Tag: Near
John MacArthur, Near Death and the Parousia of Christ
Longtime pastor and seminary Dean, John MacArthur, is currently on his way to be with the Lord. It was announced at his church, Grace Community Church, in Sun Valley, CA, that JMac has come down with a pneumonia that he isn’t expected to survive (like only days left). This is sad news, but also points-up, once again, that this life truly is but a vapor. May we hold his family and close friends up in prayer at this time. Relatedly, I have been a longtime critic of JMac’s, online in particular. I started out my blogging career in 2005 bantering…
February 2, 2025–God is Still Near
Catalyst Question Where have you noticed God in your everyday life? God is Still Near In Luke 2:22-40, we find the story of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Jerusalem temple. This act of dedication of their firstborn son was fairly common amongst Jews of the day. What was abnormal was the response. Two prophets, Simeon and Anna, each praise God for Jesus’ presence. Why celebrate this otherwise apparently normal boy? Because, by meeting Jesus in this very ordinary ritual, they encounter the extraordinary: God’s redemptive presence. God is near, and so they celebrate! Finding the extraordinary amidst the…
The Bible’s Meaning as Near as Your Next Prayer: On a Biblical Hermeneutics
For some reason there are many Christians, through the centuries even, who want to make an attempt at reading Holy Scripture without reading it from its God-given context in Jesus Christ. That is to say, there are Christians who want to read the Bible from a christologically contextless frame wherein the Bible becomes a wax-nose given shape by their wits and capacity to marshal the latest reading strategies of the day. But the Bible isn’t a book like that. It isn’t open to naturalist or immanentist frames of reference. It has its whole and its parts altogether, in regard to…