LIVING FAITH BIBLE INSTITUTE

For thousands of years of Christianity and Judaism, there has been an ongoing debate about what it means for a person to be accountable for their sin. In fact, the debate sits at the heart of the historic contention of the Roman Catholics who practice and perform pato baptism (infant baptism) and the Baptists who believe that baptism is reserved for those who have put their faith in Christ - which implies there is a free will and intellectual capacity to understand and receive the terms of the gospel, something which infants and small children cannot do. 

What is the age of accountability? That's our question for today. Or another way of asking it may be - When does a person have the discretionary faculty to make a decision concerning Jesus Christ? How do we, particularly as parents, recognize that a child is aware and thus answerable to God for their sin? Is it a sudden realization? Is there a specific age or is it a gradual realization? 

To help us better understand what the Bible says about the age of accountability, we have invited Pastor, Dr. Chris Best, Missiology instructor here at the Living Faith BIble Institute to discuss this subject that will benefit anyone looking for biblical answers on the topic.

Hello Students,

As we hit Easter Break, please make sure you are prepared to finish the semester well. Many of the larger assignments are due in the coming weeks, so please plan accordingly.

Also, the summer self-paced courses as well as fall courses are now available for enrollment. We invite you to review and begin enrolling now. If you have questions, please feel free to make a Student Advisory Request.

God Bless.

SUMMER SELF-PACED / FALL COURSES

Since the end of the 19th Century, the church has been debating an issue that before that era, was not broadly contended – namely, whether or not God has faithfully preserved his word over time and between languages. 

 For millennia Psalm 12:6 and 7 was understood to mean that God could and would protect and preserve his scriptures. …it reads, “The words of the LORD [are] pure words: [as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” 

But by the late 1800’s modern academia had given rise to the critical text position, which postulated that the Bible we have, is not the Bible that God inspired. 

Today, the commonly held position is that God’s word was captured in the original manuscripts but was lost over time by the unreliable hands of transcribers and the inherent shortcomings of the translation process. 

The result of this critical view has led to an emphasis on scholarship; the archaeological, anthropological, and theological pursuit of the oldest and most eclectic text to produce the most thoughtful translation. This appeal to authority has led to an ever-expanding array of bible translations, in English as well as other languages - - translations for which the scholars can not definitively say are the very words of God.

Today on the show we have Erion Vogli, a man on a mission to create a reliable translation of the Bible in his native Albanian language. What gives him the confidence that this is even possible? What are his methods and how can he know they are steadfast?

The local New Testament church is the instrument by which God is fulfilling his mission in the world today. It is a place of teaching, training, fellowship, and spiritual deployment. God has used the church for 2,000 years – in times of victory and persecution, in harvest and famine, to be his gospel ambassadors in the world.

Is it any wonder that the primary subject of Satan’s disdain is the bride of Christ? As we look at the state of the church, we discover quickly that she has not fared well in light of the enemy’s plot against her. For every two churches planted in the U.S., three churches close (Lifeway Research). Churches are dying but perhaps more concerning, they are dividing. They are dividing over culture and politics and over personal preferences. Today we have invited Pastor Troy Stogsdill, Pastor of First Baptist Church of New Philadelphia, OH to discuss how the church guards against disunity.

The history of Baptists in the United States is a long and convoluted story of victory and failure, unity and division, momentum, and decline. But, if we pay attention to the stories of those individual leaders within the movement, we discover a very important lesson – namely, that when men are full of faith in God and his word, and fearlessly preach it, they can be mightily used for the kingdom of God. Conversely, men who trade truth for pragmatism or divide the body of Christ for their own righteous causes, will often do more to harm the kingdom then advance it. 

 Today we have invited O. S. Hawkins, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas and the Chancellor and Senior Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss two historic Baptist pastors that serve to help us heed these lessons. 

 Hawkins is the author of over 50 books, including the book we will be considering today, In the Name of God: The Colliding Lives, Legends and Legacies of J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett.