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The idea that babies are born depraved is not a very popular doctrine—even among those who attend Calvinistic churches. For those who may be unaware, Calvinism is the theology of Augustine (354–430) that Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) reworked and popularized. The first tenet of Calvinism is that
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Argument 1: Paul was a bishop and not married. We know he was a bishop because the Apostolic office is described with the Greek word episkope (Acts 1:20). Was Paul a bishop? There is no doubt that Paul was an apostle. In fact he often introduced himself at the
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The New Testament teaches some very clear and important doctrines. Those include the way in which sins are forgiven, what constitutes correct worship, the way the church is to be organized, and various teachings concerning the way that Christians must conduct themselves. The New Testament is the only authority we
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DOES "THE CHURCH" EXIST? Recently, a member gave a relative the book, Why I Am A Member of the Church of Christ, written by Leroy Brownlow several decades ago, thinking that it would explain the church better than she could. She was rather overwhelmed by the response; so,
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ABORTION AND THE SCRIPTURES No matter what evil practice comes along, sooner or later someone will try to justify it with the Bible. In a way, that may seem like a compliment—that the Scriptures are so important that everyone seeks to get them on their side. But in reality,
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TONY BREWER'S "COGITATIONS" PODCAST The podcast referenced in the title was made available via a link to it (which will be shared with anyone who desires to have it). It was delivered on May 8th. The speaker (unknown to this writer) said this might be the
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Faithful brethren have always held that the Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each personality possesses the attributes of Deity. Roy Lanier expressed it this way in his notable work, The Timeless Trinity for Ceaseless Centuries: When we speak of the unity of God, we
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Appendix B discusses proper worship involving both logic (in truth) and emotion (in spirit). All brethren would likely agree with what is presented here (185-89), which leaves us with only the four pages of the "conclusion" to consider. Hallenbeck says that he abhors "the idea that,
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The shortest chapter in Andrew Hallenbeck\ book, Praying to Jesus, except for the conclusion, is chapter 5, "Is 'Calling Upon' Prayer?" (145-50). The reason he needs to answer the question, "Yes," is that he thinks he needs it for his next chapter about
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The remainder of chapter four continues with material that, for the most part, either does not address the topic or reiterates what has already been said. Pages 137-41, for example, show that each member of the Godhead possesses the same characteristics—something we all know and agree with. The
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The first twenty pages of Andrew Hallenbeck u2019s interminably long fourth chapter of his book that enjoins brethren to pray to Jesus presents the Scriptural evidence that supports (he thinks) his thesis; apparently his jalopy ran out of gas (not to mention the missing wheels) at this point; so he
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Worshiping the Son Andrew Hallenbeck often takes little excursions into friendly territory only to try to pit the rest of us against familiar ground. He spends most of pages 56-59 showing that Jesus is worthy of worship and honor—something which did not have to be demonstrated to any