Cyle Clayton

I n my opinion, we don't have to prove God exists. I've always been intimidated by brilliant people on both sides of the faith divide. Unbelievers who create and raise doubt, questioning the Bible's truthfulness and historicity, intimidate me because I spent over a decade of my life on their side. I have no intention of ever returning to unbelief, nor do I honestly believe I can since the Father keeps all He has given to the Son. Still, I fear becoming useless in my faith, by getting caught up in a web of doubt fueled by human intellect. Believers who can debate the skeptic sometimes make me uncomfortable. As I once did, I wonder if Christian debaters develop a debating mindset rather than a proclaiming mindset. They also often intimidate me because they are so adept in an area I struggle with. I have no doubt God calls and equips each of us in a unique way in order to accomplish His will, so I don't judge or condemn apologists. One of them, John Lennox, is a particular

This is not a full analysis of growing and shrinking churches. It's just something I've thought about as I've listened to people talk and listened to myself think about the size of churches. I heard a Revivalist say the Spirit of God was clearly moving because the church was packed and the altar full. I listened to another when there were only a few that week at the church’s revival meetings say, “Well, we don’t have many, so God must be getting’ rid of the weeds so the wheat can grow. The real revival is just around the corner.” A Reformed preacher said his church was growing because the elect were hungry for the true gospel, and the preaching of correct doctrine was bringing them. Another Reformer told me he didn’t care that his congregation had shrunk. He would rather pastor a small group of the regenerated rather than a church full of the unregenerate. It seems that regardless of theological bent, we need to explain the numbers. A good shepherd will spend his days t

God is gracious, but that's not why his grace is available to you. It's available because God is righteous, just, and compassionate. He is righteous because He cannot and will not tolerate sin. He's just because He's promised His wrath on all sins and sinners. He is compassionate because He's sacrificed His Son to satisfy His righteousness and justness. That's why His grace is available.  You will never, ever deserve His compassionate grace, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23). You will never, ever  do anything to deserve it because all of us who receive it "are justified freely by his grace," (Rom. 3:24a) You will never, ever love Him enough to deserve it, but He loved you more than enough to give it, proving "His own love for us in that while we were still sinners," in that, "Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8) God is actually glorified by the greatness of the sin He forgives, Paul writing th

Read the first chapters of Romans, and you'll see very clearly that all people are under the wrath of God and equally in need of redemption. Because of God’s universal revelation of Himself in creation and mankind’s universal rejection of Him, all are under His wrath. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:18-20 NASB)   God's wrath against "all godliness and unrighteousness of men" will be finally expressed on the day of judgment but is currently expressed in his turning sinners over to their sin. "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passion

God’s wrath against all sin is the reason there is a Gospel. For some time, a wind has been blowing through evangelicalism, emphasizing God’s wrath. This wind is a reaction to the partial gospel that emphasizes only God's kindness without preaching His wrath. If you’ve never heard about your sin, God’s wrath upon you, and the certainty of spending eternity in hell, you’ve only heard a partial gospel. You’ve also only heard a distorted Gospel if the wrath of God has been preached as the primary motivation for your repentance. Escaping God's wrath through repentance and confession is not the Gospel. God’s wrath leads us to fear Him, but it can also lead us to fail Him. Repenting and confessing our sins is not enough. If that’s all we ever do, we’ll spend a lifetime sinning and repenting, failing, and trying to be good. We may even deceive ourselves into thinking we’ve done that successfully, looking at others who are not as “righteous” as ourselves in judgment. That’s why Paul wr

Given the approval of a Southern Baptist resolution ( read the resolution here ) regarding IVF and the mass of media and social commentary regarding that resolution,  I wanted to clarify my stance as the pastor of a local church in partnership with the SBC.  At the very least, this is important for the people I serve with as pastor at  Calvary .  IVF is a reproductive process whereby the ova (egg) of a woman is combined with the sperm of a man outside the womb to form a viable human embryo that is then implanted in the womb. The method is used for people who have difficulty achieving pregnancy. According to  HHS , in 2021, 2.3% of children born were conceived utilizing some form of assisted reproductive technology (ART) like IVF: 86,146 children in this country.  Why would the SBC resolve to oppose the birth of children?   Did the SBC resolve to ban IVF?  The answer to the second question is no. The SBC did not outright oppose it but urged Southern Baptists to utilize ART procedures th