The Christian Faith Podcast

The genuine New Testament fellowship of the believers in Christ is called “the fellowship of God’s Son” (1 Cor. 1:9), because Christ is the center, focus, and content of the genuine fellowship. But, it is also called “the fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42), because, as we see in the New Testament, we are called into this genuine fellowship through the ministry of the apostles. Today, the same principle applies, namely, the Lor...

After reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we may look down at the church in Corinth because it was filled with so many problems. However, we should remember that this is the only book in the New Testament that specifically tells us it is written to all the believers in Christ (1:2). So Paul here is not just dealing with the problems in that local church, but with problems that have afflicted the church as a whole ever s...

The “fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” is not carried out in the heavens; rather, it must be carried out in what is so often our messy church life here on the earth (1 Cor. 1:9). As we see in 1 Corinthians 2, the only way this can happen is for us to be dealt with by the Lord and His cross so we become, not simply those who have the Spirit of God, but who are also genuinely spiritual persons. In fact, no other portion o...

When the apostle Paul tells us that God has called us into “the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” he is not writing his letter to the Ephesians. That is where we might have placed such a word since that letter describes to us God’s eternal purpose and the heavenly calling and standing of the church. Rather, he makes this wonderful declaration when he is speaking to the messy church in Corin...

At the beginning of his first letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul tells us, God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. — 1 Corinthians 1:9 What a wonderful declaration is this! As the believers in Christ, God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! It is not the fellowship of any person, teaching, or practice, but the unique fellows...

The church is the Body of  Christ, His fullness (Eph. 1:22-23), which is composed of us, the believers in Christ, as His many members (Rom. 12:4-5), who have been born anew with the divine life to become the genuine children of God. All of these matters are in the spiritual realm, and are somewhat mysterious. But, based upon these spiritual realities, we must go on to enter into the practical experience here on the earth of the gen...

We should never think of the church as an organization. As the very Body of Christ, it is a living organism, composed of all its many members. And these members are us, the believers in Christ, who have been born anew with the divine life and nature (John 1:12-13, 2 Pet. 1:4), so that we are now joined in a spiritual, organic union not only with Christ as the Head of the Body, but also with our fellow members of this marvelous ...

Do we really appreciate the fact that God desires to have the church? We tend to look at spiritual things from our own viewpoint, focusing on our need for forgiveness of sins, for satisfaction, and for a sense of purpose in our life. But if we are willing to consider what God is after, what He desires, and to serve the Lord to that end, our Christian life will come to an entirely different level. And what God is after is simply thi...

So many Christians today seem to believe that God's goal for people is to get them into heaven. Yet, in reality, God is not working to bring people to heaven, but to re-take the earth, which today is in rebellion against Him. So now God is calling us, as the believers in Christ, to stand with Him in this purpose by preaching the gospel of the kingdom in all the earth (Matt. 24:14), to defeat Satan (Rom. 16:20, Eph. 6:10-18) and bri...

In recent episodes we have considered the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7; see A New Podcast Series: “The Eternal Gospel”). We have shared that, according to this gospel, a person may have their sins forgiven even if they have not had the opportunity to believe in Christ directly. If that is the case, however, then we must ask, Do we still need to be burdened to preach the gospel of Christ? The answer is, Absolutely! First of all, we s...

The gospel of Christ produces the saved, regenerated believers in Christ, while the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7), in contrast, produces the blessed nations, i.e., those who have their sins forgiven through the death of Christ, but who are not regenerated. So, in eternity, as the result of these two different gospels, there will not only be those who are blessed as the saved believers in Christ in the New Jerusalem, and those who ar...

Is the “eternal gospel” (Rev. 14:6-7) simply another way of referring to the basic New Testament gospel of the grace of God? Or is it, instead, a distinct message that gives those who have never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus a way to have their sins forgiven? Most Bible teachers today would claim it is the former, pointing out that the New Testament does indeed refer to the gospel of grace in a number of different ways. ...

According to so many Bible teachers today, to have our sins forgiven we must ask God to forgive us in Jesus’ name. Therefore, they say, all those who never heard the gospel of the grace of God will have to spend eternity in the lake of fire, even though they never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus. (For an example of this, watch this brief video clip).  What these teachers are saying is, in effect, that God has created so ma...

Does the Bible really say that all those who never heard of Jesus, and who therefore had no opportunity to believe in the gospel, will go to hell for eternity? This is what many prominent Bible teachers have affirmed for centuries—and in this episode, we hear how one such teacher recently reaffirmed this teaching when asked this very question. Sadly, so many are turned away from the God of the Bible because of this teaching, feelin...

The Lord needs followers today who have the same spirit as the writers of the New Testament, who considered themselves as nothing more than His slaves; if He can gain such ones, then He will have a way to carry out what He truly desires to accomplish in our time. But how can we become those who, in terms of our daily living, are slaves of Christ Jesus? Only by allowing ourselves to be fully defeated and captured by Christ. Length:...

As believers in Christ, we tend to consider spiritual matters from the standpoint of our need, such as our need for the forgiveness of sins. And while there is nothing wrong with that, as we grow in Christ we should eventually realize there is also something God needs, in the sense it is something He truly desires, and thus begin to seek the Lord for how we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His desire. When we do this, our Christia...

The Bible covers so many different topics, and one of the main ones, of course, is the gospel of our salvation. So, we begin this episode with a reminder, courtesy of a story about Billy Graham, of how we need to be in prayer for the gospel to once again go forth in this country in 2025; Amen, Lord, have Your way! Yet, among all the matters dealt with in the Bible, the thing it shows us in particular as God’s ultimate desire, the c...

For centuries there has been a dispute among Bible teachers over who wrote the book of Hebrews, since the book itself does not identify its author. Early on in church history it was widely accepted that it had been written by the apostle Paul. Later, however, some began to doubt his authorship, and today most Bible scholars say that no, it was not Paul; rather, someone else must have written it. What so many of those who have consi...

As this new year begins it is good to be reminded of how important it is for us as the believers in Christ to come to the Bible in a regular, consistent way! So in this episode, which is mostly a re-broadcast of an earlier one, we talk with Mike Samulak for some practical tips to help us be in the word as we should, sometimes even by beginning in a very small way. For example, we can make a resolution to read just one Bible vers...