the Bible – PaulThompsonBlog

The Sufficiency of The Holy Bible

Posted on January 9, 2019Leave a comment

Over the years I’ve learned how important it is to be as clear as possible when speaking about my faith. The benefit is for me, my friends, and anyone listening in on a conversation about God.

It is true, I hold to a very narrow confession about what I consider to be “Scripture”.

It may be true that many religions call their books “scripture”, but when I speak the word I’m meaning the Bible and only the Bible, a collection of 66 holy books.

I remember the first time I visited a country that forbid its residents from having a copy of the Holy Bible. I was allowed to have my “holy book” but it was considered a dangerous act for me to give it to anyone or to make a claim of it being the only reliable source to know God.

I live in a community, like many in North America, that has a growing population of people who have other “holy books”. So I’ve learned how important it is that I articulate with as much clarification as possible what I believe and how I speak of my “holy book”.

Following are a few observations I’ve made and how I attempt to give as much clarity to what I say to mitigate confusion.

As already stated, the use of the word “scripture” is one place of potential confusion.
- When the Holy Bible says “All Scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16) the reader/hearer has to read/hear with disciplined eyes/ears. The reader/hearer has to know what the author means when he claims “All Scripture”.
  - Does this mean that the Holy Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and other religious books are to all be considered equal? No, the author intends for the audience to first consider what we call the Old Testament. We can consider the New Testament because of the reliability of the testimony of Jesus the Christ (as described by the Holy Bible alone) and the advancement of the early church.
  - For the reader of the Bible, it is clear that this claim by the Apostle Paul does not include other religious documents. Thus the reason for clarity in this modern day where other religions make other claims.
  - Some of my friends, who may even be reading this, will want to include their “scriptures” to this, but it is not an honest conversation. If the conversation does not acknowledge that other religious “scriptures” contradict the Holy Bible and that Holy Bible describes the One True Living God as completely different than the god of other religious books then the identity of Almighty God is not known at all.
I attempt to refer to Jesus as “Jesus, the Christ,” as often as possible. especially when in conversation with my Mormon friends.
- The primary reason for this is again to give as much clarity as possible. I’ve done this for years, but especially today. There have been some major vocabulary changes recently with those who teach the doctrines of the Book of Mormon. One of those is how they want people to refer to the name of their organization; “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”.
- When I attempt to refer to Jesus as Jesus, the Christ. I’m attempting to say something while I’m saying something. The identity of Jesus is everything. The Holy Bible references an altogether different Jesus than other religious books. Again, if we are going to have an honest conversation it requires truthful words at every level of the conversation. If one is fearful that others will see that the Jesus of the Holy Bible and the Jesus of the Book of Mormon and the Koran are different then confusion must be the only other reason to avoid such honesty.
Finally, I will share one other statement I prefer to use to be as fair and honest as I can. When I’m speaking about Jesus with someone of another religion I phrase it like this; “Jesus, the Christ, as described by the Holy Bible alone.” That is a bit wordy, but to me, it is worth it to give as much clarity as possible. The last thing I want to do is leave a friend confused about what Jesus I put my faith in. It is only in “Jesus, the Christ, as described by the Holy Bible alone.”
- Biblical Christianity is the only religion that describes Jesus as the only begotten son of God. He is the second person of the Triune God. He is not an offspring of any man. He was not created by god because He is very God. He is not just a prophet. He was not a spirit baby of a heavenly father and mother needing a physical body. He is very God of very God.

Give me this Jesus!

ON AIR

Posted on January 3, 2018Leave a comment

This morning I was a guest on News Radio 1310 KLIX.

Take a few moments to listen in on the conversation with Bill Colley. We talked about faith related matters, Burning in the Soul, church planting in Twin Falls, religious liberty, true Christianity, etc…

A September 23 Caution

Posted on September 21, 2017Leave a comment

No doubt, everyone should take a moment and consider the rapid increase of natural phenomena and epic cataclysmic natural disasters. Try reading a news report anywhere that doesn’t show pain and suffering is wide spread and the unknown news of war and terror is eminently looming.

What should we do with such news? We should do something. We should pray, repent, prepare to respond with kindness and compassion. But this is for sure, we must especially think biblically and speak carefully.

There are some today warning of September 23, 2017 as a day of major devastation. Is it? Or is it yet another day that will come and go and many will look back on this as yet another reason to not listen to Christians?

