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Lent Day 19: Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church: 10-18

...iscordant faithlessness does not maintain unity”. 1 John 2:19 They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us. He goes on to say that the “Lord permits and suffers these things to be” so that personal liberty may still exist, but that God will use these for his own glory to show that which is genuine in contrast to the false, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 11:19Indeed, there have to be factions (Gk. Heresies) among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. Of these people, Cyprian makes reference to Psalm 1 as those who sit “in the...

Lent Day 28: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 71-80

...and their faith perishes, yet the Christians, even though killed by kings, flourishes all the more! As Tertullian is recorded as saying, which relates to this, “the blood of the martyrs are the seed of the Church”! These signs, Anthony argues, are the proof of our faith. Proof doesn’t lie in fancy, well-worded arguments, as the Greeks would have it or want, but rather in the manifestation of faith. To which, Anthony pointed out that in their midst were some who were “vexed with demons”; so they had them brought before him. He goes on to say that with all their wordy arguments, magic, arts or idols, they cannot cleanse such a person. So “put away you...

The Coming of Jesus: Our Future Hope - What Now?

...ld to the faith until the end were warned by angels before this destruction came so that they could escape the city and survive.   This was the culmination of all things! The old world with its sacrificial system and priestly laws and rules for pleasing God and removing sin was done away with; now Christ has come, a new law and rule had also come: the Law of Christ/Love (Gal 6:2; 1 Cor 9:21). Grace abounds and love rules. Sin and death are defeated (2 Tim 1:10) and those who believe on Christ are given new life and right to be heirs to eternal life (Titus 3:6-7)! The old has passed and the new has surely come (2 Cor 5:17)!   Through baptism we are born ag...

The Eighth Day

...ng of the faith, we reconcile the world back to God as co-workers with Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:9)! 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.   Resting with God This is God showing that things work differently now. No longer is he only found in a physical brick and mortar temple, or a specific holy place (as Jesus points out in John 4:21) – now God dwells with us and in us because our bodies ARE the temp...

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

...ters were faithfully reporting the events as they occurred. The fact that women (and other outcasts of society) were so included can be seen in critical ancient witnesses to Christianity, one well-known example coming from Celsus, a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and critic of the faith. He wrote that Christianity “attracted ignorant and foolish people, including women and children” (Contra Celsus, 3.44). Typical atheist meme with incorrect “facts” The Mithraic Mysteries Now, this is where things start to get a bit intriguing. The cult of Mithras was what you might call a secret society, complete with its own set of initiation rituals and beliefs...

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

...A common modern perception of the inspiration of Scripture often portrays it as a rigid, divine dictation of words from God to be written down verbatim. This perspective leads to concerns among some religious communities, such as Muslims, who view any alteration or addition to the text as a potential threat to the entire faith. The Islamic understanding of inspiration emphasises direct and unalterable divine dictation, contributing to their scepticism of multiple Bible translations, which they falsely label as “corruption”. In contrast, the Biblical inspiration of the Scriptures has never been viewed as a literal divine dictation, as if the apostles were un...