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

...tioned in Revelation 2:8, which I think is pretty nifty. So you can see from this that Polycarp is an important link back to the Apostles and the next generation of leaders that followed them. Even Irenaeus, as the next link from Polycarp gives us a bridge with close relations to the original Twelve and what was passed on and preserved. But if you don’t know much else about Polycarp, you may be familiar with a famous quote from him: “86 years I have served 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, a...

So, where are we going?

...ement: Revelation 20:12-13And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. This judgement sounds a bit different to simply being condemned to hell automatically. At least here it appears as though God is considering his judgement on the people before deciding, else what is the point to this process? Another thing to consider is what Paul writes a...

Is it the end of the world as we know it?

...mes. Revelation 6:12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood... Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned to darkness    and the moon to blood,        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Matthew 24:29 is sometimes included in this type of thing, despite there not being a mention of a red moon, but that "the moon will not give its light" instead. Arguably, Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 are speaking about the same event here, as Jesus also says that "the sun will be darkened" too. The list becomes a little shorter when you...

Was the omniscience of God a developed idea?

...Or do we retroactively place our current theology of God on God? Consider the Garden of Eden: '[T]he Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”'  (Gen. 3:8-10) Now today we make it into a rhetorical question, but was this always so? In this story, God is spoken of almost in a physical-bodily sense as walking in the garden, since "they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden" as he moved about, and then tried to hide themselves from his view! Next think of the tower of Babel - "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built" (Gen 11:5) - Did he not just know already? Also this story...

Was Jesus worshipped in the New Testament?

...mans. 3. Revelation 22:8-9 - The Angel's Directive And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you ... Worship God!” The closing chapters of Revelation reveal a moment where John, in awe, attempts to worship the angel who shared divine visions. The angel's immediate rebuke echoes throughout the ages: "You must not do that! Worship God!". This clearly shows that even other divine beings know that, even though they are greater than humans, they are still lower than God and thus should not be worshipped as God is. Conclusion...

Jesus, Yahweh, And The Power Over The Storm

...Critics of Christianity will often make the claim that Jesus never said he was God or divine in the Gospels. The problem comes when they set unrealistic demands and expectations, like wanting a chapter and verse where Jesus says, “I am God, worship me”. But this isn’t how the Bible works and definitely not how Jesus went about his ministry. Throughout the Gospels, there are clear connections that reveal the true nature of Jesus in ways that would have been obvious to the Jewish people and leaders of his day who were very familiar with the Torah and other Scriptures we now call the Old Testament. One of the most striking examples is His demonstration of po...