Biblical Studies/Theology

Essene or Not Essene?

John the Baptist’s ministry and message bear striking similarities to a sect of Judaism active in the 1st century called the Essenes. Like John, the Essenes lived…

Jesus & John

John the Baptist is one of the strangest, most unusual, and most interesting people found in the pages of the Bible. From the predicted forerunner of the…

‘Why Then Do You Baptize?’

While preaching in the Judean wilderness, John the Baptist proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt. 3:2)…

Speaking Truth to Power

Celebrated Jewish cartoonist Bob Mankoff once said in an interview, “I know everybody wants humor to be subversive and…

The Death of John the Baptist

The wine flowed freely throughout the lavish banquet hall. The occasion was the pagan birthday celebration of Herod Antipas…

Steadfast in Unity

We live in a changing, decaying, unraveling world. A general increase in lawlessness and crime, government regulations, high taxes, poor education, and a…

Inside View Sep/Oct 2024

God designed and ordained marriage as the natural order of a man and a woman becoming one flesh. The first marriage occurred at the beginning of human history…

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Do You Believe in Miracles?

It was dubbed the “Miracle on Ice.” On February 22, 1980, the United States Olympic hockey team defeated the…

Marriage: The Beginning of Meaning

Marriage: The Beginning of Meaning

Genesis, the first book of the Bible, describes the beginning of everything. It opens with the creation of the universe…

Reflections of the Trinity

Reflections of the Trinity

In his letter to the Ephesian believers in Christ, the apostle Paul paralleled the marital relationship between a man and a woman…

The Christian’s Walk

The writers of Scripture often used the word walk to describe the Christian’s conduct or manner of life. The apostle Paul instructed Christians to…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Are Christians Eternally Secure?

Many Christians are not certain they will enjoy eternal life when they die. Some doubt because they have neglected to…

Israel’s 6 Steps of Redemption

Ezekiel said, “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward” (39:22). Israel will…

Israel’s Hope

The Battle of Gog and Magog will mark a dark time in Israel’s history. Facing a united attack from a coalition of powerful nations, Israel may feel helplessly alone…

One Thing I Do

Professional athletes devote their lives to the pursuit of a prize. They focus all their efforts on reaching their goals, putting aside all distractions…

The Million-Dollar Question

Israel is always at the center of conflict. Will there ever be true peace—shalom—in the Middle East?..

Paul’s Testimony

Contending for the faith is not easy. It’s an unpopular, perilous, thankless job. It is more pleasant to be an appeaser than an opposer…

The Truth About Sin

The world is filled with iniquity. The evil we see overtaking the world today proves yet again the truth of Scripture: “The heart is deceitful…

Why Blood?

Today we don’t associate blood with cleansing. In fact, bleeding is often the result of an injury or disease. So, it’s natural to wonder why…

Israel’s Reconciliation

Scripture places much emphasis on Israel’s reconciliation with God through faith in His promised Son. Beginning in Genesis 12, we see God working…

A Special Type of Fear

Most people fear something. Some fear heights, others fear wild animals, and others fear spiders or snakes or sharks. In Australia, where I live, you can experience…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Was Jesus Impeccable?

Theologians hold two positions on the nature of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Mt. 4:1–11). One position teaches…

The Great Forgiver

Corrie ten Boom couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was 1947, two years after World War II had ended; and Corrie just finished talking to…

I’m Forgiven—Now What?

If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you may be wondering about the practical implications…

The Way Back to God

Few believers in Jesus Christ will deny that we have been swept up in a period of chaos and confusion that threatens the survival of our nation…

How to Become Right With God

“How do I become right with God?” is neither a Jewish question nor a Gentile one. It is a human question…

Words of Warning

Life is full of warnings. The Internet, TV, and billboards bombard us regularly with warnings, telling us what to think, believe, and do…

The Many Faces of David

How do you encapsulate the biblical hero David? The “man after [God’s] own heart” (Acts 13:22) was a…

A Boy Named David

My first encounter with King David came in a Sunday-school kindergarten class. We learned a peppy little song called “Only a Boy Named David”…

The Warrior King

The acronym SERE refers to military training for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. It prepares U.S. combatants for wilderness survival, enemy evasion, and…

The Sweet Psalmist of Israel

Imagine an aging, frail King David (1 Ki. 1:1) reflecting back on his life—his mind flooded with moments of joy and sadness…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

What Is the Key of David?

The “key of the house of David” or “key of David” is mentioned only twice in the Bible (Isa. 22:22; Rev. 3:7). Possessing the key…

A King After God’s Own Heart

It’s easy to imagine the men who became America’s Founding Fathers in 1776 hard at work in the small east room…

David and Goliath

Hollywood often makes a mess of things when it takes on the Bible. Its multiple renditions of David’s battle with Goliath are frustrating…

The Jewish Temple Mount Deed

The most contested piece of real estate on Earth is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Today, its 36 acres house a…

Paul’s Partners

The apostle Paul personally discipled several committed men who partnered with him in spreading the gospel. Most of them came to salvation in Christ during…

Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh

I’m sure he meant well, but the president of the United States was not supposed to kiss the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom…

Bridging the Gaping Chasm

What an experience it must have been. For 400 years, the Israelites lived in Egypt, a land whose gods were as numerous as the…

God’s Holy Mishkan

God’s revelation concerning the Israelites’ Tabernacle covers 50 chapters in the Old Testament, while His revelation about the creation of the world…

Patterning Christlikeness

Many godly men and women in the Bible serve as examples for us of how to live for Christ. They trusted God’s…

Inside View Sep/Oct 2023

Recently, I have had trouble seeing clearly. My doctor attributes my struggles with vision to advancing cataracts, which must be removed…

dove wings

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Most people want a stamp of affirmation when they complete a transaction. All types of affirmation exist…

Nose and mouth of Jesus

In Jesus’ Words

For many who come to faith in Jesus Christ, the phrase once saved, always saved plays an integral part in their discipleship. For others, eternal security is a false teaching…

Unconfused

Unconfused!

