Download or read book How Faith Works Rescuing the Biblical Gospel from Contemporary Evangelicalism written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2008-08-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the Biblical Gospel? Are you content to call yourself an “Evangelical?” Is the Evangelical Gospel the same Gospel of the Protestant Reformation? Is an Evangelical today the same as an evangelical during the time of Luther, Calvin or the Puritans? If the magisterial Reformers suddenly walked into your church today, would they be pleased with the Gospel that is being preached from its pulpit? These questions are not insignificant. It is of eternal importance to have a sound view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. Today evangelicalism is equated with Arminianism, or some type of watered down Arminianism. But Arminianism is not the Gospel no matter what form it comes in. So asking, “What does it mean to believe the Gospel?” is of grave importance. How is a person saved by the work of Jesus Christ? How does true “Gospel Faith” actually work? Does it “work” at all? Contemporary Christendom has been thrown into theological confusion in recent decades and there is a need to rescue the Biblical Gospel from the errors plaguing the church today. This book exists to correct some of those views and explain the basics of true Reformed Theology. It presents a high standard of believing what God truly says about salvation and explores how faith works in believing the Biblical Gospel contained in the pages of Scripture.
Download or read book How Faith Works written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by . This book was released on 2008-05-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the Biblical Gospel? Are you content to call yourself an "Evangelical?" Is the Evangelical Gospel the same Gospel of the Protestant Reformation? Is an Evangelical today the same as an evangelical during the time of Luther, Calvin or the Puritans? If the magisterial Reformers suddenly walked into your church today, would they be pleased with the Gospel that is being preached from its pulpit? These questions are not insignificant. It is of eternal importance to have a sound view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. Today evangelicalism is equated with Arminianism, or some type of watered down Arminianism. But Arminianism is not the Gospel no matter what form it comes in. So asking, "What does it mean to believe the Gospel?" is of grave importance. How is a person saved by the work of Jesus Christ? How does true "Gospel Faith" actually work? Does it "work" at all? Contemporary Christendom has been thrown into theological confusion in recent decades and there is a need to rescue the Biblical Gospel from the errors plaguing the church today. This book exists to correct some of those views and explain the basics of true Reformed Theology. It presents a high standard of believing what God truly says about salvation and explores how faith works in believing the Biblical Gospel contained in the pages of Scripture.
Download or read book How Faith Works written by and published by . This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the Biblical Gospel? Are you content to call yourself an "Evangelical?" Is the Evangelical Gospel the same Gospel of the Protestant Reformation? Is an Evangelical today the same as an evangelical during the time of Luther, Calvin or the Puritans? If the magisterial Reformers suddenly walked into your church today, would they be pleased with the Gospel that is being preached from its pulpit? These questions are not insignificant. It is of eternal importance to have a sound view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible. Today evangelicalism is equated with Arminianism, or some type of watered down Arminianism. But Arminianism is not the Gospel no matter what form it comes in. So asking, "What does it mean to believe the Gospel?" is of grave importance. How is a person saved by the work of Jesus Christ? How does true "Gospel Faith" actually work? Does it "work" at all? Contemporary Christendom has been thrown into theological confusion in recent decades and there is a need to rescue the Biblical Gospel from the errors plaguing the church today. This book exists to correct some of those views and explain the basics of true Reformed Theology. It presents a high standard of believing what God truly says about salvation and explores how faith works in believing the Biblical Gospel contained in the pages of Scripture. C. Matthew McMahon is an American Calvinist Reformed theologian and adjunct professor at Whitefield Theological Seminary. He is the founder and chairman of A Puritan's Mind, an internet hub and center for students of the Bible concerning Reformed Theology and Covenant Theology. He is also the founder of Puritan Publications which publishes Reformed and Puritan works from the 17th century.
Download or read book Christ Commanding His Coronavirus to Covenant Breakers written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work expounds on Scripture, and outlines, from a biblical point of view, why Christ has sent his coronavirus to covenant breakers in his church. The thesis is that the world-wide virus (and other calamities which are building and exploding in our day) are here primarily for Christ’s church; his disobedient, covenant breaking church. This is a difficult and saddening time for many people. At the time this work was written, almost 689,000 people have died worldwide from the coronavirus, (158,000 in the US) and the Lord is adding more and more calamity to our country on top of the horrors of prolonged and disease-ridden death. All of it is calamity upon calamity. It’s actually “calamity” that God promises his covenant breaking church if they do not repent. What will the church do in a time like this? Since the calamity is growing and not subsiding, it doesn’t seem like the church is doing much of anything collectively to stop the plague by way of reform, much less those things that have not layered on top of that. The church needs to repent of its idolatry, its lack of scriptural precision, its confessional dismissiveness, its abominable worldliness in the sanctuary of God, and the dishonor they are continually bringing King Jesus, the one they "profess" to serve. God deals very harshly yet tenderly with his people when they break covenant with him. Taken from Leviticus 26, this work expounds and describes the following: that pestilence is a sign from Christ to his church, Christ’s remedies against the plague are sovereign prescriptions he alone commands, Christian humility is needed during times of occasional repentance (and what occasional repentance is), humility in prayer and fasting with godly zeal is required, what the nature of Christ’s afflicting providences are, and a number of other subjects related to the plague, especially if the church does not repent, that they are daring Christ to do his worst against them in their spiritual indifference.
