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"[Good works] are necessary, neither to acquire salvation (as a means), nor to earn salvation (as a merit), nor to obtain salvation (as an indispensable condition or cause), nor to reach it (as a mode of coming to a final goal), nor finally, to preserve it (as a conserving cause). But we hold...
It is rather ironic that in the depths of our depravity God must make known to us our true nature through divine revelation. The degree of our separation from God is so obtuse that it cannot be fully comprehended and must instead simply be confessed as an article of faith.
BAPTISM (LUTHERAN DOCTRINE)
_I. THE TERM_
1. The Derivation
2. The Meaning
3. The Application
4. Equivalent Terms
_II. THE ORDINANCE_
1. The Teaching of Scripture
(1) An Authoritative Command
(2) A Clear Declaration of the Object in View
(3) A Definite Promise
(4) A Plain Indication of...
3. The Application:
In the majority of Biblical instances the verbs and nouns denoting baptism are used in a lit sense, and signify the application of water to an object or a person for a certain purpose. The ceremonial washings of the Jews, the baptism of proselytes to the Jewish faith, common...
_III. Difficulties._
1. Are Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15,16 Genuine?:
Feine (PER3, XIX, 396 f) and Kattenbusch (Sch-Herz, I, 435 f) argue that the Trinitarian formula in Matthew 28:19 is spurious, and that the text in Mr belongs to a section which was added to this Gospel at a later time...
1 Cor 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Cor 1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know...
There are two paradoxical teachings in the bible regarding the possibility of Christians choosing to reject the salvation that was once theirs in Christ and falling away from the faith.
Let's pretend that we are listing verses in two columns. In the first column we will list verses that...
There is ample evidence in scripture, and little dispute, that God has elected and predestined those to to be saved whom he has given the ability to believe in Christ's complete payment, once and for all, for all their sins on the cross. Here are a few of the scripture references to that effect...
What is baptism?
I was a Baptist for forty-some years. When asked, the boilerplate answer given to this question was something like "Our first act of obedience to God" or "A public profession of faith in Jesus Christ".
Trouble is, for being very Berean in their approach to doctrine, Baptists...
I was raised a Baptist and all my family are still in that church. Over the last 20 years or so I had begun to question and have doubts about some points of Baptist theology. At times it seemed as though they were using elaborate work-arounds to try to make the bible fit their theology instead...