Categories
current affairs

A Political Rant, Sort Of

Curt Hendley or The Happy Husband

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that our constitution guarantees consenting adults the right to perform pretty much any sexual act they can physically accommodate. Shortly after that ruling, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the state constitution prevented a legally binding marriage between two people of the same sex. Throughout everything, there has been a movement among religious and political conservatives to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as “the union of a man and a woman.” I have avoided the topic here because it is a political powder keg, and to discuss it would be to veer slightly away from my stated purpose of celebrating marriage. But I figure I can weigh in once.

Categories
church human

Corporate Worship

William Burnett

In traveling among the assemblies of God?s people, one has noted
that there appears to be a growing loss of focus in many assembly worship meetings, with
many not being aware of just why they are there, and what is expected from them, so
perhaps it would be helpful to review what we find in Scripture regarding worship and
worshippers. Let us examine a few distinctives, that may help us to appreciate what
worship is, and what is expected from us when we come together to function as a Holy
Priesthood.

Categories
christ

The Person of Christ As Revealed in the Gospel of Matthew

Samuel Ridout

The first four chapters of the first Gospel yield quite a complex view
of our Lord. In the first chapter, He is spoken of as the Son of David, the Messiah; also
as the Son of Abraham, the Seed in Whom all the nations of the world are to be blessed.
This term also suggests the family of faith. “They which are of faith, the
same are the children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). He is also the Son of the virgin,
suggesting the promised “Seed of the woman,” and declaring His miraculous birth,
His sinless nature, and the fact that He was not in Adam. He thus inherited no sin, nor
did death have any claim upon Him. This Son of the virgin is the One foretold by the
prophet as Immanuel, “God with us,” which declares His Godhead. The name
actually given to Him in fulfillment of this prophecy, is full of significance – Jesus,
“Jehovah the Savior.” Jehovah, the name of the covenant–God of Israel,
revealed in connection with the redemption out of Egypt, by its form seems to point
forward to the future — the letter yodh being a sign of the future. That name
therefore was the pledge that there should come the true covenant–Redeemer, who
should save His people from their sins.

Categories
sin

The Old Nature and the New Birth

George Cutting

THOSE who have much to do with the difficulties and exercises of the newly-converted, are constantly hearing some such expression as this: “I thought I was saved once, but I now begin to fear that after all I’ve only been deceiving myself. Not only do I feel no better in myself, but, if anything, even worse than before I professed to be converted.”

Now, in such cases, one generally finds that it is not so much their sins that trouble them, as the heart-sickening disappointment they feel, as more and more the truth is forced upon them, that their new birth has not only effected no improvement in their evil nature, but that that nature seems much worse than before their conversion. Then comes many a fruitless effort to improve it; but, alas! only to end in deeper wretchedness than ever. In such a state of soul Satan finds but too fitting an opportunity of hurling his terrible darts. He suggests that they are only miserable hypocrites, professing to be what they know they are not; that they had far better give up the whole thing, come out in their true colours, and own that they have never been converted at all!

Oh, what intense soul-agony do such assaults cause, when, as yet, true liberty is unknown! and only those who have really passed through such exercises can have any conception of their untold bitterness. It is with a desire to encourage and help such that this little book is sent forth.

Categories
history

95 Theses

Martin Luther

Here are the 95 Theses Martin Luther nailed on the church
door at Wittenburg.

1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent”
(Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one
of repentance.

2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the
sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction,
as administered by the clergy.

3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such
inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various
outward mortification of the flesh.

4. The penalty of sin remains as long as the hatred of
self (that is, true inner repentance), namely till our
entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

5. The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any
penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that
of the canons.