Divine Healings: Jesus Christ is the Same Yesterday,Today, and Forever (Heb. 13:8)

Jesus, the Miracle Man, has not changed but still heals.





Joel Kontinen


Is the Bible still relevant for us who are living in the Internet age? Some would claim that the Book is merely a collection of stories made up by uneducated members of a Near East nomadic tribe, and that it thus cannot be reliable.

However, many archaeological discoveries show clearly that the Bible is about real people who lived at a real time in real history in a real geographical setting.

Many other things show us that Scripture is reliable.

One of the important teachings of the Bible is that God’s Word never changes. Jesus Himself says,

“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18, NIV).

Jesus, whom the apostle John introduces as the Logos (λόγος) who created everything, is the Living Word. Scripture says unequivocally that like the eternal Word, even He never changes:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”(Hebrews 13:8).

So, what does that mean for you and me?

Luke begins the Acts of the Apostles with the words, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven” (1:1–2).

The rest of Acts shows what Jesus did through the apostles’ ministry.

Yes, but that was 2,000 years ago, you might say.

While some Christians think that the age of miracles ended when the New Testament canon was completed, there is scant evidence for this view in Scripture.

Many present-day healings suggest strongly that God still heals people.

Let me tell you of three healing miracles that I either saw or experienced. Several decades ago I prayed with some young people for a girl who was suffering from a bad migraine. She was healed instantly. Then we prayed for an elderly man suffering from the same condition. He, too, was healed on the spot.

In 2007 I hurt my knee. At times the pain was excruciating. I had to wear an elastic bandage all the time, and even then life was difficult. I could hardly walk. But then, on a short trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, God suddenly touched my knee. I noticed I no longer needed the bandage and I could actually walk very fast and soon even jog!

I have not needed the bandage since then. Now, almost nine years later the healthy knee still reminds me of the heavenly Miracle Maker, who is the same as in Bible times.

Don’t Give Up! – Just Walk Another Half a Mile

The view from the hilltop that we almost missed.





Joel Kontinen

While on a short vacation on the Greek Ionian island of Kephalonia a few years ago, my wife and I often took long walks in the evenings. It usually was much more comfortable to walk when the hot Mediterranean sun was not overhead, scorching us.

We wanted to see some rare historical sights. One evening, as it was getting dark, we had to turn back before reaching the ruins of an ancient temple. Little did we know that our destination was under half a mile away.

A few days later we walked up a steep hill in the opposite direction to see some other ruins. The road had more U-turns than anything else. Once again, we had to turn back before reaching our destination. And this time it was just around the corner.

We were eventually able to see both sights.

Back in Finland, we continued our walks. One evening we decided to find out where a narrow winding road led. However, as it was getting dark, we had to turn back.

A few weeks later we set out earlier. This time we were able to make it. We discovered that on the previous try we had turned back under half a mile from our destination.

So, the same thing happened thrice: three times on three different occasions we had turned back just before reaching our destination.

I believe that God used this experience to teach us something about perseverance, a topic that the Bible has much to say about. Jesus spoke of the need to persevere in prayer – not to give up but to keep on asking and praying until we get an answer.

Once, when Jesus was teaching about prayer,

“He said to them, ‘Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. ” (Luke 11: 5-8)

On another occasion the Lord tested the faith of a Gentile lady whose daughter was seriously sick:

“From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, ‘Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.’ And she answered and said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.’ Then He said to her, ‘For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.’ And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.” (Mark 7:24-30)

I believe that sometimes the Lord challenges us to walk another half a mile until we reach our destination, get what we ask, putting our trust entirely in Him. We should not forget that He is more than willing to help us.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What Makes Christianity Special?

Marco Palmezzano: Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 1490), public domain.



Joel Kontinen


We seem to have a universal need for searching for answers to life’s ultimate questions.

Christianity gives us answers to the big issues humanity is facing, such as why there is so much suffering in the world and what is man’s ultimate destiny.

It shows why we differ from all other living beings. Created in God’s image, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” as Psalm 139:14 puts it. Our bodies are full of amazing molecular machines that display our Creator’s handiwork and cannot be explained away by evolution.

