The Preterist View, also called Realized Eschatology or the A.D. 70 Doctrine, is an error that seems to resurface every so often. The doctrine states that the Second Coming of Christ, the final judgment, and the end of the world occurred in A.D. 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem at the hand of the Romans.

Max King essentially wrote the book on this doctrine, making the case for it in his 1971 book, The Spirit of Prophecy. Bill Reeves wrote a series of articles answering King’s arguments and demonstrating from the Scriptures the truth about the end times.

If you come across the doctrine today, the arguments made by its proponents will likely be essentially the same arguments made by King in his book. So if you are looking for material to help answer this issue, the articles by Brother Reeves should be useful.

This series of articles, The Preterist View Heresy by Bill Reeves, is available on the website of the Parkway church of Christ.

Hebrews 11 contains many examples of faith. The first individual mentioned is Abel. His faith was demonstrated through the sacrifice he offered to God.

“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4).

In Genesis 4, we read of the sacrifices of these two brothers.

“So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.” (Genesis 4:3-5).

Why did God accept Abel’s offering but not Cain’s? We are not told in Genesis. But we were told in Hebrews 11:4. Abel’s offering was accepted because it was offered “by faith.”

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Each one of us is busy with obligations and responsibilities that have been placed upon us and that we have taken upon ourselves. Our lives can be hectic and we sometimes wonder how we will ever have time to do what we need to do. This is just as much of a challenge for Christians as it is for anyone else.

Paul provides some instructions about time management that would be good for us to heed.

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

The instructions Paul gives contain wisdom from God. We are to take care as to how we conduct our lives. We do this by making the most of our time. We are told to do this because “the days are evil.” We live in evil times. There is no encouragement from the outside world for us to live as we ought to live. If we are not careful how we walk, we will go astray (cf. Hebrews 3:12-13). So we are told to exercise wisdom and make the most of our time. How do we do this?

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Welcome to the new and improved Plain Bible Teaching website. If you were wondering why the blog fell silent, this is the reason. I took a couple weeks off from writing articles so I could rebuild the site. I still have some minor changes to make here and there. But I was close enough to being finished that I could go live with the new version.

So what’s new with the site?

If you visited the site before, then you probably first noticed that the layout is different. Previously the main site and the blog had two different layouts. Now they’re the same and hopefully an improvement visually.

The biggest change is that this site is now just a blog. I have combined the main site and the blog into one. This means that I will no longer be operating Plain Bible Teaching as a monthly publication. I still plan on posting about the same amount of content as I was before between the main site and the blog. But now all articles will be posted to the blog and will be posted when they are ready. So if I have an article done, I won’t hold it until the first of the month. I also won’t have to rush to meet a first of the month deadline. Overall, this should make things easier on me and hopefully will result in better content.

All of the articles that were on the old site and blog have been moved over, with the exception of the study section devoted to the topic of human organizations engaging in spiritual works. That material has been moved over to one of my other sites – Truth Magazine Lectures. Since I have switched everything over, each article’s URL is different. So if you had a particular article bookmarked, you’ll have to update the link. You can use the search box in the right column to find it again.

I will be making some more changes along the way. I plan on adding some way to browse for articles by tags. Sometimes the search box is the best way to find something. Sometimes browsing by tags works better. So I’m planning on adding something along those lines soon. There are also a few design tweaks that need to be made.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that to receive updates when there is new content on the site. You can either subscribe to the RSS feed or by email, whichever you prefer. I plan to start adding content again on July 1st. To help kick off the newly relaunched site, I’m planning on doing 7 posts in 7 days – one new post each day for a week starting July 1st. After that, I’m hoping to have new content posted about 2-3 times a week. If you subscribe, you’ll have the new content automatically sent to you.

So that’s what’s new. I hope you like the new site and find it useful. I’d be happy to hear any comments or suggestions you have.

[This article was written by Tim Haile.]

For centuries, questions and controversies have existed among religious people over the role of women in the work and worship of the local church. Two extreme positions have arisen:

1. Some have concluded that the Bible authorizes women to preach and hold positions of authority within the local church. I am regularly asked what I believe about “women preachers.” History reveals that the women-preacher movement is closely connected to the overall and more secular women’s liberation movement.
2. To the opposite extreme, some have concluded that the Bible doesn’t authorize women to speak at all in church assemblies, even going so far as to prohibit women from participating in singing.

These extreme positions result from people either completely rejecting the plain commands of Scripture, or from a failure to consider their context.

There are others who do not hold either of these extreme positions, but they still have honest questions about the nature and extent of the limitations that are placed upon women. For example, is it always wrong for a woman to teach or correct a man? Do women violate Bible teaching by answering questions in a Bible class? May a woman answer a public question about an absent member? God has spoken to these things, both explicitly and implicitly. We will need to examine the related commands, statements, examples and implications in order to obtain a clear understanding.

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Towards the end of a lengthy discussion of Jesus’ work as our high priest, the Hebrew writer provides a summary in his explanation of Psalm 40:6-8. In this explanation, he tells us the three things Jesus came to the earth to accomplish.

“After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:8-10).

The prophecy attributes these words to Christ: “I have come to do Your will.” Jesus came to do the Father’s will (cf. John 5:30). These verses mention three things that Jesus did by the will of God.

1. He made a sacrifice for our sins. He offered His body (Hebrews 10:10) and shed His blood (Hebrews 9:12) so that we might have our sins forgiven and be saved. When people think about what Jesus came to do, most will think of His death on the cross to save us. It is certainly true, Jesus had to die on the cross to make salvation available. But that was not all. As important as this was, there was more Jesus had to do.
2. “He takes away the first…” (Hebrews 10:9). This first is the first Law, the Old Testament (Hebrews 10:1). This law was “nailed…to the cross” (Colossians 2:14; cf. Ephesians 2:15). Sometimes people try to go to the Old Testament for our Law or to authorize a practice. But in His death, Jesus took this away.
3. “…in order to establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9). Jesus did not just abolish the Old Law. He established a new law. This law would be part of the new covenant that would replace the old law and covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10). This new covenant, with the new law, came into force after Jesus’ death (Hebrews 9:16-17). Some will argue that we are not under a law today. But we are. We are under the “law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2).

Jesus came to do God’s will and die on the cross. In His death, He made atonement for our sins, abolished the Old Law, and established His new covenant. Our responsibility now is to follow the new law, and not turn to the old, so that we can have our sins forgiven.

This question will come up from time to time as we interact with people. To many, churches of Christ (labeled by some as “Church of Christ”) are just one denomination among many. This perception that people have can lead them to view the members of churches of Christ as hypocrites — condemning denominationalism while (allegedly) being part of one.

So is the church of Christ a denomination? It is a fair question. Depending on what one has in mind, there could be various answers given — yes, no, maybe, not yet, etc. So let us consider the question about the church and denominationalism.

What is a Denomination?

Before we consider the question, we must first understand what we are trying to determine. We must first know what a denomination is before we can know if the church is a denomination or not. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a denomination this way: “a religious organization whose congregations are united in their adherence to its beliefs and practices.”

When we speak of a denomination, we are referring to a collective group of churches or congregations which are banded together based on a shared system of beliefs and practices (creed). They are connected through an organization or network larger than themselves. We should be careful to note that this is a group of congregations, not a single congregation. A single, autonomous congregation is not a denomination per the definition above. It may or may not be made up of those who are part of the Lord’s church. It may or may not be engaged in the same works as the churches we read about in the New Testament. But a lone congregation is not a denomination. A denomination is a collective group of congregations.

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