BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: A BIBLICAL VIEW OF HUMANITY

Biblical Anthropology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on humanity from a biblical perspective, as pertains to humanity's origin, nature, culture, purpose and destiny. Biblical Anthropology is not the same as Secular Anthropology or Humanistic Anthropology which base their ideas entirely on scientific reasoning and the evolutionary origin of humans, and teach that humans are intrinsically good instead of intrinsically evil. Biblical Anthropology seeks to answer the following questions:

What are humans?
How did humans come into existence?
What is some of the ethnic and cultural diversity?
What are the problems faced by humanity?
How can humanity's greatest problems be solved?

The theme verse of Biblical Anthropology is Psalm 139:14, which says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Humans are the only creatures on earth that were created in the image of God (Genesis 5:1, 2), and because of this, humans are the highest tangible life forms that exist on earth. Humans did not come into existence by chance; they did not evolve from random mutations in apes or monkeys. The first human being, Adam, was created by God on the sixth day of the creation week (Genesis 1:26-31) from constituents in the dust of the ground, and he became a living soul after God breathed the breath of life into him (Genesis 2:7). As with all the other sexual creatures, God created both male and female human beings. The male human is called man, and the female human is called woman. The first woman, Eve, was created from a rib God removed from Adam's side. The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were created perfect, sinless and without blemish; every aspect of their being was perfect. They were in perfect fellowship with God their Creator. God created the Garden of Eden as their original home, where they enjoyed perfect fellowship with God and with each other. However, everything changed when Satan entered the picture and deceived Eve into disobeying God's command, then Adam joined Eve in disobeying God. This act of disobedience was a sin that caused humanity to fall from perfection and loose their perfect relationship with God their Creator. Adam and Eve were sentenced to death by God and were expelled from the Garden of Eden to live out their lives in harsh conditions laboring for survival until they grew old and died. All of Adam and Eve's children were born after Adam and Eve fell from perfection, so all of their children inherited sin and imperfection from them. This phenomenon is called original sin, and it passed on to all of Adam's descendants generation after generation. As a result of this, every human being that has ever lived has received the mark of original sin and is guilty of all manner of sin against God. Human beings have no hope of remedying their problems with sin, suffering and death. It is only through God's redemption in Jesus Christ that man is saved from bondage to sin and restored to perfect fellowship with God.

According to Genesis 1:28-31, Psalm 8:3-8 and Psalm 115:16, God gave humans authority over the earth and everything that exists on the earth. However, this ownership was disrupted when Adam sinned and allowed Satan the Devil to seize spiritual dominion over the earth. Death and decay infiltrated all of creation as a result. Humanity's untarnished position of dominion over creation will be restored after Jesus Christ solves all of humanity's problems with sin (Acts 3:20, 21). At the restoration of all things, human beings who are redeemed in Christ will be glorified and exalted to a rank that is greater than or equal to the angels (Luke 20:35, 36; 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3).

Most Christians hold to the doctrine of dichotomism; that is, they believe each human being is a dichotomy of body and soul, with the body functioning as the material part of the person, and the soul functioning as the animating life force as well as the conscious, intellectual and emotional aspects of the person. According to this view, the soul and spirit are either interchangeable or synonymous. Those who hold to the doctrine of trichotomism, which believes that each human being is a trichotomy of body, soul and spirit. According to this view, the body is the material part of the person, the soul is the conscious intellectual and emotional aspects, while the spirit is the life force that animates the body and binds soul and body together. Both dichotomism and trichotomism teach that the human soul is immortal and survives the death of the body. There are others who believe in the doctrine known as mortalism, which teaches that the human being consists of a body that is sustained by an impersonal life force, and that the whole person ceases to exist when the body dies; thus there is no immaterial soul that survives the death of the body. The body and the soul are both human, but the soul is regarded as superior because it bears more of the image of God. When sin infiltrated the human race, both the human body and the human soul became unstable, resulting in humans being subject to weakness, imperfection and physical death. This is in addition to humanity's spiritual death or separation from God due to sin.

There are two biblically plausible views on the origin of the human soul: traducianism and creationism. Traducianism is the belief that human souls are formed at the moment of conception through the natural procreation between the parents, with half of the soul coming from the father and the other half from the mother. Christians who accept the doctrine of original sin generally accept traducianism. On the other hand, creationism is the belief that God specially creates a new soul "ex nihilo" when a human being is conceived. This belief is held by the Catholic Church, liberal Christians, and by people of non-Christian religions. However, some Christian theologians taught that the only human souls that originated through creationism were Adam, Eve and Jesus Christ; while all other souls originated through traducianism, which helps to explain original sin.

Relatively few passages of scripture in the Bible speak highly of humanity; people and their works are seldom praised in the Bible. Instead, most of the Bible presents a picture in which humans are frail, imperfect and sinful creatures that are in total need of dependence on God (Proverbs 3:5-7; Jeremiah 10:23, 24; Mark 9:24). Most of the Bible shows God criticizing, and sometimes severely punishing, people for their sin whenever they are proud, self-reliant and unrepentant (Isaiah 13:11; Jeremiah 17:7, 8; Luke 16:15; Romans 2:5-11; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Ephesians 5:5, 6). The Bible also shows God continually reaching His hand out to bond with humanity, having intentions of love, salvation, mercy and forgiveness (Psalm 86:5; Ezekiel 33:11; Micah 6:8; 7:18, 19; John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). God shows mercy and grace to all those who humble themselves and choose to love Him and trust Him for their existence and well-being (Psalm 55:22; Isaiah 40:31; James 4:6-10). God demands that all people worship Him alone and give all glory to Him (Exodus 20:3, 4; Jeremiah 9:23, 24).

The Bible does not explicitly give us the origin of the different "races" or skin colors of humanity. In actuality, there is only one race; that is, the human race (Acts 17:26). Within the human race, there is a broad diversity of skin color and other physical characteristics. One explanation is that Adam and Eve were polygenic in their genetic makeup; that is, they possessed multiple genes that produced offspring with white, yellow, red, brown, and black skin tones. Since God obviously desired humanity to be diverse in appearance, it makes sense that God would have given Adam and Eve the ability to produce children of different skin tones. Apparently Noah's three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth each had their own peculiar skin color. Genes for giantism may have entered the human race as a result of the angelic "sons of God" and "Nephilim" before the Great Flood (Genesis 6:1-4). Genesis chapters 5 and 11 show that the human lifespan was much longer during the early eras of history than the human lifespans of later eras of history. The shorter lifespans may have resulted from the negative effects of original sin on the biological constituents of the human race. Another explanation would be that environmental conditions on earth before the Great Flood were different from what they were after the Great Flood.

After the flood of Noah's Day, the human race gradually repopulated the earth, with Shem's descendants settling in most of Asia, Ham's descendants settling in Africa and western Asia, and Japheth's descendants settling in Europe, Siberia and the Caucasus (Genesis 10:1-32). A mighty Hamitic hunter named Nimrod settled in Mesopotamia and devised new forms of religion and human government (Genesis 10:8-12). These Nimrodian forms of religion and government spread all over the world when God confused languages at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). The majority of our modern religions and governments have features that can be traced back to the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel.

Quite a number of books in the Bible, including Genesis, 1 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Matthew and Luke, contain lengthy genealogies of different families and nations of people, especially the Jews. Some people who attempt to read through the Bible from beginning to end tend to feel discouraged and give up when they encounter the lengthy and detailed genealogies. Why is the Bible filled with so many genealogies? One reason is because those genealogies serve as evidence that the family is the most fundamental social institution, the foundation of human civilization (Deuteronomy 32:7-9). The genealogies also illustrate how the human race is organized and how all human beings descended from one common ancestor (Adam and Eve), regardless of nationality, ethnicity, skin color and other unique traits (Acts 17:26). Another reason is because God fulfills His many plans and purposes through certain people and their respective family lines (Genesis 17:3-7; 22:15-18; Galatians 3:28, 29).

Just because humans were created in the image of God, and are the offspring of God from a creation standpoint (Acts 17:28, 29), that does not means humans are of the same substance or nature as God. Humans are clearly distinguished from God in the scriptures, plus humans are not intrinsically gods or deities (Numbers 23:19; Ezekiel 28:1, 2; Hosea 11:9; 1 Timothy 2:5). The human soul did not emanate directly from the substance or nature of God for two reasons. First, emanation implies that the substance of God can become disturbed or changed, and this is unworthy of the character of God. The infinite God cannot become less than Himself. Second, God's substance is God's very nature which constitutes all of His unique attributes. If humans were able to partake of God’s essential substance they would possess the very attributes of God, such as omniscience, infinity, omnipotence, and so on. That is not possible, because the finite cannot become the infinite, nor can the infinite become finite. God will not give His intrinsic glory, nor His ascribed glory, to someone else (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11). Humans are made in the image of God in the sense that humans merely reflect God's spiritual, intellectual, emotional, communicative, relational, creative, moral and purpose-oriented qualities. Humans reflect Almighty God the Creator in the following ways:

SPIRITUAL – Unlike plants and animals, humans have a spirit essence; that is, a soul that is immaterial, energetic, conscious and immortal. It resides inside the physical body to form the complete human being and it consciously survives the death of the physical body.
INTELLECTUAL – Like God, humans have thinking ability, as well as knowledge and the ability to reason over information perceived through various experiences to form conclusions, views or opinions.
EMOTIONAL – Like God, humans have emotions and feelings that reflect their views about different people, things and experiences. Humans are capable of expressing love and hate, happiness and sadness, as well as excitement, anger, serenity, humor, etc.
COMMUNICATIVE – Like God, humans are capable of using verbal and nonverbal language to communicate with other humans or with God.
RELATIONSHIP ORIENTED – Like God, humans the ability to form relationships with others. Humans are the most advanced of all social creatures because they were created to have a relationship with God the Grand Creator. All humans innately have a desire for importance and attention from other social entities, and God satisfies that innate desire perfectly.
CREATIVE – Like God, humans have the ability to use their intellect and skills to design and create things. They are capable of being organized and having a sense of beauty and elegance for their gifts and talents, such as writing, singing, acting, painting, decorating, sculpting, building, engineering, etc.
MORAL AGENCY – Like God, humans are free moral agents that have a sense of right and wrong, good and evil. God's law is written on the human heart. Acquisition of the sin nature has severely perverted humanity's sense of right and wrong to where humans naturally choose their own morality over God's. The primary reason why humans are accountable to God is because they were created in the image of God for the purpose of reflecting God's moral standards and other divine qualities.
PURPOSE-ORIENTED – Like God, humans have a free will and volition to choose what words to speak and what actions to perform according to whatever good or bad morality. They have the ability to plan and to set goals, then to seek to fulfill such plans and goals. Humans are also capable of have a sense of purpose and conforming to a purpose given to them.

