Yes. Church discipline is that unpleasant but sometimes necessary final process in maintaining purity among the people of God. It is a radical kind of churchwide accountability that says, “We cannot and will not allow you to continue to live in sin,” and “We will exert extreme pressure on you in order to get you to do what is right.” Continue reading SHOULD A CHURCH DISCIPLINE IT’S MEMBERS?
Various acts of sexual immorality especially being a harlot or whore.
Old Testament – Normally women are the subject of the Hebrew verb zanah, but in Num 25:1 “people began to play a harlot” (NASB). The clearest example is that of Tamar sitting on the roadway to entice Judah (Gen 38:24; Lev 21:9; Deut 22:21). Fornication meant being unfaithful to a marriage commitment (Judg 19:2). Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (FORNICATION)
ANTICHRIST- The antichrist is an adversary of the Messiah, used by Satan to oppose the work of God (2 Thess 2:9; Rev 13:12). Various terms in Scripture designate this individual, including “abomination of desolation” (Dan 12:11 Matt 24:15), “the beast” (Rev 13:1-8), “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thess 2:1-10), and “antichrist.” In the Greek, the prefix anti- means “against,” “opposite,” or “in the place of.” Appropriately named, the antichrist stands against Christ and operates contrary to Him by speaking lies and blasphemies and by persecuting God’s people. In addition, he seeks to stand in the place of Christ, garnering to himself the worship due to God alone.
Sex is such a strong instinct that it affects every other motivation and loyalty. Biologists are just now discovering how the sex drive governs social organization in animal species from monkeys to dolphins. All animals live in hierarchies, and those hierarchies govern who mate with whom. Sex affects everything. Continue reading WHY IS SEXUAL PURITY SO IMPORTANT “1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-8”
In three other of his epistles, Paul instructed believers to greet one another in this way (1 Corinthians 16:20: 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26). Thus, we can assume that the holy kiss (“kiss of charity,” 1 Peter 5:14) was practiced widely among the early New Testament churches. Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES (PAUL’S “HOLY” KISS)
Day is one of the units of time we use to mark life. Typically, we think of days as the time between sunup and sundown, followed by night. But right from the beginning, God has exercised his divine authority over time by defining days in an unexpected manner. In the account of creation in Genesis 1, six times the record repeats, “There was evening, then morning-the first day” (v5), changing only the number of the day of the week. In Continue reading SIGNS & SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE (DAY)
Habakkuk opens his short book with a question voiced many times by many people: Who’s listening to my prayers? Several psalms echo the same sentiment (see Psalm 6 and 10). Continue reading WHY DOES GOD MAKE US WAIT FOR THE ANSWERS TO OUR PRAYERS? (HABAKKUK 1:1)