Christian Thoughts

  To attract attention, many Christians of certain factions have been known to testify that they saw Jesus appearing in person on earth or (better still) sat casually to converse face-to-face with Him.   What does the Bible say about such sightings that have been asserted ever since the Saviour ’s   Ascension (reported by the chronicler in first Luke 24:51 before Acts 1:9)?   Among the many Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus ’ earthly  sojourn is the following thought-provoking verse referred to by the Son of Man Himself when quizzing the Pharisees in Matthew 22:41-45 on the interpretation of what King David penned a millennium earlier: “t he Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your foot-stool’.” (Psalm 110:1 )   How this particular messianic verse is to be understood has thereafter been addressed in different New Testament books with a selection of their relevant passages reproduced herewith:   #1 ...

A s noted in Acts 22:15, a witness simply testifies what he actually saw and/or heard; he is definitely not at liberty to embellish what he is obligated to say by incorporating heresay or fabrication.   It is important to bear this in mind when checking out the following oft-quoted instruction of Jesus prior to His ascension: “… you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the world.” (Acts 1:8)   The question that immediately springs to mind here is what are His witnesses to testify of.   A possible recourse is to look at what the author of Acts already stated in the gospel he wrote earlier — with both books addressed to the same reader, Theophilus (Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1), mentioned in passing as having interest to “know the certainty of those things in which you [ viz Theophilus] were instructed” (Luke 1:4).   The gospel author dutifully recorded in the last chapter of his first book the following details of Jesus...

We kick off the discussion by casting a glance at the laymen’s common perception of heaven being God’s perpetual domicile.  Since “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), many have idly wondered where did the Triune God hang out prior to the six-day creation.  It is obviously futile to indulge in such speculation and so we shall check out the following scriptural verses which offer glimpses of divine proceedings presumably held in the heavenly realm: #1      “… there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord , and Satan also came among them” (Job 1:6 and 2:1) #2       “… above the firmament over the living beings’ heads was the likeness of a throne …; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness of a man high above it … This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord ” (Ezekiel 1:26-28) #3       “… I saw the Lord s...

  Much ink had been spilled thus far over how, as narrated in Genesis 3, the fall of Adam and Eve resulted in sin marring God’s creation (which was originally described by Him  in Genesis 1:31  as “very good”).   Despite the headstrong efforts by feminists to white-wash Eve’s actions in the vicinity of the “tree [bearing fruit] desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6), what has been authoritatively stated by Paul is “Adam was not deceived but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression” (I Timothy 2:14) — reinforced by the L ord ’s ruling that “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception” and coupled with the divine injunction that “your husband shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16).   The intentional choice of the generic words “woman” and “husband” (in place of the individual names “Eve” and “Adam” respectively) clearly points to the general purview of both I Timothy 2:14 and Genesis 3:16 with the natural inference being that these two ver...