https://www.1888msc.org/resources/ssi/2020-q2/the-bible-as-history
Weekly Insights about the Quarterly Lessons from the 1888 Message Study Committee.
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
1888 Message Study : Creation: Genesis as Foundation—Part 1
https://www.1888msc.org/resources/ssi/2020-q2/creation-genesis-as-foundationpart-1
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
"CREATION: GENESIS AS FOUNDATION—PART 1"
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? Psalms 8:3-4, NKJV.
"In the Beginning…"
In order to have wisdom regarding our purpose and place in this world, the meaning of life in the here and now, we must know our end. To know our end, we must know our beginning. God's Word provides this foundation for us.
LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Psalms 39:4, NKJV.
God did not evolve. He pre-existed His creation, and none of His creation can evolve to be Him. The Omega is not a point of evolutionary arrival for humanity, but a Divine being taking humanity under His wings - Jesus as the revelation of God, willing to go to the second death experience of the cross to rescue mankind, to bring "many sons to glory." Satan desired to "be like the Most High," but not like God in who He really is, that is, Love.
Understanding that our beginning as described in the Bible is a creative act of love, fleshed out in amazing design and detail, gives meaning and purpose to life. In contrast, evolutionary thought is founded on the lie of self-love, mere existence for survival. In short, no Creator = no meaning.
The Days of Creation
So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalms 90:12, NKJV.
God not only created us, and gave humanity a beginning. He also set up the measure of our existence. Interestingly, the literal week was given to humanity before the fall of man. It was a way that our lives could measure with the life of God. But after the fall, measuring time has a different purpose.
How do we measure time? From one point in time to another, counting the number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and millennia. Of course, decades is the most we can personally measure. We have limited time and recognizing that fact is foundational to wisdom. Why?
Because we don't have millennia to resolve the sin problem. We need a re-creation, and now!
"Now you are created new in Christ Jesus. He says so. Thank Him that it is so. What! will you be an evolutionist on that verse? That is the present tense, 'We are His workmanship,' we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Are you? The word is spoken. It is the creative word. How much time are you going to allow between that word of God, and your being created new? Of the creation in the beginning, you said that any man who allows even a minute to pass between the word and the thing, is an evolutionist. What are now as to this word of God, which creates men in Christ Jesus unto good works? Are you an evolutionist here? Come, let us all be creationists.
"Do you not see that in this way it will not require a long, tedious, wearing process to be made ready to meet the Lord in glory? So many people are looking at themselves. They know that, in the nature of things, it must take them an exceedingly long time to get fully ready to meet him. If it is done by evolution, it will never be done. But when it is done by creation, it will be both surely and quickly done. That word I have before referred to is the word everyone here may take to himself: 'While so many are hovering about the mystery of faith and godliness, they could solve the matter by proclaiming abroad [by telling it out], "Jesus Christ is my portion forever."'
"Do you see how much we have been evolutionists? Shall we quit? Come now, let us be creationists, and be done with it. Let us be Sabbath-keepers truly. Let us believe the Lord. He speaks forgiveness. He speaks a clean heart. He speaks holiness, He creates it. Let Him create it in you. Stop being an evolutionist, and let that creative word work for you, let that creative energy work in you, that which the word pronounces; and before you leave this house, God can get you ready to meet Him. Indeed, in that very thing you do meet Him. And when you have thus met Him, and do thus meet Him every day, are you not then ready to meet Him? Do you believe that? You believe He made the worlds when He spoke, that light came by His word when He spoke, and that the leper was "immediately" cleansed when He spoke; but with yourself you think considerable time must elapse between the time when the word is spoken and the fact is accomplished. O, why will you be an evolutionist? Creation, creation,—that is the thing. March 7, 1899 ATJ, ARSH 148.
The Sabbath and Creation
Far from being merely "the Jewish Sabbath," the Sabbath was designed by God to teach man his complete and total dependence on the loving Creator for everything. After the fall of man into the lie of self-dependence (immediately causing death without Divine intervention), the lesson remained as part of the plan to redeem mankind.
