AG Think Tank

  In Acts 1:5, 8, Jesus promised his disciples that soon after his ascension they would “be baptized with the Holy Spirit” and “receive power.” Acts 2:1-41 narrates the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise on the Day of Pentecost. Between Jesus’ promise and its Pentecostal fulfillment, Luke narrates two important events: the disciples “all joined together constantly in prayer” (1:12-14), and they chose an apostolic replacement for Judas Iscariot (1:15-26).   If the Day of Pentecost is a paradigm of spiritual revival for the church, then ... Read More

  Most people can accept the notion that hell is, in some sense, a self-chosen exile from God. And most can handle the notion of some punishment in the afterlife for wickedness done on earth.   But hell seems over the top. A burning lake of sulfur? Worms that gnaw on your flesh forever? How can this be a just response to mortal deeds, no matter how heinous?   Fortunately, our view of hell as a torture pit owes more to Dante than to the Bible.   The first ... Read More

  In Acts 1:15-26, the Apostle Peter addressed what might be called the church’s Judas Problem.   To understand this problem, a bit of background information is necessary. Mark 3:14-15 tells us that Jesus “appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.”   Notice five things: (1) Just as there are twelve tribes in Israel, so there are twelve apostles of Jesus. The apostles symbolize Israel reconstituted. (2) An ... Read More

 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb 10:31, NIV   By this point, he was more than a little irritated. “How can you believe such a monstrous thing? People burning forever just for their privately held opinions – that’s certainly some loving God you’ve got there.”[1]   We had begun civilly enough. He asked me what I did for a living, and I mentioned that I was a minister. The conversation flowed easily and touched on topics as ... Read More

  In October 2003, Tiffany and I went on a tour of the Holy Land led by my father. During our time in Jerusalem, we visited the Upper Room, a site which commemorates the Last Supper and Day of Pentecost. (It is not the original Upper Room, however; it only dates from the twelfth century.) As the tour group crowded into this room, my dad made an interesting comment: “This was the last place the entire church was able to fit into one ... Read More

  Introduction   In a previous article I summarized D.A. Carson’s view of compatibilism as one approach to soteriology that matched the attempt of the AG to embrace two biblical truths that most evangelicals tend to try to put into mutually exclusive categories. Carson teaches that our job is not to choose between the biblical truths, but to adjust our categories.    When I came across Carson’s views for the first time, I welcomed them as a familiar theme. What Carson has done in recent years as a careful ... Read More

  On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Americans will elect a new president. He—perhaps one day, she—will take up residence in the White House on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office. During the anticlimactic 77 days between election and inauguration, he will appoint staff and devise strategy so that he is adequately prepared to lead from the moment he ends his oath with George Washington’s words, “So help me, God!”   The 40-day period between Jesus’ ... Read More

  A recent AGThinkTank.com book review (actually a book preview via an article at Christianity Today) touched off a discussion in comments about the Assemblies of God position on the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism. One comment included a quote from the AG Position Paper on “The Security of the Believer” as follows:   In the matter of the security of the believer, The General Council of the Assemblies of God stands between the extreme positions of Calvinism and Arminianism. It accepts the scriptural elements found ... Read More

  Have you heard of The Rapture Index?   It is a webpage run by two Bible-believing Christians named Todd Strandberg and Terry James. The purpose of the index is “to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.” It does this by assigning numerical value on a daily basis to news reports about false Christs, war, natural disasters, and famine, among other things. The Rapture Index measured 169 on June 30, 2008. The all-time high for the ... Read More

Many people like Jesus, but they dislike the church. Jesus has a winsome personality, wise words, and a way with human relationships. All too often, the church doesn’t. Consequently, many follow Jesus; few join a church.   Acts 1:1-5 shows us why Jesus and the church are inseparable and how to realign the church with Jesus.   In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions ... Read More