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63 results for “New Testament”
Clear searchIsrael's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
The New Testament Is a Very Jewish Story Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world To many Jewish people, Christianity appears thoroughly foreign. Its historic centres be…
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, regatherin…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
Daniel's Seventieth Week and the New Testament Tribulation Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem The seven-year Tribulation is sometimes dismissed as an interval invented to make a…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…trust a hidden reconstruction. The text did not travel through one vulnerable channel The New Testament writings circulated among churches in different places. Copies produced further copies; early translations carried the text into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and other languages; Chr…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…tific 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: “Blessed are the pure…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…rael 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 God in one body. Both possess the same Spir…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…er, were grounded in God's oath and carried forwards even through national judgement. The new covenant finally provides the cleansing and transformed heart which Israel could never produce under the law. The covenants are not competing plans. Together they reveal how a holy God j…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…ist. 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 it. The body which suffers weakness, ageing and death wi…
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 appointed seven, seventy, or any other number. Instead…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…he Restoration of the Nation of Israel Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come Israel's history contains both judgement and preservation. The Jewish people were conquered, exiled, dispersed across continents, denied sovereignty, and repeatedly perse…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…all God's promises have transferred to the Church. Israel'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 t…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…hen, whither ye went." —Ezekiel 36:22 The passage then promises regathering, cleansing, a new heart, and the indwelling Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-28). Israel's condition explains why grace is necessary; God's holy name explains why the promise is certain. This also answers the sugges…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…he Gentiles will see her vindication, kings will behold her glory, and she will receive a new name from the mouth of the LORD. The geographical character of the prophecy is difficult to miss. Isaiah speaks about Zion, Jerusalem, her land, her walls, her watchmen, her grain, her w…
Read article →Eitan Bar · Biblical and historical polemic · 2019
…shua with Jewish people bring valuable context to questions about messianic prophecy, the New Testament, and rabbinic interpretation. The book is most useful when it sends the reader back to the Hebrew Scriptures to ask whether the traditional objection really accounts for the te…
View recommendation →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…ey appear in forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islamic mysticism, ancient paganism, occultism, New Age spirituality, and some movements carrying the Christian name. This should immediately make us cautious about the claim that the experience authenticates its own source. A feeling of…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…would leave much of its language unexplained. The chapters speak of righteous kingship, renewed moral perception, the Spirit poured out from above, fruitful land, secure Zion, forgiven inhabitants, judgment upon the nations and the return of the redeemed. Their cumulative movemen…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…nemies and then decide to love them. His saving initiative creates the reconciliation and new life which obedience expresses. Biblical love is therefore neither sentimental permissiveness nor earned approval. It is holy love which moves towards the guilty, deals with their guilt…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…at belonging to God makes departure from sin unnecessary. God's ownership establishes the new direction of the life. An echo from the rebellion of Korah The wording recalls a dark moment in Israel's history. Korah, Dathan and Abiram rose against Moses and Aaron, gathering men of…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…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? Isaiah does not leave Israel searching for a greater God behind the God who speaks. The One who comforts Jerusalem is…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…herefore not most naturally reduced either to the modern State of Israel or simply to the New Testament Church. It represents a covenantal continuity which existed before the Gentile mission and through which God's saving mercy now reaches the nations. The Church participates in…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…wn. The God Philosophy Would Never Have Invented The incarnation did not merely provide a new answer within the established philosophical system. It overturned the system’s governing assumptions. The Platonist looked beyond the visible world towards a higher and more substantial…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…alt be saved." —Romans 10:9 This use of Moses is striking. Paul is not discarding the Old Testament in order to preach Christ. He is reading Moses as a witness to the word of faith which the gospel now proclaims. The same Scriptures which expose the demand of righteousness also d…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…present body, believing Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God and to one another in one new man (Ephesians 2:11–18). They possess equal standing in Christ. That unity does not require every covenantal promise to change its named recipient. Acts 15 gives a helpful order. God is…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…m in which active language can describe permission. He applies the explanation to several New Testament passages, including those concerning hardening in Romans 9 and 11. This is an interpretive principle, not an automatic replacement of every active verb with “allow.” The surrou…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…o discussed it with his priest, who apparently regarded it as something everyone already knew. The claim itself was far from new to me. I first encountered it around seventeen years ago, when I began engaging in religious forums online. I was debating a humanist who appealed, if…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…means that He experienced obedience along the costly human path. As the eternal Son, He knew what obedience was. As incarnate Son, He enacted it amid weakness, opposition, anguish and death. A body alone does not pray. Tissue does not trust, submit or learn obedience. Hebrews po…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…ld go out to meet an approaching dignitary and accompany him in a formal entry. Two other New Testament passages are frequently compared with 1 Thessalonians 4. In Matthew 25:6, the cry announces the bridegroom: "go ye out to meet him." In Acts 28:15, Roman believers travel to Ap…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…almost every direction. In Britain, Easter regularly brings television documentaries and newspaper features promising to uncover the “real Jesus” behind the faith of the Church. The familiar suggestion is that Jesus was originally a Jewish teacher, prophet or failed Messiah and…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…ry woman it describes. Yet neither is virgin an arbitrary Christian invention. In the Old Testament settings where the woman's circumstances are known, the term naturally carries the expectation of an unmarried young woman. Rebekah is called an almah in Genesis 24:43 after the na…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…should not automatically read it as a reference to the final place of punishment. The Old Testament provides a useful parallel. Facing death, Hezekiah 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…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…the discourse is operating within Israel's prophetic programme rather than explaining the newly formed body of Christ in Pauline terms. Daniel's abomination is especially important. Jesus says that when it appears, "then shall be great tribulation" (Matthew 24:15, 21). Daniel 9 p…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…n Israelite category Paul did not invent inward circumcision to provide the Church with a new ethnic name. Moses had already commanded Israel: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." —Deuteronomy 10:16 The same book promises a future divine…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…n behind to be purified through the Tribulation. Its moral concern is understandable. The New Testament repeatedly commands believers to watch, remain sober, and avoid being ashamed before Christ. But those warnings do not divide Christ's body into raptured and abandoned members.…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…, or distrust of corrupt institutions. If all these things are Gnostic, then parts of the New Testament begin to look suspicious. A label that explains everything explains nothing. The question therefore requires three different investigations. Did modern evangelicalism descend f…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…Israel's Messiah, the law cannot justify, Gentiles are full heirs in Christ, and the Old Testament finds its goal in Him. Yet those truths were sometimes joined to a further conclusion which the apostles had not required—that national Israel had permanently lost its covenant fut…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…ertain and constantly expected without anyone being authorised to calculate its date. The New Testament repeatedly directs believers towards Christ Himself: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." —Titus 2:13 "For…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…y place the resurrection of the dead in Christ at the rapture and the resurrection of Old Testament saints and Tribulation martyrs in connection with the establishment of the kingdom. The resurrection after the thousand years concerns “the rest of the dead” who face final judgeme…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…ological puzzle through which the named son may be replaced. It expressly says Isaac. The New Testament explains the phrase: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That i…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…7:7-8). The prophets added promises of a Davidic King, national regathering, cleansing, a new heart, and peaceful dwelling under Messiah. Christ is not an alternative to those promises. He is Abraham's promised Seed and David's promised Son. Through Him the blessing reaches the n…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…followed by permanent forfeiture. It is disobedience, discipline, repentance or divine renewal, regathering, and restored enjoyment. In some passages repentance precedes return. In others God acts to produce the necessary spiritual transformation. Deuteronomy 30:6 says that God…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…braham, the faithful Israelite, David's greater Son, the true temple, and mediator of the new covenant. The Church is united to Him. Jewish and Gentile believers therefore become one people, inherit the promises, and anticipate not merely one land but the renewed creation. On thi…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…us are not bare exhibitions of power. Their form often recalls the works by which Israel knew its God. Job says of God: "Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8). The Psalms describe God's path through the waters and His rule over t…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…ord and my God” (John 20:28), and Jesus receives rather than corrects his confession. The New Testament also gives the Son works and honours belonging to God. All things were created by Him (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16). He forgives sins, receives worship, gives life, and will judg…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…arose and commanded the wind and the sea, and they obeyed Him. He grew in wisdom, yet He knew what was in man. He was tempted, yet without sin. He said that He did not know the hour of His return, yet His disciples confessed that He knew all things. He suffered, bled and died, al…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…ared, and the redeemed later accompany Christ when He comes to judge and reign. A mystery newly revealed Paul introduces the transformation of living believers with unusual language: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” —1 Corinthia…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…on is not a clever means of evading all authority. It is the order established within the New Testament itself. Overseers are commanded to hold fast the faithful word so that they may teach sound doctrine and refute error (Titus 1:9). Elders are to shepherd the flock without beco…
Read article →Marvin W. Meyer · Historical sourcebook · 1987
…hrough the ancient evidence. Use this book to understand the religious environment of the New Testament, not to assume that every resemblance proves dependence or borrowing. Shared words, rituals, or human concerns can conceal very different meanings. Distinguish each cult from t…
View recommendation →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…s and the sequence of Daniel 9 The Christian case is cumulative. Jesus is the Messiah The New Testament does not attach the title to Him incidentally. His identity as the Christ governs the Gospel testimony. Peter confesses: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matth…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…ted in its strongest recognisable form. The Qur'an does not say that Allah gave Jesus the New Testament. It speaks of the Injeel in the singular as a revelation bestowed upon Jesus, just as the Torah was given to Moses and the Qur'an to Muhammad. The four canonical Gospels, by co…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…rtraits of the suffering Messiah in the Psalter. Its language repeatedly reappears in the New Testament’s account of Jesus: “They hate me without a cause” is applied to Jesus in John 15:25. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” is applied to Jesus in John 2:17. “The reproach…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…sus” (Romans 3:25–26). Second Corinthians 5:21 describes the great exchange: Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christians do not claim that one person's unwilling punishment can be transferred arbitrarily to ano…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…g part of the evidence. But a theory is not superior merely because it explains less. The New Testament does not begin with an abstract philosophical puzzle and reason its way towards three Persons. It records the Father sending the Son, the Son speaking to the Father, the Father…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…. (See Note 1.) In the third century, the Platonist philosopher Amelius read—or at least knew—a clear account of the opening of John’s Gospel. He recognised the eternal Word, the creation of all things through Him, His coming in flesh and His appearance as man. Yet at the decisiv…
Read article →Irenaeus of Lyons · Early Christian theology and polemic · c. 180–190
…ty of Christ, bodily resurrection, the goodness of creation, and the unity of the Old and New Testaments. He is also an important early witness to a future earthly kingdom: his premillennial passages show that this expectation cannot simply be dismissed as a recent invention. Rea…
View recommendation →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…h part should be allowed to retain its natural force. The promise belongs to the coming renewal Jesus places the apostolic thrones "in the regeneration". The word describes renewal or re-creation. Its only other New Testament occurrence refers to the believer's spiritual renewal…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…cross and presented Him as the eternal Word who was already with God in the beginning. I knew those truths could not contradict one another, but I did not yet possess the theological distinction that would later help me considerably: the distinction between eternity and economy.…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…stinction: "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do" (Deuteronomy 34:10–11). The relevant biblical categories are intimate knowledge of God, divine words, might…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…that the Abrahamic covenant is revoked, David's throne has lost its national setting, the new covenant will never be made with the houses named by Jeremiah, or Israel will never be restored. Those propositions must be established elsewhere; they cannot simply be inserted into the…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…ulfilled apart from Him. He is the Seed of Abraham, the Son of David, the mediator of the new covenant, and the One in whom all God's promises are yea and amen (Galatians 3:16; Luke 1:32-33; Hebrews 9:15; 2 Corinthians 1:20). The Church also shares blessings once associated with…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…and the conduct of worship. They do not list 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…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…ing treats escape from persecution as the defining purpose of the rapture. It is not. The New Testament never promises the Church immunity from persecution. Paul told the Thessalonians plainly: “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are app…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…whom Christ gathers after the Tribulation? Many readers assume the answer is obvious. The New Testament applies the language of election to Christians, so the elect in Matthew 24 must be the Church. If they are gathered after the Tribulation, the passage appears to place the rapt…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…th God's revealed character and ways. The Church is directed to expect Christ Himself The New Testament repeatedly directs believers towards the Saviour, not first towards Antichrist, a covenant, a rebuilt temple, the abomination, or a numbered sequence of judgements. Believers l…
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