Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 8049 The title “accuser of the brethren” is given to Satan in Revelation 12:10, where his expulsion from heaven is accompanied by the declaration: “the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.” This is not an incidental detail. It describes an ongoing, relentless activity…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 8044 Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that “we are not ignorant of his designs” carries the implication that there is something to know — that Satan does not operate randomly but follows recognisable patterns that careful attention to Scripture can identify. The word translated “designs” or “devices” in various versions is the Greek…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 8042 The name Lucifer has become one of the most recognisable titles for Satan in Christian tradition, attached particularly to his pre-fall existence as a glorious angelic being. Its origins, however, lie in a single verse in the Hebrew prophets and in a translation choice made in the Latin Vulgate that shaped centuries of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 8016 Genesis 6:1-4 is one of the most disputed passages in the Old Testament. The “sons of God” who take human wives and produce the Nephilim have generated interpretive controversy for centuries, but the most exegetically consistent reading points in a clear direction when the relevant evidence is laid out carefully. The Three Main…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 8019 Among the most striking descriptions in all of prophetic Scripture are the living creatures of Ezekiel’s inaugural vision and John’s throne-room vision in Revelation 4. They defy easy description, they surround the immediate presence of God, and they have provoked more theological reflection than almost any other category of angelic being. Mercifully, the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 60043 The resurrection of Jesus is not a blind leap of faith but a claim about history that can be examined. When we look at the evidence, we find that the resurrection is the best explanation for the facts that virtually all scholars, Christian and non-Christian alike, accept. Let’s consider what those facts are…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 7097 The word “atonement” is one of those theological terms that gets used frequently in church but may not be well understood. Yet it describes something absolutely essential to the Christian faith: how sinful human beings can be reconciled to a holy God. Understanding the atonement helps us grasp what Jesus accomplished on the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7100 What exactly happened when Jesus died on the cross? Christians have always agreed that the cross is central to salvation, but they have understood its meaning in different ways throughout history. Various “theories of the atonement” have been proposed, each highlighting a different aspect of what Jesus accomplished. Some of these theories are…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10012 The return of Jesus is not a quiet, unnoticed event. It is the most dramatic, world-changing moment in all of history. Everything changes when Jesus comes back. The question is not whether He will return, for Scripture is abundantly clear on that point, but what happens when He does. The answer unfolds in…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60080 On the surface, certain strands of Eastern Orthodox teaching and New Age spirituality appear to say something strikingly similar: that human beings can become divine. The Orthodox doctrine of theosis, or deification, speaks of humanity participating in the divine nature. New Age spirituality claims that we are already divine, needing only to awaken…