By Jeff A. Benner As Hebrew poetry is written much differently than our own Western style of poetry, many do not recognise the poetry which can cause problems when translating or interpreting passages written in poetry. Approximately 75% of the Hebrew Bible is poetry. All of Psalms and Proverbs are Hebrew poetry and many other books, … Continue reading About Hebrew Parallelism called Chiasmus
by Servetus the Evangelical Christian worship has been very important to the question of whether Jesus is God. The New Testament (NT) records certain instances in which Jesus was “worshipped.” Christians generally have regarded these as evidence that those practitioners believed that Jesus was God, since only God should be worshipped. But what does “worship” … Continue reading Is Jesus God Because He Was Worshipped?
It is strange that Christians would identify Jesus as “the God-man” based only on a single biblical text, it being 1 Timothy 2:5. Instead, this passage suggests that Jesus is not a dual being. For it clearly:- (1) distinguishes God and Christ Jesus, (2) affirms that God is a single Person, (3) calls Christ Jesus only a “man,” and (4) therefore neither calls him “God” nor a “God-man.”
Were Samuel, Moses & Elijah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - Alive Before the Resurrection? Three passages of Scripture are sometimes advanced in support of the view that the dead are alive before the resurrection. 1. The episode related in 1 Samuel 28 concerns a so-called appearance of Samuel after his death. There are good reasons … Continue reading Were Samuel, Moses & Elijah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – Alive Before the Resurrection?
Luke 23:42-43 Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." 43 And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." A single verse in the Gospel according to Luke has been held to provide evidence that Jesus expected an immediate … Continue reading Did the Thief on the Cross go to Heaven that Day?
Colossians 1:16 is a misleading text in standard bible versions. Colossians 1:16 in the King James (Authorized) version of the Bible is likely to be misleading. It reads: “By him [Jesus] were all things created that are on the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things … Continue reading Colossians 1:16 – Jesus involved with Genesis creation?
2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. This phrase is commonly used to teach that at death a Christian transcends this world to be with Jesus in a bodiless state. But a bodiless state is definitely not what Paul … Continue reading Explanation of “Absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” in 2 Corinthians 5:8
The only way in which the force of the above can be avoided is by saying that none of the descriptions of conflict affect the Church but only Jews who come to faith after the tribulation begins. We could then ask: If Jesus does not mean Christians when he says “you” in Matthew 24, how would we know that anything in the gospels addressed to “you” (disciples) applies to Christians? The theory that Christians are not addressed in Matthew 24:15ff (instructions for going through the great tribulation) sounds very much like an attempt to divorce Christians from what Jesus taught them in the gospels — indeed some ultra-dispensationalists have maintained that none of the material in the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, Luke) is for Christians! When Jesus tells the twelve to go into the world and preach everywhere we all take this as a command to us. It was given to Jewish Christians but the body of Christ constitutes their descendants. What is said to them applies directly to us. When Jesus addresses believers telling them how to cope during the tribulation, this must mean that they must expect to be on earth during the tribulation.
1. The Rapture/Resurrection event will occur at the last trumpet. Scripture knows of only one last trumpet, the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15. This trumpet sounds after or “post”-tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31). This is “the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14), when all the faithful will be rewarded. 2. Jesus spoke of the “elect,” whom he equates with the disciples and their successors in the church. Matthew, who is his own best interpreter, elsewhere means “believers” when he uses the term “elect” (Matthew 22:14): “Many are called, but few are elect” (Gr. eklectos). It is a basic rule of good exegesis that a writer must be allowed to interpret himself.
Philippians 1:23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Does it mean that when we die we go to Heaven as spirits? Justification for the almost universally held opinion that Christianity teaches that the dead are consciously with God at the … Continue reading What Does Paul Mean “to Depart to be with Christ” in Philippians 1:23?
Living as a Christian in this World 