Showing results by narrator "Samson Hilleke" in All Categories

We are witnessing the end of Western Civilization. The present crisis in our culture is the greatest since the first century. Many commentators on the present scene believe that the entire world is moving into a period of neo-tribalism. In this striking book, theologian James B. Jordan argues that this cultural change is part of God's ongoing plan for humanity, the plan by which the Holy Spirit grows God's daughter, humanity, into a bride for His Son. The present crisis provides a tremendous opportunity for the Christian Church to challenge and transform the world as never before.

The thesis of this study is that the Persian kings named Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are one and the same. This is not a new understanding, but an examination of recent commentaries on these books shows that this possibility is not even entertained, so certain are these expositors that Ahasuerus is the king the Greeks called Xerxes and that Artaxerxes is Artaxerxes Longimanus.

We hear all to often that someone has decided to leave the Evangelical Christian faith and to join the Church of Rome, or Eastern Orthodoxy, or High Anglicanism. The lure is liturgy and tradition, and since the Evangelical and Reformed churches so often have such poor worship, it is not hard to understand the pull exercised by those churches that have a heritage of formality, sobriety and beauty. This cure, however, is far worse than the disease.

Christians agree that worship must be biblical, but too many Christians focus on a handful of texts. To understand and do the Christian liturgy, we need to take account of the whole Bible. In Theopolitan Liturgy, Peter J. Leithart examines the liturgical features of creation. The world is a temple. History is a dialogue with God. Life and society is sacrificial. Time follows a liturgical pattern.

The Great Commission involves not merely witnessing to the nations but discipling them. God's purpose is to fill the earth with His glory, bringing about a Christianized world, where each nation follows King Jesus. God will accomplish this through the faithful witness of His Church as He blesses the preaching of the gospel and the teaching of His Word. By the blessing of His Spirit, a true unity of confession will be established among all the nations to the end that every nation and language will praise Him (Rev. 7:9).

Although the book of Revelation is said to give a blessing to those who read and hear it, it often results in confusion as well. Revelation is applicable to all times and occasions in the Church, and because of that it has been interpreted as predicting many different events in history. Naturally, these interpretations all contradict each other which leads many believers to decide that efforts to understand it are a waste of time.