I’m asked from time to time about why I don’t speak about end times. I’m willing to look at all things related to the authority of revealed Scripture. Are there things happening today that speak about end days? Sure. But I must give direction to how I’ll talk about things and what I’ll say about things before I say them. (Oh,I wish I could do this all the time in my life.)

I submit a few things I instruct my lips to say or not to say in days like this for consideration:

Because we live in the era of the church, look for what pastors are saying. Not just any one who calls themselves a pastor, I’m talking about the kind of pastors that the bible identifies as biblically qualified and are held accountable to a local church. It is a right thing to examine what anyone reporting to be a pastor is saying with what his church says and then does his preaching and church agree with what the bible declares.
Stick with what is known. The bible is the only source that can be trusted. Any extra biblical proof texting is dangerous and unreliable. We are people of the Bible. Lean on what is known and in agreement with the bible.
Listen to what others are saying and weigh it against the Bible. The only authority that is reliable is the Bible. Stick with the Bible.
Humbly read your bible to know how to live in days like this. Do all that you can to live like this.
A weather model is not biblical authority.
Pray for those in the path of disasters.
Don’t forget that God is the active agent in all things. There is no storm path that acts out of the ruling authority of God.
Consider the warning of the wrath of God and be found a faithful repenting follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Call on all people everywhere to repent not because of weather or astrological alignment of stars but because of the biblical truth that all men everywhere are called to repentance and turn to Christ for forgiveness. This is our biblical mandate. This is our biblical foundation. Be known as a gospel herald not a date setting guesser.
Be disciplined to give attention to the public reading of Scripture. Let God speak to the nations.

I Agree with the Nashville Statement

Posted on September 1, 2017Leave a comment

Earlier this week I joined many pastors around the nation affirming the Nashville Statement.

To say I agree with the Nashville Statement is to say I agree with the Bible. The Nashville statement is what it is. It is a declaration affirming our agreement with the Bible about what God has declared “very good”. As in every day, this is a day where the church must speak truth to the culture. Silence on this matter today would be a sin.

I stand with the signers of the Nashville statement.

The Nashville Statement is a product of the Center for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This has been a resource of great help to the church for many years.

Read the full statement HERE: https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement/

the preamble:

“Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” –Psalm 100:3

Evangelical Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in a period of historic transition. As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, it has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being. By and large the spirit of our age no longer discerns or delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life. Many deny that God created human beings for his glory, and that his good purposes for us include our personal and physical design as male and female. It is common to think that human identity as male and female is not part of God’s beautiful plan, but is, rather, an expression of an individual’s autonomous preferences. The pathway to full and lasting joy through God’s good design for his creatures is thus replaced by the path of shortsighted alternatives that, sooner or later, ruin human life and dishonor God.

This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church. Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life? Will she maintain her clear, counter-cultural witness to a world that seems bent on ruin?

We are persuaded that faithfulness in our generation means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female. Christian Scripture teaches that there is but one God who alone is Creator and Lord of all. To him alone, every person owes glad-hearted thanksgiving, heart-felt praise, and total allegiance. This is the path not only of glorifying God, but of knowing ourselves. To forget our Creator is to forget who we are, for he made us for himself. And we cannot know ourselves truly without truly knowing him who made us. We did not make ourselves. We are not our own. Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be.

We believe that God’s design for his creation and his way of salvation serve to bring him the greatest glory and bring us the greatest good. God’s good plan provides us with the greatest freedom. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it in overflowing measure. He is for us and not against us. Therefore, in the hope of serving Christ’s church and witnessing publicly to the good purposes of God for human sexuality revealed in Christian Scripture, we offer the following affirmations and denials.

The End of All Things

Posted on January 18, 2017Leave a comment

What keeps us from living like the end is near? Peter told the early church to live knowing that the end of all things is near. “Now the end of all things is near” (1 Peter 4:7).

That’s pretty straight forward isn’t it?

Is it the risk of being labeled a crazy person? is it that we fear what others will think about us? I mean think about it… the list is a long and crazy list of people living like we are in the last days only to later be exposed as a lunatic and/or false teacher. How do we live in “sound judgment and sober spirit” while living with an expectation of the end of all things being near? Don’t you know that Satan loves to use a well meaning person to cause fear to grip God’s people?

