Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10163 The fig tree appears in one of the most discussed passages in the Olivet Discourse, and its meaning has been the subject of considerable debate. Jesus uses it in a short parable that is intended to teach His disciples something about the timing and recognisability of the events He has been describing. Whether…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10164 Few sayings of Jesus have generated more interpretive debate than His statement in Matthew 24:34: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Critics have used it to argue that Jesus was mistaken about the timing of His return. Others have used it as…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10139 The idealist approach to Revelation, sometimes called the spiritual or symbolic approach, reads the book not as a prediction of specific historical events, whether past or future, but as a timeless portrayal of the ongoing conflict between good and evil, between God and Satan, between the Church and the world. It is the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10158 Typology is one of the most important interpretive tools for understanding how the Old and New Testaments relate to one another. It is the recognition that God embedded patterns, persons, events, and institutions within the earlier stages of redemptive history that foreshadow and anticipate what He would later accomplish in Christ and in…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10157 One of the most important principles for understanding biblical prophecy is the law of double reference, sometimes called prophetic double fulfilment. This is the observation that a single prophetic passage may address both a near-historical situation and a far-future eschatological reality, with the nearer event serving as a partial fulfilment or preview of…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10051 Amillennialism is the belief that there will be no literal thousand-year earthly reign of Jesus following His second coming. The “a-” prefix means “no” or “not,” so amillennialism means “no millennium” in the sense of a future earthly kingdom. Instead, amillennialists believe the “thousand years” in Revelation 20 symbolically represents the current church…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09028 The way a church handles its preaching ministry shapes the spiritual health of its congregation more than almost any other single factor. Expository preaching is the approach that takes the biblical text as the foundation, structure, and authority of the sermon, allowing the passage itself to determine the message rather than using Scripture…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09027 The question of what regulates Christian worship is not a modern invention. From the earliest centuries of the church, believers have asked whether worship should include only what Scripture commands or whether it may include anything Scripture does not forbid. The answer to that question shapes everything from how a service is structured…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09104 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is one of the most debated passages in the New Testament. Paul writes, “The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60054 Numerology, the belief that numbers carry hidden spiritual meanings and that the numerical values of names, dates, and events can reveal divine truths or predict the future, has a long history in human culture and a persistent presence in popular spirituality. It also appears in certain strands of Christian teaching, where elaborate numerical…