TOUGH QUESTIONS - Denison Forum

B I B L I C A L B I B L I C A L I N S I G H T I N S I G H T

T O U G H T O U G H QUESTIONSQUESTIONS

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volume 5

Dr. Jim Denisonwith Blake Atwood

A L S O BY D R . J I M D E N I S O N

The Daily Article: news discerned differently every Monday through Friday.

Subscribe for free at DenisonForum.org.

Biblical Insight to Tough Questions: Volumes 1–4

How Does God See America?

Empowered: A Guide to Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit

The State of Our Nation: 7 Critical Issues

The Bible: You Can Believe It: Biblical Authority in the Twenty-First Century

Radical Islam: What You Need to Know

Wrestling with God: How Can I Love a God I’m Not Sure I Trust?

7 Crucial Questions About the Bible

(And How the Answers Will Strengthen Your Faith)

All biblical citations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2011).

© 2020 Denison Forum. All rights reserved.

TABLE of CONTENTS

HOW CAN I KNOW IF GOD IS SPEAKING TO ME? .. 5

WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE? ......................................... 17

WHAT IS THE TRINITY? .......................................... 25

HOW DO WE KNOW JESUS CHRIST EXISTED? .. 33

CAN YOU BE A CHRISTIAN APART FROM THE CHURCH? ................................................................... 45

ARE THE JEWS STILL GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE? .. 53

WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH? .......................................................... 65

WHAT IS TITHING? IS IT STILL REQUIRED TODAY? ....................................................................... 73

WHO DECIDED WHAT BOOKS SHOULD BE IN THE BIBLE? ................................................................ 85

WHAT IS BAPTISM? WHY DO CHURCHES VIEW IT DIFFERENTLY? .......................................................... 95

FOREWORD

C. S. Lewis observed, “Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth.”

According to Jesus, God wants us to love him with all our minds (Matthew 22:37), an invitation that requires us to bring our best thinking to our faith.

This fifth volume of Biblical Insight to Tough Questions focuses on some of the most practical and personal questions I’ve been asked.

It begins with ways to know when God is speaking to us. Succeeding chapters discuss heaven, the Trinity, the existence of Jesus, the necessity of the church, the status of the Jews, the role of women in the church, the significance of tithing, the selection of books in Scripture, and the importance of baptism.

These are questions Christians ask and questions people ask Christians. I pray that the biblical answers we explore will help you find the living water that comes from the Truth.

It is a privilege to share this booklet with you.

HOW CAN I KNOW IF GOD IS SPEAKING TO ME?

Our souls need nothing more than to hear from God. And yet so many of us pray—or not—and wonder why God isn’t responding. Some grow so impatient waiting on an answer to prayer that they give up praying altogether.

But hearing from God is the water of life our souls crave. In Psalm 63:1, David testified, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

BIBLICAL INSIGHT to TOUGH QUESTIONS

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If you feel parched for God’s presence in your life, please keep reading. God still speaks, and he wants to speak directly to your heart.

1. Believe that God still speaks

To hear from God is first to believe that he still speaks to us. That you and I can still hear his voice today.

Consider how often his word asks us to listen to him:

• “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live” (Isaiah 55:2–3).

• “Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:2).

• “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). God uses that


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phrase for each of the seven churches addressed in Revelation.

God calls us to listen to him over three hundred times in the Bible. Maybe we should. If you still doubt God speaks today, ask yourself:

• Have I ever prayed about a problem and had a clear sense of what I should do?

• Have I read the Bible and found exactly the answer I needed, as though it were written for just for me?

• Have I heard a sermon and said to myself, “He preached that to me”?

• Have I taken a walk and felt especially close to God?

• Has a friend called at just the time I needed to hear from someone?

• Have I heard a song and it truly lifted my spirit?


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Then God has spoken to you. Believe that he still speaks today, and he wants to speak to you.

But why don’t we hear from him more often? Because we usually don’t make the following three decisions.

2. Be silent before him

When Peter heard from God in Acts 10, he “went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray” (Acts 10:9). In other words, he sought God in silence.

Doing that may be even more challenging for us today. Few of us live quiet lives, and so many of us are busier than we ought to be. Pour water into a bowl and it splashes and swirls. Only when you set the bowl down and let it sit does the water become still. So it is with our souls.

God speaks in a still small voice, which is hard to hear in a cacophonous world (1 Kings 19:12).


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Phillip Keller has written beautifully of the joys of listening to God:

For the man or woman who has come to know and love the Lord God in the depths of such intimacy, the times of solitude are the most precious in all of life. They are a rendezvous with the Beloved. They are anticipated with eagerness. They are awaited with expectancy. . . . For the person who has found in God a truly loving heavenly Father, gentle interludes with him alone are the highlights of life. For the one who has found Christ the dearest friend among all the children of earth, quiet times in his company are the oases of life. For the individual conscious of the comradeship of God’s gracious Spirit in the stillness of solitude, these intervals are the elixir of life.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” I’d say it this way: “Be still and you will know that I am God.”

How long has it been since you were still before God?


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3. Choose to surrender

If I am to listen to God, I must first decide to do what he says. His word and will are not negotiable for me. The God of the universe is not willing for his voice to be an option.

Joyce Huggett, whose book The Joy of Listening to God has helped me greatly, says, “The secret of true prayer is to place oneself utterly and completely at the disposal of God’s Spirit.” She quotes Thomas Merton, one of the best-known monks of this century: “The deepest prayer at its nub is a perpetual surrender to God.”

To hear God speak, I must surrender not only my will but also my sin. The more time I spend with God, the more I see my sins for what they are, and the more I must confess them to him.

A man walking to church at night was splashed with mud by a passing bus. In the dark, he said, “It’s not too bad.”

He came closer to a streetlight and said, “I need to brush this off.”


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He stood under the streetlight and said, “I must go home and change clothes.”

So do we all.

4. Listen to his Spirit

I must choose to listen to his Spirit. Whatever he wants to say, however he wishes to say it. I choose to listen. How does God’s Spirit speak to those who choose to listen?

God speaks to us in his word.

But listening to God’s word is not the same thing as studying it or preaching from it. When I listen to God’s word, I seek only God’s meaning for me. Not for you, or for anyone else—only for me. When God speaks through his word to a listening heart, he speaks specifically to that heart and none other.

Perhaps the best way to listen to God’s word is to take a short passage, five to ten verses, and spend time with them in God’s presence. Seek to live in this text. If it’s an


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event, join it. Identify with the people in the story. See the story through their eyes; feel it with their emotions.

Pay special attention to words or phrases that speak to you personally. For instance, in Acts 10, when God speaks to Peter, this phrase caught my eye: “Accompany them without hesitation” (Acts 10:20). When God speaks, I am not to hesitate but to respond—immediately.

When something in God’s word especially strikes you, stop there. Write it down. Listen to his word and feel his presence, for you are with Jesus. He is speaking from his word to your heart, feeding your soul.

God speaks to us through his world.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1).

Many years ago I spent an hour with a leaf. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?


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I was on our back porch and picked up a leaf that had fallen from the peach tree in the yard. I began to pay attention to it, more attention than I had ever given a leaf before. Soon I noticed the remarkable detail and design it possessed: the tiny veins running through it from end to end, the stem that had held it to the tree which produced it. I thought about the process of chlorophyll and growth which gave it life. I realized that the most brilliant scientists in the world could not make what I held in my hands.

At that moment in time, I was dealing with some complex issues at the church I pastored and in my personal ministry. The message was clear: If God can design a leaf, he can design my life. If he would devote himself with such detail to a peach tree, how much more is he devoted to my life and ministry? I could trust his plan and power. And my soul heard the word it needed from God.

Make an appointment with God’s creation. Set aside some time and find a place where God’s handiwork is obvious. Pick a specific part of this creation for special attention


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and ask God to speak to you through it. Compare your thoughts to the written word of God for confirmation and commentary. Then write down what you hear.

When you’re alone with God, look around. See his nature, his creation. See the artist in his painting, the poet in his words. Meet with God in his creation and ask him to speak through his world to your soul. And he will.

God speaks to us through our worship.

If you and I would enter God’s presence expecting to hear from him today, in silence and surrender, we would hear his Spirit. He wants to speak through the words of our hymns and choruses, through the prayers we hear and pray, through the music sung and played, and through Christians’ words as they carry his word.

Worship is not only our time to speak to God. In worship, both corporate and private, God will speak to you, powerfully.


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In closing, to hear from God, imagine Jesus present with you, wherever you are. Imagine him in the pew or chair beside you. It may help you to sit at a table and imagine Jesus in the chair across from you. Imagine him beside you, because he is.

At funerals, I often tell the story of the invalid who struggled with prayer, so his pastor told him to put an empty chair beside his bed and pray to Jesus as though he were in the chair.

The night that man died, his daughter found him with his hand in the chair.

WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE?

An old political joke used often with various candidates has a constituent saying, “I wouldn’t vote for you if you were St. Peter,” with the candidate replying, “No problem. If I were St. Peter, you wouldn’t be living in my district.”

What do we know about “St. Peter’s district”?


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We’re all fascinated with the subject. In Biblical Insight to Tough Questions Vol. 1, I answered one question about hell, the place everyone wants to avoid.

Now, let’s discuss the place everyone wants to see.

Each of us has loved ones in heaven. I assume we all would like to spend eternity there ourselves. So let’s ask the word of God to tell us about heaven. Then let’s ask why our topic matters—why heaven is important for us on earth.

I don’t believe we can study a more motivating subject than this.

What is heaven?

What does God tell us about our eternal home?

First, he tells us that heaven is real.

It is certain—no figment of religious imagination, no superstition, no “opiate


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of the people” (to quote Karl Marx). He revealed it here to John: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). According to God himself, heaven is real.

Second, heaven is a place (Revelation 21:1–2).

John “saw” it. He didn’t feel it, or dream of it, or hear about it. He saw it, and we only see things which are. Heaven is a place.

Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14.2; emphasis mine).

Where? “Up there”?

Heaven is a place beyond our locating or understanding. Just as you couldn’t dig down into the earth and find hell, so you can’t rocket into the skies and find heaven. God is bigger, more awesome than that, and so is his heaven.


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It is reported that one of the Russian cosmonauts came back and said, “Some people say that God lives out there. I looked around, and I didn’t see any God out there.”

Ruth Graham, Billy’s wife, says he looked in the wrong place.

If he’d stepped outside the spaceship without his spacesuit, he would have seen God very quickly.

Third, heaven is where God is (Revelation 21:3).

John reveals, “Now the dwelling of God is with men.” When we get to heaven, we get to God.

Psalm 11:4 is clear: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).

Heaven is a real place, where God is. It’s being with God.


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Fourth, heaven is a blessed place (Revelation 21:4).

Because God is there, all that is perfect is there as well. There will be no death in heaven, thus no mourning or crying or pain.

Our greatest enemy will trouble us no more. Think of that: no death, ever! Eternity with God in his blessed home.

Heaven is:

• A place of incredible joy: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

• A place of reward: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20).

• And this reward is eternal: “An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).


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• Thus, heaven is a celebration, a party: “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15).

We will reign in heaven: “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21). In heaven, we’re royalty! We’ll have perfect understanding there: “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Revelation 21 summarizes the blessedness of heaven: “I am making all things new” (v. 5). No more Fall, nor sin, or death, or disease, or disaster; no more earthquakes or tests or grades; no more. Everything new. No wonder Jesus called heaven “paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is that, a place of blessing beyond all description: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9; cf. Isaiah 64:4).


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What will we be like in heaven?

First, let’s set aside a popular misconception: in heaven, people are not angels. (See the second question in Biblical Insight to Tough Questions Vol. 2.)

God created angels before he created us, and we are completely different. When Jesus said that people in heaven are “equal to angels” (Luke 20:36), he meant that we never die, like them. Not that we have wings and a halo. We are not angels.

But we do receive heavenly bodies: “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53). So, will we recognize each other? Will we know each other?

Yes, for these reasons. Jesus said that in heaven we will take our places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11); on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples easily recognized Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:3–4); we will “know as we are known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).


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I like what one preacher said: “We won’t really know each other until we get to heaven!”

So, what is heaven?

Most of all, it’s home.

A home of eternal blessing, reward, and bliss, better than the best earth can offer us.

John Owen, the great Puritan, lay on his deathbed. His secretary wrote to a friend in his name, “I am still in the land of the living.”

Owen saw it and said, “Change that and say, ‘I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living.’”

So can we all be.

WHAT IS THE TRINITY?

It has been said that if the mind were simple enough for us to understand it, we would be too simple to understand it. Likewise, if God were simple enough for my finite, fallen mind to understand him, he would not be God.

How does a mother explain marriage to her five-year-old daughter? How does a mathematician explain calculus to his third-grade son?


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Yet we try.

We sing as though we understood the words, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty . . . God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.” I speak the same words over new believers which were recited over me in the baptismal waters and over other Christians for twenty centuries: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Why?

What is the Trinity? And why is understanding it so essential?

A brief history of God

The first biblical reference to God starts the mystery: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The Hebrew term here translated “God” is Elohim. The im is how the Hebrew language makes a word plural, like putting s on the end of a word in English. Thus one could translate the word Gods (though some Hebrew scholars believe that the plurality


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points more to God’s majesty than his number).

However, the following Hebrew verb “created” requires a singular noun, indicating that its subject is one rather than many. So, in “God created” we have our start into the mystery that is the nature of God.

From the earliest of times, the Jewish tradition has affirmed that “the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, which is recited in daily Jewish spirituality). Such monotheism was a radical departure from the polytheism of ancient cultures.

But the experience of the first Christians made simple monotheism problematic, for they knew Jesus Christ to be Lord and God (cf. John 1:1; 20:28; Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13). They also experienced the Holy Spirit as divine (Genesis 1:2; cf. Acts 5:2, 4; 2 Corinthians 3:17–18). But these three were independent (at Jesus’ baptism the Father spoke and the Spirit descended; Matthew 3:16–17).


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There is no indication that apostolic Christians struggled with the logic of their experience of God. Paul could pray for the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). They knew God to be one, but they experienced him as three persons.

This logical contradiction did not trouble them, for they were more pragmatic than speculative. They needed no words such as Trinity or theological formulations to explain their faith.

