Search results

The adenovirus vaccines (such as the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine) can cause a (very very) few people to make antibodies against one of the many molecules that make up our blood clotting system. This causes the blood platelets to malfunction, which results in both blood clots and abnormal...

The main object of this exercise is to protect a wife from her husband's unfounded jealousy. Drinking such water would not in itself cause an abortion. It's very unlikely that it would have any serious effects at all. In effect, it's a form of "trial by ordeal" (if guilty, the woman will suffer...

Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ! (We have a Christmas tree as part of our decorations - but it's made of plastic and we don't worship it)

All human beings are made in God's image. But none of us are physically and psychologically perfect - we all have flaws.

A very long time ago, I knew a Christian couple (married just a few years, with a small child). The husband was persistently unfaithful. As well as having another sexual partner, he spent their money (of which they didn't have much) on this other woman, and cajoled other church members into...

Because the New Testament was originally written without punctuation, a debate has arisen over whether the word ‘today’ belongs to Jesus’ opening phrase (“Truly I tell you today…”) or with His promise (“today you will be with Me in Paradise”). Technically, either interpretation could be correct...

Paul says in verse 13 that it's because the man was created "first". Not better, smarter, or more privileged, or male - just "first". That meant Adam had more knowledge and spiritual experience than Eve. She was (relatively) ignorant and naïve. She thought that she could handle Satan's...

I don't see what evolution has to do with sin. Sin came into the world via the human race. It wasn't there before. At some point in our evolution, God created His image in/on us. From then on, we became moral beings who were capable of rebellion and sin. And it wasn't long before we did sin.

Can't speak for America, but here in the UK virtually nobody believes Putin is a "good guy". However, there's a lot of fake news about the war circulating - and it evidently suits some people to believe it.

Becoming a Christian is a combination of our free decision and God's supernatural intervention - because we have to be born again, which is not our doing but the work of His Spirit. What John is emphasising here is that membership of God’s family cannot be inherited from our parents (whether...

Apparently a lot of mediaeval art works depict the wound in Christs side (on the cross) in such way as to make it resemble a vagina. That is a fact - the idea wasn't invented by the speaker and on the face of it doesn't have anything to do with the modern transgender movement. I suppose it says...

I don't believe that creation and evolution are mutually exclusive. Why couldn't God have invented evolution? Not all Christians interpret Genesis 1 literally, so the "6 days" doesn't preclude either evolution or an old earth.

Neither "Jehovah" nor "Calvary" nor "Holy Ghost" should be in a modern Bible. They are accidents of translation, not in the original text. "Jehovah" should really be YHWH, "Calvary" (a Latin word) is better rendered "Place of the Skull", and "Holy Ghost" should always be "Holy Spirit". And if I...

There are some similarities with Numbers 24:19 and I Samuel 15:29. One of those may be the verse you're thinking of.

I use commentaries a lot. They give you useful background information (history, geography, cultural differences). This is very important because without this knowledge you can jump to the wrong conclusions about what a passage means. Also, the good ones will point out where Christians differ in...

It would never have occurred to the first readers of Genesis to add the ages in the genealogies together to work out the age of the earth. That wasn't what genealogies were for. They were also well accustomed to the idea that genealogies were incomplete (see Matthew 1 for an example - several...

These are all basically the same question. Tongues recognisable as known languages are specifically mentioned only in Acts 2. As far as other tongues are concerned, how would one know if it was a human language or an angelic one? There are thousands of languages in the world today, and many more...

In Greek, as in all languages, there's often more than one way of saying the same thing. "He" can be rather non-specific, even ambiguous in certain circumstances. Replacing it with "This man" or "That man" is a perfectly normal thing to do, and can make the meaning clearer. John particularly...

Quite the opposite. It was written in Greek, remember, not in English - so it CAN refer to a person - and in context, in this case it does.

Because English grammar isn't the same as Greek grammar. In Greek, houtos can be used as an adjective or as a pronoun, just as it stands. And you can use it as a pronoun not just for inanimate and abstract things, but also for people. But in English, you can't say "This was in the beginning"...