I hear people say Jesus is God; I also hear He is God’s Son; then I hear He is both... so who is Jesus besides just our Savior?

Sincerely,
Begin At The Beginning

Dear Begin At The Beginning.,

There are three parts to the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is most easily seen in Matt 3:16-17.  When Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove.  Each of them is eternal (they were all at the creation – Gen. 1:1, Gen. 1:2, Col 1:15-17).  John 1:1 specifically says that Jesus is Deity.  Jesus is different than the Father, but He is part of the Godhead.  Jesus even said that He had always existed (Jhn 8:58).  The apostles worshipped Jesus as God (Jhn 20:28).

Jesus was also God’s son because He was given a physical body by God (Heb 10:5, Matt 1:18).  Jesus also obeyed the Father as a son would obey (Jhn 5:19).  Jesus was also the firstborn Son because He is the firstborn of the church – God’s children (Rom 8:29).  Jesus is completely deity, but He also has a unique role as the only member of the Godhead to have also lived in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16).

     My wife and I are members of a church of Christ, the kind that has a fellowship hall, youth minister (and stuff like that), but no instrumental music (or anything like that).  My point is, my wife and I have become a little uncomfortable with this zeal and not being able to find the authority for these things.  We went to a very conservative type of church of Christ, like your congregation (from what I gather from y'all’s answers). There is more to it than that but, my question is: what can we expect with a change from a "liberal" type of church of Christ to a "conservative" church of Christ?

Sincerely,
Motivated To Move

Dear Motivated To Move,

Oftentimes, the worship service at liberal congregations doesn’t seem all that different from the worship service at conservative ones, but the principles behind why they each do what they do is vastly different.

The fundamental difference between the more conservative congregations and the more liberal ones is how closely they adhere to the Bible pattern.  In a conservative congregation, you will see the focus of the church being upon preaching the truth to the lost, teaching the saved, and carrying for needy saints – that’s it.  A conservative congregation believes that the church is sufficient to do God’s work, and they shouldn’t delegate that work out to another organization like a missionary society.  Conservative congregations support preachers directly, and they send funds directly to care for other needy christians… just like the Bible pattern.  This is why conservative congregations are sometimes referred to as ‘non-institutional’.  They don’t believe any other institution should take the place of the church – not a missionary society, not a federation of congregations pooling their funds, not a group of preachers controlling the direction of multiple churches.

The other thing that you will see is that a conservative congregation believes that there is a difference between individual responsibilities and congregational responsibilities.  Individuals have the responsibility to spend time together and socialize with other christians.  Individuals have the responsibility to do good to all mankind and be involved in their community as helpers of the poor and friends to strangers (Gal 6:10).  The church has the responsibility to be the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).  You won’t see the church using its resources (including its building) for purely social activities such as potlucks – it is our responsibility as individuals to show hospitality (Heb 13:2).  You also won’t see the church getting caught up in secular charity activities like food pantries for the poor or community activism – it is our responsibility as individuals to effect change in our communities and help our neighbors. When we blur the lines between what the church should be doing and what individual christians should be doing, we get into all sorts of trouble.  Conservative congregations do their best to keep those lines as distinct as the Bible does.

In short, a conservative congregation will always show you Bible authority for what it does.  We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent (Rev 22:18-19).

What is sin?

Sincerely,
Definition Please

Dear Definition Please,

Sin is disobeying what God says.  The very word ‘sin’ is defined as ‘missing the mark’.  God defines what a good life looks like in His Word.  We wouldn’t know who we ought to be if He didn’t tell us.  We are made in His image (Gen 1:26) and created for His glory (Col 1:16).  We are the creation, and He is the Creator.  Understanding His supreme authority is crucial.  We must realize and accept that we are designed with a purpose and that the Creator understands how to properly guide our lives to fulfill that purpose.

Sin can be doing something that God has condemned (i.e. David sleeping with Bathsheba – 2 Sam 12:13).  Sin can also be failing to do what you ought to (i.e. Jonah refusing to preach to the Ninevites – Jonah 1:3).  We must model our lives after God’s commandments and teachings.  Our lives must bear godly fruit (Jhn 15:12, Lk 3:8), and we must flee from wickedness (1 Tim 6:11).  It is our adherence to both the positive and negative commandments of God that shows our friendship with Him (Jhn 15:14).  The Bible is God’s roadmap for life; follow it to avoid the pitfalls of sin.

     At what point in the plan of salvation does the sinner "die with Christ?"  Romans 6 seems to indicate this takes place at baptism, but I've heard different explanations for the meaning of Romans 6.  Is baptism the burial of a person who is already dead to sin?  Or do we die to sin at the point of baptism?  Thanks.

Sincerely,
Baptism Broodings

Dear Baptism Broodings,

You are right in saying that baptism is when we die with Christ.  The most well-documented and clearest doctrine in the New Testament is baptism… yet, it is also the most commonly ignored topic in the religious world.  It is impossible to be saved without being baptized.  Peter said it best when he said, “Baptism saves you” (1 Pet 3:21).  Every person that became a christian in the New Testament was baptized – immediately.  You won’t find a single person in the book of Acts that wasn’t baptized.  When the first sermon was preached after Christ ascended into heaven, the apostles told the people that they needed to “repent and be baptized… for the remission of their sins” (Acts 2:38).  Paul tells us that baptism is a burial with Christ, and only after that burial do we receive a new life (Rom 6:3-4).  Baptism was so important to Paul that he was baptized even before eating or drinking (Acts 9:18-19), which shows how important it is because Paul hadn’t had food or water in three days (Acts 9:9)!  Belief is not enough; even the demons believe in God (Jas 2:19).  It is only when our belief is combined with obedience that we have living faith (Jas 2:17-18), and the very first command to obey that God gives us is to be baptized in the name of His Son (Matt 28:19, Mk 16:16).  We die to sin when we are baptized.

     I believe, or should say I want to believe, I am love and called for something more, but have yet to feel the full presence of God.  But tonight, in a very real time of doubt, I was called to a non-existent verse, yet it led me straight to a passage that read, "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;” (Mk 16:17)

Please tell me this is not false faith?  Am I not just as important as Moses, Noah, Job, or other "men" of faith?

Sincerely,
Hoping For Spirituality

Dear Hoping For Spirituality,

We are all equally important in God's eyes, but that doesn't mean that we all are called for the same purpose or that we all should receive miraculous abilities to prophecy, speak in tongues, or cast out demons.  Miraculous gifts are no longer present in the church.  They are no longer needed because we have the complete and perfect Word of God (1 Cor 13:8-10).  For further details on this, read “Speaking in Tongues”, “The Lost Art of Prophecy”, and “Spoken Like A True Friend”.

Mark 16:17 is not referring to all Christians, but instead it is referring to the “signs that would accompany” Christianity.  As the gospel first spread, God used miracles to attest to the authenticity of the apostles’ claims that Jesus was the Son of God (Mk 16:20).  These signs and wonders were God’s way of supernaturally bearing witness to the preaching (Heb 2:2-4).  Miracles do not make you a Christian; obedience to the will of God does (Rom 12:2).  Read “What Must I Do To Be Saved?” to understand, verse-by-verse, what it takes to become a Christian.  Do not accept anything but the Scriptures.  Only God’s Word holds the answers to our salvation (Rom 1:16).