"What a Sabbath that must have been for Adam! To look upon the earth in its perfect beauty, fresh from the hand of God, to behold His works, and hold communion with God Himself and heavenly angels, was a privilege such as our minds cannot grasp. Although Adam had received dominion over all, he was doing nothing to contribute to the perfect work, beyond being what God had made him. Not a single flower, or animal, or creeping thing owed anything to his care. The world was absolutely perfect, so perfect that there was no room for improvement, and its Maker delighted in His work. The fact that Adam was now called to spend his first entire day in rest was to teach him that he was not expected to carry the burden, that all things could be beautiful and perfect without his moving a finger, and that he was to cast the whole burden of his position on the Lord.
"Adam was also to learn for himself on that Sabbath day that the God who had made him 'very good' was able to keep him so, without Adam's contributing anything to the goodness. Adam's part was to rest in the Lord and allow full and free play to the power which had done its perfect work. As long as he should 'remember the Sabbath day,' Adam would understand his true relation to God, and would continue to rest in Him. But Adam and Eve forgot that Sabbath day and its lesson. Satan tempted them to think that by taking the course he advised, they would do better for themselves than God had done for them, and that they would become as gods. They believed the lie. They forgot that God's work was perfect, and that they could not improve on it. They thought to better their position, and they fell. If they had remembered the Sabbath day, they would not have fallen.
"Now, if we are to reverse their fall, in our own experience, we must not repeat their mistake. We must 'remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' Then we shall understand that we can do nothing for ourselves, and that it is God alone Who can make us holy, as He made Adam in the beginning, and only He Who can keep us holy. 'Moreover, also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12.
"Satan tempted Adam and Eve to forget the Sabbath, and in order that he might obliterate the knowledge of the Sabbath and so ensure that men should not remember it, he has caused the church of which he gained control, to transfer the weekly rest day from the seventh to the first that Satan desires in this way to break the connection between us and the power that was revealed in making a perfect man, at the beginning. But God has caused light to shine upon Satan's work, and He is calling men back to worship Him in spirit and truth, and to enter into His rest. The observance of the first day, in its very nature, represents the error of substituting man's work for God's. The observance of the seventh day, in spirit and truth, stands for faith in God's finished work, in His creating and redeeming power, and for the ceasing from our own works. Hebrews 4:3, 4, 10. Therefore 'remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.'" August 20, 1903 EJW, PTUK 530-31.
Creation and Marriage
While the Sabbath teaches us about our utter dependence upon God for all things, marriage, the other divine institution inaugurated at Creation teaches us God's great love for us and the responsive love He so desires. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was mystified by "the way of a man with a maid." Proverbs 30:19, KJV. Likewise, the love relationship that God desires with each of His children remains mysterious, but amazing nonetheless. The school of marriage can make us more effective in sharing the love of God revealed in the Gospel.
"Marriage, a union for life, is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church. The spirit that Christ manifests toward His church is the spirit that the husband and wife are to manifest toward each other. If they love God supremely, they will love each other in the Lord. . . . In their mutual self-denial and self-sacrifice they will be a blessing to each other. . . .
"God wants the home to be the happiest place on earth, the very symbol of the home in heaven. Bearing the marriage responsibilities in the home, linking their interests with Jesus Christ, leaning upon His arm and His assurance, husband and wife may share a happiness in this union that angels of God commend. Marriage does not lessen their usefulness, but strengthens it." FLB 259.
Creation, the Fall, and the Cross
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5:12, NKJV.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22, NKJV.
Death from the beginning has been an enemy, not a tool of the Creator to advance His Creation in some kind of theistic evolution. This has implications for grasping the fundamentals of the everlasting gospel.
