The Debate Goes On

by Mike Ratliff

Ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσετε· κἀγὼ ἐρωτήσω τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἄλλον παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ᾖ, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν, ὅτι οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ οὐδὲ γινώσκει· ὑμεῖς γινώσκετε αὐτό, ὅτι παρ᾽ ὑμῖν μένει καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται. (John 14:15-17)

“If you love Me, you will keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper that He may be with you into the age, the Spirit of Truth, which the world is not able to receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. You know Him because He will remain in you.” ( John 14:15-17 Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1)

Theological hills that we must die on are so for two reasons. The first is that these are doctrine(s) that make up these hills are critical to the gospel and, of course, the Church and, therefore, God has made it clear that we must stand firm not falling away from these vital truths. The second is that our enemy knows this and continually attacks using all sorts of methods and from every direction. Some of these attacks are from silence as those with correct theology remain quiet offering no support for those standing in the gap preferring to remain on the sidelines not appearing so controversial perhaps.

In any case, my Pastor has been preaching through the Gospel of John for quite some time. This morning he preached on John 14:16-17. I linked to it below. I suggest you listen to the whole thing, however, from the 37 minute to the 40:11 minute mark our Pastor, Rick Holland, talks about the error of Modalism and what went on at Elephant Room 2 with the inclusion of T.D. Jakes. I think he did a good job of putting it into the context of the Doctrine of the Trinity and why that is vital to the health of the Church and each of us as Christians. He closes the sermon with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is also quite controversial and misunderstood in our time.

Enjoy and be blessed.

Sermon

Soli Deo Gloria!