Confessions: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

You and the elders want to define what “Smallton Church of Christ” actually believes. What do you do?

Since it’s birth, the church has been churning out doctrinal statements. Confessions, creeds, statements of faith… whatever you call them, everyone seems to have them. Even this blog has one!

How should we approach non-inspired summaries of the teachings of the Bible? In this post I’m going to summarise the good points, the bad points and the downright ugly points of confessions to help us know how to deal with them.

What Denomination Am I?

You’ve been chatting to this person from the office for a number of weeks and get on to the topic of God. They ask the question “What do you believe?” What do you say?

Do you rehearse your church’s confession? Most of us would use a title to describe ourselves “I’m a Christian”, “I’m a born-again believer”, “I’m Reformed”.

How should we describe ourselves? The question is more complex than you’d think…

Resource Roundup

Every Saturday I will be either posting links to some good resources on the web or putting up book reviews. Here are the links for this week:

• Jared Nelson’s series of posts “Christ at the Center”, although posted a long time ago, gives a lot of helpful discussion on keeping Christ central that I, unsurprisingly, fully condone.
• Clark Bunch explains why God not answering prayer shouldn’t make us doubt his existence. Helpful for non-Christians
• R. Scott Clark reruns a post on why Reformed people focus on confessions. I’ll be entering my views on confessions into the fray come Wednesday next week. Meanwhile in the comments Richard gives some valuable clarifications.
• Which would you prefer to be known as, evangelical or reformed? Lee Irons tells us why we should still be known as evangelicals.

Why is the Cross So Important for Christians?

When you consider the cross was a method of brutal punishment, it’s surprising Christians make such a big deal of it. I mean isn’t it a bit of an embarrassment that our leader was crucified?

Here are two reasons why the death of Jesus is important to Christians:

Satan the Theologian or Why Good Doctrine Isn’t Enough

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

James 2:19 (ESV)

Satan’s Doctrine

Satan is very sound doctrinally. James says he, and the other demons, know God is one. Indeed in the Gospel there are many occasions where demons cry out true statements about Jesus.

No doubt that Satan knows and believes most things correctly. He deceives others, yes. But he himself knows many truths.

The demons recognise Jesus as the “Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). They recognise him as set apart by God. Yet they are not saved. How can we know who is then?

Don’t Waste Your Summer pt. 2

Long summers for those at Uni provide a lot of opportunities to do some quality Gospel-work. Yet many students waste them. In this series “Don’t Waste Your Summer” we’re considering many ways students (and non-students!) can use their summer to the glory of God.

Last time we discussed how to use your summer for evangelism. Today we’ll discuss how you use it to help Christians.

Christian Leaders of the 18th Century: J.C. Ryle

The fact that this Victorian biography is still being read testifies to its timelessness. Taking 11 leaders of the Methodist/Evangelical revival, Ryle shows through their lives what faithful evangelical ministry looks like.

Whilst not unaware of their faults, Ryle honours these men’s fidelity to Christ and holds them up as examples. I recommend this book highly to all readers, especially  to those in the Christian ministry or considering it.

Am I Good Enough for Christ?

Christ offers an amazing gift, everlasting joy. It’s a gift too good to turn down.

But are we good enough to receive this gift? Surely there’s something you must do to be acceptable to Christ, right?

Finding Christ Fridays

Today is the first day of Finding Christ Fridays. The first post will be coming shortly. But firstly, what’s it all about?

Coming to Christ involves asking a lot questions. However, if you don’t know any Christians it can be hard to find the answers you need.

One of this blog’s aims is to help those who aren’t Christian find Christ. To help achieve this aim and to support those answering non-Christians questions I have come up with “Finding Christ Fridays”.

Is God Responsible for People Being Sent to Hell?

It seems wrong to create a person knowing they’d only go to hell. If God does this, it’s a big stain on his character.

Yet isn’t this the logical conclusion of election? If he’s responsible for Christians being saved, surely God is responsible for people being damned too?

Or is he?