Kingdom Now theologians renegotiate Christ’s kingdom from the literal and global kingdom of the Old Testament promises to a new spiritualized kingdom which can exist spiritually in the hearts of believers or is able to spiritually outbreak without any physical territory. Theologians often support this move by subtly redefining “kingdom” to detach the Messianic Kingdom from its territorial promise. For example, George Eldon Ladd writes:[Read More]
Greek
The Kingdom, a word study, and a story about King Darius running away from Ukrainians
This post is extracted from some research I’m doing related to the kingdom.
φθάνω (Matt 12:28; Luke 11:20)
A host of clear biblical passages teach that the kingdom is literal and earthly. Two obscure passages that have become key to overthrowing the plain meaning of the text are Matt 12:28 and Luke 11:20, both of which record Jesus telling unbelievers that the kingdom ἔφθασεν ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς, which the KJV translates, “is come unto you” in Matthew and “is come upon you” in Luke. To the assertion that Jesus made it plain that the kingdom had already come, Millar Burrows responds:[Read More]
Reconsidering the Talmudic Definition of “Day”
I’ve recently had the privilege of being able to edit Robert Courtney’s article on the day when Christ died. This is a huge topic in apologetics. Mark and Luke record Jesus’ tomb being empty on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1–2; Luke 24:1) and Matthew records Jesus saying:[Read More]
No, Jesus did not tell Nicodemus to repent to be born again
Jesus taught Sola Fide (by faith alone) salvation to Nicodemus. Jesus did not teach him Fide et Paenitentiae (by faith and repentance) salvation. There are folks who say things like:
Repentance is woven into the very fabric of the Gospel of John, though the word itself is never employed. In the account of Nicodemus, for example, repentance was clearly suggested in Jesus’ command to be “born again” (John 3:3-7). 1
Russian proponents of this theology rightly call the position, “Salvation through Lordship,” because it means that faith and repentance are necessary for eternal life. According to this view, the readers should read “repentance” into the text. When we push an idea like this into a text, we call it eisegesis (eis means “into” and egesis kinda means “lead or guide”). We want instead to practice exegesis (ex means “out of” or “from”), which is when we derive ideas from the text.
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The poem that Grandpa carried in WWII
When my grandfather served as a mortarman in the 96th Infantry Division in WWII, he carried this poem with him:
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Rick James, Eddie Murphy’s Couch, and the Kingdom Theology of Progressive Dispensationalism
Years ago, Dave Chappelle used to have his own show. It was a pretty vulgar show, but I was an unbeliever living in the Middle East with plenty of free time, so I watched it with no moral conflict. Anyhoo, I was reading something in Dallas Seminary’s library recently that reminded me of an episode that I had watched over 10 years earlier.[Read More]