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So, where are we going?

...rone, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. This judgement sounds a bit different to simply being condemned to hell automatically. At least here it appears as though God is considering his judgement on the people before deciding, else what is the point to this process? Another thing to consider is what Paul writes about the Law being written on our hearts so that we are without excuse - another verses...

Lent: Day 14 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 24-35

...that this book which is referenced is known to of spurious origins, with various later forgeries created to discredit Christians even! If you’re interested, you can read the scholarly debate in brief in the intro text to the book itself here: earlychristianwritings.com/actspilate.html. Come back tomorrow where Justin continues with the theme of prophecy to further show proofs for Christ being the true manifest Word of God....

An ancient fragment mentions Jesus' wife!?

...er in the book of Revelation, has a marriage supper (Rev 19:9) so it presumably married by this point too (or at least, will be), so it's really not that unusual for a reference of Jesus speaking of a "wife". Despite all this though, the fragment has been dated to be "between the sixth and ninth centuries CE" which means it was written long after the rest of the New Testament, which already has a rich narrative about Christ and his Bride, and so the small fragment of text could simply be a later interpolation by Christians writing about Jesus and his wife, the Church. Alternatively, it could also be a genuine saying of Jesus which had been preserved in other t...

Was there death before the Fall?

...he latest book of the Hebrew Bible, and as we get to the 1st Century onwards, all were agreed that there "was no resurrection" - except for the Jews, of course. What we can see in the Resurrection is that God wants us to be with him in a physical sense, not in some disembodied state. This is why we were created; and why the Jewish concept of blessing and reward from God is a long physical life (eg. Exodus 20:12); and also why the New Testament is concerned with the restoration of all creation through the resurrection (cf. Col 1:15-22; Rom 8:19-23) - and not an escape from it! 1 Tim 6:16 tells us that it is God "alone who has immortality", so clearly we me...

The Coming of Jesus: Coming on the clouds

...cy in the book of Daniel in which Daniel see's one who 'looks like a son of man' (ie. a person with a human form) 'coming with the clouds of heaven' which has all sorts of implications that we often miss by either not knowing much of the Old Testament, or because we're not Jewish with a better understanding of these prophecies. As a small note too, it's also these visions of Daniel that Revelation in the New Testament takes a lot of its imagery from and describes the same events – I will be touching on that more in the next part in this series. Often times, our thoughts on these phrases or this kind of prophetic language, is coloured by our upbringing or tea...

Lent Day 21: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 1-10

...h on this book, I'm excited to read it! It sounds as though it was a very influential text, not only on the Church as a whole in setting the way for ascetic monasticism, but on convicting a great many who read it, bringing them to conversion. One such person you may recognise the name of, who had this experience, was Augustine! Athanasius even opens his letter by saying that, “I know that you, when you have heard … will be wishful to emulate [Anthony’s] … pattern of discipline”. Being a bit partial to the monastic lifestyle, I'm curious to see how I personally respond to this. In this letter, Athanasius says he planned to enquire of those monks who...