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Lent: Day 5 - Ignatius to The Ephesians

Day Five: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to The Ephesians (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: The letter has a strong call to and for unity within The Church, along with respect for Their bishop. 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 There is a strong Theme to this letter from The outset, an...

Is fasting an expectation for Christians?

The season of Lent is here once again which of course brings up The topic of fasting, since The tradition of Lent comes from following Jesus’ example of his time in The wilderness (Luke 4:1–2). I wasn’t planning on writing anything specific this year like I have previous in previous years, but I felt inspired today at Church from one of Gospel readings: MatThew 9:14–15 Then The disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and The Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to Them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as The bridegroom is with Them, can They? The days will come when The bridegroom is t...

A Historic Easter Change Is Coming — But Will Protestants Get On Board?

Pope Francis has recently expressed The Catholic Church’s willingness to accept a unified date for Easter, a move aimed at fostering greater Christian unity, particularly with The Orthodox Church. This long-standing issue arises from The different calendars used by Western and Eastern Christian traditions — The Gregorian and Julian calendars — leading to discrepancies in Easter celebrations. Talks between Catholic and Orthodox leaders have intensified, hoping a common date could be agreed upon. However, this raises important questions for Protestant denominations regarding wheTher They would adopt The unified date or risk falling out of alignment w...

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

...ern form. The Church, in oTher words, is that stone: spreading through The empire not by force of arms but by The quiet, unstoppable advance of The Gospel, dismantling Rome’s claims to ultimate authority by proclaiming The truth about The True God. All three layers are real. All three are present in The text. And none of Them require a future literal battle at Megiddo to complete The picture. When military commanders invoke Revelation to tell service members that a president has been “anointed by Jesus” to trigger Armageddon, They are not giving voice to The Theology of Revelation. They are, ironically, recapitulating The very imperial Theology Revelation...

An ancient fragment mentions Jesus' wife!?

...UPDATE (3rd May 2014): It is now believed to have been confirmed as a hoax/fake; read The full story on The Wall Street Journal. Ancient and not a fake according to scientists IMAGE: HARVARD UNIVERSITY, KAREN L. KING/ASSOCIATED PRESS A little while ago, There was some hoopla in The news about a newly discovered fragment of papyrus from ancient times which contained The phrase "Jesus said to Them, 'my wife...,'". Obviously, and not surprisingly, The media made a big deal out of this. ATheists and The like, saw it as a blow to Christianity and conspiracy Theorists everywhere thought it confirmed Their views that The Vatican and The Catholic Church wer...

Raised in The Heavenlies!

...Easter is upon us once again! Lent is over, Good Friday has passed and now The time for mourning and fasting is complete. It's a time to feast, a time to remember and celebrate The resurrection of Christ as we look forward to our own final resurrection!But what really is The resurrection? How will we be resurrected, and what does it mean for us that Jesus rose again? Let’s explore what this means for us as Christians, and see what The Scriptures say. The resurrection is spiritual! That heading may cause some reading this to question me, but do read on – this is actually what The New Testament teaches us (though not only this type of resurrection). Many ti...