I’m discovering that Peter has much to say about how the follower of Christ (as defined by the Bible only) should live. He urges “you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.” I’m less likely to live with an attachment to the things of this earth if my focus is on God. I’ll grow in my anticipation of His return if I’m living more like a sojourner rather than feeling like I have a vested interest in the temporal things of this world.

I’m more likely to live as an ambassador of His kingdom if I live with an expectation like that of the first century believer.

Even though we may be labeled with the “crazy” label, know that it is intended to belittle or criticize. I am resolved to live in that risky position of a label and instead heed the Word of God by living as though the end of all things is near.

The Bible has much to say about the end. God has devoted large portions of His words to prophecy, both fulfilled prophecy and yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecy.

What could a believer do to be more aware of the “end of all things”?

You must read the Bible, pay special attention to Leviticus, Psalms, Daniel, Amos, all of the Gospels, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation.
Your bible most likely has maps in the back; they will help in tremendous ways. I find that a current political map will assist current knowledge, but put it together with biblical maps.
Read what other reliable people are writing, but the Bible owns the authority on the matter.
Talk to others.
Listen to others.
Finally, live in agreement (even if you don’t understand some of the details) that the end of all things is near. That’s what the Bible says.

Determine in your life to live as a temporary resident of this world and abstain from fleshly desires that are at war against you.

_______________________________

This post was originally published in “the Link”, September 2008, a monthly newsletter of Eastside Baptist Church

Reformation – An Ongoing Work

Posted on September 19, 20161 Comment

Is there a difference in revival and reformation?

Fundamentally, yes.

Where they feel similar, the work of revival is what God brings and the work of reformation is what God empowers men to do.

500 years ago Martin Luther ignited a movement that we now call the great reformation, but he was not the first, only or even (hopefully not) the last reformer. As I’m preaching through the books of the Kings the historian lays out seasons of both revival and reformation in the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

Revival means there is an awakening of people to their spiritual concerns, a return or recovery of a state of neglect. Restoration of life.
To reform means to change from worse to better; to amend; to correct; to restore to a former good state. To remove what is bad or corrupt. To abandon that which is evil or corrupt, and return to a good state. To be corrected

One can see there is similarity and even could be misinterpreted for each other. Maybe even fair to do so. But reform is more the activity done by those who have been revived.

Anyone with settled habits or vice will seldom reform. When there are many who don’t want to reform the reformers will be faced with great opposition. If a reformer is not aware of this he may likely give up too early on the reforming work while waiting for the profound work of the Holy Spirit in reviving those who have settled into their habits and vice.

Reforming work is very slow work. Many times the reformers are silenced, removed, ridiculed, mocked, slandered, hunted, etc. It is a blessed sight to see the Holy Spirit move in the hearts of men and women today in many places who are aiming at the same reforming work in the Lord’s church. There is a revival of sorts of expository, biblical preaching in our day. It will require more revived preachers to sustain the reforming work.

Church, we must call out from among our churches more reformers. Reformers equipped and informed of the hardship that is before them.

LORD’s Day Sermon, September 18, 2016

An Inspection of the Foundation

Posted on March 29, 20162 Comments

(The first title I had for this post was “Why I’m Not A Republican Even Though I Usually Vote Republican”, but this is more than a political post and it might scare some and even anger others to discover I’m not a -registered- Republican.)

I’m getting ready to make preparations to move my mom to Idaho in May. To do so requires the duty of making sure the home she buys is well built and all things are in order for her when she arrives. The last step in the process is the home inspection. If that is not in good order or at least repairable then it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Well there are other foundations that need inspection today. In the great land of the free, America, many things appear to be changing quickly. An inspection of the foundation is in order to determine where attention is needed or disaster is waiting to happen, if it’s not too late.

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

Here are four areas I decided to take a closer look at. I think they are all critical but one is of greatest interest for me.

Activist Judges
Sellout Politicians (mainly Republicans) Two Republican Govenors (Georgia and Utah)
A Castration of the Nation
A Church without a Voice

I’ll start with the easy and move to the more complex and painful but most needed.

Activist Judges: When a judge views the constitution of the United States as a living document they are not being true to their duty. A fair judge has a standard that they are bound to measure the actions against. It is not a duty of a judge to make a law or give way to break a law, they are to judge or make a judgment upon a fixed standard established by the law of the land. They do have a duty to give an interpretation or an opinion but that’s as far as their duty goes. To go further is a breach of duty.

