Is God’s Love Unconditional?

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Mark W. Christy, PhD, Pastor of MBC in Channelview, TX If God’s love is unconditional, why do we call upon people to repent and believe? Paul in Acts 20:21 makes these two conditions quite clear: “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”[i] To this, one could respond that those who express repentance and belief were already chosen by God before having done so. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God ...
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The Problem of Christian Mysticism: An Engagement with Joyce Meyer

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD In Colossians 2:18-19, Paul writes, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”[i] After warning the Colossians against legalism in the previous verse, P...
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The Pathology of a False Teacher (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:3-5, offers his readers a profile of a heretic: “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved m...
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The Biblical Way to Confront Your Pastor If You Believe Him to be Teaching God’s Word Incorrectly

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD Recently, the charge of being a heretic was placed upon me by what I hope to be a well-meaning brother in Christ. Unfortunately, he openly charged me on the internet, labelled me a heretic, and called upon my church to fire me immediately. Not once did he ever contact me to make sure that he perfectly understood my theology regarding his areas of concern. Instead of questioning his knowledge of what he thought to be my position and questioning his own position as true...
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The Exaltation of Self in the Recasting of the Gospel

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD In D. A. Carson’s Prophetic from the Center, he offers a contemporary rendition of the gospel that is pervasive among American Christians: “Ever since the fall, God has been active to reverse the effects of sin. He takes action to limit sin’s damage; he calls out a new nation, the Israelites, to mediate his teaching and his grace to others; he promises that one day he will send the promised Davidic king to overthrow sin and death and all their wretched effects. Thi...
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Turning Self Up and the Word Down: Joyce Meyer’s Approach to the Battlefield of the Mind

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind (Tulsa, OK: Harrison, 1995). According to Paul, it is clear that believers are to subject themselves to the renewal work of the Holy Spirit by honoring God with how they live their lives (Rom 12:1-2). In Ephesians, Paul demonstrates that Christians are to submit themselves to ministers with equipping gifts so as to be thoroughly trained in the knowledge of God’s Word and thereby reach maturity (4...
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The Negative Effects of Psychology on the Gospel

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD According to David Wells, the rise of psychology in contemporary Christianity has prostituted the gospel in at least three ways.[i] First, it has given rise to the idea that people are ultimately good. In other words, they have the capacity within themselves to return to perfect wholeness through the tools offered by psychology. With such a view, sin is no longer seen as an obstacle in one’s plight toward self-actualization. Given psychology’s presupposition that huma...
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Jesus Came to Meet Your NEED and Not Your Needs

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD Modern psychology holds that people essentially exist to have their needs and wants met so as to attain unto a state of satisfaction. This has only led to a rise in self-fulfillment being the chief aim for many if not most. Unfortunately, the Church often allows itself to be polluted with this worldly philosophy by focusing its message on felt needs whereby the individual self becomes central in worship. Typically, this is all done in name of evangelism under the bann...
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Matthew 4:1-11 – Don’t Be the Devil’s Fool

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD, Pastor of MBC in Channelview, TX Matthew 4:1-11 – “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the...
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Moving on from Mere Emotional Experience to a More Biblically Informed Witness

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By Mark W. Christy, PhD In this increasingly self-centered world, many people seek experiences that satiate their every desire. This desire for experience is often found even within the church where many gather on Sundays not so much to worship God for what He has done in their lives through Christ but simply to get their emotional ‘batteries recharged’ to face another week. Beyond this, it also tends to impact their personal testimonies as well. This trend seems to only be getting worse as ...
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