“Faithful interpretation of Scripture invites and presupposes participation in the community brought into being by God’s redemptive action – the church.” – R. Hayes
Criteria for a Biblically-defined Church from Acts 11
The New Testament makes it clear that for one to be considered a Christian, that person must be recognized by a biblical church because there is no salvation outside of the Body (John 15:1-11; Colossians 1:24; 1 John 2:18-20) and because it is the church who holds the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:18-20; 18:18-20). […]
The Gospel Explained in Eight Truths
The Gospel is the good news of abundant life in Jesus Christ if we submit to Him as Lord before Savior in the relationship of covenant through His Church. 1. All People All people need God the Father’s abundant blessings of forgiveness and righteousness, earthly provision and purpose, eternal salvation and life. (Romans 3:10-12, 23; […]
23 Bible passages which teach the loss of . . . something . . .
The vast majority of Evangelical and Reformed theologians accept the doctrine which teaches that no man who has been sovereignly elected to salvation will be lost (John 6:39, 10:25-29, 17:12-15) as this doctrine is well-supported in Scripture. However, if not understood with biblical precision, this idea creates apparent inconsistencies with a large number of […]
Justification Rediscovered: History
One of the key factors in understanding the Bible’s teaching on Justification is history or historical context. In other words, words have meaning which are directly tied to and determined by the historical context in which they are communicated. This means, if we are going to understand what any of the given biblical authors are […]
Sound Gospel: Abundant Life in Jesus Who Saves
Humanity loves her heroes. We write about them, sing songs about them, and even fantasize about being them. And that because, at our deepest sociological level, we all realize we need them. This means also that we realize there are problems in this world which are bigger than our abilities or resources. And such is […]
4 Critical Keys to Understand Your Bible
I. Works of the law are clean laws versus commands. A. Within Reformed thinking, theologians have historically held to a tripartite distinction/division of the OT law. In other words they have broken it into three categories: 1. Ceremonial: laws pertaining to temple ceremony, sacrifice and duties of the priests. 2. Civil: laws pertaining to commerce, […]
10 Truths Taught by the Clothing Metaphor in Scripture
A metaphor is used to illustrate unfamiliar ideas through the means of familiar objects and Scripture often uses the common object of clothing as a picture of man’s standing before God. There are scores of instances where Scripture uses the metaphor of clothing in order to picture one’s standing before God. We find instances of […]
So, you call yourself a Christian: 10 Legitimate Evidences of True Faith
In our last article here at Sound Church, we highlighted 10 Illegitimate Evidences of True Faith. After focusing on many of the false evidences of the Christian faith, it would hardly be helpful to allow the discussion to end there. So, today, we are listing the characteristics that will be true of your life if […]
Prayer According to Jesus
Here is the outline of a recent message presented by Pastor Scott at Christ Covenant Church’s annual July camping trip. The text is the Disciple’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:5-15: And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, […]
So, you call yourself a Christian: 10 Illegitimate Evidences of True Faith
Pollsters tell us that 75 to 80 percent of Americans will answer “yes” when asked whether or not they consider themselves to be Christians. On that basis, we can reasonably assume that you, the reader of this article probably identify yourself as some kind of Christian. But there is a follow-up question that seems to […]
Justification Rediscovered Affirmations
As a catalyst for expediting the material Christ Covenant Church’s study of justification and as a hermeneutical and theological control for future discussions and criticisms, we assume the following ten statements to be well supported in the biblical text:
Imputation: justification through the righteous act of Christ
Modern Reformed theologians such as RC Sproul, Wayne Grudem and others teach that in order for the believer to be justified, he must be imputed with both the righteous life of Christ (His active obedience) as well as the sacrificial death of Christ (His passive obedience). This teaching, sometimes called “double imputation” or the doctrine […]
The Church as God’s foundational institution P. 2
Though the Scripture is clear that the church is God’s foundational institution, there are still many who insist on believing that this role was given to the family. While it is not my intention to “sling mud” at those who make such claims, the following is important to consider with an objective mind and an […]
Imputation: Mutation
This is the first article in a small series dealing with the doctrine of imputation, the term “the righteousness of Christ” and the doctrine of active obedience. Recently we here at Christ Covenant Church realized that there exists a bit of confusion surrounding the term “double imputation.” For some, the term refers to imputation of […]
17th Century Antinomian Controversy
One of the major threats faced by the biblical Gospel in our day is that of antinomianism (against law). This is a threat that was foretold by many of the biblical authors, for instance, the Apostle Peter wrote:
The Church as God’s foundational institution P.1
The spiritual and moral fabric of our world is disintegrating. As a result, Christians are looking for solutions and one solution subscribed to by many Christians is to attempt to heal our world by restoring the integrity of the family and its role in society. With the divorce rate among Christians as high as it is among […]
“Life Reformed” means that the Gospel starts with life
The term “life reformed” describes Christ Covenant Church. The reason this term is so important is because the Gospel itself begins with a presentation of Life. Listen and watch as Pastor Scott discusses how the designation being “life reformed” will make our presentations of the Gospel more biblical, more hopeful and more complete:
Women in positions of spiritual leadership Part 2: Should we separate?
In our last post on this topic, we established why a woman who functions in a position of spiritual authority over men in the local church is serious sin, is a denial of male headship, is a hindrance to the gospel and cancels God’s pattern of spiritual leadership. I concluded the article by stating that […]
What is the true Gospel?
The message of the Gospel is the good news of abundant life in Jesus Christ if we submit to Him as Lord before Savior in the relationship of covenant. Fallen and depraved men who deserve only death can have Life through Jesus Christ. He said, “I came that they may have life and have […]