The Christian Faith Podcast

The vision the apostle John sees in the book of Revelation begins when he hears a voice speaking to him:
What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches….
— Revelation 1:11
He then turns around to see the voice that had spoken to him, and says,
…When I turned around, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man….
— Revelation 1:12-13
We all need to hear such a speaking, and to have such a turn, today, so that we too may see Ch...

We all know that, as the believers in Christ, we need to meet together in churches with our fellow believers; the new life we have received in Christ drives us inwardly to seek such fellowship.
And yet, as important as this is, the New Testament gives us no instructions regarding how to form churches. Rather, as Watchman Nee points out, what it shows us is that, wherever the gospel was preached and people believed in the Lord, these saved believers simply came together, without any planning or other consideration, to be the church in that place: the church...

The history of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament, both in what God called them to and in the manner in which they failed and turned away from God, has many lessons to teach us about the genuine worship God desires from us as the believers in Christ. Of course, as Paul tells us,
…these things happened to them as a pattern for us, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come.
— 1 Corinthians 10:11; cf. v. 6, Romans 15:4
And when we consider that history, we see that, just as t...

“And I also say unto you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
— Matthew 16:18
As soon as Simon declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord revealed something more to him. First, He changed his name to “Peter,” meaning “a stone,” and then He told him He would build His church upon that “rock” which is the revelation of Christ given to men. This shows that the Lord viewed Peter as a living stone for the building up of...

How can we be one today with our fellow believers in Christ, in terms of how we gather together for fellowship in our local churches?
The Lord surely desires for us be one; that is what He prayed for on the night He was betrayed:
That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe You have sent Me.
— John 17:21
Yet, tragically, today Christians are so divided from each other in their different gatherings that it do...

How can we be one today with our fellow believers in Christ, in terms of how we gather together for fellowship in our local churches?
The Lord surely desires for us be one; that is what He prayed for on the night He was betrayed:
That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe You have sent Me.
— John 17:21
Yet, tragically, today Christians are so divided from each other in their different gatherings that it do...

The genuine New Testament fellowship of the believers in Christ is called “the fellowship of God’s Son” (1 Cor. 1:9), because Christ is the center, focus, and content of the genuine fellowship. But, it is also called “the fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42), because, as we see in the New Testament, we are called into this genuine fellowship through the ministry of the apostles.
Today, the same principle applies, namely, the Lord uses particular servants to call the believers back to the genuine New Testament fellowship. In the 1700s, He used Count Zinzendorf of Moravia in this regard; in the 1800s...

After reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we may look down at the church in Corinth because it was filled with so many problems. However, we should remember that this is the only book in the New Testament that specifically tells us it is written to all the believers in Christ (1:2). So Paul here is not just dealing with the problems in that local church, but with problems that have afflicted the church as a whole ever since.
And one of these problems is an improper relationship with the servants of the Lord. We need to be...

The “fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” is not carried out in the heavens; rather, it must be carried out in what is so often our messy church life here on the earth (1 Cor. 1:9).
As we see in 1 Corinthians 2, the only way this can happen is for us to be dealt with by the Lord and His cross so we become, not simply those who have the Spirit of God, but who are also genuinely spiritual persons.
In fact, no other portion of the New Testament shows us so clearly what it really means to be g...

When the apostle Paul tells us that God has called us into “the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” he is not writing his letter to the Ephesians. That is where we might have placed such a word since that letter describes to us God’s eternal purpose and the heavenly calling and standing of the church. Rather, he makes this wonderful declaration when he is speaking to the messy church in Corinth! (1 Cor. 1:9).
No doubt, this is the wisdom of God, to show us that the fellowship of His Son, while it is heavenly in nature...

At the beginning of his first letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul tells us,
God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
— 1 Corinthians 1:9
What a wonderful declaration is this! As the believers in Christ, God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! It is not the fellowship of any person, teaching, or practice, but the unique fellowship of the Son of God.
And yet, just after saying this, Paul has to implore the saints in Corinth th...

