Author Archives: John Samson

Quotes On Physical Health

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Highly edifying and highly challenging…

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” – Socrates

…. But Christians agree:

“Our bodies are instruments to make God look glorious. Use your strength, your stamina, your habits, so that Christ is seen as your supreme treasure.” – John Piper.

“Bodily training has some value, not as an idol but as a servant of godliness; fasting, moderation, and diligence bridle the flesh for Christ.” – John Calvin.

“The mortification of sin requires watchfulness over the body; we deny not its goodness, but its usurpations.” – John Owen.

“Fasting is the bridle of the flesh, that the soul may rise unencumbered to God.” – Augustine.

“Temperance is courage for ordinary days—ordering food, sleep, and strength for joyful obedience.” – Michael Reeves.

“Fitness is not an idol but an instrument; we cultivate stamina to spend ourselves for Christ.” – David Mathis.

“Temperance is that grace which keeps the body in its proper place, that the mind may be clear and the heart warm for God.” – Richard Baxter.

“Health is a mercy to be improved for duty; strength is a talent to be spent for Christ.” – Jonathan Edwards.

“Let the body be a servant to the soul, not a sovereign over it. Discipline is the hedge in which holiness flourishes.” – J. C. Ryle.

“We train the body not to trust it, but to employ it; for the kingdom advances through embodied obedience.” – Herman Bavinck.

“Use your strength for service; health is loaned capital for the glory of Christ.” – Charles Spurgeon

Self-control is the Spirit’s fruit; neglect of bodily discipline is often baptized worldliness. Steward health to serve love and learning.” – David Mathis

“Holy zeal should mark our lives; sloth in the body often reveals slumber in the soul.” – John MacArthur.

Why Believe the Bible, and Why Does It Matter?

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If God Has Spoken, Everything Changes

We live in a world of noise.

Your phone has an opinion. Your news source has an opinion. Your friends have opinions. Your fears have opinions. Your past has an opinion. Your own heart can feel like a courtroom, presenting arguments all day long.

And then, in the middle of it all, Christians open a book and say words that are either breathtakingly true or dangerously foolish:

“This is the Word of God.”

Not, “This is inspiring.” Not, “This is meaningful to me.” Not, “This is a helpful religious tradition.” But, “This is what the Lord says.”

That claim needs to be tested. It deserves scrutiny. It should not be accepted because of sentimentality or habit. If the Bible is merely human, then it can be useful in places, but it does not have the authority to command our consciences. But if the Bible is God’s Word, then it is not one voice among many. It is the voice that judges every other voice.

And if that is true, you do not get to keep life in neat compartments.

The rock in the lake

Here is an image to consider.

Every person has a “lake” of thinking. A settled way of viewing reality. We have assumptions about God, suffering, morality, identity, meaning, and what comes after death. Many of those assumptions feel calm and familiar, like still water.

Then God speaks.

His Word lands in that lake like a rock. It does not gently float on the surface as one more preference. It hits with weight. It sends ripples outward. The shockwaves of God’s Word reach the furthest edges of your life, and nothing stays the same. Every loyalty must be reexamined.

This means when your culture says one thing and Scripture says another, Scripture wins. When your feelings say one thing and God’s Word says another, God’s Word wins. When the majority opinion contradicts biblical truth, biblical truth stands. That’s not because Christians are stubborn. It’s because God’s authority is final.

The question is not whether the Bible will have an effect. The question is whether we will let it have its rightful effect.

What Christians are actually claiming

When Christians say the Bible is God’s Word, we are not claiming that Christians are smarter than everyone else. We are not claiming that church history has no mistakes. We are not claiming that Christians have always handled the Bible faithfully. We are not claiming that every preacher has preached it well. We are not claiming that Christians never struggle with doubts or hard passages.

We are claiming something simpler and far more staggering: The God who made the world has spoken to the world. He has not left us to grope in the dark. He has given truth that can be known, trusted, and obeyed.

When we say “God has spoken,” we don’t mean He dictated words to passive scribes like robots. The Bible shows God working through human authors, their vocabularies, personalities, historical contexts, while ensuring that what they wrote is exactly what He intended. The result is fully human writing that is simultaneously fully God’s Word. Paul’s letters sound like Paul. Isaiah sounds like Isaiah. Luke, a physician, describes illnesses and healings with medical precision that the other Gospel writers don’t use. But it’s all God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16).

And we can test this claim. The Bible contains hundreds of specific prophecies about the Messiah, written centuries before Jesus, that He fulfilled in detail. That’s not something human authors could orchestrate.

