Joel Johnson | Biblical History & Theology

How should Christians think and respond? Introduction The topic of abortion is a firebrand in our modern world - one can barely think of a more polarising issue. It's not a topic you would want to bring up at the dinner table or in the lunch room, and certainly not something to bring up with your friends (especially if you want to keep them as friends instead of making them into your enemies).  If you think about it, there is no real middle ground in the abortion debate. One side believes that the other is trying to control women's bodies and place their very lives at risk from carrying unsafe pregnancies. The other side believes that millions of innocent babies are being murdered every year worldwide — and 88,000 innocent babies every year here in Australia. Regardless of which side you fall on, it is quite literally a life-and-death issue. There is really no middle ground.  Any sane person would be wise to steer well clear of the abortion topic. But that is exactly where I i...

  Introduction After Jesus calls his first disciples — the four fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John — Mark describes the opening actions of Jesus’ ministry. He has already provided an abstract of Jesus’ message in verses 14 and 15 of Mark 1; here he provides more details of specific accounts.  “Then Jesus and His companions went to Capernaum, and right away Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. The people were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Suddenly a man with an unclean spirit cried out in the synagogue: “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” At this, the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and came out with a loud shriek. All the people were amazed and began to ask one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He c...

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness that of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3:7-11, ESV)  What was Paul’s ultimate aim, in his life and death? It wasn’t to look good; that is why he counted his impeccable Israelite heritage and his academic achievements as loss rather than gain. It wasn’t to be a suffering martyr. It wasn’t to convert as many people as he could. It wasn’t to preach the gospel to the ends of t...

This first 9 chapters of Mark focus on Jesus' ministry around the countryside of Judea, before he began to head toward Jerusalem for the final fateful Passover. These initial chapters highlight Jesus' character, power and message.  Please feel free to share, download and reproduce these Bible verse graphics/wallpapers. No attribution is required - all are freely given for the sake of the gospel.  “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” — a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”  Mark 1:2b-3 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  Mark 1:11 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17b Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom ...

This is just a quick post outlining how I added automatic Bible verse hyperlinks to my Blogger website. The idea behind this is that it will automatically pick up any text which appears as a reference to a passage of Scripture (e.g. Eph 1:5) and will show a pop-up box displaying the full verse text.  There are a number of free plugins which are specifically designed for this. A few that I found when I went looking were BibleLink , BLB ScriptTagger by Blue Letter Bible, and Bible Gateway's Ref Tag Tool .  In the end, I went with the Blue Letter Bible plugin because it looked the simplest to add to my website and it was the first one that I tried that worked. I also like how the Blue Letter Bible site incorporates a bunch of other features (e.g. lexicons) which makes it very convenient for the reader if they want to dive deep into specific words in the verse.  If you also want to add automatic Bible verse hyperlinks to your Blogger website, here are the steps to follow:...

An ivory plaque of Mark the evangelist Mark 1:1-8 reads (my translation): 1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.  2 Just as it was written in Isaiah the prophet,  “Look! I send my messenger before your face, Who will clear the road for you;  3 A voice shouting in the desert, Prepare the road of the Lord, Make his paths straight.”  4 John the Baptiser appeared in the desert, announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  5 And all from the region of Judea and all the Jerusalemites were coming out to him, and they were being baptised by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.  6 And John was clothed in camel hair and a leather belt around his waist and he was eating locusts and bush honey.  7 And he was announcing, “One more powerful than me is coming after me, who I am not fit to bend down and loosen his sandal strap.  8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you in the Holy Spirit.  ...