But matters would quickly change.

The problem of God

As Christianity spread beyond its Jewish roots, it encountered a worldview steeped in logic and rationalism. Aristotle had taught the Western world that non-contradiction is the test for all truth. Something cannot be one and three at the same time.


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So how can the Christian doctrine of God be reasonable?

The earliest answers to the question resolved the logical tension but created problems greater than the one they “solved.”

Some made the Son and the Spirit less divine than the Father, an approach known as subordinationism. By this formulation, Jesus is not Lord and the Holy Spirit who makes us Christians (cf. Romans 8:9) is not fully God.

Others taught that God shifts from being Father (Old Testament) to Son (Gospels) to Spirit (Acts to Revelation), an approach known as modalism. This strategy cannot explain the baptism of Jesus, the work of the Son (John 1:3-4) and the Spirit (Genesis 1:2) in creation, or the presence of the Spirit throughout the Old Testament (cf. Psalms 51:11).

At the Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381), the Orthodox Church declared all such formulations to


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be heretical and affirmed that the Son and Spirit are of the same “essence” as the Father. “God in three Persons” catches the sense of their approach.

From then to now, believers have sought to understand this paradox better.

• Some suggest that God is like water, capable of being solid ice, liquid, or steam (but not at the same time).

• Perhaps he is like a three-sided pyramid seen from above (but the three sides do not work independently as did the Trinity at Jesus’ baptism).

• Maybe he is like an egg: yoke, sac, shell (but the three do not retain the same essence).

• Perhaps he is like a woman who is mother to her children, wife to her husband, and daughter to her parents (but she cannot act in three independent ways at the same time).


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All analogies eventually break down, as they should.

As we noted earlier, if we can fully understand the essence of God, he would not be God.

Conclusion

Commitment to a God whose essence transcends our logical comprehension is a problem for some in our rationalistic culture. We like our faith to make sense. We may not understand why a ship floats or an airplane stays in the air, but we know that someone does. We’d have a hard time taking medicine no one understands, expecting effects no one can explain.

But we’d best get used to it. The more we learn about the universe, the more incomprehensible it becomes. Physicians do not understand how the mind works, or even if there is such a thing as the “mind.” We assume the category of time, but none of us can define it without contradiction.


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So it is with the major doctrines of Christian faith.

Is God three or one? Is Jesus fully God or fully human? Does God know the future or do we have freedom? Is the Bible divinely inspired or humanly written?

The answer to each question is the same: yes.

We’ve briefly discussed the Trinitarian nature of God. The practical outcome of such a hurried survey is simply this: We are each to give ourselves every day to the Spirit. We are to yield the morning as it begins and the day before it starts.

And as we practice his presence in our lives, we experience the abundant life which Jesus came to give us all (John 10:10).

HOW DO WE KNOW JESUS CHRIST EXISTED?

The poet James Allan Francis claims of Jesus Christ, “All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.”


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There are more Christians on the planet than adherents of any other faith, so the universal significance of the Christian position regarding the existence and deity of Jesus is clear.

But is it justified?

We believe that Jesus is Lord because the Bible teaches that it is so.

But the Koran teaches that Allah is the only God. Buddhists follow their own sacred writings, as do Hindus and scores of other religions. Do we have any other evidence to support our commitment to Christ as the King of Kings?

And how do we refute the claim that the divinity of Jesus was a doctrine which evolved centuries after his life and death?

Before we formulate our answer, let’s remember some facts about non-Christian evidence for Jesus:

• The availability of international news in Jesus’ day was limited,


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making knowledge of his Palestinian life and work improbable for historians writing in Rome.

• Much of the literature of Jesus’ era has not survived, and so we should not be surprised that non-biblical records regarding Jesus’ life are limited.

• From the time of Constantine (AD 312), the church possessed state authority to suppress all anti-Christian literature. It considered pagan references to Jesus to be blasphemous and disposed of many of them.

• The character of the events concerning Jesus’ earthly life, centering in a minor nation and religion, would have been of little interest to Rome.

• Pagan sources would have been influenced by anti-Christian rhetoric.


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• The Jewish documents from the era are problematic in reliability and interpretation (see below).

Despite these facts, historical evidence for Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is extremely helpful in confirming the authority of his word.

Non-Christian evidence for Jesus

If we had no New Testament, we could reconstruct the Christian doctrine that Christ is Lord on the basis of non-Christian writings, nearly all of which are as old as the New Testament books themselves. Here is a brief survey of the evidence, in chronological order.

Thallus the Samaritan (AD 52) wrote a work tracing the history of Greece from the Trojan War to his own day. In it he attempts to explain the darkness of the crucifixion of Jesus as an eclipse of the sun. This is the earliest pagan reference to Jesus’ existence and death.


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Mara bar Serapion (writing after AD 70, as he describes the Fall of Jerusalem) adds: “What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that their kingdom was abolished.” His letter is on display in the British Museum today. It shows that the first Christians saw Jesus not just as a religious teacher, but as their King.

The Roman historian Suetonius (AD 65–135) later records, “Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief ” (Nero 16.2). Note that the Empire would not punish people who followed a religious teacher, only one who made him Lord in place of Caesar.

Tacitus (AD 55–120) was the greatest ancient Roman historian. Around AD 115 he writes, “Christus . . . suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition broke out” (Annals XV.44). His description of Christian belief as “superstition” makes clear the fact that Tacitus considered the


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followers of Christus to believe something supernatural or miraculous, not simply that he was a great human teacher.

Pliny the Younger was a Roman administrator and author, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor; two volumes of his letters are extant today.

The tenth of his correspondence books (written ca. AD 112) contains the earliest non-biblical description of Christian worship: “They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ as to a god.” Note that believers worshiped Christ as God in AD 112, not centuries later after their beliefs “evolved,” as some critics claim.

In conclusion, the Gentile evidence for Jesus makes it clear that Christianity was known and reported by Rome in the first century after his death and resurrection.

They also demonstrate that:


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• Jesus existed as a figure of history.

• The Christians believed in his resurrection.

• They worshiped him as their living Lord.

Jewish references to Jesus

Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian (AD 37/38–97), records: “Ananias called a Sanhedrin together, brought before it James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others . . . and he caused them to be stoned” (Antiquities 20.9.1). Thus the Christians called Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.

Also, consider Josephus’ most famous statement about Jesus (Antiquities 18.3.3): “Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ; and


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when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

While most historians do not believe that this paragraph represents Josephus’ own faith commitment, it does document the beliefs of the Christians regarding Jesus. And note that it was written before the end of the first century.

The Talmud tradition provides additional Jewish attestation to Jesus’ existence. The Talmud was a compilation of Jewish oral traditions, collected in written form by Rabbi Akiba before his death in AD 135. The work was then revised by his student, Rabbi Meir, and the project completed around AD 200 by Rabbi Judah. The written record of the oral tradition is known as the Mishnah. Ancient commentary on it


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was called the Gemara. The combination of the Mishnah and the Gemara is the Talmud.

The Babylonian Talmud 43a states, “It is taught: on Passover Eve they hanged Yeshu. . . . They found nothing in his favor, so they hanged him on Passover Eve.” The Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 107b contains a bizarre treatment of Jesus’ followers and their heretical acts. It considers Jesus to be a heretic and a sorcerer. And Tosefta Hullin 2:22–24 dismisses Jesus’ miracles as magic and superstition.

