No Other Doctrine

If an all powerful God designed us, why would He give us organs we can live without, like the appendix or spleen? Pastor Scott Thom shows the question assumes its own conclusion: redundancy is not a flaw but superior design, like a second radiator in a desert race car or the backup power on your computer. The list of "vestigial organs" once ran to about 90 and has all but vanished, just as "junk DNA" turned out to be essential. He then answers the follow up arguments: disease belongs to a fallen world, calling anything "bad" requires an objective standard of good that only God supplies, and a critic would have to prove God has no greater good in allowing suffering. In the second half he returns to The Shack. Its author's newer book now openly states the universalism Pastor Scott had warned about, claiming everyone is saved whether they want God or not. He shows why John 12:32's "draw all men" is not "save all men," why faith is not a work (Romans 4), and why love that forces itself on someone is not love at all.

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 popular book or movie quietly redefines the gospel, would you spot it before your friends swallow it? Most believers were never trained to test teaching against Scripture, 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

A listener's Jehovah's Witness relative said the Holy Spirit is only God's power, like electricity, and she was not sure how to answer. Pastor Scott Thom walks through the Spirit's personhood from Scripture. He surveys how groups from Arius to modalists, Mormons and Christian Science have each distorted the Spirit, and explains why the Bible says less about Him: the Spirit testifies of Jesus (John 15:26). Then the evidence. The Spirit has a mind that searches the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10, Romans 8:27). He has emotions and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). He has a will and gives gifts "as He wills" (1 Corinthians 12), which is why those gifts flow to believers who come to church to give, not just to get. He speaks and sends out Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:2), can be resisted (Acts 7:51), and fellowships with us (Philippians 2:1), as Pastor Scott felt after apologizing to his old high school coach. He also explains the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 12: the Pharisees, faced with the very sign they had taught the Messiah would give, credited it to Beelzebub. Rejecting the Spirit's testimony about Jesus is the one sin that leaves no remedy.

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 Jehovah's Witness or Mormon knocks on your door, do you freeze, or do you know where to turn in 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

Four of the most asked questions in one show. Tom's friend is shaken by claims that the church threw out other gospels. Pastor Scott Thom shows why the apocryphal gospels fail every test: they were written 90 to 500 years after the events, so no detective would take them as eyewitness testimony, and they are historically and theologically a mess. He recommends Mike Licona's work and Geisler and Nix's General Introduction to the Bible. Stephanie in Tennessee asks why some believers in Acts 8 received the Spirit only when the apostles laid hands on them. He explains the Spirit's work around, in and upon a believer, and four ways the Spirit empowers: prayer, laying on of hands, using your gifts and stepping out in faith. Ernie asks about cremation, and 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 2 show David blessing the men who burned and buried Saul's body; what matters is honoring the body. Finally, must Christians keep the Sabbath? From the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 and Hebrews 4, he shows that the Sabbath pointed to resting from our own works, so for the believer in Christ every day is a Sabbath rest.

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's faith is shaken by claims about "lost gospels," could you help them sort fact from fiction? 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

What does it mean that believers are "appointed" to salvation? A listener asks, and Pastor Scott Thom says yes, he believes in predestination, but not as many people picture it. If God picks some for salvation and passes over the rest, He would not be the God who desires all to be saved. If He merely looks ahead to see who will choose Him, He is not really in control. The answer is a third way, and it is hidden in the Lord's Prayer: "lead us not into temptation" only makes sense if God knows the paths that could happen but don't. Before time, God conceived a world where the greatest number would freely choose Him, then ordained the circumstances in which each would say yes. Pastor Scott illustrates it with a carpet cleaner salesman arriving just after the new puppy's accident, and shows the same truth in Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27 and David at Keilah in 1 Samuel 23. He closes with practical hope for anyone waiting on God's best, including a spouse: become the kind of person you are praying for.

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 debates about predestination leave you confused or quietly anxious? Most believers were never taught to work through deep doctrine from Scripture, 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 the Trinity, and how do you show it from the Bible when someone at your door says it isn't there? Pastor Scott Thom sets aside the egg, water and sun illustrations, which don't fit, and gives a simple method you can use. Find what Scripture says belongs to God alone, then watch the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit each claim it. Isaiah 44 says there is no other God, yet Jesus is called God (John 1:1, John 20:28) and lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God (Acts 5). God alone created all things, yet the Son (Colossians 1:16, John 1:3) and the Spirit (Psalm 104:30, Job 33:4) both create. Only God gives life and raises the dead (Deuteronomy 32:39), yet the Father, the Son (John 2:19) and the Spirit (Romans 8:11) each raised Jesus. The same holds for being almighty, everywhere present and all knowing. He shows why the early church did not invent the Trinity, how the councils defended it, and why forty authors over 1,400 years getting it right points to God, and to the hope that the Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us too.

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

If someone asked you to show the Trinity from Scripture, could you do it? 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

Do you have someone who sees in you what you can't see yourself? Pastor Scott Thom opens with three things a mentor gives you: a vision of who you can become instead of who you were, the hard counsel and hard stops you would never give yourself, and an example to follow, as Paul said, "follow me as I follow Christ." Then he sits down with his own mentors, Pastor Raul Ries of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs and his longtime assistant pastor Dale Goddard. They describe what they look for in a man called to ministry: the anointing, humility and a team player's heart, not a spotlight seeker. They explain why they took phones out of their staff's hands during services, why a young preacher must not preach someone else's sermon but find the fresh gold God has for him in the Word, why politics stays out of the pulpit, and why the hardest Tuesday staff meetings are the ones former staff miss most. Pastor Raul also shares stories of being mentored by Chuck Smith, including a trip to Japan.

