PreTrib PilgrimSearch the library
Search by subject, then refine by approach. A prophecy study may also be apologetic or discerning because subject tells you what it examines, while approach tells you how it examines it.
44 results for “God's love”
Clear searchDave Hunt · Biblical polemic · 2002
What Love Is This? is certainly a polemic against Calvinism, but I value it for more than its rebuttal of a theological system. Read carefully, it also functions as an extensive study of the natu…
View recommendation →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 and Chr…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…l's name and promises now refer exclusively to the Church. Instead, the nation remains "beloved for the fathers' sakes", because "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:28-29). The phrase does not excuse unbelief. It explains why unbelief will not have th…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
Eternal Love Before Creation What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God Before there was a universe, what was there for God to love? There were no angels, no human beings and no created or…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…the unbelieving nation Israel, distinguishes it from the Gentiles, and describes it as beloved because of the fathers. The distinction is therefore real, but it is not a wall between two saving programmes. When Israel is restored, the nation will not return to God by law, ancest…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…raham's Seed brings blessing to every nation, but Paul still describes ethnic Israel as beloved "for the fathers' sakes" (Romans 11:28). Christ concentrates the covenants in Himself because He alone can accomplish them faithfully. Their certainty rests upon His identity and work.…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
Not Three Gods Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God The Trinity is often rejected before it is accurately defined. “The Father is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…he Temple of the Philosophers The Incarnation, the Limits of Created Perspective, and the Love Philosophy Could Not Imagine “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” — Colossians 2:9 A conversation with my son brought the strangeness of the incarnation freshly…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
Standing at the Door An Unrequited Love for the Historic Church I do not stand outside the historic Church because I despise her. I stand outside because I love much of what I find within her, yet cannot call every later deve…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…nches shows that it is not final. The patriarchal election explains why Israel remains "beloved for the fathers' sakes" even while opposing the gospel (Romans 11:28). Then comes the covenantal verdict: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." —Romans 11:29 God h…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
…me out to him. His argument reached its sharpest point when he compared the Lord with the gods of the nations Assyria had already defeated. Those gods had not saved their peoples. Why should Jerusalem expect anything different? The military threat was real. The conclusion Rabshak…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…isposition towards truth. Paul speaks of people who perish “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Our question must therefore include both what a person understood and how he responded to the light he had. 2 Thessalonians 2:10. The gospel can…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…heir sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies, but concerning election they remain "beloved for the fathers' sakes" (Romans 11:26-28). Paul's explanation is not that the promises have found a new recipient, but that God's calling survives the recipient's present unbelief: "Fo…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ed whether He can be contained 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…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…His own world. This is not degradation forced upon Him. It is divine freedom displayed in love. No creature dragged Him down. No necessity compelled Him. He came because He willed to save. Amelius could affirm something resembling incarnation only by making it conform to the cycl…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…useless. It is to turn the able from idleness and selfishness towards responsibility and love. Working under imperfect authority John the Baptist did not tell the soldiers who questioned him to become religious professionals. He told them to reject violence, false accusation and…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…e nations have never escaped His government. Babylon’s ascendancy does not mean Babylon’s gods have defeated Him. Israel’s exile reflects His judgement, and Israel’s restoration will display His faithfulness. Isaiah 40:3 announces a highway for YHWH through the wilderness. The pi…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…ercy" with Paul's later argument that disobedient Israel will receive mercy and remains beloved for the fathers' sakes (Romans 11:28-32). This reading strongly preserves Paul's normal use of Israel and explains why mercy receives emphasis. Its difficulty is the immediate setting.…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…l's fathers and forwards to Israel's future mercy. Paul later says that Israel remains "beloved for the fathers' sakes" (Romans 11:28). The details can therefore be mapped cautiously: | Image | Referent established by the context | |---|---| | The holy root | The patriarchal prom…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…Christ because the figure said so. It cannot infer universal salvation from a feeling of love, or disprove judgement because one survivor did not encounter it. Those are theological claims, not medical measurements. There is also a crucial difference between a mechanism and a me…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…eived by faith. That freedom must not be confused with moral indifference. Paul says that love fulfils the Law and that the righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in those who walk by the Spirit (Romans 8:4; 13:8–10). Believers serve God in "newness of spirit," not in orde…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…ul can teach the unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ while still referring to Israel as "beloved for the fathers' sakes" and insisting that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:28-29). The same apostle who teaches one body also foresees the