Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
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First Segment: Andy responds to a reader’s email about his use of Contradict for evangelism.
Second Segment: Andy responds to a video an atheist sent him that entertainly uses a game show setting to demonstrate what the video maker claims are contradictions in the Bible.
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Aaron Puls shares the Doctrine of Justification with Andy Wrasman and Jonathan Rutherford, using Dr. Rod Rosenbladt’s sermon “Christianity in Five Verses” as a guide.
Justification is God’s declaration that sinners are innocent on account of Christ’s death on the cross that atones for all of our sins. This is pure gift! We are declared innocent, though we are guilty. Justice is still served, since the penalty for our sins were paid in full by Jesus of Nazareth.
Objective Justification is a doctrine that states that Jesus died for all sins, past, present, and future, for all people. Individual receives the benefits of Christ’s saving work through faith, which is the doctrine of Subjective Justification. This means that though Jesus died for everyone only those who receive the grace he won for us through faith are saved.
Another important doctrine is Sanctification. Unlike Justification, which is instantaneous, and a declaration of innocence for the sinner, Sanctification is a process. It is the process of becoming holy. Though we are declared holy, it does not mean that we are now sinless. In Justification, we are declared just though we are sinners. At the exact moment of Justification, the process of Sanctification begins, and it carries on throughout the life of the believer, completed at death, at which time the sinful nature is gone for the believer, once and forever.
Sadly, many Christians look to their Sanctification as the assurance of their Justification. This is a mistake which plagues the believer with doubt of salvation, leading to utter despair or self-righteousness. The mingling of Sanctification and Justification points the believer away from Christ’s work inward to each man’s own heart and works.
Aaron plays video clips from John MacArthur, Francis Chan, N.T. Wright, and John Piper. Do they get Justification right? Or do they mingle Sanctification and Justification? Do they point us to Christ for assurance of salvation, or do they point us to ourselves?
Show Links
Dr. Rod Rosenbladt’s “Christianity in Five Verses” Sermon
Dr. Rod Rosenbladt’s “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” Sermon
“The Christian Life is Like a Draft of Guinness Stout”
Reconnect Episode 19: “How Do I Know I Am A Christian?”
If you pour a glass of Guinness Stout, you will see some very dark beer. Blacker than Black. If poured properly you will have a nice, thin layer of white head on top. This whiteness is pure as snow in comparison to the depths of the darkness below.
How is this like the Christian life?
Our lives are dark and stained with sin.
In faith in Christ, when God the Father looks down at us, He does not see the darkness of our lives. The darkness that demands his wrath. Instead, He sees the cleanliness in the pure whiteness of the righteousness of his Son, Jesus, that covers us and justifies us as being in a right relationship with God.
This simple analogy has left out any long and detailed explanations of sin and the effects of sin. It has assumed that everyone understands that Jesus is God and that the Father is God, and that there is another person in the nature of God, and he is the Holy Spirit. These three persons are distinctly different, but still there is only one God. Now I’m probably confusing matters worse to state this, but I also didn’t give a definition for righteousness or explain how a loving God has to punish sinners, because he is also just and holy. I didn’t explain or prove any of this from the Bible, science, philosophy, or logic. This analogy simply states that our lives are dark and deep with evil, wholly depraved, but that nonetheless, the depths of our depravity are covered and made clean through the perfect life and work of Jesus. That’s why I can say that . . .
The Christian Life is like a Draft of Guinness Stout!
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Scripture mentions John’s baptism, Jesus’ baptism, baptism of water, baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, baptism by fire, and baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Some of these descriptions are just different ways of describing the same type of baptism, and certainly most Christians would agree with this.
One particular denomination, the Assemblies of God, hold specific teachings about Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Their denomination confesses that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is distinct and separate for water baptism and the new birth of a believer. This baptism is the bestwoal of the Holy Spirit upon a believer that gives the believer certain spiritual gifts and a boldness to share the Gospel and an overflowing joy, or sense of the Spirit’s presence. This baptism according to the Assemblies of God is recognized by the physical sign of speaking in tongues. So if you haven’t spoken in tongues, it would mean you haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Andy lays out what he thinks is the proper Scriptural understanding of Baptism in the Holy Spirit to Jonathan Bennett and Jonathan Pratt. This is a type of baptism that many Christians circles typically associate with water baptism (washing in the name of the Triune Lord) or the moment a person’s conversion. Andy however sees something entirely different from the Assemblies of God and most other Christian groups!
To present his understanding of what he calls, Spirit-Baptism, for short, Andy answers the following two questions:
1. Is there a difference between having the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit?
2. Is there a difference between having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and having been baptized in the Holy Spirit?
Check the Scriptures used in this episode and see what you think. Is Andy properly interpreting Scripture?
Show Links:
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The presidential election for 2016 is over!
So it’s time to talk about a different kind of election, the election of sinners by God to salvation. Andy shares the five points of Calvinism and Arminianism, the two common theological systems that are debated and compared when discussing God’s role in salvation. But then the curveball comes, the Lutheran position on election is presented, a position which rarely discussed in the predestination debate among Christians. The Lutheran understanding of single-predestination is by far a different election from Calvin’s double-predestination.
Some show notes:
Five Points of Calvinism
T – otal Depravity
U – nconditional Election
L – imited Atonement
I – irresistible Grace
P – reservation of the Saints
Five Points of Arminianism
Lutherans hold to 1.5 points of Calvinism and 3 Points of Arminianism–
Total Depravity and Predestination for Salvation
General Atonement, Grace is Resistible, and Falling from Faith
We are saved by grace through faith.
John 3:16
Ephesians 2:8-9
Romans 4:5
Faith is not our work but the work of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:5
1 Corinthians 12:3
John 1:13
Ephesians 2:8-9
Ephesians 2:5 “God makes us alive.”
Romans 9:16
John 6:29
We are incapable of deciding to have faith.
1 Corinthians 12:3
Ephesians 2:1 “We are dead in our sins and trespasses.”
John 1:13
John 6:441 Corinthians 2:14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Any verse about being born again indicates this also, for what role do we play in our natural birth? None!
Since faith is purely a gift of God and we play no role in our conversion, then it could be assumed that God then chooses who will be saved, and also chooses who will not be saved.
Here’s what Scripture says on the matter:
God elects/predestines to salvation!
Ephesians 1:3-13, 4:3-5
John 1:13
Ephesians 2:4-5 “God made us alive (spiritually).
Romans 8:29-30
2 Timothy 1:8-9
It is the will of God that no man should perish!
1 Timothy 1:3-4
2 Peter 3:8-9
Andy Wrasman 