God created human beings as majestic creatures that were to rule over His creation (Genesis 1:26-31; Psalm 8:1-9). However, everything changed when sin infiltrated the human race. In our fallen, sinful state, we are profoundly disfigured, a perversion of the majesty  that God our Creator originally intended (Romans 3:23). Even though the original intimate relationship between God and humanity was severed by the fall of Adam (Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:1-21), God has relentlessly pursued His beloved human creatures from the beginning of time, sending His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be reconciled to Him and become His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs alongside Jesus Christ (Romans 8:14-29). It is Jesus who restores those who put their faith in Him. Through Christ, God's image is brought back into perfect focus so that God's glory shines brilliantly from the reflection (Ephesians 3:16-20; 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9, 10; 2 Peter 1:3, 4).

HAMARTIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF SIN

Hamartiology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that seeks to define, describe and explain the truth about sin from the perspective of God's inspired Word the Bible. Hamartiology seeks to answer the following questions:

What is sin?
What are the different types of sin?
Where did sin come from?
What is God's view of sin?
How does sin affect us?
What the consequences of sin?
What is the solution to sin?

The theme verse for Hamartiology is Romans 3:23, which say "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." This divinely inspired declaration about sinfulness applies on both the individual level and on the universal level. Sin was such a serious issue to the apostle Paul that he spent the first three chapters of his epistle to the Romans explaining the severity of sin, the consequences of sin, and the universality of sin. The doctrine of sin has a long history of being highly offensive to people both within and outside the Church, thus not many churches elaborate on the biblical truth about sin nowadays. The doctrine of sin is very important because a person must fully understand the grimness of their situation that is caused by sin, and why they must depend totally upon God in order to be saved from their sin.

WHAT IS SIN?

Sin is translated from the Greek word hamartano (ἁμαρτάνω), which means "to err" or "to miss the mark," sort of like an archer aiming an arrow and shooting at the bull's eye of a target only to miss the bull's eye. The Hebrew equivalent in the Old Testament is chata (חָטָא), which also means "to err" or "to miss the mark." Sin is the act of erring or missing the mark of God's standard of perfection. This is a very broad meaning for sin, because a person can err or miss the mark of God's perfection in a number of ways. One way of missing the mark of God's perfection is by transgressing or disobeying the law of God (1 John 3:4). Another way of missing the mark is through the sin of omission; that is, knowing what is right but refusing to do it (James 4:17). Still another way of missing the mark is through faithlessness or doubt, since it is impossible to please God without faith (Romans 14:23; Hebrews 11:6). Various other ways of missing the mark of God's perfection include unintentional sins (Numbers 15:27), presumptuous sins (Numbers 15:30, 31; Psalm 19:13); sins committed out of ignorance (Leviticus 4:2), and original sin that is responsible for the sin nature (Psalm 51:5). Sin is a hamartia (Greek ἁμαρτία for "tragic flaw" or "fatal flaw"); and sin is a tragic flaw because sin ruins God's glorious holy image in the human race and separates each person from the holy God. Human beings were originally created perfect and holy by God, existing perfectly in God's image, plus humans were in perfect fellowship with God, until sin tragically ruined all of this. Sin is also a fatal flaw because it is so profound that it eventually leads to a tragic end, a fatality, a certain death (Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 5:12; 6:23; James 1:14, 15), to any person infiltrated by sin, unless the loving and merciful God intervenes in a repentant sinner's life to correct the tragic flaw of sin through the person and saving work of Jesus Christ (John 3:16; John 8:24). Death is not only caused by sin, death is God's ultimate punishment for sin. The perfect justice of God's law strictly demands the penalty of death as the wages of the sin committed. The Bible shows that Almighty God hates sin and regards sinners as being at enmity with Him (Psalm 5:4-6; Proverbs 6:16-19). God hates sin because it is the very antithesis of His holy nature, sin detracts from the perfection and holiness of His creation. The Bible presents God’s attitude toward sin with strong feelings of hostility, disgust, and utter dislike. For example, God's inspired Word describes sin as abomination (Proverbs 6:16-19), putrefying sores (Isaiah 1:6), a heavy burden (Psalm 38:4), defiling filth (Titus 1:15; 2 Corinthians 7:1), a binding debt (Matthew 6:12-15), darkness (1 John 1:6) and a scarlet stain (Isaiah 1:18). God hates to look upon sin with His pure eyes (Habakkuk 1:13). God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11). Sinners are under the wrath of God and they are under God's curse (Isaiah 13:11; Matthew 25:41; Galatians 3:10; Ephesians 5:5, 6). God enforces the eternal punishment of Hell upon all unrepentant sinners (Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 21:8).

SIN'S POWER OVER UNREGENERATE HUMANITY

The secular society and some false Christian churches have a humanistic view of humanity in which humans are inherently good instead of inherently evil. Most world religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism also deny original sin and the inherently evil nature of human beings. However, the Bible provides vivid descriptions showing that humans are inherently evil, not inherently good. Jesus describes humans as inherently evil when He said "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11). Although people in their unregenerate state are capable of doing certain kinds of goodness or benevolence; Jesus describes humans as inherently evil. From God standpoint of absolute perfection, humans are inherently evil. However, humans were not originally created as inherently evil. In the beginning, God created humanity, in the person of Adam and Eve, perfect in all aspects of human nature. They were without defect, without blemish, and without defilement. In the beginning, humans functioned and behaved exactly as God created them to function and behave in thoughts, words, and deeds. They were also perfect in body, mind, and spirit with absolutely no weaknesses whatsoever, and because of this humans were able to maintain perfect fellowship with God their Creator through perfect love, and cooperate with God their Creator in ways that were perfect. However, everything changed when Adam and Eve began listening to Satan the Devil and disobeyed God's command in the Garden of Eden. As a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience, humanity fell from perfection and became imperfect and sinful in their nature. Ever since that time, humanity has been sinful and corrupt by nature, and cannot repair the damage sin has done to him. This is because sin has infiltrated every aspect of man's being; that is, every conceivable part of man's being is adversely touched and influenced by sin. After Adam's fall, humanity did degenerate in all aspects of their nature, but humanity DID NOT degenerate into "100% corruption" or "pure evil." The image of God within humans was profoundly shattered and severely polluted by sin, but it was not eradicated by sin. There are still remnants of God's image and goodness remaining within each human being, but that goodness, in a spiritual sense, is no more profitable than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Therefore, such goodness CANNOT merit salvation from one's own sinful condition before the God of perfect righteousness and holiness. Humans are in bondage to sin and are therefore unable to set themselves free to obtain the highest spiritual good from God. Humanity exists in a situation in which "That which is crooked cannot be made straight, that which is lacking cannot be numbered" (Ecclesiastes 1:15). People are unable to convert themselves and their life's circumstances from crooked to straight, nor are they able to number and provide everything their bodies, souls and spirits are sorely lacking. Only God the Creator is able to convert a person's heart, and their life's circumstances, from crooked to straight, and accurately number and adequately provide everything they sorely lack spiritually and materially.

Jesus Christ the Son of God, together with the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, is man's only hope in being set free from sin's powerful clutches (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:4-6). Apart from one's faith in the saving grace and atoning work of Jesus Christ, their problems with sin cannot be solved (Ephesians 2:8, 9; 1 John 1:7-9). The Scriptures describe the human being in the fallen, unregenerate state as unable to use spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 2:14), at enmity with God (Romans 8:7), a lover of dark rather than light (John 3:19), full of evil (Ecclesiastes 9:3), one who is conceived in sin and born in sin (Psalm 51:5; 58:3; Isaiah 48:8), one whose inclinations and thoughts are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5), one whose inclinations are evil from youth onward (Genesis 8:21), a child of wrath and disobedience (Ephesians 2:3; 5:6; Colossians 3:6), one who walks after their own devices (Jeremiah 18:12), one who drinks iniquity like water (Job 15:16), a servant of his father the Devil (John 8:44), one with a defiled mind and conscience (Titus 1:15), one with a heart that is deceitful, desperately wicked or incurable (Jeremiah 17:9), one who lives by the flesh and cannot please God (Romans 8:8), one who cannot approach Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws him (John 6:44, 65); one whose deeds are evil (John 3:19), one who walks after the imaginations of their evil heart (Jeremiah 7:24; 13:10; 16:12), one who is defiled by the evil that comes out of them (Mark 7:20-23), blind and deaf to the things of God (Ezekiel 12:2; Luke 8:10; 2 Corinthians 4:4), and finally, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Other Bible passages that vividly describe the depth of human depravity include Isaiah 59:1-21 and Romans 3:10-19. Not only does sin severely affect the individual person, sin is also universal. Every human being that has ever lived has sinned, rebelled against God, and fallen short of the glory of God (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 5:12). We humans CANNOT purify ourselves of sin (Proverbs 20:9), nor can we reconcile ourselves with God without first seeking God through His perfect and sinless Son, Jesus Christ, who gave His life as a ransom to pay for the sins of all people (John 14:6; Romans 10:9-13; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6). Biblical statements like "Whoever believes" are fine and true (John 3:16; 1 John 5:1); each person does have the ability through free will to choose between good and evil, life and death, blessing and cursing, God and sin (Deuteronomy 30:19). Once a sinner repents and makes the choice to cast our overwhelming burden of sin upon Jesus Christ the Savior, a change will begin taking place within the repentant sinner's nature; that is, they have been "born again" through God's Holy Spirit (John 3:5-7), and have been regenerated as "a new creation" in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SIN NATURE AND GOD'S RESTRAINT ON SIN

