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Lent Day 28: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 71-80

...el at the resurrection! But “the same men who told us of the [resurrection] wrote [about the cross]”, Anthony responds. They would mock the cross but be then are silent about all the miracles and wonders which Jesus did which show that “Christ is no longer a man but God”; so they do themselves “much injustice” to have not read the Scriptures properly in order that they should see that “the deeds of Christ prove Him to be God come upon earth for the salvation of men”. Since they allegorise all of creation with the Greek legends of Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis etc, they “do not worship God Himself, but serve the creature rather than God who created...

How many apostles are there in the New Testament?

...came post-resurrection, sent out and chosen by the Church, and thus are gifted apostles in the Ephesian 4 “five fold ministry” sense, but are just not "of the Lamb" like the original Twelve were. I hope this makes sense and will act as a springboard into your own personal further study on this topic about the gift of being an apostle. I intend to follow up on this with a post about what the apostolic gift should look like, practically. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Endnote As mentioned above in the list of apostles mentioned in the New Testament, a couple of times the Greek word “apostolos” is translated simply as “me...

Creedal Christians: The Apostle's Creed

...the resurrection of the flesh, the resurrection of the flesh, Daniel 12:1; Luke 14:14; Luke 20:35-36; John 5:29; John 11:24-25; Acts 4:2; Acts 24:15; Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 15:12-13, 21;Philippians 3:10-11; Hebrews 6:2; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 20:5-6 [life everlasting]**This line was included by Marcellus but omitted by Rufinus and eternal life. Amen. Matthew 19:29; Matthew 25:46; John 3:15-16; John 3:36; John 4:14; John 5:24; John 6:40, 47, 54; John 10:28; John 12:50; John 17:3; Romans 2:7; Romans 6:23; Galatians 6:8; Titus 3:7; 1 John 2:25; Jude 1:21 As can be seen in the above table, there’s not a lot of chan...

Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

...enjoy the resurrection of Christ in the spirit (Rom 8:13, Col 3:5). It’s pure discipline and obedience (Jesus did say when not if – Matthew 6:16-18; Mark 2:20). It’s putting to death the body – killing the flesh in order to live by the Spirit. (Gal 5:17) It’s training you in self-control, discipline and willpower; growing and nurturing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8). For healing and deliverance of others (Mark 9:29; Matthew 17:21). To prepare to hear from God via visions and revelation (Acts 10:30). For preparation for Church leadership (Acts 13:2-3; Acts 14:23) To not be ruled by your desir...

Lent, Lament and Lockdown

...Lent is a time of self denial and of giving things up, and also a period of lament in the lead up to Easter where we remember the Passion and death of Christ before we celebrated the glorious resurrection.  Often this is a personal affair on the discipline side of things, even if it's a practice shared within your church community, but this year has been so very different. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, the whole world has slowly gone into lockdown country by country, creating a strange sort of global “Lent” where everyone is having to practice self control and self denial. This has been underpinned with a sense of lament at the way thi...

Does Christmas have pagan origins?

...death and resurrection which held a far greater importance and cause for celebration. Easter was really the first major festival of the Church in its early years over and above anything else that came to be recognised. The next real reference to Jesus’ birth being on the date we are more familiar with, comes from an important early theologian called Hippolytus of Rome, around the year 220 AD, in his Commentary on Daniel: For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the kalends of January [December 25th], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, [2 or 3 BC] but from...