Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 6060. The mortification of sin is Paul’s blunt name for the daily work of putting sin to death, and it is the least fashionable idea in modern Christian vocabulary. We prefer to speak of growth, journey and process. Paul reaches for a word that belongs in an execution yard. If by the Spirit you…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10129. The river of life is the stream John sees flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the New Jerusalem, bright as crystal, with the tree of life growing on either bank. Two verses, and a great deal of Scripture flowing into them….
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 10083. A restraining force is at work in the world right now, holding back the emergence of the most evil man who will ever live. That is the claim Paul makes in 2 Thessalonians 2, and it raises the obvious question: what, or who, is doing the holding? The identity of this restraining force…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10082. The Holy Spirit will not be removed from the earth during the Tribulation, and I want to say that at the outset because few end times questions produce as much confusion. The idea has been repeated so often in popular prophecy teaching that many believers assume it is settled doctrine. It is not,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10053. The Holy Spirit is deeply and actively at work all through the end times, restraining evil, drawing sinners to Christ, and empowering bold witness right up to the return of the King. People often imagine that Bible prophecy is really all about the Antichrist and the beast and the various judgements, and so…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 6009. Overcoming sin is the daily concern of every genuine believer, and the honest ones will tell you how the usual methods have gone: willpower failed, resolutions broke, promises to God lasted a fortnight. If that is your testimony too, take heart; the New Testament describes a different strategy altogether, and it begins in…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09002 The word “church” is one of the most familiar in the Christian vocabulary, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. In popular usage it refers to a building, a denomination, or a vague spiritual community. The New Testament has something far more precise in mind. Understanding what the church actually is,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 3045. Messiah and Christ both mean the anointed one, and that single fact unlocks more of your Bible than almost any other piece of vocabulary. Many people assume Christ is simply Jesus’ surname, as though Joseph and Mary were Mr and Mrs Christ of Nazareth. It is nothing of the kind. It is a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 3041. The ascension of Jesus is the forgotten doctrine of the Christian faith. We celebrate the incarnation at Christmas and the resurrection at Easter, but Ascension Day passes most evangelical churches without a mention. Yet Luke thought it important enough to record twice, and Jesus told His disciples plainly that His leaving was not…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2008. People ask me constantly whether God speaks today, and I understand why the question keeps surfacing. Cessationists tell us God speaks only through the closed pages of Scripture now. Some charismatic circles talk as though a fresh word, vision or impression carries the same weight as the Bible itself. Neither extreme is where…