Every student of the Word should know the three brutal murders around which all history revolves. These three murders represent Israel’s response to God’s three-fold call to repentance. They explain the unpardonable sin and form the background for the present dispensation of grace.

It was John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, who was sent as the forerunner of Christ to call Israel to repentance. He was beheaded by Herod, the wicked and licentious “king of the Jews”. After John, Christ Himself took up the cry: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. Him they crucified. Then, at Pentecost, Israel was given a third opportunity to repent, until they shed blood again, stoning Stephen to death.

It should be noticed, too, that their guilt, as well as their bitter enmity, increased with the second and third murders! Had Israel, responded to John’s call to repentance Herod would never have dared to even put John in jail. This explains why our Lord did nothing to release him from prison, even though this had offended John. It was not His, but theirs to do something about John’s unjust imprisonment and every moment he spent in prison testified against them. Read carefully Luke 3:18-20; 7:19-29; and Matthew 14:1-11. As to the beheading of John the Baptist, they permitted it. As to the crucifixion of Christ, they demanded it (Luke23:23,24). As to the stoning of Stephen, they committedit, casting him out of the city with their own hands and stoning him there.

And so that generation in Israel committed the unpardonable sin which our Lord warned would not be forgiven, either in that age, or in the age to come. Thus we close this article by quoting those precious passages from Paul’s epistles which clearly DENY the possibilityof any “unpardonable sin” during the present “dispensation of the grace of God”:

“We have redemption through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph.1:7).

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom.5:20,21).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Just behind me, in the supermarket check-out line, were two little boys. I noticed that the older one kept looking up at me and then down at his brother again several times in succession. Finally, nudging his little brother and pointing up at me, he said: “Hey, Joey, look how little you are!”

Those who have seen me in the flesh know that I am not exactly small, physically, and I can easily imagine that, standing next to these little fellows, I made them look small indeed!

But all this pertained only to the physical, and as I left that supermarket, I began asking myself: “How big are you, actually, in the sight of God?” I thought of Psalm 8:3,4, where David mused over the same question:

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of Him…?”

Yet we are so important to the heart of God that He entered the stream of humanity, as it were, and became one of us in Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. Why? Hebrews 2:14,15 gives us one important reason:

“…that through death [His death for our sins] He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Moreover, insignificant as we are in ourselves, He would use us mightily to His glory for, according to I Cor. 1:27,28, He has “chosen” the “foolish,” the “weak,” the “base,” the “despised,” and those who “are not” to accomplish His purposes and to bring to naught the plans of the world’s great ones.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

To Paul was committed the greatest revelation of all time. He was divinely commissioned to proclaim the glorious all-sufficiency of Christ’s redemptive work. He made known God’s offer of salvation by free grace to all who trust in Christ, along with their heavenly position, blessings and prospect in Christ.

Lest he should become puffed up by the glory of these great truths, God gave him what he called “a thorn in the flesh,” an aggravating physical infirmity of some sort. “For this thing,” he says, “I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me” (II Cor. 12:8). But the Lord knew better than Paul what was good for him:

“And He said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (Ver. 9).

How right God was! Every Christian knows that with brimming health and “good fortune” comes the tendency to forget our need of Him, while infirmity causes us to lean harder and to pray more, and this is where our spiritual power lies. Every believer should acknowledge this and say with Paul:

“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities… for when I am weak, then am I strong” (Vers. 9,10).

Infirmities of the flesh are common even among God’s choicest saints. What satisfaction there is, then, in resting upon God’s Word: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Paul learned what thousands upon thousands of God’s saints have learned from his day to ours: that it is often more blessed to experience God’s grace in suffering than to enjoy deliverance from suffering, for in the former case we lean the harder and pray the more, and so are drawn closer to Him. Moreover, we find that His strength is made perfect in weakness and that when we are weak, then are we strong (II Cor. 12:9,10).

But even better things are in store for God’s people: Some day, “in the ages to come,” God will display to all the universe “the exceeding riches of His grace.” How will He do this? “In His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).

Dear reader, have you accepted the grace of God in Christ Jesus? Do you believe that He loves you and that He “came into the world” to bear all the blame and shame and punishment that was your due, so that you might be “justified freely by His grace” (Rom. 3:24)?

If not, will you take Him at His Word now and come to know the truth of II Cor. 4:15:

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”

Whatever your past; however great or many your sins, take God at His Word. Believe that He loves you in spite of all. Believe that He has already provided the payment for your sins in Christ:

“In whom we have redemption. through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

In a letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote, some 1900 years ago, about his conversion:

“[I] was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. AND THE GRACE OF OUR LORD WAS EXCEEDING ABUNDANT…” (I Tim. 1:13,14).

And he follows this with the now-famous declaration:

“THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION, THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS, OF WHOM I AM CHIEF” (Ver 15).

Upon reading this statement by Paul, those who know their Bibles will immediately recall the words of Rom. 5:20,21:

“…the law entered, that the offence might abound, BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND; THAT AS SIN HATH REIGNED… SO MIGHT GRACE REIGN…”

These two passages from the pen of Paul have a closer connection than may appear on the surface. The Apostle Paul, once Saul of Tarsus, had led his nation and the world in rebellion against Christ. “As for Saul,” we read in Acts 8:3, “he made havoc of the church,” and he himself testified to the Galatians: “Ye have heard… how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and laid it waste” (Gal. 1:13).

