Systematic Theology
with Dr. Mal Couch

WILL DAVID BE CO-REIGNING WITH CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM?
This has been an issue that has been debated for generations by many scholars, even dispensational and premillennial teachers. But the answer will be a loud and clear "yes" if we use good interpretative and hermeneutical skills to come up with the answer.

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SPROUL WRITING ABOUT?
In his little weekly publication he writes: "What Ezekiel saw in a vision (Ezek. 40-48) we now see in reality as the kingdom of God spreads across the earth and people from every tribe and tongue are set apart as priests.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
In Matthew 12:24-33 Christ points out that He can be blasphemed, and those who do such, can in the future be forgiven. "Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" (v. 32).

THE SOVEREIGNTY and PROVIDENCE OF GOD
What is the theological difference between these two words? Sometimes people interchange them and use them synonymously. But from a practical standpoint they are somewhat different. Sovereignty is saying that God is absolutely in charge of His universe.

LITTLE CHILDREN ALREADY IN THE CHURCH?
Because King David said his famous words about Bath-sheba's infant who died shortly after birth, "Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" (2 Sam. 12:23), we know that the Lord takes infants to Himself if they die before the age of accountability.

CLEANING LEPROSY
When the Jewish people entered Canaan God began to work with His people in purifying them from their sins. Leprosy came onto their homes that they possessed and it brought about terrible problems.

DOES GOD BRING NATIONAL JUDGMENT? LOOK AT THE VOODOO OF HAITI!
When the earthquake hit Haiti, every Christian bled for all of the problems that came upon the innocent women and children. Almost the entire nation was destroyed!

A COMPARISON BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH
Below are twenty-four differences between Israel and the church,
as given by Dr. Lewis S. Chafer in his Systematic Theology, Vol. 4:

THE CRITERIA FOR CANONICITY OF SCRIPTURE
Below is a list of stated facts that give to us confirmation that what we have in the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God. The list could be expanded but these are just some preliminary points to consider...

THE DISCIPLES WILL SIT ON 12 THRONES!
Now for all good amills this must have to do somehow with the church, right? Wrong! But the amills have no other choice because they want to get rid of the Jews.

GENTILES TO BE SAVED
Throughout the OT there are examples of Gentiles coming to God, and, there are a few passages that tell us that they will also come to the Lord in the kingdom period. Psalm 69 has several messianic verses, such as verses 9 and 35-36.

A GREAT VERSE (Colossians 2:8)!
This is a great verse for today that every believer needs to soak on. From the Greek text it reads:

THE PROMISE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH
There is a wonderful passage in Scripture that gives comfort about the afterlife that every believer needs to study! It is Isaiah 57:1-2, which reads...

CHRIST'S THREEFOLD OFFICE
The Word of God is very clear about the two-fold offices of Christ: Prophet and Priest. Jesus as a Prophet spoke the Word of God, but He was also the sacrificial Lamb of God, who as a Priest, gave His own body as a substitutional offering for sinful humanity.

VERSES THAT DESTROY AMILLENNIALISM
Hundreds of verses of Scripture do just that, but there are three passages that are determinative on the issue. They are Luke 22:28-30; Acts 1:10-11; Hebrews 9:28.

CULTS AND WATER BAPTISM
It is almost cultish to try to argue that water baptism is necessary for salvation. But those who are the weakest in the faith, and who do not know exactly what the Bible is teaching about salvation, always use water baptism to finish in their thinking the work of redemption....

THE GOSPEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT!
What is the "gospel" as mentioned by Paul in Romans 1:1? The word gospel in Greek is euagelion and it literally means "good news, message."...

Is The Church Presently In A Spiritual Kingdom?
A misinterpretation of the Colossians 1:13 passage has raised its ugly head again! There are those who want to argue that the kingdom here in this verse is somehow a "spiritualized" kingdom or is actually the messianic kingdom that the church has been joined to. The passage reads from the Greek text:

Christ IS the New Covenant
There are a lot of great truths in the OT about the Lord Jesus that are missed in our Bible study. For example, the great Messianic chapter, Isaiah 42 tells, us that Christ will be both a covenant for the nation of Israel, and a light to the nations (v. 6).

Justification by Faith
I've recently been asked, is justification equal to becoming saved? The answer is yes, though many other things also take place when one is saved. To be made just or righteous, is first mentioned in the OT though there are a lot of details that are not explained. In other words, the OT saints were declared justified.

The Doctrine of Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 causes a lot of problems for those who hold to certain doctrinal preconceptions. To understand the passage takes meaningful study. Good Bible study requires solid OBSERVATION skills. Let the Bible speak and it will make itself clear and understandable! Calvinists and many others fight over the passage because of faulty preconceptions. The passage is not saying, as some Calvinists charge, that God has already "saved" the entire world.

Almost Heresy
When it comes to the issue of the literal millennial reign of Christ as King in Israel, the Covenant and amillennial guys are almost heretical. They deny the Lord's coming literal reign on earth for a thousand years in Jerusalem. This is contradictory to what all the prophets teach and what is indicated in the Gospels and the book of Revelation. So, are those who "spiritualize" the Second Coming heretics?

The Resurrections of Scripture
I have had more than one question from web viewers about the various resurrections of the Bible. Many are curious or confused about the when and the who concerning this subject. Below is an examination of the various resurrections mentioned in Scripture. Also, there are a series of questions to answer sent in by our readers.