That is why Jesus could say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3, repeated by Jesus in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4). And that is why Paul could say, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

Notice what that means. God’s Word is not an optional hobby for religious people. It is food. It is life. It is not merely for private spirituality, it is for all of life.

Why this matters, for real life

If you are a Christian, this matters because your confidence, stability, holiness, and joy are tethered to truth, not to mood.

If you are exploring Christianity, this matters because Christianity is not asking you to leap into a fog. It is asking you to face a claim: that God has spoken in a way that can be examined.

And if you are skeptical, this matters because you already live by some authority. Everyone does. Always.

Everyone worships. Everyone trusts. Everyone builds their life on something they consider ultimate. You may appeal to reason, science, tradition, experience, morality, or personal intuition. The only question is, which authority gets the final word when there is a conflict?

And here’s the deeper question: Can your ultimate authority actually bear the weight of your trust? Can reason save you from death? Can science forgive your sins? Can your own intuition rescue you when you stand before God? Christianity says: Only the God who made you can save you. And He has spoken so you can know Him.

Christianity says: God gets the final word. And Scripture is His Word written.

A common objection right away

“But there are so many interpretations. And there are so many denominations. How can anyone claim certainty?”

That is a fair question. But notice something.

Disagreement does not prove that there is no truth. It proves that truth matters, and that people are accountable for handling it carefully.

If a judge makes a ruling, some will argue about the meaning and implications. That does not mean there was no ruling. It means the ruling carries authority and demands honest interpretation.

And by the way, even among those who disagree on important matters, there’s remarkable agreement on the core historical facts: Jesus is God incarnate, He died on a cross, He rose bodily from the dead. The disagreements are real and serious (I’m not minimizing them), but they don’t erase the common ground. Where Scripture speaks clearly, honest readers can understand it. Where faithful Christians disagree, it’s usually because the issue requires careful interpretation, not because Scripture is hopelessly unclear.

In fact, the existence of counterfeits is usually evidence that something real is valuable. Nobody counterfeits monopoly money. Nobody prints fake grocery store coupons. They counterfeit $100 bills, what matters.

What this series seeks to do: a series within a series

This section on the Bible is not meant to be book-length. It is meant to be a set of clear, strong, accessible articles that engage both heart and mind.

We are going to tackle the major objections without flinching. Here is the road ahead in this Bible mini-series:

  1. If God has spoken, everything changes. (This article)
  2. What does it mean to say the Bible is the Word of God? Inspiration, authority, sufficiency, clarity, and what we are not claiming.
  3. How did we get the Old Testament? Why these books, and why not the Apocrypha?
  4. How did we get the New Testament? Apostles, early reception, and the myth that a later council “made the Bible.”
  5. Has the text been corrupted? Manuscripts, variants, and why the “telephone game” objection fails.
  6. Can we trust our translations? Why English Bibles differ, and why faithful translation strengthens confidence, not weakens it.
  7. What about contradictions and hard passages? How to read carefully, honestly, and without panic.
  8. How should I read the Bible, devotionally and intelligently? A simple pathway for daily reading that builds faith, discernment, and joy.

You might wonder why we’re spending so much time on this. Because if the Bible isn’t God’s Word, Christianity collapses. But if it is, everything changes. This isn’t a side issue, it’s foundational.

That may look like a lot to cover. But here’s the good news: all of it points in the same direction. Some of those topics may feel technical. But the purpose is never trivia. The purpose is confidence. Real confidence, grounded confidence.

The Christian conviction in one sentence

Here is the central claim we are going to defend across these articles:

God has spoken with clarity and authority, and He has preserved His Word for His people.

That is why Christians are not embarrassed by hard questions about canon (which books rightly belong in our Bibles), manuscripts, or translation. If God is real, then truth is real. If truth is real, scrutiny is not the enemy. Scrutiny is the friend of truth.

A word to Christians who feel shaky

Some believers feel embarrassed when they cannot answer a skeptical question quickly. They assume, “If I cannot explain it in 30 seconds, maybe the Bible is fragile.”

Not so.

Some truths take time to explain. A verdict may be clear, even when the reasoning takes longer to lay out. In the same way, Christian confidence is not built on quick slogans. It is built on God’s character and God’s works in history, and ultimately on Christ Himself.

A word to the skeptic who feels pressured

If you are skeptical, I am not asking you to pretend. I am not asking you to turn your brain off.

Read these articles as an honest investigation. Ask whether the Christian claim is coherent. Ask whether it matches the real world. Ask whether it can bear the weight of history, evidence, and moral reality.

If God exists, then His voice matters more than ours.

