Have you ever heard of the ‘Cafeteria Bible?’ That’s what a man named Marcion developed in the early 2nd century AD and what U.S. President Thomas Jefferson built in the early part of the 19th century. They both chose to keep the parts of the Bible they liked and throw out what they didn’t.

Some people say they can see God’s love in the New Testament, but not in the Old. One of the early ‘church heresies’ was that the God of the Old Testament was not the same God the Apostle Paul described in his letters. Why? Because the God of the Old Testament was filled with wrath, anger, and meanness, while the God of the New Testament was loving, kind, and forgiving. That’s a ‘heresy’ because it’s not true. I’ll explain.

We are living in what some people call a “post-Christian” environment. The Gospel has been preached for almost two-thousand years, but Christianity is no longer admired and desired by masses of people. They view the Christian life and message as ignorant, irrelevant and oppositional to their ‘modern’ lifestyle.

John 3:16 continues to be the world’s most popular Bible verse – and for good reason. They are the very Words of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The word ‘wrath’ is found hundreds of times in the Bible. It generally means ‘burning anger, fury, rage, vexation, indignation, agitation, irritation, to be hard, severe or fierce.’ The word is used sometimes for the anger or rage of humans and animals – sometimes for the anger of God. But why would God be angry? Isn’t God ‘love?’

Our focus in this series is on ‘decency and order’ in the Church. I chose the divisive issue of ‘tongues’ to start Volume IV of our series. The primary reason is because of this verse – “Let all things be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40). Another reason, as I explained in the last part of this series, is that ‘speaking in tongues’ was one of the first challenges I faced as a new Christian. I was glad to have the opportunity to share my testimony of God’s grace to me as a former atheist, but I was a bit surprised by the reception from some Christians. Among other things, they told me that I needed to speak in tongues as ‘proof’ of my salvation. They said it was in the Bible, so I should believe it and do it.

So, I began a study in the Bible about speaking in tongues. 

The word ‘Trinity’ is not in the Bible. 

I used to love saying that to Christians when I was an atheist with a radio talk show. It usually upset them, which caused them to get flustered on air. However, as I was to learn later, that does not mean the ‘Trinity’ is not in the Bible. In fact, our current study is an example of the ‘Trinity’ working together to bring about the ‘salvation’ of people in the world who ‘believe’ in Jesus Christ.

I’ve been a Christian long enough to have seen many changes in the ‘preaching’ of the Gospel of Christ. Even though that sounds like a long time to me – in the light of a two-thousand year-old Message of Good News from God it isn’t long at all. Unfortunately, 54 years has been long enough to see the preaching of the Gospel go downhill fast. Why?

Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be? John 3:9

That question from the Pharisee and Sanhedrin member led to one of the most powerful private discourses we have recorded from Jesus Christ. While it includes the world-famous John 3:16 about God’s love for the world, that’s not how Jesus began in answering Nicodemus’ question.

The world’s most popular Bible verse, John 3:16, is part of a conversation Jesus Christ had with a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus.