Scripture uses the division between light and darkness, which literally, physically happened in the Creation, to bring out what may be the most important division in the world today. This is brought out clearly in the first chapter of John. “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:5) Here we have the contrast between light and darkness. The light, which is life in Jesus according to verse 4, is separate from the darkness, but the darkness does not recognize the light.

Genesis 1 tells the story of how God created the world. This, the first chapter in the Bible, lays a foundation for what will come after. If we take God’s creation out of our doctrine, we have opened ourselves to doubts about the authority of the Bible, because this truth is stated clearly in Scripture, and if it can’t be understood, it’s probably impossible to understand many other important truths which are not stated in clearer language. When we try to build a house without a foundation, we are making an awful mistake.

Forgiveness is essential to the Christian. “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:26) When we forgive someone, we give up our bitterness and our desire to get even. In our heart, we release the person who hurt us. “To forgive is to grant pardon without harboring resentment.” (American Heritage Dictionary) When we consider the entire scope of the Bible, we can realize that when we don’t forgive other people, we are the ones who are being “unfair.” This is because, due to our own sins, we owe a debt to God that all the offenses in the world will not be sufficient punishment for—we deserve every offense that people give to us, and it’s not “fair” at all for us to be upset about something that we truly deserved.

It’s interesting to me to see how, for some false doctrines, “evidences” which have already been proven false are still being widely taught as proof of the doctrine. And people believe them, even though true data would not be hard to find. An example of this is what could be labeled the “doctrine of crowns,” which states that ungodly people can reach heaven (provided they believe a few necessary facts); however, they will receive fewer “crowns,” which are given to the saints to cast at the feet of Jesus.

Some believe that the judgment told about in Matthew 25 is a judgment of nations; however, the passage and its context give ample evidence that it is a judgment of individuals. First, notice the passages preceding this account—they are definitely speaking about individuals, and it seems as if Christ is giving this account to further expound on those sections.

Christians all around the world have a common danger—apostasy. The devil is always working to keep us from making good on our Christian commitment, and the authors of the Bible warn us over and over not to fall away. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Hebrews 4:11)

Matthew 4 records an interesting element of the devil’s assault on Christ. “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Matthew 4:5-7) This temptation happened on an exalted part of the temple itself, the building that was supposed to be for the worship of God. In this case, however, the devil ended up trying to use it to further his cause.

When I first started this website, I wrote quite a bit specifically about revival, although I haven’t done it so much lately. In this article I would like to return our thoughts to this important topic.

The first thing that I want to point out, something that we often fail to recognize, is that revival is always focused on God. We can have miracles, tongues, excitement, study, a large show of hands, or any of a large number of other things, but if God is not being exalted, we don’t have revival, because our Christian faith centers around God, not man. The gospel of God brings Him glory. “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (I Peter 2:12)

This article is part of a series.

In the previous articles in this series, I’ve covered how the New Testament cannot be taken at face value, and still justify the idea of a Christian nation; it does not conform to the idea of Christians improving politics. In this article I want to explore further along these same lines.

Let’s look first at Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:38-45) These commands basically assume that Christians will not be involved in politics, because these commands can hardly produce an effective government, which is “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” (Romans 13:4)

The author of Hebrews used the Old Testament story of Esau to provide a powerful warning for our day when he said, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” (Hebrews 12:14-17) The story of Esau’s birthright gives us a dramatic word of caution, showing us the awful results of failure to esteem spiritual treasures at their true value.

When this passage describes Esau as profane, the word doesn’t necessarily have the connotation of cursing and swearing that it has today. But the passage seems to make it clear that the word refers to the lack of respect Esau gave to the value of his birthright.