WesleyGospel Ministries

This is the best movie about
the Book of Acts I’ve ever seen.
–J.B.–

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation.
–Romans 15:18-20 (ESV)–

A revival is nothing else than a
new beginning of obedience to God.
–Charles Finney–

A WORD ABOUT STUDY BIBLES:
WILL THEY BUILD YOUR FAITH OR HARM IT?

I personally recommend spiritually-minded study Bibles like The Fire Bible because they’re focused on the devotional life, holy living, and a personal relationship with Christ through encounters with the Holy Spirit. Its not a NAR Bible; its an Assembly of God and Church of God type of Bible, or classical Pentecostal. Its also a big improvement on the Dake Annotated Reference Bible, or even worse The Expositor’s Study Bible by Jimmy Swaggart, which are just not the best Pentecostal study Bibles for lots of reasons. The Fire Bible, while affirming Biblical inerrancy to say that the Bible is true, the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, authoritative for preaching righteousness, and sufficient for understanding salvation from Hell–it will not run off like the Southern Baptist study Bibles often do–such as The Apologetics Study Bible and The MacArthur Study Bible–into a kind of academically technical hyperinerrancy; the kind of perfectionistic Baptist hyperinerrancy teaching that might lead a Bible student into an all-or-nothing, hyperinerrancy-or-atheism mindset also called precisionism. The risk to a Christian’s faith in reading these kinds of study Bibles is very high. Because they attempt to answer every single skeptic’s critique with complex logic, they train the reader that their Christian faith literally depends on these hyper-technical, academic explanations being 100% accurate and 100% true. If a philosophical explanation ever feels strained, overly rigid, or far-fetched to a reader, then the whole house of cards for their faith can fall into agnosticism.

Hyper-apologetics Bibles are mind factories for Christian deism and agnosticism. By forcing the reader into the “academic weeds” to defend every single tiny detail about Bible difficulties, they create a fragile, anxious faith, that often waffles because its based entirely on logical arguments or scientific certainty levels. The moment the reader encounters a secular Bible critic on the History Channel, or a National Geographic article, or an internet critique that easily blows up one of the study Bible’s strained, hyper-logical explanations, the reader panics. They feel that if the apologists had to stretch the truth to make it fit, then Christianity must be a hoax. They backslide out of sheer intellectual exhaustion. They leave zero room for mystery, nuance, or human errors like the patriarchs committing polygamy in the Old Testament. If a believer begins to have a normal human doubt about one small peripheral issue, the notes will tell them that to doubt that point is to compromise the Gospel and be a Hell-deserving unbeliever. Faced with an all-or-nothing choice, many thinkers choose “nothing” and will just backslide into a state of agnosticism. While a Baptist study Bible focused on apologetics–like The Evidence Study Bible by Ray Comfort–might be very helpful in many ways to strengthen a believer’s faith against the assaults of unbelievers–I would recommend that it be used along with The Fire Bible: King James Version (Hendrickson, 2012) and other devotional study Bibles that are aimed at spiritual growth. Especially evangelical Wesleyan-holiness ones like The Wesley Bible: New King James Version (Thomas Nelson, 1990) and the Reflecting God Study Bible: New International Version (Zondervan, 2000).

While the Wesleyan-holiness study Bibles comfortably allow for ancient literary conventions–like numerical rounding, topical timelines, and textual variants–without fearing a loss of Scripture’s authority, the hyperinerrant study Bibles treat any historical or textual tension as a catastrophic, existential threat to your faith. This creates a brittle, all-or-nothing binary where the whole Christian belief system has to be treated like a flawless legal document, which constructs a high risk “house of cards,” that can drive struggling Bible students straight into skepticism, if a single technicality fails for them. Apologetics is totally dangerous to anyone’s quality of faith, if it is cooked up with Baptist hyperinerrancy, hypercessationism, or anti-charismatic beliefs, which would lead the reader away from personal experiences of the Holy Spirit. While such study Bibles are always safer to read than blatantly anti-supernatural, progressive, liberal, demythologizing, agnostic, deconstruction study Bibles such as The New Oxford Annotated Bible, The HarperCollins Study Bible, or The SBL Study Bible–on the other hand, the Southern Baptist apologetics Bibles often take the same hyper-intellectual approach to truth claims, but its just about switching sides or changing teams: you’re not agnostic anymore, now you’re a Christian by just making a logical decision. That’s a shaky foundation to build on. I prefer study Bibles that point people to the new birth and keep them on that track. My concern is that some apologetics-oriented study Bibles can encourage an overly intellectualized approach to Christianity. While defending Biblical reliability is important, Christians should not become so dependent on academic explanations and apologetic arguments that their spiritual confidence becomes unsettled whenever they encounter a difficult passage or an unanswered question. Our faith must be rooted in trusting the person and Spirit of Christ, the new birth, the authority of Scripture, and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Apologetics should strengthen that foundation, not replace it.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
–1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV)–

A VISION OF HELL.

—

He also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.
–Revelation 14:10-11 (ESV)–

The devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
–Revelation 20:10 (ESV)–

As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,
as for murderers, the sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,
their portion will be in the lake
that burns with fire and sulfur.
–Revelation 21:8 (ESV)–

—

HELLFIRE PREACHING.

NAR CULT.

THIS IS NOT A REVIVAL.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul.
–Psalm 19:7 (KJV)–

Thy Word is truth.
–Jesus in John 17:17 (KJV)–

Let God be true,
but every man a liar.
–Romans 3:4 (KJV)–

Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God.
–Romans 10:17 (KJV)–

The Word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any twoedged sword.
–Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)–

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
–2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)–

No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
–2 Peter 1:20-21 (KJV)–

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Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy (Zondervan, 2013).

Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Victor Books, 1992).

Wikipedia, “Biblical Inerrancy: Modern Catholic Discussion.”

A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (WingSpread, 1997).

Dr. Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience (Banner of Truth, 1996).

Ira Milligan, Understanding the Dreams You Dream (Treasure House, 1997).