Are Tongues for Today?
This is easy to answer. First, the Greek word glossa was a clearly understood idiom for describing a spoken and known language. Thus when the doctrine of linguistics first appeared in Acts 2 we find it describing spoken languages and identifiable dialects. It was defined as a miracle gift also: "... because they were each one hearing them (the disciples) speak in his own language. And they were amazed and marveled, saying, 'Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?'" (vv. 6-7). And the people hearing the miracle added: "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?" (v. 8).

The Impeccability of Christ
A few years back the film industry came out with a lot of productions showing the "humanness" of Christ, ignoring any pretense or hint to the fact of His deity as the Son of God. This would be expected of the lost world, but such tripe has a continuing negative effect on the natural man. Of course Satan loves it! He loves to picture Jesus as simply a "natural" man rather than "very God"!

The book of Daniel for centuries has been under fire by the liberal critics and even often by conservative scholars.
Daniel, along with Genesis and Deuteronomy, are regularly attacked for various reasons. But specifically, Daniel is attacked because of the incredible and accurate 70 Weeks of Daniel prophecy in chapter 9, and the detailed predictions of chapter 11 that were prophesied to come upon Israel in the period between the Old and the New Testaments.

The order of Regeneration and faith, and the issue of Faith as a Gift of God! A second look!
For some reason it won’t go away—the issues dealing with the order of faith and regeneration and faith as a gift of God. If one believes that the saved are "chosen before the foundation of the world," these issues seem to be settled by the scriptural evidence. But the arguments persist. Bible scholars are split on the issues but those who hold to the absolute sovereignty and working providence of God in His world, all seem to come down on that side that God initiates the regeneration and the faith processes!

What Brings God Glory?
All Glory Belongs to God. The first mention of God's glory is found in Exodus 16:7. Moses said to the grumbling Israelites, "in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord." Psalm 148 is the praise psalm that gives Him honor in all He has made. The psalmist writes, let all give Him honor, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven" (v. 13).

The Restrainer
The question so often asked is, who is the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2:6-9? Various views have been offered with a wide range of possibilities that add intrigue to the subject of Bible prophecy. Because the suggestions have been so broad throughout the long history of the church, the answer has often eluded all those who tried to interpret the prophetic Scriptures.

The Beliefs That Deny God
The theism that we have by divine revelation gives the knowledge of an eternal, all-wise God, who exists in three Persons, and, who loves mankind so much that He created a gracious plan for eternal salvation. The triune God is revealed in limited form in the Old Testament, and more completely by progressive revelation in the New Testament.

The Lord's Supper
Examining the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, or any other teaching of the church, the student of Scripture must be careful to avoid buying without reservation what the early church taught. As with the church today, the bishops and elders were products of their own time and could easily slip into views that were not biblical, as they did with the extreme views of Gnosticism or mysticism.

The Abrahamic Covenant Fulfilled In The Kingdom Reign Of Messiah
All of the promises made to Abraham are brought to completion in the 1000 kingdom reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Covenant with its three-fold division here brings to a close the flow of world history. All that God had promised in the Abrahamic covenant will be finished.

The Natural Proofs of God's Existance By His Written Revelation
We have already referred to the fact that the Word of God is the first source of knowing what the Lord God is all about. This biblical knowledge reveals that God is Person; He is not simply a mindless force or power! From the Scriptures we learn of His character, attributes, personality, love, and a thousand other truths that we should know about the One who created us!

The Natural Proofs of God's Existance Philosophy of Religion
For generations rational philosophers have attempted to give certain natural arguments for the existence of God. This was a humanistic effort to arm-wrestle objectors into accepting a kind of logical proof of the truth about God's being. But the heart and mind of the lost is so tenacious that such arguments fall on deaf ears.

How Do We Know About God?
We have already referred to the fact that the Word of God is the first source of knowing what the Lord God is all about. This biblical knowledge reveals that God is Person; He is not simply a mindless force or power! From the Scriptures we learn of His character, attributes, personality, love, and a thousand other truths that we should know about the One who created us!

The Demise of Systematic Theology
Evangelicals are in trouble! The beginning of the twenty-first century saw the Evangelical church move rapidly toward what is called the postmodern era. Postmodernism is an attitude that has been spawned by the intellectual elite who believes absolutes, especially in the moral and spiritual realm, cannot be known with certainty. The study of biblical doctrine then is no longer important or necessary.

The Reformation, The Jews, and the Hebrew Language
Evangelicals are quickly losing their edge on understanding the Word of God. There is the departure of the "learning" of Hebrew and Greek by those who say they want to teach God’s Word. Pastors particularly no longer have an interest in New Testament Greek in order to exegete the Scriptures from the pulpit. If this is so, how much more acute is the loss of interest in knowing the Hebrew language of the Old Testament?

Will God Restore The Kingdom To Israel?
One of the greatest misunderstandings in theology is the belief that the church today is the replacement for the prophesied Old Testament Davidic kingdom that is to be set up in Jerusalem by the Messiah.

Dead in Trespasses and Sins: Ephesians 2:1, 5
As Evangelicals move further away from the solid study of the Word of God, there will come about an accelerated slippage away from the crucial doctrines of Christianity.

The Divinity of Christ
With an objective study of Scripture on the subject of the nature of God, one cannot help but arrive at the doctrine of the Trinity.