The Lord Jesus as the True Vine

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This is another scheduled post for Maundy Thursday. John 15:1-17 talks about the relationship between Jesus as the vine, the Father as the vinedresser, and the Christians as the branches. We need to understand the context between faith and works. Salvation isn’t faith plus works but faith that results in works. The passage can often be mistaken by the conditional security crowd to say that works are needed for salvation. In contrast, it’s all about works as a result of salvation. Some use James 2 to justify salvation by works but end up ignoring James 2:10-11, a verse that condemns all people regardless of who they are.

Preaching the Gospel is More Than Just the Great Commandment, More than Just the Great Commission, it’s also the GREAT Certainty of Success with GREAT Confidence

I was looking at the Solid Joys devotional and found the entry “Jesus will Finish the Mission”. The key verse is Matthew 24:14 which gives this wonderful promise:

And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all natons, and then the end will come. (ESV)

Apostasy After the Bread of Life Discourse

It’s the first Friday of March and today’s Lenten readings are taken from Mark 6:1-6 and John 6:60-71. My focus for today (and take note I’ll not be writing daily based on the Lenten Reading even if I’ll do the required readings) is John 6:60-71 focuses on the outcome. Many of those who followed Jesus, and heard Him say about the bread of life, soon said in John 6:60, “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it.” The KJV uses the term hear, while the footnote uses the term understand. The very bread of life discourse has been a tough saying.

God is 100% for Those Who Are His

As I really have shifted from the neither Calvinist nor Arminian view (some call it quasi-Arminian though it’s better to use the term, non-Calvinist), I became more or less Calvinist or Reformed. As I was studying John 3 a few days ago, I landed into John Piper’s latest devotion “When God Becomes 100% for Us” on my tablet. Some people claim that Reformed Theology teaches people are “saved from birth”. It can be ironic that the KJV was translated by Calvinists but King James Stewart actually and ironically hated Calvinism. It’s possible for some non-Calvinists today to respect Calvinist contributions but treat Calvinism with much contempt as Charles H. Spurgeon’s cigar. It’s like, “I love the Calvinist Christians but their Calvinism is something I despise like a cigar.”

As Many Were Ordained to Eternal Life, Believed

As I was reading the Solid Joys devotional, today’s entry was “God Opens the Heart”. I was looking at the introduction. It really asks the question of where Paul went preaching, some believe and some do not. Back when I was what would be considered “Arminian” (I personally prefer to use the term non-Calvinist), I always had that question in mind. I always wonder why some people who have heard the Gospel all their lives never got saved? It pains me to think of dead loved ones who heard the Gospel before I did and died unsaved. Why are some people so proud and obstinate that nothing you can do, can convince them? Back then, all that I could hear was, “It’s their problem. The important thing is we share.” Even a non-Calvinist can say, “Only God can change the hardened heart.” As Pastor David Washer would say that both the non-Calvinist and the Calvinist can agree that salvation can’t be manipulated. Even as a non-Calvinist back then, I didn’t have an issue with Calvinist Christians per se. I used to embrace Calvinist Christians and non-KJV Only Christians while rejecting their Calvinism and believing that the KJV is the only accurate English translation in these last days.

Nicodemus’ Midnight Interview with the Lord Jesus Christ

I confess that I’ve scheduled some posts in advance because I tend to read really fast. Right now, I found out that I can read the assigned topics but I doubt I can write about them for the entire 40-day length of the Lenten Bible reading plan. The reading from John 3:1-17 got to say, “Looks like I wouldn’t be writing with all the 40 topics assigned to me!” Reading John 3 for the nth time proves that “There’s really no saturation point with the Word of God.” I read Dr. John MacArthur’s coverage of Nicodemus’ midnight interview in The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, found in Chapter 3. It was also featured in chapter 3 of The Gospel According to Jesus. I only have the revised and expanded edition.

Does the Doctrine of Election Make John 3:16 Just “God Loving Some of the World”?

An objection to Reformed Theology (also nicknamed Calvinism) is that it makes John 3:16 look like God only loved some of the world. The argument is that it’s “All of the world.” Fundamental Baptist churches don’t identify as either Calvinist or Arminian. The term Arminian can be very murky since they’re divided about salvation and whether it can be lost or not. Now, back to the topic, I would like to address how Fundamental Baptist churches aren’t too aware of what they’re speaking against Reformed Theology. It’s sad, really, that some Baptist churches hold seminars against Calvinism (or I better call it, Reformed Theology) without knowing what it stands for. I did have the stance that I could embrace Calvinists as brothers and sisters for some time. It was the same way I would embrace non-KJV-only people while telling them to kindly reconsider using the KJV. That was back when I was still a fundamentalist Baptist.