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The Problem of Suffering and How We Approach it

The topic of human suffering is a subject many Christians struggle with, and is an issue many theologians have written about over the centuries — so it's definitely not something I can fully address in a single blog post! But there are some general principles we can find in Scripture that many Christians can/do accept, which should act as a starting point to addressing this subject, such as: We live in a fallen world due to sin (Gen 3), and so things aren’t perfect and neither are people, therefore suffering can happen from illness, nature, and human action (or inaction). Not all suffering is necessarily “bad”, from a Christian perspective. For exam...

The Relationship Between Jesus and Sophia

...ng in the human race. If you have the books in your canon, there are similar things spoken of Wisdom in Sirach 24:1–22 and in Wisdom 7:21–27. They say things like “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High” (like a Word, maybe? See Psalm 33:6!), and, “…wisdom, the fashioner of all things…”. Do you see the picture coming together yet? You can read the other two references 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.”. Person...

Man-Made Tradition vs Apostolic Tradition

...ording to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.   This is often something quoted as a backup to arguing against traditions. Paul’s warnings here are quite valid, we should be careful what we believe and follow as Christians. This is a warning against "man made traditions" but what if I told you that Paul also tells the churches to FOLLOW traditions too? 1 Corinthians 11:2I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you.2 Thessalonians 2:15So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught...

The Coming of Jesus: Coming on the clouds

...on with a human form) 'coming with the clouds of heaven' which has all sorts of implications that we often miss by either not knowing much of the Old Testament, or because we're not Jewish with a better understanding of these prophecies. As a small note too, it's also these visions of Daniel that Revelation in the New Testament takes a lot of its imagery from and describes the same events – I will be touching on that more in the next part in this series. Often times, our thoughts on these phrases or this kind of prophetic language, is coloured by our upbringing or teaching from a church, or even by secular culture which has taken this imagery and "hollywoodi...

Raised in the Heavenlies!

...the same human Jesus they once knew (2 Cor 5:16). Despite eating and drinking (Luke 24:39-43) and seeming the same as before, he now appeared in their midst behind locked doors (John 20:19); travelled with people in an unrecognisable form – or could control other’s perceptions of him until required (Luke 24:15-16), and the could also disappear in the blink of an eye (Luke 24:31)! Christ was raised physically, initially, but then his body was different. Glorified, not human. Origen captures this concept well in his book Contra Celsus; “After his resurrection, Christ existed in an intermediate state, as it were. For it was somewhere between the phys...

Lent Day 37: Leo the Great: Letter XXVIII (called the "Tome")

...natures, human and divine, united in the one divine Person of the Son of God. When 3 June, 449 AD You can find today’s reading on page 182 here: lentfatherscomplete.pdf   Today's reading is a defence of the faith against certain things that a priest called Eutyches was teaching, written by Pope Leo I. Eutyches was speaking against the teaching of the Archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, who said that the human experiences of Christ were only part of the ‘the man’ which was distinct from the ‘God the Word’ part of Jesus. To combat this, Eutyches went too far in the other direction and declared that Christ was "a fusion of human and divine el...