No Other Doctrine

Leaders influence people by their decisions, so how do you know a decision is God's will? Pastor Scott Thom shares the "red light, green light" method he has used for years, drawn from James 3. First the red lights, wisdom that is earthly and not from above: bitter envy, selfish ambition, boasting, deceit and decisions that cater to the flesh, illustrated from his years as a police chaplain and the "God wants me to be happy" excuse for leaving a marriage. Then the green lights of James 3:17: wisdom that is pure in motive, peaceable, gentle rather than pressured, willing to yield to counsel and authority, full of mercy and good fruit for those around you, without partiality and without hypocrisy, as when Jesus filled Peter's boat before calling him away. When the lights line up like harbor lights guiding a ship to port, you can move forward with peace.

Please note: the numbers mentioned in this episode have been retired. For the Red or Green checklist on knowing God's will, text WILL to 505-375-6560. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

Do you lead at home, at work or in church and wish you had more than gut feeling to go on? Sound decisions grow from knowing God's Word well, yet between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

What kind of world did God make? Pastor Scott Thom takes a deeper dive into a subject rarely heard in church: God designed a world built for friendship with Him, something chance and evolution could never produce. Starting from Jesus as the Word made flesh, the perfect communication of God's mind, he shows what real friendship requires: freedom rather than programming, which is why AI can never be a true friend; seeking one another out; and a genuine commitment that says "I've got your back," as Jesus offers rest to the weary in Matthew 11. Friendship also needs the ability to recognize other minds, reason, emotions that reveal what we truly value, empathy like that of our High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, a measure of privacy, and even the risk of suffering, which is what makes sacrifice for a friend meaningful. It all points to a God who desires all people to be saved and to know Him.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

Do you want to go deeper than Sunday morning allows? Teaching like this rarely fits in a sermon, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

When does a person receive a soul, and why does it matter? Continuing his systematic theology series on the doctrine of man, Pastor Scott Thom shows that Genesis is literal when it says we were formed from the earth, then weighs the three main views of the soul's origin. Pre-existence, held by reincarnationists and Mormons, fails Scripture and destroys the unity of the human race, which Acts 17:26 grounds in one blood, the end of any basis for racism. The view that God creates each soul sometime after conception was even used to defend abortion, but Exodus 21 treats harm to an unborn child as harm to a person, and Psalm 51:5 shows we carry a sin nature from conception, something God would never create. The view that best fits Scripture is that the soul is passed on from the parents, as Hebrews 7 says Levi was in Abraham, which also explains why Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born without sin.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

Doctrines that seem obscure often decide how we answer the biggest moral questions of our day. If you want to understand them for yourself but between work, family and cost Bible school feels out of reach, CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Why do we still struggle with sin after we're saved? Pastor Scott Thom opens Romans 7 and Paul's cry, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?", explaining the Roman punishment behind it: a traitor strapped face to face to a decaying corpse and left by the road. Jesus is the King who steps in and takes our place. So why doesn't God simply remove our old nature? Because He will not override the free will that makes real love and our unique personalities possible. The answer is an attitude of change, seeing yourself not as "this is just the way I am" but as "not yet," like a child learning the piano. Caller Darren then asks about Judges 11 and Jephthah's vow, and Pastor Scott shows from the wording that his daughter was most likely dedicated to lifelong service to the Lord rather than put to death, and why the Bible records even its heroes' foolish mistakes.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

When an atheist friend points to a troubling passage like Jephthah's vow, would you know how to read it in context? Most believers were never taught how, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

What did Paul really mean by "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"? Pastor Scott Thom shows from Philippians 4 that it is about contentment in every circumstance, plenty or want, because "more than enough" is a state of mind and not the state of your checkbook. He explains why our biggest failures often come at the two extremes, how to take worrying thoughts captive and throw them away, and what Christian meditation really is: pausing to bring your concerns, and your joys like a New Mexico sunset, before the Lord and His Word. Caller Darren then asks about a claim that Paul arrogantly defied the Holy Spirit by going to Jerusalem in Acts 21. Pastor Scott shows from the Greek that the Spirit was laying a warning before Paul, not giving a command, and that Paul went out of love for his own people, not pride.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

When someone tries to tear down Paul or another part of Scripture, could you check the original language and context yourself? Most believers were never shown how, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Most New Year's resolutions deal with the body, the job or a bad habit, but few deal with the fear, anxiety and doubt that hold us back. Pastor Scott Thom identifies three kinds of doubt. Factual doubt, like Thomas, wants evidence, and it is the easiest to answer: design in creation points to an all knowing, all powerful Creator outside time and space, which rules out nearly every religion and leaves Jesus head and shoulders above the rest. Willful doubt turns the "skeptical meter" impossibly high to avoid surrendering a sin or because of anger at God, as with a man Pastor Scott met in Chile who would rather believe Moses was an alien. Emotional doubt whispers that God could never love or forgive you, and is answered by remembering God's conviction and past answered prayers. He shows why handing a willful doubter another evidence book rarely works, and why their anger at you is really anger at God.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

