God’s name is more than just what we call Him. The names of God in Scripture reflect who He is and what He does.  The Biblical names of God reveal His attributes and teach us how we are to praise Him and what we are to expect of Him.  Our confession reminds us that His name is any way in which He makes Himself known to us.  Join us as Rev. Bill Holiman leads us to examine Deuteronomy 32:1-14 and Revelation 15 and consider the different expressions of God’s name.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube. 

The recipe is simple.  Start with a soft lyrical acoustic intro.  Dash in a hard three-chord progression stirred with vocals both sung and screamed.  Season with ambiguous occult allusions. And for the main ingredient drop in an obtuse reference to beast from Revelation 13. Then as a garnish, include Vincent Price reading Revelation 13:18.

[T]his calls for wisdom; let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

And voila! You have a classic heavy metal ballad.

Men have always speculated with fascination with the identity of this beast, This beastly man will set up the abomination of desolation in the place where it ought not be, work to cause the world to worship the ancient Dragon, make war on the saints, and exercise great power politically, militarily and economically on a global scale.  Was it Nero? Hitler? Putin? Some current or future political figure?

Paul called this man-beast the “man of lawlessness.”  And John calls him the Antichrist. The scope of his reign of terror tempts saints to fear.  We want to know who he is and when he will appear.  We secretly hope, like Hezekiah, that we will be long gone before such dreadful events transpire for fear that we might be either deceived by this Antichrist or face his wrath.

But there is a greater danger for God’s people that lurks in immediate the present.  For the Apostle John reminds us that “the spirit of antichrist which you hear was coming … is in the world already.”  “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.  Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”  Indeed “it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.”  

The church faces a great threat when it is so preoccupied with the future coming of The Antichrist that it fails to guard against present antichrists who bring division, deception, and deny the faith, theologically and practically.  Our ancient enemy, Satan, is subtle, appearing as an angel of light.  And his servants, the tares planted within Christ’s Church, appear as brothers and sisters all while creating division, deceiving through false teaching and denying the faith in their lives and conversations. 

This has been the case since the beginning.  And so, the beloved Apostle, John, writes to his little children in the faith not to be so distracted looking for the Antichrist that they are unaware of the “many antichrist” that have already come.  He writes to warn them of this present danger, instructing them to recognize these antichrists and to respond to their threat to the communion of the saints.

Join us as we examine John’s warning in 1 John 2:18-27 and consider how we can recognize antichrists and respond to the threat they bring to fellowship within the church.   We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube. 

God’s name is more than just what we call Him. The names of God in Scripture reflect who He is and what He does.  The Biblical names of God reveal His attributes and teach us how we are to praise Him and what we are to expect of Him.  We are encouraged to hallow His name and not take it in vain.  Our confession reminds us that His name is any way in which He makes Himself known to us.  Join us as Rev. Bill Holiman leads us to examine Psalm 29 and Matthew 6:5-15 and consider the significance of God’s name.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube. 

Presumption and assurance, courage and recklessness are sets of fraternal twins.  In many ways they look and act alike.  But they are very different.  Recklessness looks like courage on the surface.  But courage sets aside caution only for costly conviction, while recklessness heedlessly jettisons prudence just for bragging rights.  We all admire the off-duty firefighter who rushes into danger to save a child from a burning house.  But the bungee jumper accomplishes nothing more than an adrenaline rush.

Likewise, presumption and assurance bear remarkable resemblance.  They are both confident.  Both speak and act out of solid certainty.   But there are significant distinctions.  Assurance rests in the object of its faith, while presumption faiths its own faith.  Assurance is vigilant and wary of threats, within and without.  While presumption thinks itself bullet-proof, invincible, and unbreakable.  Like the simpleton of the Proverb 14:15, presumption’s self-confidence allows it to “believe everything, [while] the prudent gives thought to his steps.”

Assurance and presumption are not the same thing.  The Bible calls us to have assurance of our faith.  But it also warns us to be vigilant and wary of threats, without and within.  Jesus destroyed the works of the devil and conquered sin and death.  Indeed, we can rejoice in the admonitions of the Apostle John to us.