However, it is noteworthy that those who composed these early rejections of Jesus as Messiah never thought to deny his existence. This would have been the easiest way to debunk the growing Christian movement. But these writers, working so close to the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, knew that such claims would be rejected.

And so their anti-Christian rhetoric further makes the case for Jesus’ historical existence.


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Early Christian beliefs about Jesus

The earliest Christians believed Jesus to be Lord, as their letters and other writings make clear.

For instance, the Didache, written before AD 100, repeatedly calls Jesus “the Lord.” It ends thus: “The Lord shall come and all his saints with him. Then shall the world ‘see the Lord coming on the clouds of Heaven’” (16.7–8).

Clement of Rome, writing in AD 95, repeatedly refers to the “Lord Jesus Christ.” And he promises a “future resurrection” on the basis of his “raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead” (24.1).

In an introduction to his letter to the Ephesians, Ignatius, writing between AD 110 and 115, refers to “Jesus Christ our God.” To the Smyrnaeans, he adds, “I give glory to Jesus Christ, the God who has thus given you wisdom” (1.1).

And Justin the Martyr (ca. AD 150) repeatedly refers to Jesus as the Son of God (cf. Apol. 22). He describes the fact that God


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raised him from the dead and brought him to heaven (Apol. 45).

Conclusion

So, on the basis of non-biblical evidence, we can know that:

• Jesus Christ existed.

• He was crucified by Pontius Pilate.

• The first Christians believed him to be raised from the dead.

• The early church worshiped him as Lord and God.

• Jewish opponents tried to slander him but never denied his existence.

• The facts of Christian faith were settled early in church history and are no invention of later revisionists.


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The Empire persecuted Christians because they claimed no King but the Lord Jesus.

The radical faith and courage of the first apostles, and the rapid spread of the Christian movement, have no other explanation except that the living Lord Jesus changed their lives and empowered their witness.

Multiplied thousands died because of their commitment to this One.

And men don’t die for a lie.

CAN YOU BE A CHRISTIAN APART FROM THE CHURCH?

When answering a question like this, it helps to know the background of the person asking it.

For instance, are they one of the many who believes that the church is imperfect or hypocritical and thus not worth attending? Or are they one of the few who legitimately cannot find fellowship with other believers, such as a new Christian in a predominantly Muslim village?


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Just as in studying the Bible, context is key.

So let’s answer this question for both kinds of people and then discuss why every Christian—where and when possible—should belong to the body of Christ we call the church.

Can you be a Christian and not belong to a church?

Yes—and no.

A person can still be a Christian apart from the church, but that is not God’s plan for a majority of Christians.

For instance, the thief who hung on a cross next to Jesus and asked to be with him in paradise did not have the opportunity to belong to a church. Yet he was saved (Luke 23:42–43). Similar highly unique situations can also be assumed: the lone Christian in a Communist town, or a Christian believing in Christ on their deathbed. The circumstances of their lives have prevented them from joining a church.


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But, for the majority of Christians, willfully choosing not to belong to a church is disobedience.

Instead of looking for reasons not to attend church, let’s discuss why you should find a church home as soon as possible.

1. Jesus instituted the church.

Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). Though he was talking to Peter, “this rock” was not Peter. The church does not stand on a man. Rather, Jesus pointed to himself, for Scripture is clear: “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus Christ founded the church. It belongs to him. Do you?

The church is the idea and passion of Jesus. It is his answer to the problems of mankind. Jesus could have established any institution, begun any movement. He could have left behind any entity to carry on his work on earth. Yet he founded the church.


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We exist by the creation of Jesus Christ, to take the incredible news of his love to our lost and dying world. This is the rock on which we stand, and the purpose for which we exist.

And this rock will stand forever. This foundation is sure.

Jesus launched the church for our good and God’s glory. When we refuse to join a church body, we disobey the last command he gave us while still physically on earth: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20).

2. The church knows your name and your need.

Anxiety. Depression. Suicide. The loneliness epidemic of the twenty-first century has taken a terrible toll on our culture. Though we have technology that purportedly connects us, we have collectively never felt as disconnected from one another.


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Contrast that to what the apostle Luke says of the early church in Acts 4:32: “The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”

What might be more impressive is that there were more than five thousand members in this church. And they came from everywhere: Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female, crossing every barrier of prejudice known to their world.

The Greeks had a very common proverb: “Friends have all things in common.” These people fulfilled their ideal. And with this result: “There was not a needy person among them” (v. 34).

Here’s how this program of congregational ministry worked: People in the church were constantly on the lookout for others in need so they might report this to the congregational leaders. When such reports came in, the wealthier members of the church voluntarily responded. They sold lands


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or houses and brought the entire amount of the sale to the church. This was an act of Christian charity and grace.

They placed their money at the feet of the apostles, an act of legal transfer akin to signing over your title today. Then the church utilized a massive aid distribution system to get the money to those in need. And this happened continually, not just occasionally or during times of special emphasis. This was a regular part of their congregational life.

Today’s churches can help you in so many similar ways, but you first have to do two things:

1. Show up regularly.

2. Be vulnerable.

Neither of those are easy. But God calls you to both. His church is called “the body of Christ” for a reason: it is his hands offering you tangible help today.


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3. Someone else needs your help.

While the reasons to attend church far outnumber what I provide here, I’ll end with this: the church does not solely exist to meet your needs. Rather, it helps you meet others’ needs. God has adopted you into his family so that you might welcome others into the family and be there for other family members when they’re in need.

To the degree that we obey God, we will reveal his love to the world.

You may need to be someone’s Barnabas, which means “Encourager.” You have money, or time, or abilities someone else needs. Ask God to show you how to invest them, to show you who needs them. Don’t claim that your possessions are your own, but share everything you have (Acts 4:32). Find someone who needs you. You won’t have to look far.

Remember, Jesus could have established any institution, yet he founded the church, an imperfect institution if there ever was one.


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Which is all the more reason why you should be part of a church family.

As Charles Spurgeon said, “Give yourself to the church. You that are members of the church have not found it perfect, and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.”

In other words, you’ll fit right in with all of the other imperfect members of God’s church—just the way he intended.

ARE THE JEWS STILL GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE?

Nearly half of Jewish young people in America have been the victims of anti-Semitic acts since 2014. Think about that fact for a moment. More than a third have experienced such hatred on a college campus or know someone who has.

Today, 88 percent of Jewish Americans think anti-Semitism is a problem in the US; 84 percent believe the problem has gotten


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worse over the last five years. The Anti-Semitic League reports that anti-Semitic acts in the US rose 57 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year. These are staggering numbers as well.

Writing for The Atlantic, Emma Green documents a frightening list of anti-Semitic reports in late 2019. The title of her article: “American Jews Are Terrified.”

Why is this still happening today? Why has it happened for centuries?

I will never forget my visit to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Each moment of those hours has haunted me for years: the pile of shoes which is all that remains of thousands of cremation victims; images of living skeletons and sunken eyes; Nazi tattoos on arms and souls.

If the Jews were truly God’s “chosen people,” how could such atrocity befall them?

Why did he “choose” them?

Does he still love them?


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Did God choose the Jews?

The global Jewish population in 2019 was approximately 14.6 million. Of those, it was estimated that 84 percent lived in Israel or the United States, with about 7.5 million living in the US and 6.7 million in Israel.

The Jewish people trace their beginnings to Abraham (ca. 2000–1800 BC), a nomadic shepherd living in what is now southeastern Iraq.

God called him to leave his homeland for a promised land (Genesis 12:1-2), with this result: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 3).

Through their nation, God would one day bring the promised Messiah (the “chosen one”) whose sacrifice would make possible the salvation of the human race.

And so the Lord chose the Jews as his conduit of blessing to the nations.

Along the way, the Jewish nation had every reason to wonder if they were really his


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chosen people, if God truly loved them. They experienced 430 years in Egyptian slavery, forty years of wilderness wandering, and seven years of bloodshed and suffering as they conquered their Holy Land.

Then civil war divided the nation permanently. Assyrian conquest destroyed their ten northern tribes. Babylonian conquest enslaved their two southern tribes.

Then came oppression by the Greeks and finally enslavement by the Romans.

By the New Testament era, it seemed that God had abandoned the Jewish people. They had every reason to wonder if he still loved them.

They are not the last.

Does God choose us?

Here is the central fact we must remember: though the Jews rejected the Messiah, he has not rejected them. The Apostle Paul said, “A partial hardening has come upon Israel,


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until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25b). The “hardening” here is spiritual, that hardening of the arteries of the soul which comes from refusing the gospel.

Because the Jews rejected Christ, his followers turned to the Gentiles. His church took the gospel to the Gentile world. With this result: the “fullness of the Gentiles,” meaning the entire Gentile world, could “come in” to God’s kingdom.

So God used the Jewish refusal of Christ, but Christ has not refused them. “And so all Israel will be saved,” Paul continues (v. 26a). “All Israel” here does not mean that every Jew will be saved apart from Christ. Paul spoke in Romans 9:2 of his “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” over the lostness of his Jewish nation. The Apostle meant that the entire race of the Jews would have the opportunity to come to salvation, just as the Gentiles now have that privilege.

How? Through the Gentiles, God offers salvation to the Jews.


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Paul said it this way: “Insomuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them” (Romans 11:13–14). The apostle hoped that the Jews would see the Gentiles coming to salvation, become jealous, and come to Christ as a result. Then God could fulfill his covenant to “take away their sins” (v. 27).

Here’s the point: despite all they have endured, all the failures and slaveries and pain they have faced, “they are beloved” (v. 28). Verse 29 promises that God’s “gifts” (the word means his “grace”) and calling are “irrevocable.” He will never take them back or regret them. One day he hopes to “have mercy on all” (v. 32).

And what God promised to the Jews, he promised to the Gentiles as well.

Galatians 3 announces this incredible fact: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are


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Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (vs. 28–29).

The Jewish people rejected the Messiah, but he did not reject them. Now, we have failed the Father; we have sometimes refused his truth; we have all sinned and fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23). We have rejected God’s word and will, but he has not rejected us.

No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve done it, he loves you still. This is exactly what his word promises every one of us, with no exceptions, today.

God wants us to accept his unconditional grace and love.

Are you trying to earn God’s mercy? Punishing yourself for your failures? Confessing sins to God which he has already forgiven and forgotten? Laboring in guilt you won’t release? Allowing the past to poison the present?

There are many Old Testament Christians today: people who are saved by grace but


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live by works, keeping the Law, making sacrifices, living in religious duty and obligation and ritual, hoping to earn what Jesus died to give.

Are you among them?

How should Christians respond to the Jews?

1. Seek their salvation in Christ.

Build bridges to Jewish people in your community. Look for opportunities to demonstrate God’s love for them.

2. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6).

Ask God to protect Israel and Jewish people around the world.

3. Support the State of Israel.


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Some Christians see the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948 as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Others believe that the nation of Israel fulfilled its biblical role by producing the Messiah and that the Jewish people are now no different from any other in God’s view.

A third position sees the State of Israel as a secular entity, rather than a prophetic one, but believes that God is still working in unique ways with and through the Jewish people.

Whatever your position on Israel and the Bible, I encourage you to support Israel for the simple reason that the Jewish people need and deserve a homeland.

The persistence of anti-Semitism across history shows that Jews will likely continue to face persecution. The Holocaust shows us what can happen to them if they do not have a nation that will protect and defend them.


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4. Work for peace with the Palestinians.

God loves the Palestinians just as much as he loves the Jews (cf. Galatians 3:28). His Son died for both and for us all (Romans 5:8). The Palestinians deserve a home and an autonomous future just as much as any other people.

In addition, so long as conflict between Israel and the Palestinians persists, jihadists will use this issue to justify their attacks on all who support Israel. Many in the Arab world and beyond will be less likely to normalize relations with Israel. And the future stability of the Jewish nation will remain in doubt.

5. Love the Jewish people as God does.

He chose them “to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2). Jesus died for them just as he died for us (Romans 5:8).


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How can you love them well? Jewish culture is intensely pragmatic. Jews typically measure what you believe by what you do. They are more likely to believe that Christ loves them when Christians love them.

In a day when “American Jews are terrified,” ask the Lord to show you how to serve and encourage a Jewish person you know. Then look for ways to demonstrate support and solidarity.

The Apostle Paul said of his fellow Jews, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).

How will you follow his example today?

WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH?

This is either a very easy or a very difficult question.

Some think that women should have no leadership role in the church, while others believe in equal rights for both genders regardless of what the Bible might teach on the subject.


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But many churches and believers struggle with this issue and want to know what Scripture says.

This answer is for them.

Should women preach?

Let’s ask the most emotional question first: Should women be allowed to preach the word of God?

To “prophesy” in the Bible means to preach or declare the word of God. Prophets were sometimes foretellers, predictors of the future. But nearly always they were forth-tellers, preaching to the needs and issues of their day. To be a “prophet” meant simply to be a preacher.

And all across the Scriptures we find women in this role, including:

• Miriam (Exodus 15:20)

• Deborah (Judges 4:4)


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• Huldah (2 Kings 22:14)

• Anna (Luke 2:36)

• and Philip’s four daughters (Acts 21:9)

In ancient Judaism, a woman was to cover her head in public worship as a sign of her submission to God. And so “every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head” (1 Corinthians 11:5 NIV). Paul clearly expected women to lead in public prayer and preaching and told them how to do so effectively.

But what about Paul’s later statement: “As in all the congregations of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not allowed to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says” (1 Corinthians 14:33–34)?

The explanation comes in the next sentence: “If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church” (v. 35).


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This meant to ask questions about what was being said by the preacher during worship.

In a culture where women were forbidden advanced education or biblical study, it was natural that many would not fully understand the meaning of the sermon.

In other words, women with theological questions should ask them of their husbands at home lest they distract from the worship of God. This was Paul’s meaning, and it is completely consistent with his earlier affirmation of women who lead in prayer and preaching.

But note Paul’s statement to Timothy: “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet” (1 Timothy 2:11–12). Nowhere does the Bible tell us that female “prophets” preached only to women.

