The Christian Faith Podcast

What Is the Church? (1): The Fullness of Christ

Do we really appreciate the fact that God desires to have the church? We tend to look at spiritual things from our own viewpoint, focusing on our need for forgiveness of sins, for satisfaction, and for a sense of purpose in our life. But if we are willing to consider what God is after, what He desires, and to serve the Lord to that end, our Christian life will come to an entirely different level.And what God is after is simply this: the church, which will be His expression.So, in this episode we begin to consider the church in its various aspects. And in particular, we consider the church as “the fullness” of Christ, “the One who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). As the believers partake of the riches that are within Christ and grow together in Him, we begin to express Christ and His virtues to the whole universe, including mankind and all the angelic powers, and this expression is the fullness of Christ.NOTE: Click here to download the pamphlet we use as the basis for the sharing in this series on the church: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?”
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Bible Verses for this EpisodeSee Episode #129: “The Church (1): The Fullness of Christ.”
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RESOURCES
Pamphlet: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?”BooksWitness Lee, The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church LifeWatchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life
===========Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, 27 March 2025.

God’s Goal: Not Heaven, but the Earth

So many Christians today seem to believe that God's goal for people is to get them into heaven. Yet, in reality, God is not working to bring people to heaven, but to re-take the earth, which today is in rebellion against Him.So now God is calling us, as the believers in Christ, to stand with Him in this purpose by preaching the gospel of the kingdom in all the earth (Matt. 24:14), to defeat Satan (Rom. 16:20, Eph. 6:10-18) and bring in the kingdom of the heavens even in this present age (cf. Matt. 6:9-10). Unless we are clear about this and reject the concept of “going to heaven” as our destiny, we will never understand the real meaning of our Christian life, nor how we should be following Christ and serving Him today.Only after the rebellion of Satan and mankind against God has been fully dealt with will “the kingdom of the world…become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ” (Rev. 11:15), so that the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God and man, can come down from heaven to the earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-2, 10). That is the goal of all God’s work today, and it should be ours as well.So, in this episode we consider how God is today bringing His heavenly kingdom to the earth.
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===========Bible Verses for this EpisodeSee Episode #128: “God’s Goal: Not Heaven, but the Earth.”
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Related EpisodesEpisode #67: "The Heaven Drug; or, Why I’m Not Going to Heaven." A Podcast Series: “The Eternal Gospel.”A Podcast Series: “The End of Amillenialism.”
Notes“Why Do You Stand, Gazing Into Heaven?”“What Is the Kingdom of the Heavens?”“Open Their Eyes and Turn Them!”
BooksG.H. Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages.
===========Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, 18 March 2025.

Do We Still Need to Preach the Gospel?

In recent episodes we have considered the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7; see A New Podcast Series: “The Eternal Gospel”). We have shared that, according to this gospel, a person may have their sins forgiven even if they have not had the opportunity to believe in Christ directly.If that is the case, however, then we must ask, Do we still need to be burdened to preach the gospel of Christ?The answer is, Absolutely! First of all, we still need to be concerned that sinners could suffer the terrible fate of eternal damnation. Even more, however, we should realize that in the New Testament, the gospel is focused on the fact, not that people are dying without Christ, as serious as that is, but that they are living without Christ.This is because God’s goal is not to bring sinners to heaven, but to bring His kingdom to the earth. And so we preach the gospel to stand with the Lord for His desire by gaining disciples who have been rescued from Satan’s kingdom to live under the authority of Christ today.
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Bible Verses for this Episode
See Episode #127: “Why Do We Preach the Gospel?”
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RESOURCES
Related EpisodesA New Podcast Series: “The Eternal Gospel”
NotesNow Is the Time to “Cross Over!”The Pastor Had a Hard Time With This Question
VideosBilly Graham on how he learned to preach.John MacArthur on the Damnation of the Ignorant.Tim Keller on whether Jesus is the only way to God.
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Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday, 12 March 2025.

