authority in the local church? Is it a Pope? Bishops? Do elders or pastors rule and make most, if not all, decisions? What about presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies? Is every decision, including the carpet and paint colors, voted on by …

August 15, 2019 (Transcript) What does it mean to be Baptist? There a lot of conceptions out there. Of course, my first and primary identity is as a Christian—there’s no disputing that—and that’s the case for my other Baptist brothers and sisters, along with our brothers and sisters from the Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, and other …

July 31, 2019 (Transcript) To answer the questions—what is the nature of the Bible and how is it relevant today?—let’s first look at the common viewpoint of truth and authority today. The last 100+ years of Western philosophy has shifted how a person sees the world and interprets reality. What Christians often hear today from …

July 30, 2019 (Transcript) What is the nature of the Bible and is it true? The Bible is self-attesting—it claims to be God’s Word, God’s revelation of Himself and of His work in all of His creation. The Bible claims to be the final authority in understanding ourselves, reality, and our Creator-God. This claim is repeated …

July 27, 2019 (Transcript) In recent months, there’s been movement towards downplaying the usefulness of reading the Old Testament. Some teachers seem to be parroting the early church heretic, Marcion, who argued the god of the Old Testament was different from the New Testament god. Marcion strove to eject the Old Testament from Christian living …

July 26, 2019 (Transcript) When Muslims or atheists argue that the Bible has been corrupted and is full of errors, it might seem troubling, initially, for some Christians that we don’t have any of the original manuscripts or writings of the Old Testament and New Testament books. How do we know that the Bibles we …

July 25, 2019 (Transcript) I’ve heard many professing Christians say something along the lines of “I have a personal relationship with Jesus, I don’t need the local church.” And today, social media, live streaming worship, and “online church services” have created even greater opportunities for Christians to avoid regularly gathering in person with the local …

July 24, 2019 (Transcript) The word “gospel” means “good news,” so the question really is: what is the good news? In Matthew 4:17, Matthew writes that Jesus began to preach saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But just a chapter later in Matthew 5:17, Jesus teaches in his Sermon on the …