Paul and Peter wrote 59 percent of the New Testament’s 27 books. Paul wrote 14 (some people believe he also wrote Hebrews), and Peter wrote two…

The Mind of Christ

In Philippians 2:3–4, Paul admonished Christians to live in spiritual unity with one another. Nothing was to be done within the church through selfish ambition…

Close up of a Jewish papyrus in a museum

The Enduring LXX

The oldest translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is called the Septuagint, usually identified as the LXX, Roman numerals that stand for 70…

Abstract painting of the Apostle Peter looking up

The Jewishness of Peter

Newsflash: The apostle Simon Peter was not a Roman Catholic. He did not consider Rome his homeland, and he certainly…

Abstract painting of an Apostle writing

Peter and the Gospel of Mark

It was well attested in the early church that Peter was the source of Mark’s Gospel. Papias of Hierapolis…

Close up of a Jewish papyrus in a museum

The Jewish Tanakh

Have you ever wondered why Jesus used the phrase from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah (Mt. 23:35) when He…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Q: What Is a Biblical Mystery?

A mystery is something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain. It has a secret quality whose meaning is…

A Gold Crown atop an open Bible

The Gospel of the King

Many people are confused by the relationship between the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the New Testament. Both were penned by Jewish men…

Jesus on top of a mountain teaching to a crowd of people

Sermon on the Mount

One of the most often-quoted passages in the New Testament is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5—7). Delivered to His disciples atop a mountain near Capernaum…

3 Proofs and a Mystery

When the apostle Paul’s epistles and the Epistle to the Hebrews were written in the 1st century AD, the only Holy Scriptures accepted in the synagogues and churches were…

Spiritual Unity

The 6th-century BC Greek storyteller Aesop, whose oral tales compose the famous Aesop’s Fables, has been credited with the origin of the…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Q: Does God Really Know Me?

The answer to the title’s question is an unequivocal yes! God is omniscient and knows everything about your life…

To Live is Christ

An old martyr once told his executioners, “You take a life from me that I cannot keep and bestow a life upon me that I cannot lose…”

God & Money

The popular musical Hello Dolly! had many memorable lines; but my favorite is this one: “Money,” said Dolly Levi, “pardon the expression, is like manure…

Behind the Book

Reading the book of Esther is like reading a novel filled with suspense. Chock-full of intrigue, heroism, pathos, and deception, it holds your attention from beginning to end…

Ahasuerus

King Solomon wrote, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He [God] turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov. 21:1)…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

Q: What Is God’s Providence?

Providence is God’s active care, control, and governance over everything in His created universe by His…

Mordecai

Occasionally, my second son and I dabble in the hobby of polishing rocks. With lots of time and patience, rough-hewn stones placed into a rock tumbler…

Esther

When I was a kid, watching the Miss America Pageant on TV was a big deal in our home. The competition symbolized everything we knew back then about beauty…

Haman

Villains! Where would literature, movies, or old-time radio serials be without them? From Sherlock Holmes’s Professor Moriarty to Peter Pan’s Captain Hook…

Rejoicing in Christ

If anyone had a reason to ask, “Why me?” it was the apostle Paul. No one who followed Christ suffered more for the gospel than he did…

The Never-Ending Hatred

Imagine you’re on your way to Sabbath morning services at your local synagogue. For you, this is a day of tradition. It may…

Icon of an open Bible. The Berean Box.

God is Omniscient

Omniscience means having complete and unlimited knowledge and understanding of all things. No one fits this description but God…

Israel’s Beautiful Tomorrow

This world is not a pleasant place. Between global pandemics, social unrest, sky-rocketing costs, and rampant…

Facing Replacement Theology

Have the blessings God promised to the Chosen People of Israel been redirected to all believers in the church? Will the…

Paul’s Joy

Several years ago, we received a Thanksgiving Day card titled “Blessed and Grateful.” The sender wrote, “We hope your celebration of God’s blessings is…

The Rest of the Story

Christians around the world eagerly await the Christmas season, and my wife and I are no exception. One of our favorite activities this time of year is to take a…

‘I Will Return’

Following a 2020 Democratic presidential debate, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) approached Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who reached out his hand to shake hers…

Keeping His Promises

Jesus’ Second Coming will bring to completion scores of prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as many predictions and promises Jesus made…

Until He Comes

“I want your room cleaned up before I get home!” Sound familiar? Parents often leave directives like these for their children before leaving the house…

No Other Name

How can people hate someone who died for them? After all, the whole world celebrates heroes, people who selflessly “pay the ultimate price” for a noble cause…

The Moses Test

Remember Y2K, the colossal, highly anticipated computer catastrophe that was supposed to paralyze the universe the moment we…

The Hope for All Time

On December 25, much of the world will pause to celebrate Christmas. And though it is a well-documented fact that Jesus was not born on that date…

Introduction to Philippians

Christian leaders often create ministry strategies, only to discover God’s will is different…

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Did you know people can be disciples of just about anything? Sports teams, fitness programs, and celebrities all have…

The Unlikely King

It was a scandal many find hard to stomach even today. The king God chose to govern His people committed adultery with another man’s wife…

The Richest Man on Earth

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” These words of wisdom, falsely attributed to…

Solomon’s Temple

King Solomon’s reign has been called Israel’s Golden Age. Under him, the Israelites possessed almost all of the land God promised them…

When Everything Went Wrong

When people think of King Solomon, they usually recall his great wisdom and the magnificent Jewish Temple he built…