Existentialism is the name of a philosophical movement that began in Germany just before World War II. It attempts to probe the meaning of “human existence” apart from divine revelation and its res...

Expediency is sometimes defined as the method by which a determined goal is achieved, regardless of the moral consequences. This is not the biblical concept of expediency.

In Bible parlance, a me...

The book of Ezra documents Israel’s first two returns from Babylonian captivity. The narrative covers approximately eighty years, from Cyrus’s edict to Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem. 

Zerubbabel led...

Faithfulness conveys integrity, steadfastness, truth, and dependability, among other qualities. Two important emphases of this quality are highlighted in the Bible. 
• God is faithful in all things...

“Fellowship” translates the Greek koinonia, meaning “participation, association, sharing.” Fellowship exists on two levels — the vertical (the Christian’s relationship with God) and the horizontal...

The Flood, recorded in Genesis 6-8, was the most widespread disaster ever to affect this planet. Waters from the atmosphere above and from chasms beneath the earth inundated the entire globe (Gen. ...

Form Criticism is a modern approach to the Bible that originated in a liberal theological context. It holds, for example, that the Gospel accounts are mythological. The “scholarly critic,” therefor...

Animals operate largely on instinct, an inherited pattern of behavior. Human beings are different. We are made in the very image of God himself (Gen. 1:26-27). We possess volition (i.e., the power ...

The Greek term porne is a comprehensive term, covering every form of illicit sexual activity by human beings. Note the following passages that help us understand this word.

Single people who wish ...

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. It was an exceedingly wicked city, but Jehovah loved even these alien Gentiles. Accordingly, he sent Jonah, a prophet from northern Palestine, to proclaim u...

A genealogy is a record of the names of a person’s ancestors or descendants.

Several genealogical lists are recorded in the Bible, for example, in Genesis, Chronicles, Matthew, and Luke. These ar...

The term “evangelist” is an Anglicized form of the Greek euanglistes, derived from eu (“well”) and angelos (“messenger”). 

An evangelist is someone who proclaims the good news, serving as a gospel...

The term “grace” occurs about 155 times in the New Testament. The word relates to the Greek term chairo, meaning “to rejoice,” and grace itself comes to mean favor, gratification, or gratitude — d...

Sometime before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians (586 B.C.), the prophet Habakkuk wonders why God appears to have ignored Judah’s sins. The Lord informs the bewildered prophet that he is pl...

After Judah’s initial return from Babylonian captivity (536 B.C.), God’s people had begun the work of rebuilding the temple. Then, due to opposition from certain enemies, the Hebrews became discour...

Certain first-century Jews sought to persuade Christians (perhaps in the region of Jerusalem) to abandon the faith, return to Judaism, and wait for the real Messiah. The design of this letter, by a...

“Heresy” takes its rise from the Greek, hairesis (nine times in the N.T.). Originally, the term meant simply “to choose” (Lev. 22:18, 21 — LXX). Then it came to signify a choice, i.e., an opinion ...

Homosexual activity is sexual intimacy between two persons of the same gender. This form of sexual conduct is uniformly condemned in the Bible. (a) It stands outside the divinely prescribed realm o...

Hosea lived in that era just prior to the Assyrian invasion of the kingdom of Israel (722/21 B.C.). His mission was to admonish Israel for her idolatry (Baal worship), and to urge her to repentance...

Ethics concerns the system or code by which attitudes or actions are determined to be right or wrong. Only two sources can serve as the basis for ethical conduct: ethical conduct is either regulate...