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The Coming of Jesus: Our Future Hope - What Now?

...er it was something else altogether. What I discovered has led me through a life-changing event in terms of my theology, to the point where all of those “soon” and “at hand” verses of Scripture actually make sense without theological gymnastics to make it all fit into a 2000+ year timeframe!   Let’s recap! Over 400 years before Jesus was born, the angel Gabriel came to Daniel and gave him a vision of the future coming messiah and of God’s Kingdom. Right on time, Jesus was born and announced the advent of the Kingdom of God. Jesus went around proclaiming that the “time was fulfilled” and the Kingdom was “at hand” (Mark 1:15) and that it wa...

The Resurrection as a historical event

..., how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. I saw a survey recently about this very topic, which suggested that a worrying amount of self-identifying Christians in Britain don’t believe that the resurrection of Jesus happened at all! Fewer than one-in-three Christians in Britain believe “word-fo...

Are There Levels of Sin?

..."All sins are equal." "Sin is sin." "All sin is the same in God's eyes." You may have heard these phrases said before (you may even have said them before!). But is all sin really equal? I do, and don't, think so. Let me clarify: All sin is equal in the sense that all illegal activities are crimes; but even crimes have degrees of severity and punishment, and it would seem to me that the New Testament also supports this concept in regards to sin. Lets look at a few examples: If you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit and never be forgiven (Matt 12:31), then it's a sin definitely not on par with others. If being sexually immoral is seen as something to shun more...

Lent: Day 17 - Justin Martyr: First Apology: Chaps. 60-68

...ine, with somewhat compact arguments for the reality of what is believed and accepted. I’m going to try and summarise as much as I can and pull out any points which stand out, though not necessarily cover everything written in each chapter. You can find today’s reading on page 84 here: lentfatherscomplete.pdf So we come to the final chapters of Justin Martyr's first apology, and what an interesting and lengthy read it has been! These final chapters move on from prophecies about Christ, and cover a few other areas of Christian doctrine and belief, such as: baptism, the Eucharist and weekly worship among other things. Plato and The Trinity The first ch...

Lent Day 24: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 31-40

...azzled or some may be marvelled at the foreknowledge of other spirits, but they are actually only pretending to know anything real about the future. Giving an example from something Anthony and others have seemingly witnessed, he says that “often [the demons] announce beforehand that the brethren are coming days after. And they do come” – but they don’t do this to benefit the believers, or because they care, no, they do this to gain trust so that in the long run they make destroy those who place their trust in the demons. But how do they know what’s coming before we know it? For what wonder is it, if with more subtle bodies than men have, when the...

Lent Day 33: Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXII

...goes into some details about what happens spiritually during it, which will probably offend certain Protestant ears. Cyril explains how this bread and this wine are no longer merely just bread or wine any longer despite appearances. It seems as though some doubted this or perhaps were a little sceptical, because Cyril goes on to explain that since Jesus himself declared the bread to be his body, and the wine to be his blood, “who shall dare to doubt any longer … who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?”. This view was not uncommon amongst early church writers, and even today in certain branches and denominations there exists this beli...