Religion

The destruction of Babylon

A detailed description of the judgment on Babylon is given in chapters 17-18. No student of the Bible doubts that in historic times there existed a literal city called Babylon. In fact, the Bible is full of information about this city that has a long history dating back to as early as 3,000 years …

Jesus Condemns the Pharisees About Law

This was our Lord’s last public message which was directed especially to the Pharisees. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in that day and most of them were middle class businessmen. The name Pharisee came from a word that means “to separate” and the Pharisees separated themselves from …

Religious Opposition to Christ’s Followers

Jesus spelled out that living for Him would not be easy and that it would be like sheep living among wolves (v. 16). The words of the Lord had application in His own lifetime and was certainly demonstrated in the lives of the Apostles after Jesus had ascended into heaven. It seems that the …

Cornelius on a Mission for God

The tenth chapter of Acts tells a story that is one of the great turning points in the history of the Church. For the first time a Gentile is to be admitted into its fellowship. Since Cornelius is so important in church history, let us gather what we can learn about him…

Woe to the Lawyers

The lawyers (scribes) of that day were teachers of the Mosaic law who claimed that nobody could understand and explain the law except them (v. 45). In contrast to the day in which we live, their civil law was the same as their religious law, so these lawyers were called stu …

God’s Judgment Defended

The Scripture for the third chapter of Romans, tells how Paul defends the rightness of God’s ways, summarizes His verdict that all men are condemned sinners, and declares God’s remedy for the guild of mankind. The following are objections raised by the Jews and introduced by Paul …

IllustrationThe Great Difference

“There is a great difference between your religion and mine,” said a Christian to his neighbor.             “Indeed!” was the reply. “What is that?"       &nbsp …

IllustrationOld Lady Running a Pretzel Stand

It seems there was a pretzel stand out front of an office building in New York. One day, a man came out of the building, plunked down a quarter, and then went on his way without taking a pretzel. This happened every day for three weeks. Finally, the old lady running the stand …

IllustrationReligion is the opium of the people

There is a sense in which Karl Marx statement that ’’religion is the opium of the masses’’ is true, states John MacArthur. People are religious because God created them to be worshipers. If they will not worship the true God, they will worship someone or something else. We look a …

IllustrationWilliams: Religion is a Social Penicillin

“Religion is a social penicillin, which is lethal against a wide array of behavioral patterns.” This statement is the result of  a study of black inner-city youth by Harvard University’s Richard Freeman: Boys who regularly attend church are 50% less likely to commi …