"It was not that Jesus Christ came from outside, and simply stepped into our place as an outsider; but by joining Himself to us by birth, all humanity was brought together in the divine head, Jesus Christ. He suffered on the cross. Then it was the whole family in Jesus Christ that was crucified. 'For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead,' or as the Revised Version says, 'All died.' 2 Corinthians 5:14. What we want in our experience is to enter into the fact that we did die in Him. But while it is true that Jesus Christ paid the whole price, bore every grief, was humanity itself, yet it is also true that no man receives benefit from that except he receives Christ, except he is born again. Only those who are twice born can enter into the kingdom of God. Those who are born in the flesh, must be born again, born of the Spirit, in order that what Jesus Christ did in the flesh, we may avail ourselves of, that we may really be in Him." January 6, 1896 WWP, BEST 5.
~Todd Guthrie
Thursday, May 07, 2020
1888 Message Study : Why Is Interpretation Needed?
https://www.1888msc.org/resources/ssi/2020-q2/why-is-interpretation-needed
"WHY IS INTERPRETATION NEEDED?"
Have you ever had a discouraging or depressing day or experience, and turned to the Bible for a promise or verse that would encourage you and lift your spirits out of darkness? I'm sure we all have. In my younger, and hopefully less insightful youth, I'd occasionally practice a method of Bible study that I've heard others use too – unfortunately. It's the, "close your eyes – pray – let the Bible fall open – point your finger blindly at a verse" method. Anybody else ever tried that method? I've actually heard some encouraging testimonies using this method – although I'd NEVER recommend it today.
One not so encouraging story using this method went as follows:
1st verse – "Judas . . . went out and hanged himself." Matthew 27:5
-not too encouraging, so let me try this again, and pray again – harder.
2nd verse – "Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise.'" Luke 10:37
-Wow, two in a row! Ok, Lord, I'll try this one more time!
3rd verse – "Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'" John 13:27
-Oh no! Three strikes and you're out!
Clearly, this method has some pretty significant drawbacks. Our lesson is entitled, "Why is Interpretations Needed?", and our opening illustration makes that point. Approaching the Bible as above, which many of us have probably tried at one time or another, is not using the Bible the way God intended us to use it. The Bible is not a good luck charm.
A pastor tells the story of a Bible study group he was involved in where one of the women admitted to an illicit relationship with someone other than her husband. She justified the relationship by quoting Paul in Ephesians 4:24, "put on the NEW MAN".
Another youth pastor tells the story of a young man in his congregation who wanted to date one of the young women in the youth group, whose name was Grace. He saw his Biblical mandate in 1 Timothy 6:21, "Grace be with you."
While these true stories and illustrations are obvious to most of us, they make the point of "why is interpretation needed". Primarily because our fallen human nature will use ANY means possible or necessary to preserve self and it's position and desires. We will twist, abstract, diminish, exalt, avoid, quote, and misquote – consciously or subconsciously – any and all Bible verses to support our position, our status (think of those defending slavery misusing the Bible), our self-identity, our "group", etc.
Remember, Satan was quoting Scripture in his temptations of Jesus. He was mis-using actual Bible verses to tempt Jesus to fall in to his kingdom. Our fallen natures will do no less to preserve our "selves", at the expense of God's kingdom. Jesus said to His disciples that people would put them out of church, and even kill them, and believe that they were doing God's service, because they didn't know God (John 16:2-3). These will be Bible (or other "scriptures") quoting people who in the end times will believe they are doing God's will.
But they won't have interpreted the Bible correctly. This is why interpretation is needed. While we would all agree with the statement that, "God said it. I believe it. And that settles it for me.", we can see from all the above evidence that we need wisdom and principles and humility to see what the Bible is trying to communicate to us through the lens of our fallenness.
It has been accurately said that, "reading is bringing meaning to words." So, the "meaning" we bring to the words is critical. When the Bible was originally written, there were no verses, no chapter divisions, no punctuation, and there were no spaces even between the words. And all the words were in capital letters. Take for example the "interpretation" of the following phrase.
