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Support Israel? OK, which Israel?

...ying "the Bible says God gave the land to the Jews, therefore they can blow up anyone who says otherwise" and thus "support" Israel because they are God's "chosen" people – to that I say you've misunderstood the New Covenant, and possible the role of God with Israel. Even if you believe the Jews have some special status with God over and above the rest of us, there's still the issue that even from a cursory read of the Old Testament, it was GOD who protected Israel and often specifically told them to go to battle with seemingly weaker positions so that it could be shown that God was their protector, not their own might (eg. Judges 7:2; Lev 26:7-9). With th...

Was there death before the Fall?

...ry of the Bible, p. 819).  Only in Dan 12:2 do we find any idea of people coming back from the place of the dead: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The concept of the Resurrection is a relatively late concept, as Daniel is the 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...

Evidence of the Trinity in the Hebrew Scriptures

...he Hebrew Bible must fly in the face of the overwhelming story of that Bible. Hebrew Scriptures are clear and unequivocal on the oneness of God . . . The Hebrew Bible affirms the one God with unmistakable clarity. Monotheism, an uncompromising belief in one God, is the hallmark of the Hebrew Bible, the unwavering affirmation of Judaism and the unshakable faith of the Jew.” Whether Christians are accused of being polytheists or tritheists or whether it is admitted that the Christian concept of the Tri-unity is a form of monotheism, one element always appears: one cannot believe in the Trinity and be Jewish. Even if what Christians believe is monotheistic, it s...

BOOK REVIEW: Four Views on Hell 2nd edition

...“in the Bible sins are differentiated in degrees of seriousness”, thus not all incurring identical punishment anyway, plus: “Finite creatures are simply not capable of committing sins that warrant never-ending punishment.”6 Walls likewise contradicts Burk on ‘infinite sin’: “It does not follow merely from the fact that sin is against an infinitely glorious being that sin is infinitely heinous. Indeed, a more plausible claim is the following: A finite being, with only finite time and power, can do only finite harm and, therefore, deserve only finite punishment. So far then, I am dubious that Burk has made the case that eternal hell as he conce...

Is The Rapture Biblical?

...r English Bibles today. For many, asking if this belief is biblical is a non-starter because it is assumed so based on 1 Thess. 4 so obviously it is. But this is a presupposition, reading the modern ideas of what “the rapture” means into the text. The modern idea being that Jesus comes back briefly (and maybe secretly), whooses all the Christians into the sky and takes them to heaven, away from all the troubles on the earth, before coming back later to do a proper “second coming”. John Nelson Darby, a 19th-century theologian, is often credited with creating this premillennial rapture doctrine, followed closely by C.I. Scofield who wrote a best-selling...

The Relationship Between Jesus and Sophia

...rences on Biblegateway.com to get a better grasp of the texts. Deuteronomy 32 says that God gave birth to the people. That was Sophia. This is a reference to Deut 32:18, which says, “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”. Personally, it seems a bit of a stretch to say so confidently this was “Sophia” when there’s no reference to Wisdom at all in the passage. The surrounding context appears to be speaking more about God in general, or YHWH specifically. But with a proper understanding of who Sophia truly is, this could be an accurate statement, just not within the context of the rest of the Instagram po...