Category Archives: Bible References
What Happens When We Die, and Where are my Loved Ones?
The Afterlife: It’s probably not what you think. Jesus is something of an authority on death, and life. He’s that guy who said that he was going to die, and going to be resurrected, and then it all happened just as he said. For questions about death and life, he is an indispensable source. Unfortunately […]
Read MoreIf it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you – Matt 12:28
Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven – Luke 10:20 I received a phone call from a friend of mine, asking for help. His friend was unable to go to his own home because it was haunted by a dark spiritual power. Both of them […]
Read MoreAre we “Born of God”, or “Adopted”? It can’t be both.
Does the Bible say we are adopted by God? I am quite certain that the Bible does not say we are adopted by God. It does say that we are born of God. Many commentators seem awfully confused about this, but that’s because they are reading an English translation of a Greek document, written in a […]
Read MoreThe Veil Torn, the Earthquake, and the Resurrection of the Dead – Matthew 27:51-54
A dramatic account, but does it make sense? In Matthew 27, an orderly account of the process of Jesus’ arrest, interrogation, and crucifixion is proceeding along nicely, when all of a sudden there is a dramatic change. It is a change in style, and in content. No sooner does it begin, it is finished! But […]
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The Kingdom of Heaven is like Yeast
Yeast: Bad… or good? Often in the Bible, yeast is a metaphor for things that are bad. So why did Jesus say that the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast (Matthew 13:33)? Listen in, and find out!
Be ye Baptized
Be Baptized Every One Of You Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are […]
Read MoreIn the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was gone…?
Lost in Translation So I was reading the New Testament in Tetum, the language of East Timor. I started to discover some interesting things that happen in translation. I thought I would blog about them, both to make notes, and to aid my fledgling comprehension of Tetum. The Tetum New Testament I am reading is […]
Read MoreProverbs 31: Best Wishes from your Monster-in-Law
“A capable wife who can find?” I confess that I don’t like Proverbs 31. To be more precise, I don’t like what Christian thinkers do with it. Proverbs 31 deals, for the most part, with an idealistic description of “a capable wife”. It has, from time immemorial, been used to make wives everywhere feel inadequate […]
Read MoreA Parable to Explain Jesus’ Claim to be “Son of God”
The Kingdom of God is like a Furniture Maker… When people think about how Jesus’ can claim to be the “Son of God”, they most often think in terms of the Virgin Birth: Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy […]
John 20:19-31 – The Honoured Guests and Their Servant Leaders
Blessed are those who have not seen… Ever wonder why some people got a “bolt from the blue” encounter from God, and you didn’t? Jesus says that you are the one who is blessed, not them. How does that work…? I preached this message on Sunday, April 12 2015.
Read More“Zealot” – Reza Aslan’s Implausible Jesus Story
Not the Greatest Story Ever Told: Aslan agrees that the Gospels are “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, in his Author’s Note. His own version is… not. Aslan is a masterful storyteller (he should be, because he’s a professor of creative writing!), but the story he is telling has some serious problems. Aslan is not an historian, nor […]
Was Luther wrong about “Justification by Faith”?
Justified by Faith Luther made axiomatic the claim that the believer is “Justified by Faith”. He was right, of course, but did he understand what that phrase meant to the author of it, and to the original audience?
The Fundamentals of Christianity, as encoded in the Writings of Moses
The core of the Christian/Jewish polemic: What was Moses trying to say? At the very core of the ministry of Jesus, and the teachings of his apostles, is a fundamental claim about what Moses was saying in the first five books of the Bible. Either he was saying that the Covenant struck at Mt Sinai […]
Read More3 Words that will forever change the way you read the Gospel of John: Week 21
Chapter 21 This is the final part in a 21-part series which traces “seeing” and “hearing”, and looks at how they relate to “believing”, through the Gospel of John. In Chapter 21
Read MoreBiblical Election: It’s not a Democracy
Is God a Voter, and each of us a Politician? Since at least the Middle Ages, the Biblical concept called “Election” has been thought of in terms roughly equivalent to the democratic process. The democratic process uses the same word. But that’s not what it means in the Bible. In the Bible the word has […]
3 Words that will forever change the way you read the Gospel of John: Week 20
Chapter 20 This is part 20 of a 21-part series which traces “seeing” and “hearing”, and looks at how they relate to “believing”, through the Gospel of John. In Chapter 20 we start to draw the major themes together in some very dramatic ways. This chapter has a lot of “seeing” in it, which finally points […]
Read More3 Words that will forever change the way you read the Gospel of John: Week 19
Chapter 19 This is part 19 of a 21-part series which traces “seeing” and “hearing”, and looks at how they relate to “believing”, through the Gospel of John. In Chapter 19, Jesus is beaten, crucified, and buried. In a chapter which begins, “Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged”, has in the middle, “So they […]
Read MoreJesus! Why so Violent???
Did it really have to be so violent? A good friend of mine asked me this question, and on reflection, it’s a question that others most probably ask, too: “Would he still have been a saviour if he had died peacefully in bed? Why did Jesus’ death need to be so violent?”
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Recent Posts
- Addiction: How to Help
- … and this just in: News from the Streets of Ipswich. Issue 23
- What Happens When We Die, and Where are my Loved Ones?
- Seeking the Kingdom
- If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you – Matt 12:28
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Addiction: How to Help
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9 Human beings seem universally to be able to imagine the loftiest moral ideals, but just as universally seem incapable of actually living according to them. This conundrum lies deep at the heart of the human condition. Are we required to just “live […]
- May 22, 2016
- / Category Commentary, Conversion, Fall (of mankind), Flesh, Forgiveness, Freedom, Holiness, Jeremiah 17, John 1, Marketplace Evangelism, Ministry, Original Sin, Romans 8, Sin, Sinner, Spirit, Total Depravity
- / Posted By Kevin Bennett
- / No Comments.
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