The reality that humans are depraved by nature and not by nurture alone is illustrated by children. Do you have to teach a child to lie? Do you have to teach a child to be self-centered? Do you have to teach a child how to be selfish? Do you have to teach a child how to be threatening or mean to other children? They learn that on their own because its already in their nature. If a parent sets their child free without ever disciplining them for fifteen years, the child will grow up to become a monster. So many people consider Adolf Hitler as one of the most evil people who ever lived in world history. It is easy to leave a child to run wild and undisciplined, but it take many years of extremely hard work to discipline and train a child to do all the right things in life. Even in everyday life, well trained adults discover that it is so much easier to do evil than it is to do good. It always takes a tremendous amount of effort to resist all natural tendencies that compel a person to do selfish, immoral, antisocial or disorderly things. Atheist Sigmund Freud explained the subconscious "id" as an intrinsically selfish, antisocial and violent aspect of the human being that must be resisted throughout one's life. A negative person can pull a positive person down quicker and easier than a positive person can pull a negative person up. One thing everyone needs to understand is that Adolf Hitler was not an anomaly. Hitler was not an unusual phenomenon. Hitler was what everyone in this world has the potential of being, and not only that, people must understand that even in the wickedness of Hitler, Hitler was still restrained by the common grace of God. If it were not for the common grace of God restraining a person in their unregenerate state, they would make Hitler look like a saint. Hitler would seem so good compared to them. Everything else in nature, including plants, animals, the chemical substances and the weather conditions, are far more obedient to the will of God than human are. Humans are the only creatures that mistreat or even kill their own species for their own pleasure or gain. When Judgment Day arrives, God will remove His restraints from all the unsaved people and they will be revealed as the wicked monsters they truly are. One famous theologian, Jeremiah Burroughs, said that if if if God, a million years after Judgment Day, were to open the gates of Hell to set its prisoners free on the condition that they bow to worship Him, Hell's prisoners would hate God so much that they would slam Hell's gates in God's face and refuse to leave Hell. Of course no one knows for sure whether or not Hell's prisoners would react to God's kindness in such a way. However, everyone should thank God for His restraint on sin in the human heart and in society as a whole, because the world would be an extremely dangerous place without such divine restraints.

VARYING VIEWS ABOUT THE SIN NATURE AMONG THEOLOGIANS

The 2nd century theologian Irenaeus made references to the concept of the hereditary sin nature as he debated with certain proponents of dualistic Gnosticism. Other early theologians, such as Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster acknowledged that humanity shares in Adam's sin, as the sin nature is transmitted by human generation. Tertullian introduced in Latin the first terminology of what we now call original sin (vitium originis = "vice of origin") and the birthmark of sin (naevus peccati). Tertullian, along with Irenaeus, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster taught that, although man has a sin nature, man still possesses the free will to accept or reject God. Later in history, Saint Augustine of Hippo amended the doctrine of the sin nature by elevating it to "total depravity" or "total inability" in which humans lack free will due to total enslavement to the sin nature. Saint Augustine proposed the idea of total depravity in an effort to refute a British monk named Pelagius who was spreading a heretical idea (now called pelagianism) that denied the existence of a sin nature. Pelagianism was radically humanistic and autosoteric, as it taught that humans are inherently good and are capable of earning salvation and sinless perfection through their own efforts, without necessarily needing God's grace. Another heresy called semipelagianism was a works-grace salvation that stressed that God and humans have a 50/50 contribution to salvation. Both pelagianism and semipelagianism were refuted as heretical by the Protestant Reformation and most Protestant churches held to the doctrines supporting the hereditary sin nature for centuries afterwards. Calvinism and Arminianism dominated the churches. Calvinism believes in total depravity and the lack of free will; while Arminianism believes in both the sin nature and free will. However, many of today's liberal and postmodern churches are now beginning to deny the sinful nature of human beings in exchange for humanism and autosoterism.

It should be noted that, without Almighty God's divine intervention, none of us can justify ourselves by converting ourselves from sinful to sinless, from imperfect to perfect, from impure to pure. "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'?" (Proverbs 20:9). In light of this, we were definitely affected by the fall of Adam, contrary to what Pelagius taught (1 Corinthians 15:22). When God first created Adam and Eve, they were perfect in in every aspect of their being and were not subject to sin, suffering, and death. Adam and Eve fell from perfection and became spiritually dead after sinning against God; they were condemned by God, and the whole creation was cursed. The once perfect minds, souls, and bodies of Adam and Eve began to deteriorate and break down as they were cut off from the Tree of Life. Imperfect, sinful, and unclean parents subject to death CANNOT produce perfect, sinless, and pure children that are immortal because that is impossible, since every living thing (clean or unclean) procreates after its own kind. The book of Job puts it rightly when it says "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!" (Job 14:4), and the Psalms state that human beings are made imperfect by sin from the moment of their conception and birth (Psalm 51:5; 58:3; Isaiah 48:8).

THE BIBLE MENTIONS SIN FREQUENTLY

The word SIN, in all of its variations, appears more than 800 times in the 66 books of the King James Version (KJV) Bible. This consistent presentation of sin in the King James Bible reveals just how important an issue sin is to the Lord God Almighty who inspired the Bible, and just how gravely deadly serious an issue sin is to each and every human being, especially to those who do not repent. This consistent presentation of sin in the King James Bible also totally discredits the ideas of heretical preachers that deny the original sin nature of humanity and/or deny the existence of sin, the wrath of God, and Hell altogether.

the word - "sin" - appears 447 times
the word - "sins" - appears 173 times
the word - "sinned" - appears 119 times
the word - "sinners" - appears 48 times
the word - "sinneth" - appears 22 times
the word - "sinner" - appears 21 times
the word - "sinful" - appears 8 times
the word - "sinning" - appears 2 times
the word - "sinnest" - appears 1 time
A GRAND TOTAL OF 841 TIMES

This list does not include the many synonyms for sin, such as iniquities, transgressions, trespasses, wickedness, evil, dead works, faults, errors, ungodliness, guiltiness, offenses, stumbling, unlawfulness, concupiscence, abomination, etc. that appear everywhere in God's Word the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

ARETOLOGY: A FOCUS ON VIRTUE, GODLINESS & CHRISTIAN MORALITY

Aretology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on virtue, godliness, and God's prescribed morals. Aretology seeks to answer the following questions:

What is virtue?
How does the Bible emphasize virtue?
What are the different types of wisdom?
What moral standards has God given to Christians?
How important is the virtue of godliness?
How can a person cultivate godliness?
What are the consequences for not applying God's moral standards?
What are the benefits of living a virtuous and godly life?

The theme verse for Aretology is 2 Peter 1:3, 4, which says "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Virtue is moral goodness or moral excellency; the practice of living according to high moral standards. Virtue coincides with holiness, which is an aspect of godliness. Godliness means having a reverence for God and living a life of holiness for the purpose of worshiping, serving and glorifying God. Christianity has virtues that surpass those of all other religions in terms of efficacy in attaining godliness.

Virtues are aspects of God’s character which everyone must integrate into their own character, since humans were created in the image of God and are accountable to God. Aspects of God's character include love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, faithfulness, contentment, humility, discretion, self-control, purity of heart, decency, godliness, justice, and delighting in righteousness and shunning evil.

Jesus Christ, as God manifested in the flesh, exercised virtue perfectly and Christ's godliness was exactly as God commanded in the Hebrew Tanakh (Old Testament). Jesus said "And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I ALWAYS DO THOSE THINGS THAT PLEASE HIM." Jesus exemplified God's qualities of love, patience, mercy, faithfulness, purity, wisdom and righteous conduct. Jesus was content with being different from everyone else around Him since He knew that everything He was practicing was in perfect conformity to the will of God. Hence He never compromised even in the midst of the worse suffering and persecution from others. As God manifested in the flesh, Jesus Christ is referred to as the "mystery of godliness" at 1 Timothy 3:16. The mystery and prototype of godliness is Jesus Christ. As a person reads through the four Gospels, they observe Jesus' incarnation, His virtuous and holy life, His atoning death on the Cross, His bodily resurrection, and His glorious ascension to Heaven. Jesus' life is the pattern for Christian godliness, and those who repent and believe on Him are redeemed and covered with His perfect righteousness, then Jesus uses the Holy Spirit to enables the redeemed to walk in true godliness. Keeping one's eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of the faith, prevents one from backsliding into ungodly behavior, also prevents one from practicing fake and hypocritical godliness. In addition, keeping one's eyes on Jesus inspires them to continue growing in godliness. Since Christ left Christians an example to follow (1 Peter 2:21-23), Christians are called to be Christ-like. Although Christians will never attain sinless perfection in this life, they are to follow Jesus' example by walking as Jesus walked (1 John 2:3-6). As they are indwelt and transformed by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17, 18), Christians are to put off the old self that is corrupt and put on the new self that is conformed to the image of Christ (Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9, 10).

