Tag: #christianity

The Canon of Scripture defined in two early(ish) statements

One of the Christian historical questions about which there is a great deal of misunderstanding and misinformation is when the New Testament became the New Testament. In other words, when did the 27 individual books get collected together into what we now know as ‘the New Testament’? I will write about this in a subsequent

On the recent media representation of Evangelicals

Grace Dalton reflects on recent media representations of Evangelicals. BBC Radio 4 recently aired a one off programme titled “Trump’s Evangelicals.” Few things could possibly make me happier than evangelicalism having airtime on one of the nation’s most popular radio stations. But the programme was not about actual evangelicalism at all, instead it was a

Should Christians try to reach uncontacted tribes with the Gospel?

In the wake of the recent news story about the Christian missionary John Allen Chau, who was killed while taking the Gospel to the hitherto-unreached Sentinelese tribe in India, Chris Flux gives his view on whether it’s appropriate for missionaries to try to reach uncontacted tribes. American Christian John Allen Chau was recently killed by

Ignatius of Antioch’s New Testament

It is sometimes falsely claimed that the Church arbitrarily selected the 27 books of the New Testament in the fourth century. While it is true that the 27 books of our New Testament were not formally recognized as ‘the New Testament’ until near the end of the fourth century, and our earliest canon list containing

Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistle to the Church of Smyrna [Part #3]

[Chapters 1—3] [Chapters 4—8] [Chapters 9—13] Contents Introduction Chapter 1. Thanks to God for your faith Chapter 2. Christ’s true passion Chapter 3. Christ possessed a body after his resurrection Chapter 4. Beware of these heretics Chapter 5. Their dangerous errors Chapter 6. Unbelievers in the blood of Christ shall be condemned Chapter 7. Let

Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistle to the Church of Smyrna [Part #2]

[Chapters 1—3] [Chapters 4—8] [Chapters 9—13] Contents Introduction Chapter 1. Thanks to God for your faith Chapter 2. Christ’s true passion Chapter 3. Christ possessed a body after his resurrection Chapter 4. Beware of these heretics Chapter 5. Their dangerous errors Chapter 6. Unbelievers in the blood of Christ shall be condemned Chapter 7. Let

Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistle to the Church of Smyrna (c. 107 AD)

[Chapters 1—3] [Chapters 4—8] [Chapters 9—13] Amongst the very earliest Christian writings we have in our possession after the New Testament itself, are seven letters written by Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria, who was martyred by being fed to wild beasts in Rome around A.D. 107. Whilst on his way to Rome, under Roman

‘Allah Has No Son’ leaflet: Christian, unkind or hate crime?

Recently several Muslim families in Lancashire received hand-delivered copies of the Jack Chick gospel tract ‘Allah Has No Son’ from a man called Michael who describes himself as ‘an independent Christian.’ Michael stated that he sent them as his ‘right to reply’ to several community outreach events organised by Muslims in Preston over the previous