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The Author of Life Knew Death For Our Sake!

...o this emphasis. I'd never thought of it this way before but it struck a chord with me. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have a new birth and are born again, just as we are born naturally into this world in blood and water, we can now be born again through Jesus who bled blood and water for us in his death. But the similarities don't end there. Baptism obviously follows on from this, as does the other sacrament of the Eucharist. The sacraments themselves are all centred around blood and water which point back to the cross which that in itself points to the forgiveness of sin and new birth. Through “the water of rebirth” we receive the “rene...

Lent: Day 13 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 12-23

...embrace chastity alone … we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock… But in case it would seem that he is “reasoning sophistically”, Justin wants to present quotes from Christ's teaching to prove that “He was no sophist, but His word was the power of God”! For clarity, since words have changed meaning over time or fallen into disuse, being a “sophist” and speaking “sophistically” was a form of teaching and arguing in Greek philosophy and was a way of reasoning with clever, but false arguments, that just sounded good – whether or not they were accurate was besides...

Lent Day 18: Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church: 1-9

...is why he has earned the name “Serpent”. Novatian rose up as an “antipope” (someone who rejected the people's choice of pope) and caused a schism saying he wanted to restore the “true Church” and drew some people away. Cyprian is arguing for unity and that there is only one true Church and that is those who are all in unity with one another in the local congregation, and also with their Bishops, who by extension should be united in doctrine across all the churches, thus creating the unified Body of Christ. So with that in mind, much of what he writes here is speaking about how the true followers of Christ should act and what they should be doing if...

Lent Day 22: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20

...o decades has passed, he finally left the fort to find a great crowd had amassed waiting for him so they could learn of his discipline. On seeing Anthony, though, they were all amazed because he had the “habit of body as before, and was neither fat, like a man without exercise, nor lean from fasting and striving with the demons”; and being full of the Spirit, “through him the Lord healed the bodily ailments of many present, and cleansed others from evil spirits” and with godly wisdom he countless counselled many various people in need. He began preaching from Romans 8:32 about how God didn’t hold anything back, but gave up even his only Son, and co...

Former Muslim Explains the Trinity

...reshi who has wrote a few books on his journey to Jesus from the Muslim faith; one of them being: Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. He also has sadly died in 2017. I haven't read his books, and only just found out about him after looking up more info on this video, though his book is definitely on my wish list now....

The Temptations of Jesus: Testing God

...nt, Satan has really amped up his game. Jesus has refuted him twice now with Scripture, and so instead, the devil takes him somewhere dangerous and then uses Scripture as part of his temptation as though to try and use Jesus’ weapon against him. This is similar to what Paul writes about the devil in 2 Cor 11:14 when he says that even Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light”. We must be ever vigilant and discerning so that we may not get tricked by misapplied and twisted Scripture. Paul again, in his wisdom, when writing to Timothy also instructed him in these things when he said to study and know the Word of God to “rightly [explain] the word of...