"GODISNOWHERE"
Again, in the original, no spaces between words. Does the above read, "God is no where", or, "God is now here". The answer would require "interpretation".
Who is speaking? Job's friends might say to Job that "God is no where" for example. Whereas Moses on Mount Sinai might say, "God is now here."
What is the context? As one wise apologist has said, "Never read a Bible verse!". And his point is that we should never take a Bible verse out of the surrounding "context" and misuse it. A verse without a context is a pretext – meaning – don't come and pick out a Bible verse just to fit your preconceived notions without taking in to account the setting of the particular verse.
Note how Ellen White was acutely aware of this principle as brought out in our lesson:
"In your study of the word, lay at the door of investigation your preconceived opinions and your hereditary and cultivated ideas. You will never reach the truth if you study the Scriptures to vindicate your own ideas. Leave these at the door, and with a contrite heart go in to hear what the Lord has to say to you. As the humble seeker for truth sits at Christ's feet, and learns of Him, the word gives him understanding. To those who are too wise in their own conceit to study the Bible, Christ says, 'You must become meek and lowly in heart if you desire to become wise unto salvation'.
Do not read the word in the light of former opinions; but, with a mind free from prejudice, search it carefully and prayerfully. If, as you read, conviction comes, and you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the word, do not try to make the word fit these opinions. Make your opinions fit the word. Do not allow what you have believed or practiced in the past to control your understanding." {MYP 260}
These prejudices, biases, and misinterpretations, lay at the foundation of the rejection of the 1888 message by some of our sincere Adventist pioneers:
"An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's message through Brethren Waggoner and Jones. By exciting that opposition, Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world." {1888 1575.2}
Why is interpretation needed? For one, to lay aside "preconceived opinions", and accept truth as the Holy Spirit presents it to us. We are all at risk of this failure, irrespective of our current "fund of knowledge", and Sunday's lesson calls our attention to this danger. And the consequences 132 years ago were that the beginning of the latter rain and the fullness of the Loud Cry were "kept away from the world"! May we not succumb to similar misinterpretation and pride of opinion today.
While there is much, much more that could be said about appropriate and wise interpretation, I would direct our readers to William Miller's principles of interpretation (attached as a separate file to this email). This seminal figure in the early Advent movement worked out significant founding principles, prophecies, and doctrines with His Bible and a concordance. A rich study in God's Word awaits you with these simple tools, with prayer, and with a humble spirit that the Holy Spirit can speak to.
~Bob Hunsaker
William Miller's Principles of Interpretation
Thursday, April 30, 2020
1888 Message Study : By Scripture Alone — Sola Scriptura
https://www.1888msc.org/resources/ssi/2020-q2/by-scripture-alone--sola-scriptura
"BY SCRIPTURE ALONE— SOLA SCRIPTURA"
Sola Scriptura, two words that so easily roll off the tongue but is a concept that was radically unheard of in the early days of the Protestant Reformation. Yet, this became the foundational principle to this movement and can only truly be understood in a reformation context. If Sola Scriptura dies, the Protestant Reformation dies with it.
The Bible sets the stage for the need for this declaration of the reformers as it foretold an apostasy from the apostolic church. Passages, like Daniel 7, 8 and 9, point to a religious power that would make changes to the biblical times and laws. Paul speaks of a falling away that was to come and that a man of sin would be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). And John coined the name antichrist in speaking of these same developments. (1 John 2:18, 19 and 4:1-3)
These passages and others were foretelling of a world that the reformers would find themselves living in. This quotation from the pen of Ellen White captures this.