Other religions and humanistic ideologies fail to give us satisfactory answers.

Christianity also differs from all other religions that we know of in another very pertinent way.

Non-Christian religions focus on what we should do to please God. This often involves various kinds of rituals, such as sacrifices, observing holy days and perhaps fasting.

In contrast, Christianity has to do with trust. We trust that God has already done everything that is necessary for our salvation.

Salvation is necessary because we are all tainted with the sin nature that we inherited from our earliest ancestors. Their disobedience brought death and suffering into the world.

This shows why there is so much bloodshed and suffering in the world. Only the Judeo-Christian worldview can explain why things all too often go awry.

All we need to do is to believe that Jesus Christ came to earth to atone for our sins. He was willing to die on a wooden cross for our sake.

After seeing what God had done, the jailer at Philippi asked the apostles Paul and Silas what he should do. They replied: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

But God has more in store for us. We are not meant to be armchair believers but true disciples who want to share the good news of salvation to a world that desperately needs hope.

Scripture quotations from the New King James Version (NKJV).

Five Conspiracy Theories That Attempt to Undermine Christianity

The tomb is still empty. Image courtesy of Phillip Benshmuel, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).



Joel Kontinen

Conspiracy theories attract a lot of attention. Many people are suspicious of the official version of what is happening in our time, and they might believe that they are not being told the whole truth.

This might not be a big surprise, as the 20th century saw a huge rise in the use of Orwellian language. For instance, we learnt of many self-styled people's democracies that were anything but democracies and certainly not governed by the people but were in effect Marxist-Leninist oligarchies that used words in a sense that was diametrically opposite of what we might have expected.

And politics is not the only sphere in which words don’t always mean what we would assume.

But conspiracy theories are not recent inventions. The earliest theories saw daylight at least two thousand years ago, if not earlier. The first Christians already had to grapple with views that sought to undermine their faith in their Redeemer.

The following five conspiracy theories are basically very old but we still encounter them, especially on Internet forums:

#1 Christ did not rise from the dead

Almost from the beginning of His ministry, detractors claimed that Jesus was not what He claimed to be. They questioned His credentials and refused to believe in Him. This culminated in His death and resurrection that they doubted, claiming instead that His disciples had stolen the body.

This rumour probably had a long life, as the Apostle Paul had to address it in his first letter to the Corinthians that he penned some two decades after the resurrection, pointing out that many eyewitnesses to the risen Christ were still alive.

#2 Jesus predicted the coming of the Islamic prophet Muhammed

Teaching His disciples in John 14 and 16, Jesus prophesied the coming of the Counsellor, by which He meant the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is paracleitos, but some Muslim scholars suggest it is a corruption of periplutos, or ‘the one worthy of praise,’ whom they assume to be the prophet Muhammed.

We should keep in mind that the earliest New Testament manuscripts are over 500 years older than the Qur’an and without exception all of them use the word paracleitos. There is no way this could be understood as referring to Muhammed.

#3 Christianity borrowed major concepts such as the Trinity from other religions

This is a favourite of Bible-sceptics, but it is based on a lack of knowledge. While the Bible clearly says that God is one, it also says that He sent His Son to redeem mankind from its sin. Moreover, the New Testament calls Jesus Lord (Kyrios), the word only used of God in early Christianity, and even God (in John 20:28, for instance).

The Holy Spirit is presented as a person, not an impersonal force, as some groups might believe.

#4 The Emperor Constantine put the New Testament together

There is no truth behind this claim. The early church leaders had very strict criteria for choosing books into the New Testament. For instance, they had to be written by the apostles or by people close to them and be factually correct and theologically sound. The church councils merely confirmed the books that already bore the hallmarks of Scripture.

#5 Jesus was not born of a virgin

Some sceptics would once again see the influence of Middle Eastern religions in the concept of the virgin birth, but the idea can already be found in the Protevangelium in Genesis 3:15, which names the seed of the woman (and not of a man, as we might have thought). Isaiah 7:14, written 700 years before Christ, mentions that a virgin shall give birth to a son. While the Hebrew word almah can also refer to a young woman, it does not nullify the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ virgin birth.

