The Meaning of Faith

J. Gresham Machen:

“The true reason why faith is given such an exclusive place by the New Testament, so far as the attainment of salvation is concerned, over against love and over against everything else in man…is that faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. To say, therefore, that our faith saves us means that we do not save ourselves even in slightest measure, but that God saves us.” (What is Faith?)

The Stability of Noah’s Ark

Science and the Bible:

The dimensions of Noah‘s Ark as described in the Bible are ideal for stability. In fact, South Korean architects who examined the dimensions found that the boat was virtually impossible to capsize! Their modeling and analysis found that the ark could survive waves higher than 30 meters! Many other cultures have flood legends similar to the account in the Bible, but their ark descriptions are not stable.

We Owe Him Ourselves

The truth of Jesus Christ endures from generation to generation. He is the same gracious Savior that He was to our fathers. He is today our Savior and is the only Savior by whom our children may have any comfort. Thomas Adams writes:

“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” (Heb. 13:8)

[Christ is], subjectively, in his power the same; and that (1) Yesterday, for he made the world; (2) To-day, for he governs the world; (3) For ever, for he shall judge the world.

Yesterday in the creation: ‘All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made,’ John 1:3. ‘By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him,’ Col. 1:16. All things, even the great and fair book of the world, of three so large leaves, coelum, solum, salum; heaven, earth, and sea. The prophet calls him ‘the everlasting Father,’ Isa. 9:6; Daniel, the ‘Ancient of days,’ Dan. 7:9. Solomon says, that ‘the Lord possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old,’ Prov. 8:22. So himself told the unbelieving Jews, ‘Before Abraham was, I am,’ John 8:58.

We owe, then, ourselves to Christ for our creation; but how much more for our redemption? … If I owe him my whole self for making me, what have I left to pay him for redeeming me? In the first work, he gave myself to me; in the second, he gave himself to me. By a double right, we owe him ourselves; we are worthy of a double punishment, if we give him not his own. (“The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ”)