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Who is the New Jerusalem?

This is a sort of ‘addendum’ to the Revelation Fulfilled? article    Yes you read the title correct: WHO (not what) is the New Jerusalem?   To answer this, you must ask yourself: who is the Bride of Christ?   If you answered “the Church” (as in, the body of believers, not buildings) then you’d be correct as they are both one and the same!   Roughly 1500 miles square.   Maybe you’ve always wondered why the Church is called the “bride”? Well, let’s examine some Scriptures and see! 2 Corinthians 11:2I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Chris...

Lent: Day 10 - Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

Day Ten: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Smyrnaeans (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: A defence against the heresy of Docetism and an intriguing insight into the possible origins of evil spirits! Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. When: Around 107-108 AD The opening chapters of this letter pulls no punc...

Has Brexit just spoiled “End Times” prophecy?

...ook at my series on the Second Coming of Jesus:   The Coming of Jesus: Introduction The Coming of Jesus: Daniel's 70 Weeks The Coming of Jesus: Coming on the Clouds The Coming of Jesus: The Olivet Discourse – Part 1 The Coming of Jesus: The Olivet Discourse – Part 2 The Coming of Jesus: Revelation Fulfilled? Who is the New Jerusalem? The Coming of Jesus: Our Future Hope - What Now?...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part Two)

...two part series, but there will be a final Part 3 now, where I’ll look briefly at the Tree of Life motif in reference to eternal life and conditionalism, and summarise these last two posts to bring it all together as a (hopefully) cohesive whole.     Further Reading/Sources https://oncedelivered.net/tag/eclectic-view/ https://www.britannica.com/art/apocalyptic-literature https://reknew.org/2008/01/are-you-an-annihilationist-and-if-so-why/ https://reknew.org/2008/01/the-case-for-annihilationism/ https://reknew.org/2014/12/what-the-new-testament-says-about-annihilation/ Rethinking Hell: Readings in Evangelical Conditionalism — https://amzn....

Jesus, Mithras and Ancient Roman Cults: Separating Fact from Fiction

...Welcome to the next instalment of my series looking at the ancient mythological gods and how they compare to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Mithras is yet another popular ancient god that people like to compare with Jesus and make wild claims about, proposing that they are the same deities with different names. But is this even remotely true? This article has ended up being a bit longer than anticipated as it’s one of the few ancient religions that was contemporary to the birth of Christianity which was seen as somewhat of a rival belief system, so there’s a lot of interesting things to cover! The Origins Mithras has his roots in ancient Persi...

Understanding The New Testament: Inspiration, Canonisation, And Historical Context

...tion as a series of momentary “supernatural writing sessions” creates an expectation that anything “spiritual” written by an apostle or associate had to be preserved. This mindset suggests that missing letters indicate a failure in the process of collecting inspired books. Instead, we should understand inspiration as a collaboration between normal people and God’s providence. The apostles, as normal individuals, used common vocabulary, styles, and forms of expression of their time, as evidenced by comparisons with contemporary literature. In essence, understanding the New Testament requires acknowledging the diverse and dynamic nature of the canonisat...