This year is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Both Protestants and Catholics are asking: What relevance, if any, do controversies from hundreds of years ago have on us today? Some would say, “Let the past be the past and let’s concentrate on the present.”
But I maintain that the better we understand our past, the better we understand ourselves. Studying the Reformation is like finding a long lost relative who gives you insight into your family history and helps you understand who you are today. Whether we realize it or not, all of us have been influenced by …
Someone has said that the disciples were gazing when they should have been going. They were now commissioned to go first to the upper room until Pentecost, which means fifty days; that is, fifty days after the Passover was the feast of Pentecost. The real Passover had come at last, “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” had been slain, and fifty days from His slaying the Holy Spirit came with the real feast of Pentecost, making His advent into this world, blessed Third Person of the Trinity. When He came, what Jesus said to …
In order to see just what the incarnation is, you must turn to Galatians 4:4–7, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ,” a joint heir.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”—Isaiah 53:6
Notice how we went astray: “We have turned every one to his own way.” That is sin. Your way is not God’s way. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Those are God’s words. Your way is sin, and that is the reason He tells you that you went astray; “All we like sheep have …
The Controversial Issue of Christian Nationalism: Why the Cross Must Be Our Central Message
During this election year, a phrase frequently discussed, with both pros and cons, is “Christian nationalism.” There are those who warn about its dangers, and others who tell us Christians should be involved in politics and that we need more of it.
What do we make of this controversy? The phrase is variously defined with each definition having many different shades of meaning. In general, Christian nationalism means Christianity is so united with the state or political party that the Gospel is either completely eclipsed or, …
(An address to Bible students, July 3, 1914, not corrected by the author).
What is the best thing I could say to you supposing it were the only time I had in my life of addressing you? I think that probably I can help you that way best, although I am not quite sure you are all in that condition of mind to receive it, because naturally you are exercising the intellectual side of your nature, and it is rather difficult therefore to turn from the use of the intellect to the use of that subconscious—that subliminal self that the …
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” —John 1:6
This man came to make the most important announcement ever made to Earth: the announcement of the fact that God is coming down to the earth, that the kingdom of heaven is to be established among men—it is to be an actual kingdom with a real king, this king to be the Messiah, King of the Jews, King of every nation,—God himself made manifest among men.
We could not direct our attention to any man who could give us more light on our calling as members of …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 21, 1920, Revelation 7:9–17)
“And palms in their hands.” Let us look at another scene of palms where Jesus rode into Jerusalem as king of the Jews, to be rejected. The whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” As this scene the multitude cast their garments on the ground for the ass on which Jesus was seated to walk upon, …
Suffering Is Universal: What will your response be?
I think it’s fair to say that millions of people have turned against God, retreating into atheism, because of events such as the Holocaust. And despite its horrors, other atrocities, equally as evil, have occurred since then, though perhaps on a smaller scale. The historian Toynbee is reportedly quoted as saying, “Blessed is the nation that has no history, for history is the record of war.” The evils have been terrifying, heart-wrenching, and persistent.
Let us also consider so-called natural evils such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and famines. Watching neglected children starving to …
Annual missionary sermon delivered at The Moody Church, Sunday morning, April 26, 1925 by the Rev. Charles E. Hurlburt, General Director of the Africa Inland Mission.
Has a peace filled your heart in answer to the prayer of thousands of God’s dear children—those who have spiritual hearing? Have you caught the sound of the stately steppings of the Master Himself moving about the earth? The measure of the blessing that shall come to The Moody Church, to Chicago, to Africa, to China, to India, and to every part of the earth depends upon the vision that you and I shall …