Download or read book Salvation by Faith written by Hyonam Kim and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The doctrines of covenant, faith, and the order of salvation are crucial components of early modern Reformed soteriology. In seventeenth-century England, these three major doctrines of Reformed theology, which had been taken over undeveloped from the Reformers, took a mature shape, but aroused controversies among diverse Protestant groups. Modern historical scholarship on Reformed orthodoxy has produced little significant research that deals with these doctrines synthetically. This examination explores the broader role of faith in relation to these two significant doctrines for salvation in the early modern Reformed theology, with specific reference to the thought of Thomas Goodwin. To this end, Hyo-Nam Kim examines Goodwin's life to review his religious experience and to understand his socio-theological context. Goodwin's soteriology was sharpened by his battles on two fronts: The first is the threat of Arminian, Neonomian, and Socinian soteriologies that tended to place meritorious value on faith and on human acts. The second is the Antinomian errors that undervalued faith and human responsibility. Goodwin regarded faith as a key concept for his soteriology. Faith plays a central role in the covenant theology not only because a lack of faith was the immediate cause of breaking the covenant of works, but because saving faith was ordained in the covenant of redemption, and actually functions in the covenant of grace, as the instrument and a condition for the recovery of the relationship of mankind with God. Examination of Goodwin's ordo salutis provides specific insight into the place and function of faith in the covenant of grace since each element of an ordo salutis refers to the blessings prepared for the elect to be finally saved. Together with the role of faith in Goodwin's covenant theology, therefore, the reconstruction of Goodwin's ordo salutis and the close examination of the role of faith in each blessing confirm that although faith may be said to be both an instrument and a condition for salvation, faith is the perfect instrument both for making salvation totally God's gracious work, and for showing that the elect are not passive objects in the covenant.
Download or read book Joseph s Resolve and the Unreasonableness of Sinning Against God written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest depictions of God’s providence in Scripture is the historical narrative of Joseph, who was sold into slavery, and worked under Potiphar, the chief steward of Pharaoh. Within the course of this narrative, while Joseph is in his house, Potiphar’s wife comes to him many times to lure him off to sin in one of the most bold and forthright temptations to be recorded anywhere in the Bible. She had longing, wandering eyes and comes to tempt him, assaulting him, “day by day,” constantly, and audaciously. Joseph’s reaction to this wicked assault is an instant refusal to the temptation. “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). What biblical directives can be found in this amazing statement of holiness and godliness? From this one text McMahon meticulously explains how Joseph’s victory over temptation against Potiphar’s wife can be used by the believer today for their own victory to the glory of Jesus Christ. Christians need to be prepared to deal with temptation in a manner in which they will be victorious in the power of Christ’s Spirit. But they can only do this if they understand what Joseph understood in regards to God, temptation and the heinous nature of sin. He covers such topics as: the great evil of sin, the relationship between sin and God’s holiness, how to live faithfully before God’s omniscience and omnipresence, the nature and character of temptation, what it means to resist temptations, how holy fear aids the Christian in light of temptation, what the Spirit works in a Christian motioning them to holiness, how one can cultivate a sensitivity to the Spirit’s work, the inconsistency in sinning against God, how usefulness in God’s kingdom is linked to holiness, the power of Christ’s Gospel as the full remedy to temptation and sin, as well as a number of other important considerations. (He also includes a study on the “hedge of protection” that is mentioned in Job 1:10 as an appendix to the work.) This book faithfully explains and applies Genesis 39:9 demonstrating Joseph’s godly resolve and the unreasonableness of sinning against God. Here you will find what steps you can take, following devout Joseph, to keep yourself from falling into sin through the craftiness of temptation, that you may bring the most glory to Jesus Christ in your walk before God.
Download or read book Balancing the Christian Life written by Charles C. Ryrie and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 1994-10-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GENUINE AND WHOLESOME SPIRITUALITY This is the goal of all Christian living. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Perhaps the principle may be, but living by the principle is another matter altogether. In Balancing the Christian Life, Charles Ryrie reminds you that 'the Bible must be the guide and test for all our experiences in the spiritual life ...and if any experience fails to pass that test, it must be discarded.' He warns that 'an unbalanced application of the doctrines related to spirituality will result in an unbalanced Christian life.' Ryrie examines numerous key issues of spirituality, including The old and the new life Sanctification Using your gifts Routine faithfulness Wiles of the Devil Temptation Confessing and forgiving For more than 25 years, Balancing the Christian Life has been changing lives worldwide. Take time to read this classic study--and allow it to change yours.
