Ironworks

            Does almost count? There are a good amount of people that would think so. If you have ever had employees that you have managed, you would be familiar with this idea first hand. Over the years, I had many employees that were almost on time. Perhaps the most telling was a young man who worked for me whom we will call Pete. Pete was one of my line cooks who was scheduled quite often to open. I enjoyed working with Pete, he was a hard worker, and fun to be around. When it came to opening, the company policy was that there must be at least two employees present to enter the building. Pete would not show up on time, but was consistently 5-10 minutes late. He would even at times say, “I almost made it on time.” I tried all sorts of approaches to getting him to show up on time, but he rarely was there at 8, if ever. Our conversations usually ended with “sure boss, I’ll try.” I suppose he was almost persuaded. However, does almost count? Why do ...

          How do I know if I am right with God? The question is simple, but it requires us to put some effort into figuring out an answer.  Since this takes effort, many people will ask the question and never look for the answer. This is an extremely dangerous way to live as you may be blissfully ignorant, but being blissfully ignorant of God’s word can lead to terrible eternal consequences. So, let’s answer the question in short. How do we know if we are right with God? To answer this we should ask ourselves some simple questions. Have You Heard?              The first step in the process is hearing the word of God. I know this seems like taking a step back from answering our serious question, but we have to address the fact that we need to hear God’s word. Logically speaking it all starts here, but as we move forward we need to continue to hear God’s word.           Romans 10:17 (K...

     Who limits the power of Christ? Who limits the power of Almighty God? I know who tries, anyone who would teach a doctrine of limited atonement. This, like every other element of Calvinism, is dependent upon the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity, which we have dismantled previously. We still must prove why this is not a Biblical doctrine in our ongoing study.  What is Limited Atonement?      First, we want to allow those who espouse such to properly define their doctrine. David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas in their book The Five Points of Calvinism, Defined, Defended, Documented, said, "Christ's redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary sacrifice of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners.” As with all things, we want to test the comments of men against the Word of God, and we will always defer to the latter in all matters of faith and prac...

     Unconditional election is the doctrine held by many individuals in the religious world. “Unconditional election means that God does not foresee an action or condition on our part that induces Him to save us. Rather, election rests on God's sovereign decision to save whomever He is pleased to save.” Simply put, the doctrine of Unconditional Election states that you simply do not have to do anything to be saved. There is no command you have to follow, no submission to God’s will. Rather, God takes your free will from you and forces you to be His child.       Edwin Palmer, who served as executive secretary on the NIV Committee on Bible Translation, and was coordinator of all translation on the NIV said. “Foreordination means God’s sovereign plan, whereby He decides all that is to happen in the universe. Nothing in this world happens by chance. God is in back of everything. He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen. He is not sitting o...

And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah. And the king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant. 2 Kings 23:1-3      King Josiah of Judah was an encouragement to all who serve the Lord. His heart and actions are those which push us to love the Lord our God, both in word and deed. 2 Kings 22:8-13 details the circumstances that led to the restoration of Old Testament Judaism in ...