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What are the Seraphim, and was the devil one of them?

...plain the punishment God gives the serpent: to crawl on its belly and eat dust. Snakes already do that, so why would that be something unusual and a punishment for it? This “eating/licking the dust” that snakes now do is referenced again in Isaiah 65:25 and Micah 7:17 as part of their natural state it seems. Is it possible that this is an allusion to Satan — a potentially fiery-snake-like being — getting cast out of Heaven to the Earth, and now he had to “crawl” around here instead of the heavenly realms? There’s a few places which hint at the devil being on earth and that this is his kingdom and realm now, rather than anywhere else. Jesus...

Slavery in the Bible – Does God Condone Slavery?

...that the punishment for sin is eternity away from God in hell, forever. So we have a problem. We are slaves to sin and the punishment of that sin is eternity away from God in hell forever! But in that same verse (Romans 6:23) we also learn that God has offered us a free gift! “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Isaiah 53:5-7“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”...

Was there death before the Fall?

...mortal as punishment. After they ate the forbidden fruit, God 'evicted' them from the Garden in case they "might reach out [their] hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Gen 3:22) - but if they were already immortal then this would surely be of no concern to God. Their sin separated them from God as they would now not live forever with him (Ezk 18:4; Ezk 18:20). The concept of a spiritual aspect to people that is separate from the physical body seems to come in later, or is mixed into the concept of Sheol. Was Sheol was simply a euphemism, or caricature, for the grave and death which developed over time; or did the ancient Hebrew...

Lent Day 29: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 81-94

...o inflict punishment on the Christians, and many people sought out Anthony to hear him speak, or to receive prayer, with a lot of people turning from their worldly ways and dedicating themselves to the monastic life. The death of Anthony Anthony had learned “from Providence” (meaning either he learned it from God or just felt it was near because he was 105 years old), that his end was near and so he went out to see the monks in the “outer mountain” to bid them farewell and give them one last exhortation before he left them, “as though sailing from a foreign city to his own”. He encouraged them to remember all he taught them, to keep in the discipli...

The Coming of Jesus: The Olivet Discourse – Part 1

...tence and punishment is what follows in the Olivet Discourse which was to come upon that generation not ours. Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 all begin with the disciples pointing out how grand the temple was and Jesus saying to them that it "all will be thrown down". The temple was (and is) a big deal the Jewish people, so understandably, the disciples were concerned and wanted to know more about when it would be destroyed. Matthew 24:3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (cf. Luke 21:7; Mark 13:3-4)...

The Coming of Jesus: Revelation Fulfilled?

...this was punishment from the gods for his terrible treatment towards the Jews in the Jewish War and for destroying the Jerusalem Temple! Nero's name and title adding up to "666" Alternatively, if Domitian is the “one who is” (if John wrote under his reign, rather than Nero’s) then that would make Trajan the 8th king and Nerva the one who comes for a little while (and did only reign for a year). Trajan also brought persecutions against the Church, so it is plausible on the face of it. But this doesn’t fit with the three horns being uprooted (Galba, Otho, Vitellius) to make room for the short reign (Titus). Whichever it is, it still would apply to...