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Former Muslim Explains the Trinity

...he 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....

What did Jesus actually sacrifice?

...what our faith hinges on – 1 Cor 15:14), and was still recognisable by those who knew him. Paul states that he was seen by “five hundred” of his followers after he was raised (1 Cor 15:5-8) as well as the Twelve and Paul himself, and they all knew him. Jesus didn’t just put on a human skin mask for 30 years or so and then shed it once his job was done. No, he was “flesh and bones”, not a spirit or ghost, though flesh in a new way (Luke 24:39; 1 Corinthians 15:50). This is what Paul goes into some detail about in his epistles: the resurrection and the bodies we will inherit through that. Though we may still look human and recognisable, our old bodie...

Lent: Day 6 - Ignatius to the Magnesians

...for their faith. There is definitely a strong theme with Ignatius with regards to the structure of church leadership and how the believers should trust and follow their bishops, which begins to make more sense now in this letter as his thinking is displayed some more. He urges the church to submit to their bishop because in doing so, they are in fact submitting to the Father, who is “bishop of us all”. The opening chapters of this letter reminded me of Paul when he wrote to Timothy to encourage him in his position within the church, despite his youth (1 Tim 4:12). In a similar manner, Ignatius is advising this church in Magnesia to not become too familiar...

How many apostles are there in the New Testament?

...ty of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. (emphasis mine) This is sometimes called the “Five Fold Ministry”. Compare this with 1 Cor 13:8-12, which parallels this thought using sightly different words about coming to maturity and being fully grown, and of seeing Jesus “face to face”. To put it simply, these gifts don’t end until we meet Jesus face to face, either in death or at The Resurrection, which makes complete sense if these five major roles are to “to equip the saints” and for “building up the body of Christ”. So if these five gifts are for the continued benefit...

Creedal Christians: The Nicene Creed

...Christian faith via Scripturally-based statements. Some of you reading this may already be familiar with this creed, others may recognise aspects of it, but you may not realise that the fuller and longer version that is more common actually came around 56 years later from the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. The initial creed was much shorter and included a statement at the end specifically targeting the teachings of Arius. This wasn’t the only revision the Nicene Creed went under, as there was another addition many centuries later which caused some serious controversy, which exists even to this day. The Filioque controversy “And the Son” –...

Francis Chan turns towards a more historical and ancient view of Communion

...nt in his faith around the topic of communion — something he was wrestling with even back in his BASIC series teaching on Communion from around 2012, views which have clearly moved on since then towards a more historical view. Chan says he isn’t making any sort of “grand statement” here, and goes on to give a brief, if little distorted, overview of church history: “I didn’t know that for the first 1,500 years of church history, everyone saw it as the literal body and blood of Christ … And it wasn’t until 500 years ago that someone popularised the thought that it’s just a symbol and nothing more. I didn’t know that. I thought, ‘Wow,...