So what does Paul’s statement to Timothy mean?


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Again the context gives us the answer we need.

Timothy was pastor in Ephesus, one of the most pagan cities in the world. Diana, their goddess of fertility, was worshiped by the use of temple prostitutes. A woman leading in public worship in Ephesus would have been assumed to be a religious prostitute by the pagan community. And so, in Ephesus, women were not to take a leadership role in worship.

The abiding truth of this statement is not that women are not to preach to men. It is that women and men are to consider their culture and find the most effective ways to reach those who need Jesus.

Should women help lead the church?

Paul listed the major leadership offices in the early church in this order: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds/teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Did women fill these roles in the early church?


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Note Romans 16:7: “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.”

The name translated Junia is likely female; she may have been the wife of Andronicus. And both were “apostles,” highly significant leaders in the first church.

Philip had “four unmarried daughters who prophesied” (Acts 21:9), showing that women filled the role of prophet in the early church.

While there are a few references to individuals as “evangelists” in the New Testament, and none of women in this specific role, note that Philip was called “the evangelist” (Acts 21:8). It is plausible that his daughters’ preaching ministries were likewise evangelistic in nature.

Next comes the shepherd/teacher. Priscilla and her husband Aquila “explained to [Apollos] the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). They later hosted a church in


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their home (Romans 16:3–5), often the role of a congregation’s pastor. Lydia likewise sponsored a church in her home (Acts 16:40), perhaps indicating that she was that congregation’s pastoral leader.

And Paul commends Phoebe as a “servant” or “deaconess” in the Roman church (Romans 16:1–2; the Greek word is exactly the term translated deacon elsewhere).

But Paul instructed Timothy that the “overseer” and “deacon” must be “the husband of but one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2, 12). How can a woman be “the husband of one wife”?

At issue was not divorce but polygamy. In the ancient world, men could have many wives, but women could have only one husband.

And so there was no reason for Paul to speak of “the husband of but one wife or the wife of but one husband.” His statement applies only to men because only men could be affected by this issue.


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Conclusion

An objective reading of the biblical evidence seems to suggest that women served in each of the leadership roles listed by Paul in Ephesians 4:11 and that they served as “deacons” as well.

And so I find no scriptural reason to close any leadership role to women today.

At the same time, I recognize the divisive nature of this issue for many churches and denominations. As I believe that New Testament churches were autonomous, so I suggest that the health and unity of a local congregation should be considered in addressing the role of women in the church.

Since “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), we must speak the truth in love, honoring our Father while we affirm each of his children.

Nothing less will do.

WHAT IS TITHING? IS IT STILL REQUIRED TODAY?

When it comes to prayer versus money in the Bible, which do you think is mentioned more often?

The Bible contains five hundred verses on prayer, less than that on faith, but more than two thousand on money and possessions. This is a large subject for God and a crucial subject for us.


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He knew how integral money would be to our lives, and he wants to set us free from its constraints while simultaneously using our income for the expansion of his kingdom. If we could understand the biblical concept of stewardship, we might become more disposed toward regular tithing.

Stewardship is the biblical teaching that all of life belongs to God, our Creator. He wants us to surrender our time, talents, and resources to him, every day. We will give an account to him one day for our management of the lives he has given to us (2 Corinthians 5:10).

So, with regard to money, what does God expect of us?

How much should we give?

Tithe, from the Old English word toethe, means “tenth.” One-tenth of our income, returned to God in worship—this is his basic expectation for every believer.

But some object to this expectation today. They say tithing is legalism, the product of the


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Jewish law. Since we’re under grace, such legal requirements are no longer obligatory for us.

However, Abraham lived six generations before the Law, and he tithed to God through the priest Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20). His grandson Jacob did the same thing, three generations before Moses (Genesis 28:20–22). Clearly, the tithe was God’s plan before there was a law. So it cannot be legalism.

Others say that tithing is optional for those who can afford it. Is this a biblical viewpoint?

Listen to Leviticus 27:30: “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.” This is to be given through the place of worship: “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow


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offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock” (Deuteronomy 12:5–6). We are to tithe to God through our place of worship.

Is tithing optional?

This familiar passage from Malachi settles the question: “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house” (Malachi 3:8–10).

Consider one other objection: tithing is outdated. It originated in the Old Testament, whether it started before the Law or not. But we live in New Testament times, making this an outdated obligation.

However, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus told the Pharisees that they should continue to tithe while practicing justice, mercy, and faithfulness. In Hebrews 7:8, the tithe is


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still being collected by the church. And the early church, in the years following the writing of the New Testament, continued to teach tithing. In fact, they required it and considered it essential to Christian living.

God expects at least a tithe, a tenth, to be returned to him through our place of worship.

This is simply the teaching of God’s word.

Some will ask, “Are we to give over and above our tithe? Doesn’t God love a cheerful giver?” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

To which I would reply as C. S. Lewis did when someone asked him, “How much offering to the Lord is enough?”

He said, “I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. If our giving habits do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we want to do but cannot do because our giving expenditures exclude them.”


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In other words, if a base tithe doesn’t result in giving up something we desire, is it a sacrifice worthy of the One who sacrificed his best for us?

To whom do we give?

Biblically, we give to God.

Not to a minister or to a church, but through the church to God. We cannot write a check to “God.” He tells us to give through the church, and then he tells the church what to do with his money. We don’t adopt a budget to decide what we want to do with our money but how we think God wants us to use his money.

We give to him out of all that is his.

Unfortunately, many churches don’t seem to understand this fact. We really do think we’re giving to pay for what the church does and so we can contribute as we wish. When the finances are good, we don’t have to give as much and we can give to what we like or use.


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Perhaps an analogy will help. When my wife, Janet, and I moved to Midland many years ago, I took up golf. The local country club let clergy play for free on Thursdays, so that’s where I would play. In the process, I learned how a country club works.

The club hires a head pro, someone who knows the game of golf better than anyone else. He gives lessons to improve the members’ games; he stages tournaments and events; he keeps the course and club running well. And he hires a staff to help him, of course.

The club is run by a board of directors that supervises the head pro, staff, and club. The members pay dues for what they receive. If they don’t like something, they’ll say so and expect it to change. If it doesn’t, they stop paying for that or leave the club for another one. The club wants more members, of course, but only the kind who pay their dues and raise the stature of the club.

Does this sound at all like some modern churches?


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The church belongs to Jesus, not to the pastor. He is the audience of worship. The pastor is the servant-leader; the staff are ministers to help members find their ministries for the kingdom of God, not employees. And every member should be part of God’s family, whether they pay as many “dues” as we do or not.

Stewardship is not horizontal fundraising; it is the vertical commitment of our lives to God through our local family of faith.

We judge wealth by how much of God’s creation we possess. God judges wealth by how much of his creation we give.

By his standard, how wealthy are you?

How should we give?

Humbly: Jesus tells us, “Do not announce it with trumpets” (Matthew 6:2).

The Jews didn’t blow trumpets before they put in the offering. They announced their public fasts with trumpets; then the people


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would give when the crowds would most notice their generosity.

Such were “hypocrites,” the word means an actor on a stage, wearing a mask and playing a part.

