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Fact-Checking the Viral Post Connecting Human Anatomy and the Bible

...ntly, the Bible never says Jesus was exactly 33 when He died — Luke tells us He began His ministry at “about thirty” (Luke 3:23), and we know His public ministry lasted a few years, but His precise age at death is a tradition, not a biblical statement. See my other recent article examining the age of Jesus here. Theologically, the phrase “the same number of years He held this Earth” is problematic. Jesus did not hold the world together only for 33 years. The eternal Word was with God in the beginning (John 1:1–3), and “in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Hebrews says He “sustains all things by His powerful word” (Hebrews...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part One)

...re recent Bible translations, which will most likely transliterate the Greek words instead. Not all the words get this treatment, and some still get presented as the word hell in English, for example, the NIV and NRSV will convert the word Gehenna into “hell”, but keep the Greek word Hades as-is (see: Matt. 5:22; 11:23). The etymology of “hell” and its origins and how it became the word we know today in English, would take more time than I have space for here, but in short, there are three main Greek words which often get translated as the word “hell”, even though they are each different words with different underlying meanings: GehennaLiterally...

Kirk Cameron And The Biblical Case For Annihilationism

...that the Bible’s clear teaching on hell is known as eternal conscious torment. We firmly believe that this is the only correct biblical view. (source) Yet beneath the noise of social media grinding its gears is something far more ordinary and far more Christian: a believer wrestling seriously with Scripture, or as some would say, “being a Berean” (Acts 17:11). This is something we all should be doing, forming our views and doctrines from Scripture, not out-of-context social media video snippets and memes. Whether one agrees with Cameron’s conclusions or not, what is happening is not the abandonment of orthodoxy, but the resurfacing of a long-standing...

Ancient “curse” amulet drastically changes perspective on Biblical dating

...lieve the Bible existed, making this the earliest appearance of the word YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. The implications are enormous and will reverberate for many years to come. Mount Ebal, where the amulet was found, was the mountain from which the curses were called out when the children of Israel made a covenant with God before entering the land of Israel, as seen in Deuteronomy 11:29: When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Pieter Gert van der Veen and Dr. Stripling both agree that this fits chronologically with the...

The Coming of Jesus: Coming on the clouds

...d in some Bibles as "like a son of man" which makes Jesus's reference a little clearer when comparing the texts, though the meaning is the same.   So what's happening in Daniel's vision, and why is Jesus talking about it? First of all, Jesus isn't just making a reference to this vision of Daniel by talking about clouds. Jesus repeatedly calls himself the "Son of Man" throughout his ministry, which is a veiled reference to what Daniel saw. When the Pharisees were questioning Jesus during his arrest, they asked him bluntly if he was the Messiah (Matt 26:63-65), and how did Jesus answer? By making a reference to Daniel 7: Jesus said to him, “You have said...

What is Contemplative Prayer?

...In the quiet, still silence, I await my God.   There seems to be some misgivings about the idea of “contemplative prayer” (also referred to as Christian Meditation) and in some of the descriptions I've read, I would agree that it can seem iffy. Contemplation, or sometimes known as Lectio Divina, is in its most basic form, the idea and practice of waiting on the Lord. Often in silence or while you ponder on scripture or when you seek an answer or just to rest in his presence and have your strength renewed. There are some people who think that this means “emptying your mind” and doing something akin to occultism, and ope...