64 results found
Podcast: Answering Hard Questions about Predestination and Free Will (Andy Naselli)
Andy Naselli answers a few of the most common questions about the doctrine of predestination, including what the Bible really says about it and what impact this teaching may have on the idea of free will.
Jesus Said More about Hell Than Anyone in the Bible
The word wrath is important for understanding what Jesus meant by hell. Hell is not simply the natural consequence of rejecting God.
“How much will you lose if you follow Jesus?” That’s the devil’s favorite question; he has successfully used it more than any other to lead billions to hell.
Why Jesus Warns Us to Be Alert for His Second Coming
The appearing of Christ becomes a sudden trap not because it could happen any moment, but because the spiritually unseeing will be blind to Christ’s coming.
5 Misconceptions about Heaven and Hell (and 5 Truths)
The most common misconceptions about heaven and hell have to do with their nature and purpose. There are many false ideas about what they will be like, but the word of God gives us a clear picture.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Why 2 Peter and Jude Matter to You Today
In the midst of a world that often seems out of control, knowing our ultimate destiny is a source of great comfort and motivation to press on in the face of serious challenges and opposition to the gospel.
Does Singleness Waste My Sexuality?
There will be a time when there will be no more earthly marriage. Marriage, as we practice it now, will have served its purpose. Life then is a fulfillment of all that marriage now is meant to point to.
How to Pray with the End Times in Mind
Closely connected to end-time gatherings for the sake of encouraging each other not to grow cold in love, but to persevere in faith, is the summons to end-time praying.
What Must Happen before Jesus Returns?
We do not know how much time must elapse before Jesus comes. We err to say otherwise. But we may err in the other direction as well—presuming to think that he must not be near.
Revelation 5:8–12 portrays a similar scene, with multiplied thousands of voices singing of the worthiness of God and the Lamb. That is the song of heaven. I cannot wait to hear it.
What Did Jesus Teach about Resurrection?
Jesus's teachings affirmed a future resurrection for the righteous and the wicked, but he himself was raised in the middle of history as the firstfruits of the life that will be ours.
The crass references to hell we hear in everyday conversation shouldn’t dull the agonizing awareness all believers should have of the pains of hell.
Why Does the Apostle’s Creed Say That Jesus Descended into Hell?
Death has been called “the new obscenity,” the nasty thing which no polite person nowadays will talk about in public. But death, even when unmentionable, remains inescapable.
We’ll Be Truly Alive on Our Third Birthday
Some day, some way, my heart will stop, as sure as eggs are eggs, and that what the world will call my death-day will really be a birthday—the third in line.
Who Are the 144,000? (Revelation 7)
Who will escape the wrath of God at the final judgment? Only those who belong to God, those who are sealed by him, who are numbered by him.
What Does It Mean to Enter God’s Rest?
We are like the Israelites: When God gave them his Sabbaths of rest in a land of rest, he had more work to do to make them believe it than he had to overcome their enemies and obtain it for them.
The Theology We Claim versus the Theology We Live
Our hope is the glorification without which we cannot see the Christ who saved us. But believing in the Christian hope is one thing. Living as though that hope is real is another.
For the Christian, the Best Is Yet to Be
“The best is yet to be,” indeed, as the Christian poet Robert Browning wrote. God has a project. He is restoring his defaced images to the likeness of Christ.
8 Ways the Doctrine of Eternity Clarifies Our Values
If you want to know what you truly value, consider where you tend to invest your time, energy, gifts, and money.
The Blessing of God’s Presence
The most important blessing of the church’s new existence will be its similar experience of the immediate, palpable presence of God.
How Discipleship Yields Restoration
The Acts of the Apostles is basically an account of how the Holy Spirit transforms the earliest followers of Jesus into the restored people of God, the beginnings of God’s new creation.
Help! I’m Struggling with the Doctrine of Predestination
Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley
If you have struggled with this doctrine, you are not alone. Even Jonathan Edwards once wrestled with it before he became fully satisfied with it.
Heaven may not be our final home, but insofar as we are with the Lord, we will indeed be at home as we wait.
Jonathan Edwards makes three observations about heaven.
The realities of hell give us all the reasons in the world to persuade sinners to put their faith in the one who experienced hellish despair on the cross.
How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Jesus is not separable from the God whose wrath he faces on the cross, so he is not separable from us, if we but put our trust in him.
The Bible presents the greatest story ever told: the ultimate good-versus-evil storyline—the great cosmic battle between God and Satan.
What Did Jesus Teach about the Devil and Demons?
There is an enemy of God and humanity. That enemy needs to be known.
Podcast: Common Misconceptions about Heaven (Ian Smith)
Ian Smith discusses what the New Heavens and New Earth will be like when Jesus returns.