I am writing to you, little children,
    because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one. -1 John 2:12-13

And yet we also read, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Presumption throws off all sober-minded, watchfulness, confident that it is enough to simply declare our faith in a decision card and then live life however it comes. 

Assurance, however, comforts the doubtful, fearful saint, but warns us to be sober-minded and watchful.  Though we cannot fall from our Heavenly Father’s grip, we can still get tripped up and wounded by the enemy of our soul as he tempts us to love our sinfulness and sin more than our Savior.  And so, assurance and caution are not logically incompatible.

In discussing free will, the Westminster Confession notes.

When God converts a sinner and translates Him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.

-Westminster Confession of Faith 9.4, “Of Free Will”

In 1 John, the beloved Apostle, is writing to the churches of Asia Minor to comfort them with a sermon on assurance.  Anti-Christs, deceivers, and false teachers were denying the importance of the Apostolic witness, the nature of the person and work of Christ, the reality of a transformed life, and importance of loving one another in the church.  They taught “another gospel” of being spiritual but not religious, of knowing God but loving the ways of the world. 

So, John writes to gently point his little children back to the person and work of Christ, to the sanctifying, transformative work of the gospel in their lives, and their love for one another as metrics for authentic faith and fellowship.  He gives them a bold declaration of assurance and a variety of simple, practical tests to gauge their assurance.  But he also warns them what is not compatible with assurance.   

In his short letter on assurance, filled with reassurances of God’s love and exhortations to love one another, the Apostle warns the saints only once what they are not to love, writing “[d]o not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Join us as we examine 1 John 2:15-17 and consider John’s warning not to love the world and how that warning impacts our assurance.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube. 

The proverbs are proverbial.  “Actions speak louder than words!”  “If you talk the talk, walk the walk.” “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  It is fair to recognize that words can be hollow, empty boasts, promises or threats and to believe that all that what matters most are our actions.  After all does the Proverb not declare, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?”

But are our actions as loud as we declare them to be?  After all how many of us struggle with “imposter syndrome?” That feeling that despite a solid record of accomplishment or faithfulness, the next semester, the next job, the next stage of life, the next conversation will prove that we are not what we seem.  Not who others thought we were?  Not what we thought we were?

Our actions are important.  Our walk is what makes our talk real.  But assurance needs to be declared as much as displayed.   While our lives can bear the fruit of confident assurance through our orthodoxy and orthopraxy, we also need those who love us, shepherd us, and observe our lives to declare assurance to us.  When the deeds are done, we still need words.  We need to hear the assurance of pardon after the confession of sin, we need to hear the benediction, we need to hear the assuring words of faithful Christian friends declaring the reality of our faith.

The enemy of our soul is only too glad to pick apart our walk in Christ, to micro-analyze our motives, our actions, our sins, our failings, and our doubts   To magnify our sin and marginalize our sanctification, accuse us of being imposters.   And in those moments, we are unable to draw assurance from our orthodoxy or orthopraxy.  We need someone to speak those words that are worth a thousand pictures.

The enemy attacked the early churches of Asia Minor by stirring up deceivers and anti-Christs who denied the basic truths of the Christian faith and brought fear, uncertainty and division to the believers there.  As a faithful father in the faith to these churches, the Apostle John writes to them to call out these false teachers, refute their errors and comfort the faithful. 

He gently points them back to the person and work of Christ, to the sanctifying, transformative work of the gospel in their lives, and their love for one another as metrics for authentic faith and fellowship.  But he knows that more is needed than metrics.  They need the assurance that comes when their spiritual father declares in words the reality of their own faith.  The Proverb says, “a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”   And in 1 John 2:12-14 the Apostle interrupts the flow of his epistle to give his beloved spiritual children a much-needed fitly spoken words of blessing and assurance.

Join us as we examine 1 John 2:12-14 and consider the importance of pastoral care and encouragement in providing assurance of our faith.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.