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Kirk Cameron And The Biblical Case For Annihilationism

...d held by Christians who take divine judgement every bit as seriously as their eternal-torment counterparts. This is not a debate invented by Twitter (or “?” as it’s called now…). It’s been around for a long, long, time. Watch Kirk’s video in full here before forming an opinion Immortality Is Assumed, Not Taught One of the quiet assumptions behind Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT) is the idea that all human souls are inherently immortal, and therefore must exist forever somewhere. Once that premise is accepted, eternal suffering becomes unavoidable. The difficulty is that Scripture does not teach innate human immortality. In fac...

The World's Oldest Anti-Christian Meme

...not with Christians but with Jews. A first-century Egyptian-Greek writer named Apion (who was no friend of Judaism) spread the claim that inside the Jerusalem Temple, Jews kept a golden donkey’s head as a sacred object of worship which was apparently discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes destroyed the temple in 167 BC. It was a fabrication, and a fairly outrageous one, but it circulated widely enough that the Jewish historian Josephus felt compelled to write an entire refutation of it. His work Against Apion systematically dismantles Apion’s claims, calling the donkey story a shameless invention. But mud sticks, and in the Roman world, where anti-Jewish senti...

Before The Pumpkins: Reclaiming All Hallows’ Eve

...It’s that time of year again when pumpkins appear in windows, skeletons hang from doorways, and debates resurface about whether Christians should have anything to do with Halloween. Some will say it’s entirely “pagan” in origin, others that it’s harmless fun — and many of us fall somewhere in the middle, just trying to work out what’s right (or try to ignore it!). But what if we’ve forgotten that Halloween began not with ghosts and ghouls, but with grace and glory? Hallowe’en — “All Hallows’ Eve” — was never about celebrating darkness; it was about remembering the light. It marked the night before All Saints’ Day, a day...

An ancient fragment mentions Jesus' wife!?

...lation 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 texts not included in the Canon, in which Jesus was saying "my wife... the Church". We don't know, and unless the rest of this document is found, we will never know. But I think it is pretty clear and likely that Jesus never had a "real" wife, as you would think that would have been mentioned by someone in all the hundreds of texts written about Jesus by those who knew him and who travelled with him. Even Peter got a passing reference to being married by way of his mother-in-law entering the Gospel story...

The Coming of Jesus: Daniel's 70 Weeks

...the early Christians saw Jesus as being the ultimate sacrifice to remove sins for all time, and give those who believe in him everlasting righteousness, but that they also recognised the times as being "the end of the age". I will be going more into that topic later in this series.  So while I do see a fulfillment here in part, and agree with the New Testament authors that Jesus's sacrifice did put an end to the need for animal sin sacrifices, however I don't believe that this is what Dan 9:26-27 is all about, as the Jews will have continued to sacrifice in the temple as they always did, even after Jesus's death. No, this part is also what Jesus prophesied...

Lent Day 20: Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church: 19-27

...hen those Christians who have not been deceived should heed the advice of Paul when he says, “withdraw yourself from all brethren who walk disorderly” (2 Thess 3:6) and to also “let no man deceive you with vain words” (Eph 5:6), for the wrath of God is upon these people. Therefore, flee from them, “lest, while anyone is associated with those who walk wickedly … should be found in like guilt”. And just as Paul also wrote in Eph 4:4-6, Cyprian echoes this sentiment to back his point of keeping in unity with one another; God is one, and Christ is one, and His Church is one, and the faith is one, and the people is joined into a substantial unity of...