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 sense God's call on your life but have no one to shape and sharpen you? Most men never find that kind of mentor, 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

Continuing a listener's question, "Where in the Word does it say Jesus is God?", Pastor Scott Thom moves past Jesus' own claims to the proof. When He forgave the paralytic lowered through the roof in Mark 2, He backed it up by healing him with a word. Then Pastor Scott shows how the New Testament writers took the titles the Old Testament reserves for God alone and gave every one of them to Jesus. God is the Redeemer (Isaiah 48:17), and Christ redeemed us with His own blood (Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 9:12). The Lord is our righteousness (Isaiah 45:24), and Peter speaks of "the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." The Lord is our Shepherd (Isaiah 40, Psalm 23), and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life (John 10:11). God alone created, and John 1:1-4 says nothing was made without the Word, which answers the Jehovah's Witness "a god" reading in its own context. He is the resurrection and the life at Lazarus' tomb, the forgiver of sins, the propitiation who says "we're good," and the healer who granted His disciples power in His own name. He closes with how simply anyone can come 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

When someone at your door insists Jesus is only "a god," could you walk them through the Scriptures? 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

Steve asks why God seemed to act so powerfully in the Old Testament and the book of Acts but so much less today. Pastor Scott Thom explains the two dispensations Scripture names, law and grace, and points out that Acts covers at least 30 years, so its miracles are often months or years apart. In nearly 30 years of teaching systematic theology, he has asked every class who has been healed or knows someone who has, and at least a third, usually half, raise their hands. He tells how Craig Keener's wife's sister was raised to life as a toddler after a snakebite in Africa, which led Keener to document hundreds of verified modern miracles in his book Miracles. There may be more miracles today than ever; they simply go unrecorded, especially among Muslims coming to Christ. Caller Helen asks what to say when family members make the sign of the cross at her table, and Pastor Scott suggests a gentle question rather than a rebuke, remembering Jesus telling the scribe, "you are not far from the kingdom of God." George asks how to answer a Muslim who claims the Quran's miracles are proven by science, and Pastor Scott recommends Ron Rhodes, Norman Geisler and William Lane Craig's debates.

Please note: the question line mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040, has been retired, and the Everyday Evangelism seminar advertised in it has already taken place. 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 Muslim friend or a Catholic relative asks you a hard question, do you know how to answer with both truth and grace? 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

Why did Jesus have to die at all? Couldn't God simply pardon? Pastor Scott Thom shows that a pardon with no payment would make God either unloving, pardoning only a few, or unjust, like a judge who dismisses every third case while the victim pays for the wrecked car. The atonement is different: someone pays. That is why Romans 3:26 says God is both just and the justifier, why the cross shows sin to be "exceedingly sinful" (Romans 7:13), and why no other religion offers anything like it. Caller John asks how Jesus can be equal to the Father when He said "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), and together they work out the difference between nature and role, the way a citizen is equal to the president yet under his authority. Joseph from Rio Rancho adds Philippians 2, where Christ, being equal with God, took the form of a servant. Finally TJ asks what water baptism does. Pastor Scott explains from Romans 6, the thief on the cross, Cornelius and 1 Corinthians 1 that baptism is an outward profession of an inward confession, not a requirement for salvation, and a marker to stand on when doubt comes.

Please note: the phone numbers mentioned in this episode, 505-578-2040 and 505-207-4407, have been retired, and the Everyday Evangelism seminar advertised in it has already taken place. To reach Pastor Scott and Cross Fellowship, use 505-375-6560. For The Habit Revolution ebook, text HABITS to 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 Jehovah's Witness quotes "the Father is greater than I," would you know the answer, as these callers did? 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

The "No Other Doctrine" program, hosted by Pastor Scott Thom, explores topics of doctrine, religion, and the foundations of the Christian faith. In the episode above, the importance of biblical doctrine is addressed, and objections and questions about the necessity of Jesus' death for the forgiveness of sins, the concept of the Trinity, unity in the church, and more are discussed. Listeners' calls raise questions about the interpretation of biblical passages and theological issues, including God's testimony as described in 1 John 5 and the concept of ecclesiastical unity as outlined in Philippians 2.

Highlights 📋 📖 Discussion on the importance of sound doctrine in the Christian faith based on 1 Timothy 4:15.

Space for listeners to leave questions for Pastor Scott at 505-578-2040.

Interpretation of the meaning behind the necessity of Jesus' sacrifice.

Explanation of 1 John 5:6-8 regarding "water and blood" and its theological implication.

Questions about the nature of the Trinity and how to explain it to a young person.

Several listeners call with questions about doctrine and faith, including topics on unity in the church and denominational divisions. Key Takeaways

Unity and Doctrine: Unity in the church should focus on doctrinal alignment. Significant differences in philosophy or methodology may warrant an amicable separation.

The Trinity Explained: Explaining the concept of the Trinity is complex and cannot be adequately compared to any earthly concept.

Necessity of Jesus' Sacrifice: The discussion about why Jesus had to die instead of simply being forgiven reveals the gravity of sin and the perfection of God's plan of justice. 📡 Influence of Digital Media: The accessibility of so many theological teachings online provokes both unity and division, requiring constant discernment and prayer.

Patience and Prayer: In situations of disunity, they recommend prayer and patience to allow God to work in hearts and reveal the truth.