What Happens at the Final Judgment?
There is coming a day when Jesus will declare the eternal state for every person. What Jesus will do with us then depends on what we do with Him now.
Equip
Will Christians Have to Endure Tribulation?
Scripture is clear that a severe period of Tribulation will impact the earth before the end. People disagree on the presence of Christians on the earth during that time.
What Will the Return of Christ Be Like?
Christians believe Christ will return but disagree on how His return will progress. An understanding of the coming millennium is essential to how someone will interpret this concept.
What Must a Church Do?
Jesus expects a local church to do their part in carrying out the Great Commission. Our activities, when we gather together, should originate from His call on our lives.
What Makes a Church?
Since a local church is a body instead of a building, certain necessary distinctives must be present. To have a biblical church, we cannot ignore biblical requirements.
Who Are the People of God?
We will never understand what the Church should do until we know what the Church actually is. The Church is the people of God united for the purposes of God.
Can You Lose Your Salvation?
The chance of losing salvation depends on whose work it is ultimately. While we could undeniably fumble, God is entirely faithful.
How Do We Reconcile God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility?
Many people have attempted to reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, but the Bible never claims them to be at odds with one another. Discover the biblical approach for salvation regarding God’s part and our involvement.
How Are We Saved?
Salvation is a major tenet of Christianity while many aspects of it are debated within the Church. Without a biblical description of our salvation, we are in danger of sharing a faith of which we do not understand.
How Is the Church Divided Over the Holy Spirit?
While Scripture is clear on the work of the Holy Spirit, Christians have debated specific roles based on assumptions or experiences. We must be careful not to alter His role to fit our expectations.
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
The role of the Holy Spirit is essential in the life of the Christian, yet we often neglect Him to our detriment. Once we know who the Holy Spirit is, we will better understand the power He brings into our lives.
Introduction to Systematic Theology II
The study of God is the essential discipline to get accurate during our lifetimes. This course will study four significant doctrines: pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology.
The Church and the LGBTQ+ Community
As our society continually explores and emphasizes sexual variations, the Church must consider staying faithful to God’s Word while remaining loving to all people. As representatives of Jesus, we must display grace and truth to our closest relationships and the culture at large.
Securing the Church
With the rise of gun violence and sexual abuse cases, it is important to know what we do as a church for precautionary measures. While no steps can guarantee the avoidance of such a tragedy, we seek to be diligent to minimize the possibilities.
The State of the Southern Baptist Convention (2022)
The Southern Baptist Convention is a fellowship of over 47,000 Baptist churches scattered across the United States and its territories. With growing concerns at the national level, it is important for our church to consistently evaluate our ongoing involvement with this group for the sake of the Great Commission.
Identifiable Progression
If we are to obey the message of Jesus, complete discipleship of the whole person is our mandate. By identifying any needed areas and establishing a specific plan, you can make continual and substantial progress in the things that matter most.
Strategic Formation
No more happenstance growth, we must be intentional to experience strategic formation in our discipleship. Let your spiritually frustrated fatigue launch you out of complacency and into maturity.
Intentional Imitation
One of the most glaringly apparent omissions in our discipleship is the person doing the discipling. Our commitment to fleshing out our personal walks with Christ overlooks our need to learn from one another.
Progressive Sanctification
Sanctification is God’s work in our lives to make us holier gradually. We must understand God’s work in sanctification to understand our role in discipleship.
Discipleship Reorientation
Most Christians can easily communicate the importance of making disciples, but few can articulate how they are personally engaging in the process. For all our numerous ministry activities, we must reorient to the task of personal discipleship.
Biblical Expectation
The Great Commission was never “Plan B” according to God’s agenda. From the very beginning, God desired to create a community of people helping one another to follow Him.
The Person of Christ
Jesus Christ changed everything. Through His person and His work, God brought about the only way to salvation.
The Old Testament
The Old Testament archives the beginning of God’s work to redeem God’s people. From the very beginning, God had a plan that no enmity or enemy could stop.
Why Are There So Many Bible Translations?
The very fact that we study the Bible in English implies that someone has already interpreted the original message into our language. Discover the Bible’s organization and its numerous translations to understand some of our interpretive challenges.
How Should We Interpret Apocalyptic Literature?
While the entire Bible has interpretive challenges, none is so difficult to navigate as the Book of Revelation. Despite the debated details, the main point of the book is full of glorious and guaranteed promises.
How Should We Interpret the Epistles?
Epistles are letters written for specific purposes. It is essential to determine who wrote the letter, who received it, and why it was sent.
How Should We Interpret the Gospels?
The four Gospels all tell the story of Jesus but are delivered to different audiences from different perspectives. To understand the truth contained fully within them, we must understand the context in which they were written.
The State of the Southern Baptist Convention
Our church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention for the sake of fulfilling the Great Commission. With increasing conflicts within the denomination, we must clarify our church’s roles and responsibilities due to this connection.
How Should We Interpret Prophecy?
The Old Testament prophets spoke a specific message to a particular people. We can safely unpack the timeless truth and correctly interpret it for our situations with proper hermeneutical guidelines.
How Should We Interpret Wisdom Literature?
Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament is that portion of Scripture that helps us understand how to apply God’s wisdom in our lives. It makes sense to reason that if the LORD created the world, He knows the best way to navigate through it.
How Should We Interpret the Law?
In the opening books in the Bible, God establishes the Law upon which the Israelites were expected to live. As New Testament disciples, we must use careful interpretative guidelines as we study and apply this portion of Scripture.
How Should We Interpret Historical Narratives?
Narrative is the literary genre that communicates through story form. Within the Bible, narratives intend to teach truth through what has happened to highlighted individuals.
What Are Literary Genres in the Bible?
The Bible is one book made up of 66 smaller books with distinct genres differing from each other. To interpret the Bible accurately, we must understand the nature of genres and how the Bible is organized.
What Role Does Context Play in the Bible?
Even without acknowledging it, we project our context upon Scripture in order for it to say what we want it to say. As we study Scripture, we must filter the reader’s context through the knowledge of the author’s context.
Who Determines the Meaning of Scripture?
A study of Scripture lacking thorough interpretative guidelines can lead to inaccurate beliefs. The foundational task of hermeneutics is deciding who determines the meaning of Scripture.
What Is Hermeneutics?
If God took the lead to communicate to us through the Bible, we must take our time to interpret that truth diligently. The task of hermeneutics is interpreting God’s Word into our context.
Hermeneutics Overview
We all say that we should know the Bible better than we do. Don’t you think it’s time that we did something about it?
Truth & Consequences
After Adam and Eve’s sin, God did not hide from sharing the truth and delivering the consequences. Sin’s effects on marriage are undeniable, but God’s guidance is unmistakable.
Helpless & Alone
God categorized the only creation made in His image as helpless and alone. Within the gift of a spouse, God intends to meet these two needs for his sole purpose.
Addressing Anxiety
Life can give us reason to worry, to be fearful, or to be anxious. However, the fears of our current world are temporary, and we should focus on eternity. When tempted to worry, be fearful, or be anxious, fight against that temptation to sin.