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37 results for “Isaiah”
Clear searchMatthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
Does Isaiah 7:14 Really Prophesy a Virgin Birth? Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz Matthew says that the conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost fulfilled…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
The King, Zion and the Coming Kingdom: Reading Isaiah 32–35 Across the Prophetic Horizon The near was real. The far is still coming. The historical horizon and the question of fulfilment “Was this fulfilled, or is it still future?” That…
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?…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
Is Israel Married to the Land? The LORD, Zion, and the Meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5 “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…peal to four passages: the prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy 18; the Servant and Kedar in Isaiah 42; the promised Comforter in John 14–16; the Hebrew word maḥămaddîm in Song of Solomon 5:16. Some presentations add other verses, but these are among the most recognisable arguments.…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
…e, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.” —Isaiah 36:21, KJV Their silence was obedience. They had heard the challenge, but they were not obliged to enter an argument on the challenger’s terms. That is a lesson worth remembering when…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…on language can refer to the Messiah, to Israel, and to a faithful remnant within Israel. Isaiah is particularly important: "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name." —Isaiah 45:4 "And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." —Isaiah 40:8 God's preservation of His word does not require the claim that every scribe was prevented from making any mistake in every copy. Inspiration belongs to the text God gave; preserv…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…s: John 1:1–3; John 5:17–23; John 8:54–59; John 17:5; Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:1–12; Isaiah 44:6, 24 --- In the previous study, we considered Ambrose’s wonderfully direct answer to those who claimed that the Son had once not existed. John did not write, “In the beginning the…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…says: “I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.” — Isaiah 38:10 Here, gates belong to the imagery of entering the realm of death. The NET Bible’s note on Matthew 16:18 likewise recognises “the power of death” as a possible rendering of the e…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…repeatedly promised that Israel would be regathered when Messiah establishes His kingdom. Isaiah speaks of a great trumpet and the return of scattered Israelites (Isaiah 27:12-13). Deuteronomy promises that God will gather His dispersed people "from the outmost parts of heaven" (…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…re had promised: "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." —Isaiah 12:3 Then, on the last day, Jesus stood. Teachers ordinarily sat. Jesus made Himself conspicuous, and He cried so that the crowd could hear. He did not direct them towards another cer…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…he judicial distinction is to gather the Church into safety before the indignation falls. Isaiah gives language remarkably suited to that expectation: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…d 6 Tacitus, Annals, 15.38–44 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, sections 14–15 Isaiah 24 Daniel 9:24–27; 12:1–3 Matthew 24:1–44 John 5:24–29; 6:37–40 Romans 8:18–25 1 Corinthians 15:20–26, 50–54 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10; 4:13–18; 5:1–11 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 Colossians…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…and became man. This is why the child born at Bethlehem could be called “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6), and why Thomas could look upon the risen Jesus and confess, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The baby, the boy, the teacher, the crucified one and the risen Lord are one and t…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…s could both be anointed. Cyrus, a Persian ruler, is even called the LORD’s “anointed” in Isaiah 45:1 because God appointed him for a particular task. The original Hebrew manuscripts did not contain an English capital letter announcing that every occurrence of the word referred t…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…"David their king" (Hosea 3:4-5). The long absence does not become permanent abandonment. Isaiah presents the Root of Jesse as the hope of the Gentiles and, in the same setting, the One associated with gathering Israel's dispersed remnant (Isaiah 11:10-12). Zechariah brings the i…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…was bruised for our iniquities... and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." —Isaiah 53:5–6 Paul says God set forth Christ as a propitiation so that He might be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:25–26). Second Corinthians 5:21 describ…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…n of man and the wider restoration over which He presides. 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 res…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." —Matthew 21:41 The imagery recalls Isaiah's song of the vineyard, where the vineyard of the LORD is explicitly "the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:1-7). Yet Jesus makes a significant alteration. In Isaiah, the unfruitful vineyard…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…told Abraham that all families of the earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3). Isaiah described the Servant's mission as too great to end with the restoration of Jacob alone: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…1 Samuel 8:10–18). The prophets then recorded what corrupt power looked like in practice. Isaiah condemned rulers who were companions of thieves, loved gifts and ignored the cause of the fatherless and widow (Isaiah 1:21–23). He denounced leaders who ground the faces of the poor…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…eparated events within one horizon without disclosing the interval at the first stage. In Isaiah 61:1-2, for example, Christ stopped His synagogue reading before "the day of vengeance of our God" (Luke 4:16-21). Zechariah 9:9-10 places the King's humble arrival beside His worldwi…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…who came then will come again. “Coming from” a location does not mean originating there. Isaiah sees the divine judge coming from Edom and Bozrah after executing judgment (Isaiah 63:1–6); no one therefore concludes that Yahweh was born as the local god of Bozrah. Geography ident…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…irit upon the nation, joined to repentance, cleansing, and genuine personal regeneration (Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29; Joel 2:28-32; Zechariah 12:10-13:1). It is a mass work of the Spirit, but not salvation by ancestry: the Israel which enters the promised restoration will be an I…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…Milton and the biblical prophets possess distinctive styles. No second writer can become Isaiah by approximating Isaiah's cadences. Yet stylistic singularity does not prove that every singular work was verbally revealed by God. The Muslim argument must therefore establish more t…
Read article →The peace Christ gives in a troubled world
…r has not gone away. --- References for further review John 14:1–31; John 16:7–15, 20–33. Isaiah 26:3–4; Romans 5:1–11; Romans 8:31–39. Philippians 4:4–9; Colossians 1:19–22; Hebrews 13:5–6. For comparison with Scripture's use of sustained contrast, see Hebrews 10:1–25: repeated…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…es not begin only in John's Gospel. Mark opens by joining the promise of a messenger with Isaiah's announcement that the LORD Himself is coming: "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepa…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…theism: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." —Deuteronomy 6:4 God says through Isaiah, “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isaiah 45:5). Jesus affirms Israel's confession (Mark 12:29), and Paul writes, “there is none other God but one” (…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…s The biblical answer is not that every unusual or overwhelming experience must be false. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and became painfully conscious of his sin. Daniel lost his strength before the visions he received. John fell at Christ’s feet as dead. At Pentecost, t…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…s and birds are consumed "for the wickedness of them that dwell therein" (Jeremiah 12:4). Isaiah 24 widens the vision still further: The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting cov…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…y testified of Him, answered temptation from Deuteronomy, interpreted His mission through Isaiah, and insisted that He came not to destroy the law and prophets but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17; Luke 4:16-21; John 5:39). Calling Jesus a first-century Jewish teacher is therefore ne…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ressions locate him within Israel, and Acts applies the promise directly to Jesus Christ. Isaiah 42 mentions Kedar, but Kedar is among the peoples summoned to rejoice. It is not thereby transformed into the Servant who gives them reason to sing. Matthew identifies the gentle, Spi…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…undo what He accomplished. John 1:1–14; 1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 9:24–28. Why substitution? Isaiah describes the Servant bearing the iniquities of others. Peter says that Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Paul explains that God set forth Christ…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…does the believing remnant enter the argument? Paul makes the remnant explicit by quoting Isaiah: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." —Romans 9:27 The structure matters. The many are still called "the children of Isra…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…tinguishing and removing before judicial destruction. Lot is taken out before fire falls. Isaiah calls God's people into hidden chambers until indignation passes. Abraham's appeal remains morally significant: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). These…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…eneath His notice. Labour beyond the curse The biblical future is not eternal inactivity. Isaiah pictures people building, planting and enjoying the work of their hands in a restored world (Isaiah 65:21–23). Revelation says of God's servants in the New Jerusalem: "And his servant…
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