Entertaining Angels Unawares (Santamaria)

There is something at once beautiful and unsettling in the command of Hebrews 13:2: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” It is one of those verses that opens a window for a moment, lets in a gust of heaven, and then leaves us standing there wondering how many ordinary moments were not ordinary at all.

Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God (Santamaria)

There are truths in Holy Scripture that stand like mountains above the landscape of revelation. Men may wander around them, deny them, rename them, or try to chip them into something smaller, but still they rise. One of those truths is this: Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. This is not a decorative phrase, not a soft religious title, not a poetic flourish added by devout men. It is part of the very marrow of the Christian confession. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). John wrote his Gospel “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). Take away the Son as Scripture presents Him, and the gospel is not merely weakened; it is gutted.

THE FINALITY OF CHRIST (Santamaria)

When the Perfect Comes: A Fuller Reading of 1 Corinthians 13:8–13

There are passages in Scripture that seem, at first glance, so simple that one wonders why they have caused such controversy. First Corinthians 13:10 is one of them: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” Yet around that single line, whole systems have been built, arguments sharpened, and theories defended with more confidence than the text itself will bear. Some have said “that which is perfect” is the completed New Testament canon. Others have said it is the mature condition of the church. Still others have taken it, more broadly and more naturally, as the final state of perfection into which the saints enter at the return of Christ. The question is not trivial. Paul’s point touches not only spiritual gifts, but the entire contrast between the church’s present partial condition and her future fullness.¹

MANY CROWNS (Santamaria)

MANY CROWNS

Contents

FOREWORD

Introduction

Actual Articles concerning this Doctrine from the Signs

But does not Paul speak of his desire that he may win a crown?

FOREWORD

ENGLISH VERSIONS AFTER THE kjv (Santamaria)

English Bibles After the King James Version

WOMEN WEARING HEAD COVERINGS (Santamaria)

WOMEN AND HEAD COVERINGS

Shall We Know Our Loved Ones in Heaven (Santamaria)

This article presents both the pros and the cons of this idea.  Since some are orthodox who hold different positions on this matter, we let the reader evaluate with the guidance of the Spirit, which he is persuade

Shall We Know Our Loved Ones in Heaven?

A Biblical Meditation on Recognition, Reunion, and the Glory to Come

Few questions press more deeply upon the human heart than this one: Will we know those we loved when we are with the Lord? Will the mother know the child she buried? Will the husband know the wife with whom he walked through tears and prayer? Will faithful friends in Christ, long separated by death, stand together again in full and holy joy?

An Old School Baptist Evaluation of “Opinions in the Wake of the SBC Essay” (Saantamaria)

An Old School Baptist Evaluation of “Opinions in the Wake of the SBC Essay”

FOREWORD

DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Santamaria)

Stevenson doesn’t really begin Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with a monster. He begins with respectability—clean streets, clean names, clean dinner conversation—and with a door that shouldn’t be there.

THE HOLY LAMB OF GOD (Santamaria)

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!

I Shall Not Die, But Live: Psalm 118:17 and the Unconquerable Life in Christ (Santamaria)

Psalm 118:17 stands as one of the most defiant declarations in Scripture: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD" (KJV). In Hebrew, לֹא־אָמוּת כִּי־אֶחְיֶה וַאֲסַפֵּר מַעֲשֵׂי־יָהּ (loʾ ʾāmût kî ʾeḥyeh waʾă Sappēr maʿăśê-Yah). This verse pulses with raw vitality—a survivor's cry rising from death's shadow, a vow to testify amid peril. It is no mere sentiment; it is battle-tested faith forged in the crucible of suffering, echoing through millennia to every soul facing mortality's sting. Today, in a world of pandemics, wars, and personal despair, Psalm 118:17 confronts us: Will you claim unconquerable life, or surrender to fear?

DELIVER US FROM EVIL (Santamaria)

“Deliver us from evil” is one of those prayers that sounds simple until you realize it’s the sound a drowning man makes when he finally stops pretending he can swim.

"Exhortations" in the Bible (Santamaria)

Modern evangelical talk about “exhortations” often smuggles in a whole theory of the Christian life: God saves you by grace, and then (so the story goes) He progressively sanctifies you by piling up commands, spiritual disciplines, and “steps of obedience,” until you slowly become holier in the same way a rock becomes a statue—chip, chip, chip—assuming you keep cooperating.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOLINESS AND SANCTIFICATION (Santamaria)

Holiness and sanctification in the New Testament are not two unrelated ideas that happen to share religious perfume. They are members of the same Greek word-family, built on one bright root: ἁγ-. If you understand that family—how its nouns, verbs, and adjectives behave—you’ll stop treating “holiness” as a vague mood and “sanctification” as a mystical self-improvement program. You’ll start hearing the New Testament’s own emphasis: God marks off what is His, and what is His must not be treated as common.

We Do Know What To Pray For (Santamaria)

Prayer is one of the places where a man finds out, in the most personal way possible, that God is God and he is not. In theory, everybody agrees with that. In practice, we are all tempted to treat prayer like a lever: pull it correctly, and heaven must move. Or we treat it like a performance: say it well enough, and the room will feel spiritual. Or we treat it like a duty: do it because we’re supposed to, and hope God counts it as something.

"Even your santification (Santamaria)

The phrase you’re aiming at is from 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (KJV): “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…” In a lot of modern preaching, that line gets turned into a banner for “progressive sanctification” as a kind of spiritual staircase—your holiness steadily increasing measurably, until your growth becomes the quiet proof that God accepts you.

FROM GLORY TO GLORY (Santamaria)

“For glory to glory” is one of those phrases that can get hijacked by the spiritual self-improvement industry. People hear it and imagine a sanctification ladder: rung one, rung two, rung three—getting holier in a measurable, upward-only way, until you finally become the Christian you were “supposed” to be.

But Paul is not selling a ladder. He’s breaking a veil.

The phrase you’re aiming at is from 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (KJV): “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…” In a lot of modern preaching, that line gets turned into a banner for “progressive sanctification” as a kind of spiritual staircase—your holiness steadily increasing measurably, until your growth becomes the quiet proof that God accepts you.

Psalm 91 in Three Parts 3/3 (Santamaria)

Part 3 — The Promise and the Name (Psalm 91:9–16)

Psalm 91 in three partsd 2/3 (Santamaria)

 
Part 2 — The Terrible Things (Psalm 91:3–8)