Blog – Page 4 – Grace Evangelical Society

Zacharias’ Disbelief and Divine Discipline (Luke 1:18-22)

October 14, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - discipline, Doubt, Luke, Zacharias

Did you know that even the oldest, godliest believers can doubt God…and be disciplined for it? If you were a member of the clergy, a priest of God, and a blameless man who had served the Lord for many decades, and an angel appeared to you announcing that God heard your prayer and would answer

John the Baptist’s Seven Spirit-Empowered Services (Luke 1:8-17)

October 13, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - John the Baptist, Luke

So it was, that Zacharias was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, when his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the Temple of the Lord. There were approximately 18,000-20,000 priests in Israel (Bock, Luke, p. 48; Swindoll, Luke, p. 33), who served in rotation. Even with the subdivisions,

God Will Send Them a Strong Delusion That They Should Believe the Lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

October 12, 2020 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, Rapture, The strong delusion

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess 2:11-12). David asks this tough question: I listened to a sermon preached by Tiff Shuttlesworth on the Tribulation.  At the

Adam, Satan, the Garden, and God’s Intention

October 9, 2020 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Genesis 1:28, Genesis 3:15, God’s goodness, God’s Omniscience, The fall

Justin asks, “If God knew Adam was going to follow Satan, why did He allow Satan to do so? Doesn’t this make it a set up?” Yes, God knew that Adam was going to sin when He allowed the serpent to tempt Eve. But does that mean God set up Adam to fail? It depends

In What Sense Were Zacharias and Elizabeth Righteous and Blameless? (Luke 1:5-6)

October 8, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Luke, righteousness

During the days of Herod, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. Presumably, Luke had verified this detail, as could Theophilus, emphasizing the historicity of these events. Why did it mean for Zacharias to be in the division of Abijah? Israel had thousands of priests, but only one temple, which created a

Satanic Miracles in the Bible

October 7, 2020 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 2 Corinthians 11:4, Matthew 4:5, Matthew 7:15-23

Gary asks a great question in response to a blog I wrote on Matt 7:21-23: Is it possible that these were unbelievers doing miracles by the power of Satan? The devil is not against good; he’s against God. If he can deceive people through miracles, keeping them from the truth, I’m thinking he’d do it.

In the Days of Herod (Luke 1:5a)

October 6, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Herod, Luke, Prophecy

Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities opens with the memorable line, “It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times…” Some periods are infamous for their difficulty. Merely naming the age evokes the hard times that people experienced, as with the Irish Potato Famine, the Holodomor, the Great Depression, Vietnam,

Luke’s Method (Luke 1:1-4)

October 5, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - apologetics, history, Luke, Theophilus

In the last blog, we explored Luke’s purpose in writing his Gospel, and I suggested it was quasi-apologetic—meant to stabilize or to reinforce faith in Christ. Now we can ask a second question: what was Luke’s method in writing his Gospel? The prologue gives us five clues. Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to

Four Ways Jesus Fulfills the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17)

October 2, 2020 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - fulfill, Law and Prophets, Matthew

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17). Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. In other words, the Lord was giving a purpose statement for His ministry, and whenever someone does that, you

Beware of Cults

October 1, 2020 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Christian cults, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism

Unwittingly my parents enrolled me in a cult when I was six. It wasn’t until the start of my senior year in college that I came to faith in Christ and escaped the clutches of the cult. Every religion has cults. A cult is a group that deviates from the fundamental teaching of that religion.