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37 results for “Reason”
Clear searchFaith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God
…reaches beyond your ability to answer every objection, without suggesting that faith and reason are enemies? These questions bring us to a remarkable statement: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1, KJV There is someth…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…tly overturned the table: “Jesus wept.” — John 11:35 Christ’s tears were not a failure of reason. His grief was neither sinful nor disordered. Perfect humanity did not require emotional detachment. At the grave of Lazarus, holiness wept. The world associated greatness with rising…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…after faith has come, "we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:25). For that reason, translating telos as "end" is not a mistake which must be corrected to "goal." Christ does bring something to an end. The question is what ends and in what sense. Paul cannot mean th…
Read article →A quiet invitation to draw near to Christ
…it for another day. The One we love receives what is left of our attention. This is not a reason to interpret every dry or difficult season as evidence that Christ has withdrawn. Feelings of nearness vary, and weariness is not a measure of His faithfulness. His promise remains: “…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…. Second Thessalonians presents a similar sequence. People refuse the truth, and for that reason God sends delusion. The judicial action follows their rejection; it does not turn falsehood into truth or wickedness into righteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12. This gives us an esta…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…er Christian teaching would speak carefully of Christ’s divine and human wills. The basic reason was already present in Scripture: if Christ lacks the human capacity to will, His humanity is incomplete and His human obedience becomes difficult to understand. Yet this does not giv…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…istorical writing. A later source could correct earlier sources if it supplied compelling reason to do so. It cannot prevail merely by contradicting them. The evidence must therefore be heard before the verdict is announced. What Surah 4:157 does and does not say Christians shoul…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…entence, not Comfort’s personal orthodoxy or the value of his wider ministry. Qur’an 5:75 reasons from the fact that Christ and Mary “both ate food” within a denial of Christ’s deity. See Qur’an 5:72–75. Christian teaching agrees that Jesus ate while rejecting the assumption that…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…dentity and work. That makes Him the guarantee that their particulars will stand, not the reason those particulars may disappear. There was no small print in God's covenants The claim that God keeps His covenants does not mean Scripture contains no conditions. It means those cond…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…ers with the saints just described. Angels also accompany Christ, but the redeemed cannot reasonably be excluded from the company. The Bride is prepared in heaven before the Rider descends. Revelation 19 does not portray her being caught up during His downward journey. This produ…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…erfect love must be like if God possesses the fullness of goodness and lacks nothing. His reasoning moves from supreme charity to personal communion. Perfect love is directed towards one worthy of the highest love; it is mutual rather than unreturned; and it is not closed possess…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old." —Hebrews 8:13 It is therefore reasonable to say that the Mosaic covenant has become obsolete as the governing covenant. Believers are not placed under Sinai as the means of justification or covenant standing. Christ is t…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…d to ruminate on Him with the understanding, and to digest Him by faith.”[3] Tertullian’s reasoning follows the same Johannine sequence: Christ’s words are spirit and life. The one who hears and believes has everlasting life. Christ is therefore devoured through hearing, understo…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…missioned His disciples to be witnesses (Acts 1:7-8). Uncertainty about the date became a reason for useful service. The proper posture is therefore: expect Christ without naming a date; observe the age without forcing every headline into prophecy; test claims from the text rathe…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…at God heard Ishmael, protected him and promised to make him fruitful. Christians have no reason to erase what Scripture affirms. But blessing is not the same as covenant election. God named the covenant heir before he was born. He repeated that choice after his birth. He identif…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…alling of God. If God keeps His word to Israel, the Church loses nothing. We gain another reason to trust the One "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). References for further review Genesis 12:1-3; 15:18-21; 17:1-8 2 Samuel 7:8-16 Jeremiah 31:31-…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…not make it good?" —Numbers 23:19 God's constancy is not an abstract attribute. It is the reason His people can trust what He says. If the wording of a divine promise does not reliably disclose what God has committed Himself to perform, confidence becomes impossible. Faith would…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…ese writings do not replace the biblical case; they show how carefully earlier Christians reasoned from it. Later definition is not later invention. The test remains whether the definition faithfully accounts for Scripture. A word to Muslim readers Christians and Muslims agree th…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…etting is compressed. Its meaning is redirected. The strongest Muslim answer A Muslim may reasonably object that the canonical Gospels never claim to record everything Jesus did. John himself says: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should b…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…the institution that defined it as the sole proof of its apostolic origin. Otherwise the reasoning becomes circular. The later Church is said to possess authority because she preserves apostolic tradition, while whatever the later Church defines is declared apostolic because she…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…eless, it preserves a disturbing ancient understanding: spiritual ecstasy could overwhelm reason, dissolve moral restraint, and lead people to commit terrible acts while believing themselves carried by divine power. That darker possibility should not be forgotten when altered con…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…’s dealings with Israel and identifies Jesus using Israel’s title “Messiah”. Islam cannot reasonably invoke that history when it supplies prophetic authority, then dismiss an ancient Jewish witness merely when its sequence converges upon the crucifixion. If Daniel is rejected, th…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. (Numbers 35:33) The reason follows: "Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell" (Numbers 35:34). The land belongs to God and is the place of His dwelling among His people. Violence u…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…controlling identity. That new standing did not make conduct irrelevant. It supplied the reason for Paul's appeals. Because they belonged to Christ, they must not hand their bodies back to the mastery of sin. Grace did not reduce holiness to an optional improvement for unusually…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…doubt, he should question "those who read the Scripture" before him. Muslims commonly and reasonably take this as rhetorical reassurance rather than an admission that Muhammad doubted his revelation. Even so, reassurance works only if the earlier readers are competent witnesses t…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…rses 8 and 9. Consequently, if verse 9 expresses the Messiah’s experience, it is entirely reasonable to see verse 8 as describing His experience as well. Does Psalm 69 contain a chiasm? A strict chiasm follows a recognisable inverted pattern such as A–B–C–B′–A′. Several chiastic…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…he promised gathering should not be made exclusively spiritual without compelling textual reason. Jeremiah guarantees Israel's national endurance Jeremiah promises a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, bringing inward law, knowledge of God, and forgivene…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…s not a proof. It tells us that someone changed his mind. It does not tell us whether the reasons for that change were true. People convert into Christianity, Islam, atheism and many other systems. Their sincerity may deserve respect. Their arguments must still be tested. This se…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…s before. The Church loses nothing when God keeps His promises to Israel. We gain another reason to know that He will keep His promises to us. The unshaken truth The Church has not replaced Israel. The Church is not a temporary afterthought, and Israel is not an abandoned draft o…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…ho 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 not merely a difficulty Christianity can survive; it is gl…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…opt an admirable policy. He tells them to resemble their Father. Matthew records the same reasoning: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be t…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…merely because Christians find them unfamiliar. Each claim must be heard in its strongest reasonable form and then tested by the same elementary rules applied to every other text. Who is speaking? To whom? Who is the subject? What does the whole passage say about him? How does la…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…ntifies those within that history who stand in the line of God's effective promise. It is reasonable to describe this as a distinction between national Israel and Israel according to election, provided the labels are not made to say more than Paul does. There is an Israel within…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…, "God forbid" (Romans 11:11). Their present loss brings riches to the Gentiles, but Paul reasons from that fact towards something greater: "how much more their fulness?" His olive-tree image preserves both participation and distinction. Wild Gentile branches share the root and f…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…for peace, listened to arguments and tried to reconcile opponents. Eusebius says that he reasoned with the speakers, approved good arguments and encouraged agreement. Eusebius's admiration for the emperor makes his portrait too flattering to be accepted uncritically, but even th…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…ot say that the wicked have already ceased to prosper. Their apparent success is the very reason the righteous are tempted to fret. The believer rests because the prosperity of evil is temporary and the judgement of God is certain: “For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…them around Himself, gave them authority, and made them foundational to the Church. It is reasonable to see in them a reconstitution of God's people around Messiah. Israel's identity cannot be defined apart from Jesus, and descent from Jacob cannot substitute for faith. The dispu…
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