Download or read book Putting Amazing Back Into Grace written by Michael Horton and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading Reformed voice offers a revised and updated edition of his landmark publication about the freeing message of saving grace.
Download or read book Salvation by Allegiance Alone written by Matthew W. Bates and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are saved by faith when we trust that Jesus died for our sins. This is the gospel, or so we are taught. But what is faith? And does this accurately summarize the gospel? Because faith is frequently misunderstood and the climax of the gospel misidentified, the gospel's full power remains untapped. While offering a fresh proposal for what faith means within a biblical theology of salvation, Matthew Bates presses the church toward a new precision: we are saved solely by allegiance to Jesus the king. Instead of faith alone, Christians must speak about salvation by allegiance alone. The book includes discussion questions for students, pastors, and church groups and a foreword by Scot McKnight.
Download or read book Practical Observations on the Lord s Supper written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2024-05-20 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Practical Observations on the Lord's Supper" offers an in-depth exploration into the significant spiritual act of participating in the Lord’s Supper, going beyond mere ritual to reveal a deep, spiritual communion with Christ. This book does not engage in theological debates or critique differing perspectives; instead, it focuses on the experiential aspects of the Supper, emphasizing the personal and communal relationship with Christ that is nurtured through this sacred practice. McMahon explores the essence of the Lord's Supper, presenting it as more than just a ceremonial partaking of bread and wine; more than a memorial. It is depicted as an intimate dialogue with Christ, a moment of joyful and comforting communion that has the potential to elevate the believer's spiritual life. McMahon explains the Apostle Paul’s concept of "worthy participation," drawing from 1 Corinthians 11, to highlight how such engagement with the Supper can lead to a spiritual exchange of divine grace and blessings. Through participation in the Lord's Supper, believers are invited to a deeper understanding and connection with Christ. It is an occasion for Christ to impart His spiritual grace, fostering the believer's sanctification and growth in faith. The Supper is portrayed as a pivotal expression of fellowship with Christ, allowing believers to partake in His benefits and merits and by faith, grow in their walk before him. This work encourages readers to reflect on their personal approach to the Lord's Supper, urging them to seek a more meaningful and enriching experience that strengthens their bond with Christ. It is a call to recognize the Supper as a vital expression of spiritual fellowship, a sacred sign of unity with Christ that demands reverence and thoughtful engagement. "Practical Observations on the Lord's Supper" is an essential read for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of this central Christian sacrament and to enhance their spiritual journey through a more purposeful and fulfilling participation in the Lord’s Supper.
Download or read book Historical Theology Made Easy written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2012-09-05 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work on historical theology follows key Christian beliefs chronologically discussing the most important movements and doctrinal developments for theology according to their historical appearance. Historical Theology Made Easy offers students of the Bible the opportunity to study the historical development of theology according to God's providence throughout the history of the Christian church. This approach allows readers to concentrate practically on the development of Christian teachings and their formulation in the early church, through the Middle Ages, Reformation, post-Reformation and into the modern period. This book includes key primary sources citing quotes from Iranaeus, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, the Puritans and others. It makes historical theology, which is often overwhelming, easy to follow.
Download or read book The Gospel According to Jesus written by John MacArthur and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first edition of The Gospel According to Jesus won wide acclaim in confronting the "easy-believism" that has characterized some quarters in evangelical ChristiaOver the past 50 years, a handful of books have become true classics, revered world-wide for their crystal-clear presentation of the Gospel and lauded for their contribution to the Christian faith. These extraordinary books are read, re-read, and discussed in churches, Bible study groups, and homes everywhere. John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus is one of those books. In The Gospel According to Jesus, MacArthur tackles the idea of "easy believism," challenging Christians to re-evaluate their commitment to Christ by examining their fruits. MacArthur asks, "What does it really mean to be saved?" He urges readers to understand that their conversion was more than a mere point in time, that, by definition, it includes a lifetime of obediently walking with Jesus as Lord. This 20th Anniversary edition of MacArthur's provocative, Scripture-based book contains one new chapter and is further revised to provide Christians in the 21st century a fresh perspective on the intrinsic relationship between faith and works, clearly revealing why Jesus is both Savior and Lord to all who believe. nity. This expanded edition deepens the debate over "lordship salvation" and the biblical understanding of faith and works in adding a new chapter.
