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False Messiahs, Wars, and Natural Disasters
That Jesus said false messiahs and natural disasters were only the beginning of the signs of Jerusalem’s end cautions us about drawing too many conclusions when we see such things in our own day. Natural disasters and false prophets are ...Read More
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Signs of the False Teacher
When it comes to false teaching, what matters is not really the form of the words spoken but their content and the intent behind them. Sometimes truth must be presented with harsh words, but often it can be conveyed with ...Read More
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Avoiding False Teachers
No matter how biblically faithful its confession and creeds, no church or denomination is immune from false teachers. If church leaders will not keep watch over the orthodoxy of their ministers and if congregations refuse to be on watch for ...Read More
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Twisting the Truth
How familiar are you with the creeds and confessions that your particular church or denomination follows? While these statements of faith are always subject to the final authority of Scripture, they were written to help believers understand what the Bible ...Read More
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Christ’s Word and the Believer
Paul closes out Colossians 3:17 by reminding us to do everything in the name of Jesus. This entails not merely an action accompanied by an audible expression of “in Jesus name”; rather, to do something in His name is to ...Read More
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The Distortion of Lawlessness
Of all the types of antinomianism, we are perhaps most prone to look for loopholes in the law of God. So, for instance, we may excuse certain behaviors because there is no express command in Scripture against them, even though ...Read More
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Human Precepts and Teachings
Scripture is actually a repetitive book, and we have seen a glimpse of this in Colossians 2 as Paul reminds us over and over that our obedience to law can do nothing to free us from evil. The Bible needs ...Read More
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Dead to the World or Alive?
Out of His great love for us, God warns His people against legalism and false religious practices because hoping in rules, astrology, and other false spiritualities only gives Satan and the flesh more influence over us. But when we pursue ...Read More
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Ascetism, Angels, and Visions
While it is easy to see that heretics are sinning when they look down in judgment on others, it is more difficult to root out that same sin in ourselves, for the basis of our judgment of others may be ...Read More
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God in Christ
To say that all we need is Christ for growth in grace is not somehow to make the Word of God, the sacraments, or the church superfluous. Jesus, by His Spirit, dwells in us, but remaining sin means that we ...Read More