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95 results for “One God”
Clear searchOne 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 answe…
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…
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…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
One Person, Two Natures Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus Jesus slept in a boat because He was weary. Then He arose and commanded the wind and the sea, and they obeyed Hi…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
God's Unfailing Faithfulness Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail Israel's history presents a severe test of theology. God chose the nation, gave it His law, sent it prophet…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
Two Revelations of Divine Love What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God Love is easily claimed. Its character is 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…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…urch: Why This Series Matters The question reaches beyond prophecy 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 p…
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 difficul…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Biblical polemic · 2002
…m. Read carefully, it also functions as an extensive study of the nature and character of God, and especially of His love. Hunt repeatedly brings the argument back to the biblical text. Follow the references, open the passages, read their contexts, and the book becomes a Scriptur…
View recommendation →Faith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God
I Know Whom I Have Believed Faith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God When you have been touched by God, it is different. What you believe has become personal. You may struggle to explain the certainty you have, but the difficulty of communicating it does…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
Did God Give Laws That Were Not Good? Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over “I gave them also statutes that were not good.” Those words in Ezekiel 20:25 can sound st…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…eir lives bear His name Can a person possess true faith while showing no movement towards godliness? Can someone belong to Christ while remaining settled in the very iniquity from which He came to deliver us? These questions are often answered in opposite and equally dangerous wa…
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 s…
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…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
When Faith Does Not Answer Back Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence One of the most instructive details in the account of Hezekiah and Rabshakeh is easily overlooked: the people did not answer. Rabshakeh had come…
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 God in one body. Both pos…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
Does Matthew 24 Place the Rapture after the Tribulation? The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery Matthew 24 contains the most direct Gospel objection to a pretribulation rapture. Jesus describes Great Tribulation, cosmic disturbance, H…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
What Restrains the Lawless One? Rome, Israel, and a Working Theory While researching The Kingdom Still to Come, my premillennial sequel to my rapture book, I have been revisiting Paul’s account of the restrainer in 2…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
Did the Incarnation Limit God? Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words Why this is useful to know: The language we use about Jesus creates a picture in the mind. If that…
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…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
Does God Remove the Righteous before He Judges? Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully When Abraham learns that judgement is approaching Sodom, he asks one of Scrip…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…nd fruitful service. Their stories illustrate the vital distinction in Paul’s words: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” —2 Corinthians 7:10 The difference was not simply that Peter felt worse than J…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
Eternal Love Before Creation What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God Before there was a universe, what was there for God to love? There were no angels, no human beings and no created order. Nothing outside God existed. Yet Scripture does not merely say th…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…more than agreeing that a collection of Christian sentences is correct. Through the truth God has revealed, the Spirit brings the sinner to recognise the living God, his own guilt, and the glory and sufficiency of Jesus Christ—and to believe on Him. The same words can carry diffe…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Devotional theology and biblical exhortation · 2000
…te Christian belief from Christian living. Hunt ranges across the gospel, faith, love for God, discipleship, doctrine, the Church, and the believer's heavenly hope, but the recurring appeal is intensely practical: take God at His word and let that truth govern the whole life. The…
View recommendation →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 al…
Read article →Michael J. Vlach · Biblical theology · 2023
…a clear, sustained account of the resurrection body and the renewed creation as parts of one coherent purpose. Vlach is especially helpful in resisting the idea that Christian hope means escape from the physical world. He traces God's work from creation to restoration and shows…
View recommendation →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
