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69 results for “Gospel”
Clear searchSimon Greenleaf · Legal examination of testimony · 1846
Greenleaf's work is worthwhile because it asks readers to take the four Gospel witnesses seriously as testimony rather than dismissing them by prejudice or accepting them without examination. His legal approach draws attention to the difference between contradic…
View recommendation →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…ity does not replace moral seriousness with divine indifference. Yet at the centre of the gospel stands an answer that no scale can supply: the Judge has provided a substitute, and righteousness is given to the believer through Christ. The contrast is not simply “Muslims believe…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
The Injeel Problem Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm? Islam says that Allah gave Jesus the Injeel. It was a true revelation from God. It contained guidance and light. The Qur'an claims to confirm it. The People of…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
WHAT DID THEY REJECT? The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit We sometimes describe an evangelistic conversation in a single sentence: “I explained the gospel, and he rejected it.”…
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, affirms His virgin birth and attribute…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
The Unshaken Truth of God's Promises One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel This series began with a question: has the Church permanently replaced Israel in the purpose of God? The answer cannot be reached by asking wh…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ed what Christians mean when they say that God is one. We have followed Jesus through the Gospels and asked 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…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Devotional theology and biblical exhortation · 2000
…use it refuses to separate Christian belief from Christian living. Hunt ranges across the gospel, faith, love for God, discipleship, doctrine, the Church, and the believer's heavenly hope, but the recurring appeal is intensely practical: take God at His word and let that truth go…
View recommendation →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…nd the Qur'an Christianity and Islam cannot both be correct about the death of Jesus. The Gospel declares that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, was buried and rose bodily from the dead. His death is not a peripheral detail which can be removed while leaving Christi…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…dates and water beside a palm tree. These are not stories found in the Torah or the four Gospels. Yet recognisable forms of them appear within the religious narrative world of late antiquity. The superficial accusation is easy: Muhammad heard old legends and copied them into the…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
The New Testament Is a Very Jewish Story Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world To many Jewish people, Christianity appears thoroughly foreign. Its historic centres became Rome, Constantinople, Canterbury, Geneva, and countless cities far from Jerus…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…n order to preach Christ. He is reading Moses as a witness to the word of faith which the gospel now proclaims. The same Scriptures which expose the demand of righteousness also direct the hearer away from self-achievement towards God's gracious provision. Paul had already made t…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…o a fruit-bearing nation, and all God's promises are yea and amen in Christ. There is one gospel and one people of God, not two parallel plans. Therefore, the promises have reached their intended fulfilment in Christ and His Church, leaving no distinct national future for Israel.…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…n of the world. The pre-creation relationship is personal and loving. It belongs with the Gospel’s wider movement: the Son came from the Father into the world and returns to the Father (16:28). Could this be glory that existed only in God’s plan? Some non-Trinitarian interpreters…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…keep particular promises to the nation from which Messiah came without creating a second gospel or a superior way of salvation. What is the rule in Galatians 6? At the end of the letter Paul returns to the controversy over circumcision. His opponents desire a good showing "in th…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…enants and promises, how can so many Israelites reject Messiah while Gentiles receive the gospel? Has God's word failed? Has God cast away His people? Paul answers both questions with "God forbid" (Romans 9:6; 11:1). God has preserved a believing remnant within Israel, and Israel…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…covenants" (Romans 9:3-5). He can say there is no difference in the sinner's need and the gospel's availability (Romans 10:12), then distinguish Israel from the Gentiles throughout Romans 11. Equality answers the question, "How are people saved and what standing do believers poss…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…es the test startlingly strict: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." —Galatians 1:8 An angelic appearance does not possess automatic authority. A being of light is not authentica…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…ual traditions, the same Jesus is presented: crucified, buried, risen, and Lord. The same gospel is proclaimed. The same apostolic teaching stands. Differences deserve honest study, but they have not produced competing Christianities hidden within incompatible New Testaments. A f…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…perfection must mean remaining untouched by hunger, weariness, grief, pain and death. The gospel proclaimed a High Priest who could be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15). Christ entered the temple of the philosophers and overturned its tables. Judging Go…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…has abandoned Israel. Jewish people continue to be saved through faith in Christ, and the gospel goes to all nations. It means that Daniel's measured programme for Israel and Jerusalem awaits its final phase while God forms the Church from Jew and Gentile in one body. The length…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…ugh faith, centred in Christ. It distinguishes Israel and the Church without teaching two gospels or two redeemers. The following answers do not prove the whole system. They clear away five common criticisms so the actual biblical questions can be heard. Criticism 1: “Dispensatio…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…essions and bodily symptoms. The Son truly sorrowed in the human life He had assumed. The Gospels repeatedly show that inner life. Jesus marvelled (Matthew 8:10). He had compassion (Matthew 9:36). He groaned in spirit and wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:33–35). He looked upon the…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…e of a human soul inside Christ’s body, then Jesus did not possess complete humanity. The Gospel’s descriptions of His fear, sorrow and suffering would also appear to belong directly to a changeable divine nature. Eustathius’s answer protected something essential. It also exposed…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…(2 Corinthians 1:15-17). Paul answers by appealing beyond himself to the constancy of the gospel he preached: "But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, w…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…ean that there are two Gods. John guards the unity of deity: “the Word was God.” The same Gospel later records Christ saying: “I and my Father are one.” — John 10:30 The doctrine of the Trinity does not arise because Christians wished to complicate a simple teaching. It arises be…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…English Translation of the Septuagint — project and electronic edition R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah Michael J. Vlach, The Old in the New: Understanding How the New Testament Authors Quoted the Old Testament
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…ion. Later, Paul confronts Peter over conduct that was inconsistent with the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:11–14). These incidents establish Peter’s need for correction. They do not directly settle whether some narrowly defined category of his teaching might be protected from…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery Matthew 24 contains the most direct Gospel objection to a pretribulation rapture. Jesus describes Great Tribulation, cosmic disturbance, His coming in the clouds, and a gathering of the elect. The sequence appears plain: "Imme…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…e belongs to who He is. But John is not offering an abstract definition detached from the gospel. He immediately explains what divine love looks like: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…upon Christ's completed work, His resurrection, His intercession, and the promises of the gospel. We should not pretend that every covenant operates in precisely the same way. What they share is the character of the Promiser. Sarah received strength to conceive "because she judge…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…tion 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 has not abandoned Israel. He has disciplined the nation…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…ranscendent origin, and salvation came through awakening or revealed acquaintance. In the Gospel of Truth, ignorance produces anguish and terror; revelation of the Father brings recognition and rest. This is not merely learning correct doctrine. It is discovery of one's forgotten…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…as heard, come and believed. In the language of the discourse, Peter has eaten. The wider Gospel confirms the meaning John 6 does not exist in isolation. The entire Gospel presents eternal life as received through believing upon the Son. Receiving Christ is believing “But as many…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…it to separate Israel's Creator and Messiah from the Father and Christ proclaimed in the gospel. Tertullian rightly defended the unity of the Testaments and the identity of Israel's God as the Father of Jesus, but did so by transferring Judaea's promised restoration to Christ an…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…should not be overstated. Jesus foretold the manner of Peter's death (John 21:18-19). The gospel was to go to the nations. Paul knew at certain moments that he had ministry still to complete. These facts created temporary personal or redemptive-historical expectations. They do no…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…nciles us to God; He does not merely help us make peace with ourselves. Earlier in John's Gospel, Jesus told the woman of Samaria: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…dispensationalism distinguishes Israel from the Church. It does not therefore require two gospels, two saviours or two methods of salvation. Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. The distinction concerns covenantal identity, historical vocation and…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…show that every claim in the book corresponds to reality. The apostles did not ground the gospel merely upon the fact that it moved them. They proclaimed events: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…often it. Many of Israel's leaders opposed Jesus; Jerusalem came under judgement; and the gospel went with astonishing fruit to the Gentiles. Yet Paul would not allow Israel's unbelief to become proof that God had discarded Israel: "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…” and asked why he had come. Judas was not lacking evidence, opportunity, or warning. The Gospel record presents a man who remained close to Christ outwardly without truly believing in Him. The Remorse of Judas After Jesus was condemned, Judas recognised the terrible reality of w…
Read article →J. C. Ryle · Doctrinal and pastoral essays · 1874
…eally at stake, and repeatedly brings the reader back to Scripture, the simplicity of the gospel, and the spiritual welfare of ordinary people. The subjects are disputed, but the writing is rarely obscure. Ryle's directness, pastoral seriousness, and ability to make doctrine inte…
View recommendation →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…le test Suppose that, in some future age, a third body of people appeared. They heard the gospel through the Church, were incorporated into new-covenant blessing, and began as a small minority among Christians. Over time they greatly outnumbered us. Their theologians then announc…
Read article →The peace Christ gives in a troubled world
…God through Christ. Those who want to understand this invitation more fully can read The Gospel. Not as the world giveth The manner of Christ's giving is also different. The world often gives in order to receive. Gifts create obligations. Favour can be withdrawn. Approval lasts…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…a drama performed for human observers. The Son shares the divine identity John opens his Gospel by distinguishing the Word from God and identifying the Word as God: “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He then says the Word “was made flesh” (John 1:14). Thom…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…ding to the limitations of His humanity and exercised divine authority over creation. The Gospel does not alternate between two Christs. It reveals the one Christ in the truth of both His natures. How Could Jesus Grow in Wisdom? Luke writes that “Jesus increased in wisdom and sta…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…d Him into an apparition or a spiritual myth. I love their insistence that the God of the gospel is the Creator of heaven and earth, that the body is not evil, that Jesus Christ truly suffered in the flesh, and that He rose bodily from the grave. I value ordered worship, accounta…