Such already “have received their reward in full.” The words mean that they have their receipt, with no more payment to come. God cannot reward them in heaven, or on earth.

God tells us to give our money, our sacrificial tithes and offerings, for his glory and not our own.

Privately: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (v. 3).

In other words, don’t let anyone know what you have given.

Then “your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (v. 4). Give to the Lord, not to us. Give not to the church but through the church to God. Not so we will know, but so God will be pleased.


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Proportionally: “Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 16:17).

“According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work” (Ezra 2:69).

“The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea” (Acts 11:29).

“If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have” (2 Corinthians 8:12).

So long as our gift is a sacrifice, it is pleasing to God. Not the amount but the commitment is the issue with our Father.

Gratefully: “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

God finances his kingdom through the sacrificial faithfulness of his people. And he blesses those who trust him enough to receive what he will give them in return.

How will you bless God and his kingdom in your financial life?

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WHO DECIDED WHAT BOOKS SHOULD BE IN THE BIBLE?

My earliest experience with the Bible was leafing through an ancient King James Version my parents kept in the guest room.

The fountain-penned family tree in its first pages, its branches supporting names written in fanciful calligraphy, fascinated me. The printed thees and thous made no sense, the begats even less. I assumed the entire thing had been handed from God to man in black leather.


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Most people know better. They’ve heard somewhere along the way that some books were excluded from the Bible and wonder why.

Maybe a group of church officials decided the whole thing. Maybe there were books that told a different story than the one we have in our Bibles. Maybe there was a smoke-filled room somewhere.

The actual story is nowhere near that interesting.

How the Hebrew Scriptures came to be

Christians typically call this section the Old Testament, but those who wrote the New Testament didn’t.

When Paul, writing from death row in Rome, asked Timothy for his books and parchments (2 Timothy 4:13), he was asking for his copies of the only Bible he knew. Most scholars appropriately call these thirty-nine books the Hebrew Scriptures, in deference to the Jewish faith which they express.


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The Hebrew Bible was first divided into Law, Prophets, and Writings, the arrangement current in Jesus’ day (see Luke 24:44).

The Jews numbered the Scriptures as twenty-four books, combining Ezra/Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and the 12 Minor Prophets as “The Twelve.” These books were written and compiled over centuries of use.

According to Jewish tradition, a council of rabbis and scholars met at Jamnia on the Mediterranean Sea in AD 90 and again in AD 118. They finalized the list of books as we have them today, recognizing what their people had accepted as God’s word for centuries.

How the New Testament joined the Old

Eventually, the Christian movement began recording its faith and doctrines as well. The eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry were dying or growing old. Fraudulent claims were beginning to appear. Believers needed


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a canon (“rule”) by which to measure truth and defend the faith. The New Testament was the result.

Over time, four criteria were developed for accepting a book as inspired.

First, the book must have been written by an apostle or based on his eyewitness testimony.

Matthew the tax collector was a disciple of Jesus before he wrote his gospel, as was John.

Mark was an early missionary associate of Paul and was a spiritual son to Peter (1 Peter 5:13). Early Christians believed that he wrote his gospel based on the sermons and experiences Peter related to him.

Luke was a Gentile physician who joined Paul’s second missionary journey at Troas (note Acts 16:10, where Luke changes the narrative from “they” to “we”). He wrote his gospel and the book of Acts based on the eyewitness testimony of others (Luke 1:1–4).


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Paul’s letters came from an eyewitness to the risen Christ (cf. Acts 9:1–6), as did the letters of James (half-brother of Jesus), Peter, Jude (another half-brother of Jesus), and John.

This criteria alone excluded most of the books suggested for the canon.

Second, the book must possess merit and authority in its use.

Here it was easy to separate those writings which were inspired from those which were not.

For instance, The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ tells of a man changed into a mule by a bewitching spell but converted back to manhood when the infant Christ is put on his back for a ride (7:5–27).

In the same book, the boy Jesus causes clay birds and animals to come to life (ch. 15), stretches a throne his father had made too small (ch. 16), and takes the lives of boys who oppose him (19:19–24).


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It wasn’t hard to know that such books did not come from the Holy Spirit.

Third, a book must be accepted by the larger church, not just a particular congregation.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was an early instance of a letter that became “circular” in nature, i.e., read by churches across the faith. His other letters soon acquired such status.

By the mid-second century, only the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were accepted universally by the church, as quotations from the Christians of the era make clear. Others were not considered to be inspired by God.

Last, a book came to be approved by the decision of the church.

The so-called Muratorian Canon was the first list to convey the larger church’s opinion regarding accepted books of the New Testament canon. Compiled around AD 200, it represented the usage of the Roman


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church at the time. The list omits James, 1 and 2 Peter, 3 John, and Hebrews since its compiler was unsure of their authorship. All were soon included in later canons.

The list we have today was set forth by Athanasius in AD 367. His list was approved by church councils meeting at Hippo Regius in 393 and Carthage in 397.

These councils did not impose anything new upon the church. Rather, they codified what believers had already come to accept and use as the word of God.

By the time the councils approved the twenty-seven books of our New Testament, they had already served as the established companion to the Hebrew Scriptures for generations.

Conclusion

So, who decided what books should be in the Bible?

Ultimately, their Author.


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The same Holy Spirit who inspired the biblical revelation (2 Peter 1:20–21) led the Christian movement to those books he inspired.

Biblical authority is thus enhanced by discussing the canon. Contrary to some critics, the process of compiling the books of Scripture reflects their divine origin and supernatural transmission. It is nothing less than a miracle that a process so free of centralized control could produce such a clear consensus.

William Barclay speaks for a multitude of scholars on this subject: “To study the Canon of Scripture is not to come away with a lesser view of Scripture, but with a far greater view, for it is to see the unanswerable power of the word of God in action in the minds and hearts of men and women.”

You can know that the Bible you hold today is the book God means you to have.

He did, in fact, hand it to man, through man.


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Though the color of the cover is your choice.

WHAT IS BAPTISM? WHY DO CHURCHES

VIEW IT DIFFERENTLY?

In the early 1900s, a machinist at Ford Motor Company in Detroit had been stealing parts and tools from his company for years. Then he became a Christian and was baptized.

The morning after his baptism, he took all of the stolen parts and tools back to his boss. He explained his situation, his recent conversion and baptism, and asked for forgiveness.


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Such a response by an employee was without precedent. Mr. Ford was visiting a European plant at the time, but he was cabled concerning the details of this matter. His response was requested. Mr. Ford immediately returned a cable with his decision: “Dam up the Detroit River and baptize the entire city.”

Jesus went even further. In his Great Commission, he ordered his church to baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19). Why?

Over the years, I have spoken to thousands of people about this issue. Many of them wanted to join our church from a different background regarding the practice of baptism and they didn’t understand why this issue is so important.

Perhaps you’re asking the same question. Or perhaps you’ve been baptized in your church’s tradition but still have questions about your experience.

So let’s see why baptism matters.


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What is baptism?

The word baptize comes from a Greek word meaning to “dip” or “immerse.” The word was often used in the ancient world to describe the act of dipping a cup in a stream or washing clothing at a laundry. To baptize something is, therefore, literally to immerse it in water.

