The Importance of The Gospel Message

Why is telling people the gospel so important?  Can't you just live a happy wealthy life and tell everyone around you that God is blessing you?  Isn't that good enough?  Why does it matter if we tell anyone about the person, works, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?

Is Christmas Pagan?

Every year before Christmas we all see people sharing memes and articles about how Christmas is a pagan holiday or comes from pagan roots.  But is this true and does it matter?  First lets investigate where Christmas, the seasonal symbols and ideals, came from and discuss why it matters.

Rediscovering The Vastness of John 3:16

 Everyone has seen or heard John 3:16 on football face paint, billboards, bumper stickers, t-shirts, everywhere.  It has seem to become a mindless slogan in evangelical christian culture.  When digging into the meaning and the message, we find something so grand, so majestic, so powerful, that John 3:16 has the ultimate implications for all humanity; contained in these 25 words (NASB).  For some, rediscovering John 3:16 can mean new eternal life!

The Son of God and sons of God

Throughout the Bible, various persons are stated as being sons of God or as God but what makes Jesus more unique than all them?  We must first properly understand what scripture means when it calls Jesus and others a son of God.  This helps us properly understand the uniqueness of Jesus.

Who Is Jesus Really?

The debate about the historical existence of Jesus is not a debate at all.  Genuine historians, even secular non christian historians accept the fact that Jesus actually existed.  E.P. Sanders, a highly respected secular historian stated: "...we have a good idea of the main lines of his ministry and his message. We know who he was, what he did, what he taught, and why he died. ….. the dominant view [among scholars] today seems to be that we can know pretty well what Jesus was out to accomplish, that we can know a lot about what he said, and that those two things make sense within the world of first-century Judaism."  So, who is Jesus?

The Real Opportunity to Glorify God and Love Your Neighbor

Some people think that being a good neighbor is serving the Lord, but then just leave it at that.  Others feel that living a 'gospel' lifestyle is good enough so proclaiming the gospel to your neighbor is not necessary.  Some still, avoid conversations about spiritual things and justify themselves with ideas like "my neighbor sees my gospel lifestyle" or "I do nice things for my neighbor, so they see God through that".  But is that actually serving and Glorifying God and actually loving your neighbor;  Are we actually taking the REAL opportunities that God places us in to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ?

What Did Athenagoras of Athens Teach?

Not a lot is known about Athenagoras except what is found in his writings and quoted by later writers.  It is estimated that he was born around 133AD and died around 190AD.  His writings are dated to around 176AD.  Oddly he is not recorded in the writings of Eusebius but none the less is noted by other church historians.  From his writings we can determine what it is he understood from the Apostles teachings; and his writings are extensive.  His known writings mainly focus on why Christianity is superior to pagan religions and a very lengthy argument for bodily resurrection.  His writings also contain a very detailed explanation of The Trinity before the term 'the trinity' was applied.

What Did Apollinaris of Hierapolis Teach?

Apollinaris was a 3rd generation Christian who could have been influenced by Qaudratus and Aristides and was friends with Melito who was discipled by Polycarp.  Church historians after him spoke very highly of him and the soundness of his teachings.  He gained notoriety when he wrote treatises against Heresies of his time.  He also wrote an apology to the Roman Emperor.  It is unclear when he was born and his death is estimated to be before the death of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius around 177AD. 

What did Aristides of Athens teach?

Aristitdes was a greek philosopher and then converted to Christianity.  He is known for a letter he wrote to the Roman Emperor Hadrian that is estimated to have been delivered around 125AD.  He died around 134AD, only about 44 years after John The Apostle died after writing Revelations.   It is suggested that he also wrote Epistle to Diognetus.  Eusebius and Jerome both having knowledge of his letter to Hadrian and Jerome supporting the soundness of his doctrine.  The comprehensiveness and subject matter is still very relevant to modern society.

The Season of Advent

 Following the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles that remind us of things still to come; Advent reminds us to prepare our hearts to remember who already came and who will come again.  The weeks of the four Sundays before Christmas is known as Advent.  It is an extra-biblical season and by no means is required for Christians to celebrate but is up to the conscience of each person (Romans 14:5–6).  This article will get into the history behind Advent and its meaning.

