Truth Triumphs

             The book of James is arguably the most practical of all the New Testament documents (Simmons, 1967). Its practicality is so conspicuous that many have contended that James’s view on faith and works contradicted that of Paul. However, his perspective was simply that if a person’s faith does not produce manifest fruit, then it is not genuine faith. Furthermore, the authorship of James has been widely disputed throughout church history (Clarke). The author declares only that he is a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, but never addresses any of his relatives. Two individuals possessed the name James in the New Testament: James, the son of Zebedee, and James, the Lord’s brother. Generally, James, the Lord’s brother, is credited with penning this useful letter, although conclusive evidence still remains undiscovered. Fortunately, though, irrefutable confirmations do exist which support its canonicity. Adam Clarke remarked, “The chief and proper evidence of its being c

Throughout the Scriptures, God makes unequivocally clear that there is only one God (Geisler, 2011). Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” However, the Bible also teaches that there are three distinct, coeternal, and coequal persons who are God (Groothius, 2008). In the Bible, the Father is portrayed as God, the Son is presented as God, and the Spirit is revealed as God (Geisler, 2011). Although this appears to be an egregious contradiction, the serious Bible student soon realizes that the tri-unity of God is not an irrational position but a doctrine expressly portrayed in Scripture which allows for other key doctrine to exist, such as the Incarnation (Groothius, 2008). To facilitate in explaining this highly complex idea, Tertullian coined the term trinity to allow the Christian to express this essential doctrine (Cairns, 1996). Simply stated, the trinity means that there are “three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost