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63 results for “Heaven”
Clear searchEarth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
Where Is the Church during Revelation's Judgements? Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse The argument that the word church disappears after Revelation 3 is often stated as though silence alone proves a rapture between…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…The language of vision therefore guards a vital truth. God is not merely the provider of heaven's benefits; He is the blessedness of heaven. Sin alienated humanity from His presence. Redemption brings us home to Him. Thomas Aquinas gave the beatific vision a particularly influen…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…hians 5:8). Death cannot separate the believer from Christ. But even being with Christ in heaven is not the final chapter of Christian hope. The New Testament points towards the resurrection of the body and the renewal of creation. God does not discard His handiwork. He redeems i…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Devotional theology and biblical exhortation · 2000
…s 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 govern the whole life. The book's breadth makes it especially useful for readers who n…
View recommendation →Brian E. Daley · Historical theology · 1991
A broad survey of Christian teaching about the last things across the first seven centuries, tracing the many ideas which developed around death, resurrection, judgment, the intermediate state, the millennium, and the final destiny of creation.
View recommendation →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…ce beyond the stars. He is not contained by the totality of created reality: “Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee…” — 1 Kings 8:27 The “heaven of heavens” is not outside creation. Angels, heavenly powers and every invisible realm are still created. God al…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…. The expression rûaḥ mimmārôm, “spirit … from on high,” locates the source of renewal in heaven. The verb rendered “be poured” presents the gift as abundant divine provision. Nothing in the vocabulary itself establishes a millennial chronology; its significance lies in the relat…
Read article →Sir Robert Anderson · Biblical and apologetic argument · 1897
…t every unanswered prayer is caused by defective faith. He places the apparent silence of heaven within his reading of the biblical programme and argues that God's patience is not absence, weakness, or indifference. Even where readers question his framework, the book forces serio…
View recommendation →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…ter God behind the God who speaks. The One who comforts Jerusalem is the One who made the heavens. The One who pardons Israel is the One who governs the nations. He did not inherit His position from an older deity, and He will not surrender it to a younger one. “I am the first, a…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…e bad arguments and narrow the range of plausible mechanisms. It cannot place a sensor in heaven. It cannot establish that a luminous figure was Christ because the figure said so. It cannot infer universal salvation from a feeling of love, or disprove judgement because one surviv…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…ess which is of faith" in language drawn from Deuteronomy 30. No one needs to ascend into heaven to bring Christ down or descend into the deep to raise Him from the dead. God has already acted in the incarnation and resurrection. The saving word is near: "That if thou shalt confe…
Read article →What the historical evidence proves—and what it does not
…ent the resurrection of dead believers, the transformation and catching up of the living, heavenly ascent, every form of pre-Tribulation deliverance, and every interval between translation and public descent? The evidence also says no. History should be stated proportionately. It…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…exible: depending upon its grammar and context, it may designate the God of Israel, gods, heavenly beings or other occupants of the spiritual world. That ambiguity is real, but it cannot decide the identity of the one being named. English-speaking Christians, Muslims and Hindus m…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…s to do God’s will. Hebrews does not invite us to picture a personless body waiting for a heavenly occupant. The same letter says that the Son partook of flesh and blood, was made like His brethren, suffered when tempted, prayed with strong crying and tears, and learned obedience…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…ammadi library and commonly dated to the late second or third century, also separates the heavenly Saviour from the suffering perceived by His enemies. Its difficult passage says that Simon bore the cross and repeatedly speaks of "another" receiving elements of the passion while…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…as evidence that the Son was passible and mutable—not the unchangeable God, but a lesser heavenly being capable of alteration and suffering. Eustathius saw that the argument depended partly upon an incomplete account of Christ’s humanity. The sorrowful soul of which Jesus spoke…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…rael's land becomes a figure of the new creation, David's throne becomes Christ's present heavenly rule, and Israel's promised national restoration becomes the salvation of the multinational Church. The promises are not said to have failed, but to have reached a greater fulfilmen…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…come Christ and immediately accompany Him back to earth. There is therefore no journey to heaven and no interval before the public descent. The background is real. The conclusion is overstated. What Paul actually says Paul's immediate concern is the grief of Christians whose fell…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…tinction. Paul gives the same testimony: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” — Colossians 1:16–17 The repea…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…In Lot's case, “the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven” (Luke 17:29). The comparison highlights sudden judgement and the danger of attachment to the present world. Jesus immediately says, “Remember Lot's wife” (Luke 17:32). We should ther…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…must also consider the next verse: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” — Matthew 16:19 These are substantial words of…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." —Matthew 24:29, 31 If Christ gathers His elect after the Tribulation, why should anyone place the rapture before it? The objection deserves an answer from the context,…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…t Jesus' baptism, the Son is in the water, the Spirit descends and the Father speaks from heaven (Matthew 3:16-17). There is no fourth Person who shares the divine name, receives divine honour, performs the inseparable works of God and stands alongside these three throughout Scri…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…ontroversial. Paul describes the event directly. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will c…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…s the One in whom God's oath to David reaches fulfilment (Acts 2:25-36). Christ's present heavenly authority is real and universal. The question is whether it exhausts a covenant which also speaks of David's house, Israel's kingdom, righteous government, and the nations under Mes…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…ic for stressing personal conversion, assurance of salvation, the authority of Scripture, heavenly hope, doctrinal precision, non-sacramental worship, premillennialism, or distrust of corrupt institutions. If all these things are Gnostic, then parts of the New Testament begin to…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…oses: “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” —John 6:31 Jesus corrects them. Moses was not the ultimate giver, and the manna was not the true bread: “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…and allegorical interpretation made the transfer exegetically possible. Land could become heaven, Jerusalem the Church, Israel the Christian people, and restoration conversion from sin. These applications could contain genuine Christian truth while leaving no remainder for the or…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…g of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." —Titus 2:13 "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." —Philippians 3:20 The object of expectation is not first the Antichrist, a covenant, a rebuilt temple, the abominati…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…particular features. The same principle applies to the new creation. Abraham looked for a heavenly country and a city whose builder and maker is God. The meek will inherit the earth. The final dwelling of righteousness will encompass a renewed creation. These truths enlarge the h…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…ion's judgements do include human violence and satanic activity, but they unfold within a heavenly proceeding governed by the Lamb. The Lamb opens the seals. Authority is given to the riders. Heaven sends trumpet and bowl judgements. By the sixth seal the earth-dwellers recognise…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…worldwide hour which tests the earth-dwellers (Revelation 3:10). The Bride is prepared in heaven before Christ rides forth in judgement (Revelation 19:6–16). Believers appear with Christ when He is manifested in glory (Colossians 3:4). No item alone proves the complete chronology…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…e Surah 51:47 is frequently translated in a way which appears strikingly modern: "And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander" (Surah 51:47, Sahih International). Pickthall renders the same clause: "We have built the heaven with might, and We it…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…e faithful when its stated recipient disappears from its fulfilment? May land become only heaven, Israel become only the Church, and national restoration become only individual conversion? Or does the coming of Christ guarantee the promises in all the fullness God intended? The a…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…blical fulfilment frequently expands an earlier promise. Abraham looks beyond Canaan to a heavenly country. David's Son rules not merely Israel but every nation. The temple theme reaches Christ, His people, and finally God's dwelling with redeemed humanity. The inheritance culmin…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…h put away thy sin" (2 Samuel 12:13). Jesus does not merely report a pardon received from heaven. He pronounces it directly and then heals the man to demonstrate that His authority is real: "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2:10)…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…ism, the Son stands in the water, the Spirit descends, and the Father's voice speaks from heaven (Matthew 3:16–17). Jesus later commands baptism: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." —Matthew 28:19 The word name is singular, while Father, Son, and H…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…t sayings: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” — Mark 13:32 We must resist the temptation to answer by creating two speakers. It was not a separate human Jesus who lacked knowledge while a divine…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…but not where, when or before whom. It tells us that the disciples requested a table from heaven, but gives no location, named participant or place for the event within His ministry. It places theological declarations upon Jesus’ lips but rarely surrounds them with ordinary human…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…bes Paul's sequence in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 is straightforward: The Lord descends from heaven. The dead in Christ rise first. Living believers are caught up together with them. They meet the Lord in the air. They remain with Him for ever. His concern is pastoral. Some Thessalo…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…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, accountable leadership, Christian…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…(Numbers 22:32-33). The reversal is severe. Balaam considers the animal worthy of death; heaven identifies her as the innocent party who has repeatedly saved his life. The beast sees more truly than the prophet and, when God gives her speech, protests her mistreatment more justl…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…he Mount. Jesus warns that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Some will appeal to remarkable works performed in His name—prophecy, exorcism and mighty deeds. His answer is terrifying: "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…e fundamentally, the earliest Christian evidence contains no account of Jesus receiving a heavenly book. Jesus proclaims the kingdom, expounds Scripture, speaks with His own authority, fulfils the Law and prophets, and commissions witnesses. His words and deeds are then proclaime…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…sent the Twelve, He told them to go to those lost sheep and announce that the kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matthew 10:5-7). That priority was covenantal, not racial favouritism. Israel had received the covenants, promises, temple service, and messianic hope. The King came firs…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…e from being a nation before me for ever." —Jeremiah 31:36 The sun, moon, stars, sea, and heavens serve as witnesses to God's commitment. Israel's sin is not ignored; the same chapter speaks of uprooting and affliction. Yet the nation will not cease to exist before God. Jeremiah…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ave such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1). The evidence has been heard. We have examined what Christians mean when they say that God is one. We have followed Jesus through the Gospels and asked whether He can…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…The Maker entered His creation. The eternal Son made our nature His own. The One whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain was carried in human arms. But what happens when a philosopher encounters that glory and tries to fit it back inside his own system? A recent study by Matthe…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…efully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:44-45). "Children of your Father" and "children of the Highest"…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…of the things made. Paul says the same: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” — Colossians 1:16–17 The Son d…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…in the song does not prove that the Servant arises from Kedar. Isaiah elsewhere calls the heavens, the earth, the mountains and the forest to sing when God comforts and redeems His people (Isaiah 44:23; 49:13). Such language displays the reach of salvation; it does not identify t…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…upon His throne Jesus next foretold the public coming of the Son of man "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30). He described His return, the gathering of His elect, and His sitting upon "the throne of his glory" to judge the nations (Matthew 24:29-31…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…o is God, and why does my life concern Him? The God of Scripture is the Maker and Lord of heaven and earth, the One who gives us life and breath. Our existence is already a relationship of dependence upon Him. His concern with our conduct follows from who He is and who we are. Ac…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…ist biblical books. This does not mean that the New Testament canon dropped complete from heaven or that early Christians agreed instantly about every book. Before Nicaea, Eusebius carefully distinguished acknowledged books from disputed and spurious works. That is evidence of an…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…ould also restrain through political instruments while the ultimate restraining agency is heavenly. Establishing a plausible earthly mechanism would then explain part of the process without settling the agent’s identity. The proposals should remain open to meaningful tests. A per…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…ristians enduring persecution. He promises them rest when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon the disobedient. Brown therefore concludes that the Church receives deliverance at Christ’s public return, not in a prior rapture. This is a ser…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
…troyed by Assyria were the work of human hands. The Lord was the living God, the Maker of heaven and earth. Hezekiah’s fear had somewhere to go. So does ours. We may come before God shaken, without eloquence and without knowing what will happen next. We can tell him what has been…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." —Matthew 24:29, 31 Few passages in prophetic Scripture generate more debate than Matthew 24. At the centre of that debate stands an apparently simple question: who are…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…er to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." —Matthew 10:5-7 This restriction was temporary. After His resurrection, Jesus commanded His witnesses to make disciples among all nations (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). Ye…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…fewest forced exceptions? Scripture explicitly teaches the event. The Lord descends from heaven; the dead in Christ rise; living believers are changed; and together they are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54). The question is not w…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…le suffering abuse. In the same section Paul warned masters that they too had a Master in heaven and must give what is just and equal (Colossians 4:1). Human authority is never absolute. Yet the instruction gives dignity to work performed where recognition is poor and power is un…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…confusing an election victory with the inauguration of the kingdom. No party is bringing heaven to earth. No politician is indispensable to the purposes of God. No election can make Christ more sovereign, and no defeat can remove Him from His throne. Vote without being owned How…
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