Download or read book Unmasking Self Flattery in the Church written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2024-02-02 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-deception is inherent in everyone, even born-again Christians, those who have much biblical light and knowledge. And whatever degree of holiness they are currently at, they are satisfied with where they are. In this satisfaction, they often flatter themselves, believing that God is as pleased with them as they are of themselves. Many people in the church flatter themselves, believing they have discovered an easier path in the Christian walk, and in the eternal salvation which brings them to heaven, than Paul was aware of. They assume they will achieve victory and receive the crown not by battling and mortifying their own sins, but by deluding themselves into thinking they are something rather than nothing and engaging in cleverly crafted self-talk full of gracious words and empty persuasiveness. This only serves to disguise their own hypocrisy and unfaithfulness to Christ’s covenant, leading to the deception and ruin of themselves, and even other people they infect. The Christian church is filled with people like this. Are you one of them? Self-flattery is a sin against the ninth commandment which must be unmasked. In this work, McMahon seeks to uncover this very pervasive sin, showing what self-flattery is, how one comes to flatter themselves in their daily walk, and the motives to shun self-flattery in order to mortify it by the power of the Spirit. People often like to hear from the preacher, just tell me Jesus loves me and leave it at that. This delusion is the cornerstone of a self-flattering person. People always say, “I’m a Christian!” The question revolves around whether they act like it as well; do they have a life answerable to the profession they make when they say it? Or are they hiding behind the mask of smooth words they tell themselves about their spiritual condition?
Download or read book Rescuing Jesus written by Deborah Jian Lee and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside look at the young, diverse, and progressive Christians who are transforming the evangelical movement Deborah Jian Lee left the evangelical world because she was frustrated by its conservative politics. But over the years, she noticed how evangelical culture and politics were changing—and moving in a more progressive direction. What Lee came to find is that most of what we think we know about evangelicals is wrong, or is well on its way to becoming dated. In Rescuing Jesus, she ventures into the world of progressive evangelicalism, telling the stories of those at the forefront of a movement that could change the face and the substance of religion in the United States. These men and women are a young and diverse array of people—LGBTQ and straight; white, black, Asian, Hispanic, and indigenous—who are working to wrest political power away from conservatives. These young evangelicals are more likely than their elders to accept same-sex marriage, more inclined to think of “pro-life” issues as being about supporting society’s disenfranchised, and more accepting of equality between men and women. With empathy, journalistic rigor, and powerful storytelling, Lee unpacks the diverse and complex strands of this movement—and what it means for the rest of us. Given the clout that evangelicals still hold in national politics, Lee argues, this movement is important not only for the future of evangelicalism but also for the future of our country.
Download or read book The Lord s Voice Cries to the City written by C. Matthew McMahon and published by Puritan Publications. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about hearing the Word of God preached boldly, plainly and faithfully. It is particularly aimed at the Christian sitting in the pew who is required by God to hear the Word of God preached with spiritual profit to their soul. However, many pastors today would also do well to hear the contents of these chapters since their performance allows, or not, the ability for the Christian to accomplish the intended ends when they hear the Word preached. If they are negligent in preaching, the hearer can never do his commanded duty. One might think that a book about “preaching” concerns hermeneutics or exegesis, or more especially, homiletics, and not particularly directed towards the Christian. This work, however, is neither about hermeneutics, or homiletics, per se. It is primarily directed at the Christian hearer, though much will be said about the minister and his pulpit ability. Many good books have dealt with being called to the ministry, or being faithful in study for preaching, or for aid in sermon preparation. Though this work may touch on all these things, and much more, it is really directed at what Christians ought to expect when the minister stands up to preach in the pulpit. If the minister is not fulfilling his office as it should be intended, what is the final result? What should the congregation see, hear and expect in this regard, biblically speaking? Reader, what do you expect?
Download or read book Jesus and John Wayne How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation written by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.
Download or read book The Evangelicals written by Frances FitzGerald and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award * National Book Award Finalist * Time magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year * New York Times Notable Book * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 This “epic history” (The Boston Globe) from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America—from the Puritan era to the 2016 election. “We have long needed a fair-minded overview of this vitally important religious sensibility, and FitzGerald has now provided it” (The New York Times Book Review). The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart, first North versus South, and then, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. Protesting abortion and gay rights, they led the South into the Republican Party, and for thirty-five years they were the sole voice of evangelicals to be heard nationally. Eventually a younger generation proposed a broader agenda of issues, such as climate change, gender equality, and immigration reform. Evangelicals now constitute twenty-five percent of the American population, but they are no longer monolithic in their politics. They range from Tea Party supporters to social reformers. Still, with the decline of religious faith generally, FitzGerald suggests that evangelical churches must embrace ethnic minorities if they are to survive. “A well-written, thought-provoking, and deeply researched history that is impressive for its scope and level of detail” (The Wall Street Journal). Her “brilliant book could not have been more timely, more well-researched, more well-written, or more necessary” (The American Scholar).
