God’s sovereign work in salvation does not make assurance impossible. Scripture tells Christians to examine themselves, recognize the fruit of regeneration, and know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. A real response to the gospel and a changed life can be identified. Unbelievers are not neutral people who want God …
Election and predestination teach that salvation is an undeserved gift of God’s grace. They should humble believers and remove any basis for boasting, because no Christian can claim to have been morally wiser or better than an unbelieving neighbor. Those doctrines never cancel the Bible’s invitations to repent, believe, seek God, and choose life. Scripture …
Pastor Mike prefers to explain biblical passages rather than lead with theological labels. When texts such as Ephesians 2 or Romans 11 address human sin and God’s sovereign work, he teaches that the problem of sin is so profound that God must decisively act to save. That conviction accounts for much of the logic commonly …
Isaiah 45:7 teaches that God sovereignly brings both well-being and calamity, while John 10:10 says Christ came to give abundant life. These truths are not contradictory because calamity is not God’s final purpose or something he delights in for its own sake. Job illustrates the relationship. God permitted Satan to bring severe suffering within limits, …
Scripture does not give us a complete explanation for why God chose a plan that included angelic and human rebellion. Questions about why God did not immediately destroy Satan or prevent the fall reach into purposes that finite creatures are not equipped to judge fully. Isaiah 64, Jeremiah 18, and Romans 9 use the relationship …
Grief can make the relationship between prayer and God’s sovereignty painfully difficult. When we pray earnestly and still lose someone we love, we may wonder whether prayer mattered. That question deserves compassion, but the answer begins by distinguishing what God has revealed from what he has decreed in his hidden plan. We cannot see the …
Yes. Scripture presents prayer as a real means through which God acts, not merely as an exercise that changes our attitude. We should think about prayer in the way God describes it rather than allowing speculation about sovereignty to empty the biblical commands of their meaning. James 5 points to Elijah, who prayed fervently that …
Christians pray because God commands us to pray and tells us that prayer truly matters. Jesus said to ask, seek, and knock. God’s complete knowledge and sovereign plan do not make those commands meaningless. James points to Elijah, a man with a nature like ours, whose fervent prayers affected whether it rained. Scripture therefore says …
Romans 8:28 is meant to encourage Christians, but the “good” God promises is the good of his purpose—not necessarily immediate comfort, prosperity, or an explanation we can easily recognize. A painful trial may produce perseverance and maturity, as James 1 teaches. God may use today’s unavoidable hardship to prepare a Christian to remain faithful in …