Recent content by Deborah_

There's a lot that we are not told. It's when we start filling in the gaps (which involves making assumptions) that we start to disagree. There were no birth registers in those days. So when Herod ordered all boys under the age of two years to be killed, I assume that he was including a large...

Some life experiences have caused me to come down on one side of a debate rather than another. For example: since the Spirit gave me the gift of tongues, I'm never going to be a cessationist! But from another angle, the unusual way in which I became a Christian has caused me no end of...

They're the ones whose writings have survived. That's how we know what Christians in the 2nd-10th centuries were thinking. According to Genesis 1:1, He "made the heavens and the earth". Out of nothing. There was a starting point in time - which is what the term 'big bang' refers to. Actually...

Actually, that doesn't follow. Not everything in the Bible is literal. But if you replaced the word 'literal' with the word 'true', then I would agree with you. Jesus' parables are true, although they don't describe actual events. Long before the church split into denominations, the theologians...

Christians have always disagreed on whether the first chapters of Genesis are to be "taken literally". This is why the creeds say things like "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth" but don't specify creation in 6 days. This is why (as far as I know) no denomination...

I've dug out an article that I wrote quite a few years ago: “God means what He says, and He has a meaning for every word that He says. All His works and all His words are perfect, in their choice, order and place. So perfect, that, if one word or expression is used, there is a reason why no...

Anything written by anybody can be "inspiring". But only God's word is inspired by God. The New Testament is full of quotations from the Old Testament - all using the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) which often differs from the Hebrew text that we have. And yet the...

Answer: all of them. It doesn't matter which one you use - God will speak to you through it. There is of course no such thing as a "perfect" translation. All languages have ambiguities, and word definitions rarely correspond exactly between one language and another.

Well, it's never taken me there

Some things on your list are matters of dispute amongst evangelical Christians - dispute that should be friendly but unfortunately often isn't. It's not un-evangelical to believe in annihilationism, for example. Many respected evangelical theologians have done so. But a lot of churches and...

We don't use a "hymnal" but we have a (relatively) modern songbook that contains a mixture of old hymns and more modern worship songs. The problem is, it's already out of date, because new songs are continually being written (and some of them are very good). So powerpoint is invaluable. But...

Having seen the episode where Jesus asks Matthew to "help" Him with His sermon, it was at a time when Matthew was feeling useless because he had no practical skills like the other disciples, and believed he wasn't contributing anything to the mission. Jesus was giving him a task that he could...

A dramatisation that only showed what was in the Bible would be pretty thin, and not very satisfying to watch. So yes - you should expect a lot of "unbiblical" material in a series like The Chosen (far too many scenes to list!), and if that's a problem for you, don't watch it. However, the...

Revelation 22:6-21 We have now arrived at New Jerusalem, where “we will all live happily ever after.” There’s nothing more to add; we now know all that we need to know to sustain us on our journey. Some prophetic revelations were not for immediate consumption, but were recorded for future...

Revelation 21:9-22:21 But the centrepiece of the new creation is the Bride! John is taken to the top of a mountain, to ‘view the land’ from afar, as Moses did (see Deuteronomy 34:1-4) — and what he sees takes his breath away. For New Jerusalem and the Church are one and the same; the city isn’t...