John the Baptist was the first person in the New Testament to baptize people. He immersed those who repented publicly from their sins and wanted to follow God in faith. Their baptism took place in the Jordan River as a witness to their community.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he did so with his baptism by John. Of course, he was not repenting of sin since he is the sinless Son of God. Rather, he was giving public witness to his faith in his Father and supporting John’s work of preaching and baptizing.

Later, Jesus commanded his disciples to continue this work of baptism: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,


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baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Baptism thus began with John and is commanded by Jesus Christ for us today.

Why should Christians be baptized?

Christian denominations vary widely in their understanding of baptism and its significance.

The Catholic tradition views baptism as the first sacrament children receive, a step by which they begin their journey in the Christian faith.

Some Protestant traditions similarly view infant baptism as an act of faith on the part of believing parents, a kind of New Testament circumcision.

Churches who baptize believers by immersion do so for the following reasons.


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First, they view baptism as an act of obedience.

Jesus commanded us to baptize every person who becomes his disciple. The early church followed this command very carefully, baptizing those who became Christians at Pentecost (Acts 2:41) and those who trusted Christ as a result of personal witnessing (Acts 8:38).

Baptism does not make us Christians, but it is a very important response to God’s call to obedience. And it is a call only believers can answer.

Second, baptism is an act of witness.

By baptism we tell others of our new life in Jesus Christ. Again, baptism does not create this life; the water does not wash away our sins, nor must we be baptized to be saved. Rather, baptism shows others that we have already received this salvation.

In the act of immersion, we are laid under water to symbolize the burial of the “old


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person” we were before trusting Christ as Lord. We are then raised out of the water to symbolize the resurrection of the “new person” we are now in Christ. This symbolism is best portrayed by the immersion of those who have trusted Jesus personally (see Romans 6:4–5).

Traditions that practice infant baptism do so to dedicate children to God upon the faith of their parents. However, the only baptisms described in the New Testament involved persons who had come to personal faith in Christ as Lord. And so churches that practice the immersion of Christians believe they are continuing the New Testament model.

The Baptist churches I have pastored explain to those who were baptized as infants that their immersion as a believer in no way invalidates the faith their parents demonstrated in baptizing their child. Rather, an immersion baptism completes their dedication as the person makes public his or her own faith commitment.


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Conclusion

Baptism is an important act of obedience, but it is not the essential requirement for salvation.

The thief on the cross at Jesus’ side, the moment he made Christ his Lord, was promised: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Though he could not be baptized, he could trust in Jesus. All who have followed his example, whatever their baptism tradition, are children of the same Father and members of the same family.

I often explain baptism as a wedding ring. Wearing such a ring does not make us married. Nor does the absence of a wedding ring prove that we are not married. Rather, a ring shows the world our marital status. It is a public symbol of a personal commitment.

So it is with our baptism as Christians: we tell the world that Jesus is our Lord, inviting others to join our faith. If those who witness our baptism trust Christ because we have, our baptism fulfills its most significant purpose, to the glory of God.

ABOUT THE DENISON FORUM

In 2009, Dr. Jim Denison co-founded Denison Ministries in Dallas, Texas, to encourage spiritual awakening while equipping believers to engage with the issues of the day.

Today, Denison Ministries reaches a worldwide audience through news discerned differently at DenisonForum.org, devotional experiences at First15.org, and trusted guidance for parents at ChristianParenting.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

DR. JIM DENISON is the author and founder of the Denison Forum. Through The Daily Article, his email newsletter and podcast that reaches a global audience, Dr. Denison guides readers to discern today’s news—biblically.

He is the author of multiple books and has taught on the philosophy of religion and apologetics at several seminaries. He is the Resident Scholar for Ethics with Baylor Scott & White Health, a Senior Fellow with the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, and a Senior Fellow for Global Studies at Dallas Baptist University’s Institute for Global Engagement.

Dr. Denison holds a Ph.D. and M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as a Doctor of Divinity from Dallas Baptist University. Prior to launching Denison Ministries, he pastored churches in Texas and Georgia. Jim and his wife, Janet, live in Dallas, Texas. They have two sons and four grandchildren.

BLAKE ATWOOD is the managing editor for the Denison Forum, as well as an author and ghostwriter.

He joined the Denison Forum staff full-time in February 2019 after having edited Dr. Denison’s The Daily Article every morning at 5 a.m. for the prior four years—the longest “interview process” he’s ever had.

He has been a freelance editor, a director of communications for a large church, and a proofreader for the Texas Senate. He graduated from Southwestern University with a B.A. in English.

He and his family live in Dallas, Texas, where he buys more books than he has time to read.

NOTES

P. 17 “An old political joke” Texas State Teachers Association, The Texas Outlook, 26 (1942): 49.

P. 20 “one of the Russian cosmonauts” Kimberly Benton, Life After Death: Fact or Fiction? (Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2004) 45.

P. 24 “John Owen, the great Puritan” Church of England Sunday School Institute, The Church-Worker, Vol. 1 (1882): 144.

P. 33 “The poet James Allan Francis” James Allan Francis, One Solitary Life (1963).

P. 52 “As Charles Spurgeon said” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary, “The Best Donation,” https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-best-donation#flipbook/.


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P. 53 “Nearly half of Jewish young people in America” Omri Nahmias and Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, “Trump signs executive order to fight an-tisemitism on US campuses,” The Je-rusalem Post, last modified December 12, 2019, https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Trump-ex-pected-to-issue-executive-or-der-against-antisemitism-on-cam-pus-610540.

P. 53 “88 percent of Jewish Americans” “AJC Survey of American Jews on Antisemitism in America,” AJC/Global Voice, https://www.ajc.org/AntisemitismSurvey2019.

P. 54 “anti-Semitic acts in the US” “Audit of Ant-Semitic Incidents: Year in Review 2017,” ADL, https://www.adl.org/media/11174/download.

P. 54 “American Jews Are Terrified” Emma Green, “American Jews Are Terrified,” The Atlantic, last modi-fied December 11, 2019, https://


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www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/12/jersey-city-kosher-market-jews/603445/.

P. 55 “global Jewish population” Aiden Pink, “Can You Guess The Top 10 Countries By Jewish Population?” Fast Forward, last modified Sep-tember 5, 2019, https://forward.com/fast-forward/430871/can-you-guess-the-top-10-countries-by-jew-ish-population/.

P. 55 “84 percent lived in Israel” Ben Sales, “America’s 7.5 millions Jews are older, whiter and more liberal than the country as a whole,” Jewish Telegraph Agency, last modified October 7, 2019, https://www.jta.org/2019/10/07/united-states/americas-7-5-million-jews-are-older-whiter-and-more-liberal-than-the-country-as-a-whole.

P. 77 “as C. S. Lewis did” Mogiv Team, “How Much Is Enough? C.S. Lewis’ One Rule For Generosity,” mogiv,


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https://www.mogiv.com/2016/04/how-much-is-enough-c-s-lewis-one-rule-for-generosity/.

P. 92 “William Barclay speaks” William Barclay, The Making of the Bible (Erworth Press and Abingdon Press: 1961).

P. 95 “a machinist at Ford Motor Com-pany” David Jeremiah, One Minute a Day (Nashville: Thomas Nelson: 2009) 67.

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