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Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday?

It's that time of year when you begin to see various articles and debates online about Hallowe'en, and whether it's entirely pagan in origin and the Church "stole it"; or if it's something that Christians should even have any part in. Table of Contents origins of the holiday Aren’t there pagan roots? What about “Trick or Treat”, costumes and pumpkins? In conclusion To some people, the answer is a straightforward “no”, while others say it falls into the realm of Christian freedom and personal discernment. But what about if you're unsure or somewhere in the middle of those two positions, how should you decide what is the right thing to do?...

A Historic Easter Change Is Coming — But Will Protestants Get On Board?

...Apostolic origin claiming they got their practice from John himself. But the Julian calendar, which is what the Church used in the fourth century, was increasingly out of sync with the actual solar year, so March 21 — generally assumed to be the date of the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox — gradually “drifted” away from the actual equinox. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar, hence the Gregorian Calendar, dropping 10 days and making the equinox fall on March 21 again. Most Eastern Christians did not adopt the new calendar and stayed with the Julian one, leading to a situation where Easter occasionally is on the same day as t...

Biblical Inspiration and the Canon: How We Got the Bible

...truct the original text with a high degree of confidence. We possess over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, along with thousands more in Latin, Syriac, and other languages. Among these, we have fragments from the second century, including Papyrus 52 (P52), a small portion of John’s Gospel dating to around AD 125. By the fourth century, we have complete copies of the New Testament, such as Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. With this wealth of manuscript evidence, scholars can compare variations and confidently determine what the original text said. A Comparison of Manuscript (Mss.) Evidence for Ancient Writings Bart Ehrman, a nota...

The Two Babylons Exposed: The Book That Misled Millions

...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 unfortunately had a long shelf life. That’s partly because it appeals to a certain kind of suspicion. If you’re already sceptical about the Catholic Church, Hislop offers an easy explanation: “It’s all pagan!”. But history isn’t ever that simple. And theology — especially the theology handed down through the ages by the...

David, Saul, And How We Respond To Broken Leadership

...When we think about David and Saul, we often focus on David’s rise to kingship or his battle with Goliath. But hidden within that story is a deep lesson for today’s generation about leadership, resistance, and the power of revolutionary love. At a recent youth training event (thanks to South West Youth Ministries), I was asked how I would present the story of David and Saul to a Christian teenage youth group. My mind turned to the politics of their relationship, and how David accepted Saul’s leadership, even when Saul had gone badly astray. David recognised that Saul was still God’s anointed king — placed there by God Himself — and that it w...