Towards an Understanding of James 5:14-16

Posted on February 6, 2021February 6, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD Among evangelicals, many continue to debate the continuation of sign gifts (e.g., gifts of working miracles, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing). Within this discussion, the apostle James offers some words which seemingly suggest that at least the gift of healing should still be active in the church (at least in some way): “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the n...

The Arminian Trap for the Divine Will

Posted on February 6, 2021February 20, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD Calvinists uphold a compatibility understanding of the doctrine of election whereby God chose those whom He would save before the beginning of creation in such a way that their free will response becomes a foregone conclusion. Given the imposition of God’s selective to the choice of those who would be saved, the atoning sacrifice of Christ necessarily becomes limited to these Elect of God. In this system of thought, the Non-Elect are those who make a free will rejecti...

Carnal Christianity and the Struggle for Assurance

Posted on February 5, 2021February 5, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul labelled its recipients as carnal Christians (1 Cor 3:1-3). His insulting words which adorn the pages of Holy Writ and therefore bear the full authority of the Holy Spirit portray the Corinthians as mere infants in Christ unready for instruction in Christian maturity due to their overt fleshly behavior. This class of Christian is somewhere in between the false Christian who will inevitably fall away and the mature Chr...

Is God’s Foreknowledge of the Elect Merely Intellectual

Posted on February 5, 2021August 31, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD Within the ongoing debate between Calvinists and Arminians, one passage that has attracted much attention is Romans 8:28-30: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and ...

The Biblical Barometer for Maturation

Posted on February 4, 2021July 20, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD The Bible offers multiple ways for believers to gauge their success in the maturation process where the ultimate goal is full-on Christlikeness when the unification with Christ occurs in heaven after death. This article will consider five separate measurements that are provided in Scripture to determine one’s spiritual growth. First, growing Christians exhibit an increasingly developed understanding of God’s Word (cf. Col 3:16). This is hardly surprising since Jesu...

Standing for Christ When Authentic Christianity is in Short Supply

Posted on February 4, 2021February 4, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD Christianity, for far too many people, has been reduced to little more than keeping a pew warm on just enough Sundays to keep up appearances. This cold indifference by these pretenders is only being magnified by the faithful who do attend regularly only to be inundated with theologically light and emotionally appeasing sermons and worship services where pleasing people is the primary motivator and the preaching of the cross (suffering in the name of Christ) and self-d...

Magnifying the Cross in the Worship Service

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul declares, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”[i] Commenting on this verse and noting the centrality of the cross throughout Paul’s ministry, D. A. Carson writes, “If [Paul] really holds that God has supremely disclosed himself in the cross and that to follow the crucified and risen Savior means dying daily, then it is preposterous to adopt a style of ministry that is triumphalistic, designed t...

The Achilles Heel of Worldly Systems of Thought

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy Throughout history, humanity has struggled to explain the world. In ancient times, these explanations were overtly religious in nature. In more modern times, many are attempting to develop a worldview model that appears to be devoid of religion (e.g., atheism, scientific materialism, naturalism) or at least religious commitment (e.g., agnosticism). Like their predecessors and even their contemporaries (e.g., any of the world religions), the ultimate goal is to derive an ac...

Is Saving Faith a Gift from God?

Posted on February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD In Ephesians 2:8, Paul writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”[i] Surprisingly, this seemingly simple and straightforward verse is the subject of much debate in part because its interpretation greatly affects the ongoing theological dissension between Calvinists and Arminians. In this short article, Eph 2:8 will be examined so as to determine whether or not it truly means that faith is indeed a gift....

Paul, the Skilled or Unskilled Proclaimer

Posted on February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 by markwchristy

By Mark W. Christy, PhD At times in Paul’s writings, he seems to suggest that he lacked any real skill in oral delivery. At one point, he says, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God” (1 Cor 2:1).[i] In this text, Paul is clearly denigrating the form of his speech. Given the prevailing culture which all but worshiped those considered to be masters in rhetoric, Paul certainly wanted to distance himself...