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98 results for “Scripture”
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 became Rome, Constantinople, Canterbury, Geneva, and countless cit…
Read article →How an openly transmitted text survived copying, criticism, and centuries of examination
…not successfully replace every other reading. What preservation does—and does not—require Scripture says: "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." —Isaiah 40:8 God's preservation of His word does not require the claim that every scri…
Read article →Irenaeus of Lyons · Early Christian theology and polemic · c. 180–190
I value Irenaeus for his remarkably 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 Ch…
View recommendation →Hippolytus · Exposition, prophecy, and polemic · early third century
…cords and challenges many competing teachings. Together the writings offer a high view of Scripture, vigorous rebuttal, a clear premillennial witness, and repeated concern that Christian belief should issue in faithful and holy living. Treat Hippolytus as an important early witne…
View recommendation →Tertullian · Apologetic, doctrinal, and practical treatises · c. 197–220
…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 apologetics, prophecy, doctrine, courage under persecution, an…
View recommendation →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…stinction between outward rites and inward grace, our insistence upon testing doctrine by Scripture, and our willingness to leave an institution that binds the conscience beyond Scripture are said to resemble the ancient Gnostic impulse—a flight from matter, history, authority an…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
…her he was himself a Jewish apostate. Later Jewish tradition identifies him that way, but Scripture does not establish his ancestry. The lesson does not depend upon settling that question. What the passage clearly shows is a man using familiarity with the people’s faith to underm…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
Defending Dispensationalism Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require Dispensationalism is often criticised by slogans before it is defined. It allegedly began with John Nelson Darby, turns the Church into God's failed contingency pl…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
Did Jesus Really Die? The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an Christianity and Islam cannot both be correct about the death of Jesus. The Gospel declares that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, was buried and rose…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…however vivid, can sit in judgement upon the Son of God. Christ and the larger witness of Scripture must interpret the experience; the experience must never be allowed to rewrite Christ. What is a near-death experience? The term covers a family of intense experiences reported dur…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…to the truth is commitment to God. If evidence requires me to correct my understanding of Scripture, loyalty to God cannot mean refusing to look at it. But the same commitment also requires that claims carrying the authority of scholarship be examined carefully. A reconstruction…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…salvation finally releases us from material creation, personal vocation, and shared life. Scripture gives us something fuller. Seeing God is not less than the goal of redemption, but the people who see Him are resurrected, gathered, serving, reigning, and living in a creation God…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…us Christ. The question is whether this unity in salvation removes the distinctions which Scripture continues to make between Israel, the Gentiles, and the Church. That question matters because it touches three foundations of biblical faith: how we read Scripture, how we understa…
Read article →J. C. Ryle · Doctrinal and pastoral essays · 1874
…ion plainly, identifies what is really at stake, and repeatedly brings the reader back to Scripture, the simplicity of the gospel, and the spiritual welfare of ordinary people. The subjects are disputed, but the writing is rarely obscure. Ryle's directness, pastoral seriousness,…
View recommendation →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…d and died, although God is immortal. Christians rightly believe all these things because Scripture plainly teaches them. The difficulty begins when we try to explain how they can all be true of the same Christ. It is common to hear that Jesus did one thing “as God” and another “…
Read article →Eitan Bar · Biblical and historical polemic · 2019
…binic 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 text in its own context. Bar writes as an Israeli Jewish Christian addressing the religious tradition in which the…
View recommendation →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…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 cannot be answered by attaching a loaded label to one side. It must be answered by c…
Read article →E. W. Bullinger · Sermons · 1892
…hets, Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, drawing attention to the sheer weight of Scripture devoted to Christ's return. The sermons combine expectation, careful textual observation, and practical urgency: prophecy is meant to shape hope, watchfulness, and faithful living.…
View recommendation →E. W. Bullinger · Verse-by-verse commentary · 1902
…eck the cross-references, examine the structures, and then make your own conclusions from Scripture. Its greatest value is not that it saves the reader the work, but that it provokes deeper work. Book of Revelation Day of the Lord Biblical structure Old Testament connections Prop…
View recommendation →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…who confess His name, their theological error does not excuse our neglect. It exposes it. Scripture does not require us to choose between worshipping the creature and treating it as disposable. Both errors begin by forgetting God. The biblical doctrine is neither environmental ut…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…lam can answer an isolated Christian objection. It is this: Which account of God, Christ, Scripture, history, justice and salvation possesses the greatest cumulative explanatory power? Why I began this series I began writing these articles because I had grown tired of watching po…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…formed the signs, and people did not believe on Him. Verse 38 explains that response from Scripture. Verse 41 says Isaiah saw “his glory” and spoke “of him”. Verse 42 immediately resumes belief “on him”, unmistakably Jesus. It is possible to propose a change of referent to God in…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…—Galatians 3:6 Those who are "of faith" are therefore called the children of Abraham, and Scripture had foreseen the justification of the nations when God promised, "In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Galatians 3:7-8). The issue is access to Abrahamic blessing, especially jus…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…ans 11:18). A theology in which the Gentile Church absorbs Israel, takes ownership of its Scriptures and promises, and then boasts that Israel has been permanently displaced moves in precisely the direction of the attitude Paul forbids. The passage does not accuse every Christian…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…other can speak so sharply of distinction that the Church appears detached from Israel's Scriptures, Messiah, covenants, and hope. The biblical answer requires both unity and distinction, each defined by the texts which teach it. The Church is one new man in Christ Gentiles were…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…reat the visible universe as the great reality and heaven as a mysterious addition to it. Scripture may invite us to reverse that perspective. Paul describes Christ as the Creator of a reality extending far beyond our present senses: “For by him were all things created, that are…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…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 direct the hearer away from self-achievement towards God's gracious provision. Paul had already made this point earlier in Romans: "B…
Read article →Augustine of Hippo · Spiritual autobiography and prayer · c. 397–400
…estless heart finds its true home. This is a spiritual classic, not an authority equal to Scripture or a template for every conversion. Augustine's later books move from autobiography into difficult reflection on memory, time, creation, and biblical interpretation, and readers wi…
View recommendation →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…Jew and Gentile in one body. The length of the interval is not a defect in God's promise. Scripture repeatedly joins divine patience to the apparent delay of judgement (2 Peter 3:9). The gap is long from the human perspective, but it is neither empty nor purposeless. Who is the "…
Read article →A quiet invitation to draw near to Christ
…r the Christian, this offers a lovely 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…
Read article →What the historical evidence proves—and what it does not
…ing; it is secondary to the historical fact that a pre-modern Christian writer could read Scripture and envisage the saints gathered to the Lord before a coming tribulation. The right claim is not "Ephraem taught modern dispensationalism." It is that Pseudo-Ephraem supplies genui…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…ing impression of the law. Exodus 13:12–15. Why does God say that He “gave” the statutes? Scripture sometimes describes God’s judgement through His handing people over to the course they insist upon pursuing. Psalm 81:12 describes God giving His people up to their own stubborn he…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…ated directly by the divine Word, Jesus can become less than fully human in our thoughts. Scripture presents something richer: the eternal Son assumed our complete humanity, including a genuinely human mind, affections and will. That truth helps us understand His obedience, suffe…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…k carefully is not dry conformity to a council. It helps us know and trust the Jesus whom Scripture actually reveals. Suggested excerpt: A metaphor can remain in the imagination long after its qualifications have been forgotten. The question is not merely whether a teacher intend…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…as no small print in God's covenants The claim that God keeps His covenants does not mean Scripture contains no conditions. It means those conditions were stated openly rather than introduced after Israel's failure as grounds for an undisclosed cancellation. The covenant texts te…
Read article →Why apantēsis does not settle the timing of the rapture
…s the redeemed; the later manifestation judges hostile powers and establishes royal rule. Scripture regularly uses one expression for an extended programme. "The day of the Lord" is not limited to a sixty-minute event merely because it is called a day. Nor does the word coming re…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…ey may encounter them too, perhaps even through teachers or classmates. Understanding why Scripture identifies 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 ar…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…be used carefully When Abraham learns that judgement is approaching Sodom, he asks one of Scripture's great questions: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" —Genesis 18:25 His appeal assumes something about God's character. The Lord will not treat the righteous and the…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…plication. It does show that Matthew's reading was linguistically available within Jewish Scripture before the birth of Christ. The immediate setting: a sign in the days of Ahaz Isaiah 7 begins during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis. Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel threaten J…
Read article →What Christ’s promise establishes—and what claims about infallible teaching still need to prove
…ostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” — Ephesians 2:20 Scripture can therefore speak of Christ’s unique place while recognising a foundational ministry for His appointed messengers. For the present argument, we can grant that Peter is the rock.…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…kingdom approaches. These features do not make the passage irrelevant to the Church. All Scripture instructs the Church, and Christians living before the destruction of Jerusalem could heed Christ's warning. They do show that the discourse is operating within Israel's prophetic…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…unted as a Jew or becomes a member of the nation of Israel. The distinction is important. Scripture can attribute the spiritual reality represented by a sign without changing the recipient's ancestry. A Gentile may receive what circumcision pointed towards while remaining a Genti…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…ion becomes difficult after the resurrection. Jesus had opened their understanding of the Scriptures, spent forty days teaching them "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," and was about to ascend when they asked: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…re 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 statement raises a serious question. If God is eternally one solit…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…y dispensationalists. That framing confuses two different questions. The first is whether Scripture teaches that living believers will be caught up to Christ when the dead in Christ are raised. The second is when that event occurs in relation to the Tribulation and Christ's publi…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…l's last with John's seventh. The identity must be demonstrated, not assumed. Trumpets in Scripture summon assemblies, signal movement, announce war, accompany worship, and proclaim royal arrival. "Last" means last within the sequence or purpose in view. The contexts differ: In 1…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…not receive Him. What happens to divine promises when their recipients prove unfaithful? Scripture does not answer by minimising Israel's sin. Nor does it conclude that God's purpose must be transferred to a more deserving people. It distinguishes the nation's responsibility fro…
Read article →John Bunyan · Spiritual autobiography · 1666
…-examination if treated as a rule. Follow his movement towards Christ and the promises of Scripture without assuming that every thought, impression, or theological conclusion carries divine authority. Conversion Assurance Grace Temptation Doubt Scripture Perseverance
View recommendation →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…at God has permanently abandoned the nation? The answer depends partly upon a distinction Scripture itself makes. Not every covenant contains the same promises or places the same obligations upon its recipients. The Mosaic covenant made Israel's enjoyment of blessing in the land…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…alled Gnostic for stressing personal conversion, assurance of salvation, the authority of Scripture, heavenly hope, doctrinal precision, non-sacramental worship, premillennialism, or distrust of corrupt institutions. If all these things are Gnostic, then parts of the New Testamen…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…lusion from the text. Their testimony is not offered as an infallible authority alongside Scripture. It demonstrates that the interpretation “eating is believing” is not a modern Protestant invention devised to escape an otherwise obvious Roman reading. What Rome claims—and what…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…ties, interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem as lasting displacement, and read Israel's Scriptures principally through their fulfilment in Christ and the Church. The resulting history is neither simple nor flattering. Some early Christian writers defended essential truths: Jesu…
Read article →Faith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God
…ility about our understanding. This matters when we encounter scholarship that challenges Scripture or claims to explain away what Christians believe about Jesus. We should examine serious arguments honestly. Academic credentials do not make a conclusion automatically correct, an…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…judgements. It is the Saviour. A necessary sign changes what can be expected next Suppose Scripture clearly taught that the Church must identify Antichrist, enter Daniel's final week, and see the midpoint abomination before Christ can gather it. Until those events occurred, the r…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…ied: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." —John 7:37–38 John immediately explains what Jesus meant: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…nd in precisely the same covenantal sense in which she is married to the LORD. Throughout Scripture, the LORD is Israel’s covenant husband. The land, by contrast, is Israel’s covenant inheritance. Nevertheless, Isaiah deliberately uses marital language to describe the restoration…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…ared place while worldwide indignation passes. A recurring pattern, not a mechanical rule Scripture contains repeated deliverance patterns: Enoch is translated before the Flood judgement. Noah is secured before the waters rise. Lot is removed before Sodom burns. Israel is disting…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…ationism lacks a biblical basis. No pretribulationist should evade the first observation. Scripture contains no sentence reading, “Christ will gather the Church seven years before He descends to earth in judgement.” The question is whether the absence of that one-sentence formula…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…has been debated. It may also relate to being outside the communities possessing earlier Scripture—a gentile or scripturally untaught prophet. The word alone does not provide a modern educational biography. Even granting that Muhammad could neither read nor write, the conclusion…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…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 identified the son Abraham w…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…e end of his story. Breakfast by the Sea: The Restoration of Peter John 21 records one of Scripture’s most tender scenes. After the resurrection, Jesus met His disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. He prepared a meal for them and then addressed Peter personally. Three times Jesus…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…braham by faith. They share in spiritual blessings mediated through Israel's Messiah. But Scripture does not therefore require them to describe themselves as Jews or “true Jews.” Unity in Christ does not depend upon the erasure of every distinction God continues to recognise. Amo…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…de with David. The choice between national fulfilment and universal glory is false unless Scripture makes it. The prophetic vision commonly contains both: restored Israel under Messiah and the nations coming to His light. Greater fulfilment is not an elegant name for non-fulfilme…
Read article →The peace Christ gives in a troubled world
…nnot obtain lasting peace merely by calming ourselves while remaining estranged from Him. Scripture says: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." —Romans 5:1 Christ did not make peace by ignoring our guilt or pretending that sin…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…be proposed. It becomes less persuasive as the same pattern repeats. He receives worship Scripture is uncompromising when worship is offered to the wrong recipient. Peter refuses Cornelius: "Stand up; I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26). The angel in Revelation tells John, "See…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…ies precisely that. The doctrine of the Trinity is an attempt to hold together everything Scripture reveals: there is one God; the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God; and the Father, Son, and Spirit are personally distinct. The doctrine is mysterious because Go…
Read article →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…lical Jewish and Christian legends more closely than they resemble the earliest canonical Scriptures? Jesus animates birds made from clay. Young believers flee into a cave and awaken after a sleep lasting centuries. A two-horned ruler travels to the limits of the earth and constr…
Read article →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…t, by itself, tell us what happened, where it came from, or whether its message was true. Scripture therefore does not tell us to trust every spiritual experience. It tells us: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false pro…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…should therefore not make this one English phrase bear the entire doctrine of atonement. Scripture establishes substitution clearly elsewhere: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…profane babblings and called believers to cleanse themselves. We may evaluate teaching by Scripture and conduct by its fruit while admitting that only the Lord sees the heart without error. The knowledge that “the Lord knoweth them that are his” therefore produces humility as wel…
Read article →Brian E. Daley · Historical theology · 1991
…a preferred conclusion. This is a work of historical theology, not a direct guide to what Scripture teaches. Its value lies in showing what different early Christians believed, how their ideas developed, and where they disagreed. Some positions surveyed are speculative or serious…
View recommendation →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…gain. He had entered an incorruptible life over which death had no dominion (Romans 6:9). Scripture gives us continuity and transformation together. The body is truly raised; its mortal condition is gloriously changed. We should resist the temptation to explain every detail beyon…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…ple of the Book of writing religious material and falsely attributing it to God, twisting Scripture with their tongues, concealing truth and moving words from their proper places (Surahs 2:79; 3:78; 4:46; 5:13). On this account, the Qur'an confirms the original divine revelations…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…-far hermeneutic. We do not invent a second meaning because the first seems inconvenient. Scripture itself identifies real Messianic fulfilment while the remaining features of the prophetic portrait direct us towards its consummation. The same principle applies to the Spirit. The…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…ointed one; Jesus, the greater Son of David, experienced the pattern in its fullest form. Scripture does not name David’s mother or explicitly state elsewhere which of Jesse’s sons shared her. That silence does not mean David had no maternal brothers. Psalm 69 itself may provide…
Read article →Michael J. Vlach · Biblical theology · 2023
…ly. Read it with the relevant biblical passages open and weigh each part of the case from Scripture. Bodily resurrection New creation Restoration Kingdom of God Eternal life Creation
View recommendation →Tal Brooke · Christian investigation · 1979
…critically, distinguish an experience from the explanation later placed upon it, and keep Scripture—not fascination or fear—as the governing authority. Death Afterlife Near-death experiences Occultism Reincarnation Spiritual deception Biblical discernment
View recommendation →John Bunyan · Christian allegory · 1678
…hristian's journey become more recognisable as our own pilgrimage continues. Read it as a Scripture-saturated allegory, not as a substitute for Scripture. Editions vary: an unabridged edition which retains Bunyan's biblical references is the best place to begin. The Christian jou…
View recommendation →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…dly persecuted. Yet they did not disappear into the nations among which they lived. Their Scriptures, worship, identity, and hope of return endured. On 14 May 1948, Jewish sovereignty was re-established in the ancestral land through the declaration of the State of Israel. That ev…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…s follows. Israel and the Church belong to one unfolding purpose centred upon Christ. The Scriptures, covenants, Messiah, apostles, and first believers all came through Israel. The Church began with a faithful Jewish remnant and expanded as Gentiles were brought near through the…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…eity itself bled or died, we confuse the natures and turn God into a changeable creature. Scripture forces neither error upon us. The crucified One is truly the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8), and His death is truly a human death. The mystery is not solved by weakening either…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…udging" mean? Modern readers often hear judging and imagine only a courtroom sentence. In Scripture, judgement can include governance, administration, discernment, vindication, and the establishment of justice. Israel's judges did more than decide lawsuits. God raised them to del…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…answer Islam with the slogan that Allah distinguishes while the biblical God never does. Scripture distinguishes God's generous kindness towards creatures, His saving love towards sinners, His fatherly delight and communion with His obedient children, and His holy opposition to…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…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 of my Christian walk, one…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…g? To whom? Who is the subject? What does the whole passage say about him? How does later Scripture interpret the promise? A genuine fulfilment must satisfy the prophecy. It is not enough to find an isolated similarity after the prophecy's audience, grammar and defining character…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…ing Israel's blind and unfaithful leaders. They occupy the seat of authority, possess the Scriptures, and exercise stewardship among God's covenant people, yet reject the prophets and are preparing to kill God's Son. Their own answer condemns them: wicked husbandmen should be rem…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…tence: “I explained the gospel, and he rejected it.” That may be an accurate description. Scripture certainly speaks of people refusing Christ, resisting the Holy Ghost, and turning away from truth they have received. But the sentence contains a question we can too easily pass ov…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…adly: "Israel received earthly promises, whereas the Church receives spiritual promises." Scripture is richer than that division. Israel's covenants include forgiveness, cleansing, the Spirit, and knowledge of God. The Church awaits bodily resurrection and a renewed creation. Bot…
Read article →Dave Hunt · Biblical polemic · 2002
…xt. Follow the references, open the passages, read their contexts, and the book becomes a Scripture study rather than merely one side of a theological dispute. This is an unapologetically controversial book, and Calvinist readers strongly dispute many of Hunt's descriptions and c…
View recommendation →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…l's language laid the foundation for a doctrine derived from Greek philosophy rather than Scripture. There are facts inside that accusation. Constantine had not yet been baptised. He wanted religious unity within a recently reunited empire. He took part in the discussions, favour…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…deration. A sanctuary must be constructed and equipped, and its worship made operational. Scripture does not tell us how long that preparation will take, but its existence at the moment of desecration implies preparation beforehand. Revelation 17:12 describes the kings receiving…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…occurred to him: why had he needed to obtain the explanation from books rather than from Scripture itself? That testimony should be received respectfully. It tells us something real about Brown’s experience of the doctrine. It does not prove anything beyond that experience. His…
Read article →Earth-dwellers, heaven-dwellers, and the literary structure of the Apocalypse
…urch is gathered before the final week, people may still believe through the testimony of Scripture, sealed servants, angelic proclamation, and prophetic witnesses. Pretribulationists must not use "Tribulation saints" as a label which makes every difficulty disappear. The distinc…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…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 question: who are "the elect" whom Christ gathers after the Tribulation? Many readers…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…e covenant nation. Even after the kingdom divided and the northern tribes were scattered, Scripture continued to preserve the hope of all Israel. The prophets anticipated Judah and Israel being gathered under one King: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountai…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…ch timing best explains all the biblical data together with the fewest forced exceptions? Scripture explicitly teaches the event. The Lord descends from heaven; the dead in Christ rise; living believers are changed; and together they are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessa…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…an indignity—an interruption to real life which should be escaped as quickly as possible. Scripture presents labour differently. 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, frus…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…ng 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 dignity of…
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