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31 results for “Cumulative case”
Clear searchThe positive argument of the whole series, brought together
Why the Cumulative Case Points to a Pretribulation Rapture The positive argument of the whole series, brought together The case for a pretribulation rapture should not rest upon one disputed word, o…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ntiquity. The individual questions matter. But now we must ask what they mean together. A case is not decided by leaving every item of evidence in a separate room. The witnesses must be brought together. The competing explanations must be compared. Each faith must be required to…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…non-essential claims have been removed, however, Hanegraaff has not answered the central case. He requires pretribulationism to appear complete within one verse, reads a simultaneous general resurrection into John 5, treats Revelation 20’s explicit sequence as an imposition, con…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…to make a prophetic chart work. That criticism begins at the wrong end of the Bible. The case does not start by counting backwards from Revelation. It starts with a measured programme in Daniel concerning Israel and Jerusalem. Jesus takes Daniel's abomination of desolation and p…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…ibulationism The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day A cumulative case should be exposed to the passages which appear least friendly to it. Four objections deserve particular attention: Second Thessalonians 2 appears to place Antichrist before o…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…way" (apostasia) as a physical departure, the rapture. That proposal should not carry the case. The word normally denotes defection or rebellion. Pretribulationism does not need to force a spatial meaning into it. The chapter's restrainer is more relevant. A present restraining p…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…t are removed beforehand. Therefore no single type can settle the rapture's timing. Their cumulative force is moral rather than mechanical. God knows how to distinguish His own. He may secure them within danger or take them out of it. Prior removal is not foreign to His character…
Read article →Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
…heavenly vision. Treating it as a direct fulfilment of 1 Thessalonians 4 would weaken the case. Its literary placement still matters: after promises and warnings to the churches, the viewpoint moves to heaven before the global hour is opened. Saints are present—but are they calle…
Read article →What the historical evidence proves—and what it does not
…itness. It can show that end-time escape was imaginable; it should not carry a historical case for a defined seven-year interval. Pseudo-Ephraem cannot be waved away A sermon commonly attributed to Pseudo-Ephraem says that "all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to t…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…Paul's use of apantēsis probably does reflect the reception custom. That strengthens the case for royal welcome, but it still does not make the noun by itself a complete itinerary. The modest lexical conclusion is therefore the strongest one: apantēsis permits an escort interpre…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…nd gathered carrion birds. Matthew 24:28 uses the more explicit term: "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." The destination is associated with death and judgement. On balance, those taken are removed in judgement at the public advent; those lef…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…any in heaven, and the events which require an interval before Christ's reign. That wider case should be tested carefully. But it should begin on common ground. The rapture is not the doubtful part of the discussion. Scripture plainly teaches that the living saints will be transf…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…t will gather the Church a specified number of years before His descent to earth. It is a cumulative conclusion drawn from the relationships among passages: Christ receives His people unto Himself; the dead in Christ rise and the living are transformed; the Church is not appointe…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…ake root before His breath reduces them to nothing. These are rhetorical questions with a cumulative answer. God has no teacher, no equal and no cosmic rival. The chapter identifies Him as the everlasting Creator in verse 28. His people may be exhausted; their God is not. No pred…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…on, forgiven inhabitants, judgment upon the nations and the return of the redeemed. Their cumulative movement calls for an explanation large enough to accommodate all these things together. We should allow that movement to develop before deciding where it belongs in an eschatolog…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…ng one sentence from John, printing the words "I AM" in capital letters and declaring the case closed. Nor should it be made to depend upon a familiar slogan whose conclusion is often heard before its argument is considered. The stronger case is the case the Gospels themselves ma…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…Jesus, Acts, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and the history of Christian interpretation, the cumulative answer is no. God has judged Israel severely. The nation remains largely in unbelief and cannot inherit saving blessing apart from Jesus Christ. Yet God has not revoked His oath t…
Read article →Simon Greenleaf · Legal examination of testimony · 1846
…and the cost of maintaining their testimony. It remains a stimulating contribution to the cumulative case for the trustworthiness of the Gospels. This is a work of nineteenth-century legal apologetics, not a modern historical or legal consensus. Greenleaf assumes traditional Gosp…
View recommendation →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…the history into a theological pattern Second Peter 2 places Lot alongside Noah. In both cases God distinguishes those He delivers from those reserved for judgement. Peter draws the conclusion: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unj…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…nguage demonstrates their genuine participation in Israel's spiritual calling. In neither case does the passage state that national Israel has ceased to be Israel or that its outstanding promises have been cancelled. The use of Israel's language for the Church therefore does not…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…ss box. Why should anyone believe that the Qur'an came from God? The usual answers form a cumulative case. The Qur'an is said to be linguistically inimitable, scientifically prescient, mathematically structured, perfectly preserved, prophetically accurate and beyond the natural a…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…s geography. It begins with a text which repeatedly gives the name. The strongest Islamic case The Muslim position should be presented in its strongest recognisable form. The Qur'an does not reject Isaac. It calls him a prophet and places him among the righteous. Nor need a Musli…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…oes not establish literary dependence. Persecution is not a rare narrative invention. The case becomes stronger when several unusual elements appear together. Responsible comparison asks: Chronological priority: Is the parallel story demonstrably earlier than the Qur’an? Distinct…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…to the foreground. Silence alone cannot prove absence. Yet the change belongs within the cumulative evidence. Heaven contains worshippers, elders, crowns and white robes; judgement unfolds upon the earth; and by chapter 19 the prepared Bride is in heaven before Christ descends.…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…sical pre-Christian copy of Daniel 9:26. The distinction is not damaging to the Christian case; it is simply the truth. The Old Greek witness Daniel also circulated in ancient Greek. The earlier Old Greek translation arose within Jewish transmission before it was displaced in mos…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…roduce, while rejecting the Gospel which history actually supplies. The strongest Islamic case The Muslim position should be stated in its strongest recognisable form. The Qur'an does not say that Allah gave Jesus the New Testament. It speaks of the Injeel in the singular as a re…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…. It concerns what God is like. The Qur'an genuinely speaks of mercy and love The Islamic case should be allowed to speak in its strongest recognisable form. With the exception of Surah 9, the chapters of the Qur'an open with the basmala, invoking Allah as the Most Compassionate…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…tem, and the apostles had not yet received the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit. Yet in the cumulative sequence it matters greatly. Jesus had opened their understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), promised rule over Israel's twelve tribes after Matthew 21, taught them about the…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…m from His love in Christ (Romans 8:31-39). Israel immediately presents the apparent test case. God had foreknown Israel, called the nation, entrusted it with covenants and promises, and set His love upon the fathers. Yet much of Israel now stood in unbelief. If that history simp…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…ted as interchangeable names for the Church. Fulfilment does not require cancellation The case against supersessionism is sometimes framed badly: "Israel received earthly promises, whereas the Church receives spiritual promises." Scripture is richer than that division. Israel's c…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…s article treats the passage as a textual investigation. No single clue carries the whole case. The question is whether the clues converge. The minimum claim defended here is this: within Matthew 24, "the elect" most naturally identifies the faithful people of the Tribulation wit…
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