When judges do not do their duty they make way for lawlessness.

O dear God, give us judges that are not afraid to judge against a fixed standard.

Sellout politicians: It is almost cliche. It almost makes being a politician a dishonorable office to hold. It is too bad that the word politician is nearly bankrupt of meaning. This is the primary reason I am not a Republican. The tragedy is obvious and I argue not all politicians are sellouts. I’m sure my deceased Democrat grandfather would argue his political party that sold out to a more progressive worldly platform has become less like they once were.

Nearly every time I write a letter to my governor I become increasingly disappointed with the replies. (Sure, his recent conceal gun law makes him popular but his weakness in regards to the defending an unborn child in the womb makes him more a sellout than a hero.)

Two other politicians (and I don’t mean any of the candidates running for president) are note worthy before I press on.

the Republican governor of Georgia (Governor Deal): His decision this week to veto a law that his state was pressing through legislation will likely be a landmark kind of decision. This was a law that would give protections to pastors to not be required to preform “same-sex” marriages. This is a veto from a Republican, but more striking is that he’s a member of First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia. (A little investigation of FBC Gainesville will tip the reader off that his church is less Baptist and more humanistic, but that’s getting into my final examination.) Just to be clear; I am not the same kind of Baptist as Governor Deal or FBC Gainsville.
the Republican governor of Utah (Governor Herbert): With respect, I’m beside myself with this very pro-life governor. With respect to my friends in Utah, I have been impressed with your governor from afar. Also, with respect, I’m not sure I understand the law completely. But at second glance… I’m perplexed.
A law passed on March 28, 2016 requiring doctors to give anesthesia to women getting an abortion after the 20 week mark of pregnancy based on research that shows ‘fetus’ pain at this stage. At first, it has the appearance of compassion – then it strikes me as strange; is it compassionate to block the pain of a fetus while murdering it? No! this is a most strange law. Governor Herbert, why not pass a law that protects that unborn child?

Well, I could say more and go further on both of these, but studies show most people don’t read blog posts past the 500 word count point and I’m past the 750 word count right now and two more issues to go.

O dear God, help your people rise up an elect men and women who will not sell out.

The Castration of the Nation: There’s much to say here. First let me say I’m mostly meaning this figuratively, even though I don’t mean to not address the actual mutilation of the body in pursuit of gender confusion. I’ll say less here, but hear the less as only in content not mass.

A nation without gender separation has frankly taken a sledgehammer to the foundation and making fast work at destruction.

To acknowledge male and female as unique and distinctly beautiful is no weak position to take. It is rather to live in agreement that God wonderfully and fearfully made us male and female. A nation that legislates laws or appoints judges who ignore this of nature and nature’s God is foolish and weak.

O dear God, raise up a generation in this land of men and women who respects each other and honors you.

Finally, A Church without a Voice: There is nearly no place to begin or end on this examination. By the grace of God; in this day of activist judges ruling from emotion rather than standard, politicians selling out to money and agenda rather than the principle that gets them elected, and increasing confusion of strength we have in the gender specific creation ordained by God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has a most critical role and duty.

It’s not a ruling duty. It’s not an agenda. It’s not limited to men or women. Rather, it is a duty to speak truth; to be a fixed standard, a pillar and buttress of truth. O church, do you not know this? The weight of a nation built on truth must have a church that does her duty.

O dear God, give voice to your church. May she speak forth into this dark day. It is indeed a good day to be the church.

As the day gets darker the need is clear that a light must shine forth.

Not a light that is no light at all, but a lamp; well, like the kind a miner puts on in search of great treasures in the dark parts of the earth. A light that illuminates and reveals. A light that aids and even comforts. A light that warms. A light that attracts.

A light that cause men everywhere to tremble at the beauty of the kindness and severity of God.

What does this nation need? O she doesn’t know it, she doesn’t want to acknowledge it, but she needs a church that will do her duty. Church, if your pillar and buttress is not built on a proper, right, true foundation, you leave the nation at risk. Great risk!

What can the righteous do? Behold (look)! And then tell all of what you find.

There is a trustworthy standard to know what you are looking at, the Bible.
Don’t sell yourself out for a lesser treasure.
Respect and submit to Him who created them male and female.
Live in a worthily way in this dark day and speak of this treasure you find to all.

