By Nate Stevens Beware of Shortcuts The History channel played a documentary on the Donner Party, and it made quite an impression on me. I’ve sworn off all shortcuts. The underlying cause of the tragedy that befell the Donner Party was a man named Lansford W. Hastings. For reasons that are somewhat unknown, but included

By Bud Brown We’ve all been mistreated by acquaintances, business people, and strangers. It is often inadvertent—an automobile accident or a good faith business venture gone wrong. Sometimes the wound is intentional—a merchant defrauds us, or a stranger commits a crime against us. Though they have hurt us, these people are still “out there.” It

By Lucas Kitchen From Eternal Life! Believe to Be Alive (forthcoming) Celebrity Pastors May Not Know A few years ago, I attended a massive four-day conference at one of the largest churches in the nation. Its focus was to encourage and train church staff. Pastors and ministers from thousands of churches throughout the country come

By Shawn Lazar I was reading an article by a woman who lost her brother, sister, and her sister’s children in a car crash. Horrific. She was in shock. For days, she walked around as if in a fog, unable to think clearly. Of course, friends offered to help. Several said, “Let me know if

By Zane Hodges Just as Paul became prominent in works in vv 4-12, so now he becomes prominent in word in vv 13-41. The risen Christ continues to do and teach through Paul. Paul’s Sermon Paul’s sermon in Antioch of Pisidia falls naturally into a threefold division: Andres Israēlitai kai hoi phoboumenoi ton Theon (vv

By Bob Wilkin “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

By Ken Yates One of the exciting things about studying the Bible is that no matter how long we have been studying it, we can always learn something new. We have all studied a passage we have examined many times before and see something in it for the first time. I had such an experience

By Shawn Lazar Asa Mahan (1799-1889) was an Arminian philosopher and theologian. He was Presbyterian at a time when many Presbyterians were becoming Arminian (following the so-called “New Haven Theology”). Mahan was also the first president of Oberlin College when it was a revivalist school and not the ultra-liberal place it is today. He was

By Zane Hodges Acts leads all NT books in recording prison escapes (Acts 5, 12, 16). And all the rules for a prison escape are violated. For example, in Acts 12: 1. Light illumines their escape (v 7). 2. Peter is awakened, not by a whisper, but by a blow to his side (v 7).

By Summer Stevens I still remember memorizing Awana verses in the King James Version when I was in third grade. “Verily, verily, I say unto you…” with a little box next to the verse that defined “verily.” Awana has a great statistic that says that 96% of people who participated in the club for six

By Don and Kim Reiher How should you interpret 1 John? This article contrasts two options. Your interpretation of 1 John depends on the perceived purpose of the book. Two Views The first interpretation proposes that 1 John provides proofs of true saving faith. All to whom God gives saving faith will show evidence of

By Bob Wilkin I read a few articles in the July-September 2018 issue of Bibliotheca Sacra, the journal of Dallas Theological Seminary. It is celebrating its 175th anniversary (since DTS took over an already existing journal). Bibliotheca Sacra is one of the leading theological journals today. And it has been for a very long time.