The Importance of Grace and Love in Speaking the Truth

Image courtesy of Dan Lietha, Answers in Genesis.

Joel Kontinen

The Bible speaks a lot about the truth. It also speaks about something that we might all too easily forget or dismiss. It is a thing called love.

As the Apostle Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 13: “f I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing…now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Without faith we cannot approach God. And without love we are nothing.

Another important thing to remember is grace without which we could not be saved. The Apostle John writes: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Scripture verses from the NIV.

Are There Contradictions, Errors and Inconsistencies in the Bible?

The Bible has withstood the test of time. Luther’s Bible (1534). Image courtesy of Torsten Schleese.

Joel Kontinen

British writer Paul Philips sees contradictions, errors and inconsistencies in the Bible. He believes that the church is very reluctant to disclose this and “apologists of sorts are well-funded and have huge networks... including mainstream media sources with their lies and cover ups.”

I wonder where he gets this information, as the mainstream media tend to publish various kinds of challenges to the Bible.

Mr. Philips is not a theologian and some of his views resemble those of other new age advocates, who embrace an alternate view of the world.

Recently, he listed ten ways in which the Bible cannot be taken at face value. As far as I know, all of them have been addressed elsewhere.

Several arguments deal with God’s character, some with our conduct. Not a single one of them is a real contradiction:

· God was pleased with the initial creation (Genesis 1:31) but displeased with sin (Gen. 6:6).

· He loves peace (Romans 15:33) but punishes sinners (Exodus 15:3).

·We should do good deeds (Matthew 5:16) but we should not make a public show of our good deeds (Matt. 6:3-4).

·God is all-powerful (Jeremiah 32:27, Matt. 19:26), but the Israelites could not defeat the Canaanites (Judges 1:19). This is no contradiction at all since the Israelites were not all-powerful.

· Other examples include Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew and Luke that have different ancestors. There is no contradiction, however, as one of them follows Jesus’ earthly ancestors through Joseph’s lineage and the other through Mary’s.

Source:

Philips, Paul A. 2014. Bible Contradictions, Errors and Inconsistencies. Ezinearticles.com

“God Was Never on a Cross as the Spirit Cannot Be Killed”, Sceptic Claims

The cross is a source of hope.

Joel Kontinen

Norma Holt is an Australian author who believes that at an early stage, Christianity became corrupted and that Emperor Constantine established the Roman Catholic Church in AD 325.

In a recent article, she claims:

“God was never on a cross and everyone who ever lived is now back in their bodies because of reincarnation. That is why there is massive overpopulation. This was promised in Daniel 12:13 and elsewhere in the Old Testament. The Spirit is separating its people from the idols and false gods and there is a great falling away from traditional religions as it happens.”

Ms. Holt asserts that a spirit (that she always writes with a capital S) disclosed the conspiracy led by Constantine in the early church. She sees her mission as urging people to return to real Christianity.

I’m a bit sceptical about this “spirit”.

Holt believes that Christianity is not as unique as the followers of Christ assume but has actually borrowed many of its elements from pre-Christian religions and ideologies.

How credible is this? Not credible at all. It reminds me of fact-free Darwinian storytelling. Christ’s empty tomb caused sceptics to invent a conspiracy theory, and since then sceptics have come up with a number of stories that attempt to explain why Jesus could not have risen from the dead.

There was no time for legends to be concocted since the Apostle Paul wrote his first letters within 20 years after the resurrection. All the evidence suggests strongly that the gospels were eyewitness accounts of the events in Jesus’ life.

Early historians tend to agree.

What about the claim that a spirit cannot be killed? Jesus was both God and man. As a human being, He could and did die, but as God He was immortal. Ms. Holt has ignored this very pertinent distinction.

Source:

Holt, Norma. 2014. God Was Never on a Cross As The Spirit Cannot Be Killed. Ezine articles.