About the Bible
Despise NOT Prophesying — 1 Thessalonians 5:20
August 21st, 2016 at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not despise prophecies.[1][1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. Everybody on this planet hears the voice of God speaking to them about His glory. Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky…
Read MoreWhy Does the Apostle's Creed Profess Faith in Pontius Pilate? — Luke 1:1-4
Reverend Anthony R. Locke June 27th, 2010 at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker Luke 1:1-4 Apostle’s Creed Series 10 English Standard Version 1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of…
Read MoreIs My Bible Reliable? — Psalm 119:89-96
Reverend Anthony R. Locke March 20th, 2011 www.FirstPresTucker.org at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker Are English Bible’s the Word of God? Psalm 119:89-96 Do I hold in my hand the Word of God? English Standard Version 89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all…
Read MoreThe Powerful Legacy of William Tyndale
A hundred years ago a comet made of frozen gas entered our atmosphere and made impact in Russia, in a swampy forest in western Siberia. When an ice comet travels through Earth’s atmosphere, the friction melts and atomizes the frozen gas into a trail of flammable vapor that spreads from the Earth’s crust all the way back to the highest parts of our stratosphere. When the explosion happens on the surface of the earth, the fire ball has the potential to reach thousands of miles high with the explosive power of a thousand atomic bombs.
The shock wave from that explosion flattened 80 million trees over 800 square miles. The center of the impact left all the trees standing straight up with no branches.
The fireball stretched back into the outer atmosphere, as high as there is burnable oxygen to ignite the trial of gas left in the wake of the comet’s path. This produced so much light that a day later Londoners could read their newspapers under the night sky.
The comet struck at 7:17 am on June 30, 1908. Just over a hundred years ago.
But the energy from that event pales in significance to another explosion that happened 500 years ago in London, an explosion of light that set the world ablaze, and still shines today. That light is the glory of the Son of God shining forth from the pages of Holy Writ. That light wasn’t shining very well for a thousand years before Tyndale.
Read MoreWhy Does the Apostle's Creed Think Pontius Pilate is Central to our Faith? — Luke 1:1-4
When the early church pieced together the Apostle’s Creed, they were using the baptismal formulas previously in use by the actual Apostles. We don’t know which Apostle coined each phrase of the Apostle’s Creed, but one of the twelve was baptizing converts in the name of Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Which begs the question, “why are we confessing anything about a secular Roman governor?” This morning I am going to explain why Pilate’s name is in the creed, and I am going to suggest that it is necessary for a sound faith.
During this time period in Rome there were mystical religions that taught a variety of strange ideas. These false religions didn’t claim their teachings were real in a historic or scientific sense, but their teachings were spiritually real.
Lots of Christians understand their own faith within this context. My sermon will try to convince you otherwise.
Let me illustrate this with a true experience of mine. I visited a seminary in the late 1990’s where I considered enrolling. Before I enrolled I wanted to discern what kind of an education I would receive so I asked a professor this question. “Do you think the virgin birth really happened historically or is it just spiritually real?” The teacher knew what I was asking. I wasn’t being a smart-aleck. I was trying to size up the orthodoxy of the school.
Read MoreIs Inerrancy A Bible Doctrine?
Inerrancy is not an intellectual construct that we build in our mind after we make a careful analysis of the data. Jesus considered the Bible to be without error. Inerrancy is a Bible doctrine.
To not embrace the doctrine of inerrancy is to pervert the Gospel and put your soul in danger.
We do not prove the Bible to be God’s word by labeling it inerrant as a matter of reason or logic. The Bible claims this for itself.
We should close the debates and refocus our collective energies.
Read MoreWhy Use the ESV Bible?
From WTSBooks.com The ARP Denomination has selected the English Standard Version (ESV) as the translation of choice for Synod Christian Education materials. The First Presbyterian Church of Tucker has also embraced this Bible version. Below is a page from http://www.wtsbooks.com/content/about_esv which explains the benefits of this English version. Blessings to you as God transforms your life with His…
Read MoreWhy do we use the ESV Bible?
The ARP Denomination has selected the English Standard Version (ESV) as the translation of choice for Synod materials. The First Presbyterian Church of Tucker has also embraced this Bible version. Below is a page from http://www.wtsbooks.com/content/about_esv which explains the benefits of this English version. Blessings to you as God transforms your life with His sacred Word. The English Standard…
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