A virtuous person will manifest three attributes represented by three Greek words: arete (high moral standards), phronesis (practical wisdom), and eudaimonia (well-being). These three Greek terms are used in secular philosophies and non-Christian faiths, but their meanings also apply very well in Christian theology:

Arete (ἀρέτη) is virtue or moral excellence. The opposite of virtue is vice (Greek κακία = kakia), which is moral evil; that is, any practice, behavior, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, depraved or degrading. It is possible for the very character of a person to be virtuous. Its not that the person has a habit of not lying, but that their core disposition is to be honest. The person's emotions, honest reactions, preferences, values, wishes, and intentions are all characterized by virtue. Whatever is inside the person's heart is what will determine how vicious or virtuous they truly are. Jesus said it best when He said that a good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart, but the evil person brings forth evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart (Matthew 12:33-35). The virtuous person's actions are informed by their complete nature; they can be honest and kind, generous and responsible, and have high expectations of other people but still be forgiving of offenses or shortcomings. Also, to be fully virtuous means to act on all these good characteristics readily, willingly, and with a good attitude.

Phronesis (φρόνησις), also known as practical wisdom, is knowing why, when, where and how to apply accumulated knowledge in light of experience and the discernment of experiences. The book of Proverbs teaches practical wisdom more clearly than any other book in the Bible. The book of Proverbs is a compilation of God's practical wisdom on a large variety of topics ranging from parenting, listening to wise counsel, sexual chastity, justice, giving to the poor, pride, anger, laziness, and so on. For example, there are many passages in Proverbs that deal with speech, as to how and when to speak to this or that person. While there are other dimensions to being Christ-like, the most important is that Christians be like Christ in character. The more a person studies the Word of God and meditates on it, the more their own moral character will reflect Christ's character, thus inclining them to practice personal and practical holiness. Developing practical wisdom through studies in the scriptures also enables a Christian to discern the character of other people. This is especially important whenever a Christian preaches or provides biblical counseling.

Eudaimonia (εὐδαιμονία) is the "well-being" or "human flourishing" that generally results from practicing moral goodness and practical wisdom. Eudaimonia is manifested as a state of happiness, good health (spiritual, mental, physical), success and prosperity. Generally speaking, if a certain action or lifestyle is not inherently good, virtuous and wise, then it will not produce eudaimonia. The Bible presents many scriptures saying that a wise and morally good life will result in all kinds of blessings in this life. For example, diligent work brings prosperity but laziness results in poverty (Proverbs 10:4). However, there is no absolute guarantee that a Christian will be 100% healthy and bountifully prosperous for every moment of their life as a godly individual. The scriptures promise that those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and other trials (2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-19). Even if a Christian does not remain physically healthy and materially prosper in this life, their eudaimonia will still be manifested through joy, contentment and continual spiritual growth in this life, plus a much greater eudaimonia awaits them in eternity future. For example, Peter and the other apostles were rejoicing as they suffered afflictions in the hands of the Jewish leaders (Acts 5:40-41). The Christians of Smyrna endured tribulation and persecution until death because of promises of blessing made by Jesus (Revelation 2:10).

The life of a Christian is characterized by knowing God through a personal relationship with Him, and growing spiritually to become like God in holiness and character. The Christian life is not natural but supernatural, because the only way a person can successfully apply all the virtues of God, and live in holiness on a consistent basis, is through the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit. The law of God is not merely a list of do's and don't's; the law of God perfectly reflects God's holy character as to what is pleasing and displeasing to Him. Thus delighting in God's law, and striving to obeying God's law, leads a person to behave more like God himself. Since the law of God is spiritual, it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that a person is able to delight in God's law and live by it.

What does it mean to be a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)? In a process known as theosis, Christian believers take on some of God's divine qualities. This does not mean that we become "gods" or "little gods" as taught by Word of Faith theology, Mormonism, and the New Age Movement. Rather, theologians divide the attributes of God into two categories. The first category includes God's incommunicable attributes, which always have been and always will be exclusive to God alone, attributes such as God's omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, aseity, eternal existence and immutability. The second category includes God's communicable attributes, also called relational attributes or moral attributes. The communicable attributes are the behavioral attributes that are found in God and shared by God with born again Christians who are conformed to the mind of Christ, attributes such as love, patience, grace, mercy, humility, holiness and an inclination to righteousness. It is in this sense that Christians become partakers of the divine nature. The settled dispositions associated with Christian virtues cause Christians to act in certain ways; that is, ways that are Christ-like. All godly virtues are interrelated to the all-embracing Christian virtues of holiness and love and are produced by the Holy Spirit as Christians strive to make such virtues increase in their lives.

The fear of God is mentioned repeatedly in Proverbs; in fact, godly fear is one of the major themes of the book of Proverbs. The fear of God means having a humble and loving reverence for God, desiring to please Him through obedience, and endeavoring to imitate His character. The first step toward acquiring virtue and progressing in godliness is to have a fear or reverence for God, which in turn leads to knowing God personally and understanding His revealed will that must be obeyed (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10).

Another major step toward acquiring virtue and godliness is repentance, which includes repentance of unbelief and repentance of sins. Repentance is translated from the Greek word metanoia (μετάνοια), meaning "a change of mind" that results in a change of attitudes, passions, and motives away from sin and toward the holy God. Although a person is saved and justified in Christ at the moment of initial repentance, the person continues to repent over the course of their Christian walk, as part of sanctification, in order to gain a closer relationship with God and to grow spiritually in all the godly virtues of Jesus Christ.

HERE ARE A FEW VERSES THAT LEAD TO VIRTUE AND GODLINESS:

Love God with all your heart (Matthew 22:37-40)
Love your neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10)
Persevere in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 John 4:1)
Bridle the tongue; be careful how you talk (Ephesians 4:29, 31)
Be given to hospitality (Romans 12:13; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9; Hebrews 13:2)
Give to others and share with others (Hebrews 13:16)
Abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)
Study and meditate on God's Word diligently (Joshua 1:8; 2 Timothy 2:15)
Do not dwell on lustful desires (2 Timothy 2:22)
Do not seek to feed the flesh (Romans 13:14)
Walk according to the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16)
Do not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2)
Do not let anger rest in your heart (Ephesians 4:26)
Avoid getting drunk with wine (alcohol) (Ephesians 5:18)
Do not practice greed or dishonest gain (Ephesians 5:5)
Love your enemies, pray for and do good to them (Matthew 5:43-47; Romans 12:20)
Avoid compromising the faith and God's standards (Colossians 2:8; Hebrews 10:23)
Die to self daily to follow Christ (Luke 9:23)
Be a living sacrifice to God; Keep a clean body and spirit (Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 7:1)
Do not lie, cheat or steal, kill, or commit adultery (Matthew 19:18)
Do not worship idols, do not idolize things (1 John 5:21)
Pursue godliness; pursue holiness (1 Timothy 6:11; Hebrews 12:14)
Put God's will ahead of your own (Luke 22:42)
Do all things decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40)
Be forgiving, and do not seek revenge (Romans 12:17-19)
Avoid stumbling your weaker brothers or sisters (Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 8:9-13)
Be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4:11)
Do not associate with negative people (Proverbs 13:20; 1 Cor. 15:33)
Have courage; Do not be afraid (Isaiah 41:10; John 14:27; 2 Timothy 1:7)
Put heavenly things and eternity first (Colossians 3:1, 2)
Stay humble; do not be proud or conceited (Romans 12:16)
Stay filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)
Endure persecutions, temptations and trials (Matthew 5:11, 12; James 1:12)
Sanctify God's name (Matthew 6:9)
Meditate on things that are positive (Philippians 4:8)
Honor your father and your mother (Ephesians 6:1-3)

SOTERIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION

Soteriology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on salvation from sin. Soteriology seeks to answer the following questions:

What does it mean to be saved?
What is a person saved from?
How does a person get saved?
Are there many ways of salvation, or is there only one way?
What are the benefits that come with salvation?
What happens to those people who are not saved?

The theme verse for Soteriology is Ephesians 2:8, 9 which says that people are saved by grace through faith, and not by their own works. Christianity is the only belief system in the world that offers salvation entirely by grace through faith. All other belief systems, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and false Christian cults call for people to somehow earn their salvation through their own good works. Christianity is based on theosoterism, which means God does all the necessary work in saving a person. Other belief systems are based on autosoterism, which means people are required to somehow save themselves from their adverse spiritual circumstance by meriting God's favor. Christianity is not a religion but a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Other belief systems are religions that place a heavy burden of do's, don't's and special rituals on a person that prove to be unprofitable in earning salvation. All the great spiritual leaders that founded the world's religions are dead. Muhammad is dead, Confucius is dead, Moses is dead, and Joseph Smith and Charles T. Russell are also dead. However, Jesus Christ is the spiritual leader of true Christianity and He is still alive, as He was bodily resurrected from the dead to be our Savior, Mediator, High Priest and King.

Salvation means to be saved from your sins by resting on God's Son Jesus Christ as the substitutionary atonement for your sins, which in turns opens the way for God to declare you righteous, no longer guilty of sins. Instead of imputing sin on you after salvation, God imputes the perfect righteousness of His Son on your account, so that God now sees you as being without sin. Jesus' substitutionary atonement does not cover just some of your sins, nor does it cover most of your sins, instead, it covers all of your sins (1 John 1:7). A person is at Peace with God once their sins have been covered by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1), but they were at enmity with God prior to being saved. There is no condemnation on those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

The reason why we, as sinners cannot save ourselves is because the Bible teaches that, as a result of the fall of man (Genesis 3:1-7) every part of human nature, including our mind, will, emotions and flesh, have been corrupted by sin. In other words, sin affects all areas of our being, including who we are and what we do. It penetrates to the very core of our being so that everything is tainted by sin and "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). The Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners by nature, not merely by choice alone. God's law demands perfection, but we cannot produce perfect deeds, nor can we transform our nature from imperfect to perfect (Proverbs 20:9). God gave the Law to humanity so that we may know His will, but the Law also serves to reveals our sinfulness, and the only thing the Law can do is condemn us under God's wrath because we are unable to keep the Law perfectly (Romans 7:7-14). Every time we break one of God's laws, we automatically break all of God's laws (James 2:10). Consequently, any salvation plan that is based on human works is futile. An autosocteric gospel does not and cannot save.

