The Positive Case for the Faith
The positive case for the Christian faith, study by study — every claim tried by the Scripture itself.
The Bible Is the Word of God
The Bible does not merely contain the word of God — it is the word of God. Its inspiration is plenary (every part) and verbal (the very words), and God has preserved what He inspired.
God breathed the Scriptures
Paul states the fact plainly: all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Peter adds that holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost — the writers were carried, not inventing.
God promised to preserve His words
The words of the LORD are pure words, and He promised to keep them from this generation for ever. Heaven and earth will pass away; His words will not.
The Scripture cannot be broken
Jesus Himself treated the written Word as unbreakable authority and built arguments on single words of it. The Bible's own testimony about itself is consistent from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus Christ Is God
The deity of Christ is not a church invention — it is the plain teaching of Scripture, claimed by Jesus Himself and confessed by His apostles.
The Word was God, and became flesh
John opens his Gospel by identifying Jesus as the eternal Word who was with God and was God, and who was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus claimed the divine name
When Jesus said 'Before Abraham was, I am,' His hearers took up stones — they understood He had claimed the name God gave Moses at the burning bush.
The apostles worshipped Him as God
Thomas confessed Him 'My Lord and my God,' and Jesus received the confession. Paul writes that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and the Father Himself addresses the Son as God.
God Does Not Lie — Therefore Jesus Is God, Because He Never Lied
A young man on a debate stage made the case for the deity of Christ with three questions: Does God lie? He does not. Does man lie? He does. Did Jesus lie? He never did — and the One who never lied said, 'Before Abraham was, I am.' This study walks that argument slowly, step by step, from the Scripture itself.
Watch the clip — “Did Jesus lie?”
On a Modern-Day Debate stage, Avery asks the three questions this study is built on — does God lie, does man lie, did Jesus lie — and the room has no answer. Watch it, then walk the steps of the study slowly, from the Scripture itself.
Clip: “Avery proves that Jesus is God in less than 10 seconds!” — by Omnipotent Reigneth (Facebook reel).
God cannot lie
It is not merely that God chooses not to lie; lying is impossible to Him. 'God, that cannot lie,' writes Paul, and Balaam confessed it: 'God is not a man, that he should lie.' What God has said, He will do; what He has spoken, He will make good — for it was impossible for God to lie.
Man lies — Jesus never did
Every son of Adam has lied; Jesus stands alone among men. Peter, who lived with Him day by day, writes that He 'did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth' — guile is deceit, and none was ever found in anything He said. Paul says it from the other side: He 'knew no sin.'
The sinless Christ claimed to be God
Those same truthful lips claimed the very name of God: 'Before Abraham was, I am' — the name spoken to Moses at the bush. He said, 'I and my Father are one'; He told Philip, 'he that hath seen me hath seen the Father'; and He named Himself the truth itself: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.'
His enemies could not convict Him of sin
Jesus put the challenge to His critics openly: 'Which of you convinceth me of sin?' No man answered it then, and no man has answered it since. If He spoke the truth in that challenge — and His enemies' silence said He did — then His claim to be God came from the same sinless mouth, and it stands as truth too.
The conclusion — Jesus is God
Lay the steps side by side, as the questions lay them. God does not lie. Man lies, but Jesus never lied. And Jesus said He is God. A liar's claim could be waved away; the claim of the sinless, truth-speaking Christ cannot. Because God does not lie, and because Jesus never lied, Jesus is God — and every word He spoke may be trusted as the very word of God.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Christianity stands or falls with the empty tomb. Paul stakes the whole faith on it: if Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain. He is risen — and the evidence was public, early, and examined.
Prophesied, then accomplished
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures — the gospel Paul preached is exactly what the prophets foretold.
Seen by witnesses, including enemies and crowds
He was seen of Cephas, of the twelve, of above five hundred brethren at once, of James, and last of Paul — an enemy of the faith converted by the risen Christ.
The fact that changes everything
Because He lives, death is not the end for those in Christ: He is become the firstfruits of them that slept, and our labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Salvation by Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone
No cult, no religion of works, and no sinner can add anything to the finished work of Christ. Salvation is a gift — received by faith, never earned by merit.
A gift, not wages
By grace are ye saved through faith — not of works, lest any man should boast. If it is by grace, it is no more of works; the two cannot be mixed.
Justified freely by His grace
All have sinned, and all who believe are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus — a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
The finished work of Christ
By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Nothing remains to be added — not purgatory, not probation, not our own righteousness.
Christ Died for the Whole World
Grace Team University teaches, without apology and without the Reformed system, what the Scripture says in plain words: Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. God wills all men to be saved; the ransom was paid for all; the grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men; election is according to God's foreknowledge; and men perish, not because Christ did not die for them or because grace could not be resisted, but because they will not come. This study sets out the doctrine in detail and answers the Calvinist proof-texts one by one.
The atonement is for the whole world — the plain words
John the Baptist announced Him as 'the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1:29) — the world, not a favoured fragment of it. John the apostle closes the question: 'he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world' (1 John 2:2). Paul writes that Christ 'gave himself a ransom for all' (1 Timothy 2:6), that God is 'the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe' (1 Timothy 4:10), and that 'one died for all' (2 Corinthians 5:14). Hebrews says He tasted death 'for every man' (Hebrews 2:9). Isaiah saw it coming: 'the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all' (Isaiah 53:6). The Reformed doctrine of a limited atonement requires every one of these verses to mean less than it says.
