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Lent: Day 7 - Ignatius to the Trallians

Day Seven: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Trallians (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: Ignatius urges the church to continue in unity and to honour their leadership. This letter also gives a defence against certain heresies. Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. When: Around 107-108 AD the letter to the Tr...

the Deity of Christ in the gospel of Matthew - Part 1

the titles “Jehovah” and “God” given to Jesus in Matthew 1 This is a guest post by “KingsServant”, see Part 2 here. In this series of articles, I want to present the case that Matthew teaches Jesus is God, from the arguments I made in 2 moderated debates with a Muslim apologist, Mohammed Abd al Razack, commonly known as Al Yemeni. Although I will be going into far more detail, not having to deal with the tight time controls of a debate format. the moderated debate on YouTube with me (KingsServant)   Matthew’s teaching of the Trinity and in particular that Jesus is God is by no means limited to the baptismal formula given by Christ after h...

the Coming Kingdom of the Son of Man

the importance of context of what's being said, and to whom, in Scripture. I came across this image the other day (in the header above; see larger here) that links together three parts of Matthew’s gospel to highlight the connection which many often miss, or read as separate events. I like the image because it shows that when Jesus spoke these things, he would have been saying them directly to the disciples and others who were listening to his teaching, and not in some cryptic, ambiguous dictation to a prophetic scribe, devoid of all context and meaning to those around him at the time. Update Feb 2017: I am adding some additional information to this to dis...

Kirk Cameron And the Biblical Case For Annihilationism

...t through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10), and something believers “put on” at the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:53–54). Conditional Immortality simply takes that biblical theme seriously. It argues that only those united to Christ are granted immortality, while the wicked ultimately perish. Judgement is real, severe, and final — but it does not require endless conscious suffering. This distinction matters, because much of the outrage directed at annihilationism is based on inherited philosophical assumptions, which come from Plato, rather than careful exegesis. Biblical Language: Death Means Death One of the most compelling aspects of condi...

Scientist Uncovers Hidden 1,750-Year-Old New Testament Translation with Ultraviolet Imaging

...A scientist has reportedly uncovered an ancient translation containing sections of the gospel of Matthew, believed to be the sole surviving evidence of the fourth manuscript supporting the Old Syriac version of the gospels. the research team, which includes medieval expert Grigory Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), employed ultraviolet imaging to reveal the ancient translation concealed beneath three layers of text. the research, published last month in the journal New Testament Studies, presents an interpretation of Matthew 11:30 to Matthew 12:26, initially translated as part of the Old Syriac translations around 1,500 years ago. According...

An ancient fragment mentions Jesus' wife!?

...UPDATE (3rd May 2014): It is now believed to have been confirmed as a hoax/fake; read the full story on the Wall Street Journal. Ancient and not a fake according to scientists IMAGE: HARVARD UNIVERSITY, KAREN L. KING/ASSOCIATED PRESS A little while ago, there was some hoopla in the news about a newly discovered fragment of papyrus from ancient times which contained the phrase "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...,'". Obviously, and not surprisingly, the media made a big deal out of this. Atheists and the like, saw it as a blow to Christianity and conspiracy theorists everywhere thought it confirmed their views that the Vatican and the Catholic Church wer...