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What are the Seraphim, and was the devil one of them?

Have you ever wondered about what the devil is — or was, pre-Fall? You’ve probably been told that he used to be an angel with God, so then why is he often described as a snake, serpent or dragon? Though there isn’t a great deal given away in Scripture as to the nature of angels, or the heavenly realms in general, we get some glimpses from the visions of the prophets. But what we can also look at is the words which the Bible uses; some of which aren’t translated and so lose their original meaning in English. The Seraphim The word “seraphim” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word, rather than a translation, so in English we often will miss the me...

The Gospel of Jeffrey Dahmer

...one-hour Bible studies and pastoral care. He even wrote a book about the experience and was convinced his conversion was genuine. I’m going to state something off the back of this which will no doubt offend some, but it is for this reason that Paul says the truth of the Gospel is offensive: If you can’t accept that Jeffrey Dahmer could be welcomed into the Kingdom of God, then you don’t understand the Gospel.   Does the idea that a homosexual, cannibalistic, murdering rapist could be forgiven by God cause you some discomfort? I’ll be honest, when I first considered something like this many years ago, it did cause me to have a knee-jerk reaction ag...

Lent, Lament and Lockdown

...   The Bible isn't a stranger to times of lament and distress, and we see it often in the Psalms. At times like this of limited food and resources and job loss, we can probably relate to David when he wrote things like this: Psalms 86:1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Psalms 102:1-2 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call. And such poetic sadness from the book dedicated to lament; Lamentations 3:16-18 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my sou...

The Deity of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew - Part 2

...s — Bible Background (craigkeener.com)    ...

Does Jesus mean Hail Zeus?

...ns of the Bible. From Late Latin Iesus (properly pronounced as three syllables), from Greek Iesous, which is an attempt to render into Greek the Aramaic proper name Jeshua (Hebrew Yeshua, Yoshua) "Jah is salvation." This was a common Jewish personal name during the Hellenizing period; it is the later form of Hebrew Yehoshua (see Joshua).—etymonline.com   If all of that sounds confusing, then see this image below which will hopefully visualise the transition of language a little better: Etymology of the name Jesus To put it simply, “The name Jesus is the Greek transliteration of either the name יהושע (Joshua) or its shortened form (ישוע) J...

The Coming Kingdom of the Son of Man

...are some Bible teachers who would use a "slice and dice" Futurist hermeneutic. What I mean by this is that sometimes certain scholars will "slice" up a passage of Scripture, in arbitrary places like mid-sentence, to make it fit a particular theological interpretation (the same thing is often done with parts of Matt 24). For example, some would say verses 27 and 28 are not dealing with the same subject, and that verse 27 is about the end of time but suddenly verse 28 is about the transfiguration! But we can see from examples like John 21:20-23 that Jesus' followers believed that some of them would not die before his coming, as we can see Peter trying to qu...