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44 results for “Divine judgement”
Clear searchDivine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
Is the Church Appointed to the Tribulation's Wrath? Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape The claim that the Church is not appointed to wrath is sometimes answered too quickly. Christians plainly suffer. Jesus prom…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
Did God Give Laws That Were Not Good? Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over “I gave them also statutes that were not good.” Those words in Ezekiel 20:25 can sound startling when read alone. The following verse makes the difficulty sharp…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
Two Revelations of Divine Love What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God Love is easily claimed. Its character is revealed by what it does when the beloved is undeserving and the cost is real. Islam…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
“I Am the First, and I Am the Last” Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ If YHWH alone is Creator, Saviour and Lord of all, what are the New Testament writers saying when they place Jesus within that identity? Isaiah does not leave…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
The Scales and the Cross Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God How will I stand before God? The question reaches deeper than religious labels. We know that our actions matter, that evil deserves judgeme…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
Does God Remove the Righteous before He Judges? Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully When Abraham learns that judgement is approaching Sodom, he asks one of Scripture's great questions: "Shall not the Judge of all the e…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
Is the Qur'an a Miracle? Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation Christians are frequently placed on the defensive. Has the Bible been corrupted? Did Jesus really claim to be God? Was He actually crucified? Has the doctrine of the Trinit…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
The Earth's Great Sabbath Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ The Christian hope for creation rests neither in human effort nor in escape from the material world. The creation groans for the return of its right…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…er Neoplatonism developed this into an ordered ascent from the material world towards the divine source of all things. Matter occupied the lowest level. In Plotinus, it could be described in terms of privation (the absence or lack of positive being and goodness), darkness and evi…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…peatedly rebelled and, when Messiah came, the nation did not receive Him. What happens to divine promises when their recipients prove unfaithful? Scripture does not answer by minimising Israel's sin. Nor does it conclude that God's purpose must be transferred to a more deserving…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
Not Just a Prophet The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels Islam honours Jesus in ways which Christians should acknowledge accurately. The Qur'an calls Him the Messiah, describes Him as a word from God, af…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…nd David, however, were grounded in God's oath and carried forwards even through national judgement. The new covenant finally provides the cleansing and transformed heart which Israel could never produce under the law. The covenants are not competing plans. Together they reveal h…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…ulness determines the transfer. It would be evasive to pretend that the verse contains no judgement upon Israel or no consequence for rejecting the Messiah. The disputed question is more precise. From whom is the kingdom taken? What aspect of the kingdom is removed? Who is the fr…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…ians should therefore bring every party, leader, policy and political narrative under the judgement of God's Word. Scripture fixes moral ends—truth, justice, protection of innocent life, impartial judgement, sexual integrity, care for the poor, honest commerce, responsible stewar…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…theological tradition may presume that possession of present privilege makes it immune to judgement. God judged unbelief in the natural branches; Gentile profession gives no licence to unbelief, pride, or contempt. The warning also prevents the Church from using Israel's judgemen…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…ccounts. Brooke examined the beliefs being carried back from the brink: claims about God, judgement, reincarnation, universal salvation, spirit guides and the meaning of death. That remains the right question. A testimony may be moving without being self-interpreting. An experien…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…n and secured righteousness. The final phase brings the addressed people and city through judgement and repentance into the public enjoyment of what His finished work alone has made possible. This avoids two opposite errors. Futurists must not speak as though Daniel leaves atonem…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…m, Israel's future restoration, and forms of a translation of saints separated from final judgement. Earlier writers did not assemble those elements into Darby's complete scheme, and it would be anachronistic to label them modern dispensationalists. The balanced historical conclu…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…member that Jesus was called “fully God and fully man,” yet continue to picture an active divine person operating a passive human shell. That matters because the picture will begin interpreting Scripture. Who prayed in Gethsemane? Who grew in wisdom? Who felt sorrow? Who obeyed?…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…and content to be changed? There was no small print in God's covenants. Their conditions, judgements, recipients, and promised restorations were stated openly. Fulfilment in Christ cannot introduce an escape clause which God never placed in the text. Why does Paul say every promi…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…g caught up unto God (Revelation 12:5). In 1 Thessalonians 4 it describes an irresistible divine transportation. The redeemed are not harmed; they are removed from earth by Christ's power. First Corinthians 15 adds that the transformation occurs "in a moment, in the twinkling of…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…prove identity. Trumpets can summon, announce, warn, and celebrate. Clouds accompany many divine manifestations. "Elect" is not an exclusive technical name for the Church; Israel is called God's elect, and so are believers in Christ. Angels participate in several end-time gatheri…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…e without inward reality cannot please God. Circumcision cannot protect a lawbreaker