The King Takes the Throne
All three synoptic gospels reach an initial climax by describing Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah. This blog has previously addressed the Hebrew term Messiah and it's Greek equivalent…
The Choice
Bible scholars have long recognized that Genesis 1 & 2 offer two complementary creation narratives. Genesis 1:1-2:3 contains a comprehensive account of how God formed the entire cosmos by bringing…
Bearing the Right Fruit
The theme of fruitfulness can be traced throughout the scriptures. In the last blog, we examined Isaiah 5, which contains the song of the vineyard. God the landowner lovingly cultivated…
The Vineyard
Isaiah chapter 5 contains a song about a landowner who made every effort to cultivate a flourishing vineyard: "My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug…
Standing Before the Pearly Gates
When people think about salvation, there are lots of ideas which fill their minds. In Revelation 21, John describes a vision of "the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down…
Elucidating Ephesians
In the evangelical world, perhaps no passage of scripture is cited more often than Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this…
God’s Mystery
We're building up to Revelation 11, arguably the most puzzling chapter in the Bible. Chapter 11 will reveal the contents of the scroll which we first encountered in the right…
Closing the Canon
Athanasius (296-373 AD) had a remarkable but tumultuous life. His physical appearance was apparently quite striking: he was very short with a dark complexion and black hair. His opponents dubbed…
Heresy and the Canon
Around 140 AD, a wealthy shipowner named Marcion arrived in Rome. He was originally from Sinope, a city in Asia Minor on the coast of the Black Sea. Although he…
New Wine & New Wineskins
The 27 books which were eventually included in the New Testament were all produced by the end of the 1st century. The gospel of Mark (which drew heavily upon the…