The Way Matt Sees It

After years of waiting, I've finally gotten married!  And I’ve finally moved down to the Long Branch area to serve my church in the best way I can.    In the midst of all of this, I’ve been praying for God’s direction, guidance and blessing. Recently I read John 3, the famous passage where Jesus talks to Nicodemus, a high-ranking Pharisee, about being “born again,” or born of the Spirit.   While I’ve totally glazed over this in the past, this passage really came alive for me (in part because of watching The Bible miniseries on Netflix this past Easter).   In John 3:8 Jesus says: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” –Jesus (John 3:8 NASB) As Pentecostals, we always talk about being led by the Holy Spirit.   But even from this passage, Jesus makes it seem like it’s not an easy thing.   Just like the wind, you don’t...

SPEAKING IN TONGUES This can be a touchy subject among Christians.   There are varying viewpoints, and this issue seems to spark so much emotional and personal feelings it’s almost taboo to talk about it even among Christian circles.   I’ve decided to focus on answering 10 questions regarding speaking in tongues.             1. What is speaking in tongues?             2. Is speaking in tongues found in the Bible?             3. What is Baptism in the Holy Spirit?             4. Why is there so much division on this subject?             5. Is speaking in tongues still for today, or was that just for the Early Church?             6. W...

What is biblical inerrancy? Biblical inerrancy is the Christian doctrine that the Bible is “without error or fault in all its teaching.”   This idea flows from biblical inspiration; God inspired the authors of the Bible because it is God’s Word, or revelation, to humanity. I’ve been thinking about this topic for a little while now.   My friend attends Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where most of the professors don’t believe in Biblical inerrancy.   For me (and many others), this has always been a fundamental doctrine of Christianity.   This is the book we teach from, preach from, and use as a basis for morality and essentially everything the Christian lives by. However I think my hiccup has been with differentiating between inerrancy with infallibility; from doing some further research and thinking on the subject, I think that these should be defined in the same way.   Instead of taking inerrancy to mean that scripture is free from all factual err...