Do you know which kind of doubt the person in front of you really has, and how to answer it? Most believers were never trained to share their faith with confidence, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

How do I find God's will for my life? It is one of the questions Pastor Scott Thom is asked most, and the answer is not rocket science, though it can feel counterintuitive. He starts with James 1:5: ask for wisdom, then obey everything God has already made plain, because many people pray for guidance while ignoring what Scripture already says. Joseph, sold into slavery and thrown into prison, looked far from God's will but was right in the center of it. From Colossians 1, Romans 8, 1 Thessalonians 4, Ephesians 6 and 1 Peter 2, Pastor Scott shows how sanctification, praying in the Spirit and obeying authority, as Nehemiah and Daniel did under pagan kings, open the door to God's will, while pride and rebellion close it, as with the Pharisees in Luke 7. He adds waiting on God instead of forcing doors, enduring through trials, and thinking beyond yourself, then closes with his red light, green light test from James 3: is it pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy?

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

When a friend asks you how to know God's will, could you walk them through it from Scripture? Most believers were never trained to, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Author Pastor Scott Thom

If God is just and loving, why did He allow what happened to Job? Pastor Scott Thom answers an emailed question by showing why God permits evil in a fallen world: courage needs something to fear, patience needs an irritation you cannot change, and deep, eternal relationship needs real character, which only grows when it is tested. He then looks at Job's children from heaven's side, where they were not robbed but promoted, like Paul torn between departing to be with Christ and staying for the church. Caller James asks whether Satan can read our thoughts. No more than a sharp observer can read your face, though demons watch when you think no one is, and can suggest thoughts; put on the armor of God and stay away from anything mind altering that opens the door. Finally Keith asks about Molinism, and Pastor Scott explains God's "middle," or hypothetical, knowledge, the same truth we pray in "lead us not into temptation," and how it lets God be fully sovereign while our will stays truly free.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

When someone asks you why a good God allows suffering, do you have more than a shrug to offer? Most believers were never trained to answer the hard questions, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Author Pastor Scott Thom

What is happiness, and why do so many Christians still chase it? Pastor Scott Thom goes beyond the dictionary's "state of being happy" and gives seven steps to a happier life. Happiness starts with communion with God, not just being converted but knowing Him, unlike the carnal Corinthians. It grows with peace with others, walking in humility and mercy instead of a critical spirit. It comes from accepting the bad with the good and giving God whatever time He needs to work it for good, because we have no right to act unhappy and rob others of their happiness. It deepens as we become more like Jesus, since bad character only buys fleeting pleasure. It rests on knowing the best things we have, above all God's love, can never be lost, as Paul sang in prison. It is free from trusting money and things, as a joyful family in a billboard plywood hut in South America taught him. And it is increased by a praiseworthy, godly goal, the very first thing God gave Adam and Eve.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

Is a praiseworthy, godly goal missing from your life right now? Many believers sense God calling them to more but never get trained, because between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Author Pastor Scott Thom

If Jesus is God, how could there be things He did not know? Answering a caller, Pastor Scott Thom shows that this proves the Bible's accuracy rather than undermining it. Jesus is fully God and fully man, and the two natures never blend: the divine knows all things, while the human grew in wisdom (Luke 2), grew tired and hungry, and drew on the divine only as the Father shared it. Then he answers a common social media claim, that Jesus is a myth. Witnesses are not disqualified for being "biased," any more than a victim identifying her attacker. Small differences in the Gospel accounts are what real eyewitness testimony looks like. Thousands believed in Jerusalem weeks after a public execution, at great cost. No ancient source claims He never existed, while Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger and Lucian all mention Him. The Gospels name real places, rulers and embarrassing details that myths avoid, even skeptical scholars reject the myth theory, and creeds like 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 2 and 1 Timothy 3:16 were recited within a few years of the resurrection.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560.

Cross Fellowship is a Bible teaching church home in Albuquerque. Learn more and plan a visit at CrossFellowship.org.

Get Trained at Pastor Scott's Bible College

When a video online tells your teenager Jesus never existed, could you lay out the evidence? Most believers were never trained to defend their faith, and between work, family and cost, Bible school feels out of reach. CCF Bible College (CCFcollege.com) closes that gap with self paced, affordable training you can start any time, including Shepherd School, a two year program built for anyone pursuing pastoral and full time ministry roles. Pastor Scott will personally walk you through the next step if you qualify. Text COLLEGE to 505-375-6560 to learn more.

You can also catch Pastor Scott's other two podcasts, "Leadership From The Cross" and "Navigating Life from the Cross," available on any podcast app.

Author Pastor Scott Thom