Back to the rock in the lake

Let me return to that lake image.

A lot of people want a Bible that sits politely at the edge of life. A Bible that offers comfort when we are sad, but never confronts us. A Bible that inspires us, but never commands us. A Bible that supports our plans, but never rearranges them.

But if God has spoken, that cannot be.

His Word is a rock. It lands with authority. It sends ripples into everything. Into how you think about God, sin, grace, sex, money, suffering, justice, death, eternity, and the meaning of your life. It might change how you spend your Sunday mornings. It might reshape your Monday morning budget. It might redefine what you’re living for. And in the end, that is not oppression. That is mercy.

A faithful Father does not leave His children without direction. A good Shepherd does not abandon His sheep to their own instincts. A holy God does not leave sinners without a clear word of warning and a clear word of rescue.

That rescue is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The same Bible that exposes our sin also reveals the Savior. The same Word that humbles us also heals us. The same God who speaks in Scripture invites the weary to come to Christ for rest.

So the question is not only, “Is the Bible true?” The deeper question is, “If God has spoken, will I listen?”

In a world where the courtroom never seems to adjourn, God’s Word does not merely offer one more argument. It speaks with final authority.

Next article: What do we mean when we say the Bible is the Word of God?

Which God Are We Talking About?

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The Triune God of Scripture

I love the Trinity. That is because I love God, and God is Triune.

When Christians say “God,” we do not mean a vague creator. We mean the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons.

That may sound like theology for specialists, but it is actually the bedrock of Christian faith. If we get God wrong, we will get everything else wrong. And if we keep God vague, we will never know whether we are talking about the living God of Scripture or a god made in our own image.

What do Christians mean by “the Trinity”?

Very few people have a firm grasp of the Trinity, so we need to define our terms.

The doctrine of the Trinity, stated simply, is that there is one eternal being of God, and this one divine being is shared fully and completely by three coequal, coeternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God is therefore one in essence and three in persons.

To keep our thinking clear, we need to distinguish between the words being and person.

Being answers the question: What is something?

Person answers the question: Who is someone?

A simple analogy I once heard is helpful here. A chair has being, it exists. But it does not have personhood. It has no mind, no will, no “self.” I do not ask its permission to sit on it, because it is not a “who.” It is a “what.” This distinction helps us understand the Trinity. God is one “what” (one divine being) shared by three “whos” (Father, Son, Spirit).

Many analogies have been proposed: water, ice, steam (but that’s modalism). Egg with shell, white, yolk (but those are parts, not persons). Shamrock (St. Patrick’s attempt, but it doesn’t capture the fullness). All analogies break down because God is utterly unique. It’s better to let Scripture define the Trinity than to trust imperfect comparisons.

So when Christians speak of the Trinity, we are not saying “three gods.” Nor are we saying “one person pretending to be three persons.” We are saying something far more precise:

One divine what: one being, one essence

Three divine whos: three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Is there mystery here? Yes. God is infinite. We are not. But mystery is not the same as contradiction. The Trinity is beyond us, but it is not against reason. It is the biblical revelation of who God is.

A common objection you may hear: “The Trinity is not in the Bible.”

Non-Trinitarian groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) often contend that Christians have simply made up the Trinity, pointing out that the term itself is not found in Scripture.

But the absence of a word does not prove the absence of the truth.

The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, but neither is “Bible,” “incarnation,” “inerrancy,” or the phrase “the second coming of Christ.” We use these words and phrases as shorthand for biblical truths. The word doesn’t need to be there if the reality is clearly taught. And the Trinity is clearly taught when you let Scripture speak. So when someone says, “Trinity is not in the Bible,” a fair reply is, “So what?” The real issue is whether Scripture teaches the reality the word describes.

The church did not create the Trinity, it summarized Scripture’s teaching. And when the church later met at Nicaea and other councils, it was not inventing the Trinity, it was defending the biblical confession against distortions.

That is exactly what Christians have done throughout the centuries. The word “Trinity” is a faithful summary of what Scripture clearly teaches when all the relevant passages are taken together.

Why do Christians believe the Trinity?

Christians believe the Trinity because three things are unmistakably taught in Scripture.

1. There is only one God, eternal and immutable (unchanging).

(Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10; Mal. 3:6; Mark 12:29; John 17:3; 1 Tim. 2:5; Jas. 2:19)

2. There are three eternal persons, carefully distinguished from one another.

The Father is not the Son.

The Son is not the Spirit.

The Spirit is not the Father.

(Matt. 3:13–17; 28:19; Luke 10:22; John 1:1–2; 3:16–17; 15:26; 16:7; 17:1–26; 2 Cor. 13:14)

3. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each identified as fully divine.

