October Q&A
The question is: What does it mean that man shall not live by bread alone? (Duet 8:3)?
From: https://www.gotquestions.org/man-shall-not-live-by-bread-alone.html
After Jesus’ baptism, just before He began His earthly ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Lord had fasted forty days and nights when Satan came to entice Him to turn stones into loaves of bread. Jesus answered the devil with these famous words: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).
To combat the devil’s temptation, Christ drew directly from Deuteronomy 8:3: “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The meaning of man shall not live by bread alone is best understood in the context of Israel’s desert wandering experience. After years of living as wilderness sojourners, the people prepared to settle down in their own land. God addressed them through Moses in the opening chapters of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first six chapters, the Lord reminded His people of everything He had done to care for them in the past. Then He began to warn the Israelites of potential dangers in their future.
In the wilderness, God had humbled the Israelites by letting them go hungry. Then He fed them with manna so that they would have to depend on Him alone for daily provision. Manna was a type of food that was previously unknown—no one had ever had manna before (Exodus 16:15). This food symbolized God’s divine intervention to sustain their lives. If they tried to provide for themselves by hoarding manna for the next day, the food always spoiled. Each day and each step of the way, the people had to be fed by Yahweh. It is not just food that gives people life. Without God’s divinely given Word, food may not be available. It is not by bread alone that we live, but by everything that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord—that is, anything and everything that God chooses to give us. God alone is the real source of life and everything in that life for His people (John 15:1–5; John 14:6). He is our all in all. When we’re hungry or experiencing some form of deprivation, we must depend on God to meet our daily needs and remember to obey His Word. And when life is good and we’re feeling prosperous and blessed, we give thanks to the Lord our God, for it is He who provides us with the ability to obtain wealth
(Deuteronomy 8:18). God our Father gives every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) and every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
September Q&A
The question is: Should Christian women wear head coverings in church?
1 Corinthians 11:3-16 addresses the issue of women and head coverings; the context of this passage is submission to the God-given order and “chain of command.” A “covering” on a woman’s head is used as an illustration of the order, headship, and the authority of God.
Within this passage is also verse 10: “For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” Why is that important to angels? The relationship of God with men is something that angels watch and learn from (1 Peter 1:12). Therefore, a woman’s submission to God’s delegated authority over her is an example to angels. The holy angels, who are in perfect and total submission to God, expect that we, as followers of Christ, be the same.
But why is hair an issue in this passage? The apostle Paul is addressing an issue related to the Corinthian culture that was being allowed to disrupt the church. In the Corinthian culture, women normally wore a head covering as a symbol of their submission to their husbands. Paul affirms the rightness of following that cultural mandate—to dispense with the head coverings on women would send the entirely wrong signal to the culture at large.
Paul refers to two things that distinctly relate to local the local culture. The first is verse 14: “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonour to him”. Look at any painting of 18th and 19th century aristocracy and you will see that the men generally wore wigs of long hair. The other is in verse 16: “But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.” Paul is arguing that, this what we do in all our churches. Paul does not argue with words to the effect that “This is the Lord’s command.” Or as Paul declares of those who do not respect the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:30: “and a number sleep.” Or: have died.
So, the result is that if there is a culture of women wearing hats in a church, don’t create tension. But if there is not that culture of head covering, then we should respect what Peter describes in 1 Peter 3:3-4 Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewellery, or putting on dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
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August Q&A
First, the term Christian must be defined. A “Christian” is not a person who has said a prayer or walked down an aisle or been raised in a Christian family. While each of these things can be a part of the Christian experience, they are not what makes a Christian. A Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus. But also, that new Christian has been born again, and the Spirit of Christ henceforth lives in that person. So, with this definition in mind, can a Christian lose salvation?
A Christian is promised eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is the promise of spending forever in heaven with God. God promises that if you believe, you will have eternal life. For a Christian to lose salvation, eternal life would have to be redefined. The Christian is promised to live forever. Does eternal not mean “eternal”? Dose God break His promises?
The Bible also declares that: Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38–39). Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). God guarantees eternal life and maintains the salvation He has given us. The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, and, “when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (Luke 15:5–6). The lamb is found, and the Shepherd gladly bears the burden; our Lord takes full responsibility for bringing the lost one safely home.
So, what of those who stray in later life and appeared to walk away from God? If you have the Spirit of Christ in you with the imputed righteousness of Christ, God cannot charge you with sin. The only question remaining is: was that person a Christian in the first place?
July Q&A
A question to answer is: Why does God allow horrendous evil ?
This question is in essence about: “Why a good God allows terrible pain and suffering to happen to good people.”
The book of Job gives us some of the best insights into that kind of evil. It can help us to understand, not so much why the evil occurred, but to know how a Christian ought to respond to that evil.
When we read chapter 1 of Job we find: in Job 1:8 “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.’ God appears to be almost prompting Satan with respect to Job. Yet we discover that Satan brings terrible things against Job. He lost all his livestock, most of his servants die, then his ten children also died. He was effectively left as a bankrupt. And Job responds in Job 1:21-22, 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. Then the dialogue between God and Satan continues, and we see Job suffering with terrible boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
Job was a good man and his children were upright; yet he suffered more that most of us could take. Job knew nothing of the dialogue between God and Satan. The book of Job is the book we can turn to, to discover a right response to terrible, inexplicable and devastating evil.
Jesus was a good man. Everything He did was wonderful and beautiful. Yet he suffered a most horrendous death on the cross. We can only understand why Jesus suffered by reading the prophesies of the Old Testament, the teaching of Jesus in the gospels, and the declarations of the various passages in the epistles of the New Testament.
In one sense, in the same way we have no idea what is going on in the heavenly realm with the sufferings we go though. It may be a testimony for the day of judgment. It could also be that when your child passed into eternity, God knew the terrible evil he was to do in the distant future and took him out of love to he would be in heaven forever.
But ultimately, we must be like Job and know, that in the depths of our being what Paul declared to Timothy “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.” Job new that God was good, and hence, even in the loss of all earthly wealth, the loss of his health and the death his ten children, Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21
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June Q&A
Capital Bible Church – Statement of Faith :
That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are absolutely inspired of God, inerrant in the original writing and are of supreme and final authority in all areas of knowledge, faith and conduct.
- There is one God, eternally existing in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- That the Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally.
- That Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, a virgin and was true man and true God.
- That man, created in the image of God, sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God. That all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners in thought, word and deed.
- That the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice and that all who believe on Him are justified freely through His shed blood.
- The eternal security of the believer in Christ.
- The actual bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, His ascension into Heaven and His present ministry as our great High Priest.
- That the church on earth is comprised of local, autonomous fellowships of believers and that there are two ordinances; believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper, neither essential for salvation but commanded in the life of the believer.
- That all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God.
- The bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved and the everlasting punishment of the lost.
- The pre-tribulation rapture of the church and the pre-millennial coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and great glory.
See also: www.cbc.asn.au/statement-of-faith
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Pastor Bill Cochrane’s messages
www:cbc.asn.au/pastor-bill-cochrane/
The history of Capital Bible Church
Narrated by Earle McKay Click here