from judgement, and the approval which matters comes from God rather than man. But the conclusion introduces words which Paul does not use. He does not mention Christians, the Church, or Gentile…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…hed; it anticipates Israel put in order under Messiah. Jerusalem's rejection brought real judgement. Jesus declared that its house would be left desolate. Yet His lament did not end with the word never: "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…preter places it after Antichrist's persecution but before the concentrated outpouring of divine wrath. A pretribulationist places it before the final seven-year period begins. These positions disagree profoundly about sequence, but they are debating the placement of an acknowled…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…e. For all practical purposes, it could appear that God had rendered His final historical judgement upon the nation and raised up the Gentile Church in its place. Those circumstances did not logically require supersessionism, but they made it appear historically persuasive. The e…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…the Antichrist, a covenant, a rebuilt temple, the abomination, or a numbered sequence of judgements. It is the Saviour. A necessary sign changes what can be expected next Suppose Scripture clearly taught that the Church must identify Antichrist, enter Daniel's final week, and se…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…ccidental residence or ordinary property ownership. It is an enduring bond established by divine promise—a bond involving belonging, possession, habitation, fruitfulness, vocation, and permanence. Isaiah’s imagery must therefore neither be overstated nor weakened. The land is not…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…hristians to help build a third temple. Nor should Israel’s final trouble be presented as divine retaliation against Jewish people for the crucifixion of Christ. Daniel presents the final week as a period in which God completes His declared purposes for Daniel’s people and holy c…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…ed into Babylon; and later generations experienced further dispersion. But the threatened judgement is not the whole prophetic message. The same passages that announce exile also anticipate restoration. Leviticus 26 describes Israel confessing its iniquity in exile, after which G…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…stract attribute. It is the reason His people can trust what He says. If the wording of a divine promise does not reliably disclose what God has committed Himself to perform, confidence becomes impossible. Faith would rest not upon revelation, but upon our hope that the words wil…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…clay and breathing life into it evokes God’s creation of Adam. Jesus appears to perform a divine kind of creative act, but the repeated qualification “by Allah’s leave” places the power under divine permission and prevents the miracle from establishing His independent deity. This…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…Revelation 19 strengthens the distinction. Before heaven opens and Christ rides forth in judgement, the marriage of the Lamb has taken place. His wife has made herself ready and is clothed in “fine linen, clean and white”, which John identifies with “the righteousness of saints”…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…t; another believes she has met a Hindu deity; another speaks of Allah, the universe, the divine self, a spirit guide, or an impersonal consciousness. They cannot all be confirming the truth of their respective beliefs. The intensity of an experience may demonstrate that somethin…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…ally, making a covenant, or removing and destroying a person. When used of a person under judgement, it frequently carries the force of death or decisive destruction. In Daniel 9:26, the anointed figure does not merely step down from office peacefully. He is cut off and left with…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ntained within the category of prophet. We have considered eternal love, the crucifixion, divine justice, forgiveness and assurance. We have tested the transmission of the Bible, the missing Islamic Injeel, the Qur’an’s miracle claim, alleged prophecies of Muhammad, the covenant…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…Israel's Messiah, the true and obedient Servant, and mediator of the new covenant. Every divine promise is yea and Amen in Him. The Church genuinely inherits in Christ. Gentile believers receive Abrahamic blessing, the promised Spirit, adoption, forgiveness, resurrection life, a…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…ides. This agrees with the prophets. Isaiah anticipated the earth renewed under righteous judgement, creation at peace, and the knowledge of the Lord filling the world (Isaiah 11:1-10). Israel would be regathered, Jerusalem restored, and the nations brought under Messiah's govern…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…het stands within the succession of prophets raised up among Israel, in contrast with the diviners of the surrounding nations (Deuteronomy 18:9–15). The broader context therefore supplies three mutually reinforcing expressions: "unto thee", "from the midst of thee" and "of thy br…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…f over his physical kinsmen and closes in wonder at the depth of God's wisdom, knowledge, judgements, and ways. Romans 12:1 then turns from this theological argument to practical appeal: "I beseech you therefore, brethren." The question which drives Romans 9-11, however, arises f…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…d ousia, meaning “being”, “essence” or “nature”. It means that the Son possesses the same divine nature as the Father. Older English translations often render it “of one substance” or “consubstantial”. It does not mean that the Father and Son are the same Person, or that the Son…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…el 7:24 Another ruler arises after them and subdues three. His persecution is followed by divine judgement and the kingdom given to the saints. This final phase of the fourth kingdom remains future. God’s kingdom follows its overthrow; Christ returns to establish His reign. That…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…who received Messiah and exposed the unbelief of those who rejected Him. The existence of judgement does not make the original appeal insincere or the promised restoration meaningless. The Twelve embody a faithful remnant The apostles were Israelites. They did not stand outside t…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…ation presents the Bride prepared in heaven before heaven opens and Christ rides forth in judgement (Revelation 19:7-14). These are materially different movements. Christ receives His people unto Himself; later they appear with Him. The saints must be gathered to Him before they…
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