Blog Search Results

How Polycarp (And Others) Show The Early Use Of The New Testament

...rved him [Jesus], and he never did me any injury”. He said this when asked to deny his faith when facing the man who could (and would) have him burned at the stake to die a martyr’s death! Polycarp was, and is, an great example of standing strong in our faith no matter what. While that is also a good topic, what I want to focus on today is what Polycarp wrote. From what we have in existence still, there’s only one letter that bears his name, which he sent to the church in Philippi — yes, the same one Paul founded. We know from Irenaeus that Polycarp wrote more than this single letter, but sadly they no longer are with us, but there’s still two oth...

Doubting Defying Jihad: Questioning the Popular Conversion Story

...nies that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for sinners. Following her conversion according to her account, she engaged in a number of public debates with clerics in which she defended her decision to leave Islam and follow Christ. It is not uncommon for apostates to have meetings with scholars arranged by their family members in the hope that they might be won back to Islam, but it is very surprising that her influential father would want to give his apostate daughter such a platform to speak to an audience, given the shame on the family that would have been brought already by her leaving Islam, in the mindset of such people. Furthermore, according to t...

The Two Babylons Exposed: The Book That Misled Millions

...cripture: Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, Moses’ fast on Sinai, and Elijah’s journey to Horeb. Church Fathers like Irenaeus and Athanasius saw it as a time for self-denial and spiritual renewal — not mourning a pagan god. Yes, there are pagan festivals that involve seasonal death and rebirth stories. But similarity does not mean origin. If that logic held, then even Jesus’ resurrection would be suspect because pagan cultures also told resurrection-like stories. Yet the gospel stands apart — not because of myth but because of history and revelation. Why Hislop’s Work Persists Even though The Two Babylons is poor scholarship, it’s...

Before The Pumpkins: Faith In The Flames

...nesses of Jesus Himself. He served faithfully as bishop of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir, Turkey), a bustling port city of trade, culture, and imperial devotion. When persecution began to stir, Polycarp was not a young zealot but an elderly shepherd who had spent his life guiding others in Christ’s way. His story is preserved in The Martyrdom of Polycarp, one of the earliest martyr narratives ever written, likely composed by those who knew him personally. How the Stadium would have looked in the time of Polycarp. Image: İzmir Time Machine The Arrest and the Trial When soldiers came to arrest him, Polycarp did not run. Instead, he greeted his captors wi...

Lent: Day 3 - Mathetes to Diognetus, pt. 2

...the name Jesus or the title of Christ, except in a chapter heading, but there's no mistaking who the author is writing about, with some great descriptions of the nature and love of God throughout the remaining portion of this book. There is one small detail which stood out to me near the end of the epistle, and that's when the author gives a small tidbit of information about himself by saying that the things he is teaching are not “strange to [him]” nor is it “inconsistent with right reason” because he had been, in fact, “a disciple of the Apostles” and now had become “a teacher of the Gentiles”! The use of the title “Word” throughout, and...

Lent: Day 12 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 1-11

...e Reason (Jesus) which condemns them all for following demons. The word play is lost in English, but the word for “reason” is logos and so he says that the Greeks used their own reasoning (logos) to pass judgement, but that they, along with the Barbarians, were condemned by Reason Himself (the Logos), “who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ”. It is because of this, Justin argues, that the Christians denounce the gods as being “wicked and impious demons”. Now, to modern ears, what the Christians were accused of will sound strange: their charge was that of atheism! But back in the early second century “atheism” was a phrase wh...