The Eternal Gospel & the Blessed Nations

The gospel of Christ produces the saved, regenerated believers in Christ, while the eternal gospel (Rev. 14:6-7), in contrast, produces the blessed nations, i.e., those who have their sins forgiven through the death of Christ, but who are not regenerated. So, in eternity, as the result of these two different gospels, there will not only be those who are blessed as the saved believers in Christ in the New Jerusalem, and those who are cursed as the damned in the lake of fire, but also the blessed nations dwelling upon the earth outside of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24, 26, Rev. 22:1-2).In fact, a major part of God’s work today is to prepare the nations for this destiny, through the work of the eternal gospel, on the one hand, and His judgment on their rebellion, on the other (cf. Psalm 2). We see this especially in the “sheep and goats” judgment of Matthew 25:31-46, and in Revelation 20:7-10, in the final rebellion of the nations with Satan against God at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth (cf. Rev. 2:26-27, 12:5).So, after all the rebellion of the nations against God has been finally terminated, they will enter into the eternity, not as regenerated believers in Christ, but as the blessed nations of the earth to be ruled over by the children of God.
Length: 54 minutes
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Bible Verses for this Episode
See Episode #126: “The Eternal Gospel & the Blessed Nations”
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RESOURCES
Previous Episodes on this Topic:
Episode #123: “Shall They All Be Damned Who Never Heard?” Episode #124: “Just What Is the Eternal Gospel?” Episode #125: “Responding to Other Views” A Video on the Damnation of the Ignorant:On Facebook, the longer version:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=598108006114927&rdid=xnADbSkQXarNe2TL
On YouTube, the shorter version:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IcQj6imVG1A
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Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday, 5 February 2025.

The Eternal Gospel: Responding to Other Views

Is the “eternal gospel” (Rev. 14:6-7) simply another way of referring to the basic New Testament gospel of the grace of God? Or is it, instead, a distinct message that gives those who have never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus a way to have their sins forgiven? Most Bible teachers today would claim it is the former, pointing out that the New Testament does indeed refer to the gospel of grace in a number of different ways. (Scofield lists these in his note on Revelation 14:6.) Yet, the eternal gospel is spoken of in a unique way, with the angel proclaiming the contents of this gospel, which are very different from that of the gospel of the grace of God.So, in this episode we consider the arguments others make on behalf of the view that these are two ways of referring to the same gospel. In doing so, we seek to show that, contrary to what they say, the eternal gospel is indeed the unique way of forgiveness that God has provided for those who have never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus directly.
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Bible Verses for this Episode
See Episode #125: “The Eternal Gospel & Other Views”
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RESOURCES
Previous Episodes on this Topic:Episode #123: “Shall They All Be Damned Who Never Heard?” Episode #124: “Just What Is the Eternal Gospel?” A Video on the Damnation of the Ignorant:On Facebook, the longer version: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=598108006114927&rdid=xnADbSkQXarNe2TLOn YouTube, the shorter version: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IcQj6imVG1A
On the Eternal Gospel:GotQuestions.orgJohn MacArthur
On the Judgment of the Sheep and Goats:GotQuestions.orgJohn MacArthur
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Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, 27 February 2025.

Just What Is the Eternal Gospel?

According to so many Bible teachers today, to have our sins forgiven we must ask God to forgive us in Jesus’ name. Therefore, they say, all those who never heard the gospel of the grace of God will have to spend eternity in the lake of fire, even though they never had the opportunity to believe in Jesus. (For an example of this, watch this brief video clip).  What these teachers are saying is, in effect, that God has created so many billions and billions of people just to send them into eternal damnation, since He knew they would never have any chance of being saved from their sins.In fact, this is a profoundly false teaching that greatly misrepresents both God Himself and the New Testament gospel, and so causes many people in the world to reject the gospel outright. In His mercy, God has indeed provided a way in the New Testament for those who have never heard the name of Jesus to nonetheless be justified through the redemption that is in Him (cf. Luke 18:13-14); and this provision is called “the eternal gospel” (Rev. 14:6-7).Only when we understand this eternal gospel can we reject the false teaching of ignorant damnation and have a proper, Biblical view of how God actually will deal with those who never heard the name of Jesus.
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Bible Verses for this EpisodeEpisode #124: “Just What Is the Eternal Gospel?” ===========
RESOURCESPrevious Episode on a Related Topic:Episode #123: “Shall They All Be Damned Who Never Heard?” YouTube video on the damnation of the ignorant:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IcQj6imVG1A
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Recorded…
in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday, 19 February 2025.

Shall They All Be Damned Who Never Heard?

Does the Bible really say that all those who never heard of Jesus, and who therefore had no opportunity to believe in the gospel, will go to hell for eternity? This is what many prominent Bible teachers have affirmed for centuries—and in this episode, we hear how one such teacher recently reaffirmed this teaching when asked this very question. Sadly, so many are turned away from the God of the Bible because of this teaching, feeling they could never believe in Him if He is so unfair as that.Yet, if we are willing to search the Scriptures for ourselves, we will find that this is absolutely not what the Bible teaches. Rather, the cases of the tax collector praying at the temple (Luke 18:9-14), and of the sheep and goat judgment when the Lord returns (Matthew 25:31-46), show us that God will have a different standard for judging those who never heard the gospel, than He will for those who did have the opportunity to believe in Christ.That standard is what the Bible calls “the eternal gospel,” which is presented in the book of Revelation (Rev. 14:6-7). Only when we understand this gospel can we have a proper, Biblical view of how God will deal with those who never heard the name of Jesus.
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Bible Verses for this EpisodeSee  Episode #123: “Shall They All Be Damned Who Never Heard?”
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Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, 13 February 2025.

Slaves of Christ Jesus, Defeated by Him

The Lord needs followers today who have the same spirit as the writers of the New Testament, who considered themselves as nothing more than His slaves; if He can gain such ones, then He will have a way to carry out what He truly desires to accomplish in our time. But how can we become those who, in terms of our daily living, are slaves of Christ Jesus? Only by allowing ourselves to be fully defeated and captured by Christ.Length: 27 minutes
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Bible Verses for this EpisodeSee  Episode #122: “Slaves of Christ Jesus”
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Books
Witness Lee: An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit
W.J. Conybeare & J. S. Howson, Life and Epistles of Saint Paul
Previous EpisodesEpisode #119: “Peter, Paul, & Hebrews”Previous Notes:• “Slaves of Christ Jesus”•  “Peter, Paul, & Hebrews” (1)•  “Peter, Paul, & Hebrews” (2)• “As Commander of the Army of the Lord I Have Now Come”
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Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Monday, 3 February 2025.

The Central Thing (2): God’s Good Pleasure, Will, & Purpose

As believers in Christ, we tend to consider spiritual matters from the standpoint of our need, such as our need for the forgiveness of sins. And while there is nothing wrong with that, as we grow in Christ we should eventually realize there is also something God needs, in the sense it is something He truly desires, and thus begin to seek the Lord for how we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His desire. When we do this, our Christian life will come to an entirely different level.
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Bible Verses for this Episode
See  Episode #121: “The Central Thing (2): God’s Good Pleasure, Will, & Purpose”
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RESOURCES
OnlineGodsEternalPurpose.orgDownload the PamphletWatch the Videos
Books
Mary McDonough: “God's Plan of Redemption”
Previous EpisodesEpisode #121: “The Central Thing (1): What God Is Really After”
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Recorded…
in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, 30 January 2025.

The Central Thing (1): What God Is Really After

The Bible covers so many different topics, and one of the main ones, of course, is the gospel of our salvation. So, we begin this episode with a reminder, courtesy of a story about Billy Graham, of how we need to be in prayer for the gospel to once again go forth in this country in 2025; Amen, Lord, have Your way!Yet, among all the matters dealt with in the Bible, the thing it shows us in particular as God’s ultimate desire, the central thing in the entire Bible, is this: God’s desire to bring us into relation with Himself by giving us His divine life. Until we see this, we will never truly understand what the Bible is all about. So, in this episode we deal with this central matter in the entire Bible.Much of this is based on a pamphlet we’ve recently made some videos about; you can find both the pamphlet itself and the videos on GodsEternalPurpose.org.
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Bible Verses for this EpisodeSee  Episode #120: “The Central Thing (1): What God Is Really After”
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RESOURCES
OnlineGodsEternalPurpose.orgDownload the PamphletWatch the Videos
Books
Mary McDonough: “God's Plan of Redemption”BTP: “The Concise Bible Dictionary”
Previous EpisodesPodcast Series: “Spirit and Soul and Body”Episode #116: “Our Relationship with God”
Previous NotesGenesis 2:7: “God Set Man in Relation with Himself”Andrew Murray: The First Thought of Man===========
Recorded…in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, 21 January 2025.