It’s not difficult to do so. The Bible is so clear about the subject.

“Show me.”

Delighted to. Turn to John 16:13. There the Lord says to His disciples who are about to become apostles, “But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” The phrase, “Spirit of truth” means that He is the Source of all truth. The genitive use there has the ablative sense of “Source from which.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about—genitives and ablatives are just foreign words to me. Please explain in plain English.”

OK. Jesus predicted that on Pentecost the Holy Spirit would come to the apostles in a special way that He didn’t come to others—He would come to provide for them all the truth that was necessary for the church to have. All of it is the thing to remember. There was to be no more truth revealed after the Spirit had given them what God wanted them to have.

“So, you’re saying that there would be nothing more—nothing?”

Nothing.

“Sure?”

Yep. All truth means just that all truth! Aren’t you glad that we have all the truth that we need?

“Sure, but we don’t have it—the apostles did.”

True, they were the only ones who received it. But they gave it to us in the Bible. So—through them—we too are possessors of “all truth.”

“But how do you know about the Bible thing?”

From John 15:26:

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit that the Father will; send in My name, He is the One Who will teach you and remind you of everything that I told you.

He reminded them of all the things Jesus taught—the parables, the Sermon on the Mount, etc.—everything that Jesus did and said. Why? Because they were going to write about it in the Gospels. How else do you think we could have gotten a New Testament? He helped them to remember exactly what was done and said so that we’d have a Book that was accurate and inerrant.

“Oh! I never thought about how they’d remember all that took place. But what about the rest of the New Testament?”

Then, of course, He also gave the apostles the very words to speak and write when they went forth teaching the Gospel to the world (which, by the way, they accomplished). . .

“Now that raises more questions . . .”

I know. But we’ll have to take them up in another blog. Can’t cover everything here.

“Awwwww!”

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The post All Truth appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

What does it mean?

“That something is given the test that proves it genuine or not.”

Good.

“Well, how about it?”

In times when gold coins were in circulation, nitric acid was applied to a coin. If it deteriorated, it was false; if no harm came to it, it was deemed genuine. Do you know what is the acid test for whether or not one is a true Bible teacher?

“No. What is it?”

John says, “We are of [from] God. Whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever isn’t of [from] God doesn’t listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (I John 4: 6). All else will corrupt!

“Oh.”

The acid test, in the New Testament is the same as in the old—whether or not one listens to God’s Word. The apostles were given the task of proclaiming that Word inerrantly. So, we measure the truth of one’s teaching by how closely it conforms to the Scriptures (the apostolic Word).

“Then, we don’t look for signs, or wonders, but only how close one’s teaching is to the Bible?”

You got it. See Deuteronomy 13 where we are warned about following signs and wonders. That will help as well.

“Got it.”

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The post The Acid Test appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

You don’t know?

“I’m a bit concerned—was that the way to talk in the pulpit?”

Let me explain. There’s an old fable that tells about Truth and Falsehood going down to the river to swim. They left their clothes on shore. Falsehood came out of the water first and put Truth’s clothes on. Because Truth refused to wear Falsehood’s clothing, he went naked.

“Oh!”

You see there are two things to gather from this:

1. Falsehood often wears Truth’s clothing—but it’s still Falsehood.
2. Truth will never have anything to do with Falsehood.

“I see. There’s a lesson there!”

Yep. There are many who go about in Truth’s clothing who are really nothing more than cousins of Falsehood—if not the real article himself!

“So, If I don’t mingle with Falsehood, don’t go swimming with him, people won’t be confused.”

Yes. And Truth is so constituted that it refuses to be clothed in his garments!

“I see.”

The thing you have to be careful of is that, as Scripture puts it, there are wolves in sheep’s clothing! Indeed, the wolf often wears a shepherd’s clothing!

“Hmmmm. . . A good way to get at the flock, eh?”

Yep.