God's will and the free gift are for all men
The God who 'will have all men to be saved' (1 Timothy 2:4) is 'not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance' (2 Peter 3:9). 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish' (John 3:16). Paul draws the parallel as wide as the fall: as judgment came upon all men, 'even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life' (Romans 5:18). Christ promised, 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me' (John 12:32), and the grace of God 'hath appeared to all men' (Titus 2:11). A gospel that must be preached to every creature (Mark 16:15) is honest only if it was purchased for every creature.
Even the lost were bought — 2 Peter 2:1
The hardest verse in the Bible for limited atonement: false teachers arise 'denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction' (2 Peter 2:1). These men are bought by the Lord and yet damned — bought, and perishing. If Christ's death purchased only the elect, this verse is impossible; if He died for all, it is plain. The price was paid for every man; the benefit is received by those who believe. A ransom paid is not a ransom applied, and Scripture never confuses the two.
Election is according to foreknowledge
Where the Bible explains election, it explains it by foreknowledge: 'Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father' (1 Peter 1:2). Romans 8:29 puts the order in a single sentence: 'whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' Foreknowledge stands first; predestination follows it, and what believers are predestinated to is conformity to Christ and final glory — not a bare decree selecting who may believe. Ephesians 1:4 says God 'hath chosen us in him' — the choosing is IN Christ: God chose the place, the Person, and the plan, and men enter it by faith. Nowhere does Scripture teach an unconditional election that passes by the willing and drags the unwilling.
Grace can be resisted — the Spirit strives with all
From the beginning, 'My spirit shall not always strive with man' (Genesis 6:3) — He strives, and striving can end. The Spirit's office is to 'reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment' (John 16:8) — the world. Yet Stephen charged Israel, 'ye do always resist the Holy Ghost' (Acts 7:51). Jesus wept over a city He would gladly have gathered: 'how often would I have gathered thy children together... and ye would not!' (Matthew 23:37), and told the unbelieving plainly, 'ye will not come to me, that ye might have life' (John 5:40). The Reformed doctrine of irresistible grace cannot survive these verses read at face value; the Baptist doctrine of a God who calls, strives, and can be refused, can.
The Calvinist proof-texts answered
John 6:44 — 'No man can come to me, except the Father... draw him.' True: men come only as the Father draws — and Christ Himself defines the drawing: 'I... will draw all men unto me' (John 12:32), and the next verse in John 6 explains the mechanism: 'Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me' (John 6:45). Drawing is by the word heard and learned, and it is for all. — John 10:26 — 'ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.' Read Christ's order in the same chapter: His sheep are those who hear His voice and follow (John 10:27); unbelief is the reason given throughout ('ye will not come'), not a secret decree. — Acts 13:48 — 'as many as were ordained to eternal life believed': the same chapter shows men 'judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life' by refusing the word (Acts 13:46); the ordained are those disposed and appointed by their own hearing of it, glad and glorifying the word (13:48). — Romans 9 — Jacob and Esau are nations in the passage itself (Genesis 25:23, 'two nations'), God's freedom in choosing instruments and nations for His purpose in history; and the chapter ends not with a decree of damnation but with this: whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed (Romans 9:33; 10:11, 13).
One Way to God
In an age that says all roads lead to heaven, Jesus says the opposite about Himself — and the apostles preached the same exclusivity at the cost of their lives.
Jesus is the way — the only way
He did not say He shows the way; He said 'I am the way.' No man comes to the Father but by Him.
No other name
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, told the rulers of Israel there is salvation in none other — no other name under heaven given among men.
Two roads, two ends
Wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat; strait is the gate that leads to life. The issue is not sincerity but direction — which road a man is on.
Creation, Science, and the Bible
True science and the Bible are not enemies. The Bible spoke of the earth's suspension, the water cycle, the springs of the sea, and the life in the blood centuries before men measured them. (Our full 'Science and the Bible' teaching is in production.)
God created, and it was very good
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The heavens declare His glory to every honest observer.
Facts of nature, stated early
Job says God hangeth the earth upon nothing, and describes the rain cycle; Isaiah speaks of the circle of the earth; Moses recorded that the life of the flesh is in the blood.
Men suppress what creation shows
The wrath of God is revealed against those who hold the truth in unrighteousness — the evidence of His eternal power and Godhead is clearly seen in the things that are made, so men are without excuse.
How We Got the King James Bible
God not only inspired His Word; He preserved it. This is the short account — a full teaching video, 'How We Got the King James Bible,' is in the teaching queue.
From the prophets and apostles to us
The Hebrew Scriptures were kept by the Masoretes with extraordinary care, and the Greek New Testament was copied and spread by the churches. God's promise was to preserve His words — and He did.
The road into English
Wycliffe's hand-written Bible (1380s) gave England the Scriptures; William Tyndale printed the New Testament in 1525–26 and sealed his testimony with his life in 1536. The Geneva Bible (1560) carried the Reformation across the English-speaking world.
1604–1611: the translation
At the Hampton Court Conference (1604), King James authorised a new translation. About forty-seven of England's finest scholars, in six companies at Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford, worked under fifteen strict rules for four years, comparing the Hebrew and Greek and the earlier English versions. The Authorised Version was published in May 1611 — formally equivalent, reverently translated, and proven by four centuries of fruit.