Why The Bible is Divine: Miracles

A proof, or a sign of someone who has supernatural and immaterial powers is through conducting miracles.  A miracle is defined as 'a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency; a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.'  What evidence is there that Jesus of Nazareth performed such inexplicable, highly improbable, extraordinary supernatural acts?  Besides the eye witness accounts of the synoptic gospels, we can look at other outside biblical sources, some even hostile to Jesus, yet, unintentionally validate him.

What Makes Christianity The True Faith?

 What Makes Christianity The True Faith?  Can it be trusted and what makes it different from all other faiths?  We will briefly provide unintentional historic support, modern secular historians opinions, archeology and philosophical supports; as well as discuss the support from the death and resurrection and biblical prophecy for what makes Christianity true.  Again, these are brief to allow for self reflection and research. 

Does Heaven have Pearly Gates with Gold Streets?

There are three things we need to understand when approaching this issue.  Present material matter vs future matter,  in-time vs eternity, and The Heaven vs 'heaven'.  Grasping the differences in these will help us understand the issue of the appearance of heaven.  First we will look at matter and discuss our earthly and heavenly bodies.  Then we will get into language symbolism and limitations to better understand what we can hope for; and finally answer the question of what will have  Pearly Gates with Gold Streets.

The Transfiguration of Jesus

What is The Transfiguration and why is it such an important event?  This has been studied by theologians for ages. Through scripture we can understand what happened that day on the mountain and what the significance is.  

The Absolute Greatest Message To Tell Everyone

This may seem like a no brainier to most Christians; that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  But what does that actually mean? Just telling someone that Jesus loves you is only telling them half the saving message of Jesus.  Tell them to love God is not telling them the full life changing news that they need to hear.  So what is the full message that everyone needs to hear in order to be saved?

Why God is not the Islamic 'Allah'

The Arabic name for God is 'Allah' which literally means 'the God'.   Although in name alone, this may be true.  The major distinction comes from who Allah is understood to be by his attributes and Characteristics.  In this article we will look at the fundamental differences in how God Justifies and saves mankind.

The End Times P1: Jesus' Outline

The highly discussed and debated issue with in the church and between other religions is the study of The End Times also known as Eschatology.  The Apostles ask Jesus directly.  Right after Jesus tells them Jerusalem will be destroyed (happened in 70AD), they then start to wonder and ask in Matthew 24:3 "...what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”.  There are four predominate theories of how The End Time will happen and in this article we will look at what Jesus revealed first.  Jesus graciously gives us an outline of what will take place before The End Time happen and how it will unfold.

Did the Apostles distort what Jesus taught?

There are allegations throughout history that The Apostles distorted what Jesus actually did and said.  This is an important issue because the claims formed completely new and separate religions.  Mormonism and Islam both claim the Apostles screwed up and distorted what Jesus taught.  Did they?  What evidence does Islam and Mormonism have to support this claim?  This is not about arguing the validity of one religion over another.  This is solely focused on what we know about Jesus and what has been distorted about Jesus.  Jesus is the primary subject and not any of the religions as a whole.

What did Justin Martyr teach?

Justin Martyr was born around 100 AD and was martyred around 165 AD.  He has two complete surviving literary works. He teaches a lot about understanding John ch1 and the Logos.  He has the earliest and most detailed description of how the earliest church functioned in an organized manner.  He had a very good debate with a highly popular Jewish scribe (The Dialog) and wrote letters to the Emperor of Rome and a Senate member.  Fragments of another letter specifically about The Resurrection remains as well.

He is within the time frame of speaking with eye witnesses, family members recounting eye witness testimonies, and the disciples of the Apostles.  Thus his insights are extremely important.

Justin was the mentor for other predominate Christan church leaders such as Irenaeus. 

Christology; Pre-incarnation

Christology; pre-incarnation is the study of Jesus in the Old Testament.  This is a very important study because this is how the Messianic Jews knew who Jesus was even before he died and rose again.  How did his followers know him as the Messiah, Christ, and Son of God before his crucifixion and resurrection?  By correctly understanding and knowing the Old Testament.  This also shines light how to better understand the Old Testament and have sound hermeneutics.