The post The Naked Truth appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Who, like Me, can announce the future? . . . Let these gods declare the coming things, and what will take place. (Isaiah 44:7; HCSB).

God is declaring that prophecy proves.

“What do you mean by that?”

Simply this—the fact that the biblical God has predicted the future proves He is the true God. And, to boot, the fact that He alone can make the claim stick! Indeed, because of the latter fact, the former is true too.

“How so?”

Since there is no other challenger who can substantiate his claim, as He can, clearly, the former is true.

“But don’t other gods claim the same?”

Not too many of them even make the claim to predict coming events, but whenever they do they fail the test of giving the predicting facts beforehand—and, indeed, often long before—in writing that is publically received and tested as to its truth.

“What do you mean by that—and how is it tested?”

Simply in this way: hundreds of scriptural prophesies have been written, received, kept intact, etc., for hundreds (often thousands) of years which years later have been fulfilled to the T.  And that is not true of any other God but Yahweh!

“Are you sure?”

Absolutely. No other supposed God has any written record such as He has to which to point to show the fact of his existence and knowledge of the future.

“Hmmmm.”

Any God worthy of the name must be able to demonstrate His ability to do so.

“Where can I get a list of such prophecies?”

Such lists are often found in the back of Bibles in a section next to the maps. You can easily find it.

“Well, I’m going to take a look at one. Thanks for the clue.”

Welcome. Reader, how about you?

The post God’s Challenge appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:7).

That’s what Paul said was the problem with some women who were “burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions” (HCSB).
Two things about those women stand out:

1. They are always adopting some belief which they hear from others, but never seem able to settle on one (over against another) as the truth of God. Oh, of course, they may adopt one viewpoint for a time, but after a while when you talk with them, you discover that they have now moved to some other. Yesterday it was Calvinism; today it is the opposite! The problem is often true of women it is true—but that doesn’t leave men off the hook—there are plenty of men also who are characterized by such instability.
2. The second thing to note is why this instability exists: sins and passions rule their lives. That is certainly not the reason that would be given by them if you asked—it is God’s insight revealed to Paul. Note the two elements behind the problem:
   • Sins. It is true that sin clouds one’s ability to discover biblical truth. Not only is his mind clouded by sin (as he seeks to justify it over against biblical teaching to the contrary), but under such rebellious conditions, the Holy Spirit cannot be expected to help him glean truth from the Word.
   • Passions.  Truth isn’t found by following one’s feelings; he must often accept hard truths of the Scriptures despite his feelings, Here, it is feelings to the max (passions) that are mentioned. If you passionately hold on to what you’d like to believe is the truth, despite Scripture to the contrary, then you will never find it.

So, here’s a question for you—What is the reason why you are having so difficult a time deciding about certain biblical truths? Could it be sins and passions are in your way Christian?

The post Always Learning appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

1. They abandoned God—the  fountain of living water;
2. They hewed out cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

See your church leaking water? Could it be that you are trusting in cracked cisterns? If so, turn back to God, abandoning the foibles of men.

The post A Double Evil appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

That, of course, is why the Bereans concluded that it was.

“What do you mean by that?”

I mean they really wanted to know.  They didn’t just consider the matter of cursory concern.

“How do you know that?”

The searched the scriptures daily to see whether what Paul and Barnabas said was true (Acts 17:11).

“Oh! And that made the difference?”

Certainly. No one becomes that intense in his study of the Bible who doesn’t. The Bible has a way of authenticating itself when it is studied regularly with the right intent.

“Do you think that many fail to believe because they simply don’t do so?”

Exactly. The next verse said, “As a result, many believed.”

“Then, if I am interested in winning people to Christ, I should encourage them to study their Bibles regularly.”

Yes, as well as explaining the Gospel message to them.  Urge them to listen and then search to see if what you are telling them is so.

“I think I’ll have to give that some thought.”

Good—then, go ahead and do it.

The post Is It True? appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.