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83 results for “Work”
Clear searchLabour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
Work Is Not a Curse Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world Modern culture often swings between two errors. Some people live for their work. Their job becomes their identity, the…
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 Thessalonians 2. Somethin…
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 be an accurate description. Scripture…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…ervice. 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 Judas, or that…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…a biblical contradiction. Titus describes people who “profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:16). Their profession and practice point in opposite directions. We should be precise. A believer may stumble badly. Growth may be slow and uneven. Christians d…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…tten at the Resurrection? Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son “This day have I begotten 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…
Read article →How Christians can think politically without surrendering conscience to a package deal
…not the same as confirmed, but the mind can easily confuse familiarity with evidence. Network structure can also create a "majority illusion" in which a relatively uncommon view appears common because highly connected or highly active people are disproportionately visible. Meanw…
Read article →Irenaeus of Lyons · Early Christian theology and polemic · c. 180–190
The surviving works and fragments of a second-century Christian writer, above all Against Heresies, defending the apostolic faith against Gnostic systems through sustained appeals to Scripture, creation, incarnation, resurrection, and the unity of God's purpose.
View recommendation →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…f God’s people, the apparent strength of Babylon, the impotence of idols and the promised work of Cyrus. However one approaches the scholarly debate about the book’s composition, this literary and historical horizon is unmistakable. Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 actually name Cyrus.[^1]…
Read article →Samuel G. Green · Historical survey · 1904
…erstand why developments occurred before asking for a verdict upon them. This is an older work and its language, emphases, and available historical sources reflect its period. It also ends at the dawn of the Reformation rather than continuing into modern Church history. Those lim…
View recommendation →Simon Greenleaf · Legal examination of testimony · 1846
Greenleaf's work is worthwhile because it asks readers to take the four Gospel witnesses seriously as testimony rather than dismissing them by prejudice or accepting them without examination. His legal…
View recommendation →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…f the sufficiency of Christ. The Spirit had been received by the hearing of faith, not by works of the law (Galatians 3:1-5). Paul appeals to Abraham because the patriarch was counted righteous through faith before the law of Moses and before his circumcision: "Abraham believed G…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…d, kingship, and a calling among the nations. The Church is revealed in relation to a new work of the risen Christ. Jesus said, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). At Pentecost, the Spirit baptised believers into a Spirit-indwelt community which would extend across the nati…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…of death". In some monitored patients, EEG patterns which the authors associated with network-level cognitive activity appeared during CPR, in a few cases thirty-five to sixty minutes after resuscitation efforts began. Those findings are remarkable, but the limits matter. Only a…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…ot walk around the universe and inspect it from another side. We are creatures within the work attempting to reason about the One who made it. We therefore imagine God becoming man as though an unimaginably large object had somehow been squeezed into an impossibly small container…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…Paul explains why: "Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone." —Romans 9:32 Paul is not saying that every individual Israelite rejected Christ. He himself was an Israelite, and a believing rem…
Read article →Augustine of Hippo · Spiritual autobiography and prayer · c. 397–400
…, and biblical interpretation, and readers will not agree with every conclusion. Read the work prayerfully but discerningly, receiving its insight while testing its theology and exegesis by the Word of God. Conversion Grace Sin Desire Prayer Providence Memory
View recommendation →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…year Tribulation is sometimes dismissed as an interval invented to make a prophetic chart work. That criticism begins at the wrong end of the Bible. The case does not start by counting backwards from Revelation. It starts with a measured programme in Daniel concerning Israel and…
Read article →A quiet invitation to draw near to Christ
…ived in Christ. We can confess our sins honestly because we have a Saviour whose finished work is sufficient. We do not have to hide until we have improved. The beloved knocks In Song of Songs 5, the scene changes. “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh…” — Song of Songs 5:…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…ful order. God is taking from the Gentiles a people for His name; James then relates this work to the promised rebuilding of David's fallen tabernacle and the blessing of the nations (Acts 15:13–18). Romans 11 warns Gentile believers not to boast over Israel's natural branches an…
Read article →What the historical evidence proves—and what it does not
…d 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 Ephraem the Syrian writing in the fourth century without qualification. But uncertainty over…
Read article →Ezekiel 20, child sacrifice, and the judgement of being given over
