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Should Christians get tattoos, and is it Biblical?

...lies onto Scripture making it anything but clear and moving us a little farther away from the original intent. This verse is more than likely admonishing against copying the surrounding pagan practices of the time than being a blanket rule against any form of “tattoo”. Arguably there are passages that say that Jesus’ body was “marked” in some way, as in the book of Revelation which some see as a reference to a tattoo of sorts: Revelation 19:16 (WEB)He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Or in the Old Testament, Isaiah speaks of God in a similar manner as having “engraved” the names of his...

The Coming of Jesus: Revelation Fulfilled?

...Canon of Scripture. We should always endeavour to understand the history and context of a book of Scripture in order to fully understand its intended meaning, and thus, “rightly divide” (2 Tim 2:15) and interpret the Bible properly.   Two Dating Views There are two main views on the dating of Revelation: the “early date” and the “late date”. The early date places John writing Revelation around 64-68 AD, shortly before the fall of Jerusalem and just as the Jewish War was getting underway during the reign of Nero. The late date puts the writing towards the end of the reign of Domitian around 95-96 AD. From John’s own testimony, we know that h...

Great Lent: The Season of Fasting

...t God and Scripture – to really focus on a verse or passage of Scripture and to pray and wait on God in silence until you become aware of His presence and His voice (in whatever form that takes, i.e. visions, pictures, words etc.), and are filled with the Spirit who can reveal the deeper things of God and Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:10). You can read m�ore on this type of prayer, and its Scriptural basis, in my other article, here.� Pray the ancient “Jesus Prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” When words fail you and your mind is busy and cluttered, I have found this to be most helpful in stilling and focusing th...

The Neuroscience Of Resisting Temptation

...truths of Scripture, showing us that God’s design for self-control is not just a moral obligation but a pathway to wholeness and flourishing as a healthy person. The Science Behind Resisting Temptation The study on self-control and temptation explored the brain’s salience network — the system responsible for detecting what’s important — and found something really very interesting: people better at resisting temptation have a healthier dynamic between this network and other parts of the brain, such as the visual system. In other words, their brains are better at ignoring distractions and focusing on what truly matters. Here are some of the be...

Was there death before the Fall?

...hroughout Scripture to be something that sets us against God, and puts us into disharmony with our Creator - this is what happens at Babel (Genesis 11:1-10). Looking across all of Scripture, it does seem like the idea of Sheol being more than just a physical grave develops and becomes an actual spiritual 'abode' for a spiritual aspect of humanity. This is often called "Progressive Revelation", and is "the concept that the sections of the Bible that were written later contain a fuller revelation of God compared to the earlier sections", which in this case would assume that we've always had a spiritual state, but that earlier authors just didn't know about...

Lent Day 23: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 21-30

...or quote Scripture (for even Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus in the desert, and the demoniacs declared Jesus to be the Son of God), pay no heed since they do not do this to aid our discipline of righteousness, but rather to tire us out and lead us to abandon the principles of the faith out of despair and from feeling burdened. For the demons do all things --they prate, they confuse, they dissemble, they confound--to deceive the simple. They din, laugh madly, and whistle; but if no heed is paid to them forthwith they weep and lament as though vanquished. Though they may attack us with temptations and evil, ungodly thoughts, like fiery darts flung at our mi...