God saw humanity's terrible situation back in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. God arranged for the ransom sacrifice of His Son before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). God began disclosing His salvation plan to humanity at the moment our original parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin (Genesis 3:15). Eventually, God sent His Son into the world to be our Savior; His name was Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:21). Christ suffered a terrible, painful death on the Cross of Calvary for our sins. That was not an ordinary death; it was Almighty God pouring out His fierce, just and holy anger upon His own Son for the sins of humanity. God's just and holy hatred for sins was bruising Jesus on the Cross. Isaiah 53:10 says that it pleased the Lord God to bruise His own Son as payment for our sins. Jesus' resurrection from the dead proves that the payment for our sins was sufficient. Therefore Jesus paid for everything and we are required to do nothing to get saved except to repent and believe on the Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21; 26:20; Romans 10:9).

So what happens to those who do not become saved? Jesus said "If you do no believe that I AM He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24); that is, the individual who dies as an unbeliever will remain in an everlasting state of spiritual death, eternal separation from God. Their name will not be written down in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:14, 15). Anyone who does not become saved through the Lord Jesus Christ will remain under the wrath of God and the curse of God against sin will be bound to them forever (John 3:36). The lack of salvation will place them under the eternal judgment of Almighty God and they will live out their eternal destiny in Hell, alongside the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). The intense torment they will experience in Hell will never end. Since the individual was not faithful to Christ to allow for Christ to pay for all their sins, the individual will be found guilty before God on Judgment Day and they will be forced to pay the full penalty for their own sins.

THE PROFOUND DILEMMA OF THE GOSPEL

The way God saves sinners is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16). Almighty God is a holy and just God who weighs people's hearts and deeds according to perfect fairness and gives due recompense (Ecclesiastes 3:17; Jeremiah 17:10). The Bible says God is loving and forgiving, but it also says God’s way of dealing with sin is just and righteous. The profound dilemma resolved by the Gospel is this: How can God forgive and justify wicked people, and yet, still be perfectly just? If God forgave our sin without demanding full payment, it would not be just. "God will by no means clear the guilty;" (Exodus 34:7; Nahum 1:3). "He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just are both an abomination to the LORD." (Proverbs 17:15). From our point of view, this seems like an unsolvable problem for God. He cannot justify the wicked or condemn the just or He would be violating His own word. God cannot forgive sin by simply saying “not guilty”. Someone said, “A judge who clears a guilty man becomes guilty himself.” How does God deal with it? God provided the solution by sending His Son Jesus Christ in to the world to pay for humanity's sins. Perhaps the greatest words in all of scripture are these: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:23-26). Jesus became sin for us; He died with our sin on Him; our sin was punished in His death (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24, 25). He did not become guilty of sin, but He did become the bearer of sin; our sin was placed on Him and He died for it (Isaiah 53:5, 6; 53:10-12). In other words, God sent Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins, a substitutionary atonement that satisfies God's perfect justice (Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:9, 10). Thus the atoning work of Jesus takes care of the justice of God. But how are we justified? In reverse. Christ's perfect righteousness is placed on us. God saw Jesus as our Sin Offering so He could see us covered with the righteousness of Jesus. This is known as imputed righteousness. God forgives us because, and only because our sin was punished in Christ and our guilt taken away when Christ acted as our substitute. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1a). Thus the Gospel explains how God can forgive wicked people and still be consistent with His perfect justice. The Gospel is the good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ as summed up in John 3:16, Romans 1:16, 17 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The biblical Gospel is the good news that God saves sinners. Man is by nature sinful and separated from God with no hope of remedying that situation through his efforts. But by God's grace and power, He provided the means of man’s redemption in the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The gospel is the call to repentance to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace (Ephesians 1:7). Sinners are saved by God's grace, not by their works (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5).

THE NARROW WAY AND THE EXCLUSIVITY OF JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and the only Mediator between God and humanity (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God, salvation and eternal life. Jesus personally said to His disciples "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). The doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ has been rejected by universalists, by the Emergent Church, and by the New Age Movement, all of which claim there are many pathways to God and salvation, and that coexistence between religions is a wonderful idea. Jesus described the way of salvation as the narrow road to life, as compared to the broad road to destruction. Jesus said "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13, 14). Notice that Jesus not only described the way to life as "difficult" but He also described the gate to life as "narrow." When Jesus says, “I am the Door” at John 10:7, He is reiterating the fact that only through Him is salvation possible. This is far removed from the ecumenical teachings popular in today’s liberal religious circles. As one reads further down the context of Matthew 7, they will read where Jesus said that not everyone who says to Him "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of God the Father. Despite so many people professing Him as Lord, and performing all kinds of powerful works in His name, Jesus will reject them as workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:21-23). They openly professed to be Christian and outwardly displayed a form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16), while at the same time, they hypocritically lived as though Christ never gave them commandments on how to live the Christian life. What did Jesus mean by "I never knew you"? Jesus knows only those who do the Father's will and keep Christ's commandments. He said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). Jesus said "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you" (John 15:14).

REGENERATION AND THE THREE PARTS TO SALVATION

There are three parts to salvation: justification, sanctification and glorification. Justification frees a believer from the penalty of sin; sanctification free them from the power and influence of sin; and glorification removes them from the presence of sin. Justification is God's legally declaring a repentant sinner righteous as their sins are covered by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, thus the repentant sinner is no longer guilty and subject to the penalty of sin. At the moment God justifies a repentant sinner who believes on Jesus, God begins to regenerate them into a new creature by renewing their heart and soul (Ezekiel 36:25-27; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This regeneration is not the work of man but a supernatural work of God's Holy Spirit and it spans all three phases of justification, sanctification and glorification. In fact, all three phases of salvation are summed up in one word: regeneration. God will finish the salvation work He began in the believer (Philippians 1:6). Sanctification is God's setting apart or consecrating the repentant sinner to do God's work and to be conformed to the image of Christ. This conforming to the image of Christ involves the work of the person, but it is still God working in the believer to produce more of a godly character and life in the person who has already been justified. A person's good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation (Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:13). Sanctification is not instantaneous because it is not the work of God alone. God's part in sanctification includes, regeneration, the conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and divine chastening. The justified person is actively involved in submitting to God's will, resisting sin, seeking holiness, and working to be more godly, thus bearing more spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9, 10). The regeneration that accompanies salvation converts a person's heart from rejecting God to loving God, and from loving sin to hating sin, and from conformity to the sinful flesh to conformity to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17 ,18). Glorification is the final step of salvation in which the believer receives their resurrected and/or glorified body that is immortal and no longer corrupted by sin, plus the believer is transferred from earth to the pristine heavenly realm to dwell with Christ (1 Corinthians 15:50-55; Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 John 3:2).

THE FIVE SOLAS OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

After breaking away from the Catholic Church and its legalism, the Protestant Reformers devised five biblical salvation doctrines and christened each doctrine  with a Latin name. These five salvation doctrines, known today as the Five Solas, served to separate Protestantism from Catholicism and to clarify the biblical view of salvation by grace through faith without the works of man. The Five Solas are identified as follows:

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) – Scripture alone is sufficient for people to learn the truth about God, Jesus Christ, their sinful condition, and how to become saved. Man-made ideas among the Church or the secular society are either superfluous or unnecessary in learning about essential truths about God and salvation. (1 Timothy 3:16, 17; Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 4).

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) – God in His grace has done all the work necessary for our salvation, including the substitutionary atonement, regeneration, and glorification. In eternity past, God had foreknowledge of everyone who would become saved, thus He predestined them to enter His kingdom as coheirs with His Son Jesus Christ. To mingle humans works with God's grace distorts or neutralizes God's grace (Romans 11:5, 6; Galatians 2:21).

Sola Fide (Faith Alone) – Repentant sinners are saved and justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they continue to live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 2:16-21).

Solus Christus (Christ Alone) – This is doctrine of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. John 14:6 and Acts 4:10-12 clearly state that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God, salvation and eternal life. Anyone who looks forward to salvation must believe on Jesus Christ alone as their Lord and Savior and Mediator.

Soli Deo Gloria (For the Glory of God Alone) – The Lord God Almighty deserves all the glory for our salvation, for His divine providence in our lives, and for every good thing we receive from His hands (Psalm 115:1; Jeremiah 9:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Philippians 2:10, 11; James 1:17; Revelation 1:4-6)

The complete sentence for the Five Solas, translated into English, would be: “By scripture alone, we come to the understanding that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.”