Did Israel Invent Yahweh? El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai Yesterday I found myself discussing claims about the origins of Israel’s God with my son. He seemed to regard the essential theory as accepted among scholars. He had…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…into Israel and have therefore become Israel? The conclusion may appear obvious: there is one tree, believing Jews and Gentiles are branches within it, and unbelieving Jewish branches have been removed. Surely the tree is now the Church, the Church is Israel, and the distinction…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…herefore bring every party, leader, policy and political narrative under the judgement of God's Word. Scripture fixes moral ends—truth, justice, protection of innocent life, impartial judgement, sexual integrity, care for the poor, honest commerce, responsible stewardship and the…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…ld acknowledge accurately. The Qur'an calls Him the Messiah, describes Him as a word from God, affirms His virgin birth and attributes extraordinary signs to Him by God's permission. It does not dismiss Him as an impostor or an insignificant religious teacher. But it draws an abs…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…phecy. It does force an important question: how should we read the many passages in which God promises to preserve Israel as a nation, gather its scattered people, restore them to the land, cleanse them, pour out His Spirit, and bring them under Messiah? The biblical pattern is n…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
The Scales and the Cross Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God How will I stand before God? The question reaches deeper than religious labels. We know that our actions matter, that evil deserves judgement, and that our own record is not clean. Many…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…dy's need. It is the ache of the soul when the things we hoped would satisfy us have not done so. Success can distract it. Pleasure can briefly numb it. Religion can cover it with activity. None of these can give life. On the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jes…
Read article →The peace Christ gives in a troubled world
…re real mercies, and we should receive them gratefully. But circumstances change. A telephone call, a diagnosis, a loss or an unexpected conversation can overturn in minutes the security we spent years constructing. On the night before the cross, Jesus spoke to men whose circumst…
Read article →Seth D. Postell, Eitan Bar & Erez Soref · Messianic biblical theology · 2017
…. Test their larger framework from both Testaments, distinguish enduring revelation about God's character from Israel's covenant obligations, and allow the apostolic writings to govern how the Torah is applied in the life of the Church. Torah Jesus in the Old Testament Messiah La…
View recommendation →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…attraction to the historic Church. But I do. I love the ancient confession of the Triune God. I love the Fathers when they defend the true incarnation of Christ against those who turned Him into an apparition or a spiritual myth. I love their insistence that the God of the gospe…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…rael'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 Israel Still Have a Biblical Claim on the Middle East?”, presents a concise Reformed case against dispensational land theology. Horton argues…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
Test the Spirits Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God Human beings have always sought to pass beyond the boundaries of ordinary consciousness. Across cultures and religions, people have reported visions, overwhelming sensations of unity, en…
Read article →Augustine of Hippo · Spiritual autobiography and prayer · c. 397–400
Confessions remains compelling because Augustine examines his own heart with unusual honesty. He traces the loves, ambitions, excuses, habits, relationships, and ideas through which he ran from God, while recognising the patient providence that pursued him. The result is both…
View recommendation →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…ion, regathering, cleansing, the kingdom of David's Son, and a restored relationship with God. A strong supersessionist response does not simply deny those passages. It argues that the New Testament teaches us how they were always intended to be fulfilled. The argument runs like…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…egotten thee” appears to be applied to Christ’s resurrection. Did Jesus become the Son of God when He rose—or does Scripture distinguish His eternal Sonship from His resurrection, enthronement and saving work within history? --- More than twenty years ago, during the early part o…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…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? Isaiah does not leave Israel searching for a greater God behind…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…ir identity, their status becomes their worth, and achievement quietly takes the place of God. Others speak as though work itself were an indignity—an interruption to real life which should be escaped as quickly as possible. Scripture presents labour differently. Work is not our…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…ve, and the Love Philosophy Could Not Imagine “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” — Colossians 2:9 A conversation with my son brought the strangeness of the incarnation freshly before me. Christians have heard the words so often that we can cease to feel…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…ntifies Jesus as the eternal Creator helps us preserve the faith, strengthen our trust in God, answer objections wisely and know Christ more truly. Suggested excerpt: Ambrose argued that Scripture says the Word “was,” not that “He was not.” But does eternal existence by itself pr…
Read article →John Bunyan · Spiritual autobiography · 1666
…tles through which he learned to look away from himself to Christ. It gives an unusually honest picture of spiritual struggle and makes The Pilgrim's Progress more intelligible by revealing the experience behind its landscapes. Bunyan's experience is a testimony, not a pattern ev…
View recommendation →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…persessionism more directly than Matthew 21:43: "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." —Matthew 21:43 The language is unmistakably judicial. Something is taken away, another people receives…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…substitute. The discussion should therefore begin with a definition which an informed opponent could recognise. Supersessionism is the view that the Church has permanently succeeded Israel as the covenant people of God, so that national Israel no longer possesses a distinct futu…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…ble accounts. Brooke examined the beliefs being carried back from the brink: claims about God, judgement, reincarnation, universal salvation, spirit guides and the meaning of death. That remains the right question. A testimony may be moving without being self-interpreting. An exp…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…of the Law than Romans 10:4: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." —Romans 10:4 Does Paul mean that Christ terminated the Law? Is Christ the goal towards which the Law was always moving? Does end mean fulfilment, completion, or abolitio…
Read article →A quiet invitation to draw near to Christ
…vely illustration of a truth taught plainly elsewhere in Scripture. Our acceptance before God rests upon Christ, rather than upon our ability to present an impressive account of ourselves. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Th…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…ns before it is defined. It allegedly began with John Nelson Darby, turns the Church into God's failed contingency plan, ignores the fulfilment of prophecy in AD 70, baptises modern politics, and restores animal sacrifices in competition with the cross. Some dispensationalists ha…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…oman of marriageable age and is compatible with—often suggestive of—virginity. The word alone neither proves Matthew's complete case nor excludes his rendering. The Greek translation existed before Matthew Matthew did not invent the Greek word parthenos for Isaiah 7:14. The Jewis…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…rily imply an infallible teaching office? Those are distinct claims. To determine whether one follows from the other, we must examine what Jesus promises, to whom He promises it, and what the passage actually says about authority. What Is Being Claimed? We should begin by represe…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…rence speakers, and a succession of teachers who claim to have recovered what nearly everyone else has missed. He speaks often of leaving this world, seldom of bodily resurrection, and hardly at all of the local church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper seem peripheral. Ordinary Chri…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…ot an attempt to settle every question concerning the Lord’s Supper. It is concerned with one narrower claim: does John 6 teach that eternal life is received by literally or sacramentally eating the body of Christ? The answer of the chapter itself is no. Jesus identifies the life…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…o shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” —Isaiah 62:4–5 Isaiah 62:4–5 brings together three parties in a remarkable prophetic picture: the LORD, Zion, and Zion’s land. The LORD delights in Zion. The land is…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…d. The creation groans for the return of its rightful King, the revelation of the sons of God, and the righteous reign of Christ with His saints. Recently, Emma Ruth Rundle's song God's Picture and its accompanying video gave me food for thought. The artist's worldview is not my…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…he 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 will be raised and transformed after the pattern of the risen Christ. Christian hope is n…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…becomes an inadequate question because it assumes that a prophecy must belong entirely to one historical moment. Isaiah does not always speak that way. He addresses actual kings, actual invasions, actual sins and actual deliverances. Yet, within those same prophetic settings, his…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…e brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility Psalm 69 is one of the clearest portraits 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…
Read article →Tertullian · Apologetic, doctrinal, and practical treatises · c. 197–220
…of condemning Christians without hearing their case, while his doctrinal works answer opponents with close argument and a profound regard for Scripture. He can also be searching on the practical demands of Christian discipleship. Read across the range and you encounter apologeti…
View recommendation →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…nd in social-media mythology. The historical verdict is more interesting. Constantine summoned and funded the council, urged agreement, supported its conclusion and used imperial power to enforce it. Those facts should not be minimised. But he did not introduce the deity of Chris…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…ently 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 monotheism? Those questions deserve answers, and the preceding articles have supplied them. But Christianity is no…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…oes not become absurd merely because it exceeds the limits of our created experience. The God who made the universe is not imprisoned by it. He is not merely outside our box; He is the reason there is a box at all. That truth should do more than answer an objection. It should enl…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…(Exodus 24:4). Twelve men represented the tribes when the land was searched, and twelve stones were taken from Jordan as a memorial when Israel entered it (Numbers 13:1-16; Joshua 4:1-9). The tribes were not merely an administrative convenience. Together they represented the cove…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
Is the Church Appointed to the Tribulation's Wrath? Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape 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…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…Scroll contains Daniel 9:26. The Hebrew word translated “Messiah” can describe more than one kind of anointed person, and responsible Jewish interpreters have proposed alternatives to Jesus. Those qualifications matter. They prevent an apologetic argument from claiming evidence…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…oken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1). The evidence has been heard. We have examined what Christians mean when they say that God is one. We have followed Jesus through the Gospels…
Read article →Irenaeus of Lyons · Early Christian theology and polemic · c. 180–190
…emarkably high view of Scripture and for the patience with which he first explains his opponents and then answers them. His rebuttal of Gnosticism contains powerful discussions of the true humanity and deity of Christ, bodily resurrection, the goodness of creation, and the unity…
View recommendation →R. V. Sellers · Theological biography and history of doctrine · 1928
…e was truly local and human, yet the Word continued to act with the unrestricted power of God. Read this critically as an important but dated reconstruction. Eustathius survives largely through fragments and reports preserved by later writers, so both attribution and interpretati…
View recommendation →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…ination 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 said. That claim sounds formidable until we ask how the biblical text was actually…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…a time". The question is whether these are disconnected crises or the developing parts of one prophetic structure. If the correlations hold, the New Testament Tribulation is the still-future completion of Daniel's seventieth week. Seventy sevens for Daniel's people and city Danie…
Read article →What the historical evidence proves—and what it does not
…way A sermon commonly attributed to Pseudo-Ephraem says that "all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord". The work's precise author, original language, and dating are debated. It must not be cited simply as E…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…e, not merely a body Why this is useful to know: Christians rightly confess that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Yet if “flesh” is imagined as a human body animated directly by the divine Word, Jesus can become less than fully human in our thoughts. Scripture presents somethi…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…hristianity substantially intact. It is the historical event through which Scripture says God dealt with sin. The Qur'an appears to deny that event. Surah 4:157 says of Jesus' opponents: "But they neither killed nor crucified him - it was only made to appear so" (Surah 4:157, The…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…ean an Immediate Return to Earth? Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture One of the most sophisticated objections to pretribulationism centres on a single Greek noun. Paul says that living believers will be caught up with the resurrected dead "to meet the Lord in…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…Jew is often treated as a decisive redefinition of Israel: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the lette…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be wit…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…on event "the first resurrection". John 6 promises to raise believers "at the last day". None is trivial. None requires the abandonment of pretribulationism. Must the man of sin appear before our gathering? Paul writes: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jes…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…story of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension Supersessionism did not appear in one moment through one theologian. It developed as the Church became increasingly Gentile, separated socially from Jewish communities, interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem as lasting dis…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…Him. The distinction matters. An event can be certain 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…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…hat the pretribulation rapture has no biblical basis. He presents it as a system in which God has two unrelated peoples and destinies, Christians enjoy seven years of safety, and Jewish people are abandoned to an unparalleled holocaust. He then appeals to John 5, Daniel, Matthew…
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 blessings God…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…h we now find it. Two texts can also inherit material from a common tradition rather than one copying the other directly. Similarity is not enough. But repeated, distinctive and chronologically prior similarities still require an explanation. Was the Qur’an independently restorin…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…the Lord descending “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Nothing secret there. The real question is whether Scripture distinguishes Christ coming for His Church from His later return with His saints. That question cann…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…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 it. Yet when Christians open the Gospel they pos…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…obscure the world of the New Testament itself. The New Testament is the story of Israel's God fulfilling Israel's Scriptures through Israel's Messiah, first proclaimed by Jewish witnesses in Jerusalem and then carried to the nations. Gentiles do not enter by replacing that story.…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…racteristics have been removed. What would count as evidence? It is entirely possible for one person to resemble another in some respects. Moses, Jesus and Muhammad were all male religious leaders. Each opposed unbelief, gathered followers and profoundly affected history. If broa…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…ightforward. Physical descent from Jacob no longer identifies the Israel which matters to God. True Israel consists of the children of promise: everyone who believes in Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile. The Church is therefore the Israel within Israel, while unbelieving ethnic I…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…ed at that revelation. Paul is promising the final resolution of persecution’s injustice. God will reverse the present order: those who trouble His people will receive righteous recompense, while those who have suffered for His kingdom will be publicly vindicated. The rest in vie…
Read article →Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
…nt 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. The silence is nevertheless significant when placed w…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…at sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." —Matthew 24:29, 31 Few passages in prophetic Scripture generate more debate than Matthew 24. At the centre of that debate stands an apparently simple questio…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…whole series, brought together The case for a pretribulation rapture should not rest upon one disputed word, one prophetic chart, or one passage made to carry more than it says. It is a cumulative and comparative case: which timing best explains all the biblical data together wit…
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