WELCOME!!

By


Hello, and welcome to Nazarene Caffeine. This blog was started in 2020 to spark discussion about the Bible and theology from a Wesleyan perspective. It was founded by a Nazarene named Travis Stockelman who, at the time, was attending Nazarene Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing his M.Div. from Wesley Biblical Seminary. Since its founding, this blog has grown to encompass around 200 posts about various topics, with more to come in the days ahead.

Looking back, it is amazing to see how God has used Nazarene Caffeine to reach into the lives of people. Since its inception, it has spread to involve videos posted to YouTube. In addition, Travis has had discussions with other Christians, notably the hosts of the Religionless Christianity podcasts. In addition, conversations with those who hold to the Catholic tradition, as well as conversations with various atheists have become common. When this started, we never would have believed that God would use us in such a manner.

As mentioned earlier, the perspective of this blog is Wesleyan. We believe that Church Tradition, Reason, and Experience are valuable to the Christian life. However, Scripture is the foundation, and anything that contradicts a proper understanding of Scripture should be rejected .Our Statement of Faith is available for those who would like to know more about what we believe. We affirm the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon. In other words, we are historically orthodox in our beliefs.

We also believe that immersing ourselves in our Christian faith will help us grow as Christians. For many Christians, it can be difficult to find resources to help with that on a budget. For this reason, we have compiled lists of FREE Christian resources that are available for everyone. These resources are provided from a wide variety of Christian traditions (such as Baptist, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, etc) so that anyone from any Christian background who visits this site will hopefully be able to find something that will help him or her grow in his or her faith. If you know of additional places to find free Christian resources, please let us know so we can add to and update our lists.

In addition 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 FREE Christian Magazines

By
Image
Did you know that there are good Christian magazines out there that you can get for FREE? If you like to read, but are looking for something to read in addition to books, then it may be worth your time to check out these free Christian magazines. Some of them are hard copies, and some of them are pdf versions of their magazine. Either way, they are free, and they are chock-full of good information. 1. The Voice of the Martyrs The Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand. After the USSR took over Romania in 1944, Wurmbrand worked with the underground church, which eventually led to his arrest and 14 years of torture and persecution in Communist prison. Eventually, Wurmbrand was ransomed out and came to the United States. Since Wurmbrand founded the organization, it has worked tirelessly to keep Christians in the Western world informed about the persecution that our brothers and sisters around the world are going through, as well as providing
Read more

I Read The Bible In 20 Days. This Is What I Learned.

By
Image
Over the past 20 days, I have read through the Bible, cover to cover. I read through the English Standard Version, and utilized both audio Bibles, electronic Bibles, and hard copies of the Bible in order to accomplish this feat. It took me 15 days to read through the Old Testament, and 5 days to read through the New Testament. The rules were simple. First, I was to read the Bible cover to cover as quickly as possible, without ignoring other things that were going on in life. Second, I could not skim the Bible. I had to read it. Every. Single. Word. I started by making a chart (found here ), according to which I could have read through the Bible in 40 days, with 7 grace days. My goal was to beat the time on this chart, but I figured that, even if I didn't, 40 days wouldn't have been bad timing. My method was simple: instead of picking up the phone to get on Facebook or some other website, pick up the Bible and read. I had a daily goal that I wanted to accomplish, and I
Read more

The Misleading Nature Of "Love Is Love"

By
Image
This post is not something that I intended to write, but something that I felt needed to be written. There are several things that led to the creation of this post. First is the fact that it is near the end of May, meaning that June is just around the corner. It won't be any time at all before companies of all sizes start trotting out trite phrases like the one in the title of this blog post, all in support of normalizing sexual immorality (and making a quick buck while they are at it). Second, I was made aware only a couple of days ago that someone I know (who will remain nameless, for his sake) has essentially abandoned his wife and son to live a sexually immoral lifestyle. Third, I have noticed more people defending the concept behind the statement in the title of this blog. All of this has led me to share my thoughts on this. You may be wondering why I mentioned the second item above. There are a couple of reasons. First, I am hoping that my friend will see this and amend his
Read more

Why I Believe In God (But Not In Unicorns)

By
Image
  Introduction It is 11:30 on a Saturday night as I am writing this. When I saw the objection that I will present below, I had no plans to respond to it immediately. However, since it is late and I am unable to sleep, I thought I would take the time to respond to this before I go to bed. I first saw this objection in a Facebook group that I am part of. No doubt, it showed up in this particular group because someone saw the same flaws in it that I did. I would not be surprised if I were not the only person responding to this at some point today or tomorrow. I know others have responded to this in the past, but I hope that my points will contribute something to the discussion. The objection is summarized, again, in a meme that was posted by an atheist group out of the Philippines: When this objection is stated (rather than shared as a meme), it usually takes a form like this: "If God were real, we would be able to see/observe/run tests on him." The implication is that what we s
Read more

Atonement

By
Image
Atonement describes the act that Christ took on our behalf to reconcile us to God by Christ's death. The Manual  of the Church of the Nazarene outlines the denomination's understanding of the atonement. It states, We believe that Jesus Christ, by His sufferings, by the shedding of His own blood, and by His death on the Cross, made a full atonement for all human sin, and that this Atonement is the only ground of salvation, and that it is sufficient for every individual of Adam's race. The Atonement is graciously efficacious for the salvation of the irresponsible and for the children in innocency but is efficacious for the salvation of those who reach the age of responsibility only when they repent and believe. In this article, the Church of the Nazarene's Wesleyan-Arminian heritage is seen clearly. Before we work our way through this Article, I think that it is important to discuss some other issues relating to the atonement of Christ. Three Theories There are
Read more