The church is the Body of  Christ, His fullness (Eph. 1:22-23), which is composed of us, the believers in Christ, as His many members (Rom. 12:4-5), who have been born anew with the divine life to become the genuine children of God.
All of these matters are in the spiritual realm, and are somewhat mysterious. But, based upon these spiritual realities, we must go on to enter into the practical experience here on the earth of the genuine New Testament church fellowship. So, in this episode we consider the church as God’s family (Eph. 2:19) and the fellowship of...

We should never think of the church as an organization. As the very Body of Christ, it is a living organism, composed of all its many members. And these members are us, the believers in Christ, who have been born anew with the divine life and nature (John 1:12-13, 2 Pet. 1:4), so that we are now joined in a spiritual, organic union not only with Christ as the Head of the Body, but also with our fellow members of this marvelous Body.
NOTE: Click here to download the pamphlet we use as the basis for the sharing in this...

Do we really appreciate the fact that God desires to have the church? We tend to look at spiritual things from our own viewpoint, focusing on our need for forgiveness of sins, for satisfaction, and for a sense of purpose in our life. But if we are willing to consider what God is after, what He desires, and to serve the Lord to that end, our Christian life will come to an entirely different level.
And what God is after is simply this: the church, which will be His expression.
So, in this episode we begin to...

So many Christians today seem to believe that God's goal for people is to get them into heaven. Yet, in reality, God is not working to bring people to heaven, but to re-take the earth, which today is in rebellion against Him.
So now God is calling us, as the believers in Christ, to stand with Him in this purpose by preaching the gospel of the kingdom in all the earth (Matt. 24:14), to defeat Satan (Rom. 16:20, Eph. 6:10-18) and bring in the kingdom of the heavens even in this present age (cf. Matt. 6:9-10). Unless we are clear...

In recent episodes we have considered the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7; see A New Podcast Series: “The Eternal Gospel”). We have shared that, according to this gospel, a person may have their sins forgiven even if they have not had the opportunity to believe in Christ directly.
If that is the case, however, then we must ask, Do we still need to be burdened to preach the gospel of Christ?
The answer is, Absolutely! First of all, we still need to be concerned that sinners could suffer the terrible fate of eternal damnation. Even more, however, we shou...

The gospel of Christ produces the saved, regenerated believers in Christ, while the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7), in contrast, produces the blessed nations, i.e., those who have their sins forgiven through the death of Christ, but who are not regenerated. So, in eternity, as the result of these two different gospels, there will not only be those who are blessed as the saved believers in Christ in the New Jerusalem, and those who are cursed as the damned in the lake of fire, but also the blessed nations dwelling upon the earth outside of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24, 26...

Is the “eternal gospel” (Rev. 14:6-7) simply another way of referring to the basic New Testament gospel of the grace of God? Or is it, instead, a distinct message that gives those who have never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus a way to have their sins forgiven?
Most Bible teachers today would claim it is the former, pointing out that the New Testament does indeed refer to the gospel of grace in a number of different ways. (Scofield lists these in his note on Revelation 14:6.) Yet, the eternal gospel is spoken of in a unique way, with...

According to so many Bible teachers today, to have our sins forgiven we must ask God to forgive us in Jesus’ name. Therefore, they say, all those who never heard the gospel of the grace of God will have to spend eternity in the lake of fire, even though they never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus. (For an example of this, watch this brief video clip). 
What these teachers are saying is, in effect, that God has created so many billions and billions of people just to send them into eternal damnation, since He knew they wou...

Does the Bible really say that all those who never heard of Jesus, and who therefore had no opportunity to believe in the gospel, will go to hell for eternity? This is what many prominent Bible teachers have affirmed for centuries—and in this episode, we hear how one such teacher recently reaffirmed this teaching when asked this very question. Sadly, so many are turned away from the God of the Bible because of this teaching, feeling they could never believe in Him if He is so unfair as that.
Yet, if we are willing to search the Sc...

