A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
No Holy Land? Covenant Discipline, Gentile Blessing, and Israel's Future A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God Michael Horton's essay, “No Holy Land: Does I…
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…
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 Dav…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
No Shadow of Turning What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises This series has examined covenants, prophecies, apostles, thrones, tribes, branches, seeds, kingdoms, and the difficult words upon which the debate turns. We have tried to hear the…
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 promises were…
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 cann…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
Has God Abandoned Israel? 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 wer…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…y rebelled and, when Messiah came, the nation did not receive Him. What happens to divine promises when their recipients prove unfaithful? Scripture does not answer by minimising Israel's sin. Nor does it conclude that God's purpose must be transferred to a more deserving people.…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…of return endured. On 14 May 1948, Jewish sovereignty was re-established in the ancestral land through the declaration of the State of Israel. That event does not by itself settle every prophetic question. The modern state is not yet the cleansed, believing, peaceful Israel descr…
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 answere…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…es were once "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise" (Ephesians 2:12). Through Christ's blood, those who were far off have been made nigh. The middle wall of partition has been broken down, and Christ has made believing Jew and Gentil…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…ngs God gave Ishmael. Genesis expressly records that God heard Ishmael, protected him and promised to make him fruitful. Christians have no reason to erase what Scripture affirms. But blessing is not the same as covenant election. God named the covenant heir before he was born. H…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…may prefer words such as fulfilled, transformed, or expanded. They believe that Israel's promises have reached their true meaning in Christ and now belong to the multinational Church. Others maintain that Jewish and Gentile believers are one in Christ while national Israel still…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…herefore an abstract denunciation of Jewish ethnicity. Nor is it a declaration that God's promises had always belonged spiritually to a different people. It is a polemic against identifiable rulers at a decisive moment in Israel's history. The consequences nevertheless reach beyo…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…progressive revelation, the distinct identities named in the text, and the unconditional promises 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.…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…Immanuel." —Isaiah 7:14 Before the child knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, the lands of the two threatening kings will be forsaken (Isaiah 7:16). This creates an unavoidable near horizon. The prophecy spoke meaningfully into Ahaz's own crisis; a sign relevant only many…
Read article →John Bunyan · Spiritual autobiography · 1666
…and makes The Pilgrim's Progress more intelligible by revealing the experience behind its landscapes. Bunyan's experience is a testimony, not a pattern every believer must reproduce. His prolonged fears and close attention to inward impressions can encourage an anxious reader, bu…
View recommendation →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…t Jewish people. Other evidence complicates the story. Writers who spiritualised Israel's promises could still expect a future Jewish conversion. Some anticipated a rebuilt Jewish temple and a final crisis centred upon Jerusalem. Early Christian thought was not a single system. T…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…7:39 This is an invitation, but it is more than an invitation to temporary relief. Christ promises that the thirsty person who comes to Him will receive the Holy Spirit. The empty life does not merely receive a cup to carry away. God makes it the channel of a river. A cry on the…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…redeemed will see God and find their perfect happiness in Him. It draws upon magnificent promises: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8); “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2); and “they shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4). The difficulty beg…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…sus really claim to be God? Was He actually crucified? Has the doctrine of the Trinity compromised monotheism? Those questions deserve answers, and the preceding articles have supplied them. But Christianity is not the only faith carrying a burden of proof. Islam does not merely…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…ople discover them. The story eventually became known, demonstrating the reality of God’s promise and the coming resurrection. The passage even records disagreement over their number: “(Some) will say: They were three, their dog the fourth, and (some) say: Five, their dog the six…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…ding evidence? What do the geography, institutions, prophetic references, vocabulary, and promised gathering tell us? This article treats the passage as a textual investigation. No single clue carries the whole case. The question is whether the clues converge. The minimum claim d…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…tself establishes less than either side sometimes claims. Read within Jesus' ministry and promises, however, it points towards renewal rather than erasure. Twelve means Israel Israel's twelve-tribe identity runs through the biblical story. Jacob's twelve sons became the heads of…
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