"The voice of Luther, that echoed in mountains and valleys, that shook Europe as with an earthquake, summoned forth an army of noble apostles of Jesus, and the truth they advocated could not be silenced by fagots, by tortures, by dungeons, by death; and still the voices of the noble army of martyrs are telling us that the Roman power is the predicted apostasy of the last days, the mystery of iniquity which Paul saw beginning to work even in his day." (Signs of the Times; Feb 19, 1894)
Consider the early apostolic church, starting with Jesus in AD 27 and continuing on with the apostles after His death and resurrection. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, 3000 were added to the church in a day followed by another 4000 soon after. The work of a handful of men gifted with the Spirit of God was said to "have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6).
Christianity spread to much of their world over the next few hundred years. The church, however, did not form without opposition. There was great persecution of the early church as well as problems with false teachers and doctrinal assaults.
While "turning the world upside down" had a major impact, it is estimated that the Pre- Constantinian Roman Empire was at best 5% Christian and more realistically around 2%. This would be about the same density of Christianity in India or China today. In other words, it was not the popular movement that "turning the world upside down" might suggest. While the church made great strides it by far was not a majority phenomena.
In the Post-Constantinian world the church went from being the persecuted faithful minority to becoming an accepted popular majority. It is estimated that up to 70% of the Roman world population became Christian. What changed? First persecution vanished, next Christianity became the state sponsored religion and finally the church's teachings accommodated pagan ideas which many of the citizens of the Roman Empire held. Some have described the church of this age as filled with "half converted pagans."
This transition didn't take place overnight. Church formation primarily occurring from the time of Jesus through the few centuries following with gradual and incremental moves away from the apostolic church as the years passed. At the conversion of Constantine in AD 321 the church then switched to primarily a deformation phase. The deformation then proceeded like a downward spiral until we can see the Roman church reaching an all-time low becoming so unlike the apostolic church that honest individuals within the church started speaking up and protesting with greater and greater clarity. Of that time, when the reformation started to emerge, the following could be said of the religion of the day.
"Popery is the religion of human nature, and the mass of humanity love a doctrine that permits them to commit sin, and yet frees them from its consequences. People must have some form of religion, and this religion, formed by human device, and yet claiming divine authority, suits the carnal mind." (Signs of the Times; Feb 19, 1894)
The Waldenses and their forerunners were present all along trying to hold to the Bible's teachings. Then standing up for a return to scripture was John Wycliffe (1320's-1384), the Morningstar of the reformation. He was a forerunner of Sola Scriptura. Wycliffe had come to regard the scriptures as the only reliable guide to the truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He went on to translate the entire Bible into the common language of the people.
From Wycliffe to Huss and then to Luther an awakening to scripture continued to emerge. Sola Scriptura came to the forefront of the reformation and marked the foundational principle of the movement. "When enemies appealed to custom and tradition, or to the assertions and authority of the pope, Luther met them with the Bible and the Bible only. Here were arguments which they could not answer;" (GC 132). This guiding principle would take the church from the depth of the deformation through the gradual incremental process of reformation and ultimately to restoration and the return of Christ.
Ellen White was firmly established in the protestant preserving principle of Sola Scriptura as illustrated by the following statement:
"But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines, and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority, — not one or all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept, we should demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord" in its support.
Satan is constantly endeavoring to attract attention to man in the place of God. He leads the people to look to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as their guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn their duty for themselves. Then, by controlling the minds of these leaders, he can influence the multitudes according to his will." (RH, June 7, 1906)
By the time the Advent Movement emerges all of the Protestant Churches still claimed Sola Scriptura. Yet, there were many churches with varying teachings. How can they all believe in Sola Scriptura yet drastically differ doctrinally? The answer is, while claiming to be under the banner of Sola Scriptura, they had in effect departed from it. The moment this happens the reformation stops for them and whereever along the reformation continuum they are at the time there they stay. For some were Lutheran, for others Calvinists, for others Methodist, and so forth.
