Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1078 Anyone who reads Matthew, Mark, and Luke one after another notices something straight away. These three Gospels tell much of the same story, often in the same order, and sometimes in almost identical words, while John stands apart with his own material and arrangement. The close agreement of the first three has led…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 12064 Few phrases have generated as much heat in contemporary Christian conversation as “love the sinner, hate the sin.” It is often attributed to Augustine, though the precise formulation is closer to a paraphrase than a direct quotation. It has become a shorthand for the Christian attempt to navigate between two extremes: unconditional approval…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 12009 The concept of a “white lie” is so deeply embedded in everyday life that most people never stop to examine it. The assumption is simple: some lies are harmless, told with good intentions, and are therefore morally acceptable or even virtuous. “You look great in that dress.” “The dinner was wonderful.” “I’m fine,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 12007 The question of whether a Christian may use force to defend themselves or others is closely related to the broader questions of war and capital punishment, but it is more personal and more immediately practical. If someone breaks into your home and threatens your family, what does Scripture allow? If a fellow believer…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 12006 War is one of the most painful realities of human existence, and the question of whether a Christian can support, participate in, or justify it has been debated throughout the history of the church. The spectrum of Christian opinion ranges from absolute pacifism to the just war tradition to, in some cases, the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11024 The word “Christian” appears only three times in the New Testament. The word “disciple” appears over 260 times. That difference in frequency tells us something important about how the early church understood what it meant to follow Jesus. Being a disciple is not a higher level of commitment available to the especially serious….
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11023 The Great Commission is the final instruction Jesus gave to His followers before ascending to heaven, and it defines the church’s mission until He returns. It is not one task among many. It is the task, the overarching purpose for which the church exists between the ascension and the Rapture. Understanding it properly…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11019 The word “disciple” appears far more often in the New Testament than the word “Christian.” That alone should tell us something about what the early church understood the normal Christian life to look like. Discipleship is not an advanced course for the especially committed. It is the basic shape of what it means…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10087 The phrase “one will be taken and one left” in Matthew 24:40-41 is among the most frequently cited verses in popular Rapture teaching. It appears on bumper stickers, in film dramatisations, and in countless sermon illustrations. But does the passage actually describe the Rapture? A careful reading of the context reveals something rather…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10193 The New Testament consistently teaches that what believers do with their lives in the present age has consequences that extend into the age to come. The question is not whether faithfulness matters for eternity, because it plainly does, but what form the consequence takes. Scripture presents a picture in which believers who have…