The Christian S Only Comfort In Life And Death

The Christian’s Only Comfort is the sermonic exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism by Theodore VanderGroe (1705–1784), a prominent divine of the Dutch Further Reformation. VanderGroe’s exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism could be considered his magnum opus, and in some ways, it was esteemed as highly by the godly in the Netherlands as The Christian’s Reasonable Service of Wilhelmus à Brakel. In this able exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism, we find the unmistakable characteristics of the Dutch Further Reformation: it is steeped in Scripture; it is very pastoral; and it promotes a robust, comprehensive form of Reformed piety.

Includes the text of the latest translation of the Heidelberg Catechism (1975, updated 1988) approved by the Christian Reformed Church. Scripture references are listed in footnotes.

This book is a catechism: basic biblical instruction in question and answer format. It is a discipleship tool. It is a guidebook. It is inherently practical and simple to use: The are 52 lessons, one for each Lord's Day. I pray God will use this book to help you grow in and to teach biblical truth and Christian living for the glory of God. I pray the Spirit would use it to bless you. Catechism means instruction. It comes from the Greek word katecheo, which means to instruct or teach. The verb is found, for example, in Luke 1:4 and Acts 18:25. My Only Comfort in Life and Death--a phrase which comes from the first lesson--is essentially a republication of Hercules Collins' An Orthodox Catechism (1680), which is a Baptist version of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). I have made few and slight revisions strictly for practical purposes, such as readability. The essence of the catechism is the three-part structure of MISERY, DELIVERANCE, AND GRATITUDE. The first part deals with the misery of sin, the second part deals with deliverance in Christ, and the third part deals with the gratitude of those delivered as expressed in true, Spirit-wrought Christian living.The difference between GOD'S LAW AND GOD'S GOSPEL is key to understanding the catechism and a proper approach to Christian living. The law exposes sin, but it cannot deliver--or help deliver--us from sin. Only Christ as revealed in the gospel can deliver us from sin. Christ alone is righteous. Righteousness can only be found in him. To be delivered from sin, sinners must come to share in the blessings of Christ by faith, by virtue of his life, death, and resurrection, and by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the gospel.

We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality--something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people. In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes. Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer, Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive hope for small, mortal creatures. Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give ourselves over to the Lord of life.

This modern-day catechism sets forth fifty-two questions and answers designed to build a framework to help adults and children alike understand core Christian beliefs.

In early 2020, a highly contagious virus made its way around the world. In a matter of days the things that many people relied on for security were shown to be flimsy sources of hope. Authors from three of the worst-affected countries in Europe have united in this book to reflect on the only comfort we have in life and death - Jesus Christ. Each taking a different aspect of what this hope looks like, they answer the question, what can we believe and hope for in times like this?

Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. -- adapted from jacket