The Sacred Page

The early Christians thought of the coming of the Lord as something that will happen in their generation. It was an awaited event that gave rise to a lot of expectations (good for those who believe, bad for the wicked) and understandably to a lifestyle that was forged according to the requirements... Sign in to see full entry.

I think that it is a great disservice to the Gospel and to Christianity in general when passages referring to the last days are interpreted as if they were solely to frighten people into getting converted. And yet there are biblical passages which proclaim the Day of the Lord and yet are meant to... Sign in to see full entry.

Isaiah 63-7-64:11 Rend the Heavens and Come Down! Isaiah 63:7-64:11 is actually a prayer recited by an assembly that rises from an evaluation of a situation in the light of that assembly's conviction about itself and its relationship with God. The situation is post-exilic, characterized the poor... Sign in to see full entry.

I was preparing a lecture on Matthew 16:13-21 on a Wiki and in the process of looking for pictures from Caesarea Philippi, I found this site.. The website is all New Testament background. It is well worth a look. Also interesting is the Weblog of the site's author, Mahlon Smith. Sign in to see full entry.

The passage is not formally a parable, though it has been mistakenly referred to as a parable because of the context in which it is found. The passage is a discourse on the last day and answers the question: "What will happen to all men come Judgment Day?" There was a need for an answer to this... Sign in to see full entry.

The parable of the talents can be found in Matthew alone. It is so popular that even the word for "talent" derives from this parable. It is a symbolic story of what would happen in the last day to those who refuse to heed the Lord's call to be prepared. The story can be easily divided into three... Sign in to see full entry.

Matthew 25:1-13, The Parable of the Ten Virgins The parable of the ten virgins is precisely that: a parable. A parable is a literary device dear to our Lord that makes us, the hearers, examine our own attitudes towards the Kingdom of God by means of a short story. In this short story, the attention... Sign in to see full entry.

I saw the picture above as I was going through Google for an image of "Moses and the Law". I found it strange at first seeing Moses with three -- not two -- tablets of the Law. But when I clicked the image to see the "context" of the image, it led me to the "Bible as Literature" course homepage of a... Sign in to see full entry.

Romans, chapter 8 is the letter's section on the Spirit. This chapter, together with John 14-16 can be taken as a beautiful catechism on the Third Person of the Trinity and his relationship with the individual Christian. The first part of the article will show where in Romans 8 do we find references... Sign in to see full entry.

These sayings about the kingdom/reign of God have their parallels in the other Gospels. Luke 13:18-19 about the mustard seed has parallels in Matthew 13:31-32 and Mark 4 while vv. 20-21 finds a parallel in Matthew 13:33. Following as these do the narrative about the blindness of the synagogue leader... Sign in to see full entry.