Yet God, in infinite mercy, had saved Saul, not only for Saul’s own sake, but to make him the living demonstration of His grace. Thus in writing to Timothy, the Apostle goes on to explain:

“Howbeit, FOR THIS CAUSE I OBTAINED MERCY, THAT IN ME FIRST JESUS CHRIST MIGHT SHOW FORTH ALL LONGSUFFER1NG, FOR A PATTERN TO THEM WHICH SHOULD HEREAFTER BELIEVE ON HIM TO LIFE EVERLASTING” (I Tim. 1:16).

Let us, then, take our places with Saul, the sinner, and find salvation by grace through Christ, the Savior. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Many people entertain only vague notions about thanksgiving, just as they do about faith.

They confuse faith with optimism, will power, presumption, imagination, and all sorts of other things. A doctor tells his patient that but for his faith, he never would have come through his illness. Somehow the patient was “just sure” he would recover. A smiling mother encourages her married daughter to “have faith, that everything will turn out all right.” But faith in God is believing God; believing what He has said. True faith is based on the written Word of God (See Rom. 10:17).

But unregenerate men have vague ideas about thanksgiving. A man escapes some great harm and thanks his “lucky stars.” Another says: “I’m grateful for a healthy body,” but to whom is he grateful? He doesn’t say. In many cases it doesn’t even occur to him to ask. He’s “just thankful”!

How refreshing, then, it is to open our Bibles, especially to the Epistles of Paul, the chief of sinners, saved by grace, and to see him giving thanks for specific blessings, and to a specific Person — God!

“Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet [fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:12,13).

“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” (II Cor. 9:15).

“Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory!” (I Car. 15:57).

“Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph!” (II Cor. 2:14).

It is our prayer for all our readers that you may be especially thankful for “the gift of God [which] is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

For believers in Christ it would be the most blessed of all if this year turns out to be the year of our Lord’s coming for His own. How long the present dispensation of grace will be prolonged we do not, and cannot, know. Even St. Paul, who was commissioned to make known the glorious truth of the rapture of the Church, did not know. He never dreamed that God would linger in mercy for more than 1900 years, for in I Thes. 4:16-18 he says:

“We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up…”

Thus instructed Bible-believers in every generation since his day have rightly been on the alert for their Lord to come for them, for they know that “the days are evil” and every hour is an hour of grace.

To the Philippians the Apostle wrote: “We look for the Savior,” to the Thessalonians: “[Ye]… wait for His [God’s] Son from heaven,” and to Titus he says that we should be “looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing in glory of …our Savior, Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20; I Thes. 1:9,10; Tit. 2:11-13).

With the Lord’s coming and the close of “the dispensation of the grace of God” so much nearer than it was in Paul’s day, we say to the unsaved: “Receive not the grace of God in vain…. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold nowis the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6: 1,2).

And to the saved we say: “Buy up the time,” take advantage of every opportunity to win the lost to Christ, for “the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16) and the day of grace may soon be brought to a close.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

To Paul was committed the greatest revelation of all time. He was divinely commissioned to proclaim the glorious all-sufficiency of Christ’s redemptive work, God’s offer of salvation by free grace to all who trust in Christ and their heavenly position, blessings and prospect.

Lest he should become puffed up by the glory of these great truths, God gave him what he calls “a thorn in the flesh”, an aggravating physical infirmity of some sort. “For this thing,” he says, “I besought the Lord thrice [three times], that it might depart from me” (IICor.12:8). But the Lord knew better than Paul what was best for him:

“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (Ver.9).

How right God was! Every Christian knows that with brimming health and “good fortune” comes the tendency to forget our need of Him, while infirmity causes us to lean harder and to pray more and this is where our spiritual power lies. Every believer should acknowledge this and say with Paul:

“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities…for when I am weak, then am I strong” (IICor.12:9,10).

Infirmities of the flesh are common even to God’s choicest saints. What satisfaction there is, then, in just believing God’s Word: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Is it not amazing that men who can produce intricate electronic mechanisms, build giant sky-scrapers, fly men to the moon and back — is it not amazing that such men often do not even know what will finally become of themselves! And what is more amazing still is that most of them do not even try seriously to find out.

They are intelligent enough to plan carefully for the future where temporal affairs are concerned, but foolish enough to neglect their eternal welfare. They make plans for themselves in case they become ill and need additional funds for surgery, medicine and hospital care. They even make plans for their loved ones in case of death and bereavement, but fail to ask themselves: “What will become of meafter death?”

Daily “the wise of this world” witness the truth of Hebrews 9:27, that “it is appointed unto men once to die”, and most of them know that the Bible adds: “after this the judgment”. They may hope that this is but a false alarm, but they do not know. They can only wonder and worry. Hebrews 2:15 declares that “through fear of death” they are “all their lifetime subject to bondage”. Like Adam, they run and hide from God instead of running to Him and asking: “What must I do to be saved?”Too cowardly to face up to their own grave, no hope beyond the tomb — too afraid, generally, to even discuss death.

The believer in the Word of God is not left thus in the dark. He glories in the truth of the passages from which we have quoted in part above. We quote them now in full:

Hebrews 2:14,15:  “Forasmuch then as the children [of Adam] are partakers of flesh and blood, He [Christ] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Hebrews 9:27,28:  “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without [lit., “apart from”] sin unto salvation.”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.