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Jesus Like You've Never Seen Before - Discoveries from Early Christian Art

I recently made a video on TikTok about what Jesus looks like in religious art and icons across various cultures, showing that people see Jesus as relatable to them and their people groups, and thus often depict Jesus looking the same as their own race. There was a comment made claiming that the Christ Pantocrator icon is exactly what Jesus looked like, and thus all others are wrong. If you’re wondering about the icon name, Pantocrator (Greek: Παντοκράτωρ) literally means “ruler of all”, but usually gets translated as “Almighty” or “all-powerful”. The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator,6th-century encaustic icon fromSaint Catheri...

Is The Rapture Biblical?

...from the Greek word that is rendered as “caught up” (ἁρπάζω / harpázō) in our English Bibles today. For many, asking if this belief is biblical is a non-starter because it is assumed so based on 1 Thess. 4 so obviously it is. But this is a presupposition, reading the modern ideas of what “the rapture” means into the text. The modern idea being that Jesus comes back briefly (and maybe secretly), whooses all the Christians into the sky and takes them to heaven, away from all the troubles on the earth, before coming back later to do a proper “second coming”. John Nelson Darby, a 19th-century theologian, is often credited with creating this...

Lent: Day 12 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 1-11

...which in Greek and Roman times was more like a profession, since it had its own clothing style to display this (similar to how you'd recognise a vicar today by the white dog collar). To this end, Justin argues that there are those who wear the “garb” of philosophers, but who “do nothing worthy of their profession”, yet not all philosophers are punished for this just because they claim the name. Similarly, there were poets who would get a laugh by insulting the gods and who also “taught atheism”, yet to the contrary of how Christians were treated, the Romans “bestow prizes and honours upon those who euphoniously insult the gods”! “Why, then,...

Lent: Day 15 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 36-47

...y ancient Greek text to have this wording, and then any other quote from Tertullian onward (~200 AD), comes purely from the The Old Latin Version (Vetus Latina Bible) translation of the Psalm, which is the Latin Bible which predated the Vulgate. Prophecy and free will The rest of the chapters go through more examples of prophetic messages and the different types that can be found in the OT, such as explaining that sometimes the Spirit spoke prophecies in the past tense as though they had already happened. To avoid this being used as a reason to misrepresent the message, Justin goes on to explain that the “things which [God] absolutely knows will take place,...

Lent: Day 16 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 48-59

...ny of the Greek or Roman gods and prophets came along. There is a lot of doctrine and theology contained in these chapters, a lot which is still very relevant for apologetics today, some which might serve as a starting point. I’d recommend everyone take some time to read these, and the preceding, chapters carefully....

Is there salvation for fallen angels?

...ses). The Greek word here for “world” is kosmos, which can sometimes have a broader meaning of “universe” or “creation” rather than just this planet, but in this context I'm not sure it allows for that scope of reconciliation, given the other passages of scripture we've seen about the rebellious angels (or demons) level of punishment. Either way, Scripture doesn't give us any more information on this topic than that, so anything else would be speculation, but I think we can be reasonably certain that salvation through Christ is only for humans....