PreTrib PilgrimSearch the library
Search by subject, then refine by approach. A prophecy study may also be apologetic or discerning because subject tells you what it examines, while approach tells you how it examines it.
34 results for “Life after death”
Clear searchTal Brooke · Christian investigation · 1979
I recommend The Other Side of Death because it refuses to treat every extraordinary experience as self-authenticating. Brooke places popular claims about death, consciousness, spirit guides, reincarnation, and the afterl…
View recommendation →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
Beyond the Tunnel of Light Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ Many years ago I read Tal Brooke's The Other Side of Death: Does Death Seal Your Destiny? The book stayed with me. Published in 1…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…ing something more like a ghost than a human being. Christians do have a real hope beyond death before the resurrection. Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, which he said was "far better" (Philippians 1:23). To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cori…
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 happiness in Him. It draws upon magnificent promises: “Blesse…
Read article →Brian E. Daley · Historical theology · 1991
…e Hope of the Early Church because it showed me how varied early Christian thinking about death and the world to come really was. Daley traces the development of the intermediate state, apokatastasis, resurrection, judgment, and the principal eschatological expectations without p…
View recommendation →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…Christ’s Body? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.” —John 6:47–48 An evangelical watches a confident Roman Catholic presentation of John 6. The argument appears straightforward. Jesus said that unless we eat Hi…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…ord during the darkest hours surrounding His crucifixion. Both experienced intense sorrow afterward—and yet their stories moved in very different directions. Judas descended into despair and death. Peter was brought through brokenness into forgiveness, restoration, and fruitful s…
Read article →Marvin W. Meyer · Historical sourcebook · 1987
…y religions Greco-Roman world Paul's Gentile mission Ancient worship Initiation Sacrifice Life after death
View recommendation →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…tion. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power..." —Revelation 20:5-6 If the dead in Christ rose before the Tribulation, how can martyrs raised after it belong to the first resurrection? "First" cannot mean the first…
Read article →Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
…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 chapters 3 and 4. It does not. A word count cannot establish a doctrine which the narrative never supports…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…f YHWH Comfort rests upon the character of God Isaiah 40 opens with comfort for Jerusalem after judgement. Chapter 39 has announced Babylonian exile; chapters 40–48 address the humiliation of God’s people, the apparent strength of Babylon, the impotence of idols and the promised…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…as made flesh. The One who made the world entered it, accepted the limitations of a human life, suffered at the hands of His creatures and died upon a cross. We confess these things because they are true. But we should not pretend that they are philosophically ordinary. To many a…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…ruit they had in the sins of which they were now ashamed: "For the end of those things is death." —Romans 6:21 He then contrasts that former life with service to God, whose fruit is holiness and whose "end" is everlasting life (Romans 6:22). In both verses telos describes the res…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…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 under Pontius Pilate, died, was buried and rose bodily from the dead. His death is not a peripheral detail which can be removed w…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…upying a human body, Christ’s humanity becomes an instrument rather than a complete human life. If it presents God joining Himself to an independently acting man, the one Christ begins to divide into two. Learning to speak carefully is not dry conformity to a council. It helps us…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…nd the line between Creator and creation Why this is useful to know: On your walk through life, you will encounter challenges to the deity of Christ from television shows and documentaries, Muslims, Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses—and, if you have children, they may encoun…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…er 2:7–8). His choices brought danger and grievous loss. He had to flee his home, and the aftermath of the story is deeply sobering. This prevents a shallow prosperity reading. Deliverance from divine wrath does not mean freedom from hardship, moral conflict, or painful consequen…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…sacrificial service. The Jerusalem council and priestly order no longer governed national life. A second revolt had ended in catastrophe, Jerusalem remained under foreign power, and Jewish people were dispersed through the empire. Meanwhile, churches confessing Israel's Messiah w…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…to await Imminency does not mean that Christ was required to return within the apostles' lifetime. It means that no revealed prophetic event must first occur before the Church may be gathered to Him. The distinction matters. An event can be certain and constantly expected withou…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…res establish that the Qur'an is a revelation from God, or do they become miraculous only after its divine origin has already been assumed? The strongest Islamic case The most serious Muslim case does not rest upon a single numerical coincidence or disputed scientific translation…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…ovenant election. God named the covenant heir before he was born. He repeated that choice after his birth. He identified the son Abraham was commanded to offer. The rest of Scripture traces the promise through Jacob, Israel, Judah and David until it reaches Jesus Christ. Islam pr…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…international people of God in Christ. Several parts of this argument are sound. Israel's life in the land was conditioned upon covenant obedience. Gentiles are incorporated into the people of God without becoming Jewish proselytes. The Mosaic covenant and its Levitical order hav…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…plains the whole Gospel portrait without requiring its natural features to be reduced one after another? Mark begins with the coming of the Lord The case does not begin only in John's Gospel. Mark opens by joining the promise of a messenger with Isaiah's announcement that the LOR…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…ot cease to be God when He became man, nor did His deity replace any part of a real human life. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The eternal Son did not unite Himself to a separate human person. He Himself took our nature and became man. This is why the…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…iptures? Jesus animates birds made from clay. Young believers flee into a cave and awaken after a sleep lasting centuries. A two-horned ruler travels to the limits of the earth and constructs a metal barrier against Gog and Magog. Mary receives dates and water beside a palm tree.…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…rbed into a greater reality. Such experiences may be beautiful, terrifying, or apparently life-changing. They can feel more real than everyday life. Those who undergo them may be left convinced that they have encountered God, discovered their true nature, or gained knowledge unav…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…God says, "cursed is the ground for thy sake" (Genesis 3:17). Thorns, painful labour, and death enter the experience of a creature made from the dust. The ground from which man was taken now bears witness to his fall. When Cain murders Abel, the blood of the victim cries to God "…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…for centuries before Muhammad, they find the Son who shares the Father's glory, gives His life as a ransom, is crucified under Pontius Pilate and rises bodily from the dead. Islam denies the decisive claims of that Gospel. The usual answer is that Christians no longer possess the…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…Isaiah 32:17 Peace grows out of righteousness. It is the settled condition produced when life is ordered according to God’s justice. Verse 18 completes the picture with peaceful habitation, secure dwellings and quiet resting places. The false ease of verse 9 has given way to sec…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…odily from the dead. Islam has no resurrection of Jesus from a tomb because it denies the death which preceded it. Christianity says that the one God eternally exists as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Islam treats that confession as an assault upon divine unity. Christianity says th…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…rent story. The Word, he said, came down into bodies, clothed Himself in flesh, and then, after the body’s dissolution, was restored to deity. (See Note 2.) At first glance, this can sound surprisingly Christian. Nearly every landmark is present. There is the Word. There is creat…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…ercy towards creation from his special love for the faithful. He may argue that continued life, food, family, guidance and opportunity to repent are themselves expressions of mercy even towards those who are not presently loved. Surah 7:156 provides material for such a distinctio…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…. Christ already possesses glory with the Father before the world exists (John 17:5), yet after His obedience unto death God “highly exalted him” (Philippians 2:9). He is already the Son whom the Father sends (Galatians 4:4), yet at resurrection He is “declared to be the Son of G…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…d. Every hearer already has some understanding of God, morality, human identity, justice, death, and religion. Even the conviction that there is no God is part of the framework through which the word God will be heard. For one person, sin means cruelty, murder, or deliberate harm…
Read article →