How can God be one being and yet 3 persons? While not explained explicitly in any passage, the concept of the Trinity is progressively revealed in Scripture. The early church struggled for centuries to understand the doctrine of the Trinity before landing on 3 statements.
Introductions
Old Testament Canon: Why these books?
The canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible. The Bible, the Apocrypha and history all testify to the historical development of the Old Testament canon.
01 Gospel of Matthew Introduction
Jesus claimed that “all authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to him (Mt 28:18). If that’s true, and I believe it is, then we benefit by learning all we can about Jesus. Matthew wrote this gospel to tell us who Jesus is and what that means for us.
Land in the Old Testament
Land is an important theme in the Old Testament. “Land” is the fourth most frequent noun in the Old Testament. Mankind was created from and is sustained by the land. God gave Israel the land as a gift. Land was always associated with life.
New Testament Canon: Why these books?
Scholars have attacked Christianity by claiming that Christians don’t know which books should belong to the New Testament canon and which ones shouldn’t. If we don’t know the answer to why these 27 books, then we do have a problem. But it’s not the Achilles heel of Christian faith that critics claim it is. We Christians do have an answer.
New Testament Jewish culture
Jesus spent a lot of time interacting with the Jewish culture of his day. The New Testament authors assume their readers are familiar with the Jewish culture in their day. Here are some of the basics.
Introduction to the Jewish Feasts
In Exodus, God tells the Israelites to keep the Feasts twice: once before the episode with the golden calf and once after. Here’s a summary of the 7 feasts.
Introduction to Covenants
God made a series of special promises, which we call covenants. There are two kinds of covenants and 5 significant covenants in Scripture.
Introduction to Ancient Egypt
The first third of the book of Exodus takes place in Egypt. The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 400 years and were steeped in Egyptian culture. The cultural and historical setting of Exodus is ancient Egypt. Here’s a brief introduction.
Introduction to the Intertestamental Period
The time between the end of the Old Testament (400BC from the prophet Malachi) to the preaching of John the Baptist (25 AD) is known as the “intertestamental” period. Here’s an overview of what happened.