(Isa. 9:6; John 17:3; John 1:1, 18; 8:58; 20:28; Phil. 2:5–11; Col. 2:9; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:1; Acts 5:3–4; 2 Cor. 3:17–18)

John 1:1 is especially clear: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Notice: the Word (Jesus) was with God (personal distinction) and was God (full deity). Same divine being, distinct person. That’s two persons of the Trinity in one verse, with personal distinction and full deity both in view.

In Acts 5, when Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter said he had “not lied to man but to God” (v. 4). The Spirit and God are equated. The Holy Spirit isn’t an impersonal force. He’s a divine person. After all, you can’t lie to electricity or grieve gravity or blaspheme wind. But the Spirit can be lied to, grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and blasphemed (Matthew 12:31-32). Only a person can be treated this way.

Put those three truths together and the conclusion is unavoidable:

There is only one God.

The Father, Son, and Spirit are personally distinct.

The Father, Son, and Spirit are each fully God.

That is the Trinity.

Is the Trinity hinted at in the Old Testament?

The Trinity is not spelled out in the Old Testament with the clarity we find in the New, but there are striking hints that God is not a lonely monad.

One of the most memorable occurs in the Sodom and Gomorrah account. Genesis 19:24 says, “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (ESV). There is only one LORD (Yahweh), so why does the text speak of the LORD raining fire from the LORD? It is as if the text presents two distinct persons, both identified as Yahweh.

Christians have often seen here a glimpse of God’s complex unity, and many have understood it as consistent with the way Scripture later distinguishes the Father and the Son, without dividing the one divine identity. At the very least, the text presses us to take seriously that God’s oneness is not simplistic.

Consider also the plural language in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image.” Or Isaiah 6:8: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” The singular and plural exist side by side.

The Old Testament also speaks of God’s presence with His people in ways that stretch our categories:

God is enthroned in heaven, yet truly dwells with His covenant people.

The “Angel of the LORD” appears at key moments, speaking and acting with divine authority.

These are not full statements of the Trinity, but they are real signposts that prepare us for what the New Testament reveals plainly. Later revelation in the New Testament clarifies what these hints were pointing toward all along.

What happens when we deny one of these truths?

Because these three truths hang together, denying any one of them produces serious error.

Deny personal distinctions (Father, Son, and Spirit are not truly distinct) and you drift into modalism, sometimes called “Oneness” teaching.

Deny full deity and equality (especially of the Son and the Spirit) and you drift into subordinationism.

Deny the one God and you drift into tritheism or polytheism.

As Dr. James White has explained: if one denies that there are three persons, it results in Oneness teaching. If one denies full equality, one is left with subordinationism. If one denies one God, one is left with polytheism. In some non-Trinitarian systems, multiple denials show up at once. This is why these views cannot account for the full range of biblical data.

This is why the Trinity is not an optional extra. It is not a theological hobby. It is the guardrail that keeps us worshiping the God who actually is, not the god we prefer.

A quick clarification: in God’s eternal nature, Father, Son, and Spirit are absolutely equal. But in the work of salvation, they take different roles. The Son submits to the Father’s will (John 6:38), but this doesn’t mean He’s inferior. It means He chose the role of servant to accomplish redemption (Philippians 2:6-8). Equal in being, distinct in roles.

The Trinity is not a puzzle to solve, but a God to worship.

Before I conclude, I want to add something that has always astonished me.

The Trinity is not merely a doctrine to defend, it is the living reality of God’s work in salvation. Each person of the Godhead acts in perfect unity, yet with real personal distinction.

The Father elects and sends.

The Son becomes incarnate, obeys, dies, rises, and redeems.

The Spirit applies the Son’s finished work, giving new birth, granting repentance and faith, indwelling, sanctifying, and keeping.

J. I. Packer captured the heartbeat of the gospel with three words: “God saves sinners.” That is not a slogan. It is a confession of worship. And it is deeply Trinitarian. The Father plans redemption, the Son accomplishes redemption, and the Spirit applies redemption, so that the praise belongs to God alone.

When you see that, the Trinity stops being an abstract concept. It becomes the shape of your prayers, your assurance, your worship, and your hope.

You pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

You are loved by the Father, united to the Son, indwelt by the Spirit.

You are saved, kept, and brought home by the Triune God.

All glory be to our great God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forevermore. Amen.

A bridge to the next question

Since this is the God we are talking about, the next question is obvious: how has this God made Himself known?

The Triune God is not silent. He speaks. And that leads us directly to the Bible.