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Will UK Councils Criminalise Christianity? The Alarming Precedent Set by a Labour Council

...t prayer, worship, and evangelism as public threats. The methods have changed, but the intent remains strangely familiar: to push the Gospel to the margins, to confine it to the private sphere, and to make public displays of faith something suspicious, weird, and even harmful. If Rushmoor’s injunction had gone through, it would have made praying with someone in town square, even holding out a leaflet, something punishable by fines or prison time. No blood shed, but freedom restricted and removed. No martyrdom, but the same coercive pressure to be silent. Succumb to Caesar (the local council) or face death (prison/fines etc). History Teaches Us Something the...

Armageddon Is Not A Battle Plan: What Revelation Actually Says — And Why It Matters Right Now

...d compels worship of the first beast (Rev. 13:11–17) functioning, in essence, as what we might today call a propaganda machine: the imperial cult apparatus of priests, temples, public ceremonies, and coins bearing the Emperor’s divine titles. It is later explicitly named the “false prophet” (Rev. 16:13; 19:20). It conquers not by force but by manufactured consent. Revelation is a theological critique of empire, written to encourage persecuted believers that Rome, for all its apparent invincibility, is not ultimate. Its violence is not divine. Its claims to eternal dominion are a parody of the real thing. This is the lens through which everything else i...

Why do bad things happen to 'good' people?

...aybe even worship God, and live as best they can in accordance with his commands, get cancer for example? Or suddenly lose a child or spouse? Or have to constantly worry how they will pay the bills month to month? Isn't God good? Doesn't he care? Yes. Yes he is, and yes he does. Often with these kinds of questions, people will point to Job. If you don't know the story of Job, basically in a nutshell, he was a good, God-fearing man and then Satan challenges God by saying, "stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face" and then lots of really bad things happened to him (like his house collapsing and killing his fa...

The Coming of Jesus: Daniel's 70 Weeks

...know nor worship the God of the Jews (Isa 45:5)! So when did the seventy week clock begin ticking, if not with Cyrus? There are four decrees by three kings to the Jews concerning the rebuilding of the temple and the city, over a period of time: Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes (twice, although there is some dispute over whether there was a second king with the same name later on). But is it the decree of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11-26) in which the Jewish people were allowed to go back to Jerusalem with the blessing of the king, so that they may restore it fully. This happened  in the 7th year of his reign (Ezra 7:8), which according to historical records, would ha...

Lent: Day 1 - The Didache

...s Day) to worship and break bread. There's also a great deal of information and teaching of how to recognise false prophets and apostles contrasted with true ones within a New Testament context. I hope you enjoyed reading the Didache as much as I did....

Lent: Day 13 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 12-23

...God to be worshipped. …we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all Demonic Influences This is the start of misunderstanding, and Justin goes on to explain how it is the demons he previously mentioned (see yesterday's reading) that go about misrepresenting the Christian faith, but in reality, Christians are changed people and the evil and wicked things they once did and lov...