DEBATES OVER THE DOCTRINES OF SALVATION

Even among the Protestant denominations, debates arose between those who agreed with John Calvin and those who agreed with Jacobus Arminius. Calvinism teaches that unregenerate humans have no free will and the sovereignty of God take absolute precedence over salvation. Arminianism teaches that, although unregenerate people have a sin nature, they still have free will to choose God, accept salvation in Christ, and determine the course of their Christian walk. Calvinists believe it is impossible for a person to loose their salvation once they are saved, because God will make sure to preserve them and finish the salvation work He started in them. On the other hand, Arminians believe the security of salvation is conditional, that a person will remain saved only if they remain faithful to God for the rest of this life. Calvinists accuse Arminians of placing too much emphasis on humanity's own efforts, while Arminians accuse Calvinists of portraying God as a discriminator who purposefully saves only certain people and leaves everyone else to suffer eternally in Hell. There also arose debates between the views of Easy-Believism and Lordship Salvation. Easy-believism teaches that the only thing a sinner is required to do is believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him into their heart, then the sanctifying power and providence of God will carry them the rest of the way. On the other hand, Lordship Salvation teaches that a sinner must believe in Jesus Christ and also turn away from all their sins and humbly submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. Both Easy-believism and Lordship Salvation teaches that repentance is a change of mind, but they disagree on exactly what that change of mind means. Easy-believism teaches that repentance is turning away from unbelief to believe in God, but Lordship Salvation teaches that repentance is turning away from unbelief and also turning away from sinful practices while striving in service to Jesus as Lord. Proponents of Easy-believism accuse supporters of Lordship Salvation of promoting a gospel based on works or legalism. Proponents of Lordship Salvation accuse supporters of Easy-believism of promoting antinomianism and salvation without transformation. There are plenty of Christians who are neither extreme Calvinist nor extreme Arminian; there are also plenty of Christians who are neither extreme Easy-believist nor extreme Lordship Salvationist. A considerable percentage of Christians have a view of salvation that is proportional, accepting a few ideas from this perspective and a few from that perspective.

ISRAELOLOGY: A FOCUS ON THE NATION OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS

Israelology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on the nation of Israel and the Jews. Although it is a rarely addressed subject in systematic theology, Israelology seeks to answer the following questions:

What is the nation of Israel?
Where is the nation of Israel located?
Who are the Jews, and what are their roots?
What impact did Israel and the Jews have on history?
Does God still have plans for Israel?
Why do the Jews have a big influence in today's world?
Why should Israel and the Jews matter to us?

Israelology should be regarded as a key subject in systematic theology because the Jews and the nation of Israel enshroud almost everything in the Bible. All the books in the biblical cannon, except for one or two, were written by Jews. About 83% of the Bible's subject matter pertains to the Jews, the nation of Israel or both, whether partially or totally. All of the parables and poetry in the Bible were written in accordance with ancient Jewish traditions and principles. The majority of the prophets and heroes of the Old Testament were of Israel. Jesus said the salvation of all humanity originates with the Jews. Jesus Himself was a Jew by ethnicity, since he descended from Jewish ancestors. The first Christians of the young Church in the 1st Century were Jews before Gentiles began to be added to the Church. Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant were originally made with the nation of Israel, while the Church that includes Gentiles was merely grafted into the Olive Tree of the New Covenant. Many of the biblical prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled pertain directly to the destiny of Israel and the Jews. These and other facts explain why a thorough study of Israel and the Jews is important.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS

In both the Old Testament and the New Testament the nation of Israel and Jewish constituents identified Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) as their forefathers. Alternate names for the Jews includes the Hebrews, the Abrahamites, and the Israelites. The people that came to be identified with Abraham were always called the Hebrews, primarily because of the Hebrew language they spoke. Jewish tradition as well as some Christian Scholars, believe that Hebrew was the original language of humanity prior to the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. Some of the descendants of Noah's son Shem, known as the Semites, continued to speak the Hebrew language for generations after the Tower of Babel, and Hebrew came to be known as a Semitic language. Eventually a man named Terah was born in Shem's family line, and Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Genesis 11:24-26). Abram or Abraham was born in 2166 B.C., about 352 years afters Noah's Flood in 2518 B.C. Terah and his sons were living in the land of Shinar or Sumer, where they worshiped false gods (Joshua 24:2, 3). In 2091 B.C., the true God Yahweh called Terah's son Abram, who was renamed Abraham, to leave his father's homeland and relocate to the land of Canaan along the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea. God promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants. Abraham and his wife Sarai (renamed Sarah) had no children, so Abraham begot a son named Ishmael by the concubine Hagar. God promised Abraham that his wife Sarah would conceive and bear a son despite her old age. Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah in 2066 B.C. God declared that both Isaac and Ishmael will produce a nation, but the promises of God will come through Isaac's descendants. Then Isaac married Rebekah and begot Esau and Jacob in 2006 B.C. Afterward, Jacob married Leah and Rachel, plus he had at least two concubines Zilpah and Bilhah. Jacob begot a total of twelve sons, including six sons by Leah, two sons by Zilpah, two sons by Bilhah, and two sons by Rachel. In order from oldest to youngest, the twelve sons of Jacob were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. God renamed Jacob and called him "Israel," and that is why the Hebrews were called "Israelites," and why the Hebrew nation was called "Israel." One of Jacob's youngest sons, Joseph, was envied by his brothers and they sold Joseph to the Egyptians in 1897 B.C. God exalted Joseph in Egypt to the position of governor, which was second only to Pharaoh in rank. God used Joseph to help the Israelites to survive a severe famine. In 1876 B.C., Jacob and his family of Israelites moved to Egypt during the governorship of Joseph and began to multiply from seventy Israelites to many thousands of Israelites.

After the death of Joseph and his family, the Egyptians began to brutally oppress the Israelites. Moses was born in 1547 B.C., and God raised up Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Through His servant Moses, God struck Egypt with ten devastating plagues, including the death of the firstborn. Pharaoh's heart was hardened over and over, until Pharaoh finally allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt after the tenth plague. God divided the Sea, led the Israelites through the divided Sea, then collapsed the water down upon Pharaoh's army. The Exodus from Egypt took place in 1446 B.C., and that moment of liberation ended roughly 430 years of Hebrew bondage in Egypt. God cared for His chosen people the Israelites in the wilderness by providing them water and feeding them with manna from heaven. God also used a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night to lead the Israelites through the wilderness. The Ten Commandments and hundreds of other laws were given by God to the Israelites through Moses, and this collection of civil, moral and ceremonial laws was called the Torah (Pentateuch). God also made a covenant, and many promises, with the Israelites and they were included as part of the Torah. In addition, Moses' brother Aaron and his sons were organized into the Aaronic Priesthood and the Levites were appointed to help them. All of these events occurred in 1445 B.C. at Mount Sinai. The Israelites did not enter the Promised Land; that is, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants, until forty years after their exodus from Egypt. The forty year delay was because of God's punishing the Israelites for their unfaithfulness to Him. The Israelites finally entered the Promised Land at Jericho under the leadership of Joshua in 1405 B.C. The Israelites were empowered by God to overthrow and destroy the idolatrous nations that inhabited the Promised Land, then the Israelites took full possession of the Promised Land. Twelve Tribes of Israel that occupied geographic territory included ten sons of Jacob and the two sons of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh). The sons of Jacob that received territory included Asher, Dan, Judah, Benjamin, Zubulun, Naphtali, Gad, Reuben, and Issachar. Simeon's territory was engulfed by Judah's. The tribe of Ephraim was sometimes called Joseph in the Old Testament, and Manasseh was subdivided into eastern and western tribes. The tribe of Levi did not receive territory but possessed a number of cities scattered everywhere in Israel. After Joshua's death, God appointed successive judges to in Israel for about 350 years until the time of the prophet Samuel when kings began to rule over Israel (Acts 13:20-21). Saul was anointed as Israel's first king in 1043 B.C., then Saul was replaced by David in 1004 B.C., then David was succeeded by Solomon in 971 B.C. It was Solomon who built the first great Temple in Jerusalem and dedicated it to the Lord. The first three kings among the Hebrews ruled for a combined total of 120 years over an undivided kingdom. After Solomon's death in 931 B.C., the land of the Hebrews was divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel in the north (ten tribes) and the kingdom of Judah in the south (two tribes). Virtually all of the kings of the northern kingdom (Israel) were wicked, and about half of the kings of the southern kingdom (Judah) were wicked. Because of the wickedness, God eventually delivered both kingdoms over to heathen enemies. The northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., and the southern kingdom was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

The people of Judah were taken into captivity in Babylon and Medo-Persia for a period of 70 years. In 536 B.C., King Cyrus of Persia returned the Jews to their homeland and the Jews rebuilt their Temple to the Lord in 516 B.C. Over the next 500 years, the Jews were under the authority of the Greeks. Then Antiochus Epiphanes of Seleucia, in 168 B.C., profaned the temple in Jerusalem with an idol to the Greek god Zeus and a pig sacrifice, but the Jews fought back and freed their temple and rededicated it. Later, Jerusalem and the Jews were under Roman authority from 50 B.C. to 70 A.D. The Roman rulers set up Herod, as well as Roman governors to watch over affairs in Judea. About 29 A.D. to 33 A.D., Jesus Christ appeared to the Jews as their promised Messiah, but most of the Jews rejected Jesus. Also around this time, the Church of the Christian faith, founded by Jesus Himself, set out on their Great Commission and began to spread from Jerusalem to areas throughout the Roman Empire and the whole world. Jerusalem and the Jews were conquered by the Romans in 70 A.D., and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. For 1,878 years (70 A.D. to 1948 A.D.), the Jews were scattered among all the Gentile nations in what is called the Diaspora (Greek word for "scattering"). Israel became a sovereign nation once again in 1948, and the Jews began repossessing their homeland. This occurred approximately 2,520 years after Ezekiel's temple vision in 572 B.C. The Bible prophesies that the Jews will ultimately accept Jesus as their Messiah at the end of the future Great Tribulation, and their Messianic kingdom will rule the four corners of the earth.

HOW AND WHEN WAS THE NAME "JEW" APPLIED TO THE HEBREWS?

