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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...

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...

Lent: Day 4 - Polycarp to The Philippians

Day Four: Epistle of Polycarp to The Philippians (full text) Who: Polycarp of Smyrna, who was a direct disciple of The apostle John. We also have some information about Polycarp via Irenaeus (who knew Polycarp) in his book, Adv. Haer., III.3.4: “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of The Church in Smyrna”. What: Lots of exhortations are contained in this letter, and is also referenced by Irenaeus as being for “those who wish to do so, and are anxious about Their salvation, can learn The character of his (Polycarp's) faith, and The preachin...

Lent: Day 11 - Ignatius to Polycarp

Day Eleven: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to Polycarp (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 letter addressed personally to Polycarp giving him advice and encouragement as a bishop, plus some instructions on marriage to The Church, which are reminiscent of Paul’s epistles. 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. Wh...

How many apostles are There in The New Testament?

Often in any discussion on The gifts of The Spirit and wheTher They are still active today (Cessationism vs Continuationism), The topic of Apostles comes up and wheTher The gift/office is still active today in The Church. Detractors of The Continuationist position will often quip that ‘if There were modern-day apostles, They would be world famous!’ – though I’m not sure why. Even The original Twelve weren’t “world famous” in The sense that They mean. But I digress. This isn't a question of practice, or opinion, but to examine The Scriptures to see what They say about The gift. Scripture gives us an indication that this gift, or role, wasn’t jus...