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83 results for “One new man”
Clear searchUnity 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 →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 →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 cannot be rea…
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.…
Read article →Israel'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 →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
Christ, the End of the Law? What Paul Meant in Romans 10:4 How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ Few sentences have carried more weight in Christian discussions of the Law than Romans 10:4: "For Christ is the end of the…
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 →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 →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 →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 redefinitio…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
WHAT DID THEY REJECT? The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit We sometimes describe an evangelistic conversation in a single sentence: “I explained the gospel, and he rejected it.” That may b…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…til we ask how the biblical text was actually transmitted. The Bible did not pass through one secret chain in which a single guardian could rewrite every copy. Its books were read publicly, copied repeatedly, translated into other languages, quoted by Christian writers, and carri…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
Did Jesus Have a Human Soul? Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, 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 ima…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…afted into Israel? The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor Romans 11 pictures Gentile believers as branches taken from a wild olive tree and grafted into a cultivated olive tree. They now share its nourishing root alongside branches which belong to th…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
The Hope of the Resurrection Not escape from the body, but its redemption Many people imagine the Christian hope as an endless disembodied existence: the soul released from the body, leaving the physical world behind and becoming something more like a ghost than a…
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 →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 picture presents God merely occupy…
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 →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…nd Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so 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 p…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
If Any Man Thirst Jesus and the fountain of living water There is a thirst deeper than the body's need. It is the ache of the soul when the things we hoped would satisfy us have not done so. Succes…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…cannot make the word of God fail. The future restoration of Israel is therefore more than one item on a prophetic timetable. It is a public demonstration that God remains true to His word when every human ground for confidence has disappeared. God is faithful because He cannot li…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…gement, and the coming reign of Christ The Christian hope for creation rests neither in human effort nor in escape from the material world. 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 saint…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…? Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation Romans 9:6 is often used as a definition of spiritual Israel: "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." —Romans 9:6 The usual argument is straightforward. Physical descent from Jacob…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…ement 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 tha…
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, encounte…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…tatutes that were not good.” Those words in Ezekiel 20:25 can sound startling when read alone. The following verse makes the difficulty sharper by connecting the judgement with offerings of the firstborn. Did God command child sacrifice? Was He admitting that His own law was evil…
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 →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 →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 →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…The usual answer is that Christians no longer possess the original Injeel. Jesus received one revelation, but Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are later human accounts. They may retain fragments of His genuine teaching, but the original book was corrupted, obscured or lost. That answ…
Read article →Tertullian · Apologetic, doctrinal, and practical treatises · c. 197–220
…, memorable, and often wonderfully compelling. His Apology and related appeals confront Roman governors with the injustice of condemning Christians without hearing their case, while his doctrinal works answer opponents with close argument and a profound regard for Scripture. He c…
View recommendation →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…belong to the multinational Church. Others maintain that Jewish and Gentile believers are one in Christ while national Israel still has an appointed future under the covenants. This is not a contest over which group matters more. Jewish people have no separate path of salvation,…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…er loves. Nor can Christianity be reduced to the sentimental claim that God approves everyone regardless of truth, repentance or holiness. The deeper question is not whether the word love appears in both religions. It is this: What does each revelation show divine love doing for…
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 →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…hristians have heard the words so often that we can cease to feel their force. God became man. The Word was 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…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
Four Difficult Texts for Pretribulationism The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day A cumulative case should be exposed to the passages which appear least friendly to it. Four objections deserve particul…
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 gods.” It would—if…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…o 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 the glory of God by us." —2 Corinthians 1:20 Every prom…
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 →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…t our actions matter, that evil deserves judgement, and that our own record is not clean. Many religious systems express this moral accounting through scales: good deeds weighed against bad, merit against failure. The Bible also teaches a perfectly just judgement according to wor…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…s. He had also 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…
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 →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…asting 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 His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us. His hearers understood Him lite…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…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 ways. One answer make…
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 →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…ly. Work is not our god, and it is not the curse. It is part of the good order God gave humanity before sin entered the world. The curse brought pain, frustration, sweat and futility into our labour, but it did not turn meaningful activity into an evil. That distinction has becom…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…entities 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. The following answers do not prove the w…
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 →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 →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…as’s sin was beyond forgiveness. The essential question was where their sorrow took them. One remained enclosed within guilt and despair; the other was ultimately brought back to the Saviour. Similar Failures, Different Endings Judas and Peter had more in common than we might ini…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the 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 have become obsolete. No nation…
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 →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…red within history will naturally speak to people within history. The Bible itself uses human languages, recognisable literary forms and real historical settings. The question is more particular. Why do several distinctive Qur’anic narratives resemble post-biblical Jewish and Chr…
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 →The glory philosophy could not contain
…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 enlarge our worship. The Incarnation is no…
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 as the spokesman of the king of Assyria. Stan…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…the people who ought to be feared or condemned. Once the package has been accepted, every new event arrives with an interpretation already attached. Christians should be especially cautious about this. We already have a faith, a moral authority and a final allegiance. A political…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." —Matthew 1:23 Critics often answer that Isaiah did not say virgin. The Hebrew word is almah, they argue, meaning merely a young woman. Had Isaiah intended virginity, he would have u…
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…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…o not dream of Christianity as a solitary intellect with a Bible and no obligations to anyone else. The tragedy is not that I want nothing to do with the historic Church. The tragedy is that I could stand at her door, confessing my love for Jesus Christ and affirming the ancient…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…remarkable. It denies that anything He says or does removes Him from the category of a human prophet. The question is whether that category can contain the Jesus of the Gospels. This cannot be settled by lifting one sentence from John, printing the words "I AM" in capital letter…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…rst, Paul says that the promises were made to Abraham and his singular Seed, Christ. Everyone who belongs to Christ is then called Abraham's seed and an heir according to the promise (Galatians 3:16, 29). If Christ is the true Seed and the Church is united to Him, does the Church…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…hen 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 of my Christian walk, one sentence in Scripture troubled me: “Thou art my Son, this day have I b…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…es what they had corrupted. The chronology of what Jesus says afterwards tests whether permanent national replacement can be the intended verdict. The vineyard and its husbandmen Jesus tells of a householder who planted a vineyard, protected and equipped it, let it out to husband…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…d 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 that God became loving when creatures appeared. It declares: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). That…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…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 24, Romans 8 and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 to reject the system. Some of his criticism is directed p…
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 →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…ond 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 1979, when the modern fascination with near-death experiences…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…on was removed. Sunday worship was imposed. The bishops settled everything by imperial command—and perhaps discussed rosary beads or beards while they were there. These stories differ in detail, but they share a method: the surviving records are rarely quoted. That omission is re…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…t raises a further question. Does eternal existence necessarily equal divinity? Could someone confess that Jesus is eternal and uncreated while still denying that He is truly God? And if the answer seems obvious to us, was it always expressed with equal clarity by Christians atte…
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 →R. V. Sellers · Theological biography and history of doctrine · 1928
…nd genuine theological conviction were closely entangled. Eustathius himself emerges as a man of heart and zeal, determined to defend Christ's true divinity while also taking His real humanity seriously. Particularly interesting is his insistence that the divine Word was not conf…
View recommendation →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…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 Clear Quran, trans. Mustafa Khattab). The next verse says that Allah raised Jesus to Him…
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 →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…th companies meet the Lord together and are thereafter always with Him. Whatever position one takes concerning the timing, this event is not hidden in a theological chart. It is stated in the text. The word may be absent while the event is present One common objection says that t…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…evelation. It presents another book, another prophet and another account of Jesus, then demands that the earlier witness be reinterpreted wherever it disagrees. That claim must now enter the witness box. Why should anyone believe that the Qur'an came from God? The usual answers f…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…e 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 presents a different Abrahamic framework. The Qur'an ass…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…r return with His saints. That question cannot be answered by attaching a loaded label to one side. It must be answered by comparing the passages themselves. What Paul actually describes Paul's sequence in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 is straightforward: The Lord descends from heaven.…
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 →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 →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…the righteous judgement of God. Paul begins by describing the believers’ endurance as: “A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.” —2 Thessalonians 1:5 He then explains why their suffering wil…
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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