Read article →E. W. Bullinger · Sermons · 1892
…rather than an isolated prophetic curiosity. He ranges across the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, drawing attention to the sheer weight of Scripture devoted to Christ's return. The sermons combine expectation, careful textual observation, and practical…
View recommendation →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…s not the end of discernment. It is where discernment must begin. A better invitation The gospel does not invite us to escape ourselves, uncover a hidden divinity, or acquire secret knowledge. It calls us to be reconciled to the God who made us. We do not ascend to Him by masteri…
Read article →Marvin W. Meyer · Historical sourcebook · 1987
…of Acts and Paul's letters more tangible and helps us appreciate the world into which the gospel came. It is a genuinely worthwhile educational journey through the ancient evidence. Use this book to understand the religious environment of the New Testament, not to assume that eve…
View recommendation →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…ent does not attach the title to Him incidentally. His identity as the Christ governs the Gospel testimony. Peter confesses: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus then begins to teach His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed…
Read article →The Venerable Bede · Ecclesiastical and national history · 731
…le, places, journeys, decisions, failures, and acts of courage. His history shows how the gospel crossed cultures and kingdoms, how political and ecclesiastical interests became entangled, and how fragile the planting of churches could be. It is both a major historical source and…
View recommendation →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…remain in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:12–19). The resurrection belongs to the heart of the gospel because the Christ who died for our sins rose bodily from the grave. Our future rests upon what has already happened to Him. Christ the firstfruits and pattern "But now is Christ rise…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” — Matthew 11:5 The Isaianic resonance is deliberate. Blindness, deafness and lameness recall Isaiah 35:5–6; the proclamation to the poor also recalls Isaiah 61:1. J…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…Nevertheless, when the verse is read in its immediate literary setting and alongside the Gospel accounts, it creates a strong presumption in favour of that conclusion. Psalm 69:8 is part of a messianic unit Psalm 69:8 should not be treated as an isolated remark inserted between…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…tored spiritually. Paul describes Israel in the present age as being, with respect to the gospel, "enemies for your sakes," but with respect to election, "beloved for the fathers' sakes" (Romans 11:28). Both statements must be allowed to stand. The Jewish people are not reconcile…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…tonist philosopher Amelius read—or at least knew—a clear account of the opening of John’s Gospel. He recognised the eternal Word, the creation of all things through Him, His coming in flesh and His appearance as man. Yet at the decisive moment, Amelius made the Gospel tell a diff…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…lies a different setting here: the Son of man sits upon the throne of His glory. The same Gospel later uses almost identical language: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." —Matthew 25:31 T…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…ive; redemptive love brings the rebel home without denying the evil of his rebellion. The gospel moves from providence to propitiation. The God who gives rain to His enemies gives His Son for their reconciliation. Paul expresses the movement through a deliberate sequence: "For wh…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…iguratively. Paul tells the Corinthians, “in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15), and calls Onesimus his son, “whom I have begotten in my bonds” (Philemon 10). Paul plainly did not cause either party to exist physically; through his gospel mi…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…d in context The Qur'an says that the coming of Muhammad was written in the Torah and the Gospel possessed by Jews and Christians: "Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) wi…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…ce. Believers presently possess its spiritual blessings, submit to its King, proclaim its gospel, and bear responsibility as His people. Nothing in a future restoration of Israel diminishes the Church's present inheritance. Yet stewardship is not ownership, and present participat…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…covenants and produced Messiah according to the flesh. Yet many of them had rejected the gospel. That creates the controlling problem: if the promises pertain to Israel, has Israel's unbelief caused the word of God to fail? Paul answers: "Not as though the word of God hath taken…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…sing is promised? The alternative must meet an equally serious test. It must preserve one gospel, the full equality of believers in Christ, and the Church's real participation in covenant blessing. A dispensational label cannot substitute for exegesis. The view which best explain…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Biblical polemic · 2002
…alvinism. The love of God Character of God Calvinism Sovereignty Election Grace Atonement Gospel invitation
View recommendation →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…in early modern Europe and helped to nourish the modern myth. Nicaea did not suppress the Gospel of Thomas, remove reincarnation from the Bible or commission a politically convenient New Testament. Those claims need evidence from AD 325. None has been produced. What else did the…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” —2 Thessalonians 1:6–8 The posttribulation argument appears straightforward: Christians are being persecuted. Paul promises them rest. That rest is associat…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…identified. Clue six: the proclamation concerns the coming kingdom Jesus says: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." —Matthew 24:14 It is unnecessary to argue here for two different means…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…urisdiction or feasible means. Identical voting decisions are not a hidden article of the gospel. At the same time, do not use fellowship as an excuse for moral vagueness where Scripture speaks clearly. Finally, pray for the ruler you opposed as seriously as for the one you suppo…
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