DISCIPLE

Believe it or not, not all love is good, and love certainly doesn't make everything ok. Some loves are mistaken, misguided, and some are even evil. The author, Randal Amos, invites us to meditate on and learn from some aspects of true Christlike love. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This short article is a consideration of some of the features of the love of the Lord Jesus. Truthful love, John 18. 37; 1 Cor. 13. 6  Love without truth is deceitful and hurtful. We might tell a person to ‘have a nice trip’ without revealing the dangerous truth that a bridge is out. This is friendly but is not caring love. The Lord Jesus Christ never sacrificed truth on the altar of love but sacrificed Himself in love for the truth of God’s judgement. He came ‘to bear witness unto the truth’ – and was crucified for it. Paul wrote, ‘[love] . . . rejoices in the truth’. Legal love, Hos. 12. 6 ESV; Eph. 5. 2; Rom. 3. 26 Love without justice destro...

by R. E. Harlow It is commonly believed that the Arab peoples are descendants of Ishmael, about whom Abraham prayed, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee."   If so, it is a monumental example of the far-reaching consequences of one little slip on the part of a believer, in this case the father of the faithful.     Not all Arabs are devotees of the prophet Muhammad, but the vast majority are, and enthusiastically so. They are taught that their prophet is the answer to the promise of the Lord Jesus to send another Comforter. The word another (Gr. allos ) implies one like Jesus, but dissimilarities between Muhammad and Jesus are enormous.     Neither the Koran nor any other book contains multiple prophecies about the coming of Muhammad, while the Old Testament foretells minute details about Christ. Muhammad supposedly had a great revelation and found out that he was supposed to be a prophet.  The Lord Jesus knew He was the eternal Son of ...

"All Truth Is God's Truth"?* So Says "Christian" Psychology Psychology pretends to be the study of the soul; in fact, it has become known as the cure of souls. But is not the "cure of souls" the domain of the Bible? God is the only One who can take care of man's spiritual problems, and in fact, He has done so. The Bible claims that God has given to the believer "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Pe. 2:3). We don't need help from Freud , et al. .      "Christian" psychology says that we do need such help, that the Bible doesn't have all the answers we need, that prayer, repentance, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and other Biblical remedies are not enough because there are psychological problems that require something more. Does it not seem a bit odd that God has apparently inspired the likes of Freud, Jung, Maslow, Rogers, et al. , with the "truths" unknown to the apostles and...

by Randy Amos, Rochester, NY      Regardless of the amount on the tag, a price tag indicates the owner's willingness to sell the item. Do we put price tags on certain truths in God's Word? Are we willing to give them up if the "price is right?"     Many Christians today put the truths revealed in God's Word into one of two categories. First, there are fundamental truths. Those upon which the Christian faith is built. Truths such as; God, the person of Christ, the Bible, and the Gospel of Christ that saves by faith alone. Second, there are secondary truths. These truths are viewed as "non-essential” since the faith does not rise or fall with them. Truths such as believer's baptism, church government, the role of men and women in the church, Christian ethics, and holy living might be placed in this category.     We could also add a third category, that of personal convictions. Convictions that are based on principles found i...

  Bending the Bible It is obeying the Scriptures which really is the watershed. We can say the Bible is without mistake and still destroy it if we bend the Scriptures by our lives to fit this culture instead of judging the culture by Scripture. And today we see this happening more and more as in the case of easy divorce and remarriage. The no-fault divorce laws in many of our states are not really based upon humanitarianism or kindness. They are based on the view that there is no right and wrong. And thus all is relative, which means that society and the individual act on what seems to give them happiness for the moment.     Do we not have to agree that even much of the evangelical church, which claims to believe that the Bible is without error, has bent Scripture on the point of divorce to conform to the culture rather than the Scripture judging the present viewpoints of the fallen culture? Do we not have to agree that in the area of divorce and remarriage ...