Justin Martyr, in his argument with Trypho the Jew,' cites Adam, Abel, Enoch, Lot, Noah, and Melchizedek as examples of ancients who were uncircumcized but approved by God, and then he adds: "Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his descendents until Moses. . . . ' 2 The assertion that none of th...

To paraphrase an old saying attributed, probably erroneously, to Abraham Lincoln, God must love small cities, because he (or she) made so many of them. By whatever reasonable definition, they vastl...

Recent opinions that Israel’s covenants and promises are missing in Rev 20:1-10 have rested on poor hermeneutical foundations. Three major OT covenants with Israel are prominent throughout the Apocalypse and therefore are foundational to what John writes in chapter 20. God promised Abraham a people who are quite visible in Revelation 7, 12, and 14, and in 2:9 and 3:9, where physical descendants...

Who of us has not wondered about the striking differences between what Paul says regarding Abraham's justification in Romans 4:1–3 and what James says regarding Abraham's justification in James 2:21–24? Paul declares that Abraham, like all true believers, was justified by faith apart from works. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.… What then shall we sa...

knowing god and relationship with him is one of the important theological issues in abraham`s religions. christianity believes that invisible god reflects in the incarnation of christ. in the christians` view, the jesus christ is the revelation of god. as a result, incarnation is one of the most important principles of christianity. the jews are opposed to incarnation but believe in anthropomor...

In Contra Galilaeos, Julian makes the case that in the writings of Moses Yahweh is not the ‘Most High’ God, but simply one of many national gods (the biblical term is ‘angels’ or ‘sons of god/s’, לא ינב, םילא ינב, or ב םיהלאה ינ ) of the ancient Near Eastern world, who received Israel as an inheritance from the hand of the Most High. Christians claim the Jewish Yahweh as their God, and appeal t...

1. The significance of Phil 2:6–7. Numerous texts of the NT suggest, more or less straightforwardly, that Jesus Christ is very God. In the Gospel of John alone, for instance, one reads: “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1); “so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (5:23); “before Abraham was born, I am” (8:58); “I and the Father are one” (10:30); “he who see...

As an extension of a concept known as tawheed,* nothing lies outside of The Jurisdiction of Divine Intervention; nor is God the deist’s watchmaker, winding up reality and watching various Newtonian-like mechanized processes play themselves out. Once this latter deist notion is embraced, and given a particular subtle type of human propensity for self-exaltation (a type which is by definition not...