The word Hebrew (meaning "descended from Eber," one of Abraham's Semite ancestors) was used very early in Hebrew history, when the Hebrews did not have a well-known national identity. Pharaoh knew the Jewish people by the name Hebrews. But the Torah constantly refers to the Hebrews as the "children of Israel" or simply "Israel". The name "Israel" was used throughout biblical times. The name "Jews" (Yehudim) first appears in the latter books of the Old Testament, such as Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra, books that deal with the Babylonian exile. This is because it was mainly the tribe of Judah that was exiled to Babylon and the Babylonians and Persians called them "Judeans" or "Jews". The name "Jews" gradually came to be used for all people of the Hebrew and Aramaic culture, whether from the tribe of Judah, Benjamin, Levi or any of the other tribes who were mixed in with them. The Hebrews were called "Jews" throughout the New Testament, distinguishing them from Greeks or Gentiles. The name "Jews" remains acceptable among the Hebrews today, but some antisemitic groups use the name in a mocking way.

WHEN DID ARAMAIC ENTER JEWISH CULTURE?

Of all the Semitic languages, Aramaic is the one that most resembles Hebrew. Aramaic words, phrases, and even whole scriptural passages appear in different parts of the Old Testament, including parts of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel and Jeremiah 10:11. Outside of the Bible, the oldest fragments of Aramaic are relatively late, dating from 820 B.C. and later. Among Jewish scholars in recent centuries, Aramaic has been held in higher esteem than Hebrew, simply because the primary works of the Jewish tradition, including the Talmud, were written in a dialect of Aramaic.The Babylonians and Persians used Aramaic to communicate with the Jews during their seventy years of captivity, and this contributed to Aramaic becoming the common language of the Jews after the captivity. From that time onward, the Jews began translating some part of their Old Testament into Aramaic. These Aramaic parts of the OT are known as the Targums. Aramaic was commonly spoken among the Jews during the days of Jesus and His apostles. Modern Jews still speak Aramaic, but Hebrew has also become very popular again.

WHAT SKIN COLOR WERE THE JEWS OF THE BIBLE?

There is much debate over the exact appearance and skin color of Abraham and his Jewish descendants. A significant percentage of historians and bible scholars are convinced that the ancient Jews were of a much darker complexion than the modern people who inhabit Palestine today. For example, the Egyptians were Hamitic, and so were the Canaanites. They were descendants of Ham, who was a black person. Joseph was unrecognizable to his brothers when they encountered him in Egypt, indicating that Joseph was of the same color as the Egyptians around him. Also in Exodus 2:16-19 Moses was mistaken for a Hamitic Egyptian. If Moses was not physically identical to Hamitic people how could he have also been mistaken for an Egyptian? In Acts 21:37-38, the Roman soldier mistakenly thought Paul was an Egyptian. How could the soldier mistake Paul for an Egyptian unless the ancient Israelites were of a darker skin tone? Whether people realize it or not, the common portrayals of Jesus as a white man with long dark hair are actually modeled after old paintings of Cesare Borgia, a 15th Century Italian nobleman. One theory argues that the light-skinned race of people that occupy Palestine and the Middle East today are actually descendants of Persians, Arabians, Armenians and European Khazars. The aggressive conquests of the Byzantine Empire and the Muslims drove the darker skinned people of ancient Palestine and Egypt into Subsaharan Africa and parts of Europe and India. Despite the re-establishment of Israel as a sovereign nation in 1948, Black Hebrew Israelites and other radical groups with Afrocentric views of the Bible believe that the real Jews have not yet claimed possession of their homeland, but the country is being led by Gentiles until the Son of Man returns. As of 2011, there were a total of 125,500 Black Ethiopian Jews residing in Palestine. Israeli authorities reject the claims that the Black Hebrew Israelites are authentic Jews, but are instead a cult based on Islam, African tribal religions and liberation theology.

DID GOD TURN HIS BACK ON ISRAEL AND REPLACE THEM WITH THE CHURCH?

An intense debate exists between dispensationalists and supersessionists over whether or not God permanently turned His back on the Jew and national Israel after they rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Catholicism, and most who hold to Reformed Theology, believe that God's sovereign purpose for earthly Israel and ethnic Jews was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that all Jewish law and covenants are fulfilled in Christ. According to supersessionism, all Old Testament prophecies pertaining to Israel that were not fulfilled at Christ's first coming will be fulfilled by the Church, with all of God's promised blessings to Israel being bequeathed to the Church. Dispensationalism disagrees with this and argues that Israel is only experiencing a temporary judgment from God in which Jews are in a state of blindness because of rejecting the Messiah, and they will remain in blindness until the Church Age or Age of Grace ends at the pre-tribulation rapture. God will turn His attention to national Israel once again during the Great Tribulation, when the Jewish nation will finally accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah at Armageddon. After the Great Tribulation, Jesus will establish a kingdom in Jerusalem where He will rule over the whole world for the 1,000 year Millennium. The Church and the revived nation of Israel will rule the world together with Jesus during the Millennium. According to dispensationalists, both national Israel and the Church each receive their own unique blessings from God onward into eternity future. Supersessionism argues against dispensationalism and teaches that there is only one destiny for everyone who was redeemed by God in Christ, that both the OT saints and the NT saints will be consolidated into the Church and will reign in Heaven with Christ forever. Contrary to the view of supersessionism, there are many Bible passages where God promised to never leave or forsake the nation of Israel and the Jews (Genesis 17:4-9; Jeremiah 31:31-37; 32:37-41; Ezekiel 37:1-28; Amos 9:11-15; Zechariah 14:9-11; Matthew 19:28; John 4:22; Romans 11:25, 26; Revelation 7:3-8).

ECCLESIOLOGY: A FOCUS ON THE CHURCH (BODY OF CHRIST)

Ecclesiology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on the Church. Ecclesiology seeks to answer the following questions:

What is the Church?
What are the types or divisions of the Church?
How did the Church originate?
Who are part of the Church?
Who owns the Church?
How does someone become part of the Church?
What are the key persons and functions in the Church?
What is the Great Commission of the Church?
What is the history and destiny of the Church?

The word for "church" in Greek is ekklesia (ἐκκλησία), which means "assembly of called out ones" or "congregation of called out ones;" that is, a congregation of people called out from the world by God to serve Him as His holy people and to fellowship with Him and with one another. A great many people think of a church as a building with a steeple and cross; however, such a building is only a facility that most Christians use for gathering to worship the Lord and to fellowship with one another. Even Paul refers to the church as being in someone's house; he was not referring to a church building, but a body of believers (Romans 16:5). The word "church" occurs a total of 114 times, 77 times in the singular form, and 37 times in the plural form in the Bible. All these verses are found in the New Testament of the Bible. In the New Testament, the word "church" is used mostly for the local church (example: church of Ephesus); but the word "church" is also for the universal church (Hebrews 12:23; Matthew 16:18).

A local church is a specific group of professed believers that regularly assemble at a specific location for the purpose of worship, prayer, fellowship, edification. Local churches are identified by name, by leaders, and by laity. Each local church is organized into church administration (pastors, bishops, overseers, deacons) as well as lay people (the body of common worshipers, as distinguished from the church leaders). There are many large cities that have a hundred or more local churches of different denominations. The universal church includes all true, born again believers in Christ worldwide spanning generationally from the day of Pentecost 33 A.D. to the Rapture.

The Reformers introduced the terminology "visible" and "invisible" Church as a way to distinguish between genuine Christians and nominal Christians. The visible church is comprised of all who profess to be Christian and who gather together for worship and participation of the sacraments: the Lord's Supper and Baptism. The visible church is a mixture of saved and unsaved people, wheat/tares, wolves/sheep, good trees/bad trees, sheep/goats. The invisible church is the body of genuine truly saved believers, all those who are truly regenerate and have trusted, by faith, in the true Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. only a fraction of people among the visible church are actually part of the invisible church. Only God knows exactly for sure who is saved and who is not saved and that is why this distinction is made between the visible church and invisible church. Jesus said "Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).

THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH: JESUS CHRIST

The head of the Church is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who has preeminence in all things (Colossians 1:18). Although their are multitudes of bishops, pastors and other leaders in the Church, the official head of the Church is Jesus Christ the Heavenly High Priest (Hebrews 7:20-28). Jesus Christ, as God incarnate, purchased each and every true believer in the Church with His own blood that was shed on the Cross, that they will be God's specially chosen people that are zealous for good works and granted kingship in Heaven alongside their Redeemer (Acts 20:28; Titus 2:13, 14; Revelation 1:5, 6). The Lord Jesus Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27). The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who built the Church, and Christ said that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church (Matthew 16:18). Furthermore, the Church does not save anyone; instead, Jesus Christ alone is the Savior (John 14:6). Christ saves repentant sinners who believe on Him, and then He adds them to the Church (Acts 4:38, 39, 47), which is simply the collection of people that have been saved by Christ.

NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CHURCH

The Church is called the Body of Christ because of their being united together corporately as the physical representation of Christ in this world, the organism through which Christ manifests His gospel and His life to the world. As we read 1 Corinthians 12, we see that, just like the physical body of a human being, the Church as the Body of Christ has many parts, with each part having a unique function that helps to sustain and empower the Church body as a whole. Each person in the Body of Christ has specific spiritual gifts and a role to play in the congregation. The Church is also called the Bride of Christ because of the intimate, inseparable relationship that exists between Jesus Christ and the Church. It is analogous to the marriage between an earthly husband and wife in which the two become one flesh (Ephesians 5:31, 32). The prophet Isaiah said that a similar relationship exists between Almighty God and national Israel (Isaiah 54:5). The marriage between Christ and the Church will be completed after the Church is raptured up to Heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9). The Church is also identified as the temple of God, since the Holy Spirit of God dwells within and among God's people (1 Corinthians 3:16). In addition, the Church is also called the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16), the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15), and the house of God (1 Peter 4:17), the elect of God (Romans 8:33), the children of the free woman Jerusalem above (Galatians 4:26, 31), and the great assembly and church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23).

