The Sword of the LORD

Foundation Principles Series - Part II “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this will we do, if God permit” (Hebrews 6:1-3). In the above verses, we find six concepts that St. Paul refers to as “the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” and, in chapter 5 of Hebrews, “the first principles of the oracles of God.”  We have explored the first principle, Repentance from Dead Works, in an earlier message; now, let’s consider the second principle, Faith Toward God. Once we have understood the need to repent from our dead works, it is necessary for us to learn to exercise faith toward God.   There must be something to fill the void that remains when we leave our dead works behind.   After all, we have come...

Foundation Principles Series - Part I “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.   And this will we do, if God permit” (Hebrews 6:1-3) .                                  In the beginning of chapter 6 of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, we find what Paul refers to as “the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” and, in chapter 5:12, he calls them, “the first principles of the oracles of God.”  He makes it pretty clear by what he says at the end of chapter 5 that, until we can understand this “milk of the word,” we will find it difficult to advance to deeper tru...

According to the Guinness World Records website, the best selling work of non-fiction of all time is the Bible.    The Guinness folks report that,  "Although it is impossible to obtain exact figures, there is little doubt that the Bible is the world's best-selling and most widely distributed book.  A survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 1975, but more recent estimates put the number at more than 5 billion.  By the end of 1995, combined global sales of Today's English Version (Good News) New Testament and Bible (copyright for which is held by the Bible Societies) exceeded 17.75 million copies, and the whole Bible had been translated into 349 languages; 2123 languages have at least one book of the Bible in that language."    With such saturation, it seems reasonable to assume that society as a whole would have a pretty good general knowledge of the scriptures. ...