Posts from August 2021

Romans is Paul’s great, inspired treatise on the subject of righteousness. It is the longest of his thirteen letters (fourteen, if he authored Hebrews), and it addresses the subject of salvation is a very logical, organized way. While Romans is often the favorite biblical book for denominations that assert salvation is “by faith ONLY,” the Holy Spirit’s main point is that justification comes through obedient faith in Jesus Christ. The first six chapters of Romans present a very systematic explanation…

When Paul met with the elders of the Ephesian congregation at the coastal town of Miletus, he gave them these instructions about their position in the church: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28, NKJ – emphasis mine, DR). Paul’s words make it very plain that God – acting through His Holy Spirit…

Of the MANY lessons to learn from Acts 17, here are two important ones: First we see a vivid contrast in the response between the Jewish community in Thessalonica and the Jews at Berea, when they heard the gospel (vv. 5-11). The Jews of Thessalonica did not welcome Paul’s message, and responded by causing a riot and assaulting Jason and other Jews who did become Christians. In Berea, however, the members of the synagogue responded to the words of Paul…

In Acts 6:7, we learn that the expression “the Jews” (commonly used throughout Matthew – John), is NOT a blanket description of all the people in Judæa. Aside from the fact that we can read in Mark 12:37 that “the common people heard [Jesus] gladly” we also learn from Acts 6 that many priests in and around Jerusalem became Christians. This shows that many educated people in the general Jewish population were sincere, and were genuinely looking for the Messiah…