The Lord needs followers today who have the same spirit as the writers of the New Testament, who considered themselves as nothing more than His slaves; if He can gain such ones, then He will have a way to carry out what He truly desires to accomplish in our time.
But how can we become those who, in terms of our daily living, are slaves of Christ Jesus? Only by allowing ourselves to be fully defeated and captured by Christ.
Length: 27 minutes

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As believers in Christ, we tend to consider spiritual matters from the standpoint of our need, such as our need for the forgiveness of sins. And while there is nothing wrong with that, as we grow in Christ we should eventually realize there is also something God needs, in the sense it is something He truly desires, and thus begin to seek the Lord for how we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His desire. When we do this, our Christian life will come to an entirely different level.

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OUR WEBSITE
TheChristianFaith.org

The Bible covers so many different topics, and one of the main ones, of course, is the gospel of our salvation. So, we begin this episode with a reminder, courtesy of a story about Billy Graham, of how we need to be in prayer for the gospel to once again go forth in this country in 2025; Amen, Lord, have Your way!
Yet, among all the matters dealt with in the Bible, the thing it shows us in particular as God’s ultimate desire, the central thing in the entire Bible, is this: God’s desire to bring us into...

For centuries there has been a dispute among Bible teachers over who wrote the book of Hebrews, since the book itself does not identify its author. Early on in church history it was widely accepted that it had been written by the apostle Paul. Later, however, some began to doubt his authorship, and today most Bible scholars say that no, it was not Paul; rather, someone else must have written it.
What so many of those who have considered this matter seem to have missed, however, is that New Testament does in fact give us the answer to...

As this new year begins it is good to be reminded of how important it is for us as the believers in Christ to come to the Bible in a regular, consistent way! So in this episode, which is mostly a re-broadcast of an earlier one, we talk with Mike Samulak for some practical tips to help us be in the word as we should, sometimes even by beginning in a very small way.
For example, we can make a resolution to read just one Bible verse a day this coming year; that may not seem like much...

If we are indeed three part beings, “spirit and soul and body” (1 Thess. 5:23), then what is the Bible referring to when it speaks of our “heart”?
A primary example of this is when a scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the first commandment of all?” (Mark 12:28). He answered by quoting the Old Testament:
The first is,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!
And you shall love the Lord your God
From all your heart
And from all your soul
And from all your mind
And from all your strength.

If we desire to know Christ and follow Him today, we must be clear about the kind of relationship He desires to have with us, as revealed in the Scripture. And what the Scriptures show us, especially in the New Testament, is this: God wants to be one with mankind. That’s why He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ through the Incarnation; and now He desires to incarnate Himself again in the followers of Christ by imparting Himself as the divine life and nature into our human spirit to make us the genuine Children of Go...

If we desire to know Christ and follow Him today, we must be clear about the kind of relationship He desires to have with us as revealed in the Scripture. It is different from the relationship He had with the children of Israel in the Old Testament, when He ruled over His people in an outward way; rather, it is in the New Testament way of God incarnating Himself in the person of Christ to make Himself one with mankind, and then becoming one with each of us individually, by imparting Himself as the divine life into our human...

In this special Thanksgiving edition of our podcast we consider how the first national day of thanksgiving ever held in the United States of America came to be. We also read the full proclamation made by President Washington, which he issued in response to a request from the first congress—the same congress that approved the first amendment—that he appoint “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God”….
Washington’s proclamation states, in part,
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowled...

One of the hallmarks of Reformed theology is its strong teaching that man is a two-part being. Rejecting the plain and direct word of Scripture that man is actually a three-part being, “spirit and soul and body” (1 Thess. 5:23; cf. Heb. 4:12), it insists our spirit and our soul are the same thing, thus denying we have a human spirit which enables us to receive God’s divine life. In doing so it turns the Christian life into a mental exercise and thus prevents those who receive this teaching from ever really understanding the New Testament concept of salvation.
In this e...