The Church has been described as a "Spiritual Mother," "Heavenly Mother" or "Mother Church" by some denominations among Christendom, and by some pseudo-Christian cults. They often based such an idea on an unbiblical, eisegetical interpretation of Proverbs 6:20 and Galatians 4:26. The Bible does not teach the existence of a "Spiritual Mother," "Heavenly Mother" or "Mother Church." This idea originated from the ancient pagans who worshiped fertility goddesses and mother goddesses, such as Ashtoreth the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:19) and Diana or Artemis of the Ephesians (Acts 19:34). According to the Bible, God is the “Heavenly Father” (Matthew 6:9) but there is no spiritual mother. The Church is pictured as a bride, loved by Christ (Ephesians 5:25-33).

TYPES OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT

There are three types of church government that exists among the world's churches. The first is Congregational church government, which is a very popular form of church government because it is democratic and allows the congregation to elect its own leaders. This type of church government is utilized by the autonomous local churches of the Baptist denomination. The second type is Episcopalian church government, as utilized by Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopals and Catholics. It is characterized by a centralized authority with a single powerful leader, such as the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, or the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Denominatons with institutionalized churches have the Episcopalian church government. The Episcopalian type is the largest and most prevalent form of church government in today's churches. A third type of church government is the presbyterian form of leadership, which has been common in Presbyterian and Reformed churches and is commonly described as elder-rule. A plurality of elders are elected by the congregation. These elected elders also serve as leaders in the regional body of churches. The Presbyterian form of church government was the type that was most common in the churches during the 1st Century when the New Testament was written, but it briefly disappeared and then was reinstated during the Reformation.

CHURCH OFFICES AND THEIR QUALIFICATIONS

The functioning of the Church and the conduct of its members should be based on Sola Scriptura (scripture alone), not on Sola Ecclesia (church alone). The Church should not dictate what scripture ought to say; instead, scripture dictates how the Church should function. The Church and its members are commanded by God to operate strictly within biblical parameters, otherwise the entire church congregation becomes corrupt. Most of the Bible's instructions for church administration are contained in the epistles of Paul, especially in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

There are three major governmental offices held among the leaders of most local churches. Bishops (Greek ἐπίσκοπος = episkopos = overseer), elders (Greek πρεσβύτερος = presbuteros = elder) and deacons (Greek διάκονος = diakonos = jr elder, apprentice, or servant). Bishops and elders often serve as pastors of any particular church, while some elders and bishops preside over multiple churches within a geographic district or territory. Tasks performed by bishops and elders will vary from one denomination to the next. Bishops and elders usually comprise a high ranking group of church officials known as the clergy or clergymen. Bishops and elders are responsible for delivering sermons to the lay people, organizing church affairs, and enforcing church discipline within the congregation. Deacons are the highest ranking servants in the church congregation, positioned just a little above the laity. Deacons are given specific assignments by elders. Deacons are responsible for cleaning the area around the church facility, running errands for the local church, managing the monetary donations given to the local church, and organizing Sunday School, choir rehearsal and other church activities.

In 1 Timothy 3:2-7, the apostle Paul outline the following qualifications for bishops:

"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil." --- 1 Timothy 3:2-7

In 1 Timothy 3:8-13, the apostle Paul outline the following qualifications for deacons:

"Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." --- 1 Timothy 3:8-13

In Titus 1:5, 6, the apostle Paul outline the following qualifications for elders, but the same qualifications for bishops can also apply to elders:

"For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination." --- Titus 1:5, 6

The apostle Paul advised against being so hasty to appoint inexperienced congregation members as leaders when he said "Do not lay hands on anyone hastily..." (1 Timothy 5:22). The church leaders should grant leadership positions only to congregation members having good morals, a full understanding of sound doctrine, and a sufficient amount of experience with responsibilities. The church leaders must thoroughly observe all potential candidates for any leadership positions to make sure they meet all the qualifications outlined in scripture.

THE PURPOSES FOR THE CHURCH

The five purposes for the church include corporate worship, corporate prayer, fellowship between believers, edification between believers, and evangelism to the world of unbelievers. Corporate worship involves all persons in the congregation giving praise and worship to Almighty God and Jesus Christ through singing praises, the raising of hands, and acknowledging God in all His greatness and majesty (Psalm 134:2; Ephesians 5:19). Corporate prayer is when the congregation collectively prays to God the Father in Jesus' name to express adoration of God in all His greatness, confess any corporate sins committed by the local church, to give thanks to God for His salvation, loving care and other blessings, and to make supplication for church members and the church as a whole. Believers are free to fellowship with one another in love during the church services or between church services as a way of strengthening the love bonds between Christians in the congregation. Believers share in the love of God, the grace the the Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit as they fellowship in the Church (2 Corinthians 13:14). Edification in the church occurs whenever the clergy give sermons to the congregation, but edification also occurs whenever fellow church members provide wise biblical counsel to each other during the many types of social gatherings in the Church. Christians are commanded to avoid forsaking church gatherings, but to gather together for the purpose of exhorting one another and inciting one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24, 25). Another purpose for the Church is evangelism. Jesus commanded His disciples to evangelize the Gospel of salvation to unbelievers in the world. Christians are to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). People will not be saved unless they hear the Word of God through the preaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:17). Jesus prophesied that the Gospel will be preached all over the world as a witness to all nations before the end of the world arrives (Matthew 24:14). Christians hasten the second coming of Christ as they spread the Gospel more earnestly and thoroughly (2 Peter 3:11, 12).

SACRAMENTS FOR THE CHURCH

There are two sacramental ordinances for the Church: baptism and the Lord's Supper. There are different types of baptism identified in scripture. One is water baptism, another is baptism with fire, another is baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for water baptism refers to immersion in water, but some Christian denominations baptize through the sprinkling of water. Water baptism is merely a symbol or outward ritual that illustrates a repentant sinner's dying to sin and being born again in Christ (Romans 6:3, 4) through the washing away of sins (Acts 22:16); it is also a ritualistic expression of dedication and commitment to the Lord as one's Master and Savior, answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21). The Lord's Supper was first instituted by Jesus the night before His crucifixion, as He broke bread and poured the cup of the vine, then He commanded His disciples to pass the bread and the cup around to eat and drink. Jesus commanded His disciples to do the ritual in remembrance of Him and His atonement for their sins (Matthew 26-30; Luke 22:17-20). Paul elaborated on the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, where he also advised believers to examine themselves to make sure of their salvation before deciding to partake of the Lord's Supper.

THE VALUE OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE

Unlike in years past, church discipline is not practiced in the churches as much as it once was. In 2 Thessalonians 3:14, Paul instructs the Thessalonian Church to discipline one of their church members. What does church discipline involve? When should it be employed? What does the Bible say about it? Church discipline is the denying on privileges and fellowship to a church member who is involved in sinful practices. Church discipline involves disciplining church members who are practicing sin, including sins like sexual immorality, the spreading of false doctrine, creating division within the church, and acting in blatant defiance of God's appointed leadership in the Church. A local church must exercise church discipline because the congregation must remain pure of falsehood and hypocrisy (1 Corinthians 5:8). The goal of church discipline is to motivate the erring church member to repent of their sin (James 5:19, 20), to "gain back" or restore an erring brother or sister, and to make the erring church member feel ashamed enough to change (2 Thessalonians 3:14). There are several distinct steps to church discipline. First, meet one-on-one with the person in hopes of correcting them. Second, if there is no repentance, then meet with the person and another church member in hopes of encouraging repentance. Third, if there is still no change in behavior, report the matter to the elders of the church so that the elders can counsel the person to repentance. If all else fails, then the elders of the church are obligated to either reprove the church member by the revoking of privileges, or excommunicate the person from the church membership (Matthew 18:15-17). The tone of church discipline should be firm gentleness (Galatians 6:1). The elders that are most responsible for church discipline should put away any spite, hatred, or malice so that they can facilitate true restoration. The sinner should still be admonished as a brother even while excommunicated (2 Thessalonians 3:15). Other scriptures dealing with church discipline include Romans 16:17, 18; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 7; Titus 3:10, 11; Hebrews 13:17

ISSUES FACING THE MODERN CHURCH

Modern churches of all denominations are becoming increasingly more liberal as the years pass by. An increasing percentage of the modern churches are beginning to favor the Ecumenical Movement, the Purpose Driven Movement, the Word of Faith Movement and the New Age Movement. Doctrine is becoming less important in churches nowadays, and many of them no longer hold strictly to historic church creeds or doctrinal statements. The biblical standards of church discipline for sinful conduct are no longer applied in many churches today. Openly professing homosexuals now have more privileges in the churches, and there is still debate as to exactly what leadership roles women should have in the churches. The New Testament church model was based on small to medium sized congregations run by a group of elders, and those congregations strictly adhered to sound biblical doctrine. However, an increasing percentage of today's churches are adopting the megachurch model with 10,000 or more members, and such megachurches place more emphasis on marketing the church, providing a mixture of secular and religious entertainment, and delivering motivational speeches based on psychology and socioeconomics (not sound biblical doctrine). The interior of some modern churches has been remodeled to bear less resemblance to the traditional church. For example, crosses, Bibles and hymn books have been removed, plus doctrines emphasizing Christ's ransom sacrifice, sin, Hell, holiness and repentance have also been removed. Seven reasons why a correct and biblical ecclesiology is essential for the modern church pertain directly to the church's leadership, the church's membership, the church's structure, the culture of the church, the character of the church, mission of the church, and the church's obligation to do all things for the glory of God.