“For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.” (Psalm 11:7)

The Pleasure of Duties

Posted on March 8, 2016Leave a comment

We (followers of Christ) have fixed pleasure and duty as polar opposites.

Somehow the idea of duty, meaning obedience to God, is something that we pursue out of obligation. Obedience to God has come to be known by some professing followers of Christ as a tedious, non-interesting activity.

Somehow the bible has been presented in recent years as a book filled with instructions on how to perform duties. Where it is filled with lists and descriptions of duties and responsibilities of what God wants from his prized creation, it puts us in place to miss that this Bible speaks not only of duty, but it speaks of who God is.

Until we are willing to make reading of the Bible the same standard of our pleasures as we do our instructions of duty we will only see the Bible as something we pick up when we are in trouble.

When is the last time you treated your Bible as an instruction for the pursuit of pleasure? Religion and melancholy are not synonymous terms. Many professing followers of Christ are under the spell that the bible is boring and church is the place where boring is promoted.

We will remain in this wrong thought so long as we think God has nothing to say to us concerning pleasure.

“How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fin gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand; in Her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast.” (Proverbs 3:13-18)

It appears clearly in Scripture that we are designed by our Creator to pursue pleasure. Reason then should instruct us that if our Creator designed us to pursue pleasure that He would also give us a lamp to instruct us down “pleasant ways” and to trust that on this pursuit is a peaceful path.

The problem is, we are under a spell and don’t appear to want to be released from it. We can’t seem to quit interpreting pleasure by any other standard than by that which wages war against God’s standard.

There is a joy and peace in believing, “a peace that passes all understanding”, a joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is not wrong to enjoy comforts of earth, they are not incompatible with the pursuit of eternal salvation in heaven.

The thing is, we aren’t reading our Bibles properly.

We were created to pleasantly walk with God. But, because of sin, we have been born with an addiction to wicked pleasures that war against how we were created. This is the case with every generation and in every country.

Follower of Christ, stop reading your Bible for information on how to get rich in this temporal world and begin reading it as a revelation of pearl of great pleasure.

Professor of Christ, can you continue to starve your soul from that which God created? Is is reasonable that your current pursuit of sensual pleasure is not accomplishing what your soul is hungering and thirsting for? As long as you are feeding the wicked pleasures of your heart you will only read the Bible as a voice that condemns your practices and find it a book that is always speaking against your activity.

What if, instead, you treat the Word of God as a lamp; a lamp illuminating a path of previously avoided paths that truly leads to pleasure, lasting, eternal pleasure? Or will you be like the one the Apostle Paul describes as lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God?

Do you not know this?

God wants you to be pleased. You too want to be pleased. God has designed you to pursue pleasure. God likes it when we do what we are created to do and he is displeased when we waste this created purpose on temporal, immoral, unpleasant ends.

Follower of Christ, we have a blessed lamp; turn that lamp on.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Posted on February 23, 2016Leave a comment

On Sunday nights at Eastside Baptist Church we take a close look at a hymn of the faith and a topic related to faithful living in this ever changing culture.

You can join us live in person, video live-streaming at Google Hangouts, or archived here the following week. If you are interested in joining via the live-streaming option it will require a bit of early set up to get you called in and all technical things set up. For some, this has been a helpful because of distance to travel twice into Twin Falls on the same day, for some who are ill, others away from town. We would welcome this of you if for some reason you are unable to attend a gathering in your community. Contact me before Sunday afternoon at 5:00pm.

This week pastor John Martinez gave us some background on the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

I gave a scan of types of problems people appear to have with the Bible and offer some solutions to the Christian on how to develop a disciplined lifestyle of reading, thinking, and trusting the Bible to be true and reliable.

James Montgomery Boice puts it this way…

“If the Bible is truely from God, and if God is a God of truth (and He is), then… if tow parts seem to be in opposition or in contradiction to each other, our interpretation of one or both of these parts must be in error.”

1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy

Posted on March 26, 2015Leave a comment

I was 12 years old, living in Colorado when the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was and signed by brave defenders of the Bible boldly by drafting 19 articles of affirmation and denial of Biblical Inerrancy. The summary statement describes Scripture (the Holy Bible) as “God’s witness of Himself”, “God’s own Word”, being “wholly and verbally God-given.”

Article I.
We affirm that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of God.
We deny that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church, tradition, or any other human source.

Full statement HERE

1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Original Signers
1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy: Original Document

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