Ellen White comments on a reason for the doctrinal divide:
"The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men, who, with a pretense of great wisdom, teach that the Scriptures have a mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed. These men are false teachers. It was to such a class that Jesus declared: "Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God." Mark 12:24. The language of the Bible should be explained according to its obvious meaning, unless a symbol or figure is employed. Christ has given the promise: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." John 7:17. If men would but take the Bible as it reads, if there were no false teachers to mislead and confuse their minds, a work would be accomplished that would make angels glad and that would bring into the fold of Christ thousands upon thousands who are now wandering in error." (GC 598)
A.T. Jones put it this way:
"The Bible comes to us as the Word of God…...And whosoever will receive it as the Word of God, will find it to be that…
When the Bible is taken this way and treated thus, no one will have any difficulty whatever in understanding it. And for any man not to take it this way, and not to treat it thus: that is for any man to say that the Bible does not mean what it says, and that it is left for the man himself to say what it means—this is only to claim that he knows better than God just how it ought to have been said, and just what should have been meant. In other words, he puts himself in the place of God.
When the Bible is taken just as it says, and is allowed to mean exactly what it says because the Author of it knew well enough what he wanted to say to be able to say just what he meant, it is all plain enough." (AMS May 6, 1897)
Waggoner approached scripture this way as illustrated in the following:
"The will of God is our sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3. He willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:4. And He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Ephesians 1:11. "What! do you mean to teach universal salvation?" We mean to teach just what the Word of God teaches, — that "the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Titus 2:11, R.V. God has wrought out salvation for every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn it, and throw it away." (The Glad Tidings, p 13,14)
When the church stays faithful comparing scripture with scripture and takes the word of God just as it reads, approaches it with a heart willing to do as it teaches, the reformation will continue for us and will bring restoration to completion for the church. We all would do well to approach scripture this way and take it as the living Word letting it speak for itself rather than try to fit scripture into preconceived theological models.
Now, as we bring this to a close, it bears to mention the relationship of Sola Scriptura and the Spirit of Prophecy. Sometimes the idea of Sola Scriptura is used as an argument by some against using Spirit of Prophecy. I have found that many times when the Sola Scriptura argument is used this way it is because the individual does not agree with Spirit of Prophecy and uses the "Bible only" banner to silence the prophet of God.
Never did Luther or any reformer use the idea of Sola Scriptura to exclude inspiration. History shows clearly that sola scriptura was to lift up the inspired writings over tradition and the teachings of men. It was never a cry against the writings of an inspired prophet of God. But men today who want to hold to traditions or man-made views of scripture and the gospel, wrongly use a Sola Scriptura banner to quiet the inspired voice of the prophet.
Remember that the scripture of the New Testament authors referred to was the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Old Testament). This means that until there was a Cannon of scripture, all of the New Testament authors would have been extra-scriptural (outside of scripture) inspiration. We would never say of the early church that they should not have read Paul, quoted Paul, or based their doctrine on Paul. Paul was authoritative and he was an extra-biblical inspired source in their day. Likewise, a contemporary prophet of God is not and will never be in the cannon of scripture. They will always be extra-scriptural inspiration in our day as Paul was in his.
Given this though, it is absolutely true that Ellen White referred to herself as the lesser light and referred the church back to scripture over and over again. This reminds me of what Jesus did to Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus and again to the disciples as a group after that. He taught them from the scriptures. He wanted them to see what was written and help them see the narrative that they were missing in scripture. In the same manner we need to know the Bible for ourselves and teach others from the scriptures. Let it be said of us, that beginning from Genesis through Revelation, we expounded on all things concerning Him.
In this age of ecumenicalism and many competing voices that surround us may we not let the Protestant Reformation die with us. May we hold to scripture alone and find within the pages of this book Christ alone Who is not socially distant from us but has drawn closer than a brother. Who by His sacrifice for the world, He has justified all by His grace alone and stands ready to fully cloth us with His righteousness by His faith alone. And thereby allowing Him to lighten the world with His glory alone.
Sola Scriptura
Solus Christus
Sola Gratia
Sola Fide
Soli Deo Gloria
~Kelly Kinsley
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