To live a fruitful Christian life we need a basic realization, first, that we have a human spirit within us, and second, of the proper function of our human spirit; how crucial it is for us to see this!
So, we begin this episode by considering some basic principles that can help us appreciate our human spirit, and how God desires to impart Himself as life into us, that is, into our human spirit. We then go on to look at several New Testament verses that show us the proper function of our human spirit within us as...

If we desire to grasp the New Testament concept of salvation, in the sense of how we are being transformed into the image or Christ, we must realize we are three-part beings (1 Thes. 5:23, Heb. 4:12). Only then can we truly understand the apostle Paul’s meaning when he tells us,
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is being consumed, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day; for our momentary, light tribulation is working out for us, in a more and more surpassing way, an eternal weight of glory.
— 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

To grasp the New Testament concept of salvation, in the sense of how we are transformed into the image or Christ, we must realize we are three-part beings (1 Thes. 5:23, Heb. 4:12). Only then can we truly understand what the apostle Paul means when he tells us,
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is being consumed, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day; for our momentary, light tribulation is working out for us, in a more and more surpassing way, an eternal weight of glory.
— 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

Length: 45 minutes

To be genuinely spiritual we must be clear about the difference between our soul and our human spirit—that, as revealed in the Bible, these are two distinct parts of our being, rather than to aspects of the same thing (1 Thes. 5:23, Heb. 4:12). The function of our spirit is to contact God and receive His divine life; the function of our soul is to love God and magnify Him (cf. Luke 1:46-47).
If instead we feel the spirit and the soul are the same thing, as so strongly taught by reformed theology, we will have no way to live ou...

And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:23
In the Gospels of Matthew of Mark, Jesus tells us we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30); in brief, with so many of the different parts of our being. However, unless we are clear about the three basic parts of our being, and the distinct function of our human spirit, we cannot understand th...

We should love the Lord not only “with,” but also “from,” our whole being. So, the Gospels of Matthew of Mark give us two parallel accounts of the Lord’s word concerning what is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30). While the differences in these two accounts are very slight, they are nonetheless very meaningful, and can give us a real insight into this matter of truly loving the Lord.

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Philippians 3:7-10 shows us the way to pursue Christ and the price we have to pay to do so. But then, in verse 11, the apostle Paul speaks of the incentive God gives us for following Christ in such a way: attaining to what may be called “the outstanding resurrection” from among the dead (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24-27, Luke 20:35).
Yet, only later in the New Testament, in Revelation 20:4-6, are we able to actually see this “outstanding” resurrection. It is not only the “first resurrection” that is mentioned there, but the “outstanding resurrection” of those overcoming believers who in the next age will si...

In Philippians 3 we see a portrait of a man who was fully given to pursuing Christ so he could gain Him, be found in Him, and eventually come to know Him.
How can we enter into this same experience? First, by loving the Lord in a pure and absolute way, so we are fully captured by Him, while all else becomes dross to us.
Second, we must not be satisfied with just the revelation of Christ, as wonderful as that is, but instead press on to pay the price so we really come to know Him.
...

After passing through so many experiences of the cross in Philippians 3:7-9, so we may gain Christ and be found in Him, we finally come to the point where we are ready to know Christ, as seen in verse 10. And according to this verse, to know Christ Himself in the deepest way is to know Him according to the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, so we may be conformed to His death.
Our knowing of Christ in this way is not for our own sake. Rather, it is so we may have a...

One of the greatest frustrations to our knowing of Christ is our effort to establish our own righteousness (cf. Rom. 10:3). In fact, the more we live in our own righteousness, the less we will know Christ.
While many Christians realize our own works could never be sufficient for God to forgive our sins, we fail to realize the exact same principle applies in terms of our daily living; even in this regard, we cannot please God or be acceptable to Him by our own doing. And because we don’t realize this, we try, after we first believe in...