Ligonier Ministries

Why would a loving and holy God allow a child to suffer through a serious illness such as cancer?

We usually associate the love of God with the benefits we receive from Him and the blessings that come from His kind and merciful hand. Because His love usually manifests itself in good things that happen to us, we sometimes …Read More

How should Christian values impact business ethics in the office?

I remember having a discussion a few years ago in the boardroom of one of the Fortune 500 corporations here in the United States. I was speaking to the chairman of the board, the president, and several vice presidents of …Read More

Does God frown upon interracial marriages?

Some people insist that the Bible meant for the races to remain pure, therefore prohibiting any kind of interracial marriage. Usually two biblical texts are drawn upon to support that view. One is the fact that Noah had three sons, …Read More

What is the significance of baptism?

Just as an aside, the word significance has as its root the word sign. A sign is something that points to something beyond itself. We all recognize that whatever baptism signifies, Jesus obviously thought it was very important because he …Read More

Are those who have never heard of Christ going to hell?

That’s one of the most emotionally laden questions that a Christian can ever be asked. Nothing is more terrifying or more awful to contemplate than that any human being would go to hell. On the surface, when we ask a …Read More

When a person dies, where does his or her spirit and body go until the Second Coming?

Throughout its history, the church has struggled with the concept of what is called the “intermediate state”—our position between the time we die and the time Christ consummates his kingdom and fulfills the promises that we confess in the Apostles’ …Read More

Has Satan been given dominion over the earth until Jesus returns? If so, why was he given this authority?

There’s only one supreme Lord over all the world, and that’s God. We are told in the Old Testament that this whole concept of dominion was shared with Adam and Eve. Man was given dominion over the earth to be …Read More

When Jesus says, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” does that mean we can attain perfection, and should we?

There are a couple of things we need to understand about this statement. In the first place, the word that is translated “perfect” literally means “be complete.” So often, the New Testament and the Old Testament will describe people as …Read More

In Numbers 14 it appears that Moses changed the mind of God. How can you explain this?

“To change one’s mind,” in the New Testament, means to repent. When the Bible speaks of my repenting or your repenting, it means that we are called to change our minds or our dispositions with respect to sin—that we are …Read More

How does one convince a nonbeliever that the Bible is the Word of God?

Before I try to answer that question directly, let me make a distinction that is important at the outset. There’s a difference between objective proof and the persuasion or conviction that follows. John Calvin argued that the Bible carries both …Read More

Can you repent at the moment of death and still have the same salvation as someone who’s been a Christian for many years?

That’s a tricky question, but I think it’s a fascinating one and certainly one that many people are concerned about. We talk about foxhole faith, when people cry out in desperate moments of crisis or postpone to their deathbed the …Read More

How were the books of the Bible selected and compiled, and how were the decisions made as to what would be distributed as the Word of God?

Even though we think of the Bible as being one book, it’s actually a collection of sixty-six books, and we realize that there was a historical process by which those particular books were gathered together and placed in one volume …Read More

Is there a difference between being baptized with the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit?

At times when we read the New Testament record of those who are baptized in the Spirit or filled with the Spirit, it seems that these terms are used interchangeably, that they refer to the same phenomenon. At other times …Read More

Scripture says that Christ stated the unforgivable sin as being blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Can you expand on that, and how should I pray for someone committing that sin?

There’s a lot of confusion over the sin that Jesus says cannot be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come. Some people think that the unforgivable sin is murder because the Old Testament gives us such …Read More

Did Jesus ever laugh? What do the Scriptures tell us about his character and sense of humor?

I’ve heard some people answer this question in the negative by saying that laughter is always a sign of frivolity and a thinly veiled attempt to make light of things that are sober. They say life is a sober matter; …Read More