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44 results for “Jesus Christ”
Clear searchThe 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 bi…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
The Sum of These Things Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Ma…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
Did Jesus Really Die? The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an Christianity and Islam cannot both be correct about the death of Jesus. The Gospel declares that Jesus was crucified un…
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 the Gospel are told to judge by what God revealed within…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
Isaac, Not Ishmael The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ Did God choose Isaac or Ishmael? This is not a tribal debate. It is a covenant question. The answer does not require hostility towards Arabs, contempt for Muslims or denial of the ble…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
The Daniel Dilemma The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell Islam calls Jesus the Messiah. It also denies that He was crucified. Centuries before Muhammad, however, the book of Daniel described an anointed figure who would be “cut off”, followed by the destructi…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…revealed by what it does when the beloved is undeserving and the cost is real. Islam and Christianity both speak of divine mercy, forgiveness and love. A fair comparison cannot begin by pretending that the Qur'an presents Allah as merciless or that Muslims worship a deity who ne…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…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) with them" (Surah 7:157, Pickth…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…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 Jerusalem. Its Scriptures have been used to justi…
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 is God,” the objection runs. “That makes three…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
If Antichrist Must Come First, Is Christ's Coming Imminent? Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await Imminency does not mean that Christ was required to return within the apostl…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
Do All God's Promises Transfer to the Church? What "yea and Amen" in Christ means for Israel and the covenants Paul makes one of the most comprehensive statements about the promises of God: "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto th…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
Does the New Testament Reaffirm Israel's Promises? Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy The Old Testament repeatedly promises Israel preservation, regathering, cleansing, the kingdom of David's Son, and a restored…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
Does Romans 2:28-29 Make Christians "Spiritual Jews"? Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew Paul's description of the inward Jew is often treated as a decisive redefinition of Israel: "For…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…it against failure. The Bible also teaches a perfectly just judgement according to works. Christianity 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…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…tions? 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 whether Christians sh…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
Are Abraham's Seed and the Israel of God the Church? Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing Galatians contains two of the strongest arguments for identifying the Church as Israel. First, Paul says that the pro…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
Why Did Jesus Choose Twelve Apostles? A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance Jesus did not choose twelve apostles because twelve happened to be a convenient number. He could have app…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
Are Israel and the Church Really the Same? Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose The New Testament teaches a unity so profound that it would have startled the ancient world. In Christ, Jewish and Gentile believers are reconciled to…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…the Kingdom Taken from Israel? The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards Few statements of Jesus appear to support supersessionism more directly than Matthew 21:43: "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and g…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
Is the Beatific Vision the Whole Christian Hope? Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation The beatific vision is the Christian teaching that the redeemed will see God and find their perfect happines…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…ent comes. The future of Israel is therefore not a specialised controversy at the edge of Christian doctrine. It tests how we understand the faithfulness of the God upon whose promises the Church itself depends. The opposing case deserves to be stated fairly Most thoughtful super…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…evelation. It starts with a measured programme in Daniel concerning Israel and Jerusalem. Jesus takes Daniel's abomination of desolation and places it at the head of an unparalleled tribulation. Paul describes a lawless ruler who exalts himself in the sacred place and is destroye…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…ion to love and freely express it when He creates. That answer should be taken seriously. Christianity does not need to prove the Trinity by defining love in a way which makes every alternative logically impossible. The biblical case is stronger than that. Jesus does not leave us…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…asting displacement, and read Israel's Scriptures principally through their fulfilment in Christ and the Church. The resulting history is neither simple nor flattering. Some early Christian writers defended essential truths: Jesus is Israel's Messiah, the law cannot justify, Gent…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…pe The claim that the Church is not appointed to wrath is sometimes answered too quickly. Christians plainly suffer. Jesus promised tribulation in the world. The apostles endured imprisonment, violence, loss, and martyrdom. Across the world, believers still suffer precisely becau…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…cultural vacuum. It appeared in a world alive with biblical names, Jewish interpretation, Christian preaching, sectarian disagreement, devotional legend and stories carried across languages by travellers, merchants, clergy and ordinary believers. That observation does not disprov…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…theology" is a useful popular label, but it can also conceal important differences. Many Christians accused of teaching that the Church replaced Israel would reject that wording. They believe that the Church is the fulfilment, continuation, or expansion of Israel rather than its…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
Twelve Thrones and Twelve Tribes What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future Peter once asked the question which many faithful disciples have quietly wondered: what will those who sacrifice for Christ receive? Jesus a…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…visiting. If Paul invokes that custom, the objection continues, believers rise to welcome 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. W…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…Four objections deserve particular attention: Second Thessalonians 2 appears to place Antichrist before our gathering. First Corinthians 15 places the resurrection at the "last trump". Revelation 20 calls a post-Tribulation event "the first resurrection". John 6 promises to raise…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…? What Do the Covenants Say? Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ Israel broke God's law, rejected the prophets, and nationally refused its Messiah. Jerusalem was judged, the temple was destroyed, and the Jewish people were scattered among the natio…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
Who Are the Elect of Matthew 24? A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light... And he shall send his angels with a great sound…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…often that it can sound like an argument. It is not. Pretribulationists do not claim that Christ descends silently, that believers disappear without an event, or that nothing extraordinary occurs. Paul describes the Lord descending “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination Christians sometimes hear a sweeping objection: the Bible may once have contained God's word, but generations of copying changed it so thoroughly that nobody can now know what it originally…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…es God made to Israel. It affirms one way of salvation by grace through 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 t…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…as removed from the place of judgement. The forms differ; the moral distinction does not. Jesus uses the days of Lot Jesus compares the revealing of the Son of man with the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26–30). Ordinary life continued until judgement arrived suddenly. In Lot's ca…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…d almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz Matthew says that the conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost fulfilled Isaiah's words: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." —Matthew 1:23 Critics often answ…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…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: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days sh…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…continual sorrow for his kinsmen, defends God's sovereign freedom, insists upon faith in Christ, and explains the present remnant. He then looks beyond Israel's partial blindness to the mercy still to come. At no point does he solve the problem by saying that Israel's name and p…
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 Trinity compromised mono…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…ecy to the faithfulness of God Has the Church replaced Israel in the purpose of God? Some Christians answer yes, although they may prefer words such as fulfilled, transformed, or expanded. They believe that Israel's promises have reached their true meaning in Christ and now belon…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…difference, and profound internal disagreement. The nation has not corporately recognised Jesus as Messiah. The promised universal cleansing, outpouring of the Spirit, secure peace, Davidic reign, and worldwide knowledge of the LORD have not arrived. This incompleteness is not ne…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…tly replaced Israel in the purpose of God? The answer cannot be reached by asking whether Christ fulfils the promises. He does. Nor can it be settled by asking whether Gentile believers inherit in Him. We do. The decisive question is whether fulfilment in Christ and the formation…
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