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What is Monarchical Trinitarianism?

...ce” (St John Chrysostom, Homily, 70) In summary, the perspective of the Orthodox Church, and various theologians in the early church, explain the Monarchy of the Father through His supreme greatness as the “cause, source, and principle” while simultaneously affirming the co-equality of the Persons within the Trinity, since they share the same divine essence. Anything “lesser” in the Son or Spirit is due to their cause, function or role rather than their ontological reality. Biblical Foundations and Theological Consistency The biblical foundation for Monarchical Trinitarianism is evident in Scriptures such as Proverbs 8:22–30, which speaks of Wisdo...

The Coming of Jesus: The Olivet Discourse – Part 2

...Welcome to Part Two of the Olivet Discourse! It’s been a while, so we’ll pick up right where we left off with Matthew 24 verse 15 onwards, after a small recap of the chapter so far. The Olivet Discourse begins with the disciples admiring the architecture of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus responds to this by telling them that it will all be thrown down and destroyed, to the point that not one stone will be left on another. Later on, when they are sat on the Mount of Olives, Jesus’ disciples come to him and ask “when will this happen?” and “what will be the sign” that all of this is about to commence? If we look at the accou...

Did the Early Church invent the Trinity?

...The doctrine and concept of the Trinity is encapsulated in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus instructs the apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. John, who was very close to Jesus and obviously knew him well, alludes to this teaching frequently in his Gospel, too. For example: John 1:1; John 8:58; John 10:30; and John 10:38. Yet, despite this, and numerous other examples throughout the New Testament which point towards the threefold nature of God, plenty of myths and legends abound online and in books which state that the divinity of Jesus (and therefore the Trinit...

Where Hal Lindsey and Dispensationalism Went Wrong

...This is a guest post from Charles Meek Hal Lindsey’s bookThe Late Great Planet Earth Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth, first edition in 1970, sold over 40 million copies. Gullible Christians got sucked into Lindsey’s soon-end-of-the-world cult-like poppycock. As time has passed without his version of Armageddon taking place, we can now objectively analyze where Lindsey went wrong: Lindsey (p. 54, 181), like other dispensationalists, placed the beginning of the end with Israel becoming a nation in 1948. He thought all prophecy would be fulfilled within a 40-year generation (Matthew 24:34). But 1988 came and went, proving him to b...

God before ages becomes an infant!

...I saw a beautifully sung a capella song the other day of Facebook. It was about the Nativity, the incarnation of Christ. One of the lines in the song really struck me, the profound nature of what God did summed up in a single sentence: Glorify, with the angels and the shepherds, Him who by His own will has become a newborn child, yet is our God before all ages.   Let that sink in for a moment before reading this excerpt from one of John Chrysostom's sermons on Christmas (something else I saw shared on Facebook which I think sums up this day in better words than I could muster): "What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wo...

Did the Qumran community predict the coming of Jesus?

...I'm going to start a new category here for "General Interest" which will be for things I see or read about that I think are interesting or informative about the Bible, Christianity or the Faith in general; but which aren't necessarily topics I could, or would need to, write a full blog post about. I'll kick off this new venture with an brief look at something I read the other day from the Dead Sea scrolls which is very interesting – Qumran text 4Q521. It gives us a glimpse of early Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah from the time before Jesus arrived, and shows just how Jesus did actually meet those expectations. For example, when John asks his disci...