What the Bible teaches about the Church—its origin, nature, mission, leadership, ordinances, and practices.
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01165. KJV-Only members turn up in most Bible-believing churches sooner or later, and how a pastor responds to them says a great deal about the health of the congregation. I want to be honest from the outset: I do not hold the KJV-Only position myself, and I think it rests on claims that do…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 1135. Women teaching and preaching generates more heat in contemporary Christianity than almost any other practical question I am asked, and I understand why. Positions range from full egalitarianism, where no ministry distinctions exist between men and women at all, to a strict complementarianism that some apply so broadly it silences women’s voices well…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 0028. Knowing which doctrines to divide over is one of the most important and most difficult judgements a believer ever has to make. Get it wrong in one direction and you will fracture fellowship over matters that should never have separated you. Get it wrong in the other and you will keep company with…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0027. Few questions expose the fault lines in the modern church as quickly as whether unity can exist without doctrinal agreement. On one side stand those who say doctrine divides while love unites, so we should keep doctrine to a minimum for the sake of getting along. On the other stand those who treat…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0025. Acts gives us a photograph of the very first Christian community in Jerusalem, taken just after the Day of Pentecost, and the early church devoted itself first of all to the apostles’ teaching. Three thousand people had been baptised in a single day. A small band of disciples had become a movement overnight….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 9. Doctrinal disagreement is not the end of fellowship, and I want to say that clearly at the outset because so many believers fear that it is. They imagine that to stay in true fellowship everyone must think identically about everything, and so they either paper over real differences or break off from anyone…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2. Does doctrine divide the church? You have probably heard it stated as though it were settled fact: doctrine divides, but love unites. The idea is that if we would only set aside our tiresome theological differences and concentrate on relationships, the church would be stronger and happier. It sounds gracious, even spiritual. But…
Reading Time: 16 minutesQuestion 10203. Let me tell you plainly why dispensationalism matters so much to me, because it is not a dry label that I wear but a way of reading the whole Bible that has shaped how I see God, how I read history, and where I rest my hope. Dispensationalism is, at its simplest, the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09045 The phrase “Messianic Jew” describes a Jewish person who has come to faith in Jesus (Yeshua) as the promised Messiah of Israel. This is not a modern invention or a fringe movement. It is, in fact, the oldest form of Christianity there is. Every apostle was a Messianic Jew. The entire early church…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09002 The word “church” is one of the most familiar in the Christian vocabulary, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. In popular usage it refers to a building, a denomination, or a vague spiritual community. The New Testament has something far more precise in mind. Understanding what the church actually is,…