…ribe divine agency, but their shared reading does not depend upon one denominational framework. Their agreement corroborates the contextual argument; it does not replace it. These interpreters do not remove judgement from the passage. They explain how God can attribute that judge…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…lliott Friedman. Friedman was not the founder of the Documentary Hypothesis, although his work brought a modern version of it before a large popular audience. Whatever source my opponent was using, the essential argument was familiar: the different divine names in the Pentateuch…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…ns and will. That truth helps us understand His obedience, suffering, sympathy and saving work. Suggested excerpt: The Son assumed not only the part of us that can bleed, but the human life that thinks, desires, grieves, chooses and obeys. Christ’s humanity was not a costume, a c…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…n and has no interest in supporting the gospel. His notice confirms the basic public framework: Christ was executed under Pilate during Tiberius' reign, the movement began in Judaea, and it later reached Rome. Tacitus writes decades after the event, and his precise sources are no…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…f Arius. His surviving theological writings are frustratingly incomplete: one substantial work survives, while much of the material relevant to his Christology comes through fragments quoted, translated or preserved by later authors. Some texts once assigned to him have been disp…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…ause He alone can accomplish them faithfully. Their certainty rests upon His identity 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…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…ou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest.” — Hebrews 1:10–11 In Psalm 102, those words address the LORD—the unchanging Creator whose years have no end. Hebrews applies the…
Read article →Abraham, Lot, divine wrath, and a pattern that must be used carefully
…rld, the flesh, and the devil against God's people. Discipline is the Father's corrective work within His family. Divine wrath is God's judicial action against evil. These can coincide historically from the human point of view, but they are not the same theologically. The promise…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…d must describe favourable reception in Matthew 24. That conclusion gives the lexicon the work of the context. Paralambanō can describe welcome, companionship, custody, or simple removal. The word does not determine whether the outcome is blessing or judgement. The surrounding sc…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…mcised by the Spirit is now a true or spiritual Jew. Since Christians possess that inward work, the Church has become spiritual Israel. That reading takes Paul's contrast seriously. Outward privilege without inward reality cannot please God. Circumcision cannot protect a lawbreak…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…of God without circumcision or submission to the Mosaic law. James recognised this as the work of God and appealed to Amos: "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets." —Acts 15:14-15 The admiss…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…three examples drawn from a larger divine company, but within the one identity and saving work of God. Disciples are baptised "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). The apostolic blessing names "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…is union with Christ, not spiritual rank within Christ. Rewards may differ. A believer's work may endure or be burned. A servant may face Christ with confidence or shame (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 1 John 2:28). None of those differences turns the Tribulation into purgatory for Chri…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…generation (Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29; Joel 2:28-32; Zechariah 12:10-13:1). It is a mass work of the Spirit, but not salvation by ancestry: the Israel which enters the promised restoration will be an Israel brought to faith in its Messiah. The believer's salvation and Israel's n…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…upper as "the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20). Paul called himself and his fellow workers ministers of the new testament (2 Corinthians 3:6). Hebrews applies the covenant's priestly and sacrificial blessings to believers who approach God through Christ. Jewish and Gentile…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…und. The earth becomes a sinking ship whose only theological function is to be abandoned. Work, art, family, social responsibility, and care for the non-human creation can then seem spiritually second-rate. Finally, Lee recognises that elitism may flourish under the language of c…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…7 He redirects them from perishing food to enduring life. The crowd immediately asks what work God requires. The work of God is to believe “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God,…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…created controversy precisely because Israel's covenant story supplied the original framework. Acts 15 did not ask whether Jewish believers might enter a Gentile Church. It asked how Gentile believers could be received without circumcision and submission to the Mosaic law. Paul…
Read article →Faith, assurance, and the unseen reality of God
…e can identify a moment when God’s reality became overwhelming; others describe a quieter work of grace over time. Our confidence rests in Him, even when our feelings change. It also does not mean we have become incapable of misunderstanding Him. We may need to reconsider an inte…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…ler's unveiled career. The Spirit Himself would remain omnipresent and active, just as He worked before Pentecost. Second Thessalonians 2 is not an effortless pretribulation proof. Neither is it a decisive refutation of imminency. Expectancy without prediction The doctrine has of…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…oming and believing belong together. To come is not to travel to a holy site or perform a work which earns God's welcome. It is to turn from the false sources in which we trusted and entrust ourselves to Christ. It is to receive from Him what we cannot produce. What it means to d…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…and a new earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). God does not abandon the work He declared very good. He judges evil, raises the dead, and renews His world. Christian hope is therefore not an ascent away from created life but the union of heaven and earth under Ch…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…pensationalism distinguishes the completion of Christ’s body from God’s subsequent saving work among Israel and the nations. That distinction must be tested from Scripture, not excluded by definition. Must bodily redemption and creation’s liberation be simultaneous? Hanegraaff sa…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…an schools of scriptural learning, yet over approximately twenty-three years he recited a work possessing a distinctive Arabic voice, sustained theological purpose and extraordinary power over its hearers. The Qur'an challenged its opponents to produce anything comparable. They a…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…Judah and David until it reaches Jesus Christ. Islam presents a different Abrahamic framework. The Qur'an associates Abraham and Ishmael with the House at Mecca, while later Muslim tradition predominantly identifies Ishmael as the son Abraham was commanded to sacrifice. Muhammad…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…is excused when it acts unjustly. Above all, salvation has always rested upon the saving work of Christ. Yet none of those propositions establishes that God has cancelled Israel's territorial future. The central question is not whether Israel deserved the land, nor whether Genti…
Read article →The peace Christ gives in a troubled world
…he peace of the Son who trusted His Father completely and was willingly accomplishing the work He had been given. “Peace I leave with you” These words belong to Christ's departure. A person going away might leave possessions, instructions or final words with those remaining. Jesu…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…onger case is the case the Gospels themselves make. They place Jesus within the identity, works, authority, honour and glory of the God of Israel while continuing to distinguish Him personally from the Father. Each strand must be interpreted in context. Some passages establish mo…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…Jesus receives rather than corrects his confession. The New Testament also gives the Son works and honours belonging to God. All things were created by Him (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16). He forgives sins, receives worship, gives life, and will judge the world. Hebrews addresses th…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…y or suffer by itself. His divine nature does not step forward to preach, forgive sins or work a miracle. The Person acts through and according to His natures. We may therefore distinguish what Christ does according to His deity from what He does according to His humanity. But we…
Read article →Seth D. Postell, Eitan Bar & Erez Soref · Messianic biblical theology · 2017
…and do not represent every Messianic approach to Torah observance. 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 th…
View recommendation →Sources behind Qur’anic narratives
…ot record Him forming a bird from clay and bringing it to life. That story appears in the work now called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Its narratives concern Jesus between approximately five and twelve years old. They include healings and displays of extraordinary knowledge, but…
Read article →Why a loaded label does not settle the question
…el. Lewis Way and Alexander McCaul belonged to that earlier prophetic conversation. Their work does not establish pretribulationism. It does show that Darby did not begin every discussion from which his later synthesis emerged. The doctrine must stand or fall by Scripture. Histor…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…rnate for our salvation. The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets concerning the saving works of God: Christ’s coming, His virgin birth, His passion, resurrection from the dead and bodily ascension. Christ will appear again from heaven in the glory of the Father. Humanity will…
Read article →E. W. Bullinger · Sermons · 1892
…chfulness, and faithful living. Bullinger writes within a distinctive dispensational framework and readers need not accept every sequence, distinction, or prophetic conclusion in order to profit from the study. Sermons are persuasive presentations, not neutral surveys. Keep the c…
View recommendation →Spiritual ecstasy, altered states, and discerning what is from God
…prophets who display signs, deceptive spiritual manifestations, and people who appeal to works performed in Christ’s name although Christ never knew them. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? … And then will I profess unto them, I nev…
Read article →E. W. Bullinger · Verse-by-verse commentary · 1902
…tures, verbal connections, and details which many readers will never have considered. The work is very long, yet I found it difficult to put down because page after page opened another line of enquiry and sent me back into the biblical text. Bullinger's interpretive framework is…
View recommendation →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…he book circulated within pre-Christian Judaism and was copied alongside other scriptural works. The manuscript evidence must nevertheless be stated exactly. 4QDanielᵃ, catalogued as 4Q112, contains substantial portions of Daniel, but it does not contain chapter 9. A different fr…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…use. If those who do not acknowledge the Creator sometimes show greater care for His handiwork than those 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 treatin…
Read article →Brian E. Daley · Historical theology · 1991
…ical setting without quietly pushing the reader towards 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 disag…
View recommendation →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…s 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 not that we shall finally escap…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…rance rather than an admission that Muhammad doubted his revelation. Even so, reassurance works only if the earlier readers are competent witnesses to something relevant. The cumulative pattern is clear: God gave the Gospel. It contained guidance and light. The Qur'an claims to c…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…allow that movement to develop before deciding where it belongs in an eschatological framework. This is not a licence for arbitrary “double fulfilment.” We are not proposing several unrelated meanings hidden beneath the same words. Rather, the historical setting supplies the imme…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…pondence in the Messiah than anything preserved about David. Biblical typology frequently works in this manner. The pattern begins in the life of the type but reaches its complete expression in Christ. Does Psalm 69:5 prevent a messianic reading? An objection is sometimes raised…