removal of I…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…r the Jewish people or the casual transfer of every national promise. Paul calls Israel beloved for the fathers' sakes and forbids Gentile arrogance (Romans 11:18, 28). Dispensational concern for Israel should arise from God's covenant faithfulness, not party loyalty or an unwill…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…haps Midian, Edom or Seir—whose worship was later brought into Israel. Over time, the two gods were identified with one another. Yahweh absorbed El’s titles, took his position at the head of the divine council and eventually emerged as the only God of a fully developed Israelite…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…nsidered the danger of imagining the incarnation as though a divine hand entered a human glove. This article asks the positive question that follows: did the Son assume only a human body, or did Jesus also possess a genuinely human soul? Scripture’s answer is clear. The Son did n…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…' mother and other women near the cross and records Jesus addressing His mother and the beloved disciple (John 19:25-27). Mark names women who watched from a distance and later observed where Jesus was laid (Mark 15:40-47). Luke likewise describes the women from Galilee seeing th…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…Israel: "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." —Deuteronomy 30:6 Jeremiah repeats the command to Judah and Jerusalem, calling them to circumcise t…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…ivate certainty, insider status, escape theology, churchless faith, and knowledge without love cluster together. The historical identity should be rejected. The warning should be retained. What made ancient Gnosticism Gnostic? Modern scholarship has rightly questioned whether “Gn…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…eliance upon the law and grieved over Israel's unbelief, but he described the nation as beloved for the fathers' sakes and warned Gentiles against conceit. Zeal for the sufficiency of Christ did not require dehumanising those who rejected Him. Historical context explains why Chry…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…he Spirit and His sufficiency, not to our importance. Living water flows outward when the love, truth and holiness of Christ are made visible through ordinary believers. It flows in prayer, patient service, faithful witness, generosity, endurance, forgiveness and words which poin…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…RD. Hosea develops the same theology through the prophet’s marriage. Israel pursues false gods and attributes the gifts of grain, wine, oil, silver, and gold to the Baals. The LORD disciplines her, removes the gifts she has abused, and brings her into the wilderness. Yet judgemen…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…bit a city, worship, serve, and reign. Every relationship will be reordered under perfect love. Every worthy human capacity will find its purity in the presence of God. Seeing God does not compete with this activity. It makes it blessed. His presence is the light by which the nat…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…identity and unique status of the son: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Genesis 22:2). The wording intensifies at every s…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…en shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” —Matthew 26:33 Peter loved the Lord, but he overestimated his own strength. He believed his devotion was sufficient to carry him through the trial. Jesus warned him that before the cock crowed, Peter would deny…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…with the Father before the world existed. Later in the prayer, He speaks of the Father's love for Him "before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). The prayer preserves personal distinction: the Son speaks to the Father. It also rules out the idea that Jesus began as a huma…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…Scripture therefore does not tell us to trust every spiritual experience. It tells us: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” —1 John 4:1 Ecstasy is not exclusively Christian Certa…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…ift the curse. We practise such things because God's ownership is already true, neighbour-love already binds us, cruelty is already wicked, waste already contradicts thanksgiving, and every steward will answer to the returning Lord. Other cultures can sometimes shame Christians a…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…left after forbidden things have been removed. Timothy must pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. We do not merely stop travelling in one direction; we begin travelling in another. Third, pursue these things with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Godliness i…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…removing everything which corrupts the person. Indeed, only then will we be fully free to love God and one another without distortion. Creation will share in the deliverance Paul places bodily redemption within a larger renewal: "Because the creature itself also shall be delivere…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…an inward work of God: "the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart" so that Israel will love Him (Deuteronomy 30:5-6). Judgement and restoration therefore form one covenant sequence. If the scattering was national and geographical, the promised gathering should not be made excl…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…ather, he hath declared him.” The phrase “in the bosom of the Father” speaks of intimacy, love and unique fellowship. The Son does not merely bring information about a distant God. He makes the unseen Father known because He eternally knows Him from within that incomparable relat…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…ich was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles" (Matthew 12:17–18). Matthew continues quoting Isaiah through the bruised re…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…people: no accusation can overturn God's verdict, and nothing can separate them 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 u…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…p but also energy, food security, affordability and competing forecasts. Healthcare joins love of neighbour to scarcity, institutional competence and difficult trade-offs. Christians may therefore agree upon a binding moral end while disagreeing in good faith about the best lawfu…
Read article →