Read article →Michael J. Vlach · Biblical theology · 2023
…isting the idea that Christian hope means escape from the physical world. He traces God's work from creation to restoration and shows why bodily resurrection, the renewal of the earth, Christ's reign, and life in God's presence belong together. This is a substantial theological s…
View recommendation →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…a requirement for Gentile salvation and taught that justification is by faith apart from works of the law. Nothing in his Jewish ancestry could earn standing before God. Yet he did not cease to identify as Jewish: "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…uteronomy 30:3 The passage continues with return to the land of the fathers and an inward work of God: "the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart" so that Israel will love Him (Deuteronomy 30:5-6). Judgement and restoration therefore form one covenant sequence. If the scatteri…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…ad, merit against failure. The Bible also teaches a perfectly just judgement according to works. Christianity does not replace moral seriousness with divine indifference. Yet at the centre of the gospel stands an answer that no scale can supply: the Judge has provided a substitut…
Read article →Sir Robert Anderson · Biblical and apologetic argument · 1897
…patience is not absence, weakness, or indifference. Even where readers question his framework, the book forces serious thought about providence, prayer, suffering, and the character of the present age. Anderson's explanation is closely tied to his dispensational distinctions and…
View recommendation →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…ests upon Christ’s finished sacrifice. Islam calls people to submission, repentance, good works and hope in divine mercy without that atoning ground. These are not different accents within one faith. They are contradictory claims. Respect for Muslims cannot require us to pretend…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…scent of the soul away from the bodily and changeable toward the divine source. That framework could appreciate the language of the Logos. Greek philosophy already possessed its own ways of speaking about divine reason, intelligible order and mediating principles. John’s opening…
Read article →Hippolytus · Exposition, prophecy, and polemic · early third century
…whose every conclusion is binding. The identity of Hippolytus and the authorship of some works traditionally attached to his name remain disputed, and prophetic details should never be accepted merely because they are ancient. His use of catholic language describes the whole tru…
View recommendation →Tertullian · Apologetic, doctrinal, and practical treatises · c. 197–220
…th 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 can also be searching on the practical demands of Christian discipleship. Read across the range and you enc…
View recommendation →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…difference. The psalmist says: "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity" (Psalm 5:5). John the Baptist declares that the person who refuses the Son does not possess life, but that "the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Jesus also spea…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…g the places and peoples summoned to lift up their voices because of the LORD's worldwide work. The distinction is grammatical and structural: The Servant brings forth judgement to the Gentiles. The isles wait for his law. The wilderness, cities and villages of Kedar raise their…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…der correction of restore, kingdom, and Israel has to be supplied by his theological framework. This argument should not be overstated. An uncorrected question cannot by itself prove an entire eschatological system, and the apostles had not yet received the Pentecostal gift of th…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…The strongest supersessionist does not intend to accuse God of falsehood. Even so, a framework must explain why irrevocable gifts, a guaranteed seed, specified covenant partners, and national restoration language no longer require a national fulfilment. Third, it shapes Christian…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…e at all?”—provided it is not allowed to obscure Arius's answer. In fragments of his lost work the Thalia, preserved in quotations by Athanasius, Arius reportedly said that although the Word is called God, He is not “very God” but is God by participation and “in name”. In plain E…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…rs, the wicked dead stand before the great white throne and are judged according to their works. Whoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15). Second Thessalonians 1 does not pause to chart every interval in that sequence. I…
Read article →Trusting God when voices seek to weaken our confidence
…syria’s victories did not establish that the living God was powerless. Intimidation often works by joining a real difficulty to an unjustified conclusion: You are vulnerable; therefore God cannot be trusted. Others have surrendered; therefore faithfulness is foolish. Opposition i…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…"For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." —Isaiah 65:22 These passages do not make "elect" an exclusive synonym for Israel. Isaiah also calls the coming Servant God's elect (Isaiah 42:1), and the New Testament…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…dently prove that the interval is Daniel's final week. Daniel supplies its prophetic framework. They show why a real interval is exegetically useful rather than an